Research4Life helping Africa to attain MDGs

Forty-eight countries in Africa have free or low cost online access to over 35,000 peer-reviewed international scientific journals, books, and databases worth tens of millions of dollars, thanks to the Research4Life Programmes led by the World Health Organization (WHO), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and the world’s leading scientific, technical and medical publishers.

Goal

Accessing online resources on Research4Life portal

Research4Life, a public-private partnership for international development, is providing access to global scientific literature (full-text documents in digital format) focusing on health, agriculture, environment and other life, physical and social sciences in the developing world. The goal of the Programmes is to improve the quality of research conducted in developing countries that will advance higher education, inform public policy decision, and prepare tomorrow’s leaders.  By so doing, Research4Life will contribute to the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals, reducing the knowledge gap between industrialized countries and developing countries by providing affordable access to critical scientific research.

Since early 1990s, thousands of students, researchers and lecturers in majority of public universities and research institutes in Africa have faced challenges to gain access to current scientific information needed for education and research. Universities and research institutes are unable to pay subscription fees to peer-reviewed international scientific journals that can cost the organisation more than $1 million per year. This is now addressed by the Research4Life programmes.

Programmes

The four Research4Life programmes are HINARI (Access to Research in Health) launched in January 2002 and managed by WHO, AGORA (Access to Global Online Research in Agriculture) launched in 2003 by FAO, OARE (Online Access to Research in the Environment) launched in 2006 by UNEP, and ARDI (Access to Research for Development and Innovation) coordinated by WIPO. The four UN agencies are working closely with other partners including Cornell University, Yale University, the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers, some two hundred publishers and technological partners including Microsoft.

Public institutions such as government ministries and departments, hospitals and clinics, universities and colleges, professional schools, research institutes, extension centres, national libraries, as well as local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in 48 African countries are eligible for free or low cost access to Research4Life Programmes. The programmes are accessed at www.research4life.org and an institutional registration is required to obtain a dedicated username and password. Among others, institutions already using the programmes include the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security of Tanzania, the Agricultural Research Corporation (ARC) in Sudan, Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, National Veterinary Research Institute (Nigeria), Black Lion Hospital (Ethiopia), King Faisal Hospital (Rwanda), Kenya Medical Research Institute, Aga Khan Hospital (Kenya), Makerere University (Uganda), University of Ghana, University of Zambia, Addis Ababa University and Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar (Senegal).

Impact

The impact of Research4Life on work, life and community is documented in a booklet - Making a difference: Stories from the field:how access to scientific literature is improving the livelihoods of communitiesaround the world. Examples from Africa, illustrated in the booklet, include researchers, scholars and scientists in Malawi who produced quality and well researched project reports, scientific papers, theses and dissertations; a physician in Zambia who used scientific information from the programmes to improve the lives of HIV-infected children; a doctor in Ethiopia who successfully treated a patient with a rare and serious condition; a Nigerian researcher who completed his PhD studies and other research on organic agriculture, biopesticides and biofertilizers; and a Sudanese policy-maker who used the information to introduce evidence-based policy development designed to improve the Sudanese people’s health.

During the tenth anniversary of the launch of AGORA, in September 2013, Stephen Rudgard, then Chief of Knowledge and Capacity for Development at FAO, said that AGORA had contributed to changes in behaviour of scientists, academics and practitioners in terms of their information use. "Researchers and academics using AGORA have been able to plan their research more effectively and ensure that their work is not duplicative. They have been able to find new technologies developed outside their own arenas, test them to ensure they are applicable locally, and then pass them on to farmers. In addition, they have been able to use literature to update their curricula."

Capacity Development

 

Participants at a Research4Life workshop in DRC

Capacity development in using the Research4Life programmes in sub-Sahara Africa is provided by ITOCA (Information Training and Outreach Centre for Africa) and “Librarians Without Borders”®, in collaboration with the regional offices of FAO located in Ghana, WHO (Congo) and UNEP headquarters in Kenya. Since April 2004, more than 5,000 researchers, lecturers, policy makers, health professionals, development practitioners, and librarians have taken part in more than 85 Research4Life training-of-trainers workshops. From available data, Gracian Chimwaza, ITOCA Executive Director, estimates that the trained participants have gone on to reach more than 300,000 users downstream with follow-on training on the four programmes.

Research for Life Programmes at Njala University, Sierra Leone

The Universities Act of 2005 established the University of Njala (NU) as a Public Institution with a mandate to provide training in agriculture, education, environmental sciences, social sciences, community health sciences and technology. NU has campuses at Njala (main campus), Bo, Bonthe and Freetown.



Prof. Abu Sesay, Vice Chancellor and Principal,
Njala University

One challenge faced by lecturers and students at Njala University, like in most academic institutions in Africa, is lack of access to the latest scientific information published in peer-reviewed scholarly publications. Prior to the 11-year civil war (1991 – 2002), the University Library was relatively well stocked with books and journals. Today, its collection is old. The shelves reserved for journals hold old issues except for the latest copies (2013 samples issues from the publisher) of the Journal of Ecology and Journal of Animal Ecology and a couple others. Current publications on the shelves are mainly those produced by international development organizations such as the World Bank, FAO, CTA, etc, that are sent to the University for free; news magazines and local newspapers purchased by the Library mainly from Freetown, the Capital City of Sierra Leone.

The current Vice Chancellor and Principal of NU, Prof. Abu Sesay, is determined to turn the institution into “an outstanding centre of learning, scholarship and community service with a national and international profile”. Access to the latest global knowledge available in scientific publications, to enhance the teaching and research activities in at NU, would certainly contribute to achieving this vision.

Access to academic and professional peer-reviewed journals, especially in agriculture and related sciences, health and medical sciences, and environmental sciences by lecturers and students at Njala University should no longer be an issue. NU has very good Internet connection and subscribes Research for Life Programmes – HINARI, AGORA, OARE and ARDI.  These programmes provide online access to over 30,000 peer-reviewed international scientific journals, books, and databases. This includes access to full-text articles which can be downloaded for saving and/or printing.

Participants at the Research for Life training at Njala University

From 3 to 5 September 2013, I and Professor Bamidele Fawole (of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria and ITOCA), travelled to NU to facilitate a national training workshop on Research for Life programmes. The trip was
worth it. Thirty enthusiastic lecturers, researchers, information technology specialists and librarians from academic and research institutions in Sierra Leone took part in the four-day workshop. They learnt how to access, search and retrieve full-text articles (in PDF or HTML formats) provided through the Research for Life Programmes. They were also introduced to information search strategies including using Boolean search operators. At NU, the challenge is no longer access to global scientific knowledge but how to effectively and efficiently use the more than 30,000 online resources available through Research for Life Programmes. The Vice Chancellor is determined to transform the university into a 21st Century institution. The lecturers should also play their part in the transformation process of the institution by conducting good research and recommending to their students to use the latest scientific literature available to them through the Research for Life Programmes.

Access to free electronic resources at CAGRIC

Main entrance to CAGRIC

I have just come from visiting the College of Agriculture Education (CAGRIC) of the University of Winneba, in Ghana. CAGRIC is located in a small and quite town of Asante Mampong, about 60km from Kumasi, the regional capital for the Ashanti Region. The College has about 1,600 students who for their academic information services use a small college library made of a large reading room, bookshelves and a couple of offices.

Although the college library is small and poorly stocked in terms of books, students and staff at the college have access to thousands of electronic resources (e-resources) mainly available through international initiatives such as the Research4Life initiative and the Programme for the Enhancement of Research Information (PERI). Under the Research4Life initiative, staff and students have access to electronic journals and books available through:

• AGORA (Access to Global Online Research in Agriculture) managed by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO); 
• HINARI Access to Research in Health programme managed by the World Health Organization (WHO);
• OARE (Online Access to Research in the Environment) managed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP); and
• ARDI (Access to Research for Development and Innovation) coordinated by the World Intellectual Property Organization.

 

 

CAGRIC Librarian demonstrating e-resources to students

Under PERI, an initiative of the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications, staff and student access EBSCO database, JSTOR, Brittanica Online Academic, Africa Online Journals (AJOL), World Bank publications, among many others.

Provision of access to e-resources at CAGRIC is not without challenges. According to the Head Librarian, Mr. Theophilus Fiawatoafor, frequent power outages and un-reliable Internet connection have a negative impact on the use of e-resources in the institution. Other problems faced are inadequate computers for use by students to access the e-resources. While a large number of staff access e-resources from their offices, students who decide to use Library facilities have to share only three PCs.



CAGRIC Library

 Despite the challenges faced, access to e-resources is filling the gap for academic and research information that exists in the College. Students and staff have access electronic resources that otherwise may not be available to them. Subscription costs to the e-resources available to staff and students are very high and way beyond the Library budget for acquisition of information resources.  

Scientific information at the fingertips of researchers and students in SSA

A participant on the Research4Life training
workshop at Kigali Institute of  Education,
 Rwanda, December 2012

Access to up-to-date, good quality scientific information available in international scientific journals should no longer be a challenge to researchers, lecturers and students in public universities and research organizations in sub-Saharan Africa. Research4Life meets most of their scientific information needs.

Research4Life is a public-private partnership composed of four programmes, namely the HINARI Access to Research in Health programme led by WHO, Access to Global Online Research in Agriculture (AGORA) programme by FAO, Online Access to Research in the Environment (OARE) programme by UNEP and the Access to Research in Development and Innovation (ARDI) by WIPO. The partnership, whose main goal is to help attain six of the UN’s eight Millennium Development Goals by 2015, reducing the scientific knowledge gap between industrialized countries and the developing world, is composed of UN agencies, Cornell and Yale Universities, the International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers, working together with the technology partner, Microsoft.

Considering that most public universities and research organizations in sub-Saharan Africa lack financial resources to subscribe to international scientific journals, ensuring that their researchers and students have easy and unlimited access to resources made available through Research4Life must be a priority. Research4Life provides access to over 17,000 peer reviewed scientific journals, books and databases, worth millions of dollars. Access to these resources is at no direct cost to most public universities and research organizations in sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, training (including training-of-trainers) in how to access and use Research4Life resources is in most cases also provided by ITOCA at no direct costs to the beneficiary institutions.

I do not see any justifications for universities and research organizations for not accessing and using Research4Life resources. Afterall, subscription to access the resources is free, access to the resources is free (for most beneficiaries) and training to access the resources is also free for most beneficiaries. In addition, access to the resources is guaranteed through 2020.

For more information contact partners@research4life.org

HINARI – hinari@who.int
AGORA – agora@fao.org
OARE – oare@unep.org
WIPO – ardi@wipo.org

Also, check the ITOCA website for the training schedule.