Experiences in Open Research & Education for Sustainable Development in Africa

Presentation of my research to promote Sustainable Production and Utilization of African Indigenous Vegetables (AIVs) for Nutrition Security and Poverty Reduction in Kenya (Africa).

Research Activities, Advocacy and Outreach: Capacity building for Undergraduate and postgraduate students, Farmers and CBO, Policymakers

Impact & Effects of AIVs Research: Products, A healthy Nation, Quality seeds, Good crop for farmers, Availability & Consumption, Leaflets

Dissemination and Technology Transfer // Benefits of IR and Open Research

• African Indigenous Vegetables moved from being Poor man’s food/weeds in 1991to Super Vegetables in June 2015 as a result of Open Access Publishing. See nature.com/news/the-rise-of- africa-s-super-vegetables-1.17712

Challenges

• Poor internet connectivity (ICT)
• Inadequate ICT infrastructure
• Inadequate advocacy and misconceptions
• Managing IP Rights issues
• Lack of awareness of publisher copyright and obligations. Researchers end up publishing in journals that restrict open access making it impossible to upload their work in our IR
• Harvesting research is a tedious process because the library has to confirm with different publishers on archiving rights

Conclusions

• Deliberate efforts should be made and policies and strategies put in place to support open Research and Educational materials
• Scientific Research findings must be effectively communicated to the public for impact on society and policy by repackaging them (Real Impact? )
• Researchers and scholars should make efforts to publish in open access journals
• Develop an enabling environment for open Science and OP publishing for researchers
• Identify African Open Science Champions (AAS)
• Clear reward systems to be established