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Can Nanotechnology BenefitAfrica’s Development?

Kenyan Hospitals Introducing Palliative Care

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By Prof. Wiebe E. Bijker

Governments and industries around the world are investing large sums of money into what has been termed the greatest technological breakthrough since ICT and biotechnology. But can nanotechnology benefit Africa’s development too?

On December 12 and 13, 2011, some twenty Kenyan nano-technology researchers and policy makers gathered in

Nairobi to discuss this question. The workshop was titled “Nanotechnolo-gies for Kenya’s development: ques-tions of knowledge brokerage and risk

governance.”It was jointly organized by the African Technology Policy Stud-ies Network (ATPS) and Maastricht University, the Netherlands.

Nanoscience and nanotechnology is the understanding and control of matter at the nano-scale. This is incredibly small: the width of a human hair is between 60,000 and 80,000 nanometers, and a human fingernail grows some 10 nanometers per minute. Nanotechnolo-gists are working with materials between 1 and 100 nanometers.

Nanotechnologies promise enormous benefits for devel-opment in the fields of water,

The Ministry of Health has identified 11 major public and provincial hospitals in which to

establish palliative care services for cancer patients and others with life-limiting illnesses.

Over 220 health care pro-fessionals will be trained in palliative care throughout the programme, with eight estab-lished Kenyan hospices to men-tor the newly emerging hospital palliative care units.

The Kenya Hospice and Palliative Care Association (KEHPCA) in partnership with The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund and the True Colours Trust is supporting the integration of palliative care

into public health services in Kenya.

The partnership is through the Waterloo Coalition – a col-laboration of donors and pallia-tive care organisations working in Kenya and Malawi.

KEHPCA projects that the partnership will enable an ad-ditional 4,000 new adult cancer patients and 5,000 adult HIV / AIDS patients to receive high quality palliative care through the new hospital units in a pe-riod of one year.

It is also projected that an additional 500 new paediatric cancer patients and 1,000 pae-diatric HIV/AIDS patients will receive palliative care through the new hospital units each year.

Dr. Zipporah Ali, National Coordinator, KEHPCA, explains that ‘Effective palliative care re-sults in patients spending more time at home and reduces the number of hospital inpatient days.

It improves symptom man-agement; provides patient,

By Alex Abutu (Africa STI.com)

A team of medical experts led by a haematologist, Nosakhare Bazuaye of the University of

Benin Teaching Hospital, Nigeria, has recorded the first successful stem cell transplantation operation in the West African sub-region.

The team performed the successful surgery on an indigent sickle cell pa-tient after a two-week procedure, mak-ing Nigeria the third African country to have successfully carried out such operation after South Africa and Egypt.

Onyebuchi Chukwu, Nigeria’s

Nigeria Records Africa’s Third Stem Cell Transplantation

Cont’d on pg 2

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World Cancer Declaration aims that by 2020 there will be:

n Effective cancer control programmes

n Reduced risk factors such as tobacco use, alcohol consumption and obestity

n Universal vaccination programmes

n A better informed publicn Improved diagnosis methodsn Universally available pain controln Improved training for medical

staffn Better survival rates for cancer

patientsTo reach these targets we will take action to:n Place cancer on the political agendan Improve cancer prevention and

early detectionn Enhance access to and treatment

for cancer patients

Pages 1-7

Dr Denis Tumwesigye Kyetere, one of Africa’s leading experts in plant breeders is the new executive director of the African Agricultural

Technology Foundation (AATF) and he takes office from the beginning of January. His

appointment was recently announced in Nairobi by AATF Board Chair Prof Idah Sithole-Niang.

AATF APPOINTMENT

sanitation, solar energy, food technology, and medical drugs. However, there are also possible risks. Nanoparticles can have new forms of toxicity, and nanotechnologies could deepen the economic divide between Africa and the rest of the world. How to use nanotechnologies for the benefit of Kenya and Africa, and how to make choices about nanotechnologies in a democratic way is the question.

The workshop was part ofthe interna-tional research project Nano-Dev about democratic risk governance of nanotech-nologies in Africa, India and the Neth-erlands. This project is a collaboration between The ATPS, Maastricht University (The Netherlands), the University of Nai-robi, and several Indian partners (Nano-Dev: http://www.nano-dev.org/). It is funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).

Many of the Kenyan experts in nano-technologies and nanoscience contributed: from universities, non-university research institutions, government agencies, and stakeholder organisations.They explored the challenges and opportunities of nano-technology for Africa’s development.

The question about using nanotech-nologies for Africa’s development finds its starting point in the African Manifesto for Science, Technology and Innovation (see also ScienceAfrica issue Vol. 15 March-April 2011), published by the ATPS and its partners.The Manifesto argues that Africa needs to take control over its own science and technology, instead of being an importer and consumer of foreign science and innovation. By owning, and owning up to, their science and technology, African countries will be better able to steer and enhance their development according to their own agendas and choices.

Various countries in Africa show already increased research activities in nanotechnologies. South Africa is an outstanding example, but also Kenya has active researchers in a variety of institu-tions. Prof. Aduda (University of Nairobi) stressed the need to give attention to capacity building through the university curricula. Allowing science students to do multi-disciplinary projects on nano would teach them to fruitfully cross the borders between physics, chemistry, and life sci-

ences. Nano-Dev researchers reported from their studies about South Africa where students and young researchers receive scholarships to study and learn abroad. Such a scholarship scheme has clearly added to the capacity of South Africa’s nanotechnology research.

An interesting lesson was drawn from India. Nano-Dev researcher Pankaj Sekh-saria showed how top-notch research was done with very cheap materials and by using skills from “the roadside.” In India, such improvised tinkering to work around scarcity of resources is called “jugaad.” Kenyan researchers recognised the Swahili term Jua Kali (literally: “hot sun”), which is similarly used for roadside and impro-vised industries in the informal economy. One of the “fathers of Indian nanotechnol-ogy” has built Scanning Tunnel Micro-scopes (the key instrument to study and make nanotechnologies) in this jugaad way. His instruments cost some 10,000 USD, where a cheap commercial one will easily cost 200,000 USD. The researchers present in the workshop recognized that actually in all labs in the world, including the most prestigious in US and Europe, such tinkering is going on: if you work at the forefront of science, you evidently cannot buy all instruments ready-made. However, this tinkering (or jugaad or juakali) it is not generally talked about. It is thus worth stimulating African research-ers to employ a jua kalistyle of instrument making without being ashamed of it. Thus, Dr. Kevin Urama (ATPS) concluded: Af-rican researchers can build more of their instruments themselves, rather than being consumers of western technologies.

It was concluded that simple schemes of ‘technology transfer’ do not work. Too easily, it is assumed that one can take a technology from one context and transfer it to another. Instead, Nano-Dev researcher Trust Saidi studies the ‘travelling’ of nano-technologies. Thereby it is recognized that technologies change during their moving from, for example, a physics lab to a life sciences lab, or from the laboratory to the market. At the same time the contexts also change when nanotechnologies are introduced. Before a water filter, which works in the lab, can act as a sturdy water sanitation system in a village, many extra elements need to be designed into the nanotechnology. At the same time, a new

system of water filtering, when introduced in a village, will have effects on how the wa-ter resources are managed and distributed in that village.

The importance of knowledge broker-age was discussed by Charity Urama. To fruitfully apply nanotechnology knowledge outside the laboratory, one cannot assume that the knowledge will travel without any difficulty. Knowledge brokers are as cru-cial to making an exchange of knowledge happen between two different parties, as real estate brokers are important in making transfer of a house happen from the first owner to the second. “Knowledge brokerage is different from promotion or lobbying; ideally the broker is independent and does not have a stake in one particular outcome,” he said.

Finally, Nano-Dev researchers Prof. Wiebe Bijker and Koen Beumer reviewed the governance of nanotechnologies. The workshop participants recognized that governance includes many more aspects than only science policy. Thus an adequate occupational health regulation is called for to protect researchers and labourers who work with nanoparticles. The capacity building to strengthen the research and innovation capacity of Kenya is part of a comprehensivegovernance for nanotechnologies too. Regulation is an-other crucial element. In the Netherlands one paint manufacturer could improve his products by including nanoparticles. However, he refrained from doing so, when he found that no adequate regula-tion existed; he was, understandably, afraid that he might later be accused of producing unsafe products or using unsafe manufacturing processes. So, adequate regulation will promote the use of nanotechnologies as well as protect workers and consumers.

Participants in the workshop con-cluded that if lessons like these could be implemented, the research and use of nanotechnologies could be stimulated in accordance with the African Manifesto of Science, Technology and Innovation. In that manner, nanotechnologies will then benefit Africa’s development, without causing unacceptable risks.

“African researchers can build more of their instruments themselves, rather than being consumers of western technologies,” Dr. Urama Said. n

FOCUS ON CANCER

NANOTECHNOLOGY

October / December 20112

health minister, reacting to the develop-ment said: “It means that the sickle cell disease patients in Nigeria now have an additional treatment available to them locally and which could even prove to be superior to mere taking of drugs.”

Chukwu said the feat recorded by the University of Benin would serve as a stimulus for other tertiary hospitals in the country. “It will act as a catalyst to make other centres to want to prove themselves as centres of excellence.”

He said the stem cell technology mas-tered by University of Benin Teaching Hospital would be deployed to tackle other diseases.

“What it now means is that, Nigerians will no longer need to travel outside this country, unless out of choice, for stem cell transplant and for the treatment of such disease like sickle cell disease, leukaemia, cancers, and other diseases that lend themselves to this treatment,” he added.

Michael Ibadin, chief medical director of the Teaching Hospital, said the cell transplant began three years ago, when the institution assembled a team of 18 experts, which it sent to Switzerland in an effort to bring comfort to Nigerians suffering from sickle cell anaemia and other diseases.

“It did not start now but three years ago when we sent 18 experts to Switzerland in batches and in the course of doing that, experts from Switzerland came here to put up the infrastructure.”

He said: “Stem cell means primitive cell; the transplantation means you are taking from one person and transplant-ing to the other. For you to get the stem cell, you have to go to the bone marrow, but then it is not every cell there that is primitive. The process requires extensive technical knowledge and it’s a delicate procedure.

“To do this, you have to break down the defences of the donor through drugs. You need to get this (primitive cell) from somebody to transfer to others.”

Nigeria has a very high population of sickle cell sufferers (over 4 million as of 2003) and had hitherto relied on a man-agement drug produced by local scientists at the Nigeria National Institute for Phar-maceutical Research and Development from a local herb.

family and care giver satisfaction; reduces the overall cost of disease and improves quality of life of pa-tients and family.

This partnership will demon-strate and document these benefits and will highlight how palliative care can be used to strengthen the government health care system, she added.

Lucy Sainsbury, Chair, True Col-ours Trust, said the Kenya govern-ment’s commitment to integrate palliative care into eleven public level 5 and provincial hospitals is commendable. “We are delighted to be part of this partnership. It will help ensure that people with life-limiting illnesses across Kenya are able to access pain relief and symptom control,” she said.

The Government of Kenya’s commitment to establish palliative care services in these hospitals will

guarantee a more effective, effi-cient, and equitable health system. A health system that includes palli-ative care services is vital to ensure widespread pain and symptoms control and an improvement in the general care, support and quality of life for patients and families facing life-threatening illnesses in Kenya.

This significant public-private partnership will focus on the de-velopment and implementation of a national training programme for the integration of palliative care into hospital services, the development and dissemination of comprehensive palliative care guidelines, provision of technical support and mentorship, and the measurement of the impact.

The programme will ensure that local community healthcare profes-sionals are aware of the new pallia-tive care services at the hospital so that patients and families receive smooth and timely referrals.

Kenyan Hospitals Introducing Palliative Carefrom page 1

from page 1 from page 1

Participants during the Introduction to Palliative Care Training held recently in Nairobi, Kenya

Can Nanotechnology Benefit Africa’s Development?Nigeria Records

Africa’s Third Stem Cell Transplantation

FOCUS ON CANCER

FOCUS ON CANCER

By Kingsley E. Hope

Over 150,000 cases of cancer occur an-nually in Ghana, says Prof. Michael

Ohene-Yeboah, of the School of Medical Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Sci-ence and Technology.

The most frequent cancers in men are cancer of the liver, prostate cancer, Hodgkin’s lymphoma (cancer originating from white blood cells), stom-ach and large bowel cancer. In women the frequent ones are - breast, liver, ovary, Hodgkin’s lymphoma and cervical.

What is worrisome, Prof Ohene-Yeboah observed, was the fact that cases seen in Gha-na and other African countries showed that younger people were now being affected com-pared to the developed world.

Risk factors are tobacco smoking, obesity and physi-cal inactivity, consumption of diets high in fats, exposure to some carcinogens (such as cadmium), and long exposure to the sun.

Since many cancers are due to ‘faulty’ genes, Prof Ohene-Yeboah said early detection and screening is especially important for people with a family history of cancers and further urged all to lead a healthy lifestyle by eating well, limiting alcohol intake, stop-

ping tobacco use and avoiding exposure to passive smoking.

A critical area to cancer con-trol is the provision of adequate infrastructure.

Ghana currently has two radiotherapy centers for a population of about 24 million.

To date, the Greater Ac-cra Region (the region where Accra, the capital of Ghana is situated) has only two estab-lished screening centers for breast and cervical cancers with few trained oncologists in the country.

The Cancer Society of Ghana (CSG) has been undertaking a screening exercise, particularly in the rural areas, to provide support for the early diagnosis and prevention of cancers.

Africa-Oxford Cancer Con-sortium (AfrOx) - a new organi-zation which seeks to provide broad support and guidance on the design, delivery and funding of sustainable national

cancer plans in Africa has part-nered with the CSG to facilitate educational and training efforts by the international cancer community.

It works with partners (gov-ernments, NGOs, pharmaceuti-cal industry and cancer chari-

ties) to fund cancer control initiatives in Africa.

In Ghana, AfrOx through the CSG, is supporting the estab-lishment of Cancer Intelligence Units (cancer registries).

AfrOx provides support for the early diagnosis and pre-vention of cancers such as the cancer awareness programs of the CSG.

According to the chief phar-macist of the CSG, Edward Ampofo, effective cancer pre-vention and control will be a mirage if steps are not taken to develop robust, efficient and reliable cancer registries.

‘’It is common knowledge that intelligence is key to the

effective control of cancer. Health intelligence tends to be relegated to the background and only belatedly realized as important to the sustainability of health programs. It is only through such registers that we can monitor and evaluate the screening and other programs,’’ he explained.

A challenge to cancer pro-grams, the chief pharmacist observed, had been the few trained oncologists in the coun-try. Referral systems are also weak and therefore many can-cer cases arrive at the specialist clinics at advanced stages.

Generally, it had been ac-claimed that successful and effective cancer treatment was hinged on early intervention.

However, Mr Ampofo ob-served that though chemo-therapy formed a key aspect of cancer treatment, very few pharmacies provide special anti-cancer medicines.

150,000 Cases of Cancer in Ghana Annually

By Mekonnen Teshome (ScienceAfrica Correspodent)

African first ladies who recently convened in Addis Ababa for the 1st Global Summit

on Women Cancer in Africa (GSWC) 2011 vowed to intensi-fy the prevention of breast and cervical cancers in women, ac-cording to summit organizers.

Forum of African First Ladies Against Breast and Cervical cancers which com-prises Nigeria, Zambia , South Africa, Uganda and Swaziland committed itself to support the education , awareness and prevention, screening, early detection, treatment and pallia-

tive care of women cancers. The first ladies, in their

joint declaration said: “We know that the burden of cervical and breast cancer can be dramatically re-duced if screening, early

detection and treat-ment were available

to women through-out Africa.

As first la-d i e s , w e

strongly believe in partnering with our ministries of health, other key ministries and stake-holders to develop and im-plement programs aimed at women cancers.”

They further announced that they will commit them-selves to working closely with their respective governments to champion greater awareness about the burden of women’s cancers and other non- com-municable diseases in their own countries and to work for improved financing, leadership for the prevention and control of women’s cancers worldwide.

They also pledged to mo-bilize their diplomatic and public health leadership to ensure women’s cancers feature prominently at the United Na-tions General Assembly high level meeting of heads of states on the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases.

“We call on the international community to increase and align its resources and attention to the burden of non -commu-nicable diseases, in particular women cancers.”

The conference which took

place from 19th - 20th Septem-ber 2011 was organized by the Princess Nikky Breast Cancer Foundation in collaboration with the Forum of African First Ladies Against Breast & Cervi-cal Cancer, African Parliamen-tarians and Health Ministers against Cancer.

Close to 1,000 delegates rep-resenting African governments, first ladies, international or-ganizations, NGOs and private companies convened in Addis to attend the summit, which is the first of its kind on the continent.

The participants agreed to design a common strategy to put the issue of women’s cancer on the global health agenda and at the United Nations High Level Summit on Non-Commu-nicable Disease Prevention and Control.

Cervical cancer can be pre-vented by vaccination against the human Papilloma virus which causes the infections leading to the vast majority of cervical cancers.

The World Health Organiza-tion estimates that 88 per cent of the 275,000 women who

died of cervical cancer in 2008 lived in developing countries. The goal of the Summit was to increase political and financial support for the prevention and control of breast and cervical cancers which take a heavy toll on African women.

Princess Nikky Onyeri, the head of the Princess Nikky Foundation and organizer of the event, expressed great ap-preciation for Ethiopian au-thorities. “I am extremely grate-ful to the Ethiopian political and administrative leaders for having accepted to host this important meeting. The geo-political and historical place of Ethiopia in the world makes this country the ideal place to launch such an important campaign.

“We can learn a lot from the strategies and research on the topic that are being done in South Africa, for instance.”

I cannot think of any better place to remind the entire world of the importance of women and raise awareness about women cancer which threaten the lives of all women!” she added.

African First Ladies to Help Prevent Cancers in Women

Photo Left: Breast Cancer Foundation Founder and Executive Director Princess Nikky speaking at the Addis Ababa 1st Global summit on women cancers.

Global Conference on Treating Advanced Breast Cancer

Global Cancer experts recently dis-cussed the latest trends in treating patients with advanced breast cancer, the metastatic (stage 4) disease linked to most deaths and which has minimal treatment protocols. However, pain con-trol in palliative care is a priority for the World Health Organization.

Many such patients suffer from isolation, owing to being deemed as having no future even by health professionals and patient groups, who focus more on curable early stage cancers.

The consensus meeting held in Lisbon, Portugal, stems from the establishment, by the European School of Oncology in 2004, of a Metastatic Breast Cancer Task Force to develop international guidelines for manag-ing the disease.

One in eight women will develop breast cancer; those who die from the disease usu-ally do so from distant metastases. In devel-oped countries, about 30% of people who have had breast cancer suffer a recurrence of the disease. The World Health Organiza-tion is forecasting a large increase in cases in developing countries.

In the European Union, one woman is diagnosed with breast cancer every 2.5 minutes and one woman dies from the disease every 6.5 minutes. Globally, about half a million people die from breast cancer annually. Advances in treating early breast cancer are measured in many years’ sur-vival; in metastatic breast cancer advances are still measured in days or a few months and the median survival, taking all subtypes together, is 2–3 years. However, due to the development of targeted efficacious treat-ments such as anti-HER-2 agents, some patients with certain subtypes of breast can-cer can now live with advanced disease for 8 or more years. A certain risk of recurrence remains in all breast cancer survivors.

3October / December 2011

The Cancer Society of Ghana (CSG) has been undertaking a screening exercise, particularly in the rural

areas, to provide support for the early diagnosis and prevention of cancers.

Cervical cancer can be prevented by vaccination against the human Papilloma virus which causes the infections leading to the vast majority of cervical cancers.

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By Yvonne Taka

Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) have not been focused on in the Millennium De-

velopment Goals despite the fact that they continue to impact on the poorest people in society and impose a heavy burden on socio-economic development, a forum was told.

Speaking during the national forum on NCDs at Laico Regency Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya’s Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, acknowl-edged that up to 80 per cent of heart disease, stroke, type-2 diabetes and more than 30 per cent of cancers can be prevented.

“There must be a continuing education program of the physi-cians and medical personnel and an improvement in training these experts as well to ensure that there is fresh knowledge of NCDs,” said Odinga.

He suggested that health struc-ture in Kenya be re-oriented to make NCDs a significant part of the system and called for more investment in additional pro-grammes geared to prevention and control as well as establish-ing mechanisms that will reduce inequalities in healthcare access.

Odinga urged food manufac-turers to avoid additives that are injurious to health. He said there should be high taxation and pricing policies to make harmful

products such as cigarettes and alcohol unaffordable to young people.

The four-day event also saw the launch of a national cancer control strategy by Kenya’s two health ministries - Medical Ser-vices and Public Health and Sani-

tation - which aim at reducing the number of people who develop and die of cancer.

“We as a matter of urgency call on the global community to ad-dress this issue and help identify funding mechanisms to support low-income countries in access-

ing quality, affordable NCDs medicines and modern technol-ogy for diagnosis and treatment,” asserted Hon Odinga.

Addressing the same forum, Medical Services Minister, Prof. Anyang’ Nyong’o, noted that the challenge of low investment for NCDs is demonstrated by the limited number of public facilities offering treatment for cancer and renal diseases with Kenyatta be-ing the main centre of treatment and management.

Prof. Nyong’o called for the need to scale up the social health insurance from the current 20 per cent to at least 60 per cent in the next five years.

He observed that there is a shortage of specialist manpower in the country highlighting the field of oncology which has only 16 doctors.

“Little attention is paid to research work done by various research institutions and univer-sities which otherwise would have helped achieve the development goals,” observed Nyong’o.

The permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Medical Services, Ms. Mary Ngari, observed that NCDs are on the rise and imme-diate interventions are needed.

The assistant minister in the Ministry of Public health and Sanitation, Dr. James Gesami, noted that concerted efforts should be made to protect the life of people to make a healthy

nation.A cancer survivor, Mr. Ferdi-

nand Wangura, said the initiative has come at the right time since many Kenyans are suffering from NCDs.

Mr. Wangura, who was di-agnosed with cancer in 2005, added that the initiative will help Kenyans fight these diseases and save millions of lives of those who cannot afford medication.

“We are appealing to the gov-ernment to avail proper medical facilities to help such people who cannot meet the expenses of treating NCDs, said Mr. Wan-gura.

NCDs include heart disease, stroke, cancer, asthma, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, osteopo-rosis, Alzheimer’s disease, cata-racts and trauma.

According to the World Health Organization, NCDs are esti-mated to cause 35 million deaths globally each year with 80 per cent in low and middle income countries. In Kenya, NCDs con-tribute about 32 per cent of total mortality rates.

According to the Ministry of Health, NCDs contributed over half of the top 20 causes of mor-bidity and mortality in Kenya

Some of the causes of the rise in NCDs are thought to be un-healthy eating habits, change in lifestyle, reduced physical activi-ties and increase in smoking and alcohol consumption.

October / December 20114

A trial of a new cancer drug, which accurately targets tu-mours, has been so successful it has been stopped early.

Doctors at London’s Royal Marsden Hospital gave prostate cancer patients a powerful alpha radiation drug and found that they lived longer, and experienced less pain and side effects.

The medics then stopped the trial of 922 people, saying it was unethical not to offer all of them the treatment.

Lead researcher Dr Chris Parker said it was “a significant step forward”.Cancer Research UK said it was a very important and promising discovery.

Radiation has been used to treat tumours for more than a century. It damages the genetic code inside cancer-ous cells.

Alpha particles are the big, bulky, bruisers of the radiation world. It is a barrage of helium nuclei, which are far bigger than beta radiation, a stream of electrons, or gamma waves.

Dr Parker told the BBC: “It’s more damaging. It takes one, two, three hits to kill a cancer cell compared with thou-sands of hits for beta particles.”

Alpha particles also do less damage to surrounding tissue. He added: “They have such a tiny range, a few millionths of a metre. So we can be sure that the

damage is being done where it should be.”

Prostate cancer factsn Each year in the UK about 36,000

men are diagnosed with prostate cancer; about 10,000 die from it

n In most cases, it is a slow-growing cancer and may never cause any symptoms or problems.

n Some men will have a fast growing cancer that needs treatment

n Worldwide, an estimated 913,000 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2008, and more than two-thirds of cases are diagnosed in developed countries.

Concerted Efforts Needed to Tackle NCDs

Alpha Radiation Treats Prostate Cancers

FOCUS ON CANCER

Dr. James Gesami, Assistant minister, Ministry of Public health and Sanitation

Ms. Mary Ngari,Permanent Secretary Ministry

of Medical Services

“We as a matter of urgency call on the global community to address this issue and help identify

funding mechanisms to support low-income countries in accessing quality, affordable NCDs

medicines and modern technology for diagnosis and treatment,”

- Hon Raila Odinga, Prime Minister of Kenya

It’s more damaging. It takes one, two, three hits to

kill a cancer cell compared with thousands of hits for beta particles. They do less damage to surrounding tissue” - Dr Chris Parker

5October / December 2011

By George Achia, (Staff Science Writer)

There is an urgent need for clear policies on ter-minal pain management, supportive and palliative

care for cancer patients in Kenya, says Dr. Zipporah Ali, the national coordinator for the Kenya Hos-pice and Palliative Care Associa-tion (KEHPCA).

As cancer cases are on the rise, pain relief and palliative care has been identified as an integral and essential element for pain management in cancer patients. Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients facing problems with life-threatening illnesses.

Dr. Ali notes that palliative care improves the quality of life of patients facing problems as-sociated with such diseases as cancer, HIV/AIDS and hyperten-sion by means of identification, assessment, treatment of pain and holistic treatment of other problems including the physical, psychosocial and spiritual well being of the patients.

However, she regrets that 80 percent of reported cases of cancer are diagnosed at advanced stages, when very little can be achieved in terms of curative treatment. This, she notes, is largely due to low awareness of cancer signs and symptoms, inadequate screening services, inadequate diagnostic facilities and poorly structured referral facilities.

“Palliative care should be stra-tegically linked to cancer preven-tion, early detection and treat-ment services,” says Dr. Ali.

She observes that palliative care services in the country have greatly improved over the years with the new development of integrating palliative care into services offered by selected 11 public provincial and level 5 government hospitals operating at high patient volumes.

Some of the government facili-ties where palliative care has been integrated include Machakos, New Nyanza general hospital, Nakuru provincial general hos-pital, Coast general, Kisii, Meru and Thika.

However, Dr. Ali observes that there is still a great demand and need to integrate palliative care services into all health services across the country.

“This is a great achievement in the history of palliative care in Kenya. This is important be-cause more cancer patients will have access to palliative services including pain management,” Dr. Ali told ScienceAfrica dur-ing an exclusive interview at the KEPHCA offices in Nairobi.

“A working health system that includes palliative care services is vital to ensure widespread pain and symptoms control and an improvement in the general care, support and quality of life for patients and families facing life-threatening illnesses in Kenya,” explains Dr. Ali.

Despite this achievement, Dr.

Ali calls on medical training in-stitutions to integrate palliative care into their core curriculum for undergraduate students. This, according to her, will increase the number of medical experts in the field of palliative care in the country.

“A small number of Kenyan universities provide a limited number of hours on palliative care to medical and nursing students during 4th and 5th year of stud-ies,” she points out. Nevertheless, Kenya Medical Training College, which is the largest training insti-tution for nurses in the country, is planning to start a diploma course in palliative care for health professionals.

The plight of a cancer patients necessitated the genesis of pal-liative care in the late 1980s at Nairobi Hospice. Cancer is one of the major non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Kenya, and together with cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases, they cause over 60 per cent of total global mortality every year.

According to the National Can-cer Control Strategy, cancer ranks third in the country as a cause of death after infectious diseases and cardiovascular diseases and it causes 7 per cent of total mortality rate every year.

With many reported cases of cancer, one key challenge remains: availability and accessibility of essential drugs for pain manage-ment. According to Dr. Ali, es-

sential drug list does not include chemotherapy for cancer and some of the very essential drugs for pain management are rare to find in most public hospitals.

“Until recently, syrup mor-phine was mostly available in hospices providing palliative care. However, with the integration of palliative care services into government institutions, syrup morphine is now available in almost all the government hos-pitals providing palliative care,” says Dr. Ali.

She regrets that these drugs are only at the provincial level but not at the lower levels which have not integrated palliative care.

Dr. Primus Ochieng, an on-cologist at the Kenyatta National Hospital, says the silent epidemic of non-communicable diseases now imposes a ‘double burden of disease’ to the country which, unless it is addressed, will over-whelm the country in the near future.

“The bias in the system has resulted in weakness in pro-grammes that should be address-ing non-communicable diseases and their risk factors in the coun-try,” he says.

He further notes that there is need for more cancer specialists in the country since the few who are available are concentrated in a few health facilities in Nairobi and this makes it difficult for a great majority of the population to access cancer treatment ser-vices.

By Violet Mengo in Lusaka (AfricaSTI.com)

Experts have called for be-haviour change in Zambia as a strategy to reverse an

impending cancer epidemic in the Southern African country already ravaged by HIV and AIDS.

The experts met 6th National Health Research Conference and the Inaugural National Cancer conference.

Kennedy Lishimpi, executive director, Cancer Diseases Hospi-tal, said the institution has noted an increase in the number of new cases of cancer since its inception.

Lishimpi, in a presentation entitled “An Overview of Cancer and Other Non-Communicable Diseases,” attributed the increase cases of cancer to socio-demo-graphic and technological changes that go with urbanisation and industrialisation.

“There is an epidemiologic transition from communicable to non-communicable diseases. Can-cer is among major chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs),” said Lishimpi, who is a consultant

clinical and radiation oncologist and paediatrician.

Other NCDs, according to Lishimpi, include cardiovascular problems, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases.

He said NCDs are being in-creasingly recognised as major causes of morbidity and mortality, adding that evidence of the health transition in sub-Saharan includes increased intake of fat while the intake of fibre-containing foods has fallen among town dwellers.

“Mean serum cholesterol level is almost double that of rural populations; the level of physical activity has decreased. Obesity has risen enormously,” Lishimpi said.

He said that 75 per cent of the Zambian population is not involved in personal physical exercise.

“Thirty-nine per cent per cent are overweight while 14 per cent have elevated blood pressure,” he said.

The percentage with at least three of the risk factors aged 25 to 44 years stands at 16.6 while the percentage with at least three

of the risk factors aged 45 to 64 years old is 46.8.

The percentage with at least three of the risk factors aged 25 to 64 years old is 23.7, a further 3 percent have elevated blood glucose, 5.7 percent have raised cholesterol while the percentage with none of the risk factors is only 1 percent.

The mean age at onset of to-bacco smoking was 20 years, with an average eight cigarettes consumed per day while 20 per cent consume alcohol.

“More people are consuming less of vegetables and fruits,” Lishimpi added.

The 2004 national cancer reg-ister of Zambia, published by the epidemiological profile of cancer, highlights over 5,000 cases of cancer as being on the waiting list for treatment abroad. The report was based on histo-logically proven cancer in the two major hospitals with this facility.

A global organisation, the In-ternational Agency for Research on Cancer, estimates a rise in new cancer cases from 11 mil-

lion in 2000 to 16 million in 2020 and 70 per cent of these will be in developing countries. Nicholas Mwansa of CDC says over 80 per cent of the deaths from cervical cancer occured in the de-veloping world, with sub-Saharan Africa being the worst-affected region. He says in Zambia, cervi-cal cancer affected 53 women in every 100,000 but rarely occurs in women younger than 20 years.

Mwansa said, there were decreasing cancer rates in the developed world due to effec-tive screening programmes, cit-ing V.I.A and pap smear with an increase in early diagnosis

and treatment of pre-invasive cancers as well as vaccination. Joseph Kasonde, Zambia’s Min-ister of Health, said government was committed to improving the health research facilities to facilitate the training of young Zambians as well as enhancing research and development to ad-dress the myriad health challenges confronting the country.

“The government will invest in putting up facilities for research and development of drugs and vac-cines and a national repository for biological materials, facilities for data storage and management will be improved,” Kasonde added.

Palliative Care Key in Cancer Management

This is a great

achievement in the history of

palliative care in Kenya. This is

important because more cancer patients

will have access to palliative services

including pain management,” - Dr. Zipporah Ali

Zambia: Experts Advocate Behaviour Change to Avert Cancer Epidemic

FOCUS ON CANCER

By Esther Nakkazi (AfricaSTI.com)

Many years ago it was a vibrant facility cred-ited with discover-ing new cancers and

developing novel treatment regi-mens for cancer patients from all over the east African region.

Today, its buildings are di-lapidated and without reliable electricity, clean water, adequate medication or treatment sup-plies. Its few cancer specialist staff headed by Dr. Jackson Orem see over 10,000 patients a year, most of them with infection-related cancers. The diagnosis is usually a death sentence.

Now the number of cancer patients has increased astronomi-cally, fueled by the HIV epidemic, with mostly infection-related cancer ravaging two vital groups of people; children under the age of 12 and middle aged adults.

Kaposi’s sarcoma is rampant in adults and Burkitt’s lymphoma in children- both disfiguring, in-fection-related malignancies with abysmal survival rates due to lack of access to early diagnosis and

treatment. But that is to change af-ter the collaboration between the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, USA, and the Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI).

The UCI/Hutchinson Center Cancer Alliance, the first inter-national collaboration between U.S. and African cancer centers, will expand rapid diagnosis and effective treatment to dramatically improve Uganda’s cancer survival rates from 10 per cent to 90 per cent in the next three years, said Dr. Lawrence Corey, the president and director of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

The partnership that began in 2004, to work together to better prevent, detect and treat cancer, has already produced seven cancer specialists after a year’s studies at the oncology fellowship program at the Hutchinson Center in the US.

Now with a $500,000 grant from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) the Hutchinson Center is to construct the first American cancer clinic and medical-training facility in Africa.

“The burden of cancer will in-

crease, we want long term partners which also means that we need to create better infrastructure with the space to do world class research,” said Dr. Corey.

The centre also turns into the ‘Uganda Program on Cancer and Infectious Diseases (UPCID),’ as a joint effort to provide first-rate cancer care in Uganda saving an estimated 6,000 lives each year.

“Every patient is a learning op-

portunity and research will help us in understanding cancer of the next generation,” said Dr. Corey Casper, associate member of the Hutchinson Center’s Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division.

UPCID will benefit the world by identifying new infectious causes of cancer, new ways to prevent infection-associated cancers and new ways to treat such cancers with non-toxic drugs, avoiding the need for chemotherapy.

“It is an important model, which will set standards with sup-port services- diagnosis, labora-tory support, care and training,” said Dr. Casper. Although there are great research advances in the developed world, little is known about infection related cancer, which is common in Africa.

Infectious diseases contribute to about 20 - 25 per cent of the world’s cancers. Human papil-loma virus is the main cause of cancer, which remains the second most common cancer in the world, with about 500,000 new cases and 250,000 deaths each year. HPV vaccination is 98 per cent effective in preventing cancers.

The World Health Organisa-

tion (WHO) estimates that infec-tion related cancers are growing, killing about 1.5 million people around the globe. The UPCID joint effort will study the inter-section between infections and cancer by promoting research aimed at pathophysiology, preven-tion, diagnosis and treatment of infection-related cancers in Africa.

Serigne Gueye, president of the African Organization for Research and Training in Cancer (AORTIC) based in Dakar, Senegal, has said that the most damaging omissions have been not so much in the agendas of international organiza-tions, but in Africa itself.

According to Gueye, the prob-lem has so much been a lack of awareness of cancer among Af-ricans and inadequate action by governments.

It is also the case that interna-tional agencies have mostly lacked practical strategies for tackling cancer as the focus has been on communicable diseases.

The solutions lie in training and research networks like the Uganda Cancer Institute and Hutchinson Cancer Centre Alliance. n

6 October / December 2011

Uganda: Doctors Cope with 10,000 Cancer Patients Annually

Two New HIV Vaccine Trials LaunchedHIV/AIDS R&D

Serigne Gueye, President of African Organization for

Research and Training in Cancer (AORTIC)

FOCUS ON CANCER

By Regina McEnery (IAVI)

Two preventive Phase I AIDS vaccine trials were launched recently, test-ing two different DNA-

based AIDS vaccine candidates. In one trial that began in Decem-ber, investigators from the UK began enrolling 36 women aged 18-45 at low risk of HIV infec-tion in a randomized controlled trial comparing the safety and immunogenicity of a DNA-based vaccine candidate containing fragments of HIV’s spiky outer-surface protein that were isolated from a clade C virus, the most dominant strain circulating in sub-Saharan Africa and the one responsible for infecting half of the world’s 34 million people living with HIV.

The trial, known as MUCO-VAC2, will be examining three different routes of vaccination. The first group of 20 women will receive a high or low dose of the candidate vaccine by intramuscu-lar injection, administered along with the adjuvant glucopyranosyl lipid adjuvant (GLA), which was developed by the Seattle-based non-profit Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI), a product-development partner-ship that is working to develop new technologies that target diseases in developing countries. GLA appears to have the ability to boost both antibody and cellular immune responses.

Another six women will re-ceive the vaccine candidate in-

tranasally in the form of drops, administered together with the adjuvant chitosan, which is de-rived from the outer skeleton of shellfish and insects and has been found to improve the im-munogenicity of other vaccines that are administered mucosally.

Another group of 10 women will receive an intramuscular injection of the vaccine candidate in conjunction with vaginal ap-plication of the vaccine candidate formulated into a gel. The vaginal gel will be applied nine times in a one-month cycle. This gel version of the vaccine candidate, which has been tested previously in clinical trials on its own, does not contain an adjuvant. Catherine Cosgrove, honorary consultant in infectious disease and general medicine at St. George’s Univer-sity of London, who is leading the study, says the combination of an intramuscular injection with vaginal gel application aims to induce a more focused mucosal immune response.

“This is the first time the [can-didate] is being used intranasally or intramuscularly,” adds Cos-grove. Studies in mice, rabbits, and rhesus macaques showed the vaccine candidate was safe and immunogenic. A consortium that includes St. George’s, Impe-rial College, Hull York Medical School, the Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit, and IDRI contributed to developing the vaccine candidate. The trial is being funded by the Wellcome Trust.

In another Phase I trial that began enrollment in December, investigators will evaluate the safety and immune responses induced by a DNA-based HIV vaccine candidate, developed by Profectus BioSciences, in a prime-boost regimen. The DNA candidate encodes multi-ple HIV proteins and is being co-delivered with the adjuvant interleukin-12 (IL-12)—a protein secreted by immune cells in re-sponse to viruses or bacteria—to help boost the immune response. The DNA candidate is being fol-lowed by vaccination with a viral vector-based candidate that uses an inactivated strain of the cold virus (adenovirus serotype 35;

Ad35) to deliver HIV fragments. Investigators plan to recruit

75 volunteers aged 18-50 from Rwanda, Kenya, and Uganda in this study, known as B004. The trial, which is being sponsored by IAVI, employs a novel technique called electroporation to deliver the DNA vaccine candidate. The goal of electroporation, which delivers the vaccine candidate intramuscularly through a series of electric pulses, is to get more of the vaccine into cells.

Enrollment in B004 began in Rwanda in December, with vaccinations slated to begin in Kenya and Uganda in early 2012, pending regulatory approvals. By using Ad35, researchers are

hoping to circumvent issues with pre-existing immunity to the viral vector. In the STEP trial, which showed that an Ad5-based vaccine candidate failed to prevent transmission or slow disease progression in vaccinated volunteers, data suggested that male volunteers who received the vaccine had a higher risk of acquiring HIV if they were uncir-cumcised and had pre-existing antibodies against the Ad5 vec-tor. Ad35 is less prevalent world-wide than Ad5, and therefore there should be less pre-existing immunity to the vector.

Internationa Aids Vaccine Ini-tiative (IAVI).

INNOVATION: A team that includes African Technology Policy Studies member, George Githembe, have formed a new company to address the in-creasing problem of electronic/computer waste in Kenya. “Our company Hope Recycling Services (K) recycle all kinds of computer waste, such as obsolete computers, discarded or outdated or non-working computers in an environmentally friendly way, “says Githembe.

We recycle scrap com-puters including servers in bulk, scrap mother boards of all kinds, scrap sound cards , old or new technology scrap video boards, scrap modem cards and all other PC boards,

we alsorecycle processors (CPU), discarded electronic boards, all types of discarded computer equipment, Laptop scrap, electrical or electronic equipments such as air condi-tioners, TVs, and DVD players; They are picked up from any-where in Kenya, he adds.

We offer free recycling service but also we will pay you for the electronic waste depend-ing on what you have. Let us keep our country GREEN by going GREEN!

Thank you,George Githembe Hope Recycling Services (K) Tel: 0734-906258 or 020-2335155 or 0704-709997

Editorial TeamEditor:

Otula Owuor

Consulting Editors: James Njoroge Wachai

Uganda Editor:Esther Nakkazi

Associate Editors: Daniel OtungeDick Agudah

Revise Editor: Naftali Mungai

Staff Writer: George Achia

Staff Photographer: Jeff Oloo

Marketing & Advertising: Lucas Oluoch

Operation & Co-ordination: Leo Ogwago

Florence Choka Layout Design: James Chunguli

james@mycrimson.comContributors:

Emeka Johnkingsley,Alex Abutu, Esther Nakkazi, Regina

McEenery, Prof Wiebe Bijker, Mekonnen Teshome, Kingsley Hope, Yvonne Taka, Violet Mengo, Duncan

Mboyah, Alice Ndong, Amina Kibirige, Joseph Ngome and Sandra Chao

www.scienceafrica.com, Email:info@scienceafrica.com

Finally Cancer Epidemic in Africa

7October / December 2011

A part from a handful of “indigenous cancers,” the disease has mostly been seen as a major

non-communicable disease that overwhelmingly haunts those in the affluent developed nations, es-pecially the West. Cancer has been linked to changed lifestyles –in-cluding eating habits and minimal physical activities- in the highly industrialised economies that thrived in environments-water, land, and atmosphere- with un-limited cancer causing substances. It has been a long-held belief that the relatively “unpolluted” Africa simply needs to focus on its end-less list of infectious diseases.

However, very many things have changed and apart from what is already an astronomical surge in cancer cases in Africa, the continent is least able to detect and manage cases of cancer. The harsh truth is that for a country like Kenya, and others in Africa, having cancer is still seen as death sentence and at least 80 percent of cancer patients monitored by ScienceAfrica while attending both top private and public hospi-tals, died within one to two years due to various factors that hinder effective use of chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery and even rapidly vanishing traditional herbal therapies.

Analysis of cancer stories by our correspondents in various parts of Africa easily shows that the disease is already becoming an epidemic in a continent that has the least developed coping mechanisms. In Kenya, all cancer

patients attending public health facilities end up at Kenyatta Na-tional Hospital where the few ex-perts are overworked and under-paid, apart from having minimal facilities including drugs.

The referral system is ineffec-tive and unrealible with patients who have no relatives and friends in the capital city, Nairobi, ending up stranded because admissions are never guaranteed.

It means that health planners and public health experts have to go back to the drawing board and begin focusing on various preventive strategies that include dietary aspects, physical activi-ties, pollution and early detection that extends to genetic screening. The continent needs advanced cancer treatment and research centres based on regional eco-nomic units or communities, apart from those in South Africa and

Egypt. Cancer research must be sustainable and leading hospitals and medical schools should find innovative ways of attaining cred-ible threshold in cancer research and management. In Kenya, the best care that cancer patients get, including pain management, is still overwhelmingly linked to the Kenya Hospice and Palliative Care Association (KEHPCA) which definitely needs more support to help sustain and extend its much needed activities.

There are researchers who say that the emergence of HIV/AIDS can be linked to the surge but the epidemic goes beyond such obvious and simplistic observa-tions. None of the cancer patients that ScienceAfrica contacted had a HIV infection. However, as knowledge increases, the divid-ing line between cancer as a non-communicable disease and other

traditional microbial infections is getting thin. Already viruses are linked to some cancers including cancer of the cervix. It may not be far-fetched to say that soon, there may be need to keep an eye on the emerging chilling tales of “infec-tious or transmissible cancer cells” detected in some animal species. However, there is still much hope that cancer may soon be curable as the world of molecular and genetic medicine evolves to converge with nanotechnology (see page one).

In short, Africa can not afford to wait or assume that R&D on various aspects of cancer should be confined to the advanced teach-ing hospitals and institutions in the developed world.

Many Africans are going to India and other countries to seek cancer treatment which, ironi-cally, is much cheaper than, for example, Kenya, where prices are generally fourfold. There is need for a review and positive actions taken to curb cancer treatment prices that are by all standards highly exaggerated even if private hospitals are designed to make profits and pay doctors highly. Although it is a globalised world, the continent may be better off if the money used to treat cancer overseas ends up helping improve skills, facilities, equipment and availability of appropriate medi-cines.

Like in other sectors, the notion of “innovative social responsi-bility” is also rapidly vanishing among Africa’s health institutions, professional associations (apart from policy makers), and they

need new ways of clearly “paying back” to the public in a manner that goes beyond routine employ-ment creation and duties. Even more, there is still much room for various NGOs to play their part in helping the continent cope with this emerging cancer epidemic. Kenya’s Brave Health Ministers The emerging story of cancer epidemic may not be complete without including the noble and brave actions by two Kenyan health ministers who are also lead-ing political figures. Their public disclosure that they were having cancer and were undergoing treat-ment was a major score in the war against stigma and myths that haunt millions of cancer patients worldwide and not just in Kenya. It is a rare coincidence that would have even been treated as an offi-cial state secret in African nations.

Hon Prof Anyang Nyong’o, in charge of medical services, and his counterpart Hon. Beth Mugo in charge of public health and sanitation, have both gone public saying they had cancer of the prostate and cancer of the breast respectively, and were undergoing treatment overseas.

Their direct and indirect emerging positive input into the war against cancer can not be underrated and they must be encouraged to continuously help highlight the plight of cancer patients. What the country needs is to appropriately cope with the situation.- Otula Owuor

Prof. Anyang Nyong’oMinister for Medical Services

Hon. Beth MugoMinister for Public Health and

Sanitation

Christina Scott, who died in a car accident on October 31 2011, in South Africa, was

indeed a champion of science journalism and strong believer that Africa’s efforts to overcome poverty, diseases food shortages, poor hous-ing and minimal sanitation must be based on science.

For African Federation of Sci-ence Journalists and the World Federation of Science Journalists (WFSJ), Christina was a leading mentor and trainer of science jour-nalists and was the President of South Africa Science Journalists Association. She was known as tough editor keen on well written and adequately researched stories that at least met the basics of good journalism.

Her career included being the managing editor at research Africa in Cape Town. She hosted a weekly SAFMS radio programme, Science Matters; was a science correspond-

ent for the South African Broadcast-ing Corporation; and SciDev.Net’s news editor for the sub-Sahara.

The closely knit science journal-ists’ fraternity in Africa and those in the WFSJ will miss her jovial, innovative and candid ways of com-municating and reporting science apart from her endless energy. She understood the harsh environment in which journalists in Africa and other developing nations worked.

Africa’s Leading Science Journalist, The Late Christina Scott

ORBITUARY

Kenya’s brave health ministers waging war against fear of cancer

Please send us your comments, feedback and suggestions on info@scienceafrica.com

8 October / December 2011

By Duncan Mboyah

The long-term cultivation of genetically modified maize varieties does not result in an accumulation of Bt

protein in the soil, scientists have discovered.

In a study conducted recently, researchers were unable to find evidence of any accumulation of Bt protein in the soil of trial fields on which Bt maize had been grown for nine years in succession.

“Our results show that Bt protein that enters the soil through crop residues breaks down quickly,” says Helga Gruber, a lead researcher in a research project that included scientists from the Bavarian Sate Research Centre for Agriculture (Bayerische Landesanstalt für Land-wirtschaft, LfL) and the University of Technology in Munich (TUM).

She says that for the first time, investigations on what happens to Bt protein from genetically modi-fied MON810 maize throughout the agricultural cycle – from cultivation to use of the plants as cattle fodder, to the spreading of liquid manure from these animals on the fields - has come out clearly.

She observes that researchers were unable to detect any Bt protein on any of the plots even after the scientists had developed a special method for detecting the Bt protein in the various sample materials.

Since Bt protein and genetically modified DNA could also enter the soil through liquid manure, the researchers investigated this route as well.

First of all, they needed to find out whether Bt protein does in fact enter the soil via liquid manure. Then it was important to find a way of measuring the Bt protein through-out the entire agricultural process.

“Our most important result was demonstrating, firstly, that Bt pro-tein does not accumulate in the soil as a result of long term cultivation, and secondly, that only minimal residual amounts of Bt protein are contained in the liquid manure spread on the fields,” notes Gruber.

She reveals that the remaining Bt protein breaks down so fast there that it does not enter the feed again via the harvested crop.

When genetically modified Bt maize is cultivated, Bt protein enters the soil via root exudates, harvest residues and pollen deposits. If Bt maize is used as cattle feed, Bt pro-tein could also enter the soil through liquid manure spread on the fields.

This is the first time investiga-tions on what happens to the Bt protein throughout the agricultural cycle – from cultivation to animal feed, to the spreading of liquid ma-nure and the following crop have been done.

They were able to gain impor-tant insights into the breakdown and persistence of Bt protein in the soil following long-term Bt maize cultivation.

The experiments were headed by Dr Martin Müller from the working group on gene transfer and GMO safety research at LfL’s Institute for Crop Science and Plant Breeding.

Bt protein is known to enter the soil, particularly through rotting plant remains after harvesting. But it is only now that researchers have investigated the extent to which this occurs and whether Bt protein can accumulate in the soil as a result of long-term cultivation.

She was able to use trial fields on which, during her project, MON810 Bt maize was being grown for the eighth and ninth year in succession. These sites were therefore extremely suitable for investigating the poten-tial accumulation of Bt protein. As a control, the isogenic (not genetically modified) parent variety was also grown on the trial fields.

Remains of stems and roots and maize stubble were left on the field and turned under again. Soil samples were taken after harvesting and before the new crop was sown. The protein was extracted and the Bt protein analysed with a highly sensitive, specific protein detection method

The soil is the basis of produc-tion for farming and is a complex ecosystem, in which the individual

components are closely interrelated, hence the study.

In another study, no Bt protein or genetically modified DNA was detected in milk given that maize is used to feeding animals that sup-ply food.

Dr Patrick Gürtler investigated the potential effects of feeding dairy cows with Bt maize over the long term.

Eighteen cows were fed GM maize for 25 months, while another group of 18 cows was fed non-GM maize. The milk yield of the two groups was compared over this period and various metabolic pa-rameters were analysed, as well as the health of the animals.

“The use of Bt maize had no im-pact on feeding behaviour, milk yield or animal health, or on the perfor-mance and metabolic parameters,” says Gürtler.

As well as these parameters, samples of blood, dung, urine and milk were taken and examined for genetically modified DNA and Bt protein.

However, no elements of these were found in either the blood or the urine. Neither was any Cry1Ab DNA detected in the dung, but the animals excrete the Bt protein in their dung, so the protein does enter the slurry.

“In milk, no Bt protein or geneti-cally modified DNA was detected in the milk. This means that we were unable to detect any transfer of these Bt maize components from the ani-mal feed to the milk. No indication of genetically modified DNA enter-ing the soil via slurry”, says Gurtler.

Since Bt protein and Cry1Ab DNA could also enter the soil through liquid manure, the researchers investigated this agricultural route of entry as well. The aim was firstly to find out whether Bt protein does in fact enter the soil via slurry. Secondly, it was important to find a way of measuring the Bt protein throughout the entire agricultural process in order to be able to say to what extent the Bt protein is broken down at each stage.

The long-term feeding field trial was conducted using the liquid ma-

nure from the cows fed on Bt maize and from the control group. The liquid manure from the different groups was collected at different times, stored in tanks and spread on grassland and trial maize fields at predefined times that are usual in farming practice.

The feed, the liquid manure from the cows, the soil of the fertilized plots and the plants were then ana-lysed for both Cry1Ab DNA and for Bt protein.

In the end the scientists were not able to detect any Cry1Ab DNA in the slurry, but did find very small amounts of the Bt protein.

“This was because of Bt maize plant material that had not been fully digested,” Gruber explains. Neither was this Bt protein com-pletely broken down while the slurry was in storage.

However, the scientist was able to show that more than 95 per cent of the Bt protein is destroyed when the maize plants are processed to make animal feed, which means that the feed contains much less of the insecticide protein than the maize plants on the field.

Once the liquid manure had been spread on the fields, Bt protein could no longer be detected in the soil be-cause the slurry was quickly broken down in the biologically active soil. Nor was any Bt protein detected in the harvest (cut grass and isogenic maize).

Through this project scientists have for the first time traced the breakdown and persistence of the Bt protein throughout the cycle of slurry management on a farm grow-ing MON810 Bt maize and feeding it to cattle.

The most important finding was to show that the Bt protein does not accumulate in the soil as a result of long-term Bt maize cultivation, and that only minimal residual quanti-ties of Bt protein are brought onto fields in the slurry.

“Here, the remaining Bt protein breaks down so fast that it does not enter the feed again via the har-vested crop,” Gruber notes.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foun-dation (BMGF / Gates Foundation) has awarded the African Union’s-NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency a supplemental grant of US $1,489,098 to support the ongoing work of the African Biosafety Net-work of Expertise (ABNE)

Following the submission of a pro-posal to the Gates Foundation for a supplemental grant for additional funding in order to expand support to African regulators through more staff and also to align with the AU remuneration policies, the Foun-dation has approved the sum of US$1,489,098 to ABNE.

This supplemental grant therefore increases the total award in Phase II to US$11,929,537. The grant will become accessible from January 2012.

The supplemental grant is neces-sary to bridge unanticipated budg-etary shortfalls in meeting program-matic activities as outlined in the initial grant proposal. The funds will also address overstretched budget-ary allocations for ABNE activities occasioned by a steady increase in the demand for biosafety services across the continent. The supple-mental grant is important to ensure that ABNE delivers on its objective and milestones set forth in the initial grant proposal.

ABNE is a continent-wide initia-tive whose overall goal is to assist African countries in their efforts to build functional biosafety systems for sustainable and safe applica-tion of agricultural biotechnology. This goal is to be achieved by empowering African regulators with science-based biosafety information, training and educa-tion, technical assistance and other relevant biosafety capac-ity building programs.

Long-term Cultivation of GM Seeds Does not Affect Soil

European Court of Justice (ECJ) that found French MON810 suspension illegal.

Heated debate on GMOs – loaded with propaganda and unrealistic legal threats- is

not unique to Kenya. It is also a re-flection of what has been going on in the western world pitting certain groups in Europe against American firms that have an upper hand in ag-ricultural biotechnology.

However, the GMO debate even gets bigger when it extends into regu-latory and legal horizons. The latest in legal tussle is the recent judgment by European Court of Justice (ECJ) that found French MON810 suspen-sion illegal.

The Americans believe that their regulatory authorities are the world’s best and Europe’s schizophrenic fear of GMOs is unfounded.

The European Court of Justice

issued a judgment on September 8th finding the French ban on the cultivation of MON810 maize ille-gal. The ban had been introduced in 2008 after three years - 2005 to 2007 - of successful cultivation of MON810 varieties in France. The ban was challenged in a French court by Monsanto, individual seed compa-nies (Pioneer, Caussade, Limagrain, Maïsadour, RAGT, and Euralis), seed companies association (UFS, French seed association), and an individual farmer. A French environment asso-ciation (FNE) also participated.

The French court requested the ECJ to consider specific questions and now, following this week’s judg-ment by the ECJ, the case moves back to the French courts who must imple-ment the decision and guidance of the ECJ . The ECJ ruling has confirmed the arguments raised by Monsanto and others that the 2008 French gov-ernment order suspending MON810

use by French farmers did not follow applicable procedural regulations.

In addition, ECJ found that a ban can be invoked only in circumstances which are likely to constitute a clear and serious risk to human health, animal health or environment. This conclusion is a positive endorsement of a scientific approach to regulatory assessment. The ECJ said, “Protec-tive measures … cannot validly be based on a purely hypothetical ap-proach to the risk, founded on mere assumptions which have not yet been scientifically verified …”

The safety of MON 810 is con-firmed by multiple regulatory ap-provals, including those in the EU, and by up to 15 years of successful commercial use and consumption of MON810 corn products in the EU and around the world. Furthermore the safety of MON810 was confirmed after the French suspension decision by EFSA (European Food Safety Au-

thority) and AFSSA/ANSES (French Food Safety Authority).

Following the ECJ’s decision the French corn grower association (AGPM) published a bold press re-lease focusing on the illegal aspect of the suspension, the necessity to produce more food, and that biotech-nologies are major tools.

The French government reacted with a press release of the Minister of Ecology who stated that the environ-ment safety of MON 810 is still not addressed, said that the suspension is still valid until the final decision of the Council of State (highest French Court), and that they will put in place “another safeguard clause according to the appropriate procedure recom-mended by the ECJ, because the en-vironmental questions remain with-out answers.”

Already on September the 8th, Monsanto talked to several French radio stations (RTL, France-Info) and

dailys (LeFigaro, Les Echos). Stories also ran on wire services and in other European media.

Pro-biotech goups say that the ECJ ruling has confirmed the argu-ments raised by the French farmers and seed companies that the 2008 French government order suspend-ing MON810 use by French farmers did not follow applicable procedural regulations.

In addition, ECJ indicated that measures can only be invoked in circumstances which are likely to constitute a clear and serious risk to human health, animal health or envi-ronment.

They claim that in the last 15 years, MON810 has proven agro-nomic, economic and environmental benefits and its safety has been con-firmed consistently; French farmers should no longer be denied the choice to use it.

Biotech Wars: Are European anti-GMO Groups Losing?

African Biosafety Network of Experts (ABNE) Receives US$1.5m

additional funding from Gates Foundation

BIOTECHNOLOGY R & D FUNDING

9

By Mekonnen Teshome (ADDIS ABABA)

Highly prohibitive biosafety law is affecting biotechnol-ogy development in Ethio-pia, a biotechnologist at

AAU says. Tileye Feyissa, head of the Ad-

dis Ababa University Biotechnology Program Unit, recently told a work-shop that the Ethiopian biosafety proclamation is highly prohibitive in all aspects of biotechnology including learning, research and commerciali-zation.

Tileye indicated that it has been some years since Biotechnology policy development process started but it has not been in place so far. What is in effect is a biosafety law which is hindering the development of bio-technology in the country.

He cited that in the article 8 of the Ethiopian biosafety proclamation, it is stipulated that importation of any genetically modified organism with-out obtaining an advance informed agreement is prohibited.

He also said that the proclama-tion states: “An application for an advance informed agreement for the importation of a genetically modified organism shall be accompanied by a statement signed by the head of the competent national authority of the country of export to the effect that the competent national authority takes full responsibility for the complete-ness and accuracy of the information provided.”

According to the scholar, article 21 of the proclamation says that any person who violates any provision of the Proclamation or regulations or directives issued pursuant to it shall be punishable with a fine from Birr 4,000 to Birr 7,000 or with imprison-ment from one to three years or both.

He also indicated that the develop-ment of biotechnology is hindered for there is no institutional regulation for Intellectual Property Right (IPR) and no policy for scientific innovation.

Shortage of skilled manpower due to the difficulty to train in practical genetic engineering areas in Ethiopia is linked to the biosafety proclama-tion of the country and is making it difficult to retain those who have the skills and expertise, thus affecting the sector’s development, he added.

He also said that low salary, lack of incentives, lack of enabling environ-ment to carry out research, lack of private sector involved in biotech and discouraging working conditions are other factors that affect biotechnology development.

“The general public is not aware of biotechnology particularly the GMOs. Even the educated people who are not in the area do not have the real picture of the technology. They believe in the distorted information of mass media, especially with regard to GMOs,” he added.

With all these difficulties in the de-velopment of biotechnology, Ethiopia remains a food insecure nation due to abiotic factors such as drought and salinity, losses caused by diseases and pests. These problems are also exac-erbated by climate change, he added.

However, he said, biotechnology has great potential to increase crop productivity. Crop productivity can also be achieved by conventional breeding but for some traits conven-tional breeding is not an option. The only way to introduce such a trait is by genetic engineering Even for traits that can be improved by traditional breeding, genetic engineering may facilitate and speed up the process, the scholar added.

As a result, he says, there is need to increase crop productivity by

developing biotic and abiotic stress-tolerant crops. Developing crops with high nutritional value is vital using technologies and there by boosting agricultural production and ensuring food security.

Despite all challenges, the Addis Ababa University is striving to bring about development in the biotechnol-ogy sector by launching a Programme in Biotechnology.

The university is aggressively working to bring about change fo-cusing on agricultural, industrial, environmental, and medical sectors collaborating with other higher learn-ing institutions in the country.

The University is now running biotechnology projects, plant tissue culture and plant transformation, on sweet potato, enset, coffee, millet, tef, sorghum, cassava and others.

Other universities including, the Jimma, Makalle and Gondar uni-versities and research institutions are also making significant strides in teaching and research development in the country. However, the policy challenge is still remains a big issue.

Addressing the three-day con-sultative meeting, UNESCO Deputy Director-General Getachew Engida said : “Africa is a strategic priority for UNESCO” in the development of biotechnology.

He said that UNESCO has set a plan to support the development of biotechnology in Africa as its forth-coming General Conference would consider the creation of International Centre for Biotechnology at the Uni-versity of Nigeria in Nsukka

According to the Deputy Director-General, biotechnology can provide some core answers to pressing ques-tions we face today -- questions relat-ing to protecting the environment, to strengthening research in health care, to addressing food security.

“The importance of biotechnol-ogy research and application in the biological sciences is rising also in response to newly emerging diseases and global pandemics, as well as in relation to older diseases, such as cancer.” Getachew said.

It is opening up new horizons for researching and producing vac-cines and diagnostic and therapeutic protocols based on genetic data and bioengineering, the use of stem cells, and of genetically-modified organ-isms, he added.

“Developments in biotechnology also pose questions for the protection of local biodiversity and indigenous knowledge systems. We must clarify concerns with regard to intellectual property rights, and issues relating to access and benefits-sharing as enshrined in the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Nagoya Protocol.” he noted.

“All of these issues will have to be addressed. An appropriate framework will have to be created to tackle them safely, effectively and ethically,” he added.

New technology also carries with it novel challenges. These should be explored in all their ramifications. “We must seek to anticipate the impact of new technology in reshap-ing the world around us. It should be subjected to the ethical scrutiny that must accompany all scientific decision-making and policy develop-ment.” he indicated.

Getachew said that UNESCO is committed to supporting the devel-opment of this new knowledge base for its potential in assisting countries and societies, especially developing countries.

The Deputy Director-General pointed out that UNESCO’s forth-coming General Conference will consider the creation of an Interna-

tional Centre for Biotechnology at the University of Nigeria in Nsukka. The Centre, to be launched in 2012, will offer high-level training and research opportunities in the fields of food security and tropical diseases, he said.

He also urged Ethiopian scholars to make maximum use of the exper-tise and facilities UNESCO is develop-ing, for the country’s biotechnology sector.

He indicated that UNESCO sup-ports free subscriptions of peer-re-viewed journals in biotechnology and microbiology for research institutions and reference facilities in developing countries, especially in Africa.

“I draw your attention here also to UNESCO’s Encyclopaedia of Life Support Systems.” UNESCO’s Inter-national Basic Sciences Programme is the only unit in the United Nations System whose mandate includes “ba-sic science for biotechnology,” capac-ity building and science education.

The United Nations General As-sembly resolution 58/200, entitled “Science and Technology for De-velopment,” brought together all of the work undertaken throughout the United Nations in the area of biotechnology.

He also recalled that UNESCO supported the organization of the African Conference on Biotechnology – The Way Forward: A strategy for African Collaboration/Development in Tripoli, Libya, in June 2008.

Getachew also highlighted Ethio-pia’s significant role in strengthening regional partnership in the develop-ment of biotechnology in the region. Education State Minister Dr. Kaba Urgessa, in his message read out at the event, also pledged his ministry’s continued support to the develop-ment of biotechnology research and education.

October / December 2011

Prohibitive Biosafety Law Hindering Biotech Development in Ethiopia

“Despite all challenges the Addis Ababa University is striving to bring about development in the biotechnology sector by launching a Programme in Biotechnology. The University is now running biotechnology projects, plant tissue culture and

plant transformation, on sweet potato, enset, coffee, millet, tef, sorghum, cassava and others.”

BIOTECHNOLOGY

By Mekonnen Teshome

Th e U n i t e d N a t i o n s E d u c a t i o n a l , S c i e n t i f i c and Cultural Organization

( U N E S C O ) i n d i c a t e d t h a t i t has set up a plan to support the development of biotechnology in Africa as its forthcoming General Conference would consider the creation of International Centre for Biotechnology at the University of Nigeria in Nsukka.

A d d r e s s i n g a t h r e e - d a y consultative meeting held in Addis Ababa, UNESCO Deputy Director-General Getachew Engida said: “Africa is a strategic priority for UNESCO” in the development of biotechnology.

A c c o r d i n g t o t h e D e p u t y Director-General, biotechnology can provide some core answers to pressing questions we face today questions relating to protecting the environment, to strengthening research in health care, to addressing food security.

“The importance of biotechnology research and application in the biological sciences is also rising in

response to newly emerging diseases and global pandemics, as well as in relation to older diseases, such as cancer.” Getachew said.

It is opening up new horizons for researching and producing vaccines and diagnostic and therapeutic protocols based on genetic data and bioengineering, the use of stem cells, and of genetically-modified organisms, he added.

“Developments in biotechnology also pose questions for the protection of local biodiversity and indigenous knowledge systems. We must clarify concerns with regard to intellectual property rights, and issues relating to access and benefits-sharing as enshrined in the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Nagoya Protocol.” he noted.

“All of these issues will have to be addressed. An appropriate framework will have to be created to tackle them safely, effectively and ethically.”

New technology also carries with it novel challenges. These should be explored in all their ramifications. “We must seek to anticipate the impact of new technology in reshaping the world around us. It

should be subjected to the ethical scrutiny that must accompany all scientific decision-making and policy development,” he reiterated.

Getachew said that UNESCO is committed to supporting the development of this new knowledge base for its potential in assisting countries and societies, especially developing countries.

The Deputy Director-General pointed out that UNESCO’s forthcom-ing General Conference will consider the creation of an International Cen-

tre for Biotechnology at the University of Nigeria in Nsukka.

The Centre, to be launched in 2012, will offer high-level training and research opportunities in the fields of food security and tropical diseases, he said.

He also urged Ethiopian scholars to make maximum use of the expertise and facilities UNESCO is developing, for the country’s biotechnology sector.

He also indicated that UNESCO supports free subscriptions of peer-reviewed journals in biotechnology and microbiology for research institutions and reference facilities in developing countries, especially in Africa.

“I draw your attention here also to UNESCO’s Encyclopaedia of Life Support Systems.”

UNESCO’s International Basic Sciences Programme is the only unit in the United Nations System whose mandate includes “basic science for biotechnology, capacity building and science education.

The United Nations General Assembly resolut ion 58/200, entitled “Science and Technology for Development,” brought together all

of the work undertaken throughout the United Nations in the area of biotechnology.

He also recalled that UNESCO supported the organization of the African Conference on Biotechnology – The Way Forward: A strategy for African Collaboration/Development in Tripoli, Libya, in June 2008.

Getachew a lso h ighl ighted Ethiopia ’s s igni f icant role in strengthening regional partnership in the development of biotechnology in the region.

Education State Minister Dr. Kaba Urgessa, in his message read out at the event, also pledged his ministry’s continued support to the development of biotechnology research and education.

R e p r e s e n t a t i v e s o f l o c a l universities, Ministry of Science and Technology, research institutions and UNESCO regional and international offices, African Union were in attendance in the consultative meeting that aims at generating ideas and recommendations on biotechnology research and education in the region.

UNESCO to Support African Biotechnology Development

10 October / December 2011

By Emeka Johnkingsley

Nigeria’s drive to boost the quality and processing of cassava, launched two months ago as part of a

larger plan to turn the country into a powerhouse for food production, now has a leading cassava scientist at its helm.Martin Fregene, director of a team of scientists known as BioCassava Plus at the Donald Danforth Plant Center in the United States, has been appointed as special advisor to the country’s agriculture minister.But the approach to agriculture being adopted by Nigeria has been criticised by a board member of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) for failing to ac-knowledge the needs and capabilities of peasant farmers.Nigeria’s agriculture minister, Akin Adesina — former vice president of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa AGRA.— announced Nigeria’s plans to transform its agricultural sector at the IITA two months ago (11–12 August).Adesina lamented Nigeria’s absence from the global cassava market, de-spite the country being the world’s largest producer, citing “poor product quality” for the failure of Nigeria’s attempt to export to China.He added that farmers must look for ways to add value by finding ways to turn their cassava into products, such as flour. Fregene, who was appointed to lead the revolution last month (15 September) and is assisting Adesina with an action plan said: “We must … deliver a green revolution that will make Nigeria self-sufficient in food production”.Adesina said the revolution will focus on the provision and availability of inputs such as seeds and fertilisers, increasing crop yields and establish-ing crop-processing zones. It will also aim to reduce pre- and post-harvest losses, provide access to financial services and markets, and improve

links with industry.But John Pickett, an IITA board member and a researcher at the UK-based agricultural research centre Rothamsted Research, was concerned that industrialising Nigeria’s agricul-ture could have “disastrous” conse-quences for its farmers unless they are involved throughout the process.“By and large it is just about making money out of industrial agriculture. I am not in any way convinced that the green revolution has much to offer the large majority of farmers in Africa.”“They don’t buy seed or fertiliser, and they don’t use pesticides. Talking about value chains is nonsense when you have people who don’t sell any-thing. Most [smallholder farmers] go to bed hungry. Food security is really the base for all agriculture.”Pickett said that there are some elements of the revolution he can support, such as the focus on small-holder crops. But he added that small farmers would struggle to intensify production if they cannot afford the inputs.He said that push-pull technology is an example of a way forward. Cereals such as maize are intercropped with a pest-repellent plant bordered by a plant that attracts pests, leading them to lay their eggs in this trap plant rather than the crop. This kind of push-pull technique, he said, has helped more than 45,000 small farm-ers in Kenya to intensify their yields.Fregene told SciDev.Net that research and development would be the driv-ing force behind the green revolution. The plan involves strengthening ag-ricultural research institutions, train-ing a new generation of scientists and improving partnerships with farmers and the private sector “to ensure that the products of research meet the needs of stakeholders”.Adesina said that the revolution would also focus on infrastructure development, improving rural insti-tutions, strengthening farmers’ as-sociations, and women and children. - (Sci-Dev.Net)

Nigeria Pins Green Revolution Hopes on Cassava

The Nigerian Govern-ment has announced the release of three new vita-min A-rich ‘yellow’ cas-

sava varieties that could provide more vitamin A in the diets of more than 70 million Nigerians who eat cassava every day. The yellow colour (cassava is generally white) is due to the higher vitamin A content.

Vitamin A Deficiency (VAD) is widely prevalent in Sub-Saharan Africa. It afflicts almost 20 per cent of pregnant women and about 30 per cent of children under-five in Nigeria. VAD can lower immunity and impair vi-sion, which can lead to blindness and even death.

Children and women will be the main beneficiaries of these new yellow varieties, which could pro-vide up to 25 per cent of their daily vitamin A needs. Varieties with enough vitamin A to provide up to half of daily needs are already in the breeding pipeline and should

be ready for release in a few years.These new yellow varieties

were bred using traditional (non-transgenic) methods by the Inter-national Institute for Tropical Ag-riculture (IITA) and the Nigerian National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI) and were liked by farmers during field trials. Cassava is an extremely adapt-able crop; it is drought tolerant, requires limited land preparation, and grows well in poor soils. The new yellow varieties are also high yielding and resistant to major diseases and pests.“Demand for these varieties has already started, but it will take some time before we have enough quantities to give out, ” said Paul Ilona, the Harvest-Plus Manager for Nigeria.

The yellow cassava is already being multiplied through stem cuttings. In 2013, when sufficient certified stems are available, Har-vestPlus and its partners will then distribute these to about 25,000 farming households initially.

Farmers will be able to grow these new vitamin A varieties and feed them to their families. They can also multiply and share cuttings with others in their community amplifying the nutritional ben-efits. After the mid-2014 harvest, more than 150,000 household members are expected to be eating vitamin A cassava.

This work is funded by Har-vestPlus. Other partners include the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), and Nigerian Government agencies. HarvestPlus leads a global ef-fort to breed and disseminate micronutrient-rich staple food crops to reduce hidden hunger in malnourished populations. It is part of the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Im-proved Nutrition and Health. It is coordinated by CIAT and the In-ternational Food Policy Research Institute.

By George Achia(Staff Science Writer)

Researchers from the International Potato Center (CIP) have come up with a sweet potato

variety that is resilient to African sweet potato weevils. Sweet po-tato crop has been under constant threat from the weevils which have reduced the production of the crop in Africa.

A socio-economic study un-dertaken by the CIP and national partners in Burundi, DR Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda revealed that sweet potato weevils cause an average annual yield loss of 20 per cent especially during drought.

“Sweet potato weevils are a major threat to sweet potato which plays a vital role in food security and income generation for both the urban and rural poor in Sub-Saharan Africa,” said Dr. Marc Ghislain, a biotechnologist at CIP.

Dr. Ghislain said that the wee-vil can devastate sweet potato production including total crop loss. He observed that methods such as breeding for controlling

this pest in Sub-Saharan Africa have not succeeded, opening the door for using biotechnology and genetic engineering in making a transgenic sweet potato.

“At least three proteins from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) were toxic to both sweet potato weevil species feeding on an artificial diet. Genes expressing these pro-teins in plant swere constructed

using elements from other sweet potato genes in order to accu-mulate high Bt protein levels in the storage root,” explained Dr. Ghislain.

Addressing a regional forum on open forum on agricultural biotechnology in Nairobi, Kenya, organized by International Service for the Acquisition of Agribiotech Application (ISAAA), he said the

product has been tested in animal models and found to be safe for human consumption.

He pointed out that the variety will be available in sub- Saharan African countries with no regula-tory restrictions and will be adopt-ed where weevil damage is severe.

“The technology is being de-veloped under the Sweet Potato Action for security and Health

in Africa programme and will be free for use by farmers in the region,” said Dr. Ghislain. Sweet potato is mainly produced by poor households in Kenya under harsh climatic conditions.

It is estimated that about 75,000 hectares are under sweet potato cultivation in Kenya with 40 per cent of the harvest retained for household consumption.

Taming Sweet potato Weevil through Biotechnology

Nigeria Releases Vitamin A Cassava to Improve Public Health for Millions

BIOTECHNOLOGY

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will invest $35 million in grants for research into innovative solutions for family health.

“There is a vital need for new and creative ideas to help mothers and children in the world’s poorest coun-tries,” said Chris Wilson, Director of Global Health Discovery at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “We urge scientists, innovators and en-trepreneurs to seize the opportunity to contribute to the field of family health through the discovery and development of medicines, medi-cal devices, diagnostics and other lifesaving tools.”

Each year, 150,000 maternal deaths, 1.6 million neonatal deaths and 1.2 million stillbirths occur. ality and morbidity through innovation. The initiatives announced included Pre-venting Preterm Birth, and Discover-ing New Ways to Achieve Healthy Growth.

AFRICA’S LEADING PUBLICATION ON SCIENCE INNOVATION AND DEVELOPMENT

The Best Analysis of Science, Technology and Innovation in Africa Tel: 020-2053532 / 2473370

The Gates Avail $35m for Innovative Research on Family

Health Research

MALARIA FAMILY HEALTH

The National Techni-cal Commission on Bi-osafety (CTNBio) has approved the genetical-

ly modified (GM) bean resistant to the golden mosaic virus, the worst enemy of this crop in Bra-zil and in South America.

Developed by Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agro-pecuária – Embrapa (Brazil-ian Agricultural and Livestock Research Company), this bean event is the first transgenic plant that is entirely produced by pub-lic research institutions. Nearly 10 years were needed for the re-search in a partnership between Embrapa Recursos Genéticos e Biotecnologia – Cenargen (Em-brapa Genetic Resources and Biotechnology) and Embrapa Arroz e Feijão (Embrapa Rice and Beans).

“In the field trials performed, even with the massive presence of the whitefly, the insect that

transmits the mosaic virus, the transgenic plant was not affected by the disease”, says Francisco Aragão, Cenargen researcher and one of the people in charge of the project.

Beans are important in Latin American and African societies. In Brazil, it is the main vegeta-ble source of protein and iron, and when associated to rice, it results in an even more nutri-tional mix.

The world production of beans corresponds to over 12 million tons. Brazil is the second country in this rank and the plant is produced especially by small farmers, with nearly 80% of the production and cultivated area in properties smaller than 100 hectares. When the golden mosaic virus attacks the planta-tion at its initial phase, it can cause damage to 100% of the production. Embrapa Arroz e Feijão estimates that the loss

caused by the disease would be enough to feed up to 5-10 mil-lion people.

The transgenic bean presents economic and environmental advantages, such as reduced waste, guaranteed harvest and reduced agrochemicals appli-cations. With the approval, the transgenic seeds will be multi-plied and must reach the market in two or three years.

“All the biosafety analyses have been carried out and the genetically modified bean is as safe as or even safer than the conventional varieties, both for human consumption and for the environment”, Aragão highlighted.

In general terms, they geneti-cally modified the plant so that it could produce small fragments of RNA, responsible for the acti-vation of its defense mechanism against the golden mosaic virus, devastating to the crop. n

By George Achia, Staff Science Writer

Preliminary data from a study show that a malaria vaccine could help protect young children and infants

in malaria-endemic areas by half for 12 months after vaccination.

The data were the findings of a three-year study involving about 15,460 chil-dren aged between five and 17 months from seven African countries including Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Ghana and Mozambique.

It was confirmed by the leading princi-pal investigators from the ongoing phase III trial for malaria vaccine candidate dubbed RTS, S that the new vaccine can offer protection against malaria which affects millions of people especially in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Addressing the journalists at the Hil-ton Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya, Dr. Salim Abdulla, RTS,S principal investigator at Ifakara health institute in Tanzania, said “the launch of the phase III efficacy of the RTS,S malaria vaccine candidate marked an important milestone after 20 years of research and development,”.

Dr. Abdulla noted that as one of the final stages of testing before regulatory

submission, the phase III is designed to continue monitoring safety and potential side effects while evaluating the efficacy of the vaccine in infants and young chil-dren on a large scale.

Speaking at the same event, Patricia Njuguna, RTS,S principal investigator at the Kenya Medical Research Institute in Kilifi, Kenya, said the results from the trials showed that the vaccine offered 50 per cent year-long protection against malaria.

Njuguna noted that the vaccine may be ready within the next four years adding that by 2025, an upgraded vaccine offer-ing 80 per cent protection against malaria for many years would be available.

Dr. William Mwatu, medical and regu-latory affairs director, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) East Africa, told ScienceAfrica that this is a tremendous step towards to having a vaccine against malaria for the first time.

“Such a vaccine could alleviate the staggering burden that malaria has on Africa including the suffering of children and the stress placed on our health sys-tems,” said Dr. Mwatu.

RTS, S is the most clinically advanced malaria vaccine candidate in the world today. In clinical trails, RTS, S is the

first to demonstrate that it could help protect children aged between five to 17 months against infection and clinical diseases caused by Plasmodium falci-parum, the most deadly species of the malaria parasite.

The trial is still going on, but re-searchers who analysed data from the first 6,000 children found that after 12 months of follow-up, three doses of RTS,S reduced the risk of children experiencing clinical malaria and severe malaria by 56 per cent and 47 per cent respectively.

RTS,S aims to trigger the immune systems to defend against Plasmodium falciparum malaria parasite when it first enters the human host’s bloodstream or when the parasite infects liver cells. It is designed to prevent the parasite from infecting, maturing and multiplying in the liver and from re-entering the blood-stream and infecting red blood cells, at which point the affected person would begin to show symptoms of the diseases.

The vaccine is being developed in part-nership by GSK and the PATH malaria vaccine initiative together with promi-nent African research centers including Kenya’s Medical Research Institute with major funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Vaccine Gives Hope in Fight against Malaria

Brazil’s First “Home Grown” Transgenic BeanFirst commercial approval of a transgenic plant that is totally produced by Brazil’s public institution

BIOTECHNOLOGY

11October / December 2011

By George Achia

There is need to have a Knowledge Sharing P la t form (KSP) for research for health in

Kenya to avoid duplication of research and minimize on resource wastage, according to Prof. Gilbert Kokwaro, the director of the Consortium for National Health Research (CNHR)

Prof. Kokwaro, who was speaking during a forum meant to reach consensus on developing a national KSP, was concerned over how researchers in Kenya and Africa at large are working in isolation thus making research results not to trickle down to the people who are supporting the research.

“The disconnect is lack of a knowledge sharing platform because a lot of good research is being undertaken in Kenya but since people are working in isolation, only few people get to know about that research results or data base,” said Prof. Kokwaro.

It is envisaged that when fully established, the platform will stimulate the regular shar-ing of knowledge emanating from research and foster closer knowledge exchange among re-searchers, research and training institutions and policy mak-ers working within the national health research system.

Prof. Kokwaro observed that such a platform will be involved in various aspects of the knowledge generation process including

knowledge mining, synthesis, packaging and dissemination.

“KSP should ideally be able

to provide for the establishment of a central national knowledge repository with up-to-date information of all the key issues affecting health that can be addressed through research and enable diverse research and training groups with low cost computing resources to readily access relevant information through the platform,” explained Prof. Kokwaro.

According to Prof. Kokwaro, i s s u e s a f f e c t i n g r e s e a r c h for health in Kenya include inadequate research coordination, poor research regulation and insufficient sharing of knowledge.

In a speech read on his behalf by Dr. Moses Rugutt, deputy council secretary at the National

Council of Science and Technol-ogy (NCST), Prof. Shaukat Ab-dulrazak, the council’s secretary and chief executive officer, noted that sharing of research outcomes in the form of new knowledge is critical to stimulating further re-search and supporting science-led development.

Prof. Abdulrazak underscored the need to establish databases for other sectors, noting that KSP is at the core of success of health research.

CNHR is working in close col-laboration with the NCST in facili-tating national consensus among key stakeholders on the options available for the development of a research for health knowledge sharing programme.

By George Achia, Staff Science Writer

A more effective tuberculosis (TB) vac-cine that could save nearly two million lives that are lost every year from TB and contribute significantly to global

efforts to eliminate TB as a public health threat is on trial in five African countries: Kenya, South Africa, Botswana, Uganda and Mozambique.

The trial, in its phase II, was launched last year by various organizations including Aeras, Crucell in the Netherlands and Kenya Medical Research Institute / Centers for Disease Control (KEMRI/CDC) with funding from Bill and Belinda Gates Foundation will take three years to complete.

“The new TB vaccine will protect against all forms of TB including Multi-Drug Resistance TB and Extensively-Drug Resistance TB. It is ex-pected to be safer and more effective in preventing TB in children, adolescents and adults including people with HIV for whom Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) is unsafe,” said Mr. Videlis Nduba, principal investigator at KEMRI/CDC during a recent lung health conference at Kenyatta International Con-ference Center in Nairobi, Kenya.

The clinical trial involves 4,000 healthy infants who must also be HIV negative. Once the vaccine has been proved to be effective, it will be used as booster vaccinations in infancy and adolescents or adults who have received BCG at birth.

“The new vaccine will help in initial protection in incidences where one is exposed, prevent latent infection and also avert the reactivation of the disease,” explained Mr. Nduba. Speaking at the same function, Dr. Vicky Cardenas, director, clinical development at Aeras, told ScienceAfrica

that the currently available TB vaccine- BCG – reduces infant TB severity but is not adequate to prevent adult pulmonary TB, the most common form of the disease.

“BCG’s wide use has failed to reverse the growing global TB epidemic. Its shortcomings include not being able to reduce the risk of severe paediatric TB disease, failure to protect against latent TB which is becoming an active disease and it is also not recommended for use in infants infected with HIV,” explained Dr. Cardenas.

Dr. Cardenas observed that once completed, the vaccine will be distributed in the developing countries by international organizations including the Global Alliance for Vaccine Initiative, UNICEF and various developing world governments at affordable prices.

“Aeras will not consider vaccine candidates that will be costly to manufacture on a large scale,” she noted. Dr. Cardenas pointed out that there is a guarantee by partners for sufficient production and technology transfer.

BCG, which was developed 90 years ago, has been effective but has not been improved upon since that time. It is estimated that over two bil-lion people, or a third of the world’s population, is infected with TB.

Currently, Kenya holds the unenviable 13th position out of 22 countries with a high TB burden globally, with the disease taking its greatest toll among the most productive age group of between 15 and 44 years.

TB is a common and in many cases lethal infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tubercu-losis, which most commonly affects the lungs. n

New Director Appointed to

Lead TDR

Professor John Reeder, an inter-national health researcher, will in February assume the directorship of the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), based in Geneva, Switzerland at the World Health Organization. Currently, he is the co-Director of the Centre for Population Health at the Burnet Institute in Melbourne and head of its international health research group.

$31 Million for Point-of-Care Diagnostics in the Developing World

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Grand Challenges Canada today

announced over USD $31 million in new grants through the Grand Challenges in Global Health pro-gram to fund the development of innovative technologies that could allow health workers to rapidly diagnose diseases at the point-of-care in remote and impoverished settings.

“New and improved diagnostics to use at the point-of-care can help health workers around the world save countless lives,” said Chris Wilson, Director of Global Health Discovery at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “Our hope is that these bold ideas lead to af-fordable, easy-to-use tools that can rapidly diagnose diseases, trigger timelier treatment and thereby reduce death, disability and transmission of infections in resource-poor communities.”

Diagnostic tests that are robust, inexpensive, and simple to use in point-of-care settings have the ability to greatly improve the quality and efficacy of healthcare available to people living in devel-oping countries, where the burden of disease is highest.

Knowledge Sharing Platform to Enhance Health Research

The Need for New TB Vaccines VACCINE DEVELOPMENT

RESEARCH INNOVATION

NEW APPOINTMENT

Prof. Gilbert Kokwaro, Director, Consortium for National Health

Research (CNHR)

Participants at the Forum for creating a Knowledge Sharing Platform (KSP) held at Panafric Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya.

12 October / December 2011

By Alice Ndong

For budget, ethical, health, or other reasons, more and more people are “going veg-gie”, switching to vegetarian

diets. You can obtain all necessary nutrients without eating meat or other animal products. This takes planning, however, particularly if you cut out all animal products. Vegetarians can be in danger of missing out important nutrients like Vitamin B12, a purely animal vitamin. Deficiency can lead to weakness, fatigue and general malaise, an indication that you are deficient in this vitamin and it can lead to you taking B12 injection every month for the rest of your life.

Is vegetarian diet having health benefits?Vegetarian diets tend to be low in fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol. Cashing in on the health benefits requires plan-ning; simply replacing meat with large amounts of dairy products or other substitutes may mean you are actually eating more fat. A well-balanced veg-etarian diet is high in carbohydrates. These includes bread, pasta, legumes, and vegetables; carbohydrates should always make up the largest part of

any diet.Studies have shown that veg-

etarians tend to have lower risks of coronary artery disease, colon cancer, hypertension, diabetes, and lung can-cer. Preliminary research suggests a decreased risk of breast cancer. Some of these beneficial effects may also occur because vegetarians are more likely to exercise regularly and abstain from or minimize use of alcohol, drugs, and tobacco.

But many vegetarians who use a lot of fat in cooking their meals still

have a high risk of all the conditions mentioned above. They can still add excess weight and have health risks associated with being overweight.

NutrientsBecause the vegetable diet may not give you sufficient nutrients, vegetar-ians need to be particularly careful in planning where/how to get the other nutrients they are likely to be deficient in. These include:

Vitamin B-12Adults require only minimal amounts of this vitamin. However, it is found almost exclusively in animal sources. Vegetarians who eat eggs or dairy products will consume enough, but vegans need to find another source. Fortified soy milk, cereals, and other foods contain this vitamin.

Other VitaminsVitamin D is found only in animal products, but is also synthesized by the body during exposure to the sun. It is also found in enriched soya milk and fish oils. Riboflavin, another important vitamin vegetarians may be lacking, is found in eggs, dairy products, broccoli and almonds.

Minerals: IronVegetarians must ensure they get enough iron, since iron from plant sources is not as easily absorbed as that found in animal products.

Calciumensuring sufficient calcium intake may be a particular concern for ve-gans (who do not eat dairy products). However, studies have shown that vegetarians may require less calcium than others, since they absorb and retain more calcium from foods than meat-eaters do (animal proteins can inhibit the absorption of calcium).

ZincAs with iron, zinc from plant sources is harder for the body to absorb than from animal sources. Good sources of this mineral include lentils, peas, and wheat germ.

ProteinVegetarians, who tend to eat less protein than meat eaters, probably get enough. However, it is necessary for vegetarians to ensure they get “complete” proteins. Protein from plant sources, unlike that from meats, contains only some of the amino acids required by the body. It is essential to

obtain a complete set of these amino acids so the body can use them to “build up” human proteins such as haemoglo-bin and insulin. It is necessary for veg-etarians to combine “complementary” foods to ensure they get a complete set of amino acids. These foods do not have to be eaten at the same sitting; they need only be consumed within a few hours of each other. Most vegetarians who always eat a variety of foods get complete proteins.

Helpful Hints for Vegetarians:n Take time to plan meals, and

ensure variety and balance in the foods you eat. The largest part of your diet should be fruits and vegetables, and breads and cere-als.

n Balance this with smaller amounts of dairy products or substitutes, and protein foods

n When legumes are dry, they are actually classified as starch rather than protein so try to eat the legumes in their raw state before they are dried.

Alice Ndong is a Nutrition and Dietetic consultant, Xenihealth weight loss management pro-gram.nutrition@xenihealth.com

13October / December 2011

A Stellenbosch evolution-ary geneticist has added his knowledge of Africa’s most ancient mammals to

an international study in which the most comprehensive family tree for mammals yet has been compiled. The study, which shows just how dif-ferent families of mammals relate to one another other, was published in the leading academic journal Science.

Prof Terry Robinson of the De-partment of Botany and Zoology at Stellenbosch University (SU) was part of a team of biologists led by the University of California Riverside (UC Riverside) and Texas A&M. Prof Robinson is an A rated scientist who is acknowledged as the world expert on the most primitive of African mam-mals, the Afrotheria.

Afrotheria contains six orders of mammals of probable African origin that lie at the root of the eutherian or placental mammal evolutionary tree. “The study greatly improves the tree of life for mammals as we know it, and provides the evolutionary backbone to understand the history of the unique changes in the genome that under-pin the impressive morphological diversity observed in living species of mammals,” says Prof Robinson.

He says that although his contri-bution was “small in comparison to the size of the rest of the study, he was privileged to be part of the five-year long project.

It is the first time that such a large and robust DNA matrix representing all mammalian families has been drawn up.The matrix has representa-tives for 99% of mammalian families, and covers not only the earliest history of mammalian diversification but also all the deepest divergences among living mammals.

“Until now, no one has been able to assemble this kind of matrix, based on DNA sequences from many different genes, to examine how the different families of mammals are related to each other,” said Prof Mark Springer, a professor of biology UC Riverside, who co-led the research project with Prof William Murphy, an associate professor of genetics at Texas A&M.

To date divergence times on their phylogeny of mammalian families, Prof Springer and colleagues used a “relaxed molecular clock” that al-lows for the use of multiple rates of evolution instead of using one rate of evolution that governs all branches of the Tree of Life. They also used age es-timates for numerous fossil mammals to calibrate their time tree.

The study is the beginning of a larger plan to use large molecular data sets and sophisticated techniques for dating and estimating rates of diversification to resolve much larger portions of the mammalian tree. It will ultimately include all described species, as well as those that have gone recently extinct or for which only museum material may be available.

“Only then can we really begin to understand the role of the environ-ment and events in earth history in promoting the generation of living biodiversity,” says Prof Murphy.

Prof Springer explained that the research team looked for spikes in the diversification history of mammals and used an algorithm to determine whether the rate of diversification was constant over time or whether there were distinct pulses of rate increases or decreases. The researchers found an increase in the diversification rate 80-82 million years ago, which cor-responds to the time – specifically, the end of the Cretaceous Terrestrial Revolution – when a lot of different orders were splitting from each other.

“This is when flowering plants diversified, which provided opportu-nities for the diversification of small mammals,” Springer said.

Springer and colleagues also de-tected a second spike in the diversifi-cation history of mammals at the end of the Cretaceous – 65.5 million years ago, when dinosaurs, other large ter-restrial vertebrates, and many marine organisms went extinct, opening up a vast ecological space.

“Such ecological voids can get filled quickly,” Springer explained. “We see that in mammals, even though different orders such as pri-mates and rodents split from each other back in the Cretaceous, the

orders did not diversify into their modern representations until after the Cretaceous, 65.5 million years ago. The void seems to have facilitated the radiation – that is, branching in conjunction with change – of differ-ent orders of several mammals into the adaptive zones they occupy today. After the Cretaceous, we see increased diversification, with some lineages be-coming larger and more specialized.”

The researchers stress that their time tree is a work in progress. In the next two years, they expect to construct a supermatrix, also based on gene sequences, and include the majority of living mammalian species.

(Article based on press release, courtesy of the University of Cali-fornia Riverside. For the full release, visit http://newsroom.ucr.edu/2729).

Prof Robinson works in the fields of evolutionary genetics and aspects of chromosome biology including molecular cytogenetics, systematics and phylogenomics. He uses technical advances in contemporary flow cy-tometry and data from the human and other sequenced genomes in his work.

His research group in the SU Department of Botany and Zoology explores question about the early evo-lution and relationship of Afrotheria, ancestral features of their genomic architecture, and the phylogenetic interpretation of chromosomal char-acters.

They are searching for clues about the common ancestor of mammals such the aardvark, elephant, golden mole and elephant shrew, and want to find out just how the genetic material contained within these animals have been reshuffled in the evolutionary past, how species evolved, and how these animals are related to one another. n

Source: Engela Duvenage, Media: Faculty of Science, Stellenbosch University+27 21 808 2684 science@sun.ac.za 082 874 1291. Stellen-bosch University News blog http://blogs.sun.ac.za/news/2009/12/15/evolutionary-geneticist-recognised-as-world-leader/

SA Researcher Helps Compile Comprehensive Family Tree for Mammals

Vegetarians; How Healthy is Your Diet?

A field trial of key staple food crops including maize, cassava, soybean and yam

undertaken by researchers from the Nigerian national programmes and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) has raised the hope of bumper harvest for participating farmers.

The trials which commenced in July 2011 were part of the Africa Development Bank (AfDB)-funded Community-Based Agriculture and Rural Development Project targeting key crops in that region.

Farmer Joseph Ayeni says the maize plants under the trials have better ears and the soybean has more pods.

“We expect more yield from this participatory trial because the crops are performing better,” he said.

Most farmers use local planting materials, a situation that predis-poses them to low yields. They also lack farming expertise and in some cases inputs are scarce and not available.

The AfDB-CBARDP project is mitigating these constraints to production by assisting farmers with improved seeds backed by

training.Farmer Kehinde Adeyemi, said

the training was very helpful because it introduced farmers to new ways of farming and getting better results.

“For instance, we were trained on the use of recommended plant spacing which is often neglected and because we adopted the right spacing, we are seeing better re-sults,” he said.

Scientists introduced high yield-ing and extra-early maturing maize varieties and other varie-ties that are tolerant to pests and diseases such as Striga and stemborer.

The same approach was used for the other crops - soybean, cassava and yam.

The project is being imple-mented by researchers from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, the Institute of Agri-cultural Research (IAR) and the National Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Services (NAERLS) both of the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), the Na-tional Cereal Research Institute (NCRI) and the University of Ilorin. n

IITA Leads Participatory Trials of Key Staples in Nigeria

AGRICULTURERESEARCH

HEALTH

The World Agroforestry Centre is participating in the ambitious Great Green Wall project, which

seeks to establish a dense zone of tree planting, agroforestry and agriculture across Africa from the Sahel in the west to Somalia in the east. The Centre will work with farmers to manage trees that protect and restore degraded soils using indigenous tree species that are also a valuable resource for the people of the

region. These trees can provide food during long dry periods, drought and famine. They may also provide fodder for livestock, a main source of nutrition for many populations that inhabit dry and semi- arid areas.

The Centre’s new Director General, Tony Simons will build on the strong position that the Centre holds in im-pacting and transforming the lives and landscapes of smallholder farmers.

14 October / December 2011

CONSERVATION

Prof. Bartho Okolo, Vice Chancellor, University of Nigeria

By George Achia, Staff Writer, ScienceAfrica

Professor Bartho Okolo, the Vice Chancellor, Univer-sity of Nigeria, says in his role as the chief executive

officer of one of the largest institu-tions of higher education in Africa, he has experienced resistance and conflict when pushing for internal policies that encourage research that is innovative, relevant to the modern era and a driver for local, national and regional economic development and policy dialogue.

He asserts that lack of trust in the significance of higher educa-tion research output in current and emerging needs of the continent may have contributed to the mini-mal engagement of researchers at the developmental stages of poli-cies across Africa.

Prof Okolo was addressing del-egates at the African Technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS) conference in Mombasa, Kenya, where he presented a keynote pa-per Linking University Research to Policy and Practice: Strategies and Implication.

He observed that creating an internal policy structure that en-courages a nexus between the insti-tutions, government and industry key stakeholders is critical.

“Capacity for change is required to restore confidence to university research output especially as it relates to policy processes. Our institutions must encourage sys-tem processes that are built on an adaptive and culturally responsive model,” said Prof. Okolo.

He warned that if the current trend at the universities contin-ues, a new generation of scholars will accept universities’ lack of relevance in the policy discourse as normal and acceptable.

Prof. Okolo called for the need of building collaborations with industry as a critical factor if uni-versity researchers plan to become successful in their quest for re-search focusing on national policy.

He challenged the researchers to compete with the private sector for research and other policy-relat-ed research consultancies available in their countries.

His views were echoed by Osita Ogbu, Professor at university of

Nigeria, Nsukka, and an expert at the African Development Solutions International, saying poor linkages between university research and policy continue to fuel African problems.

Prof. Ogbu quips at the manner in which researchers in Africa have been trained for decades where most of them work in isolation and operate in silos of their disciplines, publishing for the sole reason of promotion and lack of applied re-search at the universities as some of the areas that urgently need to

be changed.He observes that researcher, fail

to understand that policy making is a political process and that serious trade-offs are involved. In Africa this gets more complicated because the sense of nation is weak.

He blames the African govern-ments for not prioritizing research and calls on them to start demand-ing for research.

“Funding for university research is small by every measure and dwindling in some instances as the governments see Africa as consum-

ers of knowledge rather than its producers,” observes Prof. Ogbu.

He further notes, that capacity and skills to broker knowledge and integrate it into policy are lacking in most African governments.

Prof. Atieno Amadi, dean of the school of business at the Kenya’s polytechnic University College, says, there is need for culture change among researchers who are too focused on the money coming from research rather than the result.

She says, the need for linking research, policy and practice for Africa’s development is critical, adding that research results should meet the needs of the ultimate users.

This year’s ATPS conference was held under the theme Strengthen-ing Linkages Between Policy Research and Policy-making For African Development.

ATPS is a multi-disciplinary network of researchers, private sector and policy makers promot-ing the generation, dissemination and use of science, technology and innovation for African develop-ment.

Poor Linkage Between University Research and Policy to Blame for Africa’s Woes

RESEARCH & POLICY

Prof. Osita Ogbu, University of Nigeria, Nsukka

By Amina Kibirige

Piracy in the Indian ocean is now affecting marine research as international organizations fear partnering in expedition

ventures along the Kenyan coast. The situation has been further

worsened by the absence of a national marine research vessel to collect vital data for the South West Indian Ocean Fisheries Project.

Addressing a press briefing at the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KEMFRI), Executive Director Johnson Kazungu, said the piracy chal-lenge had led to countries like Norway declining to lend Kenya their marine research vessel for the project.

“The piracy problem along our coast is therefore posing a bigger challenge on us in collecting vital marine data which would have been essential in not only providing an insight into the pattern of climate change but also boosted our food security,” said Dr Kazungu.

The data would have been useful in providing the country with the exact fish stock available along its shores as well as the development of strategies for the sustainable development of the

coastline food security to the nation. Although the government has al-

ready issued the ministry with Sh107 million to kick off the process of ac-quiring a new vessel for this purpose, he said, it may take another two years and an additional Sh6million before it is acquired considering the fact that an order with specific qualifications has to be quoted to a selected bidder.

“Besides owning 500 km of sealine and 640 kilometres of shoreline, Kenya lacks the ability to better understand its marine geology,” said Dr Kazungu during the briefing to highlight the seventh Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association Scientific Symposium held in Mombasa from October 24 – 29.

Over 500 participants from 20 coun-tries attended the week-long conference whose theme was “Coping with Global Change”.

Dr Kazungu said development of oceanography would enable the region detect extreme weather conditions like the just ended continuous rainfall expe-rienced along the coast or even droughts by studying tidal language which can only be done using the vessel.

Kenya: Piracy Affecting Marine ResearchENVIRONMENT

World Agroforestry Center and the Great Green Wall

Hopes of controlling ma-laria in Africa are being dashed by the emer-

gence of poor quality and fraud-ulent antimalarial medicines and millions of lives could be put at risk unless the continent and the international community.

In a study published in the Malaria Journal, researchers report that medicines on sale in Africa have been deliberately counterfeited by criminals or are of poor quality because of fac-tory errors, thus promoting the emergence of drug resistance in malaria parasites. Malaria killed an estimated 781,000 people in 2009, mainly young children and pregnant women.

The most effective antima-larial drugs are the artemisinin derivatives, which have the ad-vantages over other antimalarial drugs (such as chloroquine and mefloquine) of having few side-effects and the fastest action.

The researchers examined antimalarials, - collected in 11 African countries between 2002 and 2010, - that they be-lieved to be either counterfeit or substandard. No evidence of counterfeit pharmaceutical production in Africa was found in the pollen analysis; however, production facilities for pack-aging materials for counterfeit antimalarials have been seized in Nigeria.

GlaxoSmithKline’s Andrew Witty lauded the work as an “in-credible scientific achievement”

Dr Paul Newton from the Wel lcome Trust-Mahosot

Hospital-Oxford University Tropical Medicine Research Collaboration in Laos, who led the research, says: “Public health organisations must take urgent, coordinated action to prevent the circulation of counterfeit and substandard medicines and improve the quality of the medi-cines that patients receive. We must finally move away from the use of single drugs and towards the exclusive use of combination therapies.

Dr Newton and colleagues argue that multiple parallel strategies are needed to tackle this problem. Among their rec-ommendations is increased investment in national medicine regulatory authorities in Africa to regulate the quality of the medications and to improve access to good, quality, afford-able artemisinin combination therapies.

By George AchiaStaff Writer, ScienceAfrica

To achieve self-rule and democratic governance of Science Technology & Innovation (ST&I) in

Africa for African development, governments must adopt proac-tive policies that fully embed African ST&I in African societies, a forum was told.

Speaking during the African Technology Policy Studies Net-work (ATPS) conference held under the theme Strengthen-ing Linkages Between Policy Research And Policy Making For African Development, in Mombasa, Kenya, Prof. Kevin Urama, the executive director of ATPS, noted that Africa has the skills and competence but lacks the right environment propelled by proactive polices to enable innovation to thrive.

Prof. Urama reiterated the need for collaboration among various actors in ST&I policy-making including policy-makers, private sector actors, civil society, and science experts, saying in-novation does not occur in the mainstream but in the interac-tion of actors in the innovation system.

He regretted that Africa is loaded with many policies that never get implemented, thus producing few results for African development.

“Often the different domains are disconnected in practice. There is no framework for univer-sities to work together with min-

istries and the National Council for Science and Technology. In addition, scientific research is very technical and not always translated to end users and re-searchers themselves are indi-vidualistic and don’t always work together,” said Prof. Urama.

In his keynote speech titled understanding the link between research, policy and practice, Prof. Shaukat Abdulrazak, the chief executive officer and the secretary of Kenya’s National Council for Science and Technol-ogy, noted that policy research should relate to issues with im-plementation in society.

Prof. Abdulrazak observed that the existing gap between research and policy is caused by various factors including lack of collaboration between the key stakeholders in the research, policy and practice process, lack of skills in trans-disciplinary

research to inform effective and efficient policy-making and poor communication among the stake-holders.

He called for an urgent need for effective linkages among the actors. “Societal problems are complex and can only be solved through the interaction of key stakeholders including research-ers, policy makers, private sectors and the civil society leading to the development of a functional, acceptable and implementable policy,” said Prof. Abdulrazak.

He said that to facilitate re-search policy and practice link-age, the research agenda should be aligned to national priorities and generate tangible solutions to societal problems.

“What constitutes the mutual interest that will facilitate re-search policy and practice linkage is when there is a common de-velopment problem, challenges and common agenda, said Prof. Abdulrazak.

Alexander Alusa, a climate change policy advisor in Kenya’s Prime Minister’s Office, observed that there is need for compre-hensive national research policy, adding that for sustainable devel-opment, all sectoral policies must be integrated.

“Research policy must spe-cifically address the linkages between theory and practice and provide for modalities for its implementation,” said Mr. Alusa.

He further observed that for policy research to work, policy makers should understand what researchers are doing. n

15

By Joseph Ngome

A team of Kenya scientists has completed drafting a strategy for the country’s management of invasive

alien species in protected conser-vation areas and it is expected to be launched by mid 2012

The strategy was formulated by a team of scientists from Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS), Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS) and Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) that had been undertaking the study of the alien invasive species for the last four years.

The formulation process started in 2008 with various partners in-cluding the Commonwealth Agri-cultural Bureau (CABI-Africa) and International Union of Conserva-tion and Nature (IUCN).

“The process aims at developing strategies that will curb the risk of invasive alien species that has been recognized as one of the greatest threats to the ecological and eco-nomic well being of the planet,” Dr. Geoffrey Howard of (IUCN) says.

A former Kenya Marine Fisher-ies Institute (KEMFRI) scientist,

Dr Richard Abila, is optimistic that the strategy will contribute positively to the management of the weed that to some has been a blessing while others curse it for their predicament which saw KARI introducing beetles into the lake in the late 1990s to control the weed from spreading.

Abila, in conjunction with KARI scientists based at Kibos station, were instrumental in the fight against water hyacinth weed in Lake Victoria during the first phase of Lake Victoria Environmental Management Project.

According to the Global Inva-sive Species Programme (GISP), invasive alien species are intro-duced species that become estab-lished in a new environment, then reproduce and spread in ways that adversely impact both human and natural environments.

One such alien species is the water hyacinth, a native of the Amazon basin, South America that was brought to Africa to decorate ornamental ponds with its attrac-tive violet flowers.

The weed has since become nui-sance that often causes hazards to fishermen in Lake Victoria, marine

transport and blocks water intake system in most urban centers and around the lake and several other water bodies.

“There is nothing attractive about its impacts on Lake Victoria where it is thought to have arrived around 1990 down the Kagera River from Rwanda and Burundi. Hyacinth can explode into a float-ing carpet, affecting shipping, reducing fish catches, hampering electricity generation and human health,” adds Abila.

According to Dr Howard, Kenya is endowed with diverse ecosys-tems and habitats that are home to unique and diverse flora and fauna.

These diverse ecosystems and habitats are represented within the protected area system that comprises about 12 per cent of the Kenyan territory, including 23 na-tional parks, 28 national reserves, 203 forest reserves, four marine national parks, six marine national reserves and four sanctuaries.

Nairobi National Park and the Maasai Mara National Reserve are among many wildlife areas that have been adversely affected by invasive species in the country.

Other affected national parks in-clude Lake Nakuru, Amboseli and the Tsavos. Saiwa Swamp National Park is one of the success stories of controlled invasive alien species in Kenya, Howard observes.

In new ecosystems, invasive alien species become predators, competitors and parasites thereby threatening ecosystems’ integ-rity and native plant and animal species. IUCN identifies invasive alien species as the second most significant threat to biodiversity, after habitat loss.

In addition, the United Na-tions Environmental Programme (UNEP) made observations of how invasive species can explode in numbers in their new homes, ousting native species, clogging waterways and power station intakes, bringing novel infections including viruses and bacteria, poisoning soils and damaging farmland.

UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner in 2009 said: “Im-proved international cooperation through the UNEP-linked Con-vention on Biological Diversity is needed and stepped up support for the Global Invasive Species

Programme. Preventing alien species entering a new country is going to be demonstrably cheaper than the cure of trying to eradicate a well-entrenched species. Alien invasive species have for too long been given a free ride - raising awareness among policy-makers and the public and accelerating a comprehensive response is long overdue.”

The strategy, therefore, seeks to identify mechanisms that respond to the invasive alien species chal-lenge in Kenyan protected areas. In addition, the strategy will encour-age collaborative ventures on con-trol and management of invasive species with other stakeholders on lands adjacent to protected ar-eas and other biodiversity critical landscapes.

Key to this will be approaches based on the application of appro-priate scientific research focused on levels of biological organization which encompass the essential processes, functions and interac-tions among organisms and their environments. This includes is-sues like maintenance of healthy ecosystems, since they are more resilient to invasive species.

October / December 2011

Strategy to Manage Invasive Species to be Launched in Mid-2012

Lack of Conducive Environment Hinders Innovation in Africa

GlaxoSmithKline’s Andrew Witty lauded the work as an “incredible

scientific achievement”

Counterfeits, substandard malaria drugs haunt Africa

INNOVATION

ECOLOGY

MALARIA

Prof. Kevin Urama,Executive Director of ATPS

By George AchiaStaff Writer, ScienceAfrica

There is need for massive sensitization of citizens at the grassroots level on the importance of weather and cli-mate information for socio-economic

activities. According to Dr. Samwel Marigi, senior

assistant director in charge of weather fore-casting at Kenya Meteorological Department (KMD), a well versed population at the grass-roots on issues of weather and climate will demand the information from their seniors or relevant institutions in time for effective application.

Dr. Marigi said the department has been involved in active dissemination of early warning information that contributes to the

minimization or reduction of impacts associ-ated with climatic risks.

“Each line ministry and department should have active weather and climate information desks responsible for dissemination of the information to the grassroots and receive feed-backs from the grassroots on its applicability,” Dr. Marigi told ScienceAfrica.

He faulted some stakeholders and various procedures of passing climate information from the meteorological department to the target groups including farmers at the local level for taking a long time.

“By the time this information reaches the target group at the grassroot, it is sometimes late for effective utilization,” he regretted.

Dr. Marigi was speaking during the recent media training workshop on climate change and adaptation in Naivasha, Kenya, where he

gave a keynote presentation titled Reality of Climate Change.

The KMD has significantly contributed in reducing risks associated with climate change variability by providing forecasts and predic-tions, early warnings and advisories which have immensely led to the reduction of weather and climate-related risks in the country.

However, as a custodian charged with dissemination of early warning, Dr. Marigi observed that the department is faced with challenges which are mainly concerned with the development of meteorological infra-structure including observational instruments and network, telecommunication and data exchange, data processing, forecasting and dissemination as well as human resource development to enhance improved forecasts, dissemination and applications.

IIED’s 40 Anniverssary

On Monday 24 October 2011, The International Institute for Environment and Development

celebrated four decades of research to identify policies that meet people’s needs while sustaining the environ-ment upon which all good development depends.

In the past 40 years IIED has worked with partners in more than 100 coun-tries and effected change at local, na-tional and global levels.

The IIED was launched in 1971 by renowned economist and policy advisor Barbara Ward. It was among the first organisations to link environment with development and it played key roles in the Stockholm Conference of 1972, the Brundtland Commission of 1987, the 1992 Earth Summit and the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development.

The institute is now helping to shape the global debates on climate change, forests, biodiversity and the green economy – and all of its publications are free to download online.

“The past forty years has seen rec-ognition of environmental constraints move from marginal to mainstream, a great achievement in itself,” IIED’s director, Camilla Toulmin, said.

“But nothing stands still and now there is a host of new barriers to pro-gress being erected, such as the shift in the climate change arena from science to ideology based decision-making. We cannot shy away from our responsibil-ity to achieve tangible improvements to planetary sustainability alongside greater prosperity for poorer people,” she added.

Journalists who attended a hands-on training workshop on “Effective Reporting of Climate Change in Kenya” pose for a picture with the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Environment and Mineral Resourses, Mohamed Ali. It was held at the

Great Rift Valley Lodge in Naivasha. The workshop was conducted by ScienceAfrica and included reporters from various counties working in major and emerging print and electronic media houses.

Avail Climate Information at Grassroots Level

16

By George Achia, Staff Science Writer

There is need for African countries to build resilience and minimize the impacts of climate change by

adopting appropriate technologies to manage environment sustainably, ac-cording to Mr. Ali Mohamed, Kenya’s Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Environment and Mineral Resources.

Mr. Mohamed noted that the cumula-tive impacts of climate change have the potential to reverse much of the progress made towards the attainment of the Mil-lennium Development Goals and Kenya’s Vision 2030. “Climate change is one of the major threats to sustainable develop-ment in Africa. Its effects are being felt across different economic sectors,” said Mr. Mohamed.

He was speaking during the recent national climate change exhibition held under the theme Kenyans’ Innovative Response to Climate Change at Keny-atta International Conference Centre in Nairobi, Kenya.

“The national climate change Expo is an opportunity for citizens to appreciate the available technologies to adapt to or mitigate the impact of climate change. The Expo is aimed at bringing actors in production, distribution and consump-tion of climate change technologies,” added Mr. Mohamed.

He pointed out that the government has been in the forefront to support the domestication of a dynamic modeling tool called Threshhold-21 Model, as one of the planning and policy decision making

platforms in the country.Through the use of this tool, Mr. Mo-

hamed noted that it is anticipated that the government will be able to climate-proof its programmes and policies and estimate the impact of different development pro-grammes under different scenarios in the medium to long-term horizons.

Speaking at the same event, Dr. Chris-topher Gakahu, United Nation Develop-ment Programme’s assistant country director, noted that environmentally sound technologies are needed to miti-gate climate change which is negatively affecting crop production thus impacting on food security in Africa.

Dr. Gakahu said that even though there are useful and powerful technolo-gies available to mitigate the effects of climate change, one major challenge is failure to upscale these technologies. He called on the Treasury to waiver taxa-tion on these technologies to make them cheaply available to the public.Dr. Gakahu asserted that a green carbon-free economy is the way to go. He called upon various establishments including schools, colleges and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to stop using wood for fuel but to adopt new technologies that are available.“It is sad to note that 70 per cent of energy in Kenya comes from biomass, yet there are solutions that can help cut down on wood use,” said Dr. Gakahu. The Expo saw the participation of over 60 organi-zations, all working in various areas of climate change in Kenya and beyond.

October / December 2011

Technology Key to Mitigating Climate Change

FOCUS ON CLIMATE CHANGE (AAP, UNDP, MEMR MEDIA WORKSHOP) ANNIVERSARY

A new wave of defor-estation is sweeping across Africa, deci-mating wildlife and

threatening the resilience of its ecosystems to withstand the effects of climate change—espe-cially in the food security arena.

“Deforestation rates in Af-rica are accelerating. The dis-appearing forests, overgrazed rangelands, and conversion to crop agriculture of grasslands and wetlands that had served as a refuge to drought have all diminished the resilience of eco-systems, says Dr Helen Gichohi, President of the African Wildlife Foundation.

During a recent keynote speech at Forest Day 5 in Dur-ban, South Africa, on the side-lines of COP17, Dr Gichohi urged the REDD+ funding to move more quickly to save the continent’s forests. REDD+ stands for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation

Gichohi’s message was ech-oed by fellow keynote speaker, Bob Scholes of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Re-

search (CSIR) in South Africa, who said, “The next major wave of deforestation is already here and it is happening in Africa.

“If we can do something to influence deforestation we can have a greater effect on every-thing than has happened so far under the Kyoto Protocol. This challenge is worth the effort,” he said.

Scholes described the typical pattern for deforestation in Af-rica: loggers come into a forest,

they chop the large trees and take out the valuable timber, then charcoal manufacturers remove a large proportion of the remaining trees, and then low-input, low-output agriculture arrives, which after a few cycles leaves the land degraded and of little value to anyone.

“It is urgent to safeguard Africa’s forests, not only because they slow climate change but also because they act as a final barrier to creeping desertifica-tion, underpin sustainable agri-cultural production, and support the livelihoods of tens of millions of rural poor,” said Frances Seymour, the Director General of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).

In her opening address, Tina Joemat-Pettersson, South Af-rica’s Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, said, “Climate change threatens to undermine many of the devel-opment objectives of countries in Africa and in the rest of the developing world, in particular in the areas of water, energy, health, agriculture and forestry.”

Experts: New Wave of Deforestation Threatens Africa’s Climate Resilience

CONSERVATION

Dr Helen Gichohi, President of the African

Wildlife Foundation

By Sandra Chao (Environment Correspodent)

The most visible of these impacts has been the erosion of land along the coastline. Many resi-dents and hoteliers in low lying

areas of the north coast and some in the south have experienced loss of land due to erosion.

The coastline is fast succumbing to the emerging impact of climate change. An aerial view of the Indian Ocean and sandy beaches gives the false impression that all is well. But a closer look shows increasing degradation.

The continued emission of green-house gases like carbon dioxide has resulted in global warming as the sun’s rays reflecting from the earth’s surface are blocked by the blanket of gases.The increased temperature around the earth’s surface has led to the melting of ice caps on mountains like Kilimanjaro

and Kenya, and thermal expansion of water masses causing the rise in sea level.

Kenya has two tidal gauges, one at the Fisheries Jetty in Mkowe, Lamu County, and another at the Liwatoni Jetty in Kilindini Harbour, Mombasa County.These are part of the Global Sea Level Observing System. The gauges that are managed by the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI) provide high quality standardized data for monitoring the sea levels.

According to KEMFRI senior scien-tist Dr. Charles Magori, the gauges have each been fitted with different monitor-ing systems for redundancy checks and to provide more credible data. The set of data recorded by the two tide gauges from 1986-2006 reveals that the sea level along the coastline has had a gradual increase of 1.9 mm.

“Despite the gaps from unprec-edented breakdown of the tide gauges, there is a continuous set of data that agrees with the global increase trend of 2mm,” he said. Despite the increase be-ing considered negligible the impacts on a global scale are far-reaching, affecting both terrestrial and marine biodiversity.

“It may look like a very small increase but oceans account for two thirds of the earth’s surface and that is an enormous volume of water which is moving inland,” he told ScienceAfrica.

“Unlike Mombasa, the northern banks of Malindi and Lamu are low ly-ing areas and are more vulnerable to the effects of sea level rising,” he explained

Ngomeni in Malindi is one such area with a serious erosion problem. Buildings and trees have literally been swept away as the sea has moved inland. Accretion has also taken place though

on a much smaller scale with a build up of sand in areas that were once covered by the sea.

With each tidal excursion there is a salt water intrusion into the ground water systems. Those with boreholes end up having more saline water than usual and have to seek other sources of water for use.

Marine biodiversity has not been spared either; eggs of turtles that are laid on the sandy beaches are washed away and eaten by predators. Deep sea creatures get stuck along the coastline after being washed ashore during tidal excursions.

The warm temperatures deny the sea the much needed oxygen leading to bleaching of coral reefs and reducing their ability to form limestone skeletons. Dr. Magori lamented that the impacts of sea level rising are worse during spring-tide where waves are higher than normal.

“The tidal variation in spring tide is close to four metres plus the general rises in sea level then the excursions are likely to be longer with more intrusions inland,” he added.

An Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) prediction puts the sea level increase in the worst case scenario at 50 cm by 2050 and 100 cm at the end of the century.

This directly means that more water will be displaced inland, putting low ly-ing islands across the world at a major risk of disappearance.

This would mean the vanishing of Lamu, Pate, Watamu, Wasini and Kiunga islands which are major tour-ist attractions. The establishment and enforcement of a comprehensive coastal zone management policy remains the only solution for loss of land along the coastline.

Many of the hotels in north and

south coast built close to the ocean have already began constructing sea walls to prevent further loss of land through ero-sion. But this, according to Dr. Magori, is not a permanent reprieve as some of the walls have been built without the consultation of coastal engineers.

“Those sea walls will only help for a time; we need to set up a legal framework that would enforce adherence to set back lines that will prevent people from build-ing too close to the ocean,” he reiterated.

Varying set back lines provide a safe distance for construction and cultiva-tion from the ocean’s high water mark depending on the land’s topography and vulnerability. South Africa has put up one such set back line of 200 metres in Durban where construction of buildings close to the sea is not allowed.

Unlike Kenya, South Africa has a policy that ensures buildings are at least 200 metres from the ocean shores.

17

By Joseph Ngome

For some time, the Mara River Ba-sin has been subjected to a lot of environmental degradation due to

destruction of the ecosystem and human/wildlife conflict.

Despite several players in the Mara River Basin, conservation in the area that links two East African States, Kenya and Tanzania, has been plagued by a lot of environmental challenges that caused hue and cry from the communities liv-ing along the basin from both sides of the border. It has resulted in conflicts between the communities living upper stream and those down stream across the borders.

A community leader, Mercilius Ole Ontutu, observed: “Competition for mea-gre resources, especially water, leads to communal conflicts that result into peo-ple losing their lives and loss of livestock”

The Communities living in Narok, Transmara and Bomet in Kenya and those from Serengeti, Musoma, and Tarime dis-tricts in Tanzania always trade blames as to who is the cause of water and pasture shortages in the basin.

Environmentalists working with vari-ous Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) from both sides of the border have been trying to rehabilitate some of the resources. So far, very little success has been achieved due to uncoordinated efforts.

It was against this background that the specialized institutions of the East African Community, Lake Victoria Basin Commission (LVBC) charged with coor-dination and facilitation of development activities in the lake basin, came up with an initiative to restore order. The ini-tiative was readily supported by USAID (East Africa) to the tune of USD 3 million. LVBC is to take the lead to coordinate the actors and players working in Mara

River Basin.According to the Project Coordinator,

Mr. Quereshi Noordin, USAID would disburse USD 3 million (Ksh 270 mil-lion) in three tranches over three years to harmonize Mara River Basin Trans boundary activities and initiatives by different players in the basin. It aims to promote harmonized Mara River Basin management practices for sustainability, he adds.

He says the project will focus on three main habitats that include Mau forest and riverine forests; Masaai Mara and Serengeti Ecosystem and Aquatic resources.

Noordin said: “Our strategy to achieve, this task is to train the local authorities officers including some civic leaders on integration in national resources. We have realized that some officers have scanty knowledge and the initiative is now targeting town clerks, chairmen and mayors of eight councils from both sides”

The councils’ representatives, who attended a training programme in Kisii, were from Serengeti, Rorya, Musoma and Tarime in Tanzania while Trans-Mara, Bomet County Council, Bomet Municipal Council and Narok County Council were from Kenya.

Councilor Richard Leitich, head of the Kenyan delegation, says that water and other natural resources in the basin should not create conflicts among the stakeholders from both sides of the bor-der. He says Mara River originates from Mau Complex escarpment in Kenya and empties its water in Musoma in Tanza-nia so the communities from both sides should build understanding to avoid conflicts.

Leitich, who is also the Vice Chairman of Bomet County Council, says issues of biodiversity are important to the com-

munity and how to safeguard and restore water in the basin is paramount.

He says:” The communities from both sides must be ready to protect the ecosys-tem and take care of pollution challenges to ensure that water is sustainable to meet the demands of both man and wildlife”

“There must be a plan to rehabilitate the Mau Towers and the riverine forest which has been destroyed by the com-munities due to land pressures”, he adds.

Mr. John Chacha Kingoina of Serengeti council in Tanzania says the water sources would dry up if not pro-tected and that would obviously make life unbearable to both human beings and wildlife. He says the people are ready to protect the natural resources and the ini-tiatives being made by the project would save the community from destruction.

“The major challenge is how to utilize natural resources equitably without deny-ing other stakeholders their share. People will say many things but they will never act and that is the cause of competition”, he said.

Kingoina points out: “It was the wish of the members of the local councils to link with all players in relevant govern-ment ministries from both partner states to come up with strategy of integration of natural resources management and conservation of Mara River Basin”..

Leitich concedes that the allocation for environment conservation from Gov-ernment ministries and local authorities has been meagre and this had hindered the conservation work. Besides this, law enforcement on the natural resources has been weak in most local authorities.

He cited a case where the Bomet County council allocated Ksh 125 million for conservation purposes from LATF which is like a drop in the ocean. He, however, says the council received an-other funding of Ksh 600,000 for natural

resources through partnering with World Wildlife Fund (WWF) but that was still not sufficient.

Leitich suggests that all the players and actors in the basin should develop a joint agreement to put the resources into one basket for the impact to be felt from both sides of the border.

However, Noordin says that imple-mentation arrangement in place includes various working committees and water resource users’ forums. These groups have contributed positively in the reha-bilitation efforts of the natural resources management within the past two years and already indicators for recovery have started showing up.

So far, Noordin says five studies have been undertaken that include Mara River Natural Resources management institutional capacity needs assessment, strengthening community-based natural resources management in Serengeti-Maasai Mara Ecosystem; Mara River Ba-sin policy, Legal institutional cooperative framework; Total economic valuation of the Masaai Mau, Transmara and Eastern Mau forest blocks and LVBC institutional capacity needs assessment.

LVBC has availed a support fund for three Universities in the two partner states for research as part of the im-plementation arrangements to achieve sustainable results. The universities are Ardhi (Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania), Maseno (Kenya) and Egerton (Kenya).

Noordin says that 40 community members have been trained on integrated natural resources management while 35 officers have also benefited from the same training among other beneficiaries of the funding from USAID.

(Coordinator, Health & Environ-ment Media Network)

Rising Sea Level Threatens Kenyan CoastData recorded over two decades from 1986-2006, reveal that the sea level along Kenya’s 600 km coastline has gradually increased by 1.9 mm which may seem small but the potential impact could be devastating especially to the mushrooming hotel and tourism industry.

Mara River Basin: New Initiatives Emerging

Dennis Garrity, former Director General of the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), has been appointed as a new ambassador for UN drylands. Receiving the appointment, Garrity said that he saw his role as a duty to inform the wider community about the great successes in regenerating drylands around the world.

Despite the situation in drylands areas seeming hopeless, as many perceived the situation with the recent drought and famine in the Horn of Africa, practical methods of farming that support livestock and crops can provide a long-lasting solution. “The world’s drylands are under stress but they are inhabited by resourceful people,” said Garrity.

“Most desperately poor people can dramatically increase their food production through methods like Ev-ergreen Agriculture, agroforestry and farmer-managed natural regenera-tion, as well as through methods that promote landcare in the rehabilitation of drylands.”

Dennis Garrity will return to the Centre on sabbatical to continue the promotion of Evergreen Agriculture in Africa and South Asia.

Dennis Garrity and his role as a UN Drylands Ambassador

October / December 2011

CLIMATE CHANGE

ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION APPOINTMENT

TThe consensus of the Consor-tium’s learning event was that we need greater investment in agri-

cultural development, greater support for agricultural research, and greater cooperation between research, govern-ment, private sector and development actors. These can spread the adoption of innovations by farmers and herders, helping millions of food producers in the Horn of Africa, who are now facing the severest drought in this region in the last six decades.

‘The Consortium Group of Interna-tional Agricultural Research Centers (CGIAR) and partner experts recently gathered and called for a ‘matching of investments in infrastructure develop-ment with investments in knowledge’ to get more research into use.

‘We are all here at today’s Africa Union meeting because of our commit-ment to finding sustainable livestock-based solutions for this region’s food production problems.

‘I’d like to take a minute to set some context for this consultation.

‘Rangelands cover about one-half of the landmass in Africa. In Kenya, about 80 per cent of the landmass comprises arid and semi-arid lands. These dry-

lands can be subdivided into the wetter drylands and the drier drylands. Most of the Horn now afflicted by drought is made up of the drier drylands. I caution us to keep in mind that food produc-tion options appropriate for the wetter drylands often are inappropriate for the drier drylands.

‘Droughts have frequented the Horn of Africa for centuries. But in recent decades they have become more frequent and the rainfall has become more variable from year to year. Both of these changes are increasing the vulnerability of the communities that live in these lands.

‘As you know, livestock are a central source of livelihoods in this region and the major way that pastoralists gener-ate income and build their ‘asset base’. A remarkable 70 per cent of all the beef produced in Kenya comes from the arid and semi-arid regions of the country.

‘The Horn of Africa experiences bi-modal rainfall, which occurs in only a few regions on earth. That means that the little rain that does fall in these drylands does so in two rather than one growing season, which of course reduces the low levels of annual rain-

18 October / December 2011

ILRI: R & D COOPERATION ILRI: KEY NOTE SPEECH

Jimmy Smith, director general of the International Livestock Research Institute, made the fol-lowing remarks on the occasion of the first payouts ever made to livestock herders in Africa in a region that has been afflicted by the drought that has reduced herds in the drylands of the Horn by a third.

ILRI’s Index-Based Livestock Insurance (IBLI) project provides 650 livestock herders in Kenya’s remote Marsabit District with the very first payments of

livestock insurance claims every made on this continent.

‘That makes this an important as well as historic moment.

‘The success of any insurance scheme depends on its clients being confident that payments will be made if and when an insured event occurs. I hear that many have been reluctant to purchase the livestock insurance policies being offered to Marsabit’s livestock keepers in August and September of this year [2011] because the herders first wanted to be assured that this insurance product works and—in this time of great drought and live-stock losses here and elsewhere in the Horn of Africa—if it will payout. Now that the ap-propriate payments are being made and in a timely manner, we hope we have earned the trust of people here, trust that will generate more widespread awareness and interest in this livestock insurance product.

‘We are celebrating today not only the first payouts but also that the livestock index that predicts mortality in this region seems to be working well; several of our on-the-ground

partners in Marsabit are in agreement with the figures. Our relatively inexpensive way of estimating livestock deaths in a time of drought and forage loss appears to be reliable and could now open the door to making livestock insur-ance widely available in Marsabit and similar areas in Kenya’s northern drylands, which are home to many of its pastoral peoples.

‘For all its initial success, this insurance project remains a work in progress. We’re aware of the challenges of raising awareness of the program in the more distant areas of Marsabit and making sales across the entire district. And even as we trust that those who purchased this livestock insurance will receive their payments in the shortest time possible, we recognize that many clients will have to be paid manually, a process that involves costly driving to areas as far as Loiyangalani and

Illeret, where some pastoralists also bought contracts. That said, over the last three in-surance sales periods since January 2010, Equity Bank’s Point of Sale systems and UAP’s telephone canners have made the process more efficient. Over the next several seasons, on-going efforts will continue to improve the technology platforms delivering IBLI services, making them increasingly more cost-effective and accessible.

‘The most important sign of success is the response of the client. So even as payments are being made, we at ILRI want to know what impact the payments are having and how valu-able the insurance product is. You will see the ILRI team in this area conducting research to understand how IBLI is benefiting the com-munity and those households that bought livestock insurance. We worked with members

of the community to design and develop this product, and we are keen to receive your sug-gestions about ways to improve it.

‘‘A project such as this is necessarily a product of collaboration. ILRI and our com-mercial partners Equity Bank and UAP In-surance—those who actually market and sell the product—are quite visible, but there are several others that must be recognized. Cornell University and the Index Insurance Innova-tion Initiative (I4) based out of the University of California at Davis have been instrumental in the development of the IBLI product and supporting the research agenda behind it. Closer to the ground, members of the Marsabit District Steering Group have offered invaluable support and advice to the project team, as has Food for the Hungry International. The project has also received tremendous support from the Ministry of the Development of Northern Kenya and the Ministry of Livestock and the Provincial Administration, from the District Commissioner to chiefs and counsellors across Marsabit. Finally there are the hundreds of young men and women across all divisions of Marsabit who have worked tirelessly con-ducting surveys and product education and extension.

‘We’re now working to see if IBLI can be sustained by commercial partners such as Equity Bank, UAP and others that may be interested. Currently, however, the research, design and implementation of the IBLI project has been funded by numerous donors who believe in its potential. For this we must thank the European Union, the Global Index Insur-ance Facility, the Microinsurance Facility, the World Bank and the United States Agency for International Development. The British Gov-ernment, through UKAID, has been one of the largest supporters of the project and, together with the European Union, will be funding the second phase of scaling up.’

The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences

(CAAS) recently signed an agreement to extend their shared operations in livestock and forage genetics research. Hosted in Bei-jing, the Chinese capital, the initiative will strengthen the already existing relationship between ILRI and CAAS that has seen the two research centres share research and facilities through the CAAS-ILRI Joint Laboratory on Livestock and Forage Genetic Resources for the past 7 years.

This new agreement will expand opera-tions of the joint laboratory to widen research into next generation genome sequencing that will help scientists better understand

livestock and forage genetic diversity in China and other countries and conserve these unique livestock genetic resources and forage species. The new agreement will also improve training and capacity building of partners on the application of new technological discov-eries in livestock and forage research.

Speaking at the signing ceremony held at ILRI’s headquarters in Nairobi, Jimmy Smith, the director general of ILRI, thanked CAAS and praised the on-going work be-tween the two partners saying ‘the partner-ship in China had created new opportunities for enhancing livestock research in Asia and contributed to a better understanding on how livestock can help the poor in Asia, particularly in China.’

ILRI’s Livestock and Forage Research Extends to China

A new partnership agreement to widen research on livestock and forage diversity was signed, on 14 October 2011, between the International Livestock Research Institute and

the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (photo credit: ILRI/Onesmus Mbiu).

ILRI Director General Launches First Livestock Insurance Payments in Africa

ILRI director general Jimmy Smith speaks to residents of Marsabit, in northern Kenya, where a livestock insurance scheme has made its first payouts to small livestock keepers

following a prolonged drought in the Horn of Africa (photo credit: Neil Palmer/CIAT).

Need for Sustainable Livestock SystemsEdited Version of Speech by Bruce Scott, who was then acting director

general of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), during the opening of ‘an expert consultation’ on ‘Interventions for Sustainable

Livestock Systems in the Horn of Africa’, held at ILRI’s campus in Nairobi, Kenya. It was convened by the Africa Union-Interafrican Bureau for

Animal Resources (AU-IBAR).

Cont’d on page 19

ILRI NEWS

fall available for either of the two annual growing seasons. While this is bad news for cropping, it serves animal production particularly well, with pastures renewed twice a year. Furthermore, the unpredict-ability of rainfall here is often so great as to allow only one crop every third, fourth or fifth season, which makes crop production unviable without irrigation of some sort.

‘Africa’s dry rangelands are, in fact, pro-ductive, and potentially very productive. They are good filtres of water, for example, with some parts of the continent’s drylands, such as in West Africa, having sizable aq-uifers below their surface (these aquifers, unfortunately, are much smaller in the Horn). The drylands are home to much of the continent’s wildlife diversity. The dry-lands sequester carbon, and carbon credits might one day provide the local populations with new income streams. And livestock enterprises are not only a major source of income for the peoples of the Horn, they also provide up to 50 per cent of the agricultural gross domestic product of these countries.

‘In spite of all this, the Horn’s drylands have been badly neglected. Governments have neither significantly invested in nor developed these drylands, whose people (pastoral livestock herders) have been mar-ginalized for decades. Donor investments in this region have fallen drastically in the recent past and even ILRI has reduced its attention to these drylands since the late 1990s.

‘Meanwhile, over the last 30 years, more and more people and more and more animals have inhabited these fragile ecosystems, fragmenting the rangelands and reducing the mobility of the herders and their stock in seasonal search of new pasture. Pastoral mobility has also been restricted by governance issues, insecurity, and conflicts over natural resources. And as we well know, Somalia has been a non-state since 1990 and many of the region’s com-

mercial livestock markets are functioning badly or not at all.

‘It is clear to us that the traditional way of managing livestock will need to change to adapt to changes in this region and that we’ll need to identify ways to help the Horn’s pastoralists diversify their incomes and livelihoods.

‘ILRI is investigating promising options for this region’s livestock herders, including better land-use policies, well-functioning livestock markets, pastoral livestock insur-ance and schemes to pay pastoral herders for their environmental services, such as sequestering carbon, filtering water and conserving wildlife.

‘It’s essential that this expert consulta-tion identifies opportunities to ensure a sustainable future for this sub-region, which is changing rapidly under both external and internal pressures. This meeting should provide a framework for collecting some of our best professional advice on new op-portunities for viable livestock enterprises for the future.’ (SOURCE; ILRI) n

19October / December 2011

This is an intensive, 5-day course, during which participants will learn about:Writing technical communication, inc. reports, theses, scientific papers, reviews; scientific papers for publication in international peer-reviewed journals, prepar-ing and giving different forms of oral communication for different audiences, preparing posters, writing proposals, communicating in science (conferences, preparing applications, reviewing the work of others), analysing and presenting technical data using graphical methods, designing research projects, managing projects for scientific and international organisations, matters of style in technical communication, communicating to non-experts.

The course will run from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily and is suitable for researchers and MSc/PhD students, who intend to publish in peer-reviewed journals, write proposals or participate at conferences. The course contains little on style and language use – the focus is on technical aspects of communication.The registration fee for University of Nairobi students and employees is KES 2,000. Course material will also be given out for free to participants, but no other assistance (with accommodation, travel or meals) will be pro-vided. A small number of places are available for students from other institutions, at a cost of Kshs 46,000/USD 575. Please contact Ms. Joy Owango about payment details.

For a placement of the course, please apply in writing to:Ms. Joy Owango

TCC Office, Gecaga Institute Bldg., Tel: + 254 (020) 8086820

Cell: + 254 733 792316, +254 702 926288E-mail: joy.owango@tcc-africa.org,info@tcc-africa.org

School of Biological Sciences, Chiromo CampusBy 1 March 2012 the latest.

Successful applicants will be notified by 5 March 2012.

Course Announcement

Scientific Communication & PublishingTo be held at

University of Nairobi, Chiromo Campus12-16 March 2012

Computer scientists at Carnegie Mel-lon University are working with the Kenya Information and Communi-cation Technology (ICT) Board to

create a credentialing examination that will help employers identify software developers with the skills necessary to step into jobs immediately.

Just as airline pilots, heart surgeons and lifeguards earn their professional credentials by demonstrating on-the-job skills, the ex-amination for the new software developer cer-tification will be what’s known as an authentic exam, in that it will require people taking it to perform the kind of tasks encountered in an actual work environment. Exam takers will add software features, correct errors or otherwise make modifications on a model software system.

The exam will initially be implemented in Kenya, but is intended to become an in-ternational benchmark for use by employers worldwide.

“As reliable software becomes ever more crucial to commerce and industry, compa-nies are demanding better ways to identify potential employees with the skills necessary for building and maintaining software,” said Mark S. Kamlet, Carnegie Mellon executive vice president and provost. “With the sup-port of Kenya, Carnegie Mellon is develop-ing an innovative solution to this worldwide problem.”

Kenya has invested heavily in ICT infra-

structure and workforce preparation. The software developer certification would make it easy and cost effective for companies in Kenya’s expanding ICT and financial services sector to identify qualified job applicants. It would also signal to the global software sector that Kenya is a source of well-trained workers.

“Kenya is emerging as the epicenter for ICT innovations and a software development hub,” said Bitange Ndemo, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Communication, and a guiding force behind

the expansion of ICT in Kenya. “We want to lead from the front and be the technology partner of choice on the African continent.”

Software accounts for a growing percent-age of spending in all sectors of the economy. Africa has long been left behind by the IT revolution, but is now taking strides to make up for lost ground. The opportunities for Kenya, as well as the continent as a whole, are immense.

Kenya is sponsoring development of the certification through the Kenya Transparency and Communications Infrastructure Project (KTCIP), which is funded by the World Bank and headed by Victor Kyalo.

The Kenya ICT Board has dubbed this project CHIPUKA, a Swahili word meaning “to emerge or to spring forth.” It is one of a portfolio of projects the government has cre-ated to support development of outsourcing services for information technology-based business functions.

“Software engineering holds great prom-ise for our economy, hence our choice to invest in certifying our youth so they can take advantage of the emerging opportunities,” said Paul Kukubo, CEO of the Kenya ICT Board. “Kenya’s ambition in this project is to be the leading software development center in Africa and a significant global software player by engaging our latent intellectual capital.”

A number of certification programs for software engineers already exist but many of those programs only test for general knowl-

edge of software, rather than actually requir-ing the exam taker to write software. Others certify competence for only certain software environments or only a certain vendor’s tool set. The Software Developer Certification being created for CHIPUKA would be the first authentic examination that is attuned to the needs of the industry in general and is vendor-neutral in its selection of program-ming language and professional tools.

“Our challenge is to identify the general skills that software developers must have and then develop model software systems that will enable us to evaluate those skills during an exam,” said Randal E. Bryant, dean of the School of Computer Science (SCS) and one of the researchers developing the certification. “We also must make certain that the exam remains up to date and affordable.”

Philip Miller, a project scientist at SCS who is leading the project, said a pilot exam will be ready by March 2013, and the certification should be fully operational in Kenya by Octo-ber 2013. It remains to be determined when the exam will be made available worldwide, he added.

In addition to Bryant and Miller, the CMU researchers include Roger Dannenberg, asso-ciate research professor of computer science, and Robert Seacord, secure coding team lead at Carnegie Mellon’s well-known Software Engineering Institute. Andrew Lewela Mwan-yota has primary responsibility for the project at the Kenya ICT Board. n

Certification: US University Partners with Kenya ICT BoardINFORMATION COMMUNICATION & TECHNOLOGY (ICT)

Need for Sustainable Livestock Systems Continued

ILRI’s Bruce Scott delivers a speech at an expert consultation on livestock systems

in the Horn of Africa (photo credit: ILRI/Susan MacMillan).

Bitange Ndemo, Permanent Secretary Ministry of Information and

Communication

From page 18

Developers Will Need To Demonstrate On-the-Job Software Skills

Published at Fatuma Flats, Suite No 6, Ground Floor by ScienceAfrica P.O. Box 57458-00200, Nairobi-Kenya, Tel: 020-2053532 / 2473370

The Leading Publication on Science, Technology,

Innovation and Development

ScienceAfricaVol. 18 Oct/Dec 2011

20 October / December 2011

By Amina Kibirige

Space science is the answer to key challenges limiting sustainable development in African nations, according to

experts who attended a conference of African Leadership on Space Science and Technology.

However, for this to be a reality, African governments need to prioritize science and technology, increase funding on research as well as create a favourable environment for the implementation and embrace by respective citizens, the Minister for Higher Educations Science and Technology, Prof. Margaret Kamar, said.

While officially opening the conference at Sorova Whitesands Beach Hotel in Mombasa, the minister said in order for Kenya to benefit from space technology, it needs to review, consolidate and refine its policies and strategies on space science.

“The outer space is an opportunity for human development. To seize this opportunity we need to review, consolidate and refine our policies and strategies on space science. Space has no boundaries or borders similar to those that define our countries, hence a collaborative approach to use space is therefore ideal,” said the Minister however adding that for a decision to be made, teamwork and partnerships were necessary due to the huge resource requirements and nature of opportunities.

According to Prof Kamar, limited production structures, low human capital, weak governance, low state fragility and a weak base of female participation are just some of the challenges that space science and technology can address for the reali-zation of Millennium Development Goals. .

She further called on all African countries to renew their commit-

ments to the United Nations Com-mittee on Peaceful uses of outer space in an effort to promote inter-national cooperation in the peace-ful uses of outer space for human development.

The sentiments were shared by the Ministry’s PS Professor Crispus Kiamba, who said the information

obtained from space science can be used to trace environmental changes and therefore enable governments to act from an informed point of view to counter food insecurity and other environmental ills like deforestation.

This, he said, can be done by keeping track on climate changes and providing cost-effective solutions or

essential information for planning and implementing programmes and projects.

“This way we can enhance water resource management, provide en-vironmental protection, ensure food security, and promote sustainable development, “ said Professor Kiam-ba. Other areas of application include enhancement of health and medical services and the management of ad-verse impacts from extreme weather and natural disasters, he said.

They were speaking during the fourth African Leadership Confer-ence on Space Science and Technol-ogy for Sustainable Development held at Sarova Whitesands Beach Resort in Mombasa.

Kenya has a space station in Malindi that started out as a joint project of two public universities before maturing to a national pro-gramme co-owned by the Ministries of Defence and Higher Education, Science and Technology.

Space Science Contributes to Sustainable Development SPACE SCIENCE

Prof. Margaret Kamar, Minister for Higher Educations Science

and Technology

Prof. Crispus Kiamba, Permanent Secretary Ministry for Higher

Educations Science and Technology

Vol. 18 October 20th - December 20th, 2011 Kshs. 100 Tshs. 2000 Ushs. 3000AFRICA’S LEADING PUBLICATION ON SCIENCE INNOVATION AND DEVELOPMENT

FOCUS ON CANCER IN

AFRICA

Can Nanotechnology BenefitAfrica’s Development?

Kenyan Hospitals Introducing Palliative Care

SCIENCE & DEVELOPMENTRESEARCH

FOCUS ON CANCER

NEXT ISSUE: Why Kenya’s Medical

Schools Must Change - Part One

FOCUS ON BIOTECHNOLOGY

Pages 8 - 11

By Prof. Wiebe E. Bijker

Governments and industries around the world are investing large sums of money into what has been termed the greatest technological breakthrough since ICT and biotechnology. But can nanotechnology benefit Africa’s development too?

On December 12 and 13, 2011, some twenty Kenyan nano-technology researchers and policy makers gathered in

Nairobi to discuss this question. The workshop was titled “Nanotechnolo-gies for Kenya’s development: ques-tions of knowledge brokerage and risk

governance.”It was jointly organized by the African Technology Policy Stud-ies Network (ATPS) and Maastricht University, the Netherlands.

Nanoscience and nanotechnology is the understanding and control of matter at the nano-scale. This is incredibly small: the width of a human hair is between 60,000 and 80,000 nanometers, and a human fingernail grows some 10 nanometers per minute. Nanotechnolo-gists are working with materials between 1 and 100 nanometers.

Nanotechnologies promise enormous benefits for devel-opment in the fields of water,

The Ministry of Health has identified 11 major public and provincial hospitals in which to

establish palliative care services for cancer patients and others with life-limiting illnesses.

Over 220 health care pro-fessionals will be trained in palliative care throughout the programme, with eight estab-lished Kenyan hospices to men-tor the newly emerging hospital palliative care units.

The Kenya Hospice and Palliative Care Association (KEHPCA) in partnership with The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund and the True Colours Trust is supporting the integration of palliative care

into public health services in Kenya.

The partnership is through the Waterloo Coalition – a col-laboration of donors and pallia-tive care organisations working in Kenya and Malawi.

KEHPCA projects that the partnership will enable an ad-ditional 4,000 new adult cancer patients and 5,000 adult HIV / AIDS patients to receive high quality palliative care through the new hospital units in a pe-riod of one year.

It is also projected that an additional 500 new paediatric cancer patients and 1,000 pae-diatric HIV/AIDS patients will receive palliative care through the new hospital units each year.

Dr. Zipporah Ali, National Coordinator, KEHPCA, explains that ‘Effective palliative care re-sults in patients spending more time at home and reduces the number of hospital inpatient days.

It improves symptom man-agement; provides patient,

By Alex Abutu (Africa STI.com)

A team of medical experts led by a haematologist, Nosakhare Bazuaye of the University of

Benin Teaching Hospital, Nigeria, has recorded the first successful stem cell transplantation operation in the West African sub-region.

The team performed the successful surgery on an indigent sickle cell pa-tient after a two-week procedure, mak-ing Nigeria the third African country to have successfully carried out such operation after South Africa and Egypt.

Onyebuchi Chukwu, Nigeria’s

Nigeria Records Africa’s Third Stem Cell Transplantation

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World Cancer Declaration aims that by 2020 there will be:

n Effective cancer control programmes

n Reduced risk factors such as tobacco use, alcohol consumption and obestity

n Universal vaccination programmes

n A better informed publicn Improved diagnosis methodsn Universally available pain controln Improved training for medical

staffn Better survival rates for cancer

patientsTo reach these targets we will take action to:n Place cancer on the political agendan Improve cancer prevention and

early detectionn Enhance access to and treatment

for cancer patients

Pages 1-7

Dr Denis Tumwesigye Kyetere, one of Africa’s leading experts in plant breeders is the new executive director of the African Agricultural

Technology Foundation (AATF) and he takes office from the beginning of January. His

appointment was recently announced in Nairobi by AATF Board Chair Prof Idah Sithole-Niang.

AATF APPOINTMENT