With a long history in
studying the natural world, Citizen Science (CS) is gaining increased global
recognition as a tool for public participation in scientific research, and with
power to contribute to both science and society as well as the potential for
open innovation and mass collaboration. While there are various synonyms for CS
including community science, crowd science, crowd-sourced science, civic
science, volunteer monitoring, user-generated content, etc. as well as
alternative definitions[i];
the gist of CS is about the “wisdom of the crowd” (whether for observing the
universe, saving the environment, developing software, etc.). There are also
different CS approaches[ii]
with varying levels of public participation ranging from contributory where the
public engage with activities that are designed by professional scientists, and
collaborative where they are involved in designing the project. In a way, CS
can be considered as a win-win situation. Whereas the public gain greater
understanding of science and engage with solving the world’s problems;
scientific research gain from an increased capability beyond any institution’s
resources to deal with grave issues like climate change and from increased
relevance to local problems and endogenous knowledge with potential for new
discoveries and innovation.
Much of CS projects[iii]
exist in developed parts of the World where there is an infrastructure (system,
technology, policy, etc.) to support its requirements as well as an entrenched
culture of volunteerism for scientific purposes (e.g. bird watching in 1900s
England). While the substantial part of CS activity is dedicated to environment
monitoring such as species, air and water quality, storms, earthquakes, etc.;
there is a diversity of CS activity on agriculture and food sciences, astronomy
and space sciences, as well as street mapping, archives collection, democracy
and public participation, and so on. There is also growing amount of CS
activity in Africa such as volunteer bird[iv]
monitoring in Botswana, Kenya and Uganda, and Bird Atlas Project[v]
and SciStarter[vi]
online community in South Africa. While we are not aware of projects that
specifically name CS approaches in Sudan, there are old programs like the
Nature’s Diary (المُدونة الطبيعية[vii])
that was part of extracurricular activity in 1940s primary schools
(dropped in 1990s) as well as contemporary examples like Nafeer Initiative for
flood monitoring and response in 2013 where both examples gesture towards CS
through crowdsourcing information on natural phenomena. One could also consider
the agricultural extension program (الإرشاد
الزراعي) as a form of CS. However, even if we
consider these Sudanese examples as having a CS element, it is clear that their
approaches are more towards the contributory mode of CS rather than
collaborative. At any rate, the country has a legacy[viii]
of, and oozes, volunteerism and crowdsourcing cultures. So even if current
activities are not based on a scientific inquiry, they provide the foundation
upon which to build on for CS in Sudan.
On the one
hand, CS can provide data for government to support their decision-making
processes and reporting against international targets[ix];
on the other, public participation can provide societal benefits, informing and
empowering people. In developing countries, Sudan is no exception, innovation
is needed to develop culturally relevant citizen science, following best
practices and collaborating within regional networks, with the intention of
benefiting everyone. From the brief survey in the process of producing this
introduction on African CS examples, it appears that projects are either
supported and/or initiated by European or North American universities and
research centres, international development agencies, or global activist
communities like environmentalists. This CS initiative that we are organising in
Khartoum as a two-part event over the next three months is no exception at its
inception. It is thanks to Andrew Billingsley (Landell Mills[x])
who shared his experience and knowledge about CS as well as found sponsorship
for the activities from the European Union. For me, and the rest of the SKS
group, the CS concept seems an ideal topic to explore as we all navigate our
way into a new setting, after much sacrifice and with great hopes, into a
democratic Sudan where democratising knowledge production is an integral part. However,
due to some concerns we mutually agreed to forego the aforementioned partnership/sponsorship
with the SKS leading the organisation of the event independently.
We are extremely
grateful to Dr. Abdelrahman Ali Rahma and Dr. Amani Nour Eldaim (Sudan National
Corporation for Antiquities and Museums) for welcoming us to host the event at the
National Museum conference room. We thank them for their kindness which offers
us the space to deliberate such an important and emerging concept. As always, we
take responsibility for the content and the ideas we will share and take
forward as we consider our main role is to bring the concept home and down to
earth through providing space and substance, for us and participants in our
events, to use for freely generating relevant ideas and techniques for local priorities
and capabilities.
There is no
doubt that CS opens a unique opportunity for vibrant
information communities[xi],
in Sudan and elsewhere, to contribute to a broad range of disciplines in
natural and social sciences and humanities; nevertheless, the barriers in Sudan
are considerable. Most obvious are access to suitable technology and language
barriers, more challenging are cultural and institutional. While there are
great opportunities of citizen science for science, education, and democracy,
there are also the risks[xii]
of cooptation by scientific institutions and of populist undermining of
professional expertise that deserve serious critical attention from scholars
and policy makers. As our societies are changing towards a peer-to-peer
society[xiii]
that is bringing new ways to do and produce things, including scientific
knowledge. This requires a new role for citizens, and science. Instead of
focusing on knowledge production for NGO's, governments and business,
scientists should become aware that the citizen will be the new decision-maker
in the future society, and therefore there is a need to produce suitable and
accessible knowledge, and work together with citizen scientists in the vast
Sudanese landscape.
Resources Used:
[ii] Pocock, Michael J. O. et al (2018) Developing the global potential of citizen science:
Assessing opportunities that benefit people, society and the environment in
East Africa. Journal of Applied
Ecology, 52, 686 – 695.
[iii] See Wikipedia’s List of CS projects. Also refer to
online Case Study Series entitled “New Visions in
Citizen Science” by Anne Bowser and Lea Shanley, Woodrow Wilson Center, 2013.
[iv] Article by Margaret Sessa-Hawkins on “People power:
citizen scientists fill the information gaps for African birds”, 28 September
2018. Also relevant is “Unlocking Africa's
potential for citizen science” by Prof. Helen Elizabeth Roy on 4 July 2016.
[vii] These are approximate dates based on personal
communication with Marwan Awad (who has researched the history of the
educational system in Sudan. We are searching for a reference to ascertain the
dates mentioned.
[viii] From the Girsh (Penny) Institute in Omdurman, to
Ahlia (citizens) education model, to a stream of citizen-led projects in many
parts of Sudan culminating the Great Sit-in experience where crowdsourcing and
volunteerism played major roles in its success.
[ix] See “Data Access and Management – Where do we stand?” by By Karen Bett, February 2019. Also “The Role of Crowdsourcing for Better Governance in
International Development” by Maja
Bott and Gregor Young, 2012.
[x] Landell Mills is a non-profit organisation based in the
UK with an office in Khartoum. See brief profile,
or visit website. The EU project under
which Landell Mills operates is GCCA+ is the EU Global Climate Change Alliance Plus.
[xi] Lukyanenko,
Roman; Wiggins, Andrea; and Rosser, Holly K. (2019) Citizen Science: An Information Quality Research
Frontier, Information Systems
Frontiers, pp. 1–23.
[xii] See excerpt from CS policy entitled “Citizen Science: Expertise, Democracy, and Public
Participation”, by Prof. Bruno J.
Strasser and Prof. Muki Haklay, 2018.
[xiii] Wildschut, Diana (2017) The need for citizen science in the transition to a
sustainable peer-to-peer-society,
Futures 91, 46–52.
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