Institutional Learning and Change Initiative

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Abstract:

Since their adoption at the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000, the Millennium Development Goals have become the international standard of reference for measuring and tracking improvements in the human condition in developing countries. The Goals are backed by a political mandate agreed to by the leaders of all UN member states. They offer a comprehensive and multidimensional development framework and set clear quantifiable targets to be achieved by 2015.
Meeting the Goals will require a substantial reorientation of development policies to focus on key sources of economic growth, including those associated with the use of new and established scientific and technological knowledge and related institutional adjustments. Countries will need to recognize the benefits from advances in science and technology and develop strategies to harness the explosion in new knowledge.
This report describes approaches for effectively applying science, technology, and innovation to achieving the Goals. It outlines key areas for policy action, including focusing on platform (generic) technologies; improving infrastructure services as a foundation for technology; improving higher education in science and engineering and redefining the role of universities; promoting business activities in science, technology, and innovation; improving the policy environment; and focusing on areas of underfunded research for development. The report draws on experiences from throughout the world to show how developing and developed countries have used science, technology,
and innovation to achieve their development goals.