Participatory research in place of a western agenda

Fredy Nandjou grew up in Cameroon and realised quite early that he would need to go abroad to better his career prospects. He studied engineering in Rome and Paris and earned a doctorate in energy engineering in Grenoble. At the Laboratory of Renewable Energy Science and Engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne, he finally saw an opportunity to enhance his knowledge of renewable energies. The head of the laboratory, Professor Sophia Haussener, invited him to join her group for a four-year postdoc. Together, they developed a technology that Nandjou is keen to bring back to his country through the start-up Soft Power.

In Cameroon, as in many other African countries, most households use wood, coal or diesel for cooking, heating and lighting. About three billion people are dependent on these fuels for lack of any alternatives, with disastrous consequences for the environment and health. A study in 2019 found that 3.8 million people a year die because of indoor smoke and gases from fossil fuels. Of these, 40% are children.

Nandjou visualised an alternative through his research. Hydrogen gas can be separated from water through electrolysis. This is well suited for cooking and can be stored in cylinders. The only 'waste product' during combustion is water. The electricity needed for the energy-intensive electrolysis process is provided through a solar photovoltaic system. The start-up developed a pilot plant for ten families in Douala in collaboration with the EPFL. The required research and development is being supported by the EPFL's Tech4Dev programme (see box). If all goes well and potential investors pitch in, a thousand households should benefit from the project by mid 2022.

Fabian Käser is an ethnologist and heads the Swiss Commission for Research Partnerships with Developing Countries (KFPE) headquartered in Bern. It is part of his job to deal with projects like Nandjous's and to support transboundary research in Switzerland. The KFPE offers members an information platform and fosters greater awareness about the importance of North-South research partnerships. The SDC has been providing co-funding for 25 years.

Käser recounts that in the 1990s, the prevailing perception at many western universities was that experts travelled from the North to the Global South to develop solutions for problems that existed there. "For a long time, the context-specific knowledge available locally and its potential for solutions was not acknowledged." Ever since it was founded in 1994, the KFPE's goal has been to raise awareness among researchers, universities and funding agencies about egalitarian and respectful transboundary research cooperation. It has drawn up a catalogue of 11 principles for this purpose.

The first principle states that the research agenda must be set jointly and that all steps for identifying and evaluating relevant issues within the project must be organised in partnership. Other criteria include interacting with all relevant stakeholders, clarifying responsiblities, promoting mutual learning and sharing data.

A big challenge for collaboration between Switzerland and Cameroon was language, says Nandjou. "Not everyone in our group in Lausanne could speak French fluently, and most colleagues in Cameroon understood only a little English." The bureaucracy in his country also proved to be an obstacle. "Customs suddenly decided to impose the same duties on our photovoltaic cells and gas cylinders as for commercial products," recalls Nandjou. This made the cost of the goods jump up by 30 to 50%. "It was difficult to justify this to our donors at the EPFL."

It was also difficult for him initially to find a partner with the required know-how for the project in Cameroon. "90% of our technology is new for Cameroon." He fell back on engineers who had already worked in other African countries and familiarised them with the technology using books and manuals that he had brough along from Switzerland for local training.

Käser believes that building capacities in the Global South is one of the most important aspects of transboundary research partnerships. "You need strong partners to conduct research on an equal footing." In a best-case scenario, long-term capacities are built up through Swiss-funded projects. This does, however, require long-term funding programmes. The Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Côte d'Ivoire, which Switzerland has been helping to build up since the 1950s, is an excellent example of an organisation where the role of local partners has progressively been strengthened.

Young researchers in Cameroon are dependent on funding mechanisms such as Tech4Dev. As Nandjou says, "Nobody in Cameroon would take a financial risk on a technology that is still largely unknown." For Nandjou, however, trust is the key factor. "The years spent working together with Sophia Haussener continue to be the most important foundation for the success of our project."

KFPE