# Towards Resolving Challenges Associated with Climate Change Modelling in Africa
## 5 Discussion  
### Insights Obtained from the Bibliography Analysis  
The lack of capacity-building and development initiatives (human and infrastructural) in African institutions, both in the private and public sectors, is a major challenge. Fewer research facilities have been established on the continent when it comes to climate change research or large-scale climate change modelling research [60; 61], except for South Africa. South African researchers contribute significantly to the percentage representation of African-based authors; for instance, 60% of African-based research published in 2013 had a South African researcher as the first author, while the same figure for 2019 was 33% (see Supplementary Materials, 2013, 2019, spreadsheets). The quality of research conducted and published, the high impact of the journals targeted, and the caliber of the methodologies adopted and data generated are considerably linked to South Africa's research capacity. In the later years of the review, more inter- and intra-continental collaborations were observed; many locally based authors are included alongside their international counterparts. In 2019 and 2020, 23% and 29% of articles included African-based researchers, respectively, as compared to an average of 8% for the preceding years considered in this study (see Supplementary Materials, 2019 and 2020, spreadsheets). The significance of quality collaborations amongst African researchers and between African and foreign researchers/institutions cannot be overemphasized; such collaborations have yielded--and are still yielding--quality research results and outputs [62; 63; 64]. Furthermore, the most prominent foreign countries (i.e., those outside the African continent) conducting and publishing on climate change modeling can be ascertained. The United States of America is the highest contributor, producing a fifth (20.3%) of the research publications on climate change modelling between the years 2011-2020. The contributions of the United Kingdom are marginally lower, with a percentage of 19.2%, and they are ranked second amongst the foreign countries. German-based authors rank third, being responsible for 12.2% of publications (see Table S12). Overall, thirty-eight (38) foreign countries ((USA, UK, Germany, China, Portugal, Italy, The Netherlands, France, Spain, Greece, Brazil, Estonia, Fiji, Belgium, Australia, Sweden, Hongkong, India, Hungary, Canada, Costa Rica, Austria, Singapore, Norway, Turkey, Lithuania, Denmark, Mexico, Switzerland, Colombia, Ireland, Thailand, Laos, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia, Finland, Japan, and Peru)) collaborated with researchers and research institutions from different African countries. Notably, between the years 2011-2020, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and Germany primarily engaged in collaborations with South Africa over any other African country. South African researchers accounted for 22%, 36.4%, and 13.8% of their collaborations, respectively. Other foreign countries, such as France, Norway, Italy, Spain, Greece, The Netherlands, Hongkong, India, Hungary, Canada, Denmark, Sri Lanka and Laos, also have higher percentages of collaborations with South African institutions and researchers (see Table S13). Germany, Brazil, Estonia, Austria, Turkey, Lithuania, and Peru have the highest or high number of collaborations with Nigerian institutions and researchers. Japan, Finland, Thailand, Colombia, Switzerland, Mexico, Sweden, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Greece, The Netherlands, China, and the UK, have the highest or a high number of collaborations with Kenyan institutions and researchers. Out of the thirty-eight (38) collaborating foreign countries, South African institutions and researchers had the highest collaborations with sixteen (16) of them.