Notwithstanding that Nairobi is a hub of national and regional think tanks the quality of research has been deteriorating over the years, said Prof Michael Chege of the Africa Research and Resource Forum (ARRF) and an advisor to the Government on international development partnership during the breakfast meeting of 53 research,policy and management think tanks at Nairobi that was hosted by United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) and the National Economic and Social Council (NESC).
Some of the Kenyan researchers copy and paste their colleagues work, echoed Prof Shaukat Abdulrazak the secretary of the National Council for Science and Technology – in times when the nation is going through numerous challenges that require real answers formulated by clear headed factual policy makers.
Africa need unique research for unique solutions to respond to their problems, said Amb. Amina Abdulla, permanent secretary, Ministry of Justice National and Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs who was in attendance. The Think tanks have an opportunity to participate in the implementation of the constitution by generating bills related to their areas of specialisation that will go to parliament, she said.
Researchers from the 12 Kenyan research institutes blamed poor infrastructure coupled with lack of research funds which are below the required 1 percent of the national gross domestic product (GDP) thus each of the think tank can find a niche and stick to it; thus the nation's wheel of development can rotate from evidence based decisions. Kenya's research fund kitty stands at 0.3 percent of its GDP at the moment.
The researchers said there is a serious challenge of outsourcing and retaining local and talented researchers in the Diaspora, too.
University lectures are too busy to find time to do quality research from the overflowing work load and moonlighting from one campus to another, Abdulrazak said, adding: harmony among the researcher is lacking thus they end up duplicating one another in their research work.
But Dr. X. N Iraki of the University of Nairobi and a research fellow with the NESC said local researchers are not appreciated - their research work must be validated by their foreign counterpart to be accepted.
“We are not called to think outside the box, but without the box,” Iraki pointed out citing examples of Europe and USA which have straightened their research and development kitty by a locating 2.5 percent of their respective GDP.
The time when university research was driven by a misguided concept of publish or perish is long gone, said Julius Muia, secretary, NESC, pointing out that this are times when Kenyan scholars are called to publish, establish a patent and commercialise their research findings, works.
The Government, the private sector and the academia need to work closely together than before for meaningful utilisation of local researchers, Muia said. Hence research is driven by perpetual challenges facing the country in search of workable solutions.
There is a serious need to socialise and commercialise sciences for the common good of all whereby scholars from different disciplines should be working together, Chege pointed out.
Yes,Kenyan think tanks should cooperate while protecting the independence of each institution in joint projects, joint working group, regional and thematic networks,survey and interactive ICT tools, said Dr. Ulrich Graute, senior adviser, UNDESA.
In the front of innovation and value addition Dr. Kevin Urama, executive director, African Technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS) said: neither innovators are necessarily good scientists nor good scientist good innovators.
Innovators need an entrepreneurial spirit to be able to commercialise scientific ideas. “Thus people need to easily read science articles to pick ideas that can be incubated - turning them into commercial projects.”
“Innovation does not happen in the main stream but in the interaction of various actors within the innovation system. Thus a need for a science and innovation policy in a favourable private sector environment,” Urama said, adding:
“The idea that knowledge is held by the scientist is wrong because there are different knowledge form held by different communities, example farmers know the best farming practices that work within their local areas through learned experiences – thus for good crop yield there is a need for scientists and agriculture expert to to engage them in policy formulation.”
The high dependence on international donors for research funding skews research priority for African needs, Urama says.
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