International Workshop on Innovation for Development: Converting Knowledge to Value

• © UNESCO/Tony Marjoram
• Innovative foot-pump for water in Africa

OECD Conference Centre - Paris, France

28-30 January 2009

This is a Workshop to examine ways in which knowledge contributes to innovation, especially in developing countries. This includes knowledge produced formally through research and development, and knowledge from other sources, informal, and indigenous, which can be combined to produce value. As the focus is on innovation, the realization of the value created is through the introduction of a new product (a good or a service) to the market, the introduction of a new process that produces products for the market, or delivers them, the use of new organizational structures or business practices, or the development of new markets or the capturing of a greater share of existing markets.

The Workshop follows the UNESCO ‘Expert Workshop on Science and Technology, Innovation and Development’ held at the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research, University of Manchester, in February 2008, and the International Conference, ‘Innovation for Development’, held at UNESCO, Paris, in May 2007, which produced the Paris Statement on Innovation for Development. It is also part of the work of the OECD on the development of its Innovation Strategy.

Topics covered include the use of knowledge for development, science, technology and innovation for development, non-technological innovation, and south-north and north-south knowledge sharing and related intellectual property issues in developing and emerging economies.

The discussion at the Workshop is expected to contribute to the identification and analysis of best practices for the effective promotion, reporting, measurement and assessment of innovation aimed at:

• coherent approaches to innovation policy;
• better targeted innovation to help meet global challenges, such as climate change, or to cope with the consequences of the global challenges; and,
• creation and strengthening of the development of human capital, and the use of networks as part of the innovation process.

Anticipated outcomes include inputs to the OECD Innovation Strategy and possible projects related to innovation for development that could attract the interest of development agencies.

The Workshop is supported by the Canadian International Development Research Centre (IDRC), OECD, the Swedish development agency SIDA, and UNESCO.

For further information, please contact:
::  Tony Marjoram, Basic and Engineering Sciences, UNESCO, tel: +331 456 84178; fax:+331 456 85821/85820 

Related links

::  Workshop Description
::  Revised Agenda

• 12-01-2009