Research colonialism still plagues Africa

By: Laura Owings

[开普敦]令牌主义，自上而下的管理和不平等仍然困扰着非洲researchcollaborations with the developed world.

In spite of years of talk about collaborative partnerships, African researchers say that they are all too often consigned to the role of field worker or information gatherer despite being leaders in their science.

不平等存在于许多层面上，紧张局势通常与国际发展合作中捐助者接收关系中的嵌入方式相似。

内罗毕大学的昆虫学家理查德·穆卡巴纳（Richard Mukabana）说：“我不是野外工作者。”

“I have a PhD and can be in any forum dealing with the science of malaria. That is my competitive advantage.”

He travels from Uganda to Kenya, meeting with laboratory technicians, speaking to community健康工人和样品运行到乌干达病毒研究所的实验室。

Some of his samples were collected from the swampy, stagnant water of the Lukaya rice fields on the shores of Lake Victoria, Uganda. The channels, just ten centimetre deep, are the ideal breeding ground for mosquitos. Using a makeshift ladle, fashioned on the end of a long wooden stick, he scoops up water hoping to capture the insects.

然而，他仍然必须收集数据，并在全球北方给予它，以使其有意义。这样一来，您只是一个载有行李的搬运工，这是一部纪录片《发烧》，该电影在穆卡巴纳（Mukabana）的故事中讲述了疟疾在非洲的殖民遗产的故事。

据世卫组织称，2019年全球疟疾控制和消除资源总计30亿美元。它特别赞扬全球基金对这项工作的贡献，以抗击艾滋病，结核病和疟疾以及美国总统的疟疾倡议。

“It’s a depressing state of affairs with seven US, UK and Australian partners receiving US$30 million to ‘help’ African national malaria control programmes.”

Kemri-Wellcome Inform Project的高级科学顾问Bob Snow

Housed in the global North, among the world’s richest and most industrialised countries, these institutions provide significant funding toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the international development research agenda.

“I’m an African,” Mukabana tellsscidev.net。“我住在非洲，我在非洲工作，我知道家庭中的人们，我自己因非洲的疟疾而生病。但是我也记得我们在开展科学业务方面有很多非洲问题。”

例如，他的大学面临频繁的便利挑战，例如缺乏一致的管道水和频繁停电。他说：“即使我们拥有技术或专业知识，也很难与您的伴侣竞争。”

但是，他知道伴侣没有的一件事是病人。“我的合作伙伴无法与malariapatients, doesn’t know how the village person feels about a method or control, doesn’t have a mosquito breeding habitat,” he says.

穆卡巴纳（Mukabana）只是一位越来越多的非洲科学家清单，解决了大陆上疟疾问题的清单。它的声望呼吁包括肯尼亚医学研究所（Kemri）的科学家，他从事疟疾项目（Inform）的Kemri-Wellcome信任信息。

Launched in 2013, KEMRI-Wellcome’s INFORM drives the use of epidemiological data to define malaria control and elimination in Africa with avisibly diverse非洲队。

Scientific colonialism

震惊，愤怒和科学殖民主义的呼唤在2021年1月全球非营利性道路上淹没了Kemri-Wellcome信息社区announced它被选为领导美国总统的疟疾倡议（PMI）进行了为期五年的3000万美元项目。

Called the PMI Insights for Malaria (INFORM) project, its critics were quick to draw attention to the initiative’s similarities to KEMRI-Wellcome’s INFORM – not the least of which was its name.

According to the PATH announcement, PMI INFORM is expected to “generate evidence and data to inform national malaria programs and the global malaria community of best practices, while strengthening research容量in PMI-supported countries.”

The prime partner for PMI INFORM, PATH also revealed its consortium of seven global North partners: Abt Associates; the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis at Imperial College London; the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine the Malaria Atlas Project of Telethon Kids Institute at Curtin University; the Center for Applied Malaria Research and Evaluation at Tulane University; and the University of California, San Francisco Malaria Elimination Initiative.

Kemri-Wellcome Inform Project的高级科学顾问Bob Snow说：“这是一种令人沮丧的状态，英国和澳大利亚伙伴将获得3000万美元的'帮助'非洲国家疟疾控制计划。”

“愤怒需要来自未来国际捐助者的这种行为最受影响的人们。”

“我的合作伙伴不与疟疾患者合作，不知道乡村人对方法或控制的感觉，而没有蚊子育种。”

Richard Mukabana, University of Nairobi

In a statement, PATH did not explain the coincidental project name, but said its PMI INFORM activities would complement KEMRI-Wellcome’s INFORM project. It also addressed the make-up of its consortium by saying it was designed to facilitate access to technical expertise and to supplement local capacity.

“与疟疾流行国家机构的疟疾计划领导者和研究人员合作是该项目计划的方法的核心，以优先考虑，设计，实施，实施和传播疟疾评估和运营研究。”scidev.net。

Overlooked

虽然看到非洲机构被Path忽略为合作伙伴，但总部位于英国Chatham House全球卫生安全中心的高级研究员Ngozi Erondu却一直在发生。

“The bigger issue here is decolonising global health,” she says. Acknowledging the contributions global North institutions have made for the scientific knowledge base, she says it is not a question of all or nothing, but how to work together.

“合作并不意味着您赢得了所有金钱并雇用全球南方[合作伙伴]。这是科学的殖民主义，”她说。

Fredros Okumu, director of science at the Ifakara Health Institute in Tanzania tellsscidev.net: “Researchers working in this space have good reason to be concerned about this trend.”

Okumu加入Erondu，批评Twitter, joining like-minded researchers and advocates. Hundreds of likes, retweets and comments followed with PATH accounts roped in.

社交媒体的强烈抗议不仅表明对国际发展研究合作状态破裂的意识。这也表明研究人员现在能够站起来说些什么。

Okumu说：“十年前，这不会发生，我们会担心自己的职业。”“世界愿意现在听这些对话。”

Power dynamics

As a global South researcher, it is not unusual to get your start in a research collaboration with a cold call, says Salome Maswime, head of global surgery at the University of Cape Town(UCT), South Africa.

“I’ve been involved in a number of studies where I’m contacted by an international group and asked to be part of their study, usually as part of a grant needing a low- or middle-income country partner,” she says

“You go into the partnership without being clear about what you’re doing and you’re not really passionate about it. But you want to be associated with a good institution from a high-income country.”

When you are a young researcher, Maswime says, you go along with this because you want the publications, and you want funding. “The minute you get this email from a highly rated institution, a part of you feels good. Someone has hand-picked you and wants to work with you,” she says.

While not every collaboration goes this way, Maswime says that she has seen several young researchers trapped in the cycle. “I say this because I’m not at the beginning of my scientific career. I can look back and say there is a pattern here,” she says.

令牌主义是盛行的。它构成了由全球北部资助的研究合作的不平等动力动力学的一部分，在该研究协作中，研究议程是由他们驱动的，而不是在进行研究和研究的社区。

The problems with this top-down approach characterises these partnerships. A literature keyword search for “North-South collaboration” reveals a raft of challenges, experiences and proposed ways forward for more equitable partnerships in every area of development research.

Among them is the 1990Commission on Health Research for Developmentthat reveals a “gross mismatch” between priorities in North-South research that may make collaboration counter-productive.

它描述了现在所谓的10/90差距，它显示了全球90％的健康研究投资仅解决了全球健康问题的10％。

更多的recently, a 2020paper在纳米比亚 - 德国气候研究项目上，项目宣布了管理现场工作，分析任务并充当文化促进者的本地研究人员的无形“双重角色”。

它总结说：“全球南方研究人员在国际合作中承担了一个隐藏的负担，必须得到充分的认可。”

其他工作细节剥削就业, where the short-term nature and tight budgets of research projects leaves local staff without benefits such as health insurance or long-term employment prospects. Some show the权力斗争在南北研究人员之间，当那些持有钱包弦的人被要求为东道国发挥支持作用。

“这些合作伙伴关系有很多出版物，但是我们离实现SGD有多远？”问马斯特。“人们为在非洲完成的工作获得诺贝尔奖，但情况并没有改变。”

False universalism

改变不会容易说,米娅佩里有限公司-director of Sustainable Futures in Africa (SFA). A network launched in 2016 with the Global Challenges Research Fund, SFA is a UK-based network that works with hubs in Botswana, Malawi, Nigeria, Uganda and the United Kingdom to ethically re-design the research agenda.

“International development-related research is led by people and institutions that have and continue to benefit from the inequity,” she says. “To make real change in that system, people like me would have to put themselves in situations that may implicate us. That’s a difficult thing to do.”

她认为，甚至更艰难，因为大多数涉及的利益相关者都认为他们正在使世界变得更美好。南方的“赤字”和北部的“救世主”动态可能源于真正的善意，但它建立在一种错误的普遍主义意识上。

对于佩里来说，普遍主义是一个观念，即价值观，概念或行为在世界各地的所有人中共享。“如果您来自全球北部的大学或机构，普遍主义非常方便。在我们南部的研究伙伴的社区中，他们的普遍性与我的世界完全不同。”

佩里（Perry）提倡从北部和南方的地理界界，将研究构成全球间和连接的研究。

抛弃传统的以北方为中心的研究模型也是必要的。佩里呼吁对研究的遗产进行批判，并采取参与性，具有文化责任和参与的方法。

她说：“我们解决的任何问题都应与科学家，社区成员和政策制定者一起考虑。”

Notion of excellence

The truth about Africa, and other areas of the global South, is that science is not embedded in its culture. People do not look to science to answer questions in their daily lives in politics or in innovation.

“Africa isn’t the same as the North, where science is part of the fabric of their society,” says Judy Omumbo, senior programme manager at the Kenya-based African Academy of Sciences (AAS).

She too criticises the assumption that northern models for research and how it is managed will translate effectively in Africa. But she says it is difficult to challenge a system if it is coming from your funding partners.

“公平问题是我们对很多事情的看法。由于资金往往来自北部，因此首先考虑了北方的优先事项。”她说。

这些优先级并非最不重要的是问责制。出资者面临利益相关者的审查，以表现出结果和影响，这是由北方对卓越的看法所定义的。

“The notion of excellence is problematic in many, if not all, contexts,” say someexperts。“它与学科，方法论的高度主观价值有关，并与期刊影响因素，H-指数分数，资金来源和大学排名有可疑的联系。”

Global North researchers are also held to these standards, including the much debated ‘tyranny of the impact factor’. A career-defining magic number gained frompublishingin high-impact journals, it is nearly impossible for African researchers to attain.

“在全球北部，非洲研究人员面临可能无关紧要或更少的负担。”AAS。其中包括过度的成本，掠夺性出版商以及对同行评审过程的熟悉程度。

同行评审过程中的系统性偏差也是一个问题。他们说：“非洲研究人员通常来自西方同行不明的机构和实验室。”同行评审者之间缺乏非洲代表性以及语言和风格的障碍，这使得良好的研究被延迟或完全未发表。

Omumbo说：“我们需要根据研究人员的工作来定义我们的影响。”我们希望他们在一流的期刊上发布吗？还是我们希望他们产生影响并培养其他当地研究人员？

“We should be able to make a decision on how we’ll measure excellence in our context, and funding should be given based on that.”

Knowledge-based economies

非洲研究人员将卓越的研究定义为“创造对社会问题的认识”，“对处境不利社区的直接好处”和“新的好处”和“新的好处”technologicaldevelopments’, according to a 2017survey。

但是，被调查的人中有三分之一表示，资金不足和基础设施不足是实现这一卓越的障碍。

Despite African Union member countries committing to spend at least one per cent of their gross domestic product on research and development by 2010, none achieved the goal. In 2019, Africa accounted for just 0.9 per cent of全球研发支出, well behind North America at 27 per cent and Europe at 21 per cent.

Africa will then continue to rely on prosperous research partners from the global North. But Ombumbo says this support should take the form of long-term, strategic funding that enables Africans to conduct globally competitive research and builds knowledge-based economies on the continent.

“We need funding that goes toward improving the practice of science in the South,” says Ombumbo.

It is a paradigm shift in collaborations the AAS is pushing with its Future Leaders – African Independent Research (FLAIR) Fellowship, a partnership with the Royal Society, supported by the UK’s Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF).

Ombumbo说：“ Flair是独一无二的，从某种意义上说，这是一项奖学金，足以使家伙在发展研究能力的同时进行独立研究。”

天赋是非洲职业生涯早期研究人员开放addressing global challenges faced by developing countries. Its inaugural cohort was announced in 2019, with Sarah Fawcett, an oceanographer and climatologist at UCT among them.

Fawcett praises the fellowship for getting money into the hands of young African researchers “rather than to a northern partner with trickle-down into Africa”. But she suspects tension between the UK funders and Kenya-based AAS.

“The northern hand is still there,” she says. “But the funders are coming in with a big investment and are making an attempt towards empowerment. That’s how we start to change things.”

全球竞争性研究

Fawcett是40岁以下的精英研究人员之一，该研究人员构成了2020年世界经济论坛年轻科学家计划，其中还包括Maswime。

Honoured for her contributions to ocean chemistry and biology inclimate change, her work is firmly footed in South Africa. It is an example of local-led development research that is globally competitive.

Fawcett说：“就海洋对二氧化碳排放量上升的反应而言，南大洋是我们拥有的最大杠杆，我们从南非不受限制地进入它。”

Fawcett的研究将在生物地球化学研究基础设施平台（Biogrip）的支持下进行。一项灵感来自South African Research Infrastructure Roadmap，与欧盟合作，为在该国研究未来提供长期投资是一项明确的努力。

对于像Fawcett这样的研究人员，Biogrip的影响将很大。她说：“我们不仅可以从南大洋中部的非洲研究船上收集样品，而且我们可以在非洲实验室中衡量它们，并发表一项具有全球影响的非洲领导的研究。”

The technical infrastructure expected from BIOGRIP will also make it possible for the global South to take the lead in international collaborations. But Fawcett says that power shift will only be possible through co-development.

“Framing objectives from the very beginning with all stakeholders at the table, and involving them in continual评估is the only way we’ll move closer to true collaboration,” she says.

在一起

南非是世界上第三大生物多样性国家，并可以进入大西洋，印度和南大洋。它也是非洲最经济繁荣的国家。

根据2019年南非研究企业report, South Africa “punches above its weight” in research production, output and international research collaborations.

南非艾滋病研究中心主任萨利姆·阿卜杜勒·卡里姆（Salim Abdool Karim）说，这些优势是责任。

“当您开发研究合作时，您必须具有长期的观点。您的合作者将与您竞争，您的任务是确保他们与您竞争良好。”他说。

This is true for partnerships with the global North and on the continent. “We collaborate with [peers in] the United States and Europe and with our colleagues in Africa. We don’t want to have an unequal relationship with our colleagues in Africa just as we don’t want to be an unequal recipient of a collaboration in the United States,” Karim says.

有助于确保这是研究公平倡议（RFI）。它是机构和资助者的自我报告工具，可帮助他们确定研究协作政策和实践中的优势和缺点，并共同开发它们。

“您应该在危机中利用一切机会为未来奠定良好的基础。”

Salim Abdool Karim，南非艾滋病研究计划中心

36个指标,要求身体轮廓寡糖r approach to issues such as conflict management, contracts, financial management and intellectual property rights. The report that results can be used to develop and negotiate a strategy for fair partnerships. It’s a thorough and not uncomplicated process.

实际上，自2018年以来，RFI仅发表了四份报告，其中包括来自WHO的热带疾病培训和研究的特别计划和塞内加尔大学的Alioune Diop。当中心交易时，卡普里萨的报告被搁置了新冠肺炎。

“RFI needs early adopters who will pull in others. We don’t mind that its full of kinks. In fact, that’s part of how we work together to fix it and find better solutions,” he says. “What’s important is for all of us to work together in getting there, and RFI is helpful in that.”

Foundations for the future

Calling 2021 the Year of Equitable Research Partnerships, RFI is campaigning to recognise fairness in research collaborations and their potential for impact.

“The international research community moves from crisis to crisis,” says Carel IJsselmuiden, director of the Council on Health Research for Development, which set up the RFI. Whether it is malaria, climate change or COVID-19, he says, sustainable partnerships are never on the agenda.

他说：“让发展伙伴关系成为合作的平等部分，并为未来建立协议和基准。”

Indeed, global collaboration and cooperation are in disarray, said the柳叶刀在2020年9月举行的联合国大会第75届会议之前。

它补充说：“全球合作的需求从未如此明显或更关键。”“但是，国家现在没有对共同未来表示共同的愿景，而是通过民族主义的上升，对多边机构的开放敌意以及越来越倾向于照顾自己的利益的趋势来破坏全球合作。”

They are issues that impact the global South the most, and to which those countries also contribute. But Karim, who is also co-chair of South Africa’s COVID-19 advisory committee, sees potential in this crisis.

“You should use every opportunity in a crisis to lay down good foundations for the future,” he says. “With COVID-19, I think things are changing for the better.”

This piece was produced by SciDev.Net’s Sub-Saharan Africa English desk.