1st GRA-WORLD BANK WORKSHOP ON INNOVATION SYSTEMS AT THE COMMUNITY LEVEL Theme “INNOVATION: TOUCHING THE HEARTS OF THE PEOPLE” 6 – 8 FEBRUARY 2006, KUALA

1st GRA-WORLD BANK WORKSHOP ON INNOVATION SYSTEMS AT THE COMMUNITY LEVEL

Theme “INNOVATION: TOUCHING THE HEARTS OF THE PEOPLE”6 – 8 FEBRUARY 2006, KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA

“Science, Technology and Innovation and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)”

By Academician Dato’ Ir. Lee Yee-Cheong, Co-Chair UN Millennium Project “Science, Technology and Innovation” Task Force/Senior Fellow, Academy of Sciences Malaysia / Immediate Past President, World Federation of Engineering Organisations

United Nations Millennium General Assembly 2000 adopted UN Millennium Declaration

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of the Declaration are specific targets by 2015.

The Millennium Project (MP) 2002-2006 under Professor Jeffrey Sachs reviews current practices, identifies policy implementation, and evaluates financing

The MP’s Objective is to Ensure All Developing Countries Achieve the MDGs.

MDGsGoal 1: Eradicate poverty and hungerGoal 2: Achieve universal primary educationGoal 3: Promote gender equality and empower womenGoal 4: Reduce child mortalityGoal 5: Improve maternal healthGoal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseasesGoal 7: Ensure environmental sustainabilityGoal 8: Develop a global partnership for development

MP Task Forces

1 Poverty and Economic Growth (Goal 1& 8)

2 Hunger (Goal 1)

3 Education and Gender Equality (Goals 2 & 3) 4 Child Health and Maternal Health (Goals 4 &

5) 5 Expanding Access to Essential Medicines (Goal 6 & 8)

MP Task Forces 6 Environmental Sustainability (Goal 7) 7 Water and Sanitation (Goal 7) 8 Improving the Lives of Slum Dwellers (Goal 7)

9 Trade and Finance (Goal 8)

10 Science, Technology and Innovation (Goal 8)

The World Today

World Population >6.0 billion.

(i) Rich (0.8 billion), (ii) Transitional(1.2 billion)(iii) Poor (4.0 billion) Criterion: GDP in US$ per capita (PPP) (i) >16,000 (ii)4000-16,000, (iii) < 4,000, respectively.

The Rich have Nine times Wealth, Eight times Energy Consumption and Eight times Carbon Emission of the Poor.

20% Richest : 86% of World Consumption20% Poorest : only 1.3%.

1.3 billion live in Abject Poverty, on Daily Income <US $1.00;3 billion have Daily Income of <US$ 2.00; 800 million Suffer from Food Insecurity; 50 million are HIV positive; 1 billion Suffer from Water Scarcity; 2 billion have No Access to Energy.

The World Tomorrow

World Population: 9-10 billion by 2050. Increase: Urban & in Developing Countries

Most pressing issues in developing world are poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy and civil strife, aggravated by the lack of access to education, employment, energy, food, healthcare, sanitation, shelter and water.

Science, Engineering and Technology (S.E.T) are crucial to their solution.

The UN MP “Science, Technology and Innovation” Task Force addresses MDG No.8 “Building Global Alliances for Development” and Target 18 “In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications”.

Besides ICT, STI Task Force Examines Biotechnology, Nanotechnology, Materials Science and Spatial Information Technology

Involvement of WFEO

CSD-9, 2001WSSD, Johannesburg 2002CSD-11, New York, April-May 2003

MP Task Force No.10 “Science, Technology and Innovation”

UN MP STI Task Force Focus

Improving the STI policy environment, including S.E.T advice mechanism by S.E.T Academies,

Building STI institutional and human capacities, including strengthening STI educational institutions in development.

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Investing in STI research and development

Promoting STI entrepreneurial and innovation activities

Conducting technology foresight for developing countries

Forging regional and international STI partnerships

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For Least Developed Countries to lift themselves out of poverty and achieve MDGs, they need:

1) Basic Infrastructure i.e. roads, schools, water, sanitation, irrigation, clinics, telecommunications, energy etc.

2) Indigenous SMEs with Pool of Local Operations and Maintenance Technicians.

Without Basic Infrastructure and Local S.E.T Base, Indigenous Industries cannot upscale and Economy cannot uplift, FDI will not come

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Basis of Finding: Asia Pacific and South East Asia Where macroeconomic stability, self-reliance, hard work, thrift and investment in education have transformed the economic landscape in the short span of three decades.

In MP advocacy, I have thus vigorously promoted South-South cooperation, urging high income developing countries in Asia Pacific and S.E.Asia to be donors in kind for MDG initiatives in Africa.

The UN MP Main and Task Force Reports form the Developmental Basis of UN Secretary General’s Report “In Larger Freedom: towards Development, Security and Human Rights for All”, March 2005 to UN Member States for the UN Summit General Assembly September 2005

Heads of Governments have largely Endorsed in Outcome Statement of the UN Summit General Assembly the UN Secretary General’s Development Agenda to Achieve the MDGs by 2015.

All Reports available for download from

www.unmillenniumproject.org

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QUOTE From “In Larger Freedom”

The unprecedented combination of resources and technology at our disposal today means that we are truly the first generation with the tools, the knowledge and the resources to meet the commitment in the Millennium Declaration :

“To making the right to development a reality for everyone and to freeing the entire human race from want”.

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Success will require sustained action because development successes cannot take place overnight and many countries suffer significant capacity constraints.

It takes time to train the teachers, nurses and engineers, to build the roads, schools and hospitals, and to grow the small and large businesses able to create the jobs and income needed.

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Sustainable economic growth will require significantly increased investments in human capital and development-oriented infrastructure, such as energy, transport and communications.

Governments should establish scientific advisory bodies, promote infrastructure, expand science and engineering faculties, and stress development and business applications in science and technology curricula.

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A significantly increased global effort required to support Research and Development to address the special needs of the poor

Two particular Priorities: to mount a major Global Initiative on Research in Tropical Diseases and Tropical Agriculture

I intend to appoint a Science Advisor to the UN Secretary-General

Unquote

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The Global S. E.T. Community Must Respond Proactively to Kofi Annan’s Confidence in and Reliance on S.E.T. to Achieve MDGs by 2015 , only 10 Short Years Away

We must stop Talking and Start delivering as pledged by the IAP, IAC, WFEO, CAETS, TWAS, ICSU, IMAP Joint Statement to the UN Summit General Assembly September 2005:

“We, representing the world’s scientific community, ……commit ourselves to working with appropriate partners towards these urgent goals”

UN Summit General Assembly September 2005 Outcome Statement

Unquote

We recognize that science and technology, including information and communication technology, are vital for the achievement of the development goals and that international support can help developing countries to benefit from technological advancements and enhance their productive capacity.

We therefore commit ourselves to:

Strengthening and enhancing existing mechanisms and initiatives to support R&Dincluding through voluntary partnerships between the public and private sectors to address the special needs of developing countries

Promoting and facilitating, as appropriate, accessto and the development, transfer and diffusion of technologies, including environmentally sound technologies and corresponding know-how,to developing countries;

Assisting developing countries in their efforts to promote and develop national strategies for human resources and science and technology, which are primary drivers of national capacitybuilding for development.

Unquote

Innovation: the Heart to the MDGs

I do not consider the theme of the workshop appropriate for the two-thirds of humankind that suffer from poverty, hunger, diseases, illiteracy that the MDGs are addressing. Without physical, social and environmental wellbeing, innovation will not touch their hearts!

The nurturing of an indigenous culture of innovation is essential for MDGs.

However in the global knowledge economy with increasing interconnectivity through ICT and the Internet, what is global is local and what is local is global! Entrepreneurs and innovators will not care about divisions of local and foreign innovations and will fuel their creative enterprises from whatever sources which are relevant and beneficial.

This said, it is very important that as STI professionals, we must advocate strongly the documentation of the history of indigenous science, engineering and technology in ,say, National Information Centres on Indigenous Science, Technology and Innovation

I cite the initiative that I have been working on with UNESCO for the past years, namely InternationalConference on “The History of Islamic Science, Engineering and Technology as Heritage of Humankind”

My rationale is as follows: “There is a general aversion to science, engineering and technology (S.E.T) amongst Islamic youth in developing countries. S.E.T. is perceived by them as Western and Islamic youth in developing world in general are rather anti anything Western.Yet, the developing world had a glorious history and heritage in S.E.T, be it China, India, Egyptian or the Incas etc. Indeed, it was Islamic S.E.T. with its algebra, astronomy, architecture and medicine etc that sparked the European Renaissance. We need to acquaint our Islamic youth of this glorious S.E.T heritage to revitalize their interest in S.E.T as important tools for poverty reduction and economic development

The deliverable outcome from the Conference March 2006

•To incorporate the rich Islamic S.E.T heritage and the present day role models into the textbooks and curricula in the world so that the impression is not sustained that S.E.T giants are all Western. •The Islamic S.E.T Heritage Conference should be followed by subsequent conferences on Chinese, Indian, African and Latin American S.E.T. heritage during the UNESCO’s Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014)

•To encourage developing countries to nominate their significant S.E.T installations for UNESCO heritage listing.

•Incorporation of historic Islamic S.E.T experiments in the IAP hands-on primary science education programme. •Travelling exhibition to Islamic countries.

In STI institutional capacity building, the STI Task Force ongoing initiatives of Professor Juma and me are focused on the reorientation to universities to development through innovation and entrepreneurship.

Universities must now act as the fount of knowledge that is appropriate for development and competitiveness in the global knowledge economy.

Policy makers need to realize that knowledge per say does not create wealth. It is the application and commercialization of knowledge, scientific or otherwise, into useful devices, installations, services and systems that create wealth with the final proviso that these find acceptance in the marketplace.

It is turning out innovative and entrepreneurial graduates that should be the mission of the universities in developing countries.

First and foremost, university academics must be good communicators. They must be ICT communications savvy They should not be recruited on PhD degree, research experience and publications only. They should have working experience in industry and in the marketplace if they are to understand the needs of the economy and the community.

Otherwise academics will continue to pursue their 3P career, namely Papers, Promotion and Professorship with scant regard for the relevance of their teaching and research to the students, the economy or the community.

I would strongly advocate that successful candidates as academics in developing countries should have demonstrated involvement in community service.

Universities must be graduating job creators rather the job seekers.

Universities should re-orientate themselves to serve the development needs of their region and their nation.

They must establish undergraduate incubators that assist students to venture into knowledge based enterprises suited to the needs of the economy.

In current circumstances, such undergraduate enterprises are easy to set up.

With available and affordable computer hardware and software, up-to-date knowledge accessibility through the Internet, robotics and modern instrumentation, some evenremotely located and controlled, device and system design, research and development can be carried out either within the campus, across local campuses or in partnership with overseas campuses. Such undergraduate enterprises will attract industry participation as they are the most fertile recruiting ground for the best and brightest. If such undergraduate enterprises succeed beyond graduation, they will create jobs and add to the successful knowledge enterprises in the country. Even if they fail, the graduates would have been well schooled in the hard knocks of business life and well adapted to the needs of industry.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology was set up in the Nineteen Thirties primarily to promote the industrial and economic development of the region of Cambridge Massachusetts.

The Sinchu Technology Park, Taipei, China with world leading position in wafer fabrication and other computer manufacture is supported by two universities in its environ.

Case studies of 3 universities in developing countries that fulfil the development needs of the nation through science, technology and innovation, namely the Kigali Institute of Science, Technology and Management (KIST), Rwanda; the University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Sao Paulo, Brazil; and EARTH University, Costa Rica.

The Rwanda and Costa Rica examples are featured in the publication “Going for Growth: Science, Technology and Innovation in Africa” launched in the office of the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer on 30 November 2005.

Innovation is born of the inquisitive and creative mind.

There are mounting scientific evidence that the human child is born inquisitive. The most inquiring, acquiring and creative age is between 3 and 10.

The Nurturing of the Innovative Mind must start from Primary through Secondary Education.

IAP has made the promotion of hands-on inquiry based primary school science education toppriority.

STI Research Institutions

The UN MP Main Report “Investing in Development: A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals” Major Recommendation:

“We estimate total STI R&D needs to rise to $7 billion a year by 2015.”

Any Suggestions or Proposals for Professor Jeffrey Sachs?

Why not GRA and the World Association of Industrial and Technological Research Organisations (WAITRO) work towards an alliance for the MDGs with some immediate deliverables from this workshop?

With global support for the MDGs, poverty reduction through economic development will be achieved, especially if the S.E.T. communities in developing countries work to make innovation the pathway to achieve the MDGs

If we can help uplift the living standards of the 4 billion Poor and the future 3-4 billion additional Poor, What a huge Market for the world!

Look at Malaysia, Korea, Taiwan in the past twenty or thirty years, China in the past ten years and India, Brazil and Mexico now.

In Everyone’s Enlightened Self Interest to Work for the MDGs!

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Thank You

Documents

1st GRA-WORLD BANK WORKSHOP ON INNOVATION SYSTEMS AT THE COMMUNITY LEVEL Theme “INNOVATION: TOUCHING THE HEARTS OF THE PEOPLE” 6 – 8 FEBRUARY 2006, KUALA