Gene drive governance for malaria control in Africa
Understanding how to build capacity for African expertise to shape gene drive governance
Project goals
Our research on the ground in Mali and Uganda has highlighted the increasing influence of international actors on the development of regulatory frameworks for gene drive mosquitoes. This makes local voices and the local context difficult to be heard and can depoliticise governance decisions.
If these voices and contexts are not brought into the governance frame, a significant opportunity to develop this technology in line with the needs and desires of the populations that it will affect will have been missed.
We are drawing on our prior research to distil key criteria for the responsible governance of this radical and uncertain emerging technology, and using workshops to build capacity for social scientists in Uganda.
FUNDER
Research England Global Challenges Research Fund (2020)
What we did
We held two interdisciplinary workshops to explore the contribution social science might make to gene drive research and its governance and develop a social science agenda for gene drive research.
We held the first workshop in May 2021 at Makerere University, Uganda. We held the second workshop in July 2021 at the University of Exeter, UK.
Activities and outputs
Film Gene Drive Mosquitoes (see film page to access)
Ledingham K, Opesen C, Hartley S and Neema S 2023 Situating the social sciences in responsible innovation in the Global South: the case of gene drive mosquitoes Journal of Responsible Innovation.
Hartley S and Smith R 2021 A social science and humanities approach to gene drive mosquitoes for malaria control. Workshop report
Opesen C 2021 Exploring the social science agenda for gene drive research in Uganda. Makerere University, Kampala
Kabejja H 2021 Social science studies critical for the success of gene drive technology – Experts Makerere University College of Humanities and Social Sciences News
A social science and humanities approach to gene drive mosquitoes for malaria control (PDF)
Project team
