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The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has argued in its annual report on Least Developed Countries (LDCs) that science, technology and innovation are vital to the growth of poorer nations.
The report is critical of the impact of foreign direct investment in developing countries and says that foreign aid has been largely ineffective because it has failed to recognise the importance of knowledge and innovation in driving development.
Rather than being luxuries, science and technology are necessities to help economies that are underdeveloped grow, says the report. Technology can spur poor nations “to break loose from their poverty trap”.
The report shows that in 2004, 1 million educated people emigrated from LDCs out of a total skilled pool of 6.6 million -- a loss of 15%. Haiti, Samoa, Gambia and Somalia are among LDCs that have lost more than half their university-educated professionals in recent years. The health sector, in particular, has suffered. In Bangladesh, 65% of all newly graduated doctors seek jobs abroad.
“The problem of brain drain highlights the bigger issue of knowledge,” says Charles Gore, one of the report's authors. “We need to adopt new policies which should be orientated to reducing the technology gap and diversifying the economy.”
The report says that LDC governments as well as foreign investment and aid must direct their resources better. Foreign aid and investment flows are not building sufficient technical know-how, infrastructure, or innovative business that would enable the poorest countries to develop independently and create jobs in the longer term, it says.
For example, in poor Asian countries, rapid growth in garment manufacturing has not led to a corresponding development of domestic firms' technological capabilities and knowledge.
Between 2003 and 2005, around $ 1.3 billion in official development aid was devoted to governance or social issues in the poorest countries, while just $ 12 million was spent on agricultural technology that could help strengthen crops and food production.
Foreign direct investment by private companies is often focused on the mining and oil industries, or commodities producing little in the way of durable technology transfer into the poorest economies, the report says.
It adds that market forces are having a “very limited” impact on technological development in the poorest countries, “despite the high degree of exposure of LDCs to international trade and capital flows”.
Though the report stresses the importance of expanding employment opportunities outside of agriculture, it adds that productivity in this sector through science-based development needs to be boosted. Agriculture accounts for 70% of the workforce, yet donor commitments to agricultural research, education and training in LDCs halved between 1998-2000 and 2003-2005.
July 20, 2007
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