By Mahzouba Maya Faal
The Ministry of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology (MoHERST) led by its Directorate of Research, the last week validated The Gambia’s first National Research Policy.
Held at the Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara International Conference Centre in Bijilo, the forum gathered stakeholders from the following institutions: Ministry of Health, Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education, Medical Research Council, The Gambia National Library, Central Bank of The Gambia, University of The Gambia, University of Applied Science, Engineering and Technology (USET), Ministry of Fisheries and Water Resources, Management Development Institute, among many other partners.
In his keynote speech, the Permanent Secretary of MoHERST, Mod A.K Secka, emphasized the significance of research in national development. He noted that the world is experiencing structural global transformations, many of which can be attributed to the fast pace of scientific discovery, development and innovation that has occurred in recent decades. According to him, this trajectory of development is not what we are experiencing here in sub-Saharan Africa and in The Gambia in particular.
“It is important that we open the dialogue; that we get our priorities right. Why are the sub-Saharan African countries lacking behind in education when other regions are moving? We must work towards making research [based] policy, public dialogues and mutual engagements on all the issues that are of relevance to The Gambia. This should be our focus now,” said PS Secka.
The Director of Research at MoHERST, Mr James Gomez, inhis remarks, thanked participants for gracing the auspicious occasion and underscore that the main objective of the Directorate is to ensure research quality, strengthen research capacity and infrastructure, as well as management of research in the country. Mr James reminded participants of the joint MoHERST-UTG study conducted in 2010 that was based on the situation of research in The Gambia. According to him, the study revealedthat different public and private institutions were conducting research but with little coordination. This, he said, usually results in the duplication of efforts and resources.
He went on: “Conscious of the existence of the National Health Research Draft Policy, 2009, the Ministry of Health has formal structures to facilitate, regulate and monitor health research activities within the sector. This includes a scientific ethic committee at UTG, Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital, MRC scientific coordination committee,others. However, there was no legal framework to guide the functioning of the various health research committees”.
Thus, thefirst National Research Policy validated provides a legal framework and regulatory instruments to guide research operations in the country.
Meanwhile, the validation progressed to an interesting discussion where members shared vital inputs to the policy. The representative from the National Library suggested there be copies of the policy shared to the library as this will further raise awareness and enable the transfer of knowledge.
Senior Research Officer, Lala Jaiteh gave the vote of thanks.