https://arab.news/vepym
Parallel to this month’s UN General Assembly in New York, another critical summit will take place: the Science Summit at UNGA80. The summit — which aims to highlight “the pivotal role of science in addressing societal challenges” — will provide a platform for low- and middle-income countries to demand a renewed recognition of scientific research as a pillar of resilience and sovereignty.
For decades, the conventional wisdom has been that the fastest route to development lies in the adoption of foreign technologies, not independent innovation. Development institutions and policymakers have treated basic science as a luxury that only advanced economies could afford. For low- and middle-income countries, they argued, the cultivation of scientific capacity — a slow and expensive process — would consume resources that should be allocated to pressing needs like poverty reduction, food security and infrastructure; they are thus better off importing technologies and solutions from abroad.
But this logic has been upended in recent years. A series of developments — including the COVID-19 pandemic, intensifying climate shocks and proliferating barriers to trade and technology transfers — has exposed the risks of dependence on imported science. It is now clear that if low- and middle-income countries are to gain control over their own development agendas, respond effectively to crises and adapt global knowledge to local realities, they must build their own dynamic research ecosystems.
