Strengths and good practices
Rwanda’s science-based health innovation system including biotechnology has several strengths, which include liberal policies on employment of expatriates, the clustering of its academic and research institutes in one main geographical area, and the multi-lingual nature of the population, which means that it is easier for Rwanda to trade with many countries.
Perhaps the greatest strength of Rwanda’s science and technology system is the political support and dynamic leadership that the country is currently experiencing, especially from the country’s President, Paul Kagame. This was cited by many respondents who also mentioned the fact that the country has made dramatic investments in science and technology. According to the President, Rwanda currently invests 1.6% of its GDP on Science and Technology [
25]. The country has also developed a strong science, technology and innovation policy, meaning that Rwanda has realized the need to incorporate STI in its economic development agenda. Activities to implement the policy have already started and the World Bank carried out a needs assessment based on the STI policy and recommended practical solutions to some of Rwanda’s problems [
26]. The main area of focus was value addition to agricultural products. The 2009 government budget provided funds (approximately 100, 000 dollars) to support innovation activities. These funds can be accessed by any scientist or entrepreneur. An initial disbursement of these funds was made to support projects in KIST and ISAR; one on the use of banana fibres in textiles and the other on sericulture development in Rwanda. From interviews with government officials, it also appears that the government readily welcomes donors and international institutions that are willing to help it strengthen science activities in Rwanda.
However, while Rwanda has a good STI policy, STI activities in the country are mainly focused on the development of information technology with little focus on health and health biotechnology. The reasoning behind this is that Rwanda aims to become the information technology hub of Africa. Information technology has become very useful in supporting health programs in Rwanda, as evidenced from the TRACNET program. However, interviewees mentioned that health innovation is not sufficiently mentioned in the STI policy.
The main opportunities in science-based health innovation and biotechnology for Rwanda are in traditional plant technologies (see Table
1 for selected opportunities). Interviewees repeatedly cited this as the area of greatest potential. Reasons included the existence of IRST (an institute that has some capacity to carry out research in traditional medicines), the ready availability of a variety of traditional plants, and the experience of traditional plant healers. Health-related information technology was also identified as an area with great potential. Many interviewees gave the reason for this to be the well developed information infrastructure in the country, as well as the government’s inclination to support information technology policies.
Table 1
Various products and processes being developed in Rwandan institutions
Traditional herbal medicines -Gifurina-Datura stramonium -Bentakor-P. Lanceolata -Tusinkor-E.globulus -Tumitusilinga-T.Vulgaris -Kanwalina-M.Sacchalinensis -Calendula-C.officinalis -Tembatembe A-N.Mitis. | Anti-spasmodic Anti-cough Anti-cough Oral disinfectant Anti-arthritic Anti-inflammatory Scabies | IRST | Whole plant extracts. Adoption of existing practices by traditional healers and carry out safety and efficacy tests |
Essential oils-Geranium | Cosmetics / Dermatology | IKIREZI Natural products | Extraction of essential oils from geranium plant |
Intravenous fluids and water for injection | | Laborphor | For use in hospitals, since transport costs for this bulky product are high |
Pyrethrum treated long lasting mosquito nets | Malaria | Utexrwa | Concept under development with researchers from Canada |
Health information technology software | Health IT | TRAC | Developing software for integrating health information, in partnership with Voxiva. |
Recommendations
From the interviews, we can conclude that there are specific challenges that need to be overcome for Rwanda to successfully exploit its science-based health innovation and biotechnology. When we interviewed the management of the various research institutions, they cited deficiency in scientific infrastructure and a shortfall in the number of trained scientists who are capable of carrying out advanced health biotechnology research as one of the major challenges. Specifically, many interviewees cited the low number of people trained in molecular biology techniques as a hindrance to development of the sector. Post-graduate opportunities within Rwanda are limited, particularly within health biotechnology.
In addition, there is a skewed distribution of health researchers in favour of teaching at academic institutions. This has contributed to the dismally low number of research publications by local Rwandan scientists, which total only 30 research articles published between 2002 and 2004. From the interviews, many of the scientists did not appear able or sufficiently motivated to pursue entrepreneurial activities as most do not consider research to be rewarding.
The brain drain that occurred during earlier years in the country’s history continues to plague science and technology. This was made worse by the genocide, during which scientists were among those who were killed or fled to other countries in the region and abroad. While a few have returned and formed part of the interview pool, many are still abroad. However, this may also represent a strength, as the Rwandan diaspora consists of highly qualified individuals who left the country either as refugees or to pursue higher education in the West. When interviewed, many members of the diaspora said that since they are now occupying senior positions in new countries, they are unwilling to return to Rwanda, but they could lend their skills to support development of health biotechnology if appropriate policies are put in place.
Another problem is brain drain within the country, mainly as a result of a serious mismatch between capabilities, opportunities and compensation of scientists within Rwanda. Interviewees repeatedly cited the efflux of researchers from university and research institutes towards sectors that do not engage in research, such as NGOs that offer attractive work environments and higher salaries.
Discussions with scientists showed that a career in politics has become a very attractive field for Rwandan scientists. Indeed, a close examination of the Rwandan Cabinet and Parliament reveals a contingent of very highly trained professionals, many of whom possess advanced degrees in biotechnology, engineering, or health and significant research experience. This illustrates the internal brain drain phenomenon, although it may be argued that having a scientifically literate political establishment has contributed to increased support for science and technology.
We can deduce from the study that science-based health innovation and biotechnology in Rwanda is currently fragmented, with training and scientific research falling under many different agencies. For example, universities fall under the Ministry of Education, while research institutes fall under different ministries including the Ministry of Agriculture (e.g ISAR, ISAE) and the Minister in President's Office in Charge of Science, Technology, Scientific Research, and Information Communication Technologies (e.g ISTR). From the interviews it was apparent that the government has continued to fund R&D institutes and universities without paying much attention to the quality of research being conducted, the use of research outputs, or the relationship of research to the country’s economic, scientific, or market priorities. Neither does it appear that efforts have been made to stimulate linkages between the private sector and the universities and research institutes in Rwanda. Most scientists interviewed did not seem to know what other research institutes were doing, nor were there institutional mechanisms to outsource their knowledge to the private sector players like venture capitalists.
In order to successfully exploit the potential of science-based health innovation and biotechnology in Rwanda, several recommendations can be made.
Recommendation 1: Strengthen the skills base: For a country with limited resources like Rwanda, investment in knowledge arguably is critical to development. Rwanda should promote the training of its scientists in order to develop a scientific pool that can spur health innovation. This can be done through domestic, regional, and overseas institutions. We realize that this will require considerable resources, but one source of skills and training staff is the Rwandan diaspora who can be encouraged through incentives to provide short-term training to scientists in Rwanda. Attaching skilled members of the diaspora to universities in Rwanda will reduce costs of sending students abroad. Because of its strong links with international institutions, online courses could also be used whereby staff from western universities give lectures on scientific areas as well as on entrepreneurship.
Carrying out an audit of the personnel and scientific infrastructure available in Rwanda will help identify areas that need strengthening. To reduce brain drain, it is important that the government provides incentives through reasonable wages for scientists and clear promotion paths as well as facilities for scientists to be able to carry out their work. Institutions should develop IP policies that reward individuals who are innovative.
Recommendation 2: Encourage the establishment of R & D within private sector firms: The government can do this by creating a favourable business environment for firms that want to engage in R & D. Firms like Utexrwa which have already indicated willingness to engage in health innovation might be incentivized. This could be through tax incentives on research equipment and raw materials, as well as local “advance market commitments”, whereby the Ministry of Health guarantees purchase of products developed locally as long as they meet internationally accepted standards. Strengthening of intellectual property regimes and increasing awareness of IP by scientists will be helpful. There is also need to support innovative activities by providing funds that scientists and entrepreneurs can access, such as prototype or product development funds in the form of grants or loans.
Recommendation 3: Establish a focal point for science-based health and biotechnology development: There is need to coordinate R & D and innovation at the national level. Currently, there is no National Science Council or Commission which could be the body charged with coordinating research in Rwanda. While the government has established the Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC) which merges 15 medical institutions in the country, the focus is limited to clinical research. A council would be charged with capturing the innovative components of biotechnology research. This body would direct sectoral policies – e.g developing a national biotechnology policy – and could clearly define the priorities of the government in terms of health innovation development, as well as concrete actionable steps to realize these goals. It could also identify an institution that will be a centre of excellence for biotechnology. This centre could be equipped with individuals possessing the necessary skills to excel in biotechnology research, as well as the necessary scientific infrastructure, and a mandate to establish relationships between firms and research institutions.
Recommendation 4: Establish R & D infrastructure and platforms through which knowledge flows from the country’s research institutions will flow to firms in the private sector and vice versa: These could be in the form of physical platforms or virtual networks [
27]. The centres will be equipped with state of the art specialized equipment. From the interviews, scientists cited the lack of advanced equipment as a hindrance to R & D and gave examples of equipment like nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) machines and high-performance liquid chromatography machines (HPLCs) that do not currently exist in Rwanda. Many types of research instruments are very expensive for individual institutes to buy and maintain. Such a centre can be centrally located, and its facilities accessed by scientists from various institutions as required.
The aim of this study was to describe and analyze Rwanda’s science-based health innovation and biotechnology sector. In doing so we also involved the stakeholders who constitute this sector in developing options to harness Rwanda’s assets and begin to overcome barriers.
Since the completion of our study, we have continued to work with the Ministry of Science and Technology and subsequently the Ministry of Education, to address some of the key challenges we identified in our case study. We jointly hosted a national life sciences workshop held in May 2008 in Kigali where we presented our case study results and recommendations, which were discussed with local stakeholders including government officials, the private sector and the research community. Stakeholders agreed unanimously with the results and recommendations, especially the need to increase knowledge flow. They supported the idea of developing a life sciences innovation center [
28]. Since the meeting, an initial disbursement of funds to two projects has been done, and discussions are underway on where the initial start-up activities are to be physically located.
From the study, the main conclusion that can be drawn is that Rwanda is a late bloomer in science-based health innovation and biotechnology, mainly because of events preceding and during the 1994 genocide. There is very little innovative activity occurring in the institutions or in the private sector. The number of scientists is still very low, and even those who are present are not generally motivated to carry out innovation.
However, because Rwanda is still at an early stage in developing its institutions, it is well positioned to shape its institutions in line with current challenges in science-based health innovation and biotechnology; its institutions are not bogged down by the bureaucracy and rigidity that characterize many more-established institutions in Africa [
29]. Many of the staff in its institutions are young and amenable to change, and could easily embrace innovation if properly motivated. In addition the country enjoys enormous goodwill among the donor community to implement many initiatives that the government proposes. It also has a large pool of skilled people in the diaspora who are willing to contribute towards developing their homeland. Building on these assets and strong political commitment, Rwanda has the potential to make effective use of science-based health innovation.