Modern scientific and technological knowledge have sharply divided our world into two parts inhabited by two distinct and highly polarized groups of people. About 20% of the Earth's inhabitants (largely localized in the North) generate considerable wealth and enjoy a high standard of living, sharing over 85% of the world's income and contributing over 90% of the world's current scientific knowledge. On the other hand, the remaining 80% of humanity who are in the South, are unable to master and utilize present day science/technology and are poor, deprived and marginalized. The income share of the poorest 20% is one sixtieth of the richest 20%.
The new forces of science and technology, however, if harnessed properly, offer immense possibilities for solving many of the complex problems which are currently impeding economic and social development in the South. Recent advances in tissue culture, genetic engineering and biotechnology, for example, can be instrumental in raising agricultural production, reversing land degradation and conserving biodiversity in the ecologically fragile zones of the South.
Another example is information and communication technologies and their networks which have profoundly revolutionalized the modes of interaction in research, education and business. However, access to these technologies requires investment in telecommunication systems which are currently beyond the reach of a vast number of poor countries, thereby posing the risk of further enhancing growing education and information gap between them and the rest of the world.
The challenge, therefore, is for developing countries to master modern science and technology and apply them to their own development requirements. To meet this challenge, radical measures are needed by the governments in the South. These will include substantially more investment in research and development and full integration of science and technology into national development plans, building national and regional capacities in science and technology, intensifying regional cooperation and establishing strong national and regional alliances between the private sector and research and development institutions.
For science and technology to make an effective contribution to development, a critical minimum of investment in R&D must be devoted by governments in the South. At present, very few developing countries allocate more than 0.5% of their GNP to R&D, as compared to the allocation of over 3% in the majority of industrialized countries. Thus a meaningful commitment by developing countries should at least require a doubling of the existing resources to bring them close to the level of 1% of the GNP, as recommended previously by UNESCO and more recently by the World Bank. Furthermore, science and technology policy need to be integrated fully into the national development plans of every country in the South. This will ensure that the scientific and technological knowledge generated by various research institutions is dovetailed to the socio-economic and industrial needs of the country.
Building indigenous capacities calls for strengthening research institutions and science education at all levels, as well as developing the human resources beyond the critical mass. This will require adequate funding for equipment, scientific literature and modern communication systems which are urgently in the majority of schools and universities. There is also a dire need for restructuring the systems of secondary and higher education in favour of more investment in mathematics, science and technical training. Furthermore, to counteract the brain-drain and to ensure that a critical mass of highly qualified experts in science and technology is always available, a number of world-class research and training institutions in critical areas such as energy, tropical diseases, soil erosion, deforestation and desertification must be established and sustained within the South. In addition, collective action by governments and international development assistance organizations in the North and the South is required to establish high-level research and training centres in the South in key areas of frontier science and high technology such as molecular biology, biotechnology, informatics and new materials.
Regarding human resource development, the plan should be to reach the level of at least one thousand scientists per million population in every country in the South in the next decade. To achieve this aim, universities and research institutions should be provided with sufficient infrastructure to enable them to offer attractive opportunities for outstanding science students to pursue higher education within the South. Postgraduate training in Southern institutions will enhance the indigenous generation and application of knowledge, diminish and possibly reverse the brain-drain, and ease the pressure on governments to pay for large numbers of students studying in the North.
Throughout the process of human resources development, special attention should be paid to the discovery and development of talent, for the aspiration of developing countries to achieve science-led and sustainable development depends very crucially on engaging fully their most able and talented young minds.
Given the scarcity of resources, regional cooperation in some critical areas of science and technology is essential. Priority should be given to setting up jointly-funded regional research and training centres of excellence in key areas of frontier science, high technology and environment relevant to the economic and social development. The Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), which has brought together eminent scientists from all parts of the South, is in a unique position to play a key role in developing regional and inter-regional programmes in science and technology.
For research institutions in the South to have a strong impact on economic development, it is necessary that they establish strong links with local industries to facilitate the utilization of scientific results by the productive sectors. In addition, the scientific and technological needs of industry should also be clarified to a large extent to universities and research institutions to enable them to orient part of their research and training plans to meet these needs.
For additional information: http://www.ictp.trieste.it/TWAS/TWAS.html/.