BBC NEWS | South Asia | India starts 'final' anti-polio push

BBC NEWS | South Asia | India starts 'final' anti-polio push:

"A nationwide polio vaccination campaign has started in India as part of a World Health Organization initiative to eradicate the virus around the world."

African Leaders Sign Great Lakes Peace Pact

International News Article | Reuters.com: African Leaders Sign Great Lakes Peace Pact:

"Eleven African countries signed a U.N.-backed peace deal for the Great Lakes region on Saturday, pledging to end genocide, war, hunger and disease that killed 3 million over more than a decade.

"Thirteen heads of state signed the peace framework -- the first step toward stability in an area encompassing Rwanda, Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) --on Saturday at the close of a two-day summit in Dar es Salaam."

World Community Grid

World Community Grid :

"World Community Grid's mission is to create the largest public computing grid benefiting humanity. Our work is built on the belief that technological innovation combined with visionary scientific research and large-scale volunteerism can change our world for the better. Our success depends on individuals - like you - collectively contributing their unused computer time."

Foreign Aid included in $388 Bln Spending Bill

Yahoo! News - Lawmakers Agree on $388 Bln Spending Bill:

"The bill also included $403 million dollars for Sudan, including $93 million switched from unused Iraq (news - web sites) reconstruction funds, to support troops and ease the humanitarian crisis in the African nation.

"The bill chopped $1 billion from Bush's request for $2.5 billion for the Millennium Challenge Account, a new program to encourage economic and political reforms in poor countries. But this was slightly above the numbers approved in the House and Senate versions of the bill. "

The New York Times > Business > Your Money > What Wal-Mart Knows About Customers' Habits

The New York Times > Business > Your Money > What Wal-Mart Knows About Customers' Habits:

"Wal-Mart has 460 terabytes of data stored on Teradata mainframes, made by NCR, at its Bentonville headquarters. To put that in perspective, the Internet has less than half as much data, according to experts."

The New York Times > Technology > Google Plans New Service for Scientists and Scholars

The New York Times > Technology > Google Plans New Service for Scientists and Scholars:

"Google Scholar, which was scheduled to go online Wednesday evening at scholar.google.com, is a result of the company's collaboration with a number of scientific and academic publishers and is intended as a first stop for researchers looking for scholarly literature like peer-reviewed papers, books, abstracts and technical reports. "

The New York Times > International > Africa > U.S. Suggests AIDS Fund Delay Grants

The New York Times > International > Africa > U.S. Suggests AIDS/Malaria/TB Fund Delay Grants:

"The Bush administration says that because too little money is coming into the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and too little is being disbursed and spent, that the three-year-old program ought to take a break from issuing grants.

"A decision on the postponement will be made later this week in Arusha, Tanzania, where the Global Fund's board is meeting. Tommy G. Thompson, the secretary of health and human services and the current chairman of the fund, is pushing for a delay in giving a fifth round of grants."

The New York Times > International > Africa > U.S. Suggests AIDS Fund Delay Grants

The New York Times > International > Africa > U.S. Suggests AIDS Fund Delay Grants:

"The Bush administration says that because too little money is coming into the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and too little is being disbursed and spent, that the three-year-old program ought to take a break from issuing grants."

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Science counts species on brink

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Science counts species on brink:

"The leading environmental information network says 15,589 species are now known to be in a perilous position."

A New Pattern Is Cut for Global Textile Trade (washingtonpost.com)

A New Pattern Is Cut for Global Textile Trade (washingtonpost.com):

"On Jan. 1, World Trade Organization rules governing the global textile trade will undergo their biggest revision in 30 years. The changes are expected to jeopardize as many as 30 million jobs in some of the world's poorest places as the textile industry uproots and begins consolidating in a country that has become the world's acknowledged low-cost producer: China. "

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Science counts species on brink

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Science counts species on brink:

"The leading environmental information network says 15,589 species are now known to be in a perilous position."

USAID: Foreign Aid in the National Interest

USAID: Foreign Aid in the National Interest:

"'Foreign Aid in the National Interest: Promoting Freedom, Security, and Opportunity' will inform and focus international development assistance - looking back over five decades of work and looking ahead to future challenges. Written primarily by leading development scholars and academics outside USAID, including Larry Diamond of the Hoover Institute, Michael Porter of Harvard, Peter Timmer of University of California-San Diego, and Carol Adelman of the Hudson Institute, the report reconfirms the critical link between national security and foreign assistance. It lays out the scope and nature of the development challenges we face in the next 10 to 20 years. While it is not a policy document, it does include recommendations on how foreign assistance can adapt to meet future challenges more effectively."

Economist.com | The textile industry

Economist.com | The textile industry:

More than 40 countries with clothing industries based on exports are bracing for the scheduled elimination, at the end of this year, of quotas that have governed clothing exports to the world's two biggest markets: America and the European Union.

Knowledge Management Research Center - Corporate intellectual capital - Knowledge Management Research Center - CIO

Knowledge Management Research Center - Corporate intellectual capital - Knowledge Management Research Center - CIO

This website provides a lot of papers about knowledge management, and seems pretty useful.

The role of storytelling in knowledge management and for science and technology

The role of storytelling in knowledge management and for science and technology:

"The implications when technology is brought into the storytelling process. John Seely Brown, Chief Scientist of Xerox and Chief Innovation Officer of 12 Entrepreneuring--a new entrepreneurial operating company in San Francisco, and co-author of The Social Life of Information."

John Seely Brown's thought are always worth one's attention.

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Bhopal 'faces risk of poisoning'

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Bhopal 'faces risk of poisoning':

"Thousands of Indians around Bhopal remain at risk of poisoning 20 years after a major disaster in the city, an investigation by the BBC has revealed. "

Yahoo! News - India, France to Develop Climate Satellite

Yahoo! News - India, France to Develop Climate Satellite:

"The space agencies of India and France signed an agreement on Friday to cooperate in launching a satellite in four years that will help make climate predictions more accurate.

"The project, named Megha-Tropiques, 'is a major milestone in the long-standing relationship between Indian and French space agencies,' G. Madhavan Nair, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization, said in a statement. "

WHO Meeting Warns of Flu Pandemic (washingtonpost.com)

WHO Meeting Warns of Flu Pandemic (washingtonpost.com):

"If the three flu pandemics in the 20th century are models, one-fifth to one-third of the world population might be infected in the next one. Even if only 1 percent were to die, as some experts predict, it would cause huge social and economic disruption. The 'Spanish flu' pandemic of 1918-1919 killed at least 50 million people. "

World Report on Knowledge for Better Health

WHO | Publications: World Report on Knowledge for Better Health:

"The Report focuses on bridging of the 'know do' gap, the gulf between what we know and what we do in practice, between scientific potential and health realization. "

Yahoo! News - Finding No Fish, Ghanaians Turn to Bushmeat, Report Says

Yahoo! News - Finding No Fish, Ghanaians Turn to Bushmeat, Report Says:

"Overfishing by subsidized European fleets off the coast of West Africa is hurting local fisheries and forcing people to slaughter wildlife to get enough to eat, researchers said on Thursday.

"They said the so-called bushmeat trade in Ghana is strongly driven by a lack of fish, and added the country risked even worse poverty and social unrest -- as well as the loss of an irreplaceable natural resource -- unless something changes. "

Brahmos test fired near Balasore - Sify.com

Brahmos test fired near Balasore - Sify.com:

"Brahmos, the supersonic Cruise missile jointly developed by India and Russia, was flight tested from the Bay of Bengal off the Orissa coast on Wednesday, defence sources said. "

Just what we need, India and Russia using their technological resources for weapons rather than social and economic development.

With 'Scramjet,' NASA Shoots for Mach 10 (washingtonpost.com)

With 'Scramjet,' NASA Shoots for Mach 10 (washingtonpost.com)

"Next week, NASA plans to break the aircraft speed record for the second time in 7 1/2 months by flying its rocket-assisted X-43A scramjet craft 110,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean at speeds close to Mach 10 -- about 7,200 mph, or 10 times the speed of sound. "

Commercialization of reseearch results in the United States: an overview of federal and academic technology transfer

Commercialization of reseearch results in the United States: an overview of federal and academic technology transfer

WSJ.com - Scientists Warn of a Visa 'Crisis'

WSJ.com - Scientists Warn of a Visa 'Crisis':

"Leading U.S. scientific societies called on the Bush administration to solve what they termed a visa 'crisis' that is keeping foreign students out of the country and may cause enrollments to drop."

Exploring Search Engine Overlap

Exploring Search Engine Overlap:

"Think all search engines provide essentially the same results? Think again. A new comparison tool shows that the major search engines have surprisingly little overlap, even for popular search terms. "

Salon.com Life | Women wrongly warned cancer, abortion tied

Salon.com Life | Women wrongly warned cancer, abortion tied:

"Women seeking abortions in Mississippi must first sign a form indicating they've been told abortion can increase their risk of breast cancer. They aren't told that scientific reviews have concluded there is no such risk.

"Similar information suggesting a cancer link is given to women considering abortion in Texas, Louisiana and Kansas, and legislation to require such notification has been introduced in 14 other states. "

UNESCO | Education - UNESCO Technology Education Guide

UNESCO | Education - UNESCO Technology Education Guide:

"The result of a collaboration between UNESCO and WOCATE, this guide aims primarily to increase in students technological literacy i.e. the technological understanding and capability necessary to live and work in a technology based society. With the help of this guide students can develop a better understanding of the role of technology in society; nurture an appreciation for the importance between and among the technological systems; solve technological problems through the application and use of tools, materials and processes; investigate and study the technological world of the past, present and future; and analyse technological systems and the impact of these systems on the environment and society."

International Network for Information in Science and Technology Education

network:

"The purpose of International Network for the Information in Science and Technology Education (INISTE) is to promote exchange of information and stimulate cooperation among national institutions of UNESCO Member States and international and regional organizations actively engaged in the improvement of science and technology education, particularly with reference to primary and secondary schools and related teacher training, as well as out-of-school scientific activities for young people. The objective is mainly to provide information which will strengthen regional and international cooperation and research in the field of science and technology education, and to promote greater exchange of ideas and information using new information technologies between institutions."

IDRC- UNESCO Workshop: Future Direction of National Innovation and Science Policy Reviews: International Development Research Centre

IDRC- UNESCO Workshop: Future Direction of National Innovation and Science Policy Reviews: International Development Research Centre:

"A joint IDRC/ UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) workshop entitled 'Future Directions of National Innovation and Science Policy Reviews' brought together about 50 clients and users of science and technology (S&T) reviews in Paris, 23-24 April 2003."

I had trouble reading the report of this workshop, and had to download it to memory, and read the saved copy via my Adobe Acrobat software.

Science and Technology for Uganda

I recently visited Uganda for a couple of weeks to help with an assessment of science and technology in that country. Uganda is a very poor country. As such it epitomizes a problem for donor organizations. Those organizations have been able to provide assistance to more developed nations to strengthen their scientific and technological capabilities. But it has been difficult for the donors to find modalities to work on S&T in countries where the S&T sector is small. In part I suppose this is due to the small absorptive capacity of these S&T sectors and need for the donors to have relatively large projects to cut down on the relative size of the project transaction costs (design, monitoring, management, etc.).

If you think about it, it seems obvious that countries to have large scientific and technological communities and strong systems of S&T institutions must generate the resources to support them. Large countries such as India and China have been able to do so even when having a low per capita GDP, because their populations were so large. Small countries, such as the Scandenavian nations, have strong S&T capacities because they are rich. Efforts to generate resources for S&T on a regional basis where the nations individually don’t have the resources have not seemed successful, in part because the donors don’t know how to fund regional S&T capacity. Thus the Caribbean nations or the Central American nations have failed to support strong institutions serving the regions.

Perhaps some reflections on Uganda might help throw some light on how donors might better support S&T in countries with weak S&T sectors.

The large majority of adults in Uganda have less than a primary school education. The workforce is mostly rural and agricultural, belonging to more than 50 tribal cultures.

I suspect that better understanding of the physical world would help a lot. I am talking about understanding of infectious diseases, and how to prevent their spread; understanding of basic nutrition and hygiene; understanding of crop nutrition, pests and diseases on the part of farmers; understanding of common animal diseases and nutrition problems on the part of those raising livestock.

I also suspect that better understanding of technology would help a lot. I would included understanding of simple machines by the general workforce; understanding at a basic level of electricity and electrical machines and devices (by the urban populations); understanding of internal combustion engines and vehicles (especially by the people who operate them).

This is not rocket science and technology, and should be taught to kids in elementary school. One issue is to get these topics in the elementary curriculum, and in Uganda there is hope since agriculture is taught in the schools. Another issue is to get these subjects taught well. If teachers really understood these materials and how to teach them, it would be possible to draw on readily available materials in the environment for teaching. But teachers face huge classes in most schools, and that would make it hard for even a good teacher to cope and communicate. Unfortunately, most teachers at the primary school are not only themselves the products of a system staffed by teachers who did not teach science and technology well, but they have relatively little education and little S&T content within that education.

Perhaps a good place to start building S&T capacity in Uganda would be in the training of elementary school teachers to better teach basic scientific understanding and basic technology. Now many primary school teachers go to teachers training institutions, and many just receive on-the-job training – both should be improved. To get any improvement in real time, retraining of primary school teachers would be an urgent priority. But the teaching cadre is vastly overextended dealing with a student population that has increased hugely over the past decade. So how do you get the teachers the time to learn how to teach better? I have no solution.

Another issue is that kids don’t stay in school long enough to learn enough appropriate science and technology to solve their problems in Uganda. I think good schooling is likely only to help the kids make connections with institutions that will provide real solutions. Unfortunately in Uganda there are not adequate institutionalized networks providing such information. Health facilities are weak, poorly financed, and poorly staffed. Agricultural extension and market mechanisms for the provision of agricultural information are weak. The mass media don’t reach most people with scientific and technological information. All these elements should be strengthened as part of an S&T approach.

Secondary school science and technology teaching also must be improved. Until now, few students completed secondary school in Uganda, and they often followed a curriculum that is modeled after the British curriculum of a generation past. That is now expected to change, as the wave of students who entered primary school under the UPE program hits high school. Primary school teachers, SME entrepreneurs, technicians, and those who will go on to the university to obtain professional degrees all pass through the secondary education system. Improving S&T in the secondary schools will involve improving curriculum, training teachers, and providing better facilities.

Many secondary schools are currently seen as giving terminal S&T training, preparing their students for technical or paraprofessional jobs. Moreover, it seems that many if not most of those who will go to the university (especially to study S&T professions) probably will attend private secondary schools. To the degree that there is a tracking of people in secondary schools, the curricula should probably reflect that that fact. For students terminating their studies after secondary school, it would seem that education should give them practical understanding and technological skills that can be used in their working lives; those going on to the university might be given more theoretical understanding to enable them to master further S&T training. Still, everyone going to secondary school in the next decade in Uganda is likely to see radical changes in the country, and to need radically different skills and understanding over the course of a working career, and S&T education should help them to face the challenges of such changes.

Uganda provides university education for a smaller portion of its citizens than the average African nation, and a smaller portion of university students are in S&T courses than in other African nations. Shockingly, a follow-up study of people after their school years indicated that more than half of Uganda’s 1980 university graduates had either died or left Uganda. A surprisingly large percentage of those graduating from the university go on for further education, and outside the health field, a surprisingly large portion of the university graduates don’t work in the field for which they were trained. Uganda has a long way to go before developing a cadre of professional S&T workers of adequate size.

I was especially struck by the lack of engineers. The electrical system in the country is radically inadequate. Mobile phones have reduced the pressure on the telephone system, but the system remains very inadequate. Railroads have deteriorated. The road system was the focus of a lot of investment over the last decade, but the new roads are described as deteriorating quickly. The lack of engineered infrastructure creates huge economic inefficiencies. I assume that there is a relationship between the lack of engineers and the problems with the infrastructure. I would guess it is important to start quickly to improve engineering education, but that will be of little use unless good jobs are created for the graduates, and the engineering graduates are put to work to assure the development and functioning of an improved infrastructure. Perhaps a financing mechanism to promote improved technical staffing in key sectors would help – either through grants or through some human-capital budgeting process for government.

Uganda is a small, open economy. It should seek to import the vast majority of its technology from abroad. A portion of this should be imported with inflowing foreign direct investment. However, it seems likely to me that a lot of the technology Uganda needs is not flowing through international commerce. The non-commercial technologies would include, importantly, agricultural, health, educational, and small enterprise technologies. South-south, non-commercial linkages would seem critical in transferring such technologies. How to build and maintain such linkages is a challenge on which I have little to offer. One offering is travel – Ugandans have to get out of Uganda, make contacts with others, and bring their discoveries back to Uganda. The work that has been done over the past decades in creating a network for the improvement of crops (CGIAR, National Agricultural Research Systems, etc.) illustrates both that progress can be made in institutionalizing modern global and national technology information systems, and that doing so is a very serious undertaking, requiring lots of resources and long term continuity!

Surely another characteristic of success in acquiring technology from abroad is to have scientifically and technologically literate Ugandans who can serve as gatekeepers and agents for the country. Again in this respect, I suggest that it is important to have stronger training in S&T in universities and secondary schools. It is also important to recognize that a lot of the technology acquisition will be done by generalists who have some technological understanding – and the education of non-S&T professionals in S&T is especially lacking in Uganda. It is also critically important to institutionalize rewarding rolls for such gatekeepers and agents in Ugandan society.

Research and development (R&D) is important. There is an essential national research agenda in Uganda, as in any country. The country’s problems have to be identified and its resources catalogued. Technologies from abroad will need to be adapted to Ugandan circumstances. Moreover, technology gatekeepers do a better job if they understand the frontiers of technology as well as the innovation process. Moreover, new members of the S&T based professions are best training in an environment in which R&D is being done and in which they can participate in the R&D. There is already a health R&D capacity in Uganda as well as capacity for agricultural R&D. These will almost surely be given high priority for further strengthening. Surprisingly, there is a capacity for ICT R&D, at least in the field of software development. It seems likely that further investments would be appropriate, perhaps including facilities in the university for development of labor-intensive, capital-saving, environmentally sustainable technologies for farmers and small businesses.

I would suggest that more important is the importation of technology, and efforts should be directed to that end.

Quality assurance is also strongly technological in nature. There are several Ugandan institutions working in this field, but quality should be a concern for every producing unit, be it agricultural, manufacturing or service based. Managers and workers should have the technological mastery and skills to produce products of good quality.

It is a mistake to assume that science and technology are what you read about in the S&T sections of daily newspapers, or see featured on television. Rockets and space travel, cosmology, robotics and artificial intelligence, and paleontology are all very interesting, but they have little practical importance to the average Ugandan. On the other hand, the ability to produce things for sale in international commerce, the ability to create and maintain the nation’s physical infrastructure, and the ability to reduce the burden of disease are critically important to the average Ugandan. Donor efforts to build S&T capacity should focus on these basic but vital areas of scientific knowledge and technological mastery.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | EU confident over fusion project

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | EU confident over fusion project:

"The project is estimated to cost $10bn and will run for 20 years
It will produce the first sustained fusion reactions
Iter is the final stage before a commercial reactor is built "

Chris C Mooney Blog on the Peer Review Case

Chris C Mooney:

"In an apparently unprecedented case, five corporations have subpoenaed five peer reviewers of a scholarly book that alleges health risks from the chemical vinyl chloride monomer. The objective seems to be to debunk the book's scientific claims by challenging and discrediting the peer review process that allowed it to be published. "

Lawyers Seek to Intimidate Peer Reviewers of a Controversial Book Via Subpoenas

The Chronicle: Daily news: 11/05/2004 -- 02:

"Lawyers representing more than 20 chemical companies have taken the unusual step of issuing subpoenas to five peer reviewers of a scholarly book as part of litigation over the alleged health risks of a widely used chemical compound. "

UNESCO Natural Sciences Portal

World Science Day:

"'Concern for man himself and his fate must always form the chief interest for all technical endeavor... in order that the creation of our minds shall be a blessing and not a curse for mankind. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations'. A. Einstein 1931"

The New York Times > Technology > New Economy: One Internet, Many Copyright Laws

The New York Times > Technology > New Economy: One Internet, Many Copyright Laws:

"In the United States, under an extension of copyright law, 'Gone With the Wind'' will not enter the public domain until 2031, 95 years after its original publication.

"But in Australia, as in a handful of other places, the book was free of copyright restrictions in 1999, 50 years after Mitchell's death. "

Will we see another flu epidemic like that of 1918 -- killing 20 to 50 million?

The New York Times > Magazine > The Flu Hunters:

"The vaccine shortage will almost certainly not be what history remembers about influenza from this year and next. The vaccine situation will probably be transitory. It is a matter for lawmakers and regulators. Fukuda, Uyeki and their colleagues fear that influenza itself won't be so amenable. Events in Asia, in particular, are escalating almost daily, with more human deaths, more different species becoming infected and more questions arising about how the virus there behaves. At the same time, some governments in the region are remaining closemouthed about what is happening within their borders. This reticence exponentially increases the difficulty of epidemiologists' work. Flu hunters are expected to forestall any big outbreak. But Fukuda and Uyeki's real fear is that they might not know one is starting until it is too advanced to stop. "

The New York Times > Magazine > Spend $150 Billion Per Year to Cure World Poverty

The New York Times > Magazine > Spend $150 Billion Per Year to Cure World Poverty:

"Ethiopia and sub-Saharan Africa have slid deeper into poverty in the last 20 years, and whereas many economists stress the failures of local leadership, Sachs is telling a different story. In his version, Africa, through no fault of its own, is trapped. Held back by geographical impediments like climate, disease and isolation, it cannot lift itself out of poverty. What Africa needs, then, is not more scolding from the West. It needs a ''big push'' -- a flood of foreign aid -- to boost its prospects and carry it into the developed world."

The Economic Impact of ICT: Measurement, Evidence and Implications

The Economic Impact of ICT: Measurement, Evidence and Implications:

"The rapid diffusion of the Internet, of mobile telephony and of broadband networks all demonstrate how pervasive this technology has become. But how precisely does ICT affect economic growth and the efficiency of firms? How well can these impacts be measured? And under which conditions do the impacts of ICT emerge?

"The Economic Impact of ICT: Measurement, Evidence and Implications addresses these questions and provides an overview of the impacts of ICT on economic performance, and the ways through which these impacts can be measured."

Measuring the Information Economy

Measuring the Information Economy:

"The focus of the work reported on this page is on measuring and analysing the information society is to examine and better understand the economic impact of information and communication technologies and applications such as e-commerce on OECD economies."

The New York Review of Books: Dishonesty in Science

The New York Review of Books: Dishonesty in Science:

"Scientific Integrity in Policymaking accuses the Bush administration, first, of deliberately suppressing scientific findings in the interest of its own ideological and political ends and, second, of packing various regulatory and review boards with unqualified members who can be counted on to favor industrial profits or conservative ideologies over public health and safety. Manipulation, distortion, and suppression of scientific findings in the interest of industries, the report shows, have affected research results on climate change, on mercury emissions and other pollutants, on airborne bacteria, on endangered species and forest management. The government's evidence about Iraq's famous aluminum tubes is said to have been misrepresented in the interests of building a case for war. "

UK House of Commons - Science and Technology in UK's Development Assistance Program

House of Commons - Science and Technology - Thirteenth Report

This is a report on the role of science in the British foreign assistance program, published 14 October, 2004. It is rather critical of the Department for International Development for its failure to use science and technology more effectively for development assistance.

Reisman on Technology Transfer

Reisman, Arnold and Cytraus, Aldona, "Institutionalized Technology Transfer
in USA: A Historic Review" (August 27, 2004).
Abstract: "America has a long and rich history of transferring technology (TT), from government laboratories and agencies to the private sector as a matter of national policy. This policy dates back to the Morrill Act of 1862 creating the Land Grant Universities and in turn the Agricultural Extension Division. Over the years, other Departments, and or Agencies of the US government have followed Agriculture's (USDA) lead and have actively pursued policy-based TT to the private sector. In 1988, the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) formerly the Bureau of Standards, founded its Advanced Technology Program (ATP), and in turn in 1999, the ATP launched its Manufacturing Extension Program (MEP). Though structured somewhat differently (involving some co-pay and State contributions) the MEP is to manufacturing what the Agricultural Extension Program (requiring no payment from recipients) has been to America's agriculture (and related industry) over the years. There is also a great deal of policy-based technology transfer to other countries' governments, as well as their private sectors. The most documented of these programs was the rebuilding of Western Europe in the aftermath of World War II via the Marshall Plan and its follow-on to developing countries via USAID. This paper will review this rich history, its socio-economic impacts, and indicate future trends."


Reisman, Arnold, "Israel's Economic Development: The Role of Institutionalized Technology Transfer"(August 4,2004).
Abstract: "Until 1948, the year Israel gained independence from Britain, its land was mostly barren, underpopulated, and its agriculture performed by small communes of inexperienced farmers. Its manufacturing was cottage industry in format. Just eight years after independence, the first University/Institute technology transfer (TT) unit (YEDA) was established by the Weitzmann Institute of Science. This organization is still operational and has amassed a long track record of successful TT to the private sector. Over the years, Israeli universities and institutes have researched various aspects of agriculture and agricultural engineering needs for arid and semi arid zones of the globe. Like in the US, such developments were immediately transferred to the agricultural communes and to private farmers on a gratis basis. As a matter of government policy, it has shared much of its agricultural knowledge with developing countries. Israel's per capita exports in 2002 were 16.58 greater than in 1970 despite the fact that its population has more than doubled during that period. Today, Israel is an R&D pioneer in software, telecommunications, biotechnology and the life sciences. It is an undeclared nuclear power, and the world's 5th largest exporter of advanced weapons systems. More than a third of the Fortune 100 companies are established in Israel - as a wholly owned subsidiary; as part of a joint venture; in partnership with, or in technology exchange with Israeli companies. And, just after the United States and Canada, Israel heads the world's nations in NASDAQ listings. Much of that was accomplished through institutionalized TT from abroad and from indigenous innovations at its government and university laboratories using the US model as reviewed in Reisman and Cytraus, (2004)."


Reisman, A., Capar, I., and Aktas, E. (2004), " Turkey's Development: The Role of Technology Transfer ". Working paper.
Abstract: "The policies of the Ottoman Empire and of its successor Turkey, have always considered technology transfer (TT) from abroad to be an important means for development. In late 18th century, the Ottoman Empire transferred some technology to improve its army. Contemporaneously there were attempts to transfer technology for building factories. In the Turkish Republic's early years, the government took TT and foreign investment issues very seriously. Based on successive five-year development plans in the ensuing 20 years Turkey transferred technology for many of its vital (state-owned) industries. In the last two decades, its private sector has led the way via joint-ventures and or licensing. This paper discusses the role of TT in Turkey's economic development during each of the following five periods: [1] the Ottoman Empire (late 14th through early 20th century); [2] the Republic's (formative) first 10 years; [3] the pre WWII years (1933-1939); [4] the Cold War period (1945-1989) and finally; [4] the era of liberalization, privatization and globalization."


Reisman, A. (2004) "Transfer of Technologies: A cross-disciplinary taxonomy ". Aninvited paper presented at the "Caucasus and Central Asia in the Globalization Process," International Conference Qafqaz University, May12-13 2003, Baku-Azerbaijan. Forthcoming in Omega: The International Journal of Management Science.
Abstract: “Transfer of Technologies (TT) takes place among various kinds of players, takes on various kinds of modalities and is done for various motivations. Its literature is very disjoint and disparate. It transcends several academic disciplines and professions. This paper presents a taxonomy defining the field in its entirety and delineating all of its facets in a manner that is parsimonious yet discriminating. Many potential uses for the taxonomy are identified. These include more effective teaching of TT subject matter.”


Reisman, A. (2004), "Illegal Transfer of Technologies: A Taxonomic View", Working paper,
FORTHCOMING IN: the Journal of Engineering and Technology Management,
Abstract: "Illegal transfer of technology (ITT) is one of the major policy formulation, industrial management, and law enforcement issues of this decade. It includes industrial espionage, the piracy of; software, logos, and hardware designs and it overlaps with issues of terrorism and those involving weapons of mass destruction. It is of concern at corporate, national, and world-body levels. Technology herein is defined broadly to include intellectual property. ITT involves various kinds of players, takes on various modalities and is done for various motivations. The ITT literature is very disjoint and disparate. It transcends several academic disciplines, professions and professional communities. This paper presents a taxonomy defining the field in its entirety and delineating all of its facets in a manner that is parsimonious yet discriminating. A number of potential uses for the taxonomy are identified as are its potential users."

IDRC- UNESCO Workshop: Future Direction of National Innovation and Science Policy Reviews: International Development Research Centre

IDRC- UNESCO Workshop: Future Direction of National Innovation and Science Policy Reviews: International Development Research Centre:

"A joint IDRC/ UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) workshop entitled 'Future Directions of National Innovation and Science Policy Reviews' brought together about 50 clients and users of science and technology (S&T) reviews in Paris, 23-24 April 2003. "

There are several other resources described and linked from this page on national innovation systems.

A Pause in Postings

I will be traveling in Africa and Europe for the next few weeks. As a result, I may not post much if anything.

National Innovation Systems, Knowledge Systems and Higher Education

Case Study Materials available on the Web. These were collected in preparation for two presentations to be made in Uganda. I will mount the presentations on my website.

Strengthening Science and Technology at the National Level


Title: "Science, Technology, and Innovation in Chile"
Description: In 1997 Canada's IDRC and the Chilean National Council for Science and Technology (CONICYT) agreed to collaborate in a review of Chile's policies and programs in science and technology. This book presents the results of that review. It provides a view of Chilean policies of science and technology, using the "national system of innovation" as its point of departure. The book proposes mechanisms for better public-sector coordination, reforms of public-sector technology institutes, and policies for training scientists and engineers. By James Mullin, Robert M. Adam, Janet E. Halliwell, and Larry P. Milligan, IDRC, 1999


Title: "On the Determinants of Chilean Economic Growth"
Abstract: This paper presents several methodologies for understanding the Chilean growth process. Growth accounting exercises show that the mild growth rates of the sixties are mainly due to the accumulation of human and physical capital, while the booms of the mid seventies and the one from 1985 to 1998 are mainly due to TFP growth. We also find that among the most important determinants of the evolution
of TFP are the evolution of terms of trade, improvements on the quality of capital, and the presence of distortions. A dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model that explicitly incorporates the relative price of investment with respect to consumption goods, terms of trade, and distortionary taxes is able to successfully replicate the impulse-response functions found on the data. This exercise suggests that distortions play a key role in explaining the growth dynamics of the Chilean experience. By Rómulo A. Chumacero and J. Rodrigo Fuentes, Global Development Network, July 2003.


Title: "Reform, Growth And Slowdown: Lessons From Chile"
Description: Rodrigo Vergara, Paper prepared for presentation at the Fourth International Conference of TIGER, “Globalization and Catching-up in Emerging Market Economies,” May 16-17, 2002.


Title "National Innovation Systems and Entrepreneurship"
Description Abstract: "Porter (1990) argues that the future battles for competitiveness will not be fought just between organisations but also between nations. Looking at the nation as the unit of analysis, one way to become more competitive is to be innovative. Nelson (1993) directly addresses the innovativeness of nations using the concept of National Systems of Innovation (NSI). These are defined as “a set of institutions whose interactions determine the innovative performance…….of national firms” (Nelson, 1993). The main premise of this concept is that innovation is central to competitiveness, and the key driver of innovation is knowledge, “the most fundamental resource in the modern economy” (Lundvall, 1992). NSI serve to stimulate the creation of knowledge. In the process they also stimulate economies, essentially taking on the role of a modern national production system. In tandem with NSI is the concept of entrepreneurship, which “involves identifying and exploiting opportunities in the external environment” (Hitt et al. 2000), such as the opportunity to commercialise innovation. Given that National Systems of Innovation seek to foster innovation, and entrepreneurship has innovation as a central component, this paper proposes that the existence of a NSI should promote entrepreneurship within an economy. To date, academic research to support this conclusion has been lacking. As a result, this paper offers a preliminary investigation into the relationship between the strength of the national system of innovation within an economy and the level of entrepreneurship occurring within that economy." By Willie Golden, Eoin Higgins and Soo Hee Lee, CISC Working Paper No.8, National University of Ireland, Galway, October 2003. (PDF, 25 pages.)


Title: "Innovation Networks"
Description: A review of Innovation Networks in Ireland. Five case studies are included in appendices: Supply Network Shannon, NETWIN, Irish Photonics Association, M50 Enterprise Platform Programme and Atlantic University Alliance. Tom Martin & Associates/TMA, in association with Vision Consulting in Belfast and Claire Nauwelaers in Belgium, carried out the research. Forfás, June 2004. (PDF, 92 pages.) The report may be of interest to those interested in introducing comparable innovation systems in developing nations.


Title” Explaining the Celtic Tiger's Success: Lessons for other Small Open Economies (not the original title)
Description: The Irish economy, after notably lagging in the convergence experience of other developed nations in the 1950-1987 period, grew very rapidly from 1987-2000. This paper seeks to explain why. Most of the rapid growth in the later period came from a very high rate of increase in total factor productivity, and the technology underlying that growth came largely from direct foreign investment. Much of that FDI came from U.S. ICT firms, and the authors suggest that part of Ireland’s technological success may be a reflection of US success in the ICT in this period. The authors also suggest that social partnership deals and the Single Market program of the EU may have been most responsible for drawing that FDI (although low tax rates played a role). Ireland instituted free higher education for all in 1968, but was unable to retain its graduates for the workforce while it had high unemployment; with the Celtic Tiger period, unemployment fell, and it not only retained its skilled workers, but drew them back from abroad to work in the new factories. Good government fiscal policies preceeded large catch-up funding from the EU, making those funds work better. The authors warn that in the future, many of the factors leading to this success may change and growth will surely slow. They suggest that other small, open economies may learn from a proper appreciation of both economic growth theory (summarized in the early part of the paper) and the Irish experience. By Cormac Ó Gráda and Kevin H. O’Rourke, University College, Dublin, April 2000. (PDF, 42 pages.)


Title: Israel's Economic Development: The Role of Institutionalized Technology Transfer
Description: Abstract: "Until 1948, the year Israel gained independence from Britain, its land was mostly barren, underpopulated, and its agriculture performed by small communes of inexperienced farmers. Its manufacturing was cottage industry in format. Just eight years after independence, the first University/Institute technology transfer (TT) unit (YEDA) was established by the Weitzmann Institute of Science. This organization is still operational and has amassed a long track record of successful TT to the private sector. Over the years, Israeli universities and institutes have researched various aspects of agriculture and agricultural engineering needs for arid and semi arid zones of the globe. Like in the US, such developments were immediately transferred to the agricultural communes and to private farmers on a gratis basis. As a matter of government policy, it has shared much of its agricultural knowledge with developing countries. Israel's per capita exports in 2002 were 16.58 (times)greater than in 1970 despite the fact that its population has more than doubled during that period. Today, Israel is an R&D pioneer in software, telecommunications, biotechnology and the life sciences. It is an undeclared nuclear power, and the world's 5th largest exporter of advanced weapons systems. More than a third of the Fortune 100 companies are established in Israel - as a wholly owned subsidiary; as part of a joint venture; in partnership with, or in technology exchange with Israeli companies. And, just after the United States and Canada, Israel heads the world's nations in NASDAQ listings. Much of that was accomplished through institutionalized TT from abroad and from indigenous innovations at its government and university laboratories using the US model as reviewed in Reisman and Cytraus, (2004)." By ARNOLD REISMAN, Reisman and Associates.


Title: "VIET NAM AT THE CROSSROADS: The Role of Science and Technology"
Description: In January 1997 Canada's IDRC and CIDA assembled a team of experts to help Viet Nam to develop a new science and technology strategy. This books presents the presents the findings of the team's mission, and was used to shape policy in Viet Nam. By K. Bezanson, J. Annerstedt, K. Chung, D. Hopper, G. Oldham, and F. Sagasti, IDRC, 1999.


Title: “Strengthening Cooperation on Innovation in the Nordic-Baltic Sea Region”
Description: Here Emily Hansson, from the International Organization for Knowledge Economy and Enterprise Development outlines the case for regional cooperation on innovation policy in the Nordic-Baltic Sea Region, a region comprised of Russia, Poland, Northern Germany, the Baltic states and Scandinavia. The webpage includes links to a selected set of resources on innovation in the region.


Title: The Relevance Of The National System Of Innovation Approach To Mainstreaming Science And Technology For Development In NePAD And The AU
Description: Draft Working Paper for the Preparatory meeting of the First NEPAD Conference of Ministers and Presidential Advisers responsible for Science and Technology, Nairobi, 13-15 October 2003. This paper is intended to illustrate the usefulness and attractiveness of the National System of Innovation Policy Framework. By Adi Paterson1, Rob Adam1 and Jim Mullin, Draft Working Paper for the Preparatory meeting of the First NEPAD Conference of Ministers and Presidential Advisers responsible for Science and Technology, Nairobi, 13-15 October 2003. (PDF, 31 pages.)

Building Science capacity in Higher Education


Title" "Sida's Support to NUSESA Network of Users of Scientific Equipment in Eastern and Southern Africa"
Description" Summary: "The purpose of this study is to provide Sida/SAREC with an evaluation of the organisation, structure and leadership function of NUSESA, the network's activities, mode of work and impact on the strengthening of capacities in procurement, purchase, use, repair and maintenance of scientific equipment in the member countries. The study should especially focus on universities." The recommendations from the assessment were to form input into Sida's decision about added support to NUSESA. By Eva Selin Lindgren, SIDA Evaluation # 01/27, 2001. (PDF, 94 pages.)


Title: "Sida Supported ICT Projects at Universities and Research Organizations in Sri Lanka"
Description: Summary: "Sida's Department for Research Cooperation, SAREC, provides assistance for strengthening national research capacity in developing countries. The current Sri Lanka research cooperation program covers 13 projects in universities and research institutes. Sida believes that a sound foundation in computers and access to the Internet has become essential for modern higher education and research. Encouraged by the positive results in several small projects, this present larger-scale project began in 1998." By Alan Greenberg and George Sadowsky, Sida Evaluation 02/17, 2002. (PDF, 50 pages, 266KB.)


Title: "USHEPiA: Building a Research Capacity Network in Africa"
Description: Summary: "USHEPiA, is a successful South-South capacity building network experience in the area of science, engineering and the humanities. The initiative, led by the University of Cape Town, involves a number of partner universities in East and Southern Africa. The program seeks to foster research capacity and collaboration amongst African researchers in order to build institutional and human capacities. Since its inception in 1995, the program has awarded 39 fellowships. This report examines the origins of the project, from its conception, to its operation and identifies several achievements. It provides a critical analysis of the successes, and lessons learned as an attempt to incite or encourage ways of developing African research capacities using a network of institutions." By Martin West and Lesley Shackleton, ADEA Working Group on Higher Education, 1999. (PDF, 21 pages.)


Title: "Management of University-Industry-Science Partnerships (UNISPAR): A case study of the Indian Institute of Technology"
Description: Summary: "Tells the success story of the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras; covers interaction with industry, organizational structure, governance, policies and guidelines, etc. Highlights strategic management issues and the IIT’s significant contribution to technology development and transfer. Compiled within UNESCO’s UNISPAR programme from IIT studies and reports and using information provided by faculty." UNESCO, April, 2003. (PDF, 72 pages.)

Specific Examples of Scientific Research Applied to Economic Development


Title: Assessing the Impact of the Green Revolution
Description: Robert Evenson considers the impact of improved crop varieties. Evenson is as leading agricultural economist, and perhaps the leading analyst of the impact of crop improvement research and development efforts in developing nations. The website includes his powerpoint presentation as well as supporting documents. Emphasis is on Africa in the presentation. The presentation was made in Harvard University's Knowledge for Development Research Seminar, Tuesday, 14 October 2003.


Title: Insecticide Treated Bednets and Indoor Residual Spraying
Description: This is a brief introduction to these approaches to malaria control and their history. In Saving Lives, Buying Time: Economics of Malaria Drugs in an Age of Resistance, Board on Global Health, National Institute of Medicine. (2004)



Title: Health as a Knowledge-Based and Socially-Driven Process/Product
Description: Lincoln Chen describes interplay of knowledge based technologies and social institutions in the health sector. The case of oral rehydration therapy is emphasized. In additon to a link to the Powerpoint presentation, this website provides supporting information. This was a presentation made for Harvard University's Knowledge for Development Research Seminar, Thursday, 4 March 2004.



Title: The role of research in changing antimalarial drug policy in Tanzania
From the Executive Summary: “Large-scale policy changes are very difficult to implement, even when available research supports them. This was precisely the case with the change in the first-line drug for the treatment of malaria from chloroquine to sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (Fansidar) owing to the gradual reduction in the
effectiveness of chloroquine. Research evidence indicated that sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine should be adopted as the first-line treatment for malaria. However, many health professionals and
policy-makers were not convinced by the evidence of increasing resistance to chloroquine, and were concerned about the increasing resistance to sulfadoxinepyrimethamine and about its adverse side-effects. Some argued for a change to other drugs, e.g. artesunate, lapdap or amodiaquine, or combination therapies. By Godfrey Martin Mubyazi, Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, January 2003.


Title: "SAREC Supported Dryland Research Programmes in East Africa"
Description: Summary: "SAREC has provided support for three different programmes concerned with land use in the African Drylands. These programmes are qualitatively different and have different emphases but all are designed to improve the human resource base and the understanding of the complex problems of pastoralists and other land users in their interaction with their environment. Capacity building, promotion of problem oriented research and dissemination of results are the major objectives of the programmes." This is a report of an evaluation of those programs. By David Gibbon and Bruce Campbell, SIDA Evaluation 98/16, 1998. (PDF, 68 pages.)


Title: "Natural Science Research in Zimbabwe. An Evaluation of SAREC support for research capacity building"
Description: Summary: "Since the late 1980s SAREC has supported the following four natural science projects at the University of Zimbabwe in Harare, which are considered of particular importance for sustainable economic development in the country: Protein Biotechnology, Chromite Mining and Ferrochrome Smelting, Groundwater Resources Development, and Environmental Chemistry. One main purpose of this evaluation of the impact and efficiency of the Sida/SAREC support for natural science research in Zimbabwe was to produce material for the decision regarding future support. Since individual inputs in the supported projects rarely are simply related to the individual project outputs, it has not been possible to perform a detailed cost/benefit analysis. Instead of an overall evaluation of project outcomes (research capacity building and research results) in relation to project costs has been attempted." By Erik W. Thulstrup, Daniel Jagner and Peter N. Campbell, SIDA Evaluation 97/14, 1997.


Title: "Sida's Support to the Reproductive Health and TANSWED HIV Research Programmes in Tanzania"
Description: Summary: "Sida/SAREC has been supporting the two programmes under evaluation for fifteen and eleven years respectively. The TANSWED HIV programme has been supported since 1986. It was started as a result-oriented project without the emphasis on research capacity strengthening, but this was introduced as an additional aim when it became a bilateral programme in 1990." This is an evaluation of those two programs. By Lotta Mellander, Nelson Sewankambo, and Rodolfo Pena, SIDA Evaluation 02/13, 2002.


Title" "Investing in Health and Development: Research Capacity Building in Developing Countries"
Description" The Tropical Disease Research Program (TDR) has supported individual career development and institution strengthening involving over 400 research groups and institutions in some 80 tropical disease-endemic countries. This report, based on descriptions of activities TDR has funded, illustrates the advances it has fostered in basic knowledge of tropical disease, the tools and intervention methods to which TDR has contributed, the policies based (in part) on its research, and the collaborations it has helped to form. Tropical Disease Research Program, 2003. (PDF, 38 pages.)


Title: "Global Science, Global Policy: Local to Global Policy Processes for Soils Management in Africa"
Description: Summary: "The creation and selling of ideas of global environmental crisis has been a core characteristic of the post-Rio decade. Global science and global policymaking processes are central to these crises. However, framings of global environmental problems – the knowledge claims and interests that underpin them, and the plans that flow from them – are often accepted without critical examination. The idea of an African soil fertility crisis is one such case. To illustrate this, the paper traces the history of the Soil Fertility Initiative (SFI) for Africa, a major multilateral programme. We look at the role of science in creating both a problem and potential solutions to that problem. Following the SFI to the present the paper documents that not as much has flowed from the Initiative as initially envisaged. While bureaucracies may easily coalesce around a problem and make a big noise, translating rhetoric into concrete action is much harder. The unravelling of the SFI, the paper suggests, can be explained as a consequence of bureaucratic politics between and within the key players, and also as a result of inadequate links between global and local scales. The implications for international activity – conventions, strategies, action plans and so on – are serious. Too often what claims to be global is really not global at all – but has barely concealed links to localities in the North. Accordingly, the challenge is to design more effective global processes allowing more meaningful inclusion of diverse local problem framings." By James Keeley and Ian Scoones, Institute for Development Studies (IDS) Working Papers # 115, 2000. (PDF, 42 pages.)


Title: "Impacts of Agricultural Research on Poverty: Findings of an Integrated Economic and Social Analysis"
Description: ABSTRACT: "The extent to which agricultural research has reduced poverty has become an increasing concern of policymakers, donors, and researchers. Until recently, poverty reduction was a secondary goal of agricultural research. The primary focus was on increasing food supplies and reducing food prices, a strategy that was successful in increasing the yields of important food staples. When increased productivity is combined with increased agricultural employment, lower food prices, and increased off-farm employment, agricultural research can be credited with significant reductions in rural poverty. However, these benefits do not necessarily materialize, and thus it is essential to understand how agricultural technologies influence and are influenced by the diverse livelihood strategies, vulnerability context, relations of gender and power, and other conditions of the poor. This paper reports findings of a CGIAR research project including seven case studies of different types of agricultural research: aggregate investments in agricultural research in China and India; rice, vegetable, and fishpond technologies in Bangladesh; soil fertility replenishment in Kenya; hybrid maize in Zimbabwe, and creolized maize in Mexico. The case studies found adoption was influenced by the technologies’ likelihood to increase or decrease vulnerability, whether the poor have the assets needed to adopt, the nature of disseminating institutions, and cultural factors such as gender roles and taste preferences. Dissemination processes have become increasingly diversified and have a significant impact on who is reached with the technology and how well they are able to take advantage of it. A wide variety of direct impacts on adopting households were identified, including those related to increased production, income, knowledge, changes in power relationships (favoring men or women; richer or poorer farmers), and increased or decreased vulnerability. Poor people often benefit from these technologies, especially if these technologies are designed to build on assets that they have, though the studies also showed that impacts on the poor were sometimes limited by asset requirements for adoption or dissemination practices. Indirect effects were also important. Poor people were helped by declining food prices, though benefits to poor farmers were dampened by falling output prices. Increased stability and even marginal improvements in agricultural production were valued by poor households for providing food security and a launching pad into other activities. Increased agricultural employment was also a major benefit, improving incomes and stability of employment. This paper identifies lessons that for future impact assessments. These included the identification of factors that should be understand at an early stage, such as the priority poor people put on managing risk; the types of social differentia-tion (gender; class; ethnicity, etc.) that will affect the uptake and impacts of technologies; the variety of traits that farmers value; and the role of agriculture in livelihood strategies. With regard to methodology, the case studies underscore the need to consider direct and indirect impacts and to avoid restricting analysis to only impacts that can be easily quantified. Mixing disciplines and research methods are essential to conducting impact assessments. Finally, the study concludes that for impact assessment to make a difference, researchers must conduct research and impact assessment in a way that facilitates institutional learning and change." By Ruth Meinzen-Dick, Michelle Adato, Lawrence Haddad, Peter Hazell, International Food Policy Research Institute (IDRC), October 2003. (PDF, 87 pages.)


Title "Preventing famine"
Description Summary: "In Uganda, 20 million poor people grow and eat cassava. The Cassava Mosaic Virus, transmitted by whitefly, emerged as a major threat in the 1990s. But now, one quarter of cassava planted in Uganda is resistant to cassava mosaic disease following DFID- supported research by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Nigeria, the UK Natural Resources Institute and other agencies." (This is the entire case.)


Title: Research Provides New Tool for Sleeping Sickness Programs
Description: A diagnostic method developed by the DFID Animal Health Programme has been used in Uganda and has enabled the development of a new policy that recognises the role of human-infective parasites in cattle and now requires that before cattle are moved from sleeping sickness endemic areas they must first be treated with trypanocidal drugs to kill the parasites.


Title: Livelihoods and Diversity Directions Explored by Research
Description: In Uganda, an important policy issue raised by LADDER related to the multiple levels and types of rural tax. Dr Bahiigwa, the team’s chief coordinator, reported the concerns to the Steering Committee. This re-emerged as an issue in a donor-government body, the Sub-Committee on Local Revenue Enhancement. More detailed research was undertaken, and the results reportedly influenced key decision makers.


Title: Involving communities in rural planning processes
Description: In Uganda research on developing a methodology and guidance for enhancing community involvement in local level planning has resulted in the incorporation of many of the methodological elements of Community Based Planning (CBP) in the national Harmonised Participatory Planning Guide (HPPG).

Compilation Of Case Studies From Africa

Title TECHNOLOGY POLICY AND PRACTICE IN AFRICA
Description Summary: "African economies need deep technological revolutions to bring about rapid structural shifts, to deepen their industry, and build up their endogenous technological capability. The case studies presented here demonstrate the need to pay greater attention to an enabling macroeconomic environmentand the ways that environment interacts with an effective technology policy. This interaction should allow for technological learning, the right technical choices, the setting up of appropriate institutions, and effective technological management for both the industrial and agricultural sectors, including those small and medium-sized enterprises that are now so vital for income and employment." Edited by Osita M. Ogbu, Banji O. Oyeyinka, and Hasa M. Mlawa, IDRC, 1995. (HTML, divided by chapters, 380 pages.)

Foreign Aid: Grants versus Loans

Foreign Aid: Grants versus Loans

"Why the proposed shift of aid from loans to grants should be accompanied by a strengthening of institutions in developing countries,"

Annual Amount Needed to Address the World's Top Global Issues

Annual Amount Needed to Address the World's Top Global Issues

Annual Amount Needed to Address the
World's Top Global Issues.
• Eliminate Starvation and Malnutrition ($19 billion)
• Provide Shelter ($21 billion)
• Remove Landmines ($4 billion)
• Eliminate Nuclear Weapons ($7 billion)
• Refugee Relief ($5 billion)
• Eliminate Illiteracy ($5 billion)
• Provide Clean, Safe Water ($10 billion)
• Provide Health Care and AIDS Control ($21 billion)
• Stabilize Population ($10.5 billion)
• Prevent Soil Erosion ($24 billion)
• Retire Developing Nations Debt ($30 billion)

Yahoo! News - Scientists Create Genetic Map of Cattle

Yahoo! News - Scientists Create Genetic Map of Cattle:

"For the first time, scientists have created a genetic map of a cow, providing researchers a new tool to reduce animal disease and improve the nutrition of beef and dairy products, the Agriculture Department announced Wednesday. "

Iraq Index

Iraq Index:

"The Iraq Index is a statistical compilation of economic and security data. This resource will provide updated information on various criteria, including crime, telephone and water service, troop fatalities, unemployment, Iraqi security forces, oil production, and coalition troop strength. "

The African Forum on Science and Technology for Development

The African Forum on Science and Technology for Development :

"The African Forum on Science and Technology for Development (AFSTD) was established by the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) to promote the application of science and technology for economic growth and poverty reduction. "

The Scientist :: Support for African science

The Scientist :: Support for African science:

"NePAD, the New Partnership for African Development, is creating five regional science and technology programs."

The Foundation Center - International Philanthropy Month

The Foundation Center - International Philanthropy Month

October 2004 is International Philanthropy Month at the Foundation Center. Its Website has new content (with convenient links as items become available) designed to educate and inform nonprofits interested in international philanthropy.

Kerry Promotes Stem Cell Research (washingtonpost.com)

Kerry Promotes Stem Cell Research (washingtonpost.com):

"John Kerry, arguing that President Bush ignores scientific facts, is promoting his plan for expanding federal stem cell research with a television celebrity and a new campaign ad. "

IMF World Economic Outlook (WEO)-- September 2004

IMF World Economic Outlook (WEO)-- September 2004:

"The World Economic Outlook presents the IMF staff's analysis and projections of economic developments at the global level, in major country groups (classified by region, stage of development, etc.), and in many individual countries. It focuses on major economic policy issues as well as on the analysis of economic developments and prospects. It is usually prepared twice a year, as documentation for meetings of the International Monetary and Financial Committee, and forms the main instrument of the IMF's global surveillance activities. "

IMF World Economic Outlook (WEO)-- September 2004

IMF World Economic Outlook (WEO)-- September 2004: "The World Economic Outlook presents the IMF staff's analysis and projections of economic developments at the global level, in major country groups (classified by region, stage of development, etc.), and in many individual countries. It focuses on major economic policy issues as well as on the analysis of economic developments and prospects. It is usually prepared twice a year, as documentation for meetings of the International Monetary and Financial Committee, and forms the main instrument of the IMF's global surveillance activities. "

Distance Communication Transfer of HIV Prevention Interventions to Service Providers

Science -- Abstracts: Kelly et al. 305 (5692): 1953:

"Most acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) service providers are in countries with little access to scientific developments relevant to their programs. It is critical to transfer advances from the scientific arena to service providers on a global scale. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention organizations in 78 countries were randomized to receive either a control condition or a technology transfer condition with an interactive distance learning computer training curriculum and individualized distance consultation. Of 42 nongovernmental organizations in the technology transfer condition, 29 adopted the science-based program in their communities or trained other agencies to also use it. Advanced communication technologies can create a cost-effective infrastructure to disseminate new intervention models to service providers worldwide. "

Battling for brains: The parlous state of European universities

Economist.com | Charlemagne:

"If America, which has traditionally had first pick of the world's top talent, is now turning much of it away, the opportunity for European institutions is clear. The number of foreign students from outside Europe rose by 60% in British universities between 1997 and 2003, driven mainly by an increase in Chinese students. Institutions in the rest of the EU are getting in on the act. An increasing number are teaching courses in English so that they can capitalise on the flow of foreign students."

The GM Maize Debate in Mexico

Economist.com | Farming in Mexico:

"The blanket ban on GM research was lifted last year. But only in theory: no permits have been issued. For the past three years, Mexico's Congress has been discussing the whole issue. A law is likely to be approved, perhaps next month, which may strike a compromise. Greens want it to reaffirm the ban on experiments with GM maize, and to order stricter labelling of imports. Supporters of GM want a green light for planting and research. "

Science & Technology at Scientific American.com: Outsourcing Drug Work -- [ BIOTECH ] -- Pharmaceuticals ship R&D and clinical trials to India

Science & Technology at Scientific American.com: Outsourcing Drug Work -- [ BIOTECH ] -- Pharmaceuticals ship R&D and clinical trials to India:

"Although pharmaceutical giants such as Novartis, Pfizer and Eli Lilly have commissioned Indian firms to manufacture compounds for years, all R&D work--drug design and preclinical testing--has been done elsewhere. But during the past year, all three have publicly stated that they are actively looking at the Indian market to perform R&D services, asserts Alok Gupta, head of life sciences and biotechnology at Rabo India Finance, an investment bank. 'This is a huge opportunity.' "

RAND: Shanghaied? The Economic and Political Implications of the Flow of Information Technology and Investment Across the Taiwan Strait

RAND: Shanghaied? The Economic and Political Implications of the Flow of Information Technology and Investment Across the Taiwan Strait:

Abstract: "The flows of trade and investment across the Taiwan Strait have increased dramatically in recent years, driven largely by the increasing integration of the information technology (IT) sectors of Taiwan and the People?s Republic of China. This report examines the economic and political implications of cross-Strait flows of technology and capital. The authors comprehensively analyze the investment and IT transfer dynamics between Taiwan and China and their implications for the global semiconductor industry and U.S. policymaking."

Economist.com

Economist.com:

Check out the graph attached to this story.

"More and more students are studying abroad. Foreign students are most prominent in Australian and Swiss universities, where they represent over 17% of all students. By contrast, they make up only 4% of America's students. However, the sheer scale of university education in America means that it attracts 30% of the foreign-student population. English is a lure. Half of foreign students choose America, Britain and Australia."

Economist.com | James Wolfensohn

Economist.com | James Wolfensohn:

"'The World's Banker' sets out to be a biography of Mr Wolfensohn, but it is really as much about the rich world's relations with the poor. Mr Mallaby writes about this vast topic with vigour and wit, and in a tone so reasonable it makes you want to slap the people who scale office blocks to unfurl banners proclaiming that the 'World Bank Approves China's Genocide in Tibet'. (An absurd claim about the Bank, as Mr Mallaby painstakingly documents, and an unhelpful-to Tibetans-exaggeration of China's policy.)"

Community and Quality of Life: Data Needs for Informed Decision Making

Sustainability at the National Academies:

"The successful production and use of the knowledge needed for a sustainability transition will require significant strengthening of institutional capacity. "

How Does Google Work?

Economist.com | Articles by Subject | CASE HISTORY:

"Internet searching: With all the fuss over Google's IPO, it is easy to overlook its broader social significance. For many people, Google made the internet truly useful. How did it do it?"

Chief of HHS Office of Global Health Affairs

Science -- Kaiser 305 (5690): 1552:

"William R. Steiger, the point person on international health for HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson, has made a name for himself everywhere--from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to the halls of academia. Then again, not many bureaucrats would want the kind of attention he's received."

Foreign Aid in Peril (washingtonpost.com)

Foreign Aid in Peril (washingtonpost.com):

"President Bush greatly expanded programs to help poor countries cope with AIDS, and he promised a 50 percent jump in other foreign assistance. However, that second achievement is in danger of being undermined. In a Senate markup yesterday, only $1.12 billion was allocated to Mr. Bush's new aid initiative, less than half of what he requested."

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Bush and Kerry battle over science

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Bush and Kerry battle over science:

"The leading international science journal Nature has focussed the US presidential election campaign on science by asking both President George Bush and Senator John Kerry for their views on the major issues. "

Disconnected: Life is getting harder for China's phone companies

Economist.com | Telecoms in China:

"At the end of June, China had 305m cellular subscribers and 295m fixed-line users, making it the largest market in the world for both and the fastest growing anywhere. Almost 70% of Chinese who can afford a mobile phone have one. ?No other developing country has created such penetration in so short a time."

Counting heads: A breakthrough in measuring the knowledge economy

Economist.com | Economics focus:

"TO WHAT extent is economic growth driven by the acquisition of 'human capital'? Many economists have pursued the answer over the past 20 years, but without great success. Despite building and rebuilding elaborate growth models, they have failed to prove that better education and training significantly raises a country's long-term growth. Recently, though, a Canadian team made a breakthrough. It found that, if you measure actual skills rather than educational qualifications, human capital becomes a strong predictor of economic growth."

Amazon.com: Books: Crimes Against Nature : How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy

Amazon.com: Books: Crimes Against Nature : How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy

This book is intended to encourage U.S. voters to vote against Bush in the coming election. It is a screed against the environmental and public safety record of the current administation.

For those interested in knowledge for development, the chapter dealing with the Bush administration attack on scientific knowledge, and that dealing with the failure of the media in the U.S. to provide adequate knowledge to the public are instructive.

Salon.com Technology %7C Bio-stupid

Salon.com Technology %7C Bio-stupid

Alan Goldstein is a professor with professional understanding of agricultural biotechnology. He writes about his experience with the counter-culture folk demonstrating agains the recent BIO conference in San Francisco. He notes that "the protesters at a San Francisco biotech summit were scientifically illiterate and politically irrelevant." Unfortunately, I fear that they and their like are not politically irrelevant, giving credibility to aberations like the denial of food in Zimbabwe (because it might include GM corn), and unwillingness of the international donor community to fund biotech adequately to meet the needs of poor countries for improved cultivars.

Singapore returns to innovation as a motor for growth

Economist.com %7C Face value:

"SINGAPORE%2C one of the first Asian economies to be called a tiger%2C is roaring again. In the second quarter of this year its GDP was 12.5%25 higher than in the same period in 2003%97when%2C admittedly%2C SARS took its toll on an already lacklustre economy. The government is now forecasting growth this year of up to 9%25%2C perhaps second only to China in Asia. Much of this growth is due to manufacturing exports%2C above all of pharmaceuticals%97second-quarter output of which was 51%25 higher than a year earlier."

Economist.com %7C Spectrum policy

Economist.com %7C Spectrum policy:

"The old mindset%2C supported by over a century of technological experience and 70 years of regulatory habit%2C views spectrum%97the range of frequencies%2C or wavelengths%2C at which electromagnetic waves vibrate%97as a scarce resource that must be allocated by governments or bought and sold like property. The new school%2C pointing to cutting-edge technologies%2C says that spectrum is by nature abundant and that allocating%2C buying or selling parts of it will one day seem as illogical as%2C say%2C apportioning or selling sound waves to people who would like to have a conversation."

'Data Quality' Law Is Nemesis Of Regulation (washingtonpost.com)

'Data Quality' Law Is Nemesis Of Regulation (washingtonpost.com):

"The Data Quality Act -- written by an industry lobbyist and slipped into a giant appropriations bill in 2000 without congressional discussion or debate -- is just two sentences directing the OMB to ensure that all information disseminated by the federal government is reliable. But the Bush administration's interpretation of those two sentences could tip the balance in regulatory disputes that weigh the interests of consumers and businesses."

This is the second in a series of three articles in the Washington Post on regulation by the Bush Administration. This article suggests how concern for "the quality of information" has been perverted by political forces to reduce governmental regulation of environmental and health hazards.

Disappearing the Dead: Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Idea of a "New Warfare"-- Executive Summary. PDA Research Monograph 9, 18 February 2004. Carl Conetta

Disappearing the Dead: Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Idea of a "New Warfare" -- Executive Summary. PDA Research Monograph 9, 18 February 2004. Carl Conetta:

"US-led operations went far beyond the hunt for Al Qaeda to include two conventional wars whose objectives were regime change. By February 2004, neither war had yet produced a stable peace in the subject countries, but they had imposed more than 18,000 fatalities including perhaps 6,000 non-combatant deaths.(3) Based on historical experience, it is reasonable to assume that they additionally involved as many as 50,000 non-fatal casualties, both military and non-military. "

The point made in the article is that the U.S. government has chosen not to provide figures on casualties in countries it has attacked, feeling apparently that knowledge is not good for its democratic decision making.

Yahoo! News - Bloggers Make Debut at Democratic Convention

Yahoo! News - Bloggers Make Debut at Democratic Convention:

"The Democratic Party invited a select list of Internet bloggers to cover the convention for the first time, treating them like any other credentialed reporter. The Republicans will do the same at their convention in New York which begins on Aug. 30. "

Los Angeles Times: Bush Took Quote Out of Context, Researcher Says

Los Angeles Times: Bush Took Quote Out of Context, Researcher Says

How could the President of the United States possibly be placed in this situation. He cites an unpublished, undergraduate paper on the positions of Fidel Castro and the Cuban government, and gets it wrong! Who checks materials before they are submitted to President Bush?

A Very Bad Idea!

Ideas on WHO Delegates at Odds (washingtonpost.com):

"WHO has agreed to send invitations to specific scientists through the U.S. government, rather than to contact the experts directly. This arrangement, largely a matter of protocol, is one the organization has with China, Russia and a few other of its 192 member countries.

"HHS officials, however, believe WHO has acceded to its request that the U.S. government be allowed to 'identify an appropriate expert who can best serve both of our organizations' after WHO provides a general description of the expertise it is seeking."

It is hard enough for WHO to put together a good expert committee without HHS getting in the way! Getting a group together that knows the current scientific and clinical literature, and the health conditions in the countries that need help from WHO is hard. WHO deals with real issues -- the best treatment for malaria, how to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, how to deal with malnutrition, diahrreal disease and respiratory disease. Failure in the quality of advice given by such committees is measured in death and disability. Scientists and doctors generally see an ethical responsibility to participate in these meetings giving their best advice, independent of the political stance of their governments.

The article goes on to say that HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson's special assistant for international affairs, William R. "Steiger also noted that federal employees 'do not and cannot' participate as individuals but 'serve as representatives of the U.S. government at all times and advocate U.S. government policies.'" If so, I hope they will no longer be invited to serve on committees of the Institute of Medicine, the National Academy of Sciences, nor the National Academy of Engineering. The Academies expect people they appoint to give their individual best professional judgment, not the positions of their employers.

Too many countries?

Economist.com | Too many countries?
:

"'Why Globalisation Works' is a long, serious book, addressed to economists and to academics in neighbouring disciplines as much as to the intelligent general reader. But Mr Wolf writes in plain, taut English, without gimmicks or condescension. His book is the definitive treatment of the subject, and an absorbing read for anybody with an appetite for moderate intellectual exertion."

The Journal : Can we achieve health information for all by 2015?

The Lancet: "Can we achieve health information for all by 2015?" :

"Universal access to information for health professionals is a prerequisite for meeting the Millennium Development Goals and achieving Health for All. However, despite the promises of the information revolution, and some successful initiatives, there is little if any evidence that the majority of health professionals in the developing world are any better informed than they were 10 years ago. Lack of access to information remains a major barrier to knowledge-based health care in developing countries. The development of reliable, relevant, usable information can be represented as a system that requires cooperation among a wide range of professionals including health-care providers, policy makers, researchers, publishers, information professionals, indexers, and systematic reviewers. The system is not working because it is poorly understood, unmanaged, and under-resourced. This Public Health article proposes that WHO takes the lead in championing the goal of 'Universal access to essential health-care information by 2015' or 'Health Information for All'. Strategies for achieving universal access include funding for research into barriers to use of information, evaluation and replication of successful initiatives, support for interdisciplinary networks, information cycles, and communities of practice, and the formation of national policies on health information. "

Scientists horrified by Bush's Bad Science | The Register

Scientists horrified by Bush's Bad Science | The Register:

"What started as a group of 62 scientists fighting what they saw as Bad Science being practiced by the Bush administration has now bloated to a body with more than 4,000 whitecoats calling for change."

NASA Denies Funding for Key Satellite (washingtonpost.com)

NASA Denies Funding for Key Satellite (washingtonpost.com):

"NASA is allowing a highly successful satellite to fall out of Earth's orbit by refusing to fund it for as little as $28 million, dismaying the scientists and forecasters who use its unique abilities to study climate change and track hurricanes."
 
Some possible explanations:
 
If you don't want to acknowledge climate change, then its not a good idea to fund data collection that would document the change?
 
Good unmanned missions are more cost effective than manned missions. Planning future missions costs less now than funding ongoing missions, future administrations have to pay the costs of new missions, and indeed will suffer from the information lost from prematurely discontinued missions. Manned missions generate more public interest and more political benefit from the party in power than do unmanned missions. If politics matter more than knowledge, one might prematurely curtail current unmanned missions to plan future manned missions.

The New York Times > Washington > Intelligence: Tiny Agency's Iraq Analysis Is Better Than Big Rivals'

The New York Times > Washington > Intelligence: Tiny Agency's Iraq Analysis Is Better Than Big Rivals':

"With just 165 analysts, the bureau is about one-tenth the size of the Central Intelligence Agency's analytical arm. But its analysts tend to be older (most are in their 40's and 50's), more experienced and more likely to come from academic backgrounds than those at other agencies, and they are more often encouraged to devote their careers to the study of a particular issue or region."

This article is not about K4D, but it does suggest that the quality of analysis (and therefore of the knowledge it produces) is perhaps more dependent on the quality than the quality of the analysts, and that experience and intellectual training of the analysts may be key indicators of the quality of analysis.

What a surprise!

U.S. Blocks Aid to U.N. Population Fund (washingtonpost.com)

U.S. Blocks Aid to U.N. Population Fund (washingtonpost.com):

"The Bush administration will withhold $34 million in congressionally approved assistance to the U.N. Population Fund because of the fund's connection to China and forced abortions, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said yesterday."

New Cases of Scientific Abuse by Administration Emerge

New Cases of Scientific Abuse by Administration Emerge
: Union of Concerned Scientists

"Thousands More Scientists Join Protest"

Yahoo! News - U.S. Science Policy Swayed by Politics, Group Says

Yahoo! News - U.S. Science Policy Swayed by Politics, Group Says:

"The Bush administration is still packing scientific advisory panels with ideologues and is imposing strict controls on researchers who want to share ideas with colleagues in other countries, a group of scientists charged on Thursday. "

U.S. Cuts Number of Delegates to World AIDS Meeting

U.S. Cuts Number of Delegates to World AIDS Meeting (washingtonpost.com):

"The move, which officials say is to save money, is interpreted by many AIDS experts as payback for the heckling of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson at the last AIDS conference and further evidence of a 'go-it-alone' attitude in the administration's global AIDS program. "

The New York Times > International > Asia Pacific > Health Experts Worry Over Return of Bird Flu in Asia

The New York Times > International > Asia Pacific > Health Experts Worry Over Return of Bird Flu in Asia:

"International health officials are increasingly concerned that a deadly strain of avian influenza has become nearly impossible to wipe out in Asian birds and will pose a continuing threat of starting a global pandemic in people."

But will we hear about it from China this time?

WHO Wants to Start Drug Trial Registry (washingtonpost.com)

WHO Wants to Start Drug Trial Registry (washingtonpost.com):

"The World Health Organization wants to establish an international registry of drug trials to ensure that the public finds out when medications do not work, as well as when they do, officials said yesterday."

China's 'Honest Doctor'

China's 'Honest Doctor' (washingtonpost.com):

"IN THE MINDS of China's leaders, Jiang Yanyong, the 72-year-old army surgeon who became a national hero for exposing the Chinese government's coverup of the SARS epidemic, could now be the single most dangerous individual to the country. "

Drugmakers Prefer Silence On Test Data (washingtonpost.com)

Drugmakers Prefer Silence On Test Data (washingtonpost.com):

"The pharmaceutical industry has repeatedly violated federal law by failing to disclose the existence of large numbers of its clinical trials to a government database, according to the Food and Drug Administration. "