THE KNOWLEDGE DIVIDE AS A CHALLENGE TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

1. THE KNOWLEDGE DIVIDE AS A CHALLENGE TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT Marian Ewurama Addy Chair, ICSU-PCDC

2. COVERAGE • How scientific knowledge is created. • Where it is created. • Exclusion of some communities, and therefore, some sources of empirical knowledge. • Results of the divide. • Consequences of the divide. • Overcoming the challenges.

3. INTRODUCTION • Knowledge divide exists; no arguments. • Every community has knowledge. Therefore, why the knowledge divide? • The kind of knowledge in this knowledge divide. • Knowledge which is: • Universal; • Usable; • Capable of predicting the future; and, • Gives rise to products for improved quality of life. • Scientific knowledge.

4. SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE • How is it created or acquired? • By the scientific method, starting with empirical knowledge which every community has. • One definition of empirical is “capable of being verified or disproved by observation or experiment, especially in the natural sciences”. • Conversion of empirical knowledge into scientific knowledge requires verification. • Scientific knowledge can be created from any knowledge system through verification. • If so, why the knowledge divide?

5. SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE • Where it was created from the beginning. • In the parts of the world referred to as developed or The North, with a smaller number of the world’s people. • Comparatively little of such creativity happening in the developing world which has a larger number of the world’s people – Majority World. • Mobility of high level manpower towards the areas of high concentration of scientific knowledge creation. • Less or no creation of scientific knowledge from the empirical knowledge of the majority world.

6. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT • Constant improvement in the quality of life for the current generation; same or better quality of life for subsequent generations, all from the same sources of the earth. • Knowledge needed for this sustainable development must come from all regions and all knowledge systems. • But assumed to come from scientific knowledge and from The North.

7. NEGATIVE ASPECTS OF SCIENCE • A lot of good things about scientific knowledge and therefore tendency to ignore possible negative aspects: • Limitations of scientific knowledge; • Uncertainties associated with it; • Products of science not always beneficial; • Products of science not always leading to development or improved quality of life.

8. NEGATIVE ASPECTS OF SCIENCE • “The traditional values of science are meant to safeguard objectivity, neutrality, disinterestedness and rationality. These and other values described by the sociologist Merton have come to be seen as the core ethos of science. Taken to the extreme, however, they may seem to justify absence of ethics, empathy and concern for social implications. The search for universal laws and theories with no attempt to relate them to human values and concerns can present science as abstract and insensitive to human needs, with the result that many people perceive science as cold and lacking a human face.”

9. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT • In spite of these, tendency from those in The South to depend on the North for the knowledge for sustainable development. • Therefore they do not create scientific knowledge from their own knowledge systems to add to world knowledge required for sustainable development. • Development must be global for it to be sustainable. • Therefore, all of us lose.

10. THE CHALLENGE OF THE DIVIDE • “Accordingly, science is less pluralistic in practice than it could be in principle. The lack of equitable representation has serious negative implications not only for society but also, through systematic under-inclusion of some perspectives, for the range and quality of the research that is produced. Many brilliant minds currently have no opportunity to contribute to science. “ ICSU Strategic Review. Science and Society: Rights and Responsibilities.

11. THE CHALLENGE • Indigenous knowledge which can contribute to sustainable development will lie unexploited and both The North and The South lose. • The divide leads to The North “selling” the knowledge to The South on terms which may compromise sustainable development, whereas “scientifying” the local knowledge may not. • Leaders in The South not even being aware of implications of buying the knowledge from The North and no local scientists to help them.

12. THE CHALLENGE • Politicians making use of products of science. • From areas where the knowledge and the products are made; • From areas receiving instead, of creating the knowledge and making suitable products. • Industrial giants doing business with the products of science. • To get change in human attitudes and values. • Change needed for sustainable development derives from indigenous knowledge systems of culture etc.

13. OVERCOMING THE CHANLLENGES • Pursue an agenda of true universality of science: • In doing so: • Use all but varied social knowledge systems. • Exploit systems that contribute to, and are influenced by scientific knowledge. • Build capacity in science all over and aim at all forms of knowledge being systematized and shared by all. • What should be the nature of capacity building in science, especially for future generations? • ICSU’s definition of Capacity Building in science.

14. CAPACITY BUILDING • Capacity building in science consists of activities that lead to the establishment or strengthening of a corps of qualified scientists with supporting infrastructure - including facilities and working conditions - that enable them to conduct research, education, training and advisory work, particularly in areas of direct social significance.