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This paper examines the accumulation of technological capabilities through interactive learning between foreign firms in South Africa and local businesses. It asks how collaborative learning can help develop technological capability and how it can be encouraged in South African industry.

The authors stress the role of trade policies in opening up the South African market, which has led to restructured industrial networks as firms improve or close down in the face of foreign competition. They conclude that the experience and capability of local multinational subsidiaries are key determinants of collaborative learning and that, although institutional support in South Africa is lacking, initiatives undertaken by individual firms can enhance learning among local businesses.

This paper examines the role of North-South partnerships in building scientific and technological capabilities in Africa. It reviews current definitions of North-South collaborations, provides new thinking on what such partnership's objectives should be, and presents case studies illustrating how partnerships in Africa have been developed on the ground.

The author stresses the importance of organisations beyond those involved in research and education and makes policy recommendations based on the evidence presented.

The role of developing countries in climate change mitigation has been and continues to be a contentious issue. Developing countries' emissions are predicted to surpass those of industrialised countries within the first half of this century, but no formal commitments to reduce emissions have been made.

This report, prepared for the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, examines six countries — Brazil, China, India, Mexico, South Africa and Turkey — in the context of climate change mitigation. Ongoing efforts in these countries have helped reduce emissions, though not necessarily in the name of mitigating climate change.

The authors find that overall, over the past three decades, these countries have reduced the growth rate of their emissions by 300 million tonnes. The motivations for such efforts include poverty alleviation, economic development, energy security and local environmental protection. This demonstrates that climate change mitigation can and does occur in the context of development that aims to be sustainable.

This report is comprehensive for the countries studied. It is very accessible and likely to be of interest to anyone engaged in the debate about mitigation in the South.

The report is available in pdf format only. An executive summary is availably online here.

This is a briefing paper prepared in advance of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, which was held in Johannesburg in August 2002. Published by one of the architects of the concept of appropriate technologies in development, the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Intermediate Technology Development Group (now known as Practical Action), the paper sums up the position on technology transfer of many other development and campaigning NGOs.

The brief focuses on the potential and actual impacts of technology transfer, particularly through trade and foreign direct investment on poverty reduction and human development in developing countries. The paper argues that most private-sector-mediated technology transfer (for example, through foreign direct investment) makes a limited contribution to poverty reduction in less developed countries. Only through the development of local capabilities to select, use, absorb, adapt and autonomously develop technologies can technology transfer be effective for human and economic development. This demands the development of broad innovation systems and pro-poor research and development efforts in developing countries.

This is the introductory piece in a volume of articles edited by leading scholars in innovation studies analysing the technological and economical development of newly industrialising countries, especially those in East Asia. This introduction focuses on the processes of technological learning through which the capabilities underpinning the economic development of those countries were built up. It emphasises particularly the complementary roles of the acquisition of foreign technologies and domestic technological efforts in these learning processes. Central to this was the major importance of reverse engineering of foreign technologies and other imitative engineering efforts at the early stages of development, and how they evolved to creative imitations and innovative research and development activities as these countries approached the technological frontier.

This book presents the findings of a United Nations University's research programme on the technological development process of selected countries in Asia, namely China, India, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, and Thailand carried out by Asian scholars and scientists. The book focuses on the experiences of these countries in acquiring and mastering foreign technologies, and in some cases, moving to autonomous technological development.

The study concludes that several countries of the countries analysed, particularly the larger ones, have pursued broad-based strategies of technology acquisition, but the results are uneven. There are many successful cases, but in several countries, the potential of investment in technological acquisition and mastery has not been fully accomplished.