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Africa Knows! It is time to decolonise minds

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Accepted Paper: D24-02. To panel D24.

Title of paper:

Authors:

Kathrin Heitz Tokpa (Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques);

Sita Kondo (Université Alassane Ouattara).

Short abstract paper:
This paper focuses on the transdisciplinary Africa-based research network Afrique One that works on zoonoses and one Health. Based on interviews with its principal investigators, the paper investigates the politics of knowledge production and knowledge transfer in One Health between 1980 and 2020.

Long abstract paper:
This paper looks at the production and transfer of knowledge in the field of One Health in Africa. It focuses on the Africa-based research network Afrique One that works on zoonoses (TB, Brucella and rabies). Based on interviews about the research pathways of its principal investigators who seek to construct their careers as researchers, this study investigates the politics of knowledge production and knowledge transfer in the field of One Health between 1980 and 2020.

It reflects on how the present body of knowledge on zoonoses has been shaped in research programmes that themselves are bound to different opportunities and constraints. This study asks how themes came into vogue, what topics got financed by whom, how research results were disseminated and eventually picked up by policy makers to improve health outcomes in Africa and elsewhere. Thus, it contributes to the question of how the world of research, as a social field of knowledge production and transfer, has shaped and continues to shape knowledge about zoonoses and One Health, as well as the possibilities to access and apply that knowledge in research-end user communities.