The visiting Executive President of the French Institute of Research for Development, IRD, Prof. Michel Laurent has promised strengthened cooperation ties with Cameroonian research institutes and government ministries. Speaking at the Etoa-Meki, Yaounde headquarters of the institute last Wednesday May 25 at the end of a two-day familiarisation visit, Prof. Laurent promised that efforts would be made to increase the current annual funding of about FCFA 2.6 billion to IRD Cameroon by seeking assistance from other donors.
He said the impact of IRD (formerly known as ORSTOM) work in the country since 1949 was great as attested to by recent independent evaluations. Prof. Laurent said his meeting with different cabinet ministers and government officials also revealed that the institute’s work is having positive impact on beneficiaries with at least ten scientific articles published each year in major international journals.
He said IRD represents about a third of French assistance to Cameroon, especially in the areas of health, education, environment, research and biodiversity conservation. Insisting on a holistic approach to collaborative research between researchers from the North and South, the IRD Executive Director announced that the institute’s future focus will be on assisting with the new Bachelors-Masters-Doctorate system of education, especially at the Masters level; and carrying out more research on HIV/AIDS, especially on cancers linked to the disease.
Some of the results of IRD work in the country include working with the Ministry of Public Health to mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS, helping to reduce current anti-retroviral treatment from many tablets some years back to only a few today and proposing the use of insecticide-treated mosquito bed nets more than 30 years ago. Prof. Michel Laurent expressed hope that strengthened cooperation with Cameroonian universities would enable more students to benefit. On the forthcoming Brazzaville biodiversity summit coming up next week, the visiting Executive President of the Institute of Research for Development, promised active IRD Cameroon participation that will include presentation of scientific papers and a special exhibition and film projections on forests. Also in the pipeline, is the setting up in Gabon of a satellite station for better forest monitoring in central Africa.
