Science Seen as Cutting Edge of International Development
FrontLines - June 2010
By Steven Gale
The new office of science
and technology at USAID, and
a July 14 forum on science and
technology in development, are
both signs that breakthroughs
in science are increasingly seen
as the way to solve pressing
challenges in health, agriculture,
and water in developing
countries.
Science and technology have
long played a vital role to
advance development by helping
to save millions of lives
from life-threatening diseases,
inadequate nutrition, and polluted
drinking water.
USAID has harnessed such
cutting edge science as far back
as the 1960s when it helped
introduce high-yielding seed
varieties and increased use of
fertilizers and irrigation—the
so-called Green Revolution—
enabling many poor countries
in Asia to feed their growing
populations.
The Green Revolution is
credited with saving the lives of
over a billion people worldwide
from starvation.
Today’s global issues like
climate change, energy shortages,
disasters, infectious diseases,
and biodiversity loss
increasingly threaten the lives
and jobs of those in developing
countries and the developed
world as well.
Agency analysts are expecting
to accelerate use of the latest
science and technology to
help solve more of today’s most
pressing development problems
and address just over-the-horizon
challenges.
While science, technology,
and innovation (STI) has
always played an important but
perhaps understated role in
development, recent evidence
shows that its function is actually
critical.
Developmental economists
estimate that, over recent
decades, more than half of the
gains in developing countries’
gross national product and over
80 percent of gains in per capita
income are closely linked to
progress in STI.
Low income countries face
far greater difficulties in
adapting STI than developed
countries. Poor countries often
lack access to modern technology,
regulatory and governance
structures to support investments,
and essential scientists,
engineers, and entrepreneurs.
Aid donors are learning how
to help developing countries
boost their STI capacity so they
can find, invent, or purchase
appropriate technologies to
solve their local and regional
problems.
One promising and novel
approach taken from the private
sector is the use of challenges,
prizes, and competitions to create
revolutionary breakthroughs
to benefit humanity. The most
famous prize to date, the X
Prize, worth a cool $10 million,
was awarded in 2004 to the first
NGO to launch a reusable
manned spacecraft into outer
space twice within two weeks.
The X Prize was the catalyst
that kick-started a brand new
private sector capability for
manned space flight. Such private
sector competitions may
be used to solve tough development
challenges overseas.
Administrator Rajiv Shah
will convene a forum July 14 to
promote the use of STI to transform
the Agency and help solve
difficult development challenges
faced by the world’s
poor. Participants will include
leading STI thinkers spanning
private, public, and academic
communities.
The forum’s main goals are:
to develop a consensus around
the top development challenges
of the 21st century where science
and technology can have a
profound impact; to build a
shared science agenda to accelerate
and connect current development-
related research
throughout the entire federal
government; and to explore new
approaches and mechanisms,
such as prizes and competitions,
to help solve today’s and future
development challenges.
Ideas for using STI to help
solve development challenges
can be submitted at: www.transformingdevelopment.ideascale.com. .
★
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