ARTICLES AND OP-EDS
CC Flickr
June 11, 2013
"Economic Factors Driving Africa's Climate Innovation"
DW
By Sonia Phalnikar and Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa
"In an email interview with Global Ideas, [Calestous] Juma touches on the challenges and opportunities raised by climate change in Africa, the economic drivers behind a rash of innovations, the role of African universities and why dogma is holding back the continent's full research potential."
June 3, 2013
"Doctoral Training in Science and Engineering in Africa"
Technology+Policy | Innovation@Work
By Sujata K. Bhatia, Associate, Science, Technology, and Globalization
"The African higher education system is still adapting to include the bachelor's-master's-doctorate progression, the standard for education worldwide. The cost of higher education is a prohibitive factor, as Africa has limited infrastructure for laboratories, and governments confront other pressing priorities such as poverty alleviation. Yet higher education in Africa is necessary to ensure inclusive innovation, to ensure continued economic development...."
AATF Photo
June 3, 2013
"How Africa Can Feed the World"
Globe and Mail
By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa
"Neglect of agriculture has been a defining feature of Africa's economic policy over the last four decades. The future is more promising. Today Africa has become a major destination of agricultural foreign direct investment."
May 29, 2013
"Marrakech"
Le Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"I have fallen in love with this marvelous city of Marrakech, renovated so much since my last visit in 1988 that it has become almost unrecognizable. This dazzling city has become the vacation spot for tourists from neighboring Europe and, to a lesser degree, from the New World."
April 10, 2013
"Innovation: Applying Knowledge in Development"
Knowledge for Development
By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa and Lee Yee-Cheong
In this new lead article, Prof. Calestous Juma, Harvard University and Prof. Yee-Cheong Lee, UNESCO, reflect on the progress made since the UN Millennium Project's Task Force report on science, technology and innovation (ST&I) was published. In 2005, the Task Force released the report Innovation: applying knowledge in development. It outlined a number of ways in which ST&I could be used to realize the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The authors claim that the report has played a key catalytic role in raising global awareness of the importance of ST&I in development.
Sgt. Samara Scott Photo
May 23, 2013
"Building Roads in Africa? Send in the Troops"
CNN.com
By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa
"African armed forces possess extensive human resources and equipment needed to build infrastructure projects. They regularly use such facilities during emergencies and are at the forefront of developing robust systems such as smart microgrid systems that can provide decentralized power supply for rural Africa. What is needed is an explicit policy to extend their role in the construction and maintenance of infrastructure projects in cooperation with civilian agencies."
World Economic Forum Photo
May 14, 2013
"Africa's New Science and Innovation Agenda"
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
"Today all African presidents are supported by economic advisors. The time has come for them to complement the work of economic advisors with science, engineering, and innovation advisors. But advisors are not just people who whisper in the ears of heads of state. They are professionals whose work is guided by proper laws, procedures, and staff trained in policy analysis."
April 30, 2013
"Global Grand Challenges for Engineering and International Development"
Technology+Policy | Innovation@Work
By Sujata K. Bhatia, Associate, Science, Technology, and Globalization
"Africa has demonstrated the capability to innovate in hardware and software, and that it is easier to introduce novel technologies in settings where no incumbent industries exist; this presents a unique advantage for innovators in the developing world and must be emphasized in policy discussions."
April 25, 2013
"The Collapsing Arab State"
Project Syndicate
By Nawaf Obaid, Visiting Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
The so-called Arab Spring generated a wave of hope among those fighting or advocating for democratization of the Arab world’s authoritarian regimes. Now, following leadership changes in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen, and with a brutal civil war raging in Syria and increasingly fraught conditions in Bahrain, Sudan, Jordan, and Iraq, there is much talk of a major shift – and hope for improvement – in the nature and prospects of the Arab state.
April 8, 2013
"Incompatibility Hinders BRICS Bloc"
Taipei Times
By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
"...[W]hile the BRICS may be helpful in coordinating certain diplomatic tactics, the term lumps together highly disparate countries. Not only is South Africa miniscule compared with the others, but China's economy is larger than those of all of the other members combined. Likewise, India, Brazil and South Africa are democracies, and occasionally meet in an alternative forum that they call IBSA (the India, Brazil, South Africa Dialogue Forum)."
