Japan-World Bank STI Capacity Building

Partnerships for Sustainable Development

Alfred WatkinsWorld Bank

Science and Technology Program Coordinator

TokyoApril 2010

Outline of PresentationWhy STI Capacity

Building?

What Is STI Capacity Building?

Partnerships

Japan-World Bank Synergy

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Why STI Capacity Building?

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Why should developing countries care about STI capacity building?

• After all, they have to deal with:

Food security/ Hunger and malnutritionInfectious diseasesDisaster PreventionClimate change: adaptation and mitigationLiteracy and basic educationAchieving the MDGs

• Isn’t STI capacity building a distraction from the MDG’s and poverty reduction?

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Two Roads

Ignorance, No MDGs Unskilled labor Low-value-products, Low-wage jobsDead-end

Knowledge Skilled workforceHigher-value products, MDGs, higher-wage jobsSustainable Progress

Why Strive for a Knowledge-Based Economy?

Because an Ignorance-Based Economy is not a recipe for catching up, raising living standards, and achieving the MDGs!!

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Basic Assumption

STI capacity building is the only way to achieve the MDGs and generate sustainable solutions to such development challenges as inclusive globalization, food security, adaptation to climate change, clean energy, infectious diseases, clean drinking water, wealth creation, poverty reduction, etc.

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No Food Security Without Food Processing and Wealth Creation

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Rwanda: Value Addition From Soil to Neck Tie

No sustainability without wealth creation and value addition: nothing is sustainable with per capita income of < $2/day

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What Is STI Capacity Building?

JICA: STI Capacity Building For Infrastructure, Energy, Agriculture, Water,

Education, Health, etc.

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System Building

Human Resource

DevelopmentOrganizational Strengthening

JICA’s Approach To STI

JICA

University Research

Bodies

Private Enterprise

International Organizations

NGOs

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STI Capacity Building: Lessons from Japan and East Asia

STI Capacity Building

Human Resource Capacity Building

Acquire and Adapt Existing

Knowledge

R&D to Produce

New Knowledge

TechnologyTransfer

Enterprise Innovation

STI Policy Making /

Science in Policy Making

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Strengthen individual elements; Develop linkages between elements

Local Universities

Local Scientists

andEngineers

Local Business

CommunityForeign

Investors

Diaspora

Foreign Universities

and Research Institutes

Is there a tradeoff?

Scientific Excellence

STI Capacity Building

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STI Capacity Building

Scie

ntifi

c Ex

celle

nce

No…but they are not identical.Need to focus on both

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Partnerships

Critical Question

It takes human resource capacity to build STI capacity. Therefore,

how can countries build STI capacity when they don’t have the critical

mass of human resource capacity that they need

to build the STI capacity they want?

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Answer

STI capacity building partnerships between developing countries with specific STI capacity building priorities and potential global partners who possess the necessary technical expertise needed to build capacity

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Partnership Challenges• To design and implement STI capacity

building partnerships so that they help developing countries build and sustain the STI capacity they need to address theirhigh priority development objectives

• To meet global needs• To exploit the comparative advantage of all

potential partners (scientific and development)

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Partnership Requirements

For maximum developmental impact, partnerships should be:

SystemicSustainableSynergisticScalable

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Existing Partnerships Do Not Always Meet These Requirements

• Ad hoc -- few formal efforts at coordination, consultation, or linkage between partnership programs

• Different from each other – each emphasizes a different, but important, facet of STI capacity building

• Limited capacity to promote systemic improvement.

• Not always linked to national development priorities (e.g., PRSP)

• Not always sustainable23

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Japan-World Bank

Synergy

Japan and the World Bank: Natural Synergy If We Work Together

••

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World Bank STI Capacity Building

Programs

Japan STI Partnership Programs

Japan: Global Leader in STI / Human Resource Capacity Development

PartnershipsSATREPSAUN/SEED-netEJUSTFebruary 2008 GOJ-WB joint seminar in Tokyo, “STI Networking for Social Change and Sustainable Development”Keynote presentations at Global Forum on STI Capacity Building Partnerships for Sustainable Development: December 2009

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How the World Bank Can Enhance the Impact of Japanese Partnerships

World Bank • Intermediary, facilitator,

convener, and connector• Knowledge of the country and

sectors but little scientific expertise

• Involvement in national strategy formulation

• Financing for national investments in education, R&D, S&T, and policy reform

• Convening power around development issues – e.g., STI capacity building, climate change, food security, MDGs

Japan• Technical science and

engineering capacity BUT limited capacity to engage in systemic policy dialogue

• Financing for partnerships BUT limited financing for national STI infrastructure and limited synergy between programs

• Focus on science BUT sometimes limited link to national or institutional STI capacity building priorities

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Human Resource Capacity Building

Many countries are putting renewed emphasis on science, technology, and engineering for development. Higher education enrollment is growing, but faculty to train the next generation of knowledge workers cannot keep pace with rapidly increasing demand

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Potential Solutions

• EJUST• AUN / SEED-net• SATREPS• Global Science Corps (Peace Corps for

Professors) • (Engineering) curriculum improvements

for relevancy29

STI Vicious CircleSubsistence funding for

STI

Poor quality science

Low relevance

Limited commercial application

Limited support

for funding

increases

Low regard for science

Continued subsistence

funding

Weak partners for Japan

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For AUN / SEED-net, EJUST and SATREPS, the World Bank Could:

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Embed these programs into broader university strategic development plans and holistic national STI capacity building programsImprove governance of local research institutes and universitiesFinance complementary investments in the higher education and R&D sector – e.g., upgrade laboratory equipment, teaching infrastructure, subscriptions to e-journals, establishment of e-libraries, computerization and ICT-readiness, national scholarship programs to send graduate and undergraduate students abroad for study in so-called “sandwich” programs, etc. Incorporate STI capacity building partnerships into PRSPs (in the case of IDA countries) to mobilize additional donor financing

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For AUN / SEED-net, EJUST and SATREPS, the World Bank Could (2):

Work with governments to prioritize their research and STI capacity building programs on the basis of high-priority country/regional social and economic development objectives; STI capacity building is a cross cutting issue and should not be left only to Ministries of science and/or education. Need to incorporate more stakeholders

Via the network mechanism proposed by Mr. Iwase, link individual partnership initiatives to each other so that there is greater synergy between them. This will require more regular consultations between the World Bank, other development partners. The World Bank can take the lead in convening these periodic consultation meetings.

Already doing this in Vietnam, Thailand, Uganda, Ghana, Tanzania, Rwanda, India, and elsewhere

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Centers of Excellence

Virtual multi-disciplinary networks of scientists – national or regional Long term grants (> 10 yrs) to focus on finding practical solutions to high priority practical problems + lab equipmentInternational peer reviewInternational science advisory boardResearch plus teaching

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Fostering Technology Transfer and Entrepreneurship: Challenge

• Much of the technology that developing countries need to solve their problems already exists and is in widespread use elsewhere. Therefore, developing countries must build the capacity to find, absorb and use these technologies just like Japan did in 1950s – 1970s.

• More R&D alone will not solve problems unless results move from lab to market

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The Japanese Development Model:Most Knowledge Is Produced Elsewhere. Learning How to Find and Use Outside

Knowledge is Critical

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Innovation: What Can We Learn from Japan and East Asia?

Technology Transfer Commercialization Organizations (TTCO)

Legal and regulatory, innovation readiness assessmentFinance TTCOTechnical Assistance for TTCO personnel –classroom and on-the-job training with partner organizations in OECDEssential for food security, clean energy, etc.

Import or spin-in

technology

Adapt it for local use

spin out to local firms

Fostering Technology Transfer and Entrepreneurship

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World Bank Roles Partner RolesFinance the establishment of

TTCOs

Finance the establishment of Business Formation Units

Support entrepreneur-in-residence programs

Work with development partners to create new and improved indicators of innovation for developing countries, not limited to OECD metrics

WIPO and other expert partners to identify IP and legal framework obstacles to innovation and technology diffusion via SMEs

Create TT partnerships including a ‘Federation’ of TT Associations

Deliver TT advisory services and training

Design, develop, and implement entrepreneur-in-residence program

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THANK YOU

Alfred Watkins

Science and Technology Program Coordinator

Awatkins@worldbank.org

www.worldbank.org/sti