UNESCO’s executive board meets today as activists call for the organization to rename or cancel a scientific research prize funded by Teodoro Obiang Nguema, president of Equatorial Guinea. The UNESCO-Obiang prize, a $300,000 grant for life sciences research, was funded by a $3 million gift from President Obiang, and was scheduled to be awarded for the first time this year. But human rights groups and concerned scientists say that awarding what they’ve dubbed the ‘dictator prize’ would give Obiang’s rule the UN’s stamp of approval.

“There’s a profound disconnect that you could support a research prize in the life sciences funded by a leader who has been so destructive to the health of his own population,” says Chris Beyrer, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Beyrer was one of a number of public health officials that signed onto a letter of protest sent to the UNESCO executive board.

“We’re calling on UNESCO to block this prize, and to make sure that the funds that were designated for this award get used instead to benefit the people who currently lack access to education and scientific resources in their country,” says Lisa Misol, a spokesperson for Human Rights Watch.

Obiang seized power in 1979, and his government is considered by most international observers to be one of the most corrupt in the world. The country is rich in oil resources, yet only 43% of Equatorial Guineans have access to safe drinking water, and only about half have to access to toilets, according to UNICEF. Data from the World Health Organization shows that infants in Equatorial Guinea have a 1 in 5 chance of dying before the age of five.

“A couple of million dollars of research is going to generate a couple of findings. What is the likelihood that those positive research findings will actually be implemented in a country that is this poorly governed?” says Beyrer.

On Monday, the Government of Equitorial Guinea released a statement saying that “the UNESCO controversy has highlighted the fact that Equatorial Guinea faces many challenges” but that “the situation is being viewed through an outdated understanding of what our Government is”.

Image: Martin H. via Wikimedia Commons