16 Sep 2018

Some researchers have pleaded with government to strengthen the linkage between science and policy in order to make sound decisions which will benefit the communities.

They made the remarks when responding to President Mokgweetsi Masisi’s presentation which aimed to forge partnership between government and researchers.

They appreciated policies in place but stated that some were disempowering communities to earn a living because the linkage was weak as there was no interaction between decision makers and researchers.

University of Botswana vice chancellor, Professor David Norris said some of the policies were disempowering programmes led by the community.

He mentioned policies such as the wildlife conservation, tourism and rural development policies, questioning whether they took into cognisance the community-based natural resource initiatives that the community desired in conserving the natural resource.

He appreciated that government had set up Okavango Research Institute (ORI) to look into the unique island water ecosystem, and that a lot of work had been done which included natural resources management, wildlife conservation, wildlife human conflict and the management plan of the Okavango Delta.

Prof. Norris said the institution had a wealth of research findings on various issues and questioned whether the linkage between policies and science was strong enough.

Thus, he stressed the need for government to strengthen collaboration with researchers so that they made policies which were informed by empirical evidence and benefitted communities.

He also noted that they had not been doing well in disseminating their research findings or interacting with policy makers on some of the issues.

Prof. Joseph Mbaiwa from ORI concurred with the vice chancellor, saying the country had a big challenge in linking policy and research.

He said linkage was weak and underscored the need to increase interaction between decision makers and researchers.

He revealed that some of the decisions taken had left science out, and that some of the policy issues alleviated communities to participate in natural conservation related issues.

Prof. Mbaiwa mentioned some of the issues such as the hunting ban, fishing at Lake Ngami and land bank, saying they had disadvantaged the community against conservation.

On the hunting ban, he highlighted that they did not say all animals should be hunted, but said they could target those whose population had gone up such as elephants and buffaloes.

He also cited the challenge of fishing at Lake Ngami, noting that communities were alleviated from fishing and that ORI was ready to provide information to guide people to continue fishing because the lake was seasonal.

“There is no how we can achieve conservation if we remove the human aspect. Best scientific practices say we bring in the community, science and balance to achieve conservation and if you focus on ecology alone, then you are missing the point,” he added.

Prof. Mbaiwa commended government’s intention to fund ORI and said he wished a national research fund could be established so that they could have good infrastructure and be in a position to employ more researchers.

President Masisi appreciated their comments but disagreed that there was no relationship between research and policy makers, saying they had a strong track record of issues that were evidence driven, citing the Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) programme.

He said they wanted to further engage them. “I believe we should both accept that we need to jack up.”

Government, he said, was ready to work with the research community and urged them to engage permanent secretaries if they wanted to dialogue with government on research.

President Masisi said they needed advice from them and other government institutions on the most efficient ways of managing research in the country, adding that the country wants to be a knowledge based economy.

He described researchers as diamond developers for tomorrow.

Quality, protection, ownership, processes and findings of the research were some of the issues, he said, needed to be discussed and settled on what percentage of ownership the government claimed by virtue of the fact that the location of research was Botswana.

“It does not matter who you are or where the money comes from, the fact is you are using our laboratories so we want a share and we need to sort it out quickly because we also demand development and prosperity. Out delta does not come cheap,” he added. ENDS