Entry
Reader's guide
Entries A-Z
Subject index
Africa, Science In
Africa, home to 840 million people, is lagging behind in reaching the world's Millennium Development Goals to halve world poverty by 2015. The continent battles with chronic poverty and hunger, rampant disease, civil conflict, and political unrest in many parts. Environmental degradation, failing agriculture, lack of access to clean water, population growth, rapid urbanization, and loss of biodiversity add to the daunting list of challenges. The continent is not doing well on the education or science fronts either. Advances in science and technology are held back by poor education and research infrastructure, escalating brain drain, and a widening digital divide. Africa contributes only 1.4% of the world's scientific publications, with South Africa and Egypt accounting for more than half of the continent's share. While improved science communication cannot solve Africa's problems by itself, it clearly has a contribution to make.
Africa will never be strong and prosperous with such a weak education system and poorly developed science and technology base. Policy leaders acknowledge that they will only be able to improve quality of life on the continent with the help of scientific knowledge and skills. This will require bold leadership and a massive investment in building continent-wide science and innovation capacity. Without it, Africa will remain largely excluded from the global-knowledge-based economy.
Under the auspices of the African Union, the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) has been designed to address the many challenges facing the African continent. It steers an action plan for African science as part of its strategic framework for Africa's renewal, and seeks to use science and technology to accomplish socio-economic goals.
African Science Academies
A network of academies of science play an important role in increasing the profile of science and technology on the continent and in providing policy advice to national governments. The U.S. National Academies of Science support this network through the African Science Academy Development Initiative, supported by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The African Academy of Sciences (AAS), with its head offices in Nairobi, Kenya, aims to drive scientific and technological change in Africa through initiatives to promote networking, capacity building, and scientific excellence and relevance. The Academy of Science for the Developing World has a Regional Office for sub-Saharan Africa hosted at the AAS to support research achievers and the communication of research results and outcomes to policymakers. There are also national chapters in Madagascar, Senegal, Zimbabwe, Kenya, and Ghana. Finally, most national science academies in Africa belong to the Network of African Science Academies.
Pan-African Science Agencies, Networks and Research Centers
The African Ministerial Council on Science and Technology operates under the auspices of NEPAD as a high-level platform for developing policies and setting priorities on science, technology, and innovation for African development, while the International Council for Science regional office for Africa, based in Pretoria, South Africa, promotes scientific collaboration, capacity building, and the mobility of African scientists and invests in securing and using Africa's indigenous knowledge. The organization is also working toward developing closer links between science and policy, wider dissemination of scientific information of value to Africa, more equitable access to scientific information, and the participation of all scientists—regardless of race, citizenship, language, political stance, or gender—in international scientific endeavor.
...
- Associations and Organizations
- Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow
- American Association for Public Opinion Research
- American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
- American Medical Association
- American Medical Writers Association
- Association for Communication Excellence
- Center for Science in the Public Interest
- Council for the Advancement of Science Writing
- Environmental Defense Fund
- ETC Group
- Greenpeace
- International Science Journalism Associations
- National Association of Science Writers
- Physicians for Social Responsibility
- Public Communication of Science and Technology
- Royal Society
- SciDev.Net
- Scientists' Institute for Public Information
- Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
- Sigma Xi
- Society for Risk Analysis
- Society for Technical Communication
- Society of Environmental Journalists
- Union of Concerned Scientists
- Audiences, Opinions, and Effects
- Active Audiences and Science
- Attentive Public
- Audiences for Science
- Children's Television and Science
- Communicating Science to Children
- Gender Representations of Scientists
- Health Literacy
- Interpretive Communities
- Knowledge Gap Hypothesis
- Popular Science and Formal Education
- Public Understanding of Research
- Public Understanding of Science
- Role Models in Science
- Science Indicators, History of the NSB Project on
- Science Literacy
- Scientist—Journalist Relations
- Surveys
- Technological Literacy
- Trust and Attitudes
- Challenges, Issues, and Controversies
- Abortion
- Alien Abduction
- Alternative Medicine
- Asteroid Impacts
- Bioterrorism
- Climate Change, Communicating
- Cloning
- Colonizing Other Worlds
- Creationism
- Digital Divide
- Drug Advertising
- Food Irradiation
- Intelligent Design in Public Discourse
- Invasive Species
- Maverick Science and Journalism
- NIMBY (“Not In My Back Yard”)
- Nuclear Power
- Nuclear Waste
- Nuclear Weapons
- Pseudoscience
- Scientist—Journalist Conflicts
- Skepticism
- Stem Cell Controversy
- UFOlogy
- Vaccines, Fear of
- Changing Awareness, Opinion, and Behavior
- Alcohol, Risk Communication for
- Anti-Drug Campaigns
- Anti-Smoking Campaigns
- Breast Cancer Communication
- Cancer Prevention and Risk Communication
- Communication Campaigns in Health and Environment
- Computer-Tailored Messages
- Evidence-Based Medicine
- Fear Appeals
- Food Safety
- Health Communication and the Internet
- Health Communication, Overview
- Highway Safety
- HIV/AIDS Prevention and Communication
- Resource Mobilization
- Social Marketing
- Critical Influences and Events
- Global and International Aspects
- Africa, Science in
- Australia, Science in
- Canada, Science Communication in
- East Asia, Science Communication in
- Europe, Research System in
- European Space Agency
- India, Science and Science Communication in
- Latin America, Science Communication in
- Mexico, Science Communication in
- National Development, Science and Technology in
- Government Agencies (U.S.)
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S.
- Department of Agriculture, U.S.
- Department of Energy, U.S.
- Environmental Protection Agency, U.S.
- Food and Drug Administration, U.S.
- House Science Committee, U.S.
- National Academies, U.S.
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration, U.S.
- National Institutes of Health, U.S.
- National Science Foundation, U.S.
- Occupational Safety and Health Administration, U.S.
- Office of Science and Technology Policy, U.S.
- Office of Technology Assessment, U.S.
- Public Health Service, U.S.
- Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, U.S.
- Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, U.S.
- Surgeon General, U.S.
- History, Philosophy, and Sociology of Science
- Actor-Network Theory
- Deductive Logic
- Inductive Logic
- Invisible College
- Land Grant System, U.S.
- Logical Positivism
- Peer Review
- Postmodernism and Science
- Science and Politics
- Science, Technology, and Society Studies
- Scientific Consensus
- Scientific Ethos
- Scientific Journal, History of
- Scientific Method
- Scientific Societies
- Technological Determinism
- Tenure System
- Two Cultures
- Understanding Expertise
- Visible Scientist
- Important Figures
- Asimov, Isaac
- Attenborough, David
- Carson, Rachel
- Carver, George Washington
- Clarke, Arthur C.
- Crick, Francis
- Darwin, Charles
- Dawkins, Richard
- Dewey, John
- Einstein, Albert
- Feynman, Richard
- Franklin, Benjamin
- Galilei, Galileo
- Gould, Stephen Jay
- Hawking, Stephen
- Kuhn, Thomas
- Latour, Bruno
- McClintock, Barbara
- Mead, Margaret
- Mendel, Gregor
- Merton, Robert K.
- Muir, John
- Nelkin, Dorothy
- Nye, Bill
- Oppenheimer, J. Robert
- Popper, Karl
- Sagan, Carl
- Snow, C. P.
- Teller, Edward
- Venter, J. Craig
- Watson, James D.
- Journal Publications
- Key Cases and Current Trends
- Agricultural Biotechnology
- Alternative Energy, Overview
- Architecture, Sustainable
- Astrobiology
- Astronomy, Public Communication of
- Avian Flu
- Biofuels
- Bioinformatics
- Bovine Somatotropin (BST or BGH)
- Fuel Cell Technology
- Gene
- Gene Therapy
- Holography
- Low-Level Radiation
- Nanotechnology
- Nutrigenomics
- Nutrition and Media
- Obesity Epidemic
- Pandemics, Origins of
- Recombinant DNA
- Reproductive Medicine
- Satellites, Science of
- Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
- Solar Energy
- String Theory
- Sustainability
- Synthetic Biology and Genomics
- Toxicogenomics
- Wind Power
- Law, Policy, Ethics, and Beliefs
- Big Science
- Bioethicists as Sources
- Censorship in Science
- Clean Air Act
- Clean Water Act
- Community “Right to Know”
- Conflicts of Interest in Science
- Embargo System
- Endangered Species Act
- Environmental Impact Statements
- Environmental Justice
- Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues (ELSI)
- Eugenics
- Food Libel Laws
- Gene Patenting
- Institutional Review Board
- Nanotechnology, Regulation of
- Planetary Protection
- Precautionary Principle
- Religion, Science, and Media
- Research Ethics, Overview
- Risk Analysis
- Risks and Benefits
- Science Communication and Indigenous North America
- Social Justice
- Technology Assessment
- Toxic Substances Regulation
- Major Infrastructural Initiatives
- Practices, Strategies, and Tools
- Professional Roles and Careers
- Agricultural Journalism
- Beat Reporting
- Career Paths, Medical Writing/Medical Journalism
- Career Paths, Science/Environmental Journalism
- Crisis Communication
- Disaster Coverage
- Environmental Journalism
- Freelancing
- Government Public Information
- Medical Journalism
- Public Relations and Science
- Scientist—Journalist Relations
- Social and Behavioral Science Reporting
- Technical Communication
- Weather Reporting
- Public Engagement Approaches
- Theory and Research
- Agenda Setting and Science
- Conversation and Science Communication
- Cultivation Theory and Science
- Deficit Model
- Diffusion of Innovations
- Digital Rhetoric and Science
- Discourse Analysis and Science
- Evaluation of Science Communication
- Framing and Priming in Science Communication
- Information Seeking and Processing
- Information Society
- Information Subsidies
- Opinion Leaders and Opinion Leadership
- Optimistic Bias
- Planned Behavior, Theory of
- Psychometric Paradigm
- Rhetoric of Medicine
- Rhetoric of Science
- Social Amplification of Risk Framework
- Social Epistemology
- Spiral of Silence and Science
- Third-Person Effect
- Uncertainty in Science Communication
- Venues and Channels
- Internet, History of
- Media Convergence
- Newspaper Science Pages
- Online Media and the Sciences
- Popular Science, Overview
- Science and the Giant Screen
- Science Centers and Science Museums
- Science Circus
- Science Documentaries
- Science Fiction
- Science in Advertising
- Science in Magazines
- Science in the Movies
- Science in Virtual Worlds
- Science Magazines
- Science on Radio
- Science Shops
- Science Theater
- Scientific Publishing, Overview
- Television Science
- Loading...
Get a 30 day FREE TRIAL
-
Watch videos from a variety of sources bringing classroom topics to life -
Read modern, diverse business cases
-
Explore hundreds of books and reference titles
Read next
More like this
Sage Recommends
We found other relevant content for you on other Sage platforms.
Have you created a personal profile? Login or create a profile so that you can save clips, playlists and searches