Calestous Juma
Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa
Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Contact:
Telephone: (617) 496-8127
Fax: (617)-495-8963
Email: calestous_juma@harvard.edu
January 11, 2013
"Persecuting Biotechnology"
Op-Ed, Technology+Policy | Innovation@Work
By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa
"Nearly two decades of propaganda and advocacy based on questionable scientific evidence forced many countries to forego the benefits of a new technology even before its merits had been assessed. In effect, these restrictions have introduced a new class of risks associated with not being able adopt a new technology even where it would confer benefits to farmers, consumers, and industrialists."
January 10, 2013
"Good Foundation to Build on"
Op-Ed, China Daily
By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa and Jia Hepeng
"China's rise as an industrial power owes a great deal to Japan providing technology at a critical moment. Following the Sino-Soviet split in the early 1960s, Japan emerged as a source of technology. By the 1970s Japan accounted for nearly 70 percent of China's technological imports. The imports also included strategic know-how as well as management practices. And, in a way, Japan served as an industrial role model for China at a time when the country was isolated from much of the world."
December 3, 2012
"Biotechnology and Africa's Strategic Interests"
Op-Ed, Global Food For Thought
By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa
"Biotechnology offers Africa a wider range of economic opportunities than the Green Revolution did. It is already being used to improve food production and establish or revive cotton production. Its economic impact is therefore likely to go well beyond the farm sector to include industrial development."
November 27, 2012
"Trading Places: Commerce Drives Science And Technology In Africa"
Op-Ed, Forbes
By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa
"Africa used mobile phones to create a radically new way of transferring money, thereby restructuring the banking sector. Mobile technology is on the verge of transforming other traditional industries including education and health, among others. In education, Africa can leapfrog into digital books and mobile learning to become a leading source of new educational businesses and industries. In healthcare, mobile technology will transform the very idea of a hospital."
November 27, 2012
"How Tribalism Stunts African Democracy"
Op-Ed, BBC News
By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa
"...[I]t is becoming clear that issues such as infrastructure — energy, transportation, irrigation, and telecommunication — and youth employment are emerging as common themes in African politics irrespective of ideological differences. The predominance of such issues will select for pragmatic leadership over ideology. It is therefore not a surprise that African countries are increasingly electing engineers as presidents."
November 9, 2012
"Africa And Obama: What The Continent Should Do In His Second Term"
Op-Ed, Forbes
By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa
"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."
October 25, 2012
"Poor Infrastructure Is Africa's Soft Underbelly"
Op-Ed, Forbes
By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa
"Poor road networks illustrate this point. African farmers without adequate road networks are condemned to grow not what they can eat, but what they can carry on their heads and eat quickly before pests destroy it. As a result, nearly half of the hungry people in Africa are farmers."
October 15, 2012
"Africa's Leadership Fails Billionaire Mo Ibrahim's Test, But Technocrats Rise"
Op-Ed, Forbes
By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa
"The main challenge is the lack of alignment between infrastructure strategies and the need to expand engineering training. As a result, there are very few engineering programs in African universities. There is also a perception that engineering is associated with large projects that tend to be linked to high costs, corruption and ecological degradation."
October 3, 2012
"Why We Need Innovation To Prepare For the Global Aging Society"
Op-Ed, Forbes
By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa
"Technology alone will not be adequate to address the needs of the elderly. But policy proposals that fail to take into account advances in medicine and engineering are unlikely to take advantage of human creativity. In fact, strategies that put the elderly at the center of the innovation process could significantly increase the prospects of turning the elderly from being a burden on society to being an asset."
August 23, 2012
"Innovation Key to Unlocking Africa's Horticultural Potential"
Op-Ed, FreshFruitPortal.com
By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa
"Biotechnology has the promise of leading to increased food security and sustainable forestry practices, as well as improving health in developing countries by enhancing food nutrition. In agriculture, biotechnology has enabled the genetic alteration of crops, improved soil productivity, and enhanced natural weed and pest control. Unfortunately, such potential has largely remained untapped by African countries."
