In the media - 2004

• Biosciences facility for east and central Africa opens
  26 November 2004, SciDev.Net
  Scientists met yesterday (25 November) in Nairobi, Kenya, to officially launch the Biosciences for Eastern and Central Africa (BECA) facility, one year after the initiative to improve the region's agricultural research capacity was announced.
  
  
• Biosciences boost for eastern and central Africa
  16 July 2004, SciDev.Net
  SciDev.Net reports on how a 'biosciences facility for eastern and central Africa', one of four projected 'centres of excellence' in Africa, will begin its research activities on 1 November 2004. The institute, located in Nairobi, will focus on agricultural production and should give a boost to the application of science and technology to development in Africa.
  
  
• Support for African science
  7 May 2004, The Scientist
  NePAD, the New Partnership for African Development, is creating five regional science and technology programs to encourage development in the poorest region of the world, where half the population lives on under $1 a day and the average life expectancy is 47. By the middle of this month, the chief officer of NePAD's African Forum on Science and Technology for Development (AFSTD), John Mugabe, expects to appoint the last experts to deepen scientific cooperation and create centers of excellence in five broad regions of the continent—North, East, West, Central, and Southern Africa.
  
  
• Central Africa uses science to recover from war
  1 April 2004, Science in Africa
  War-torn central Africa is used to people moving across its borders. Mercenaries, UN peacekeepers, soldiers, refugees and aid groups are among the human traffic crossing the region. But this vast territory will soon have a new type of visitor, as a coordinator from the science initiative launched by the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) is shortly expected to take up an important post.