Initiative Aims to Limit Excessive Red Tape for African Science

Research organizations and universities have typically faced burdensome paperwork to convince funders their money would not be wasted.

munya makoni
| 3 min read

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ABOVE: At the Science Forum South Africa on December 12, 2018, organizers unveiled the Good Financial Grant Practice (GFGP). Pictured in the front row (left to right) are grant recipients who have trialled the GFGP, followed by Tom Kariuki, the director of programs at the Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa at the African Academy of Sciences, Nelson Torto, the executive director of the African Academy of Sciences, Michael Kilpatrick, senior advisor to GFGP, Raymond Murenzi, director Rwanda Standards Board, and Berhanu Abegaz, former executive director of the African Academy of Sciences.
FLICKR, AFRICAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

For every grant his university won, Robin Drennan had to perform due diligence exercises—responding to a dozen queries from worried funders and certifying that the grant money won’t go to waste before it was released.

“In practice, it’s answering 500 questions,” he says. “Do you have a policy on corruption? Do you ...

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Meet the Author

  • munya makoni

    Munyaradzi Makoni

    Munyaradzi is a freelance journalist based in Cape Town, South Africa. He covers agriculture, climate change, environment, health, higher education, sustainable development, and science in general. Among other outlets, his work has appeared in Hakai magazine, Nature, Physics World, Science, SciDev.net, The Lancet, The Scientist, Thomson Reuters Foundation, and University World News.

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