PRETORIA – Africa needs to fund its own research and development or risk being left behind by a rapidly shifting global order. That was the hard-hitting message on the second day of Africa Week 2025, currently underway at Future Africa, the University of Pretoria’s (UP) pan-African platform for collaborative research. 

Speakers across two panel discussions on climate, environmental and health security called for greater domestic investment in science, stronger public institutions and a rethink of the role of universities in society. Higher education institutions must not only produce knowledge, delegates heard, but also be open to receiving guidance so that university-produced research addresses real gaps and leads to tangible, public-facing impact. 

The day’s first key thematic panel discussion, chaired by Prof Barend Erasmus, Dean of UP’s Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, laid bare the widening cracks in planetary and political systems, and how these are playing out across the African continent. 

Prof David Lodge, an environmental scientist and Director of Cornell University’s Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability, cautioned that the changing political climate in the US, particularly under the Donald Trump administration, “will reverberate for many years in global science”. 

“Now is a very good time for African leaders to focus on fostering stronger science at African universities with African resources,” Prof Lodge said. “And I say that partly with regret. I realise that comment runs counter to the focus and the importance that we want to emphasise, and I continue to believe in multilateral co-operation. But I think this is reality.”

He noted that rising isolationism in the United States – combined with a likely shift of both US and European Union budgets toward military spending – would come at the expense of foreign aid, scientific co-operation and international diplomacy. In the short term, he warned, Africa may feel the absence of global collaboration more acutely.  

This sentiment was echoed by Prof Tafadzwa Mabhaudhi of the Lancet Countdown Africa Regional Centre at UP, who reiterated: “What we’re witnessing is an unravelling of decades of progress.” 

Why self-reliance is important 

Prof Mabhaudhi explained that African countries rely heavily on climate data and satellite imagery provided by institutions such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). In times of disaster, countries activate the SPIDER protocol, which enables use of global satellites to generate real-time imagery for crisis response. However, all these support systems are now under threat, he warned, placing response capacity at risk. 

“We, for the longest time, have relied on the leadership and funding of America to do these things, and we became complacent… now we have to act. It’s fair to criticise what America has done, what the American administration is doing, but it’s also important to understand that it is their prerogative, it is not our entitlement. We have our entitlement and our responsibilities to our countries and to this continent, and it is our fundamental responsibility to act first and foremost to protect ourselves from climate and environmental crises. It is our fundamental responsibility to provide for ourselves.”  

Prof Nkechi Owoo, Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Ghana, provided possible solutions rooted in the continent’s own capacity. She argued for adaptation strategies that are locally designed, sustainable and inclusive. These include better water and energy management, gender-responsive planning, and leveraging traditional knowledge alongside scientific evidence.

“There is a deep need to focus on alternative energy sources – solar, hydro, wind – to try to mitigate the current problems of deforestation, overgrazing, drought, and then soil degradation in many parts of our continent... I believe this must be done in collaboration with indigenous communities, who have long-standing experience in adapting to climate vulnerability and extreme weather events and may therefore offer valuable lessons for policymakers and our research scientists.”

Health security is national security 

The panel on health, chaired by Prof Christopher Isike, UP’s Head of Political Sciences and Director of the African Centre for the Study of the US, turned attention to health security, an area which was recognised as significant during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Drawing on lessons from the pandemic, Prof Isike said COVID-19 exposed both the fragility of public health systems and global interconnectedness. He argued that the pandemic also showed how national well-being depends not only on economic growth but on strong, inclusive health systems. These insights, he said, must inform how African countries define and prioritise security. 

Prof Wanda Markotter, Future Africa Research Chair: People, Health and Places (One Health), and Director of UP’s Centre for Viral Zoonoses, noted that governments were finally starting to connect the dots between pandemics and national security threats, and this shift is starting to shape international dialogue. 

She stressed the need for real-time disease surveillance systems to detect outbreaks without delay, and called for stronger investment in health systems, including coverage, workforce training, and access to vaccines and protective gear.

Shining the light on Africa’s immediate threats, Dr Yewande Alimi, One Health Unit Lead at the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and co-lead for the AU Task Force on Antimicrobial Resistance, described a health landscape marked by overlapping crises such as zoonotic spillovers, waterborne illnesses, climate-driven cholera outbreaks and rising antimicrobial resistance. 

“Globally, Africa bears the highest burden of antimicrobial resistance. This means that if nothing is done, the drugs that the doctors give us – the antibiotics, antifungals – will no longer work,” she warned. 

While Africa is data-rich across sectors such as health, agriculture and climate, these resources are often underutilised. Dr Alimi explained that this is largely because the data remains fragmented: government entities seldom coordinate, and researchers don’t always translate their findings into actionable insights for policymakers.

Dr Tedson Nkoana of the Future Africa Research Chair: People, Health and Places (One Health), called for a shift from centralised, siloed health policymaking. He argued that Africa’s resilience lies in collective thinking, cross-sectoral collaboration, and inclusive solutions that draw on the strengths of government, academia, civil society and international partners. Strengthening infrastructure, partnerships and system coordination, he said, is essential to addressing the continent’s overlapping challenges.