health and medical sciences 7
H E A L T H A N D M E D I C A L S C I E N C E S
7.1.6 Re-shaping health and Contacts with African researchers, especial-
medical sciences in South ly malaria researchers, grew exponentially
Africa and a WHO Collaborating Centre for Ur-
ban Health, which involved a leading uni-
T
he establishment of a Government versity and the largest city in South Africa,
of National Unity
5
in 1994 heralded a was established in 1994. An international
new era in the history of South Africa. tuberculosis conference was held in March
This was accompanied by major changes 1994, the National AIDS Plan, informed by
in the governance structure of the MRC. A scientists, was accepted as government
new Ministry of Arts, Culture, Science and policy, malaria distribution maps assisted
Technology assumed responsibility for in targeting anti-malaria interventions, and
scientific research, including health and air pollution studies and studies with sister
medical studies. A new MRC board was ap- science councils into community participa-
pointed through a democratic and public tion were conducted to inform policy. In re-
process, the first of eight science councils sponse to a dire shortage of epidemiology
to be constituted thus. Fourteen new mem- skills, courses were conducted by research-
bers were appointed to a complement of ers in collaboration with higher education
seventeen board members. The year saw institutions, primarily through Schools of
the implementation of an integrated re- Public Health. Partnerships extended be-
search agenda composed of both ‘basic’ yond the traditional, and a collaborative
research and ‘applied’ research, which fit- project on the benefits of electrification
ted with the new government’s blueprint was initiated with the Electricity Supply
for development, the Reconstruction and Commission (ESKOM). A health legislation
Development Programme (RDP)
6
. A major research project explored deficiencies in
new thrust in the science environment na- health legislation education, and tobacco-
tionally was the increased emphasis on ca- control research informed the process that
pacity development and corrective action. led to the promulgation of tobacco-control
legislation. Laboratory-based researchers
In keeping with the renewed energy in found themselves increasingly located in
health and medical science, buoyed by in- multidisciplinary units. One such example
creased international contacts, the number was the Pneumococcal Research Unit at the
of collaborative research units and centres SAIMR which had activities that included
in the universities was increased. The health molecular biology, clinical research, epide-
and medical research community made miology and vaccine production. Financial
significant contributions to the evolution support for capacity development in health
of national plans, as well as provincial ones. and medical research was provided by the
5 As part of a political settlement a Government of National Unity comprising the old apartheid government and the liberation
organisations was formed to oversee the period of transition before the first democratic elections in 1994.
6 A socio-economic policy implemented by the ANC government after 1994 to address the issues of poverty and the shortage
of social services across the country.
197
TWAS book_Chap7.indd 197 2009/10/06 12:03:05 PM
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