Engineering and the millennium development goals

Abstract

This paper outlines elements of a global action program to apply science, technology and innovation (STI) to meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). For purposes of the report, STI is used to mean the generation, use and diffusion of all forms of useful knowledge as well as the evolution of associated institutional arrangements. The MDGs include: halving extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education and gender equity, reducing under-five mortality and maternal mortality by two-thirds and three-quarters respectively, reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS, halving the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water and ensuring environmental sustainability. They also include the goal of developing a global partnership for development, with targets for aid, trade and debt relief. As a long-term vision, the idea is to see achieving the MDGs as steps towards longer term targets for developing global learning mechanisms, which facilitate the building of internal capacity in developing countries such that the institutions for learning can in the long run act as an engine for growth in these countries.