SciDev.Net

This article examines the US Bayh–Dole (BD) Act — a 1980s measure that sought to stimulate science-based economic growth by encouraging universities to patent inventions resulting from government-funded research — and assesses its suitability for developing countries.

The authors look at how and why advocates of BD-type initiatives sometimes overstate its impact in the United States and discuss the problems the act has caused for American biotechnology and information technology.

They outline the policy options for developing countries seeking to improve the contributions universities make to economic development and provide a list of safeguards that should be put in place before adopting laws styled after the act. These include no exclusive licensing, transparent patenting and government authority to issue additional licenses.

The authors conclude that policies to develop public sector research and development are context-specific and it is unclear whether any of the positive impacts of BD in the United States would arise in developing countries following similar legislation.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) practically define health efforts in the 21st century, but they virtually ignore non-communicable diseases such as mental health, say these authors. This is despite evidence that mental health disorders are among the most important cause of sickness and disability and even premature mortality. The authors argue that tackling mental health problems will be vital to achieving the MDGs, and three in particular — eradicating poverty, reducing child mortality, and improving maternal health.

Poverty and hunger are well-recognised risk factors for mental health, but mental health also makes it harder for people to escape the hunger trap. Mothers who are depressed during pregnancy and post natally, are more likely to have underweight babies; not only that, the illness means these mothers are more likely to stop breastfeeding and less likely to ensure their children are properly immunised than mothers without depression.

The authors advocate that strengthening basic health-care systems should be holistic. For example, developing countries need more and better-trained health workers but they should not only know how to deliver babies but also how to counsel new mothers. HIV/AIDS programmes, as another example, should ensure that individuals not only have good access to antiretrovirals but also to treatment for depression if they need it.

This paper examines the dynamics of technological learning during the process of industrialisation. It focuses on the case of South Korea and draws policy implications for developing countries.

The paper shows that as South Korea transformed itself from an agrarian economy to a newly industrialised one, it relied initially in acquiring foreign technologies and then started duplicating these imported technologies. It then moved to more sophisticated creative imitations and only later was able to introduce original innovations. The paper concludes that developing countries have much to learn from South Korea by developing policy initiatives that integrate several elements of the Korean experience such as export promotion, human resources development programmes, and incentives for complementary technology transfer and indigenous R&D efforts.   

The authors of this paper analyse how science and technology contributes to poverty alleviation and economic development and examine how these issues have been addressed in the World Bank’s work.

The paper emphasises that development is increasingly dependent on a nation's ability to understand, interpret, select, adapt, use, transmit, diffuse, produce, and commercialise scientific and technological knowledge. The paper concludes that whereas the accelerating pace of knowledge for development provides both new opportunities for and threats to socio-economic growth, most developing countries remain unprepared for these changes. This has implications for the policies of the World Bank which should, the paper suggests, pay more attention to building up science and technology capacity in developing countries in four policy areas, namely, human resources development and education, the private sector, the public sector and information technologies.