13h30 – 14h45, Tuesday 10th July 2018, ESOF 2018 Toulouse.

Abstract:

This high-level panel bridges the 2017 launch of the Brussels Declaration to ongoing work towards its pan-African equivalent, the Cape Town Declaration to be launched at the World Science Forum in 2021. Why the Brussels Declaration matters is because it is a unique, twenty-point blueprint for a new set of ethics & principles to inform work at the boundary between science, society and policy. Its strength lies in its five-year reflection period, the robustness of twenty-five preparatory workshops and above all, the diversity of its contributors with over 350 draftees and 3000 reviewers. With over five million views already, it makes the case for a multi-disciplinary approach to policy encouraging greater integrity and accountability amongst all stakeholders.

The Cape Town Process (2017 – 2021) picks up this baton and following two initial workshops brings its first findings to ESOF. It adopts a similar bottom-up approach within the African 55 nations to involve the grass-roots with politicians, science advisers, chief scientific officers from industry, civil society leaders, medical doctors, social scientists, academics and science editors. In open debate, panellists will boost understanding of how power operates in science & society and explain why evidence plus dialogue rarely equals good decisions & laws. Speakers will argue that most policy decisions worldwide are informed by evidence provided by experts. All too often, who these experts are, how they are chosen and how reliable their advice really is, is open to question.

This decadal-long initiative will emphasise our collective interest in benefiting from ‘evidence-based policy-making’ rather than suffering ‘policy-biased evidence-making’. The key to promoting public discourse, scientific clarity, policy implementation and ethical balance is not only greater transparency and scrutiny, but genuine inclusivity. In the run-up to World Science Forum 2021, further preparatory meetings and workshops will be held inside Africa and open to as many grass-roots actors as possible.

ESOF 2018 Toulouse / Scientific Programme

Format: Traditional panel discussion, 75 minutes
Theme: The use/mis-use of research and scientific advice
Cross cutting approaches:
    • Inequalities
    • Ethics
Target audience: scientists, media, industry & business, policy-makers, general public, students
Relevance of the selected approaches: This timely and crucial debate will spotlight the significant positive shift taking place in local, national, regional and global policy-making, both in terms of public discourse, scientific evidence and policy implementation. From the perspective of ethical approaches towards fostering basic human dignity, greater stakeholder inclusion and overcoming gross access of influence inequalities, compassion for people and resolving their day-to-day problems must come before profit, before policy and certainly before peer-review. Nevertheless, much still needs to be done to challenge the way societies view policy-making and policy-makers and those who interact with them.

	Organiser: Aidan Gilligan (IRL): This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. CEO, SciCom – Making Sense of Science; Elected Member, EuroScience Governing Board; Vice-Chair, ESOF 2018 International Media & Marketing Committee.
	Co-organizer & Moderator: Prof. Roseanne Diab (SA): This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Executive Officer, Academy of Sciences of South Africa (ASSAf); African Union & Cape Town Declaration 2021 Co-Chair.
	Speaker: Prof. Michel Kazatchkine (FR): This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. UN Secretary General’s Special Health Envoy on HIV/Aids in Eastern Europe & Central Asia; Member, The Global Commission On Drug Policy; Former Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB & Malaria.
	Speaker: H.E. Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane (SA): Care of: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Minister for Science & Technology of the Government of South Africa; Co-President of the World Science Forum 2021 Cape Town.
	Speaker: H.E. Sarah Anyang Agbor (CM): Care of: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. African Union Commissioner for Human Resources, Science & Technology.
	Speaker: Dr. Flavia Schlegel (CH): This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences, UNESCO.
	Speaker: Mohammed Yahia (EG): This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. President of the World Federation of Science Journalists (WFSJ) & Executive Editor of Nature Publishing Group in the Middle East.