Dear Colleagues,
Science and Innovation for Development: a new book by Professor Sir Gordon Conway and Professor Jeff Waage
We are delighted to announce the launch of a new book, Science and Innovation for Development, co-authored by Professor Sir Gordon Conway and Professor Jeff Waage (LIDC), with Sara Delaney, and published by UKCDS.
In Science and Innovation for Development Conway and Waage take on the topic of the crucial role that science can play in the challenge of poverty reduction – with science acting as lever for change through both research and knowledge generation for policy guidance, and the development of innovative and appropriate technologies.
Visit www.ukcds.org.uk to order or download a copy.
The authors make the following five key recommendations to policy makers and development practitioners:
• Train and empower scientists
• Strengthen science innovation systems in developing countries.
• Ensure that new technologies are accessible to science for development.
• Design and deliver research for impact,
• Raise the profile of science in governments
Science and Innovation for Development looks at the importance of national scientific capacity, the different sources from which new science and technologies can be drawn, and the ever-expanding role of partnerships between stakeholders.
The book uses the Millennium Development Goals as a framework, pulling out three key topics for which science plays an important role – reducing hunger, improving health, and achieving environmental sustainability. The authors highlight the current challenges in each area, look at how scientific innovation has helped thus far, and consider in what areas further research or new, improved technologies are needed. These ideas are illustrated through a broad range of case studies from across the developing world.
For example, in the chapter on hunger, Conway and Waage argue that science for sustainable agriculture needs to focus on five broad needs:
1. New crop varieties (and livestock breeds) that are more productive and of better nutritional quality;
2. Improved soil fertility and crops and livestock better able to use existing nutrients;
3. Maximising water use;
4. Better pest, disease and weed control without environmental damage;
5. Cropping and livestock systems that combine these qualities in ways that bring benefits to both small and large farmers.
They emphasise that solutions for these needs should be drawn from the full range of sources for innovation, including conventional, traditional, intermediate and new platform technologies.
Finally, the authors explore the challenge of climate change, looking both what we do and do not know and how science can help to inform policy and make mitigation and adaptation possible.
Chris Whitty, Chief Scientific Advisor for DFID, has said ‘This book should be required reading for those who doubt the power of science to transform the lives of the poorest in the world, and show those undertaking research how much of a difference they can make if they address the major questions of developing countries.'
Jo Seed
Personal Assistant and Project Administrator to Professor Sir Gordon Conway
Africa and Europe: Partnerships in Food and Farming
Centre for Environmental Policy
Imperial College London
Tel. 020 759 41983
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dear Colleagues,
Science and Innovation for Development: a new book by Professor Sir Gordon Conway and Professor Jeff Waage
We are delighted to announce the launch of a new book, Science and Innovation for Development, co-authored by Professor Sir Gordon Conway and Professor Jeff Waage (LIDC), with Sara Delaney, and published by UKCDS.
In Science and Innovation for Development Conway and Waage take on the topic of the crucial role that science can play in the challenge of poverty reduction – with science acting as lever for change through both research and knowledge generation for policy guidance, and the development of innovative and appropriate technologies.
Visit www.ukcds.org.uk to order or download a copy.
The authors make the following five key recommendations to policy makers and development practitioners:
• Train and empower scientists
• Strengthen science innovation systems in developing countries.
• Ensure that new technologies are accessible to science for development.
• Design and deliver research for impact,
• Raise the profile of science in governments
Science and Innovation for Development looks at the importance of national scientific capacity, the different sources from which new science and technologies can be drawn, and the ever-expanding role of partnerships between stakeholders.
The book uses the Millennium Development Goals as a framework, pulling out three key topics for which science plays an important role – reducing hunger, improving health, and achieving environmental sustainability. The authors highlight the current challenges in each area, look at how scientific innovation has helped thus far, and consider in what areas further research or new, improved technologies are needed. These ideas are illustrated through a broad range of case studies from across the developing world.
For example, in the chapter on hunger, Conway and Waage argue that science for sustainable agriculture needs to focus on five broad needs:
1. New crop varieties (and livestock breeds) that are more productive and of better nutritional quality;
2. Improved soil fertility and crops and livestock better able to use existing nutrients;
3. Maximising water use;
4. Better pest, disease and weed control without environmental damage;
5. Cropping and livestock systems that combine these qualities in ways that bring benefits to both small and large farmers.
They emphasise that solutions for these needs should be drawn from the full range of sources for innovation, including conventional, traditional, intermediate and new platform technologies.
Finally, the authors explore the challenge of climate change, looking both what we do and do not know and how science can help to inform policy and make mitigation and adaptation possible.
Chris Whitty, Chief Scientific Advisor for DFID, has said ‘This book should be required reading for those who doubt the power of science to transform the lives of the poorest in the world, and show those undertaking research how much of a difference they can make if they address the major questions of developing countries.'
Jo Seed
Personal Assistant and Project Administrator to Professor Sir Gordon Conway
Africa and Europe: Partnerships in Food and Farming
Centre for Environmental Policy
Imperial College London
Tel. 020 759 41983
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.