Ivory Coast is a member of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which adopted a Policy on Science and Technology (ECOPOST) in 2011.
ECOPOST advocates the development of a more scientific culture in all sectors of society, including through science popularization, the dissemination of research results in local and international journals, the commercialization of research results, greater technology transfer, intellectual property protection, stronger university–industry ties, and the enhancement of traditional knowledge.
In 2015, the United States of America decided to invest US$1,000,000,000 over the next five years in preventing, detecting and responding to future infectious disease outbreaks in 17 countries, including Ivory Coast.
[2] Ivory Coast recorded economic growth of 8.7% in 2013 after entering recession in 2011 at the height of the political crisis engendered by President Laurent Gbagbo's decision to contest the electoral result.
With the political crisis now over, the government of President Alassane Ouattara has vowed to restore the country to its former leading role in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The National Development Plan for 2012–2015 has two primary objectives: to achieve double-digit growth by 2014 and to turn Ivory Coast into an upper middle-income country by 2020.
[3] The budget for the National Development Plan to 2015 is broken down into five strategic areas: greater wealth creation and social equity (63.8%), provision of quality social services for vulnerable populations, particularly women and children (14.6%), good governance and the restoration of peace and security (9.6%), a healthy environment (9.4%) and the repositioning of Ivory Coast on the regional and international scenes (1.8%).
Set up in 1979, this government centre promotes agro-industrial innovation and provides training in the preservation and transformation of crops (manioc, banana plantain, cashew nut, coconut, pineapple, etc.)
Within the section on greater wealth creation and social equity (63.8% of the total budget for the Plan), just 1.2% is allocated to scientific research.
These programmes correspond to eight priority sectors for 2012–2015, namely: health, raw materials, agriculture, culture, environment, governance, mining and energy; and technology.
The language barrier may explain this trend at least in part, since Thomson Reuters' database tends to favour English-language journals.
The production of scientific articles from Ivory Coast peaked in 2012 before declining slightly in 2014, no doubt as a result of the political crisis in the country.
Vision 2020 proposes a road map for improving governance, accelerating economic and monetary integration and fostering public–private partnerships.
Countries are urged to promote efficient, viable small and medium-sized enterprises and to expose traditional agriculture to modern technology, entrepreneurship and innovation, in order to improve productivity.
[3] ECOPOST provides a framework for member states wishing to improve – or elaborate for the first time – their own national policies and action plans for science, technology and innovation.
[3] ECOPOST advocates the development of a science culture in all sectors of society, including through science popularization, the dissemination of research results in local and international journals, the commercialization of research results, greater technology transfer, intellectual property protection, stronger university–industry ties and the enhancement of traditional knowledge.
Each institute provides academic programmes in basic and applied mathematics, including cosmology, finance and computing, as well as interdisciplinary fields like bioinformatics.
The West Africa Institute was established in Praia (Cape Verde) in 2010 to provide the missing link between policy and research in the regional integration process.
The think tank also organizes political and scientific dialogues between policymakers, regional institutions and members of civil society.
The Ebola epidemic in 2014 highlighted the challenge of mobilizing funds, equipment and human resources to manage a rapidly evolving health crisis.
In 2015, the United States of America decided to invest US$1 billion over the next five years in preventing, detecting and responding to future infectious disease outbreaks in 17 countries, within its Global Health Security Agenda.
The others are: (in Africa) Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Uganda; (in Asia): Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Viet Nam.