Alfred Watkins and Michael Ehst (eds.): Science, Technology, and Innovation: Capacity Building for Sustainable Growth and Poverty Reduction.

Fatima, Nishat

Alfred Watkins and Michael Ehst (eds.) Science, Technology, and Innovation: Capacity Building for Sustainable Growth and Poverty Reduction. Washington, DC: The World Bank, 2008.211 pages. Hardback. Price not given.

This World Bank report is a description of its long time contribution in building science, technology and innovation capacity (STI). It summarises the case studies presented at the February 2007 World Bank Global Forum on STI Capacity for Sustainable Growth and Poverty Reduction, held in Washington D.C. The forum emphasised that STI Capacity is no more an ingredient of the policies of wealthy nations only, but the developing and emerging economies are also striving to build technical, vocational, managerial and scientific capacity with a view to transform their societies, foster sustainable development and reduce poverty. So STI may also be assumed to stand for "solve, transform, and impact", as proposed by one of the speakers.

The presentations highlight the different strategies to introduce and further disseminate STI capacity building program, and the pre-requisites (targeting investment in education and training, improving research and development, supporting industrial innovation, and fostering policies for an enabling environment to create and apply knowledge), which the economies must fulfill in order to reap maximum possible benefits after its implementation.