Calestous Juma - Policy Advice

Policy Advice

Juma continues to provide high-level policy advice to governments, the United Nations and other international organizations on science, technology and innovation. He chairs the Global Challenges and Biotechnology of the US National Academy of Sciences and serves as co-chair of the African High-Level Panel on Modern Biotechnology of the African Union (AU) and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).

Juma led international experts in outlining ways to apply science and technology to the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals arising from the UN Millennium Summit in the year 2000. Innovation: Applying Knowledge in Development (Earthscan, 2005), the report of the Task Force on Science, Technology and Innovation of the UN Millennium Project, was released in early 2005 and its recommendations have been adopted by development agencies and governments around the world. The report has become a standard reference against which governments assess their policies and programmes on the role of technological innovation in development.

In a successor study, Going for Growth, Professor Juma proposes that international development policy should be directed at building technical competence in developing countries rather than conventional relief activities. He argues that institutions of higher learning, especially universities, should be have a direct role in helping to solve development challenges.