After a grueling three-day discourse in Zambia’s capital Lusaka, over 120 delegates attending the 2025 Africa Biennial Biosciences Communication Symposium (ABBC 2025) defined interventions that could crucially contain misinformation and disinformation in science, swearing to defend sacrosanct facts especially in key innovation that have, over time, been under sustained attack.
There were no slow starts expected in this edition of the ABBC – the sixth, and which came exactly ten years after the first. Lusaka’s sweltering heat can, sometimes, inspire lethargy, but there was none of that throughout highly interactive, fast-paced sessions for the three days. With well over 21 countries represented, and the goal defined, the symposium rolled into the challenge, from the onset, like a juggernaut.
The theme of the symposium, The War on Science: How can we Overcome the Burden of Misinformation and Disinformation?provided fodder for a myriad of insights, and for a plethora of case studies that rendered credence to the suggestion that science has for long been under siege.
ISAAA AfriCenter Director Dr Margaret Karembu highlighted the timeliness of the theme, with the proliferation of social media platforms amid increased internet penetration in the continent enabling rapid dissemination of information across the continent.
“Unfortunately, in such instances, falsehoods tend to travel faster than truths, and Africa could find itself playing catch up to the rest of the world if we let falsehoods impact adoption of key technologies in science- and most specifically in agriculture,” she said.
Africa, a continent of about 1.5 billion people, could be home to a staggering 2.5 billion in just under 25 years, projections show. Faced with incessant civil strife, intermittent drought, rapid urbanization, and disease outbreaks, the last thing Africa needs is falsehoods that prevent uptake of key technologies that could improve its habitability and food-security in the long term.
As speaker after speaker decried different players in the scientific community working in silos, Hon Dr Christine Mnzava, MP and Member for Parliamentary Alliance for AMR and One Health in Tanzania, noted that collaboration between sectors ensures that streamlined, verified, right information reaches the people in this age of AI and social media where messages easily, and deliberately, get distorted or misinterpreted to undermine public trust in science.
“We need more resources, however, and formulation of more effective policies – and policymakers should come together more to deliberate on effective ways to ensure that the public benefits from science,” she said.
Vitumbiko Chinoko, the Open Forum on Agriculture Proejct Manager at Africa Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) insisted that a failure to quickly adopt new biotechnologies – linked to fears due to misinformation and disinformation – could be costly for Africa.
“One of the avoidable costs we should be looking at, and that we probably do not think much about, is the dignity of the people – when they have to be given food that they could be growing, all because of a delay, or reluctance, in adoption of genetically modified (GM) crops. The money that countries use to import food products to feed their populations, which could be channeled to other sectors of economy at such a time, is also a huge cost to a country,” he said.
Prof Richard Oduor, the Registrar, Research, Innovation & Outreach at Kenyatta University, noted that the battle against misinformation and disinformation should be a deliberate, sustained effort, saying that societies tend to have an array of justifications when they are opposing new technology. “Facts are often rejected if they contradict identity or values.”
And while he feels governments should channel more financing towards research in science, he called for patience as science and innovation goes through its painstaking journey.
“It takes time for the research to develop into useful, tangible products.”
AATF’s Executive Director Dr Canisius Kanangire urged experts to safeguard their work by engaging in public education to counter misinformation and myths on agricultural biotechnology.
Dr Theo Knight Jones, Principal Scientist at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), while making a presentation on Implications of Misinformation in Livestock Disease Management and Vaccine Decision-making: FMD Case Study, highlighted the importance of debates on disease impact, using mathematical models to inform policy, and need for strong governance throughout the regulation of medicines, with independent evaluation, and the award of contracts with diligence and without conflict of interest.
East Africa Legislative Assembly’s (EALA) MP Uwumukiza Francoise labeled it “a great event indeed full of amazing and successful stories”, and Nigerian PBR Cowpea farmer Khalid Umar Salihu made a powerful presentation on his experience with the improved, Pod Borer Resistant Cowpea, and benefits he has accrued since adoption including higher yields, less attacks by pests, more income, and an overall improved livelihood, despite falsehoods surrounding it.
Key among commitments made were to work towards strengthened African-led engagement initiatives and dialogue platforms to enhance science outreach, to call upon African research institutions to mainstream science communication and to advocate for strengthening existing multistakeholder, transdisciplinary, multisectoral dialogues.
Others included to work with member states and regional bodies to establish a think-tank that will rapidly respond to contentious issues, to co-develop a digital reference point for commonly used scientific terminologies, to develop communication tools for misinformation and disinformation sensing, to call on governments to increase investment in science, technology and innovations, and to call on partners to invest in advanced fact checking systems that leverage artificial intelligence.
At the end of the symposium, ISAAA AfriCenter and Iowa State University announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding to promote collaboration in teaching, research and outreach. This partnership will empower researchers to effectively communicate and translate their work for societal benefit.
By Peter Theuri, Digital Communications Officer, ISAAA AfriCenter