C. ASSAf Policymakers' Booklets
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Policymakers' Booklets are summaries of Consensus Study Reports aiming at making scientific information accessible to policymakers and the general public.
Peer-Review Status: Peer-Reviewed
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Item Code of Best Practice in Scholarly Journal Publishing, Editing and Peer Review(Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf), 2015-03) Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf)Item Essential facts about Covid-19: the disease, the responses, and an uncertain future. For South African learners, teachers, and the general public(Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf), 2021) Bucher, Martin (ed); Mall, Anwar Suleman (ed); Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf)The first cases of a new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) were identified toward the end of 2019 in Wuhan, China. Over the following months, this virus spread to everywhere in the world. By now no country has been spared the devastation from the loss of lives from the disease (Covid-19) and the economic and social impacts of responses to mitigate the impact of the virus. Our lives in South Africa have been turned upside down as we try to make the best of this bad situation. The 2020 school year was disrupted with closure and then reopening in a phased approach, as stipulated by the Department of Education. This booklet is a collective effort by academics who are Members of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) and other invited scholars to help you appreciate some of the basic scientific facts that you need to know in order to understand the present crisis and the various options available to respond to it. We emphasise that the threat of infectious diseases is not an entirely new phenomenon that has sprung onto the stage out of nowhere. Infectious diseases and pandemics have been with us for centuries, in fact much longer. Scientists have warned us for years of the need to prepare for the next pandemic. Progress in medicine in the course of the 20th century has been formidable. Childhood mortality has greatly decreased almost everywhere in the world, thanks mainly, but not only, to the many vaccines that have been developed. Effective drugs now exist for many deadly diseases for which there were once no cures. For many of us, this progress has generated a false sense of security. It has caused us to believe that the likes of the 1918 ‘Spanish flu’ pandemic, which caused some 50 million deaths around the world within a span of a few months, could not be repeated in some form in today’s modern world. The Covid-19 pandemic reminds us that as new cures for old diseases are discovered, new diseases come along for which we are unprepared. And every hundred or so years one of these diseases wreaks havoc on the world and interferes severely with our usual ways of going about our lives. Today’s world has become increasingly interconnected and interdependent, through trade, migrations, and rapid air travel. This globalisation makes it easier for epidemics to spread, somewhat offsetting the power of modern medicine. In this booklet we have endeavoured to provide an historical perspective, and to enrich your knowledge with some of the basics of medicine, viruses, and epidemiology. Beyond the immediate Covid-19 crisis, South Africa faces a number of other major health challenges: highly unequal access to quality healthcare, widespread tuberculosis, HIV infection causing AIDS, a high prevalence of mental illness, and a low life expectancy, compared to what is possible with today’s medicine. It is essential that you, as young people, also learn about the nature of these new challenges, so that you may contribute to finding future solutions.Item Regulation of Agricultural GM Technology in Africa(Academy of Science of South Africa, 2012) Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf)This policymakers’ booklet is produced by the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) as part of the project “GMOs for African Agriculture: Opportunities and Challenges”. The project was implemented through ASSAf’s Committee on Science for Poverty Alleviation. The project is in its second year of implementation with funding from the Global Network of Science Academies (IAP).Item Science, Water and Sanitation: Supporting Equitable and Sustainable Development in southern Africa(Academy of Science of South Africa, 2012) Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf)The Southern African Development Community (SADC) region faces a number of challenges in ensuring water for equitable and sustainable development. In most of these countries water resources infrastructure is underdeveloped, and significant climate variability means economic sustainability and development is hostage to rainfall. The aim of this policy-makers’ booklet is to outline the role that science academies can play in assisting policy-makers and managers to address some of the key water challenges in the southern African region. This is part of a process of building a strong partnership between the science community and government actors. It is intended to be useful to policy-makers in the water sector, and to policy-makers in those sectors that are major water users, such as the agricultural, industrial and mining sectors, as well as those with a mandate to protect the natural environment and whose policies and decisions impact directly or indirectly on water quantity, quality and accessibility. The booklet is focused on six countries, namely Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mauritius, Mozambique, South Africa and Namibia, each of which has an established science academy, or one that is in the process of being established. However, the messages in this booklet are relevant to the broader southern African region as a whole. This booklet should resonate with policy-makers in the southern Africa region, and together with other similar studies from East, West and North Africa, present an overview of water issues in the continent. The main aim will be to inform the African Ministers’ Committee on Water (AMCOW) and other political and technical leadership in the continent.Item Turning Science On: Improving Access to Energy in sub-Saharan Africa(Academy of Science of South Africa, 2010) Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf)Access to modern energy services, defined as electricity and clean cooking fuels, is central to a country’s development. Poor access retards the pace of national development and poverty reduction and delays the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The availability and use of energy will greatly influence how rapidly African countries are able to increase their agricultural productivity, provide safe water, achieve economic development, and use information and communications technologies to become increasingly integrated into the global economy.Item Inquiry-Based Science Education: Increasing Participation of Girls in Science in sub-Saharan Africa Policy-makers’ Booklet(Academy of Science of South Africa, 2011) Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf)This policy-makers’ booklet is a joint project of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf), the Network of African Science Academies (NASAC), the Organisation of Women Scientists for the Developing World (OWSDW) and the Gender Advisory Board of the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development (UNCSTD).Item Science in Action: Saving the Lives of Africa’s Mothers, Newborns, and Children(Academy of Science of South Africa, 2009) Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf)Science in action: Saving the lives of Africa’s mothers, newborns, and children presents an overview of the current status of maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) in sub-Saharan Africa and reports a new analysis of how many lives could be saved if science translated into action through health systems. This publication was prepared for the Fifth Annual Meeting of the African Science Academy Development Initiative (ASADI), hosted by the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences on 10-11 November 2009 as part of its 50th anniversary celebration. ASADI is a project funded by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation through the United States National Academies to strengthen African academies of sciences in advising their national governments on matters of science and technology. This report includes data for all of sub-Saharan Africa but focuses specifically on the seven countries participating in ASADI.Item Social Protection in Africa: Overview for Policymakers(Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf), 2016-08) Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf)What is social protection? - What are cash transfers? - What are social protection floors? - Why is social protection in Africa important? - Socio-economic context - The development of social protection in Africa - Non-contributory social protection programmes in Africa: Overview of programmes - Which types of social protection intervention are most common? - What is the size of cash transfers? - What is the institutional location and who funds social protection programmes? - How much do social protection programmes cost? - Social protection in Africa: Reviewing the evidence - Poverty and inequality reduction - Nutrition and food security - Health - Education - Gender - Productive outcomes - Community empowerment and citizen accountability - Social protection in Africa: Key issues - Rights-based approaches to social protection - Universalism and targeting - Gender - Conditional vs unconditional cash transfers - Cash or food - Institutionalisation - Affordability - Labour market linkages and informal workers - Technology - Informal social protection