Science, Technology, Innovation and
Wealth Creation: Skills and Capacity
Building for Developing Countries
Sir David King
Chief Scientific Adviser to UK Government
World Bank
11 July 2007
Indonesian Tsunami, 26 December 2004
Before After
The FMD story: 2001
450
400
A: Several days to slaughter
350
300
A
B: Slaughter on infected premises
within 24 hours
250
200 C: Slaughter on infected and
neighbouring farms within 48 hours
150
Data B
100
50
C
0
22-Feb 8-Mar 22-Mar 5-Apr 19-Apr 3-May 17-May 31-May 14-Jun 28-Jun
Date
21st Century Challenges
Population
• Water
• Food
• Energy
• Health
• Environment
• Terrorism/Conflict
• Climate change
• Biodiversity
• Wellbeing
• Sustainability
Variation of life expectancy around the world
Political Factors: weak governance
Governance Quality in Developing Countries, Measured by Country
Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA) scores, 1999-2005
3.8
3.7
3.60
1999 2005 3.49
3.5
3.40 3.40 3.39
3.3
Scale from 1 to 6
3.22 3.20
3.19
3.1
2.96
2.9
2.7
2.5
sub-Saharan Africa East Asia & Pacific Latin America & Carribean Middle East & North Africa South Asia
Obstacles to African development
• In the past have mainly been due to
governance and geography – manifest into a
number of factors
• Human - HIV and AIDS, malaria and TB,
education
• Political - weak governance, corruption,
conflict
• Environmental - agriculture, climate change
• Science and technology – weak in science,
technology, medical, engineering, agricultural
skills
Burden of disease
HIV Prevalence rate, 2006 (% of adult population)
7.0%
6.0% 5.9%
5.0%
4.0%
3.0%
2.0%
1.2%
1.0% 0.6% 0.5%
0.1%
0.0%
East Asia South Asia Sub-Saharan Africa Latin America Carribean
Source: UNAIDS and WHO, December 2006
Food
• Imports vs Exports
• Crops should be grown to create
stocks and for export
• GM research needed
World water deficit
Source: NERC, CEH Wallingford
Population and Water
• World Resource : 12-14
million cubic metres
available
– 1989 : 9,000 cub metres
per person
– 2025 : 5,100 cub metres
per person
• Population distribution
does not equal water
supply distribution
Global fossil resources
Source: BP
Source: BP estimates
Solar Land Area Requirements
6 Boxes at 3.3 TW Each
Source: Nathan Lewis
Basic Sanitation
Source: SASI Group
http://www.worldmapper.org/posters/worldmapper_map183_ver5.pdf
Net Official Aid, 2004
EU contributors
14 0.7 x = % of GDP
12
Rising to 0.7% of GDP
10 0.4 0.38 by 2013
0.3
8
$bn
6
4 0.17
2
0
EU 5* France Germany UK Italy
SNENs
*Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden & Belgium
Source: OECD
The case for untying aid
Tied aid:
• Undermines national ownership
• Weakens decision making
• Bypasses local governance and
accountability systems
• OECD estimates that in 2002, tied aid
reduced the actual value to Africa by $0.7 -
$1.3 bn.
Better quality aid should:
• Be aligned to country policies and strategies
for economic development
• Make use of and support national systems
• Be co-ordinated with other donors
• Be provided predictably over the longer term
• Be where good governance is good -
unconditional
Sustainable Development
• Each generation should leave at least as large a
productive base for its successor as it inherited from its
predecessor
Productive Base:
Manufactured capital Social worth of
Human capital these assets =
Natural/Environmental capital wealth of a nation
+ Institutions, cultural coordinates
Source: Partha Dasgupta
Commission for Africa, 2004
Commission for Africa Report
• A new kind of partnership – based on
mutual respect and solidarity.
• Good governance
• An additional $25bn a year in aid by 2010.
• 100% debt cancellation for poorest
countries.
• Untying aid
For capacity building:
International Community should commit in
2005:
• US$ 1billion for education
• US$ 500 million a year over 10 years to
revitalise Africa’s institutions of higher
education.
• US$ 3billion over 10 years to develop
centres of excellence in S&T.
Source: Research Africa, 26 June 2007
Knowledge transfer and capacity building
activity will make significant contributions to:
Human capital
• Education provision skills development
• Population growth containment
Infrastructure Development
• Clean water, hospitals, schools, Police, government
facilities, Transport on a trans-regional basis
Cultural Development
• Attitudes to wealth creation
• Encouraging entrepreneurial spirit
• Respect for indigenous culture
Skills: Holistic approach
• Coordinate international programmes
• Governmental and regional decision making in
partnership
• Need to go beyond basic education – building up
capabilities in primary, secondary and higher
education
• Well-developed approach to science, technology,
engineering and medicine
• Using centres of excellence to raise standards
throughout the system
India: an example of best practice
• First PM, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru – deep respect
for S&T
• Sustained investment in schools, HE and S&T
• Development of Indian Institutes of Technology
(IITs), initially funded by UK, USA, Russia &
Germany post 1947
IIT, Delhi
383ppm
(2006)
Fedorov et al, Science 312 (2006) 1485
Impacts of temperature rise on robusta
coffee in Uganda
Source:UNEP/GRID-Arendal 1995, quoted in ODI 2007
Darfur
Wellbeing
• Science and technology is vital for good
governance, stability and human capital
• Technically skilled population is a
pre-requisite for:
– Economic and wealth sustainability; and
– Wellbeing