Science diplomacy for a sustainable development: A southern perspective

The Fourth World Science Forum ended recently in Budapest. Under the auspices of UNESCO and several international organizations, 500 representatives from more than 80 countries gathered to discuss the relevance of knowledge in questions concerning the future. The key question was: what role can science play for sustainable development.

Ten years after the first global science conference, the global scientific landscape has changed. China, India, Brazil and Russia have developed robust scientific systems to parallel their economic growth. In Brazil, the number of scientists with a doctorate has tripled annually in the past decade.

Yet a science-based economy is still a long way off. Although overall more scientists are being trained, only very few of them have the engineering knowledge required by industry. Universities and industry are thus collaborating in exceptional circumstances.

Investment in innovation and research still lacking

Also with regard to state investments in research and development, none of the emerging economies has exceeded the critical limit of 2 percent of the GDP. Innovation has still not been made the key premise of industry.

A lack of information and an absence of qualified research staff restrict the innovative potential of most companies in these countries. Social inequalities and huge differences in incomes are still firmly anchored at a structural level.

It was only during the 1990s that governments in these newly industrialized nations explicitly took action to associate their development policy strategies with industrial policies in order to increase the innovative potential in manufacturing and services.

China, for example, has designed an action plan for the development of science and innovation that runs until 2020. Brazil has also been systematically investing in industry-oriented research since the late 1990s and has passed an innovation law, which makes it easier for university researchers to move into industry.

Similar initiatives, even if somewhat hesitant, are being implemented in India and South Africa. These strategies are founded on the idea of increasing the competitiveness of economies and anchoring growth firmly on science and innovation-based approaches in the long-term.

Models from emerging economies can help others

In many ways, the governments learn from the experience of the industrialized nations and make use of OECD methodology. At the same time, important new empirical and policy models are developed with regard to the promotion of science and innovation in the context of social inequality.

These models can also be of interest to less developed countries and give reason to reflect on the traditional indicators for research-based innovators.

The participants of Budapest's World Science Forum were well aware of the great importance of science for global development. This is not an insight that was wide-spread 10 years ago.

How to structure continuing education and training measures universally, and thus promote qualified staff in all levels and sectors of the economy, is a central problem. That applies to the development strategies in Brazil, India and South Africa, and partly in China and Russia.

Frequently, these countries are facing the challenge that while on the one hand they are striving for international excellence in science, at the same time they first have to develop a broad educational system. Despite increasing collaboration between researchers from emerging economies and industrialized nations, it is still difficult to use and spread knowledge as market innovation in a way that will promote development.

More cooperation needed in science and technology

Most emerging economies have made great progress regarding economic policies in the past few years and are in the present global crisis are playing a stabilizing role in the global economy. This is not sufficient, however, to develop the innovative potential that is necessary to transform the manufacturing systems of the emerging economies and developing countries in the required time and to put these nations on the path to sustainable, and above all low-carbon, growth. This will hardly be possible without increased cooperation in science and technology.

The international economic crisis clearly shows the limits of state policy and the necessity of new international forms of taxation. It is becoming increasingly clear that independent development strategies cannot lead to a long-term transformation in a science-based economy.

For this reason, governments must act together to strengthen their activities in the area of science and innovation diplomacy. Science diplomacy is based on the premise that development can only be successful if, in addition to national strategies, the global character of development is also taken into account.

Global science pact should include developing countries

Answers to global challenges such as climate change, migration, the fight against poverty and the development of a global knowledge community require new shared efforts in science diplomacy.

Given the problems that are looming for the world community in the next few decades, a global science pact is necessary, which expressly incorporates the emerging economies and developing countries and makes knowledge on the solution of global problems a generally accessible global asset.

The UNESCO World Science Day was celebrated on November 10. This day commemorates the important role played by science in the promotion of peace and development.

Britta Rennkamp is a researcher on Competitiveness and Social Development with the German Development Institute (DIE).

Dr. Ademar Seabra heads the Science and Technology Department in the Ministry for Foreign Relations, Brazil