Science and technology in Ivory Coast

In 2014, Ivory Coast had a population of 20.8 million that was growing at a rapid rate of 2.4% per year. Ivory Coast ranked 47th on the Ibrahim Index of African Governance. In 2011, three-quarters (76%) of the population had access to clean water, 59% to electricity, 15% to sanitation and just 2.6% access to Internet.[1]

In 2013, the services sector contributed more than half (56%) of GDP, compared to 22% for agriculture and 22% for industry. Within industry, manufacturing contributed 13% of GDP, one of the highest ratios in West Africa. Three products accounted for more than half of exports: cocoa beans (32% of exports), petroleum and other oils (12%) and natural rubber (7%).[1]

Ivory Coast recorded economic growth of 8.7% in 2013 after entering recession in 2011 at the height of the political crisis engendered by President Laurent Gbagbo's decision to contest the electoral result. With the political crisis now over, the government of President Alassane Ouattara has vowed to restore the country to its former leading role in Sub-Saharan Africa. The National Development Plan for 2012–2015 has two primary objectives: to achieve double-digit growth by 2014 and to turn Ivory Coast into an upper middle-income country by 2020. A second national development plan was under preparation in 2015 for 2016–2020.[2]

The budget for the National Development Plan to 2015 is broken down into five strategic areas: greater wealth creation and social equity (63.8%), provision of quality social services for vulnerable populations, particularly women and children (14.6%), good governance and the restoration of peace and security (9.6%), a healthy environment (9.4%) and the repositioning of Ivory Coast on the regional and international scenes (1.8%).[2]

Key targets of the National Development Plan requiring recourse to science and technology include:[2][3]

• rehabilitation of the railway linking Abidjan to Burkina Faso’s border, rehabilitation and extension of the ports of Abidjan and San Pédro, creation of a new airline company (infrastructure and transport);
• increasing the productivity of yam, banana plantain and manioc by at least 15% (agriculture);
• creation of two transformation units for iron and manganese and one for gold refining (mining);
• construction of the Soubré dam, electrification of 200 rural communities each year (energy);
• establishment and equipping of three technopoles to promote innovation, transformation of 50% of raw materials into value-added goods (industry and SMEs);

• expansion of the country’s fibre optic network, introduction of an e-education programme, establishment of cybercentres in every municipality (post and ICTs);

• construction and equipping of 25 000 classrooms, construction of four universities and a university village, rehabilitation of several existing universities (education);
• rehabilitation of hospitals and clinics, free health care for children under the age of five, free childbirth care and free emergency care (health);
• construction of latrines in rural areas, rehabilitation of sewage systems in Abidjan and Yamoussoukro (sanitation);
• connection of 30 000 low-income families each year to subsidized piped water (drinking water);
• rehabilitation of the lagoon and Cocody Bay in Abidjan and construction of a technopole to treat and recycle industrial and dangerous waste (environment).

According to the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Ivory Coast devoted about 0.13% of its GDP to GERD in 2013. Apart from low investment, other challenges include inadequate scientific equipment, the fragmentation of research organizations and a failure to exploit and protect research results.[2]

The share of the National Development Plan to 2015 devoted to scientific research remains modest. Within the section on greater wealth creation and social equity (63.8% of the total budget for the Plan), just 1.2% is allocated to scientific research. Twenty-four national research programmes group public and private research and training institutions around a common research theme. These programmes correspond to eight priority sectors for 2012–2015, namely: health, raw materials, agriculture, culture, environment, governance, mining and energy; and technology.[2]

In 2012, Ivory Coast counted 57 541 students at post-secondary diploma level, 23 008 first- and second-degree (bachelor's and master's) students and 269 PhD students. Enrollment in tertiary education suffered during the political crisis, halving from 9.03% of the 18-25-year cohort in 2009 to 4.46% in 2012.[2]

Recent data are unavailable but, in 2005, there were a total of 1,269 researchers in full-time equivalents, corresponding to 73 per million inhabitants. Some 16% of researchers were women, a lower proportion than the 30% average for Sub-Saharan Africa.[2]

Scientific output is relatively modest in Ivory Coast, with scientists producing 10 articles per million inhabitants in international journals in 2014, compared to a continental average of 20 per million. The language barrier may explain this trend at least in part, since Thomson Reuters' database tends to favour English-language journals. Between 2005 and 2014, Ivory Coast's scientific output almost doubled from 110 to 208, according to Thomson Reuters' Web of Science (Science Citation Index Expanded), a trend also observed in other West African countries. The production of scientific articles from Ivory Coast peaked in 2012 before declining slightly in 2014, no doubt as a result of the political crisis in the country. Between 2008 and 2014, scientists published most in biological sciences (427 articles), followed by medical sciences (302) then geosciences (114), agriculture and chemistry (78 each).[2]

Ivory Coast is an exception in West Africa for the rate of international collaboration. Whereas more than eight out of ten articles had a foreign co-author in most countries in 2014, the rate in Ivory Coast was 73%. Between 2008 and 2014, Ivory Coast's main scientific partners were France (610 co-authored articles), the United States of America (183), Switzerland (162), the United Kingdom (109) and Burkina Faso (93). Ivory Coast is also the fifth-closest collaborator for Togo.[2]

The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) established the ECOWAS Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE) in Praia, the capital of Cape Verde, in 2010. The centre has been established within the United Nations' Sustainable Energy for All programme. The mission of the centre is to create favourable framework conditions for renewable energy and energy efficiency markets in the 15 member states of ECOWAS. Since its founding, there has been growing external demand for its services.

Two other centres in Sub-Saharan Africa will seek to replicate the ECREEE model. One will be established by UNIDO and the East African Community to serve Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. A second will serve the 15 Member States of the Southern Africa Development Community. Both centres should be fully operational by 2014. Other centres are being established within the same network in the Caribbean and Pacific.

From 2005 onwards, the New Partnership for Africa's Development set up four networks within the African Biosciences Initiative. The West African Biosciences Network has its hub at the Senegalese Institute for Agricultural Research in Dakar. The other networks are the Southern African Network for Biosciences, based at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in Pretoria (South Africa), the Northern Africa Biosciences Network based at the National Research Centre in Cairo (Egypt) and the Biosciences Eastern and Central Africa Network based at the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi (Kenya).[2]

There are five African Institutes for Mathematical Sciences. These are situated in Cameroon (est. 2013), Ghana (est. 2012), Senegal (est. 2013), South Africa (est. 2003) and Tanzania (est. 2014). The one in Senegal teaches in both English and French. Each institute provides academic programmes in basic and applied mathematics, including cosmology, finance and computing, as well as interdisciplinary fields like bioinformatics. Each also provides community services.[2]

The first institute was the brainchild of South African cosmologist Neil Turok. It is planned to develop 15 centres of excellence across Africa by 2023 within the Next Einstein Initiative, a name inspired by the idea that the next Einstein could come from Africa. The project is supported by numerous governments in Africa and Europe, as well as by the Government of Canada.

The West Africa Institute was established in Praia (Cape Verde) in 2010 to provide the missing link between policy and research in the regional integration process. The institute is a service provider, conducting research for regional and national public institutions, the private sector, civil society and the media. The think tank also organizes political and scientific dialogues between policy-makers, regional institutions and members of civil society.