A Moment In Time

The forces of globalization, rapidly changing technology, and the increasing importance of knowledge have raised the cost of having low capacity in science, technology, and knowledge for development (S&TFD) in developing countries. Although technological change and globalization represent opportunities to achieve poverty-reduction goals, the challenges posed by globalization can create barriers to the enhanced productivity and economic competitiveness that S&TFD can otherwise make possible.

Global disparities in S&TFD capacity are acute, and differences in growth due
to the distribution, use, adoption, adaptation, and generation of knowledge are widening. Global differences in S&TFD capacity are startling: R&D spending by the 29 wealthy countries of the OECD in 1998 was greater than the combined economic output of the 61 poorest countries. Beyond investments in R&D, investments to cultivate the necessary enabling environment in which knowledge, entrepreneurialism, industry, and creativity thrive and flourish — appropriate tax policies and incentives, monitoring and evaluation, government procurement, technical norms and standards, customs, academia-industry linkages, finance and banking, intellectual and other property rights — are woefully inadequate in many parts of the developing world (Aubert 2004). More troubling is the apparent misalignment between two trends: the rate of global knowledge production and the rate at which change agents acquire the ability to distribute and use both new and existing knowledge.

Many developing countries are succeeding in building their national innovation systems — the complex people–policy–institution networks through which S&TFD is translated into improved products and processes. Developing countries want to invest in strengthening their knowledge economies and harnessing science, technology and knowledge for development. Not all North–South partnerships have experienced the same level of achievement in fostering endogenous capacity as have the South-driven programs. Often the focus of international research agendas has been defined by the partners who hail from the more scientifically advanced countries.

Some donors are beginning to focus on a more basic goal, that of helping countries develop endogenous national innovation systems, in the widest sense of that term, which entails support to centers of excellence, university-academia linkages, basket funding for research, and much more. Still needed is a richer understanding of how developing coutries can leverage existing research cooperation schemes and design new ones for their benefit.

Proximity matters: S&TFD capacity results from the creation of successful clusters, networks, and webs of actors. The increasing number of linkages between researchers in scientifically advanced and developing countries is reflected in the growing number of co-authored papers. The proliferation of various types of research arrangements (e.g., virtual laboratories) has allowed practitioners to conduct parallel research in their home laboratories and share results in real time (Wagner et al. 2002).

However, despite the decreasing cost of travel and abundant information technology to facilitate exchange, the likelihood of scientists collaborating is directly correlated with the level of science and technology capacity in each country as well as proximity (Wagner et al. 2001). The key to effective collaboration for a range of S&TFD functions is the proximity of potential collaborators to local entrepreneurs and innovators (Aubert 2004). Although insights into the nature of knowledge production and application, which are themselves the product of accumulated research and practical experience, have improved the linking of knowledge to outcomes, much more work is required on the transfer, sharing, and management of knowledge for development.