Dr. Ana Persic, is the Programme Specialist for Science, Technology and Innovation Policies and Open Science at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. In this session, she shared her experience in coordinating and developing the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science. She also gave insights about the UNESCO Open Science Toolkit and how it can benefit research in Africa.
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The slides are available at https://africarxiv.ubuntunet.net/handle/1/169
Session summary
The session on the UNESCO Open Science Recommendation highlighted its relevance and benefits for the African research community by focusing on inclusivity, equity, and bridging knowledge gaps. These principles align closely with Africa’s needs, promoting open access, open data, and local capacity building. African researchers and institutions can leverage the Recommendation as a framework to advocate for national policies, institutional guidelines, and funding that support open science practices, thereby enhancing transparency and collaboration. A notable example came from Namibia, where the government’s integration of UNESCO’s open science principles into national research policy has resulted in universities and research centers actively promoting open access publishing and data sharing, demonstrating the tangible impact of policy-driven change.
UNESCO’s collaboration with local stakeholders—including governments, institutions, and researchers—is essential to adapting and implementing the Recommendation in Africa. This is achieved through consultations, workshops, and capacity-building programs that ensure the African research community’s needs and voices inform the process. The UNESCO Open Science Toolkit serves as a key resource, offering guides, policy briefs, case studies, and training modules to help researchers adopt open science practices such as FAIR data management and collaborative networking regardless of their starting point.
African researchers and institutions benefit from aligning with global standards, strengthening research credibility, advocating for enabling policies, connecting with regional and international networks, and adapting open science methods to local realities such as infrastructure challenges. The session ultimately empowered participants to become local leaders in advancing open science innovation, positioning Africa at the forefront of a more inclusive and equitable global research ecosystem.
Speaker’s profiles
Ana Persic
Dr Ana Persic is Programme Specialist for Science Technology and Innovation Policies and Open Science at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. An ecologist by training with a Ph.D. in Ecotoxicology, Dr Ana Persic joined UNESCO in April 2006 in the framework of UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere program within the Division of Ecological and Earth Sciences in Paris. She then served as a Science Specialist at the UNESCO Liaison Office in New York from 2011-2018. Her work relates to strengthening the science-policy interface and promoting science, technology, and innovation in implementing the United Nations 2030 agenda for sustainable development and sustainable development goals (SDGs). She coordinated the development of the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science and is currently working towards its implementation.
LinkedIn: /persic-ana/
ORCID: 0009-0005-1941-7521
Related resources
Bolstering open science infrastructures for all
About the webinar series
This webinar was co-organized by UbuntuNet Alliance and Access 2 Perspectives as part of the ORCID Global Participation Program.
ORCID is the persistent identifier for researchers to share their accomplishments (research articles, data, etc with funding agencies, publishers, data repositories, and other research workflows.
AfricArXiv is a community-led digital archive for African research communication. By enhancing the visibility of African research, we enable discoverability and collaboration opportunities for African scientists on the continent as well as globally.