Donor operations south of the Sahara

Please note there are likely to be significant errors in what follows. Hopefully I will be able to clarify these over the coming months as time allows.

Donor programs relevant to science and research in Africa (examples)

Donor	Program	Scale	Years of funding
World Bank	Africa Higher Education Centers of Excellence	US$600m⁽¹⁾	2014-present
Germany	Green Innovation Centres in the agriculture and food sector (GIC)	€563m	2014-2016
Germany	Promoting international agricultural research	€544m	1994-2027
SIDA (Sweden)	Bilateral research cooperation with Uganda⁽²⁾	US$75m⁽³⁾	2000-2022
Export-Import Bank of China	National Science, Technology and Engineering Skills Development Project (NSTEI-SEP)⁽⁴⁾	US$85m	n.d.
World Bank	Higher Education for Economic Transformation (HEET) – Tanzania	US$425m	2021-2025
World Bank	Ghana Skills and Technology Development Project	US$63m	n.d.
USAID	Long-term Assistance and Services for Research (LASER)	US$35m	n.d.
Germany	Knowledge Centre for Organic Agriculture in Africa	€33m	2018-2028
FCDO (UK)	Research for Community Access Partnership (ReCAP)	US$21m	n.d.
BEIS (UK)	Forests 2020	US$21m	n.d.

(1) Combined budget calculated from P169064, P164546, P153111, P151847 and P126974, commitment amounts, respectively, US$182.2m, US$143m, US$15m, US$148m and US$150m. (2) https://www.isp.uu.se/digitalAssets/735/c_735118-l_1-k_evaluation-sida-uganda-research-collaboration.pdf. (3) Combined budget € estimate calculated from Pilot Phase (Sept 2000–Dec 2001), 15 million SEK; Phase I (2002–June 2005), 104.110 million SEK; Phase II (2005–2009), 181m SEK. (4) https://mulengeranews.com/inside-nstei-sep-the-mega-engineering-innovation-center-in-kiruhura/. Sources included Forschungsinformationssystem Agrar und Ernährung (FISA); GIZ; https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/OCTOPUS; EU Aid Explorer; https://www.deval.org/de/; https://www.iatiregistry.org/dataset/; https://www.govdata.de/; IATI d-portal; https://www.bu.edu/gdp/chinas-overseas-development-finance/

Scientific projects funded by the African Development Bank (examples)

Project	Scale (€)	Years operational	Achievement(s)
Angola – Science and Technology Development	80m	2016-present	Equipment of scientific facilities; building a science and technology park; R&D grants; scholarships for postgraduate training (Brazil and Portugal)⁽¹⁾
Uganda – Support to Higher Education, Science and Technology (HEST)	80m	2013-2019	Construction and equipment of new and ‘rehabilitated’ scientific facilities; ICT connectivity; training and scholarships⁽²⁾
Nelson Mandela Institutes – African Institutions of Science and Technology	11m	2016-2022	Equipment of scientific facilities; vehicle for field studies; expanded postgraduate training⁽³⁾
African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation⁽⁴⁾	n.d.	2023-present	not yet fully operational

(1) Implementation and Progress Report, 30 November 2022, African Development Bank, p. 2. (2) Project Completion Report, May 2021, African Development Bank. (3) 46002-P-Z1-IA0-013 and 46002-P-Z1-IA0-016; https://www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/Project-and-Operations/MULTINATIONAL_-_NELSON_MANDELA_FINAL_REPORT_Approved.pdf. (4) https://www.afdb.org/en/news-and-events/press-releases/african-development-bank-unveils-african-pharmaceutical-technology-foundation-2nd-international-conference-public-health-africa-57650. Based on a search in October 2023 of African Development Bank and World Bank project databases with keyword ‘science’ producing, respectively, 25 and 306 hits. The World Bank data was refined according to the relevant regions. Only projects over US$20m were examined. African Development Bank projects are quoted in units of account (XUA). I converted these to € using a rate of €1.2 per XUA.

European scientific establishments in Africa (examples)*

Country	Institution(s)
France	Institut Pasteur (medical research) in Casablanca, Algiers, Tunis, Antananarivo, Dakar, Conakry, Abidjan, Niamey, Yaoundé and Banguy; La Station d’Ecologie de LAMTO⁽¹⁾; UMIFRE (humanities) in Cairo, Khartoum, Addis Ababa, Rabat, Tunis, Johannesburg, Nairobi, Ibadan and Khartoum; IRD (ex-ORSTOM) in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroun, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Maroc, Niger, Réunion⁽²⁾, Sénégal⁽³⁾, South Africa and Tunisia.
Germany	Leibniz-Gemeinschaft ‘research stations’ in Ghana (tropical medicine), Madagascar and Senegal (primate research); Maria Sibylla Merian Centres (humanities) in Ghana and Tunisia.
Italy	ASI Centro Spaziale Luigi Broglio, Malindi (Kenya)
Switzerland	CSRS⁽⁴⁾ (Côte d’Ivoire); Nestle R&D centre and experimental farm (Côte d’Ivoire)
UK	MRC (medical research) in The Gambia⁽⁵⁾ and Uganda; CABI (agricultural research) in Accra, Lusaka and Nairobi; BIEA (archeology) in Nairobi; Wellcome Trust/KEMRI Research Programme (medical research), Kenya.

*Table refers to the entire African continent not just south of the Sahara. (1) Lachenal, 2005, L’invention africaine de l’écologie française: Histoire de la station de Lamto (Côte d’Ivoire), 1942-1976, Regards sur des laboratoires en sciences humaines et sociales. (2) An overseas department (territory under French administration). (3) The most important base overseas for IRD in terms of programs, staffing and budget. (4) Founded 1951. (5) Probably one of the largest European scientific bases in Africa.

US National Science Foundation awards naming Africa (examples)

Topic	Scale	Years of funding
Cassava mosaic disease	US$5m	2015-2024
Central African biodiversity	US$4.9m	2015-2019
MERS-Cov in Ethiopia	US$4.7m	2018-2024
US/Africa materials institute	US$3.8m	2003-2009
Lake Malawi geology	US$2.7m	2012-2020
Sustainable food systems	US$2m	2023-2027

Refers to award numbers, respectively, 1545553, 1243524, 1816064+2025693, 1110921, 1212623 and 2201446. Based on my search of the NSF awards database in October 2023 with keyword ‘Africa’ with criteria of active and expired awards from 2003-present. Search gave back 2654 results (about US$ 45m of reported funds). Data presented in the table above comprises my precis of a personal selection of awards > US$ 2m. These are awards to US research institutions. Transfer, if any, of funds to African equivalents cannot be determined from the database.

Typology of donor instruments (provisional)

Instrument	Budgetary requirement	Potential impact in strengthening science on the African continent	Possible examples subject to clarification
Communications e.g., written strategy or high-level meeting	Minimal	Minimal. Might galvanize potential investors.	AU-EU Innovation Agenda; China-Africa Science and Technology Partnership Plan 2.0; USAID Digital Strategy 2020-2024
Networking or training	Low	Low-moderate⁽¹⁾	China InnoTour for African Young Scientists; LASER; RTAC⁽²⁾
Grant or loan	Variable	Moderate	DIV, EPIC, PEER (USAID), Partech (EIB), SICORP AJ-CORE (Japan)
Reinforcement of existing scientific facility in recipient country	Moderate	High	SAJOREC⁽³⁾; SIDA Uganda
Construction of new scientific facility in recipient country	High	Moderate	MUST⁽⁴⁾, NSTEI-SEP⁽⁵⁾
Reinforcement of capacity in donor country	High	Minimal. Capacity is built in the donor country.	CAICC⁽⁶⁾; HESN⁽⁷⁾; USAID Fellows Program

(1) These schemes are predicated on the assumption that there is an information deficit or lack of know-how. However, it is not clear to me that this is the underlying problem that needs solving (there is, indeed, plenty of skilled human resource available and equipment can be manufactured or bought on the market – the underlying problem is insufficient money); therefore I indicated a range of possible outcomes. (2) Long-Term Assistance and Services for Research (LASER) program and Research Technical Assistance Center (RTAC), USAID. (3) Sino-Africa Joint Research Center. (4) Malawi University of Science and Technology; (5) National Science, Technology and Engineering Skills Development Project. (6) China-Africa Innovation Cooperation Center. (7) Higher Education Solutions Network (HESN) funded by USAID. Sources: China data from https://www.bu.edu/gdp/chinas-overseas-development-finance/ (search using keyword ‘science’); EU data from https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2022-02/final_au-eu_ia_14_february.pdf (pp. 14-23); Zhang Yonghong 張永宏, Wang Tao 王濤 and Wu Tao 武濤, 2019, A Study on the Strategic Background of China-Africa Science and Technology Development Cooperation 中非科技發展合作的戰略背景研究; US data from LASER PULSE Network, USAID Innovation Technology and Research; EIB Global Report 2022/2023.

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