Continental Level
At the continental level, LIBSENSE has forged strategic partnerships with global and continental organisations including UNESCO and Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM). To ensure that Open Science finds the African voice it needs, LIBSENSE participated in the global consultation process towards the standard-setting instrument to guide the global path for open science. Thoughts were included in the draft UNESCO Recommendations on Open Science; this draft was ratified at the General Conference of UNESCO on November 23, 2021. The Recommendation provides a critically valuable framework for the adoption of open science policies and practices in countries around the world.
LIBSENSE and RUFORUM are in agreement to provide contemporary platforms to enable agriculture research data sharing and open access publishing. As part of the collaboration, training on research data management will be developed as repeatable open education resources (OER) for RUFORUM researchers and librarians.
To ensure secure access to local and international services, resources and tools, LIBSENSE is beginning a close collaboration with eduID.africa – a pan-African Identity Management Federation platform governed by the three regional RENs on the continent. When successful, the multi mix of stakeholders in the open science community across Africa will access, share and use knowledge securely.