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CANADA-DEVELOPMENT: Study Wants Foreign Aid To Target Research,
Technology by Stephen Dale OTTAWA, Dec 26 (IPS) - A panel of experts
is recommending that Canada increase the impact of scarce foreign aid
dollars by focusing its efforts on ''the knowledge sector.''

''Canada should position itself for the coming century as a creator
and a broker of knowledge for sustainable development,'' states the
report of the panel, chaired by Maurice Strong, former chief of the
1992 U.N. Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Brazil
and current World Bank advisor.

The nine-member panel, which also includes Canadian Ambassador to the
United Nations Yves Fortier, calls for Canada to devote, by 1999, at
least 15 percent of its development assistance to ''knowledge-based
activities'', such as the creation of electronic information networks
and the forging of partnerships between Canadian and overseas research
centres.

This strategy, according to the report, recognises both the emergence
of a global ''knowledge-based economy'', as well as the breakdown of
the notion that the world is divided into ''developed'' and
''underdeveloped'' countries.

The task force notes that Canada's economic power may soon be much
less than that of rapidly developing countries, particularly in Asia,
that have traditionally been aid recipients.

''The traditional North-South topography is changing, and in its place
is a new type of topography, where those who have full access to
knowledge, in whatever country, are doing very well and those who do
not are at an increasing disadvantage,'' task force member Margaret
Catley-Carlson told IPS from her office as president of the Population
Council in New York.

''You go to India and see there is a stratum of society that is
plugged into the knowledge economy who are prospering,'' she says.
''In Canada, it's the same thing: those with a less than tenacious
hold on the knowledge networks are quite insecure in their economic
prospects.''

Catley-Carlson, a former president of the Canadian International
Development Agency (CIDA), added that changes in social and economic
patterns have been matched by technological advances which now make it
possible to spread the knowledge, allowing governments, businesses,
and individuals to work more efficiently and with less impact on the
environment.

For people investigating everything from better logging or fishing
practise to setting up an animal quarantine system, she says, it is
now possible to compile a list of names and phone numbers of the
world's leading experts in the field.

This means that within a couple of weeks, at minimal cost, people
anywhere could assemble the knowledge base to ensure that ''whatever
we are doing, we can do it better,'' says Catley- Carlson.

Reactions to the panel's study are mixed.

CIDA spokesperson Andre Doren said the agency was still studying the
report, but he called it ''a good contribution to the debate'' on
Canada's place in the world.

Brian Tomlinson, development policy analyst with the Canadian Council
for International Cooperation (CCIC), an umbrella group for Canadian
non-governmental groups, characterised the report as ''provocative and
dynamic'', but said that it invests too much faith in technology as a
cure-all for global social ills.

''My interpretation would be that there is too great an expectation
about the impact of knowledge and access to knowledge on development
change,'' Tomlinson told IPS.

''I find it difficult to separate the acquisition of knowledge from
all the other aspects of the development process,'' she said. ''I'd
feel more enthusiastic if what they were saying was situated in a
wider context.''

Tomlinson also disagrees with Catley-Carlson's view that the gulf
between rich and poor is a new outgrowth of the knowledge economy, to
be remedied mostly by infusions of information. As far back as the
1960s, says Tomlinson, development theorists have spoken of ''parallel
economies'' within developing countries, with a modern sector linked
to the global economy and others that remain isolated and
impoverished.

While information is important in bridging that gap, ''development
also occurs because there are social change movements challenging the
inequitable distribution of wealth,'' says Tomlinson. ''In some
senses, maybe we're still dealing with the same issues of social and
economic justice.''

Still, the analyst feels the task force is right to draw the
government's attention to the importance to funding research.

Colleges and universities working oversees, as well as the
Ottawa-based International Development Research Centre (IDRC) have
suffered major funding reductions in recent years.

However, a recent announcement by International Cooperation Minister
Don Boudria shows that universities and colleges will have their
development assistance share cut by only 3.8 percent this year,
compared with 7.1 percent for non-governmental organisations (NGOs)
and 5.0 percent for Industrial Cooperation, a programme designed to
stimulate joint ventures between Canadian businesses and counterparts
in developing countries.

Catley-Carson says that massive cuts to the Canadian aid programme was
a primary reason the task force was set up. The IDRC, whose first
president was Strong, joined with the North- South Institute and the
International Institute for Sustainable Development in requesting that
the task force be established to advise CIDA on how to make best use
of Canadian strengths.

The Canadian aid pie will be roughly a third smaller in the 1998-99
fiscal year than it was in 1991-92. The aid budget of 1.62 billion
U.S. dollars will be equal to a post-World War II low of 0.26 percent
of gross domestic product (GDP).

Catley-Carlson rejects the idea that the task force had become too
entranced with technology, at!the expense of fundamental concepts such
as human rights and economic equity. The new knowledge networks would
support groups working for social reform, she said.

''That's why you fund this on a concessional basis through the aid
programme,'' said Catley-Carlson. ''What distinguishes this from a
commercial project is the commitment to human rights, justice, and
equity.''

The task force report, 'Connecting with the World', provides several
examples of where Canadian expertise in research and networking have
supported social initiatives.

In one case, the IDRC played a lead role in the development of an
indigenous African Economic Research Consortium, the growth of which
has made it possible for African nations to engage in negotiations
with the International Monetary Fund without having to rely upon the
statistics and analysis of the IMF itself. (END/IPS/SD/YJC/96)

___________________________________________________
Bruce Girard
Agencia Informativa Pulsar
Email: bgirard@pulsar.org.ec
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