Exploring Community Science in the African Context
Citizen science seeks to involve lay publics in scientific research and problem solving, transforming community members from being mere consumers of research into active participants. Over the years, the roles of citizen scientists have evolved from data collection to include determining research objectives, analysing results, and communicating findings. It is refreshing to see more and more scientists and innovators incorporate citizen science methods in their work.
Citizen science is growing in Africa, just like in other parts of the world. The month of April saw a month-long global celebration of citizen science, led by Science Starter, which coincided with the April edition of JOGL Africa Community event series. Dubbed ‘Community Science in Action’, the programme sought to highlight cutting-edge community initiatives from Ghana, Ireland, and the United States and addressed important social impact issues.
Frederick Gyasi Damptey, an applied ecologist, spoke about engaging school children and forest fringe community members in basic biodiversity research, forest conservation, and biodiversity/climate change awareness campaigns, through his research and the NGO ForestAid Ghana.
Seán Lynch, a social entrepreneur and GIS expert, shared how OpenLitterMap mobilised more than 6000 people to upload more than 250,000 photos and almost 500,000 tags of plastics in their communities worldwide. He also spoke about Littercoin, the first token rewarded for producing geographic information and collecting data about the environment.
Patrick Campbell, a public interest technologist, GIS Analyst at Innovate!, and JOGL Fellow, spoke about the Conservation Giant Lab, an initiative applying JOGL’s open, community-driven approach to solving urgent problems in conservation and climate action.
After the presentations, the speakers discussed their experiences implementing citizen and community science programmes. Some of the issues explored were the importance of the community approach, how to get started with projects, leveraging technology to scale efforts, and prospects for community science in Africa going forward. One of the most daunting challenges faced by project leaders is access to resources — contributors, funding, and equipment to advance their work. Considering the many advantages of the community approach, I believe these challenges can be overcome with advocacy and demonstration of impact over time.
In addition to the knowledge exchange on citizen science, the event connected people involved in research, innovation, entrepreneurship, civil society, and the public sector in Africa and beyond. JOGL is all about facilitating these connections so that we can collectively solve some of the most challenging issues of our time. Join the JOGL Africa Community and be part of the solution.
The next JOGL Africa session will feature a workshop and panel discussion on biosafety and biosecurity led by JOGL Africa Ambassadors Alex Kyabarongo and Erikan Baluku.
