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."