Articles

17 Items

Magazine Article - Global South Development Magazine

A Few Thoughts on Engineering Peaceful and Inclusive Societies

| November 3, 2016

"The rise of nations such as South Korea, Singapore and China as global economic players illustrated the importance of expanding and deepening human competence. A key starting point in the growth process is recognising that building engineering capabilities offered the best opportunity for technological leapfrogging and catch-up in a variety of industries."

Ghana has gone through economic stagnation and negligible participation in the global trading system despite its gold mines and cocoa plantations.

EnzoRivos Photo CC

Journal Article - Journal of Policy and Complex Systems

Complexity, Innovation, and Development: Schumpeter Revisited

| Spring 2014

The role of innovation and entrepreneurship is increasingly getting policy attention in emerging countries. A growing body of literature is deriving its inspiration from the work of Joseph Schumpeter. His seminal 1911 book, The Theory of Economic Development, outlined a general framework for understanding the role of innovation and entrepreneurship in economic transformation. Despite Schumpeter's influence on economic policies in industrialized countries, there has been little application of his work in emerging countries.

The kernels on the left are conventional white maize kernels. The maize kernels on the right are enhanced with a provitamin A trait using biotechnology. This maize would benefit Africa where millions of children suffer from vitamin A deficiency.

AP Photo

Newspaper Article - The East African

Africa Needs to Invest More in 'Life Sciences' to Benefit from Technology

    Author:
  • Steve Mbogo
| August 18, 2012

Africa is yet to adopt full scale technology-led development. Steve Mbogo spoke to the Director of the Belfer Center's Science, Technology, and Globalisation Project and professor at Harvard University Calestous Juma on the opportunities that await the continent as a late comer.

South African President Jacob Zuma, center, holds talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao (unseen) in Beijing, July 18, 2012. Zuma was in Beijing to attend the 5th Ministerial Meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.

AP Photo

Magazine Article - CAIJING Annual Edition: Forecasts and Strategies

The China-Africa Bond: Science, Technology and Engineering Diplomacy

| 2012

"The challenge is finding an entry point for fostering science, technology and engineering cooperation between China and Africa. An obvious starting point is agriculture. There are two reasons for this suggestion. First, agricultural transformation was one of the first major programs launched by China after the adoption of the 1982 constitution."

Magazine Article - Outreach

Profile: Calestous Juma

| December 15, 2011

"The Rio+20 process is an important reminder of the urgency to guide global production and consumption patterns with sustainability principles. Sadly, there is really no genuine global institution that is championing sustainable development. The vision that inspired Rio has been supplanted by two extreme positions. The first is a group that believes economic growth will have trickle-down benefits for the environment. The environmental camp has successfully replaced the spirit of Rio with a one-sided agenda that leaves little room for recognising the central role that human wellbeing plays in natural resource management."

Journal Article - Science

Science and Technology for Sustainable Well-Being

| January 25, 2008

"I would urge every scientist and engineer with an interest in the intersection of S&T with sustainable well-being...to 'tithe' 10% of your professional time and effort to working in these and other ways to increase the benefits of S&T for the human condition and to decrease the liabilities. If so much as a substantial fraction of the world's scientists and engineers resolved to do this much, the acceleration of progress toward sustainable well-being for all of Earth's inhabitants would surprise us all."

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Journal Article - Global Governance

Millennium Development Goals: Why They Matter

| October 2004

My development goals have been set by the United Nations since the first "development decade" of the 1960s. What is new about the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)? First, an unprecedented assembly of the world's heads of state generated them when they met in September 2000. Second, the goals put human development-poverty and people and their lives-at the center of the global development agenda for the new millennium, a shift away from growth as the central objective of development. Third, MDGs are not just aspirations but provide a framework for accountability; they do not simply state ideals but go on to define concrete goals that can be monitored. Fourth, they address not only development outcomes but also inputs from rich countries, thus forming a compact that holds both rich and poor governments accountable for opening markets, giving more aid and debt relief, and transferring technology.