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2009

April 1, 2009

"Venkatesh "Venky" Narayanamurti Named Director of Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center"

Press Release

By Beth Maclin, Communications Assistant

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Venkatesh “Venky” Narayanamurti will be the new director of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Belfer Center Director Graham Allison announced today.

2008

Courtesy of OLPC

December 6, 2008

Science, Engineering, and Economic Growth in Africa: Development Cooperation Challenges and Opportunities

Announcement

By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa

The lecture will explore the role that emerging technologies can play in fostering economic growth and improving human welfare in Africa. It will re-examine opportunities for development cooperation between the United States and Africa in light of the current global food and financial and crises. It will draw on experiences on the linkages between economic growth and technological innovation in fields such as agriculture, health, energy, education, and environmental management.

Friday, January 9, 2009
9:00am – 10:30 am
The Lecture Room, National Academy of Sciences
2101 Constitution Avenue, Washington, D.C. (entrance on C Street)
(No prior registration required)

Special Guest:
Koji Omi
Founder and Chairman, Science and Technology in Society forum, Tokyo, Japan
Member, House of Representatives
Former Minister of Finance of Japan

GTIL

Winter 2008-09

"Biotechnology Support is Key to Africa's Economic Renewal"

Newsletter Article, Belfer Center Newsletter

By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa

Calestous Juma, director of the Science, Technology, and Globalization project of the Belfer Center, writes that biotechnology "is emerging as a key driver of economic renewal in developing countries." However, he say, "controversies surrounding the safety of genetically-modified (GM) foods are threatening to undermine international cooperation in this emerging field."

January 25, 2008

"Science and Technology for Sustainable Well-Being"

Journal Article, Science, issue 5862, volume 319

By John P. Holdren, Former Director and Faculty Chair, Science, Technology and Public Policy Program

"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."

2007

November 8, 2007

"Africa's 'Text Generation' is Here"

Op-Ed, Business Daily

By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa

"Kenyans will elect a new president in December. But unlike in previous elections, the president will preside over a country dominated by the youth who have a new outlook on life....Performance standards will soon take centre stage and will start to directly challenge patronage as a management style....The "text generation" will be more interested in a functioning economy and less in ethnic politics that has dominated Kenya and most of post-colonial Africa."

AP Photo

October 4, 2007

"Reaping Benefits of Technology Revolution"

Op-Ed, Business Daily, (Nairobi)

By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa

"The market release of the iconic $100 laptop (XO) later this year promises to do for education what the cell phone did for telecommunications....Like the cellphone, new educational technologies such as the XO will demand greater flexibility in educational systems....Existing curricula are like landlines; fixed in place and dependent for their functioning on centralized bureaucracies."

September 27, 2007

"China Should Import Africa's Finished Goods"

Op-Ed, Business Daily, (Nairobi)

By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa

"China needs to complement its raw material imports with serious efforts that help African countries become exporters of finished goods to the Chinese market....There is a strategic starting point for China. The country has set up the US$5 billion China-Africa Development Fund that aims to eliminate tariffs on over 440 African export items and build several economic and trade cooperation zones across the continent."

September 24, 2007

"Professor Calestous Juma Hosts Dominican Republic President Leonel Fernandez"

Media Feature

During his visit to Harvard University, President Leonel Fernandez had the opportunity to address a select group of Kennedy School students that applauded the Head of State's vision regarding the construction of a Metro Subway system in the Capital city Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, currently taking place. The visit was organized by Professor Calestous Juma, Director of the Science, Technology, and Globalization Project.

September 13, 2007

"Africa Needs Development Armies"

Op-Ed, Business Daily, (Africa)

By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa

"Africa could learn from other countries. The US Army Corps of Engineers has been instrumental in the construction and maintenance of critical infrastructure since its creation in the 1930s. Similarly, the Corps of Royal Engineers has a long record spanning 900 years of contributing to civilian infrastructure ."

September 6, 2007

"Africa Needs More Technical Universities"

Op-Ed, Business Daily, (Nairobi)

By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa

"Meeting safety requirements in international markets will involve the use of sophisticated information systems that allow regulators to effectively trace the movement of products through the entire food chain.

Having technical capacity to manage safety information will help African countries to add value to their produce."

International Security

The Summer 2009 issue of the quarterly journal International Security is now available. It includes articles by Matthew Fuhrmann, Elizabeth Stanley, Daniel Lake, Christopher Layne, and more.

Journal homepage ›

Starved for Science

Starved for Science: How Biotechnology is Being Kept Out of Africa

Heading upcountry in Africa to visit small farms is absolutely exhilarating given the dramatic beauty of big skies, red soil, and arid vistas, but eventually the two-lane tarmac narrows to rutted dirt, and the journey must continue on foot. The farmers you eventually meet are mostly women, hardworking but visibly poor. They have no improved seeds, no chemical fertilizers, no irrigation, and with their meager crops they earn less than a dollar a day. Many are malnourished.

Nearly two-thirds of Africans are employed in agriculture, yet on a per-capita basis they produce roughly 20 percent less than they did in 1970. Although modern agricultural science was the key to reducing rural poverty in Asia, modern farm science—including biotechnology—has recently been kept out of Africa.

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Science, Technology, & Globalization

The aim of the Science, Technology, and Globalization Project (STG) is to undertake research, conduct training, provide policy advice, and disseminate information on interactions between technological innovation and globalization.

Science, Technology, and Globalization homepage ›

Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program

The Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program (STPP) applies methods drawn from technology assessment, political science, economics, management, and law to study problems where science, technology, and policy intersect.

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Governance and Information Technology

Governance and Information Technology: From Electronic Government to Information Government

Developments in information and communication technology and networked computing over the past two decades have given rise to the notion of electronic government, most commonly used to refer to the delivery of public services over the Internet. This volume argues for a shift from the narrow focus of "electronic government" on technology and transactions to the broader perspective of information government—the information flows within the public sector, between the public sector and citizens, and among citizens....

Governance and Information Technology: From Electronic Government to Information Government is the result of a collaboration between the authors, the Dubai Initiative, and the Dubai School of Government (DSG). The original papers were presented at a DSG conference held in Dubai in May 2005.