Let the sunshine in

After the snow and ice of Washington, the sun and blue skies of San Francisco – where the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is currently holding its 173rd annual meeting, and the temperature has almost reach 20 degrees Centigrade – have come as a welcome relief.

Intriguingly, the theme of the AAAS meeting – "Science and Technology for Sustainable Well-Being" – is remarkably close to that of the World Bank's global forum earlier this week, which chose to address a similar goal for science and technology of "sustainable growth and poverty reduction". Not surprisingly, however, the issues are being approached from a somewhat different perspective.

Last night, for example, association president John Holdren, director of the Woods Hole Research Centre, delivered a powerful address in which, in contrast to the current line of thinking in Washington, he argued that without dramatic political intervention on the energy front, the world was heading for disaster.

This afternoon, Victoria Hale, founding director of the world's first "non-profit pharmaceutical company", OneWorld Health, gave an equally impassioned talk on the virtues of social entrepreneurship. The key to success, she explained, was the conviction of individuals that they have the ability to change the world for the better (and, of course, the willingness of wealthy philanthropists to support them in their efforts).

Two personal visions that, while lacking the robustness of the economic arguments heard at the World Bank, seemed to make up for it with personal commitment. Some might argue that this was just the effect of the weather. But there seems more to it than that.

Bring on the lawyers

Can the creation of science ministries actually undermine the impact of science in developing countries? This was the thesis that Calestous Juma, a long-time participant in debates on Africa's scientific and technological development, put to the closing session of the World Bank forum earlier today.

Juma's argument was relatively straightforward. Once a single science ministry is created, he suggested, other ministries no longer feel responsible for supporting research. "I know of three countries in Africa where this has happened," he said.

Nor did bureaucratic arrangements that split responsibility for science and education between different ministries help, as it inevitably led to a squabble over resources. And even focussing on increased spending for research and development could be a hindrance, argued Juma - currently professor of professor of the practice of international development at Harvard University - since such efforts did not do anything towards getting products into the market.

"The real challenge is to get something practical done," he said. In that sense, Juma suggested that perhaps lawyers (given their knowledge in navigating the constitutional terrain in advancing institutional reform) were sometimes more useful than scientists -- a comment that saw many participants departing homewards in a thoughtful mood.

Encouragement from a 'lapsed scientist'

World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz admitted today that he could be considered as a "lapsed scientist" – and that this had given him "a better appreciation" of why science, technology and innovation (STI) were so important in development strategies.

Making an unscheduled appearance at the banks' Global Forum on building STI capacity for sustainable growth and poverty reduction, Wolfowitz described how, having completed an undergraduate degree in mathematics, he had faced two options for his PhD: research in chemistry at Cornell, or in economics at Cornell.

Against the advice of his father – an eminent stastician – he chose the former. "If I had gone the way my father wanted me to go, I could have been sitting with you today," he told the audience.

Wolfowitz's message to the forum was the need for a balance in development strategies that kept science in the frame. It was important to address poverty directly, in particular through the priorities identified as the Millennium Development goals, he said. But at the same time he emphasised the need for sustained investment in scientific and technological capacity if these goals were to be achieved.

"There seems to be an attitude, more often in the back of people's minds than on their lips, that questions why we should be worried about science and technology when so many kids are not even going into first grade, or why we should support medical research when many people cannot afford medicines that are already available," he said. "That is a very unbalanced view".

What he didn't say was that the bank had been one of the institutions promulgating this 'unbalanced' view in the 1980s and much of the 90s.

[A report on Wolfowitz's presentation will appear shortly on the SciDev.Net website]

Keep it simple

The World Bank's forum kicked off this morning with plenty of top-level statements about the crucial importance of science, technology and innovation in meeting the needs of developing countries. But also several reminders that not all innovation requires either advanced technology or cutting edge science.

A series of speakers from agencies that included UNESCO, the InterAmerican Development Bank, and the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), each underlined their commitment to putting science and technology at the heart of development policies (for a full list of the speakers, go here).

Munir Akram, permanent representative of Pakistan to the United Nations, and recently appointed chairman of the Group of 77, spoke eloquently of the dangers of a growing technological divide between the rich and the poor. Among his proposed solutions: a global research and development funding facility, and the publication by agencies such as the World Health Organisation of a list of priority areas in which research is needed.

But Amy Smith, an engineer from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, reminded the audience that there were often relatively simple solutions to villager's problems. Some lengths of plastic tubing and a carefully designed, but easily assembled, device using a simple drip feed had solved a problem of maintaining chlorine levels in drinking water in Honduras.

Her message: "If you give people the tools to create technologies to solve their problems, they will use them."

Icy blasts

I've been told that the secret of blogs is to keep postings short and sharp. So here's quick one: delegates were welcomed to their hotels last night with a note explaining that a major snow and ice storm was heading for the US capital – although it was promised that, whatever the weather, the World Bank Forum would take place as planned.

By this morning, although the temperature had dropped significantly, no snow had materialised. The meeting started at the scheduled time. And the moderator of the first session, explained how the relieved organisers were "indebted to mother nature, even in these days of science"

But the snow and ice is still threatened. Very different from the blue skies and picturesque cherry blossom with which Washington is usually associated.

'Science has returned from the end of the garden'

Well, they're back. In the 1960s and 1970s, science and technology figured prominently on the World Bank's agenda. In the following two decades, however – apart from some isolated programmes, such as the Millennium Science Institutes – they fell out of favour.

The reasons were complex. Member governments saw expensive laboratories – often the produce of excessive nationalistic pride -- sitting empty around the developing world. In the Reagan and Thatcher era, "structural adjustment", with its reduced spending on public services such as higher education and research, dominated development policy. Then the priority for many became tackling poverty directly. Both trends condemned science to the margins.

That has now changed (although some countries, notably the US, have been slow to accept it). Building capacity in science and technology in developing countries, now linked firmly to innovation in the acronym STI, is once again on the development agenda, even if not as firmly as some would like. As one UK aid agency official put it last week, "science is back from the end of the garden, and is now on the patio".

The meeting being held this week at the bank's headquarters in Washington (see details on left) is the result of a initiative started several years ago by the bank's then president, James Wolfensohn. Sensibly, the organisers have chosen to focus on the "how" rather than the "why". As a background discussion document outlining the meeting's goals puts it, "the key issue is no longer whether countries should build STI capacity, but what type of capacity to build" (the full paper can be found here).

But the "whys" will not be far below the surface. There will be some talk about how science and technology can help meet human needs, in fields from safe water supply to food security and health. But it is also clear that what is persuading developing country governments to seek investment in science and technology is coming from a different direction, namely the prospect of making money (and providing jobs) through joining the global knowledge economy.

If South Korea can do it, goes a popular refrain, why can't the rest of the developing world? This meeting, attended by a stellar collection of names from the STI policy world, will no doubt seek to come up with some of the answers about how it can. It will be a pity, however, if the "how to get rich through science and technology?" theme, which clearly accounts for the presence of many of them, overshadows the more immediate – and in many ways more challenging -- question: "how can we ensure that science and technology meet the needs of the poor?".

An introduction ...

This is a first (for me), and something of an experiment. Until now, SciDev.Net has been fairly conventional in the way that we cover events. We use new technology primarily to speed up delivery of articles, as well as group them on the website, for example by region or topic. But the articles themselves have fallen into traditional journalistic categories (news, opinion, editorials, etc.).

Now seems a good time to be more adventurous. So I'm starting this blog to see if it's a useful way of providing more instant reporting. The intention is to complement, rather than replace, what appears on our website (see details on the left). But hopefully it'll also be an opportunity to provide less formal coverage (including passing on those snippets that never quite make full articles, but still provide essential background to -- and flavour of -- events).

I'll be attending two events over the next ten days. The first is the World Bank's Global Forum on 'Building Science, Technology, and Innovation Capacity for Sustainable Growth and Poverty Reduction', which takes place in Washington DC from 13-15 February (full details are here.)

The second is the annual meeting of the American Assocation for the Advancement of Science, being held in San Francisco -- coincidentally but conveniently -- on 16-19 February, at which issues of concern to developing countries are (for once!) high on the agenda. (Full details of this meeting programme can be found here).

I can't promise comprehensive coverage of either. But hopefully, postings from each will convey some of the key issues and ideas that emerge in presentations and discussions. And -- as always with blogs -- comments, criticism and insights from others will be received with great interest.

First posting will from the World Bank on Tuesday, 13 February. Here goes ...