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NRF/Cohort/DACST Science and Sustainability Launch Function by Dr Ben Ngubane, Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology
NRF/Cohort/DACST Science and Sustainability Launch Function by Dr Ben Ngubane, Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology
2002-05-20 07:55
Sheraton Hotel Towers, Pretoria
Minister
True
NRF/Cohort/DACST Science and Sustainability Launch Function by Dr Ben Ngubane, Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology
20 May 2002
Venue: Sheraton Hotel Towers, Pretoria
Dr Khotso Mokhele, President of NRF
Esteemed colleagues
Friends
Members of the media:
It was indeed a pleasure for me to accept the invitation to launch the
activities of COHORT in support of the World Summit on Sustainable
Development.
South Africa is preparing to host the World Summit on
Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in late August and early
September this year. While many people have referred to this conference
as "Rio plus ten", this Summit is of far greater significance. Indeed,
it should be a forward-looking endeavour that builds on the global
experience of the past ten years. In a profound sense, the WSSD should
recover the human side of the environmental challenges facing our
shared common home.
I therefore welcome the overall thrust in Prof. Parnell’s
presentation earlier, on the relationship between science and
technology and social development.
Since Rio, the pre-eminent change that has taken place is the
recognition that sustainable development is a far more embracing and
holistic concept than environmental sustainability. See, for instance,
Prof. Parnell’s remarks regarding the integration of social and
scientific research as these refer to her specific case study. Indeed,
sustainable development is a way of looking at all the sources and
resources that can lead to a better quality of life for the current
generation, without compromising future generations.
Until comparatively recently, science and technology did not
have a central role in the sustainable development debate. Rather, we
spoke about the application of science, for instance, in the
measurement of the environment, better waste management, or science and
technology utilised to reduce emissions from power stations. Science
and technology were often seen as a source of problems relating to
environmental sustainability or, in some cases, also the solution to
those same problems.
More recently, with the publication of key reports such as the
2001 United Nations Development Report "Making new technologies work
for human development", a change is being signalled.
It is becoming clear that the relationship between science,
knowledge and the availability of human capital to address the issues
of sustainable development is crucial. "Compare here again, references
made to this need in our keynote presentation. This is further
reinforced in recent work undertaken by the Economic and Social Council
of the United Nations. This has not yet been fully published, but it is
clear that most practitioners and policy makers have undergone a
significant paradigm shift in recognising the importance of technology
(and knowledge more generally), and the critical role that it plays in
development.
This is a very different approach from the traditional narrow
thinking of development economics and practice over the past 30 years.
In the report prepared by the International Council for
Science (ICSU) and the World Federation of Engineering Organisations
(WFEO) it is emphasised that a New Contract is needed where social
equity, poverty reduction and other societal needs must be integral to
scientific, engineering and technological endeavours.
Scientific and technical capacity – as an elaboration of
knowledge and new tools – must be built up and maintained in all
countries, but especially in countries that currently lack a minimum,
critical mass of S&T capacity.
It is the knowledge and technological command to apply the
inputs of labour, capital and resources that make modern economies
work.
Somehow, we have failed to talk enough about the knowledge
resources that can fundamentally change the future of the economies of
the developing world. The challenge to all development thinkers and
politicians in the developing world is to recognise that untapped human
potential represents an effective and sustainable path out of the
dilemmas of under-development. In our view, the only long-term strategy
that can work is based on quality education to create human capital.
The good news today is that there are many powerful new tools
in our hands to accelerate the development of human capital as the
precondition for sustainable development.
President Thabo Mbeki made this clear in a recent speech, when
he said: "We have to ensure that as many of our people as possible
master modern technologies and integrate them in their social
activities, including education, delivery of services and economic
activity. This relates in particular to communication and information
technology."
South Africa, as a result of our policy review of the
relationship of technology to sustainable development, is proposing a
significant shift away from the notion of technology transfer (in the
narrow sense) to a far broader concept of "technology and knowledge
partnerships". And once again, I refer to Prof. Parnell’s presentation,
which has highlighted this innovative partnership and its potential.
Sustainable development will not be achieved unless there is a
redirection of our efforts to develop the full potential of people
through education: an education that must include mastery of modern
technologies.
Few, if any, future scenarios for Africa and other parts of
the developing world talk about the contributions these nations will
make in science and technology for sustainable development. This is
surely not right. Perhaps we have convinced ourselves that developing
countries cannot be players in the knowledge economy. I believe that
this mindset needs to be broken and removed from our consciousness.
It is, however, critical to recognise that the path to
knowledge-based sustainable development requires consistent and
effective policies over a significant period of time.
Science and technology are often seen by policy makers as
instruments that have well-defined functionality, like a light switch
or a key in a lock. Under these conditions, science and technology
becomes the handmaiden of greater goals such as economic development or
quality of life.
This instrumentalist approach does great damage because it
does not recognise that the potential of people trained in science and
technology is far greater than the primary scientific knowledge that
they hold.
Scientists and technologists are problem solvers (proponents
and analysts of policy developments), innovators, entrepreneurs,
business people, community leaders and artists. Science and technology
is not a static category into which we plug machine-like robots that
become instruments of production. Sustained effective science and
technology investment is in fact a broad strategy to address the
persistent challenge of under-development of our world.
In launching this initiative of COHORT and the NRF of hosting
a series of events in the run-up to the WSSD, we need to remind
ourselves of this last-mentioned overall imperative of our scientific
endeavours.
The first way to engender the change required is through transformation of education.
Science, mathematics, computing and technology should be a
requirement in the education curriculum in the developing world up to
matriculation level. The misunderstanding of the sciences by the
general public leads to serious underestimation of their usefulness in
defining better solutions.
Historically, scientifically literate communities have
demonstrated the highest rates of economic development, the highest
commitment to democratic values, and have created an enduring and
sustainable quality of life in the communities they serve.
I am not only talking of what is sometimes wrongly called
Western or "First World" science. South Africa, like many countries,
recognises the unique potential of the knowledge resources of our
people. Indigenous knowledge systems hold great promise in providing
the means of eliminating the alienation many people feel from science
and technology as traditionally taught. Indigenous knowledge projects
in South Africa have already shown a rich potential for better
curriculum development, as well as new technological innovation.
Information and communication technology will play a major
role in making education more attractive and accessible to communities
previously excluded from high-quality education in the sciences. This
area is being actively explored in a number of bold experiments across
the developing world – but we must be even bolder still.
Experimentation is not enough for it does not reach a sufficient number
of people.
Exclusion from the information age equals exclusion from the
benefits of the information age. The technological solutions exist -
and they are the same technologies that will improve health care
delivery, better service to marginalized communities, and the greater
awareness that underpins the true democratic spirit we must nurture in
the context of sustainable development.
Above and beyond sustained intervention in school education we
require excellence in science and technology in the research and
educational institutions of the developing world. Societies that are
not involved in the production of new knowledge and technologies are
poorly equipped to make choices about the technologies they transfer
and adopt from the developed world.
Carefully constructed programmes must extend to the
strengthening of institutions of higher learning. There are many great
universities in the developing world, but knowledge generation in
science and technology needs to be strengthened considerably and
centres of excellence seeded and sustained in key areas of technology
and application.
A science and technology based university and research
infrastructure creates confidence in investors and leads to higher
rates of new business start-ups within an economy. The absence of a
science and technology infrastructure, by contrast, results in a
foreign investment pattern that strips natural resources from the host
countries which lack capacity to add value and thereby leverage the
sustainable growth that leads to positive reinvestment.
One of the key elements of sustainable science and technology
systems is access to public knowledge resources, especially scientific
journals and texts. It is sometimes difficult for people in the
developed world to understand how large the expenditures for these
resources are for universities and research institutes in the
developing world. Since the pricing is frequently Dollar or Euro based,
these costs can also change dramatically from year to year, as world
currency markets exhibit their current volatility.
South Africa is reflecting on the possibility of proposing
that such knowledge resources, particularly where they are available
electronically, be priced according to some acceptable structure in
relation to the GDP of the recipient country relative to the GDP of the
developed world. A simple change like this would immediately signal a
positive attitude from the developed world, it would release resources
tied up in information acquisition and would, we believe, have a
minimal impact on the viability or profitability of the publishers.
Strong universities and research institutions are necessary to
train each new generation of knowledge workers for a
knowledge-intensive future. This is where partnership becomes
important. Technology transfer and the adoption of technologies is a
human-centred process. We should pay far more attention to the receptor
capacity for technology transfer in the developing world.
Following on the injuncture as set out in the S&TC final
report to the WSSD, developing countries need to invest in R&D.
Governments certainly need to do this and the private sector needs to
have incentives to do the same. However, in the economic structure of
many developing countries this process is made more difficult when
large global corporations, which earn significant revenue from
developing countries, fail to do research and development in those
countries. There should be an obligation for proper R&D investment,
tied in some meaningful way to the revenues earned by these companies,
especially when the countries themselves are investing in R&D.
It is essential that levels of investment by governments in
civilian R&D are increased and sustained for a significant period
to develop the human capital of the developing world. The message from
the Asian growth experiments is increasingly clear. Those economies
that strategically increased government R&D spending in the late
1970s and through the next two decades are reaping rich rewards. Korea
and Taiwan are two examples that represent a strong contrast to
Malaysia and Indonesia, according to the analyses performed by Harvard
economist Geoffrey Sachs.
Lester Thurow of MIT has also looked at the factors that
create wealth for nations. He concluded that R&D has the highest
public pay-off of any investment made, whether in the public or private
sector. It is difficult to know why this has eluded development policy
makers for so long – but there are clear signs that a new groundswell
has begun to question the resource and infrastructure models of
development that dominated the thinking of the past 20 years.
I suppose it is to be expected that I should develop this
thesis given the nature of my portfolio – but this is less of a
contested thesis than many might argue.
In the field of high-tech start-ups those associated with
universities and research institutions have a higher survival rate than
those that aren’t. Studies of small enterprises globally indicate that
those that actively seek to innovate and acquire new knowledge
outperform those that don’t.
Knowledge is the key to sustainable development and knowledge is best and most easily available in highly trained people.
The two major movements in science and technology today are
biosciences/biotechnology, and information and communications
technology. Other themes also appear repeatedly, such as
nano-technology, but for the developing world biotechnology and ICT
hold special promise.
I would like to say something about intellectual property and
sustainable development – generally on the theme of economics and
equity, if you will. This is currently a highly contested area and a
multitude of views are being expressed. I would urge that we recognise
two things: firstly, the intellectual property system (copyright,
patents, designs and trademarks) has been continuously developed over a
significant period. Such protection has served the economies that use
them well. There is evidence that reasonable "knowledge monopolies" are
good for economic development, at least at the level of firms.
However, it should not be forgotten that the IPR system as it
now exists is very different to that of 10 years ago and substantially
different to that of 50 years ago. If we go back as far as the 18th
century we would hardly recognise the notion of intellectual property
as we understand it today. For instance, at that time, inventorship was
subordinate to nationality on "letters patent" in England. Today the
opposite is the case – inventors are recognised independent of their
nationality on patents.
We should not assume that the recent court cases in South
Africa on rights to intellectual property relating to pharmaceuticals
and the events following the Anthrax attacks in the United States and
more specifically in Canada, relating to intellectual property, are
isolated incidents.
Intellectual property rights are increasingly competing with
basic human rights. A nation with a GDP per capita measured in hundreds
of dollars cannot be forced to deal with companies that sell treatments
at hundreds of dollars per course for endemic diseases and syndromes.
As companies increase their power and economics seem to dominate all
conversations, we have to begin to reflect on the true nature of
knowledge. Can remedies developed based on indigenous knowledge be sold
back at a premium by companies that refuse to recognise the knowledge
of the originators? Can those same companies not recognise the
importance of doing R&D in the developing world? Can the relative
buying power of different economies be irrelevant to the pricing of
pharmaceuticals?
The disease burden of the developing world has not been the
most attractive area for pharmaceutical research. The reason: buying
power. We should not, however, place all of the blame at the door of
the global intellectual property regime.
Part of the cost of medicine is associated with the high
standards for registration and the massive investments made to ensure
the safety of new compounds. A very strong argument can be made that
companies should totally control pricing and distribution. However, the
burden of disease in developing countries is an issue that goes to the
heart of human rights – not just economic rights.
The relationship between intellectual property regimes and
sustainable development is essentially a dialogue between human rights
and intellectual rights and we should clearly recognize this.
It is clear that science and technology are at the heart of
the debate about sustainable development. Education, excellence, equity
and sound economics are important. Partnership is critical. There is
still much to be done.
In concluding, it is my hope that these reflections add to the
growing realisation that we require a conscious and strategic programme
of action. This should be linked to the outcome of the World Summit on
Sustainable Development. Science and technology are key instruments of
sustainable development and require a new and more creative set of
partnerships than we have hitherto imagined.
It is my hope that the series of events we are launching today
will contribute to the conceptualisation and implementation of a
much-needed strategic programme of action. In this regard, I not only
wish you well in your endeavours, but also assure you of my continued
support – beyond the World Summit on Sustainable Development.
Africa is Ready to Host the Square Kilometre Array (SKA)
