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Gambia ambassador urges financing, digital infrastructure and South‑South cooperation to make science inclusive
Summary
Ambassador Lamine Babadiba of The Gambia closed Science Day with a call for increased investment in research capacity, digital infrastructure, and South‑South cooperation to ensure developing countries co‑create science and benefit from AI and other technologies.
In closing remarks, Lamine Babadiba, Permanent Representative of The Gambia to the United Nations, urged stronger investment in science, technology and innovation (STI) in developing countries and argued that science must be inclusive and grounded in communities’ lived experience.
“Science must be more than a driver of innovation. It must become a catalyst of justice, equity, and transformative change,” Ambassador Babadiba said, calling for expanded broadband, reliable electricity and digital literacy programs targeted at youth, women and micro‑enterprises.
He argued that emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and biotechnology offer potential but require inclusive governance, open data and ethical standards to avoid exacerbating inequality. He also called for stronger South‑South and triangular cooperation, greater regional research partnerships and open‑source innovation rooted in local realities.
Babadiba described steps The Gambia is taking, including a recently launched national science and technology policy, and emphasized that financing STI in developing countries should be seen as strategic investment in global resilience rather than charity.
Marcia Barbosa, vice president for Freedom and Responsibility in Science at the International Science Council, followed with a closing discussant reflection emphasizing that who frames research questions matters as much as who answers them. Barbosa warned against top‑down solutions that do not reflect local constraints and urged more inclusive question‑setting and better professional science communication to reach broader publics.
Both speakers framed Science Day’s outcomes as a call to rebuild the global science architecture so that assessments, investments and policy design reflect voices from the Global South and local communities.
