The World Bank and Elsevier are partnering on this report to examine the research enterprise over a decade from 2003 to 2012 of three different geographies in Sub-Saharan Africa: West and Central Africa (WC), East Africa (EA), Southern Africa (SA). The research performance of these regions is compared to that of South Africa (ZA), Malaysia, and Vietnam; the latter two countries had a comparable research base to the Sub-Saharan Africa regions at the beginning of the period of analysis. The report analyses all science disciplines, but with a special emphasis on research in the Physical Sciences and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). The report focuses on research output and citation impact, important indicators of the strength of a region's research enterprise. These indicators are correlated with the region's long-term development and important drivers of economic success