Capacity Building In Science And Technology In The Third World

Traditional strategies of technical assistance, technology transfer, appropriate technology, and self-reliance for science and technology development in the Third World, cannot be successfully implemented until Third World countries improve their fundamental organization of science and technology. In order to make those improvements - a process kno

This book summarizes, and highlights main messages from, a February 2007 Global Forum convened by the World Bank to discuss strategies, programs, and policies for building science, technology and innovation (STI) capacity to promote sustainable growth and poverty reduction in developing countries.

Even a subsistence agricultural economy such as Rwanda needs to develop science, technology and innovation (STI) capacity if it hopes to solve such everyday, practical problems as providing energy and clean drinking water to rural villages, and competing in the global economy by producing and selling higher value goods and services. This book provides new insights into the capacity building process and shows that STI capacity building is not a luxury activity suitable primarily for wealthy countries but an absolute necessity for poor countries that hope to become richer.

This publication provides the proceedings of an international workshop, held in South Africa, intended to address how international co-operation in science and technology can further the three inter-related aspects (economic, social and environmental) of the development process.

The perspective that informs this important book is that every evaluation of a capacity development effort should itself contribute to the capacity development effort and ultimately to the organization’s performance. This is a revolutionary idea in evaluation. With the idea have come the questions: Can it be done? And, if it is done, what will be the consequences? This book elucidates and deepens the idea, shows it can be done, and examines the consequences, both intended and unintended, of engaging in capacity development evaluation

In October 2003 the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the National Research Council (NRC) entered into a cooperative agreement. The agreement called for the NRC to examine selected aspects of U.S. foreign assistance activities-primarily the programs of the USAID-that have benefited or could benefit from access to strong science, technology, and medical capabilities in the United States or elsewhere. After considering the many aspects of the role of science and technology (S&T) in foreign assistance, the study led to the publication of The Fundamental Role of Science and Technology in International Development. In the book special attention is devoted to partnerships that involve the USAID together with international, regional, U.S. governmental, and private sector organizations in fields such as heath care, agriculture and nutrition, education and job creation, and energy and the environment. This book explores specific programmatic, organizational, and personnel reforms that would increase the effective use of S&T to meet the USAID's goals while supporting larger U.S. foreign policy objectives.

Watson, Crawford, and Farley examine the ways in which science and technology (S & T) support poverty alleviation and economic development and how these themes have been given emphasis or short shrift in various areas of the World Bank's work. Central to their thesis is the now well-established argument that development will increasingly depend on a country's ability to understand, interpret, select, adapt, use, transmit, diffuse, produce, and commercialize scientific and technological knowledge in ways appropriate to its culture, aspirations, and level of development. The authors go beyond this tenet, analyzing the importance of S & T for development within specific sectors. They present policy options for enhancing the effectiveness of S & T systems in developing countries, review previous experience of the World Bank and other donors in supporting S & T, and suggest changes that the World Bank and its partners can adopt to increase the impact of the work currently undertaken in S & T. The authors' main messages are: * S & T has always been important for development, but the unprecedented pace of advancement of scientific knowledge is rapidly creating new opportunities for and threats to development. * Most developing countries are largely unprepared to deal with the changes that S & T advancement will bring. * The World Bank's numerous actions in various domains of S & T could be more effective in producing the needed capacity improvements in client countries. * The World Bank could have a greater impact if it paid increased attention to S & T in education, health, rural development, private sector development, and the environment. The strategy emphasizes four S & T policy areas: education and human resources development, the private sector, the public sector, and information communications technologies. The paper--a joint product of the Education Team, Human Development Network, and the Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Vice Presidency--is part of a larger effort in the Bank to engage client countries in an active science and technology dialogue while increasing awareness of the centrality of these issues to the Bank's work.

Science and Technology in Development Planning: Science, Technology and Global Problems covers the proceedings of the Symposium on Science and Technology Development Planning. The book presents several papers that tackle one of the agendas of the symposium, intended to convey to the reader the main lines of thought brought to the symposium and to illustrate various approaches. The 17 chapters of the text are organized into five parts, according to what agenda they cover. The first part tackles the interaction between science and technology and long-range development goals and strategies, while the second part deals with the science and technology in sectoral planning. Part III covers the incorporation of science and technology in the techniques of development planning; Part IV discusses the planning of science and technology in the development process. The last part talks about international cooperation. The book will be of great interest to readers cornered with the progress of science and how it will influence the world.