Science, Technology, and Innovation : Capacity Building for Sustainable Growth and Poverty Reduction

The cases from the forum presented here
capture the lessons from the science, technology, and
innovation (STI) capacity building experiences of both
developing and industrial countries (governments working in
partnership with the private sector, nongovernmental
organizations, academia, and development partners). These
cases highlight ways that STI capacity building programs
have enabled countries to achieve the following: (i) provide
essential services, such as access to clean drinking water
in rural villages and availability of affordable, reliable
energy sources; (ii) exploit opportunities to produce
higher-productivity, value-added agriculture crops; (iii)
transition from exporting unprocessed raw materials to
exporting value-added products and from low-skilled assembly
operations to higher-skilled manufacturing processes; (iv)
create benefits from an increasingly open trading system and
increased flows of foreign direct investment (FDI) by
proactively generating spillovers to the local economy; and
(v) maintain competitiveness in a rapidly changing global
economy marked by rapid technological change. History
suggests that these challenges are daunting, but they are
not impossible to overcome. Many countries have managed to
build the STI capacity they needed to thrive and prosper. So
that other countries may profit from lessons learned, the
global forum discussed what these countries achieved and how
they achieved what they did. The collective task is to help
countries convert these lessons of experience into specific
STI capacity building programs that can be implemented on
the ground and that will have a significant, measurable
impact on people's lives.