A few years ago while attending an engineering education conference in Lima, Peru, entitled Engineering for the Americas, I was struck when the opening speaker (who was from Microsoft) used Tom Friedman's book The World is Flat to set the tone for the meeting. The point was that Latin America should be preparing its engineers to compete in the flat world and work for multinational corporations. Not a word was mentioned about Lima's infrastructure problems or Peru's high poverty index rating during the entire conference. Outside of the conference venue, Lima's shantytowns crawled up the hills surrounding the city. How does a country reconcile the need to be globally competitive with domestic needs, particular if the latter don't seem to be met by the former? Does global competitiveness conflict with basic human needs in developing regions?
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), developed during a global summit at the United Nations in 2000 and revisited at the September MDG Summit in New York, follow the UN's people-centered approach to human development, focusing on poverty, health, education and socioeconomic equity. Yet when searching for the role of technology, the above questions seem to apply as well. The UN Conference of Trade and Development (UNCTAD) asserts that science and technology play a critical role in all of the MDGs, from health delivery and agricultural innovations, to education and clean drinking water. Yet one of this group's activities is to conduct S&T policy reviews (STIPs) for countries, in which they are helped to shape and formulate policy that supports "technological transformation, capacity-building and innovation of their enterprises." How does this approach square with meeting the MDGs?
Granted, the enhancement of local industry can create jobs, exports and transfers of technology and skills, all of which can improve development in some way. However, the outcomes, experience would suggest, seem to be uncertain and highly dependent upon the socioeconomic and political context in which the policies are implemented. When it comes to addressing basic needs, such as access to clean water, wouldn't the direct application of specific technologies and engineering expertise have a more certain outcome?
About the Author: Mary Jane Parmentier is a lecturer with ASU’s School of Letters & Sciences and CSPO.
