THE POLITICS OF TRYPANOSOMIASIS CONTROL IN AFRICA

The Dynamic Drivers of Disease in Africa Consortium is a multidisciplinary research programme designed to deliver much-needed, cutting-edge science on the relationships between ecosystems, zoonoses, health and wellbeing with the objective of moving people out of poverty and promoting social justice. It is focusing on four emerging or re-emerging zoonotic diseases in four diverse African ecosystems – henipavirus infection in Ghana, Rift Valley fever in Kenya, Lassa fever in Sierra Leone, and trypanosomiasis in Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The Consortium (NERC project no. NE-J001570-1) is funded with support from the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) programme. The ESPA programme is funded by the Department Today’s world is experiencing rapid social, technological and environmental change, yet poverty and inequality are growing. Linking environmental sustainability with poverty reduction and social justice, and making science and technology work for the poor, have become central challenges of our times. The STEPS Centre (Social, Technological and Environmental Pathways to Sustainability) is an interdisciplinary global research and policy engagement hub that unites development studies with science and technology studies.

We are developing a new approach to understanding and action on sustainability and development in an era of unprecedented dynamic change. Our pathways approach aims to link new theory with practical solutions that create better livelihoods, health and social justice for poor and marginalised people. We are funded by the ESRC, the UK’s largest funding agency for research and training relating to social and economic issues. African trypanosomiasis is a devastating disease, both for humans and animals. Over the last 100 years huge efforts have been made to control it.

This paper explores the scientific and policy debates surrounding the control of the disease and its vector, the tsetse fly. The paper focuses particularly on East and Southern Africa, and so the savannah tsetse flies and Trypanosomiasis brucei rhodesiense. Based on an extensive review of documentary material, combined with a series of interviews with scientists and policymakers, the paper offers an assessment of the changing institutional politics associated with tsetse and trypanosomiasis control.

The paper investigates in particular the controversies surrounding a range of control methods, including bush clearance, game culling, baits and traps, sterile insect release, animal breeding, drugs and vaccines, among others. The focus on particular control methods has meant that alternatives have often been overlooked, and the perspectives of livestock keepers living with the disease have not been taken into account.