David M. Malone

International S&T with emerging markets is key to Canada's future prosperity

By David M Malone

International science and technology cooperation has never been as important to the world — and to Canada — as it is today. Local communities, regions, countries, and the world need innovations that lead to lasting solutions to economic, social and environmental challenges. International partners can play a catalytic role. Such collaborations also strengthen Canada's position on the world stage.

Fortunately, we are not starting from scratch. The seeds of much of that cooperation have been sowed over the past 40 years by Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC), which has assisted developing countries in building the capacity needed to address these challenges and ensure their future in the knowledge economy.

Those early days for IDRC started modestly, supporting just a few researchers in Barbados and Colombia. Compare that to the end of 2009-2010 when we supported work on science, innovation, health and social policy in 97 countries throughout Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

One of those countries is Mongolia, an increasingly important trading partner to Canada. With more than $600 million of direct investment, Canada is the second-largest overall foreign investor in Mongolia after China. Having a modern communications infrastructure is critical to a country's economic growth, international trade and scientific cooperation, and in 1996, IDRC helped Mongolia introduce the country's first Internet connections and web development services. This early support contributed to the development of Mongolia's vibrant online environment for business, education, science and health care.

Building S&T capacity in Africa

South Africa is another compelling story. Since its democratization in 1994, the country has developed a rich portfolio of research partnerships with Canada and other countries that can be traced, in part, to IDRC's S&T capacity-building measures, beginning in 1989. That early work provided the country with the policy-making, economic and consensus-building capacities needed to evolve from a pro-apartheid S&T policy that had stifled investment and innovation to one that opened the door to international collaborations.

Today, South Africa is Canada's largest trading partner in sub-Saharan Africa, with two-way trade reaching approximately $1.8 billion in 2008.

More recently, IDRC has drawn on the expertise of South African institutions to build capacity and encourage continental cooperation among other African countries. Canada's $20-million commitment to the Next Einstein Initiative, of which IDRC is a partner, will help establish new institutes in mathematics in Ghana, Ethiopia and Senegal based on an existing institute in Cape Town. African students will later apply these advanced mathematics to diverse sectors such as finance, biosciences, epidemiology and information technology.

Strengthening ties with Chile, Brazil & Vietnam

In rapidly developing economies such as Chile and Brazil, IDRC has helped to build the scientific expertise that our country now seeks to tap. In the 1990s, IDRC funded work that led to reforms of Chile's S&T policies and programs. More recently, in 2008, IDRC helped assess funding mechanisms that Chilean authorities can use to better integrate the university research system into the overall national system of innovation.

IDRC's support for research in Brazil began in 1972, making the country one of the Centre's earliest partners in Latin America. During the dictatorship years, which ended in 1985, IDRC played a key role in keeping serious social science research alive by supporting democratically minded intellectuals. One of these research partners, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, served as Brazil's president from 1995 to 2002.

The educational and scientific ties between Canada and Brazil have grown even closer. In 2008, our two countries signed a Framework Agreement for Cooperation on Science, Technology and Innovation that is providing opportunities for bilateral cooperation in fields of common interest. Canada and Brazil also have memoranda of understanding in a number of areas such as health, sustainable development of metals and minerals, and labour. As well, approximately 17,000 Brazilians come here each year to study, making Canada the number one study abroad destination for Brazilians.

enduring relationships

Similar successes can be found in other emerging economies such as Vietnam, where IDRC has been supporting research since the early 1990s, shortly after reforms launched the country's transition to a market economy. As a generation of Vietnamese economists realized that their skills were ill-suited for the new market system, IDRC supported training in non-Marxist economic research. In 1997, IDRC responded to a request by the Vietnam government for assistance in developing a new S&T strategy.

And those relationships continue today. Just last week, IDRC's chief of staff met with a senior official with the Vietnamese Ministry of Science and Technology who recounted how IDRC supported him early in his career as a scientist, and later when reforming the country's innovation policies.

Many of the countries IDRC works with today have the potential for similar success in the coming decade.

S&T are key instruments of economic growth and job creation. International S&T cooperation has proven invaluable in building the goodwill and relationships that Canada can leverage when scientists, diplomats or entrepreneurs come knocking. As IDRC celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, Canadians can take pride in knowing that, through IDRC, Canada has nurtured a competitive advantage within countries that are increasingly important to our future prosperity.

David M. Malone is President of the International Development Research Centre. He was the former High Commissioner for Canada to India and non-resident Ambassador to the Kingdom of Bhutan and Nepal and the former Deputy Minister (Global Issues) with the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.