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1. The principal beneficiary of Britain's foreign assistance programmes is...?
2.UK seeks views on 'science for development' strategy
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1. The principal beneficiary of Britain's foreign assistance programmes is...?

This article reports on how the British government's Department for International Development (DFID) has launched an online consultation to seek guidance on how it should support science and innovation as part of its international aid programme.

Revealingly, we're told, "Earlier this year, DFID was criticised by a UK parliamentary committee for not making a greater contribution to the initial design of this ten-year framework, which lays out a plan for significantly increasing government support for science and technology in Britain - but has relatively little to say about how much of this should be aimed at helping developing countries."

This seems somewhat reminiscent of the notorious statement on USAID's website that, "The principal beneficiary of America's foreign assistance programs has always been the United States."
http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=165

In DFID's case, it has been subjected to intensive lobbying, led by the Royal Society, to make "science and innovation" the cornerstone of its aid programmes. Likely to have been high among the lobbyists' concerns will have been the withdrawal of the agbiotech industry from the UK and Europe, and the related drop in commercial sponsorship. The UK's leading plant biotech institute, the John Innes Centre, for instance, saw the collapse of a multi-million pound deal with Syngenta, which together with a dearth of other commercial sponsorship has triggered a significant retraction in its activities.

Almost immediately the fall off in commercial funding became apparent, the JIC started putting resources into the Sense About Science lobby group, which launched a "Public-Good Plant Breeding" campaign. This was at encouraging more public and foundation money for the introduction of GM plants into the developing world.
http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=151

Around this time DFID also came under strong pressure to appoint a science and innovation supremo with the job of monitoring and shaping its activities. As a result, earlier this year DFID appointed Gordon Conway, the former president of the Rockefeller Foundation, as its "chief scientist". Under Conway the Rockefeller Foundation consistently promoted the "constructive" adoption of GM crops.

An added factor in the lobbying campaign may have been the departure of Andrew Bennet from DFID where he had overseen DFID's environmental protection and sustainable development projects. Over 80 of DFID's projects involved genetic engineering.
http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=175

Bennet left to join the Syngenta Foundation, which is funded and directed by the GM giant, Syngenta. The appointment of Conway seems likely to ensure no change of direction at DFID and still more money for GM researchers.

In these circurmstances, it is somewhat less than surprising, that a department whose whole raison d'etre is supposed to be international development managed to come up with a plan that was about "significantly increasing government support for science and technology in Britain" but had "relatively little to say about how much of this should be aimed at helping developing countries"!

That simply reflects the agenda of those applying the pressure.

Contributions to DFID's online consultation should be submitted no later than 19 September 2005. To contribute, visit:
http://www.dfid.gov.uk/consultations/
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2.UK seeks views on 'science for development' strategy
DFID is seeking advice on how it should support science in developing countries
David Dickson
Source: SciDev.Net, 29 June 2005
http://www.scidev.net/News/index.cfm?fuseaction=readNews&itemid=2194&la

The British government has launched an online consultation to seek guidance on how it should support science and innovation as part of its international aid programme.

The consultation was launched this week by Gordon Conway, the former president of the Rockefeller Foundation, who was appointed chief scientist at the Department for International Development (DFID) earlier this year and is currently drawing up a science and innovation strategy for the department.

According to Conway, developing the new strategy is one of his "highest priorities". It is intended not only to describe the current activities of the UK government in this area, but also provide a "scientific lens" for DFID thinking, and for its future policy development (Six components for science in poor nations).
http://www.scidev.net/content/news/eng/six-components-for-science-in-poor-nations.cfm

"I am keen to seek views on the strategy, and learn from the wealth of knowledge, experience and new and exciting thinking that exists, not only in the international community - and in DFID itself - but particularly among our partners in developing countries," Conway said in a statement issued on Tuesday (28 June).

The Science and Innovation Strategy is expected to be published by the end of 2005. In addition to influencing DFID's own thinking, it will also contribute to the delivery of the UK's ten-year investment framework for science and development, launched by finance minister Gordon Brown last year.

Earlier this year, DFID was criticised by a UK parliamentary committee for not making a greater contribution to the initial design of this ten-year framework, which lays out a plan for significantly increasing government support for science and technology in Britain - but has relatively little to say about how much of this should be aimed at helping developing countries.

DFID officials say that the consultation is intended to pose a range of questions about how the department engages with science and innovation, whether internally, as part of the international community, or in developing countries.

"By 'science' we refer to the full spectrum of natural and social sciences, engineering and technology. 'Innovation' refers to the successful application of new ideas, from cutting edge research to the application of established technologies to meet the challenges faced by the very poorest," says a statement issued by the department.

Officials say that the online consultation is intended to help the department increase its effectiveness, and to establish future priorities for supporting science and innovation for development.

However, they add that although the strategy will be used "to inform and influence resource allocation processes", the consultation "is not an opportunity to bid directly for DFID funds".

Contributions should be submitted no later than 19 September 2005. To contribute, please visit the consultation website at http://www.dfid.gov.uk/consultations/