SciDev.Net

This report from the WHO assesses the potential for creating early warning systems for vector-borne disease. It reviews the current state of research for several diseases such as dengue fever, leishmaniasis, malaria and West Nile virus.

The report includes an algorithmic framework for developing early warning systems, outlining data requirements and the different components of the system. It also contains two useful tables: one on the sensitivity of different infectious diseases to climate; and one summarising the existing research, identifying in which region the disease is most common, data availability and proposed actions.

A key problem in developing early warning systems, as highlighted by this report, is that non-climatic risk factors such as population immunity and food security strongly affect the potential for a disease outbreak. Equally challenging is the poor disease surveillance in many developing countries — the authors call on these countries to strengthen these systems, to help in the fight against climate change.

The report concludes that it will be important for researchers not to design these systems in isolation — health policymakers should be included at all stages of the design.

This World Bank report describes the role higher education plays in building developing countries' capacity to participate in a knowledge-based world economy and outlines policy options to promote economic development. It confirms the shift in the World Bank's attitude to education support as a driver of socioeconomic growth.

The authors ask why higher education is important for development, how developing countries can best utilise their higher education systems, and how the World Bank and other donors can support local governments. They argue that knowledge is essential for development — and higher education is essential to create and apply knowledge.

They conclude that developing countries risk marginalisation because of their weak higher education systems, and stress the need for government and donor support.

This report, published by the Global Forum for Health Research, tracks global investments in health research and development (R&D).

The authors review global targets and commitments for R&D in health and evaluate how well these are being met. They highlight the differences in funding by region, including analyses from Argentina, China and the United States; and provide a breakdown of investments in R&D for cancer and 20 widespread infectious diseases.

They also describe the different sources of R&D funding, providing data on private, public and not-for-profit investments.

The authors discuss the implications of the current funding climate for future health research and make recommendations for improving research agendas, suggesting that R&D investments must match the health needs of developing countries now and in the future.

This report, published by the Center for International Development at Harvard University and the International Livestock Research Institute in Kenya, asks which institutions and approaches are most effective in using scientific knowledge to inform development strategies.

The authors evaluate five agricultural projects in Africa and Asia and suggest that the best strategies for closing the gaps between knowledge and action include: 'boundary-spanning' efforts such as creating partnerships to improve dialogue between researchers and local communities; 'use-driven' research directed at solving particular problems for particular groups of people; engaging stakeholders from the outset of a project; providing incentives for risk-taking; and improving project management and communication skills.

This joint publication between the World Health Organization and the Global Forum for Health Research reveals mental health research capacity in 114 low-income and middle-income countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean. The extensive review identified over 10,000 articles, 4,633 mental health researchers and 3,829 other stakeholders. The authors argue that this is "the first systematic attempt to confirm the pressing needs of improving research capacity in mental health".

The publication provides useful details in table and charts, analysed by group of stakeholders and by region, on topics such as: researchers' profiles; priority-setting process; amount and type of research production; services and technical support available to them; courses and trainings offered; funding patterns; and dissemination of research findings. The appendix provides two extensive lists — by country — of policy and practice that resulted from research evidence, as well as research evidence that was never translated into policy and practice.

Nine recommendations indicate how the management of mental health research can be strengthened so that it meets the national needs of the countries as well as contributes to the global fund of knowledge. The authors say their report thus enables evidence-based decision-making in funding and priority setting in the area of mental health research in low-income and middle-income countries.

This extensive report was one of the first to document the scale of the problem of chronic diseases in developing countries, and crucially, to offer guidance on feasible and practical methods of tackling them.

The document starts by laying out in detail the profiles of chronic diseases in different countries, projections for the future, and how chronic diseases are linked with poverty. It also examines in depth the economic costs of such diseases and the macroeconomic consequences of not tackling them quickly enough. The authors outline interventions — whether community, workplace, or school — that have robust evidence supporting them.

The report ends with a call for a unifying framework of global health experts and stakeholders, in which the government has a key role. It also specifies what policymakers need to do to ensure that measures to tackle chronic diseases are put into action.

The report summarises the results of a survey of African Universities’ experiences in collaborating with scientists and institutions in developed countries. The study was carried out by the Association of Commonwealth Universities to provide background information to support the recent development thrust aimed at strengthening African universities through greater investment and North–South (and South–South) collaboration. It focuses primarily on social sciences and humanities research. The report presents empirical data on institutional goals, resource availability, prevalence and satisfaction with collaborative arrangements, challenges faced by individual researchers, capacity building as well as training and research support.

This paper presents a review of the challenges of international scholarly scientific collaboration. It looks at institutional constraints and points out that the challenges and problems multiply when collaborators come from different countries with differing conditions, resource endowments and institutional structures. It is easier to call for more and better forms of international collaboration than it is to design them. The report asserts that good design is helped by a better understanding of what collaboration is and how it has been carried out. It draws on social research insights to help reduce the transactional, financial, ethical and emotional costs of international linkages and exchange and provides a conceptual framework for thinking about international collaboration issues.

Commissioned by UK Office of Science and Innovation, the report looks at the trend of international scientific collaboration between the United Kingdom and its leading partners. It uses bibliometric data (co-authorship and citations of scientific articles) to capture international scientific collaboration in seven broad research fields, focusing on Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, UK and the US. The data deals with two time-periods, 1996–2000 and 2001–2005 and the report finds that publication of co-authored articles on scientific collaboration has increased considerably faster than the overall increase in research across the two time-periods. It also finds that countries vary in their ability to collaborate or to benefit from it. The results may have important implications for putting international scientific collaborative arrangements in place.

This report attempts to understand the growing trend of international scientific collaboration as a preferred method of building scientific capacity in developing countries. Before the effects of these trends can be documented, however, there is a need to better define scientific capacity itself. This is relevant not only as an end in itself but also as a means of identifying potential collaborators. The traditional dichotomy of developed and developing countries no longer seems to serve the purpose of increasing useful understanding of these trends. The report attempts to provide a new index of scientific capacity based on an aggregation of several national-level measures and creates a useful taxonomy of countries categorised by scientific capacity. The four classifications arising from this taxonomy are scientifically advanced, proficient, developing, and lagging countries. It examines the trends in output, productivity, collaboration and linkages between and among countries in each of these categories.

This analysis of information and communication technology (ICT) policy options for developing countries uses a range of national data to categorise countries according to stages in the information revolution (numbered 1 through 4), and identify key drivers for each of these.

At lower stages of development, key drivers are seen to be those emphasising market development. Intermediate stages are dominated by demand factors while at higher stages, supply factors become more important.

This approach could help policymakers fine-tune their ICT strategies to help progress along the different stages of the information revolution. Donor agencies may also find the document useful in identifying funding opportunities to support ICT growth in the developing world.

This paper maps African countries' knowledge base through patent applications and publications. It shows South Africa as academically, and technically, the strongest country of the continent. The number of publications is growing in other African countries, but patenting remains limited all-round.

The paper ends on a positive note, arguing that African countries already possess the basis for knowledge-driven development.

The World Investment Report 2005, published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), examines the latest trends in foreign direct investment (FDI). It also analyses the internationalisation of R&D by transnational corporations. The report is divided into two main parts, corresponding to these two trends, which are examined for their implications on development.

The report indicates that FDI flows resumed growth in 2004, and that flows of FDI to developing countries have led the recovery, whereas FDI inflows among developed countries have continued to decline. It also highlights the surge in R&D internationalisation by transnational corporations, and the growing complexity of R&D activities undertaken by multinationals in a few select developing countries. In addition, the report emphasises that acquiring countries (countries receiving inflows of FDI) should have coherent policies to promote beneficial R&D interactions between transnational corporations and domestic organisations.

This report, part of the 'Technology for Development Series' by UNCTAD addresses partnerships in scientific and technological development involving companies from developing countries. It concludes that there has been a relatively slow development of formal partnerships involving those firms and argues the need for government strategies and policy intervention to support network initiatives. It also explores informal partnering through networks and clusters of firms as an alternative way for many businesses in developing countries to become competitive and boost their capability to the right level for graduating to formal partnerships.

This authoritative report — prepared for the Commission on Development Related Research of the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs — discusses the implications of recent changes in ways of thinking about research, innovation and development for both international donors and the funding of research for development  The report analyses new views on research and models of innovation, particularly, the emergence of the systems of innovation approach and how these changes present new requirements for donor policies on research for development. It also discusses policy changes and trends at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries.

The report concludes that the current understanding of how the innovation process occurs demands a radical rethinking of the ways in which research for development is funded and in the strategies of international donors. Based on the understanding that the reworking of existing stocks of knowledge and creative imitation — rather than the creation of new knowledge through research — are the most important contributions of knowledge for development, new strategies should, the paper suggests, be put in place by donors to support these processes in developing countries. These new strategies should see an end of donors' hands-off project-based funding policies and a close engagement of donors with the innovation systems of recipient countries as whole. The authors stress the importance of investments in the business system and not only in public institutes and bodies.

A summary of the recommendations of the Task Force on Science, Technology and Innnovation of the UN Millenium Project, this report examines how science, technology and innovation can contribute to reaching the Millenium Development Goals set at the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000.

The report is divided into three parts. The first section examines development trends and the challenges faced by developing countries. The second part addresses the priority areas which demand policy interventions. The report emphasises the importance of strengthening infrastructure and institutions of higher education, fostering entrepreneurship, and managing technological innovation in a globalising world. The third section covers policy innovations needed to bring science, technology, and innovation to the core of development efforts. The report points out the relevance of advice on science, technology, and innovation and the need to change the policies of international institutions to better reflect the Millennium Development Goals.

This report focuses on the role of innovation in country competitiveness. The first part of the report contains the Industrial Development Scoreboard that benchmarks and ranks the industrial performance and capability indicators of 87 countries. The second part focuses on the processes of industrial innovation and learning in developing countries and economies in transition and discusses the range of policies that can be implemented to facilitate those processes.

The report concludes that industrial and technological capabilities are highly concentrated in a few industrialised and developing economies, and this concentration is declining in the former and increasing in the latter.The report also emphasises that building capabilities demands a strong policy support, combining an export focus with complementary efforts to build skills, enhance firms' technological capabilities, foster supporting institutions and to attract foreign resources. This, the report suggests, is primarily the responsibility of individual governments, but international institutions can and should provide guidance and assistance.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) annual Human Development Report for 2001 examines the critical — and not always straightforward — relationship between technology and development. It focuses on the global and national policies that are necessary to promote the benefits of technologies to development while mitigating new risks that might follow them.

The report stresses that while technologies may provide opportunities for development, they can also be a source of further exclusion for developing countries. The paper includes a Technology Advancement Index of advanced and developing countries that illustrates the lack of capacity in developing countries not only for innovation and access to technologies, but in education and skills necessary to use technologies efficiently. The report concludes that in order to increase the benefits of technologies for developing countries, innovations in national and global policies need to keep pace with and reflect technological innovation.  

The World Bank annual World Development Report for 1998/1999 addresses the role of knowledge in fostering economic and social development. The report analyses the technological knowledge gaps and information problems afflicting developing countries and affecting their development prospects and ways through which international institutions and developing countries governments can address these problems.

The report notes that only if developing countries put in place policies to reduce the knowledge gaps separating them from advanced countries, they will be able to benefit from the current global explosion of knowledge. Such measures include investing in education and training and maintaining open trade regimes. It also stresses that developing-country governments, bilateral donors, multilateral institutions, nongovernmental organisations, and the private sector should co-operate to foster institutions to address information problems affecting developing countries.

This report investigates whether collaborative projects between advanced and developing countries are contributing to building scientific and technological capacities in developing countries.The report includes an index of scientific and technological capacity for 150 countries. It also discusses the patterns of international linkages between advanced countries and those with differing levels of scientific and technological capacity, assessing the benefits of these collaborations for capacity building.

The authors conclude that although scientific collaborations between advanced and developing countries are growing, it is nothing like the rate of collaboration among advanced countries themselves. The report does also conclude that collaborations have contributed to increasing scientific and technological capacities in developing countries, but capabilities do not necessarily follow from international scientific collaborations. Sometimes too, the knowledge generated is more relevant to advanced countries than developing countries.