Africa

22 Items

Photo of Calestous Juma in his office.

Martha Stewart

News - Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School

Remembering Our Colleague Professor Calestous Juma

Our colleague Calestous Juma—who passed away on December 15 at age 64 after a long illness—was a pioneering, prolific, and influential scholar/practitioner in science and technology policy for sustainable well-being. He joined Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) in 1999 as Director of the Science, Technology, and Innovation Project (a joint venture of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and the Center for International Development) and became Professor of the Practice of International Development in 2002, a position in which he maintained his exceptional productivity and engagement with policy, despite illness, up to the time of his death.

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Testimony

Societal Benefits of Agricultural Biotechnology

| July 9, 2014

Calestous Juma testified on July 9, 2014, before the House Subcommittee on Horticulture, Research, Biotechnology, and Foreign Agricultureon "The Societal Benefits of Biotechnology."

This submission argues that although many transgenic crops are still in their early states of adoption and even more are still being tested and developed, emerging trends show significant societal benefits through positive economic impact (especially by raising farm incomes), fostering food security, and promoting environment sustainability.

Calestous Juma

Martha Stewart Photo

News - Science, Technology, and Globalization Project, Belfer Center

Pessimism of 20th-Century Global Policy Architects Stunted Developing Nations’ Economies

| March 26, 2014

Influential economic ideas first advanced in 1911 — stressing innovation and entrepreneurialism as the fundamental generators of growth and wealth — were deemed inappropriate for developing countries, stunting progress in many parts of the world throughout the 20th century, says a distinguished Harvard academic.

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- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center Newsletter

Newsmakers

Spring 2014

A sampling of Belfer Center affiliates who have been honored or otherwise recently featured recently in the news.

Analysis & Opinions - Technology+Policy | Innovation@Work

Developing Country Farmers Bridge the 'Biotechnology Divide'

| February 22, 2013

"Farmers in developing countries, however, are bridging the 'biotechnology divide.' According to a new report by Clive James of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA), 'For the first time, developing countries grew more, 52% of global biotech crops in 2012 than industrialized countries at 48%.'"

Analysis & Opinions - Forbes

Africa And Obama: What The Continent Should Do In His Second Term

| November 9, 2012

"Africa's national diversity is becoming a burden for diplomatic interaction. It is more efficient for the United States to work with regional groups in Africa than with individual states. This means that efforts to foster regional integration by creating larger markets, simplifying trading rules, reducing corruption, and investing in regional infrastructure to promote movement of goods will go a long way toward strengthening US-Africa relations."

A view of one of the displaced camp in Mogadishu, Somalia, Sep. 14, 2011. A massive aid operation is currently underway to help millions of Somalis affected by the fighting and a famine caused by severe drought.

AP Photo

Analysis & Opinions - The Daily Nation

Africa Must Wake Up to the Reality That Hunger is Now a National Security Issue

| August 14, 2012

"The tools available to India in the 1960s are not sufficient to address the challenges that African agriculture now faces. These include a rapidly-growing population, productivity loss due to ecological disruption, environmental decay, droughts, climate change, and conflict. Biotechnology offers additional tools that can help Africa address some of these challenges. It is another moment that calls for the kind of political courage that led to the adoption of the Green Revolution."