Managing Intellectual Property to Foster Agricultural Development

Over the past decades, consideration of IPRs has become increasingly important in many areas of agricultural development, including foreign direct investment, technology transfer, trade, investment in innovation, access to genetic resources, and the protection of traditional knowledge. The widening role of IPRs in governing the ownership of—and access to—innovation, information, and knowledge makes them particularly critical in ensuring that developing countries benefit from the introduction of new technologies that could radically alter the welfare of the poor. Failing to improve IPR policies and practices to support the needs of developing countries will eliminate significant development opportunities. The discussion in this note moves away from policy prescriptions to focus on investments to improve how IPRs are used in practice in agricultural development. These investments must be seen as complementary to other investments in agricultural development. IPRs are woven into the context of innovation and R&D. They can enable entrepreneurship and allow the leveraging of private resources for resolving the problems of poverty. Conversely, IPRs issues can delay important scientific advancements, deter investment in products for the poor, and impose crippling transaction costs on organizations if the wrong tools are used or tools are badly applied. The central benefit of pursuing the investments outlined in this note is to build into the system a more robust capacity for strategic and flexible use of IPRs tailored to development goals

OECD reviews of higher education in regional and city development, State of Victoria, Australia

With more than 5.3 million inhabitants Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Once a manufacturing economy, Victoria is now transforming itself into a service and innovation-based economy. Currently, the largest sectors are education services and tourism. In terms of social structure, Victoria is characterised by a large migrant population, 24% of population were born overseas and 44% were either born overseas or have a parent who was born overseas. About 70% of the population resides in Melbourne. Victoria faces a number of challenges, ranging from an ageing population and skills shortages to drought and climate change and increased risk of natural disasters. Rapid population growth, 2% annually, has implications for service delivery and uneven development as well as regional disparities. There are barriers to connectivity in terms of transport and infrastructure, and a high degree of inter-institutional competition in tertiary education sector. The business structure in Victoria includes some highly innovative activities such as in biotechnology, but other sectors, especially those with high number of small and medium-sized enterprises, are lagging behind. Most of the larger manufacturing enterprises are externally controlled and there is uncertainty over the long term investments they will make in the state, as well as the place of Victoria in the global production networks

Public-Private Partnerships: Instruments to Enhance Education, Training and Employment Opportunities in the Republic of South Africa

Since the fall of apartheid in 1994, government, business leaders and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are in a unique position to engage civil society and link educational institutions with industry-specific partners committed to stimulating economic development and employment options for citizens. This thesis explores the conditions under which public-private partnerships (PPPs) are likely to successfully generate sustainable youth employment and equip citizens with transferrable skills and the conditions under which they are likely not to generate opportunities. The thesis argues that PPPs are most likely to be successful when there is grassroots buy in from local communities. Based on the literature and contemporary international development initiatives, the contention is the country’s current cyber caste system has created a digital elite that has left a swath of the population under age 35 with limited skills and training for jobs in the information, communications and technology sector. Recent advances in ICT, fostered by PPPs, could allow South African citizens to leapfrog forward and train for future jobs—expanding what is now a cloistered, technologically advanced sector for the privileged. Evidence presented in this thesis shows PPPs are becoming more prominent as economic and development tools. PPPs help large numbers of South Africans break free from the shackles of Bantu education practices that have resulted in a new form of “digital apartheid” in which non-white youth have fewer opportunities to access the digital realm than white youth. These partnerships are tremendously important in a global, information and knowledge based economy. When closely aligned with schools, higher education, training programs and the community, PPPs have the opportunity to 6 strategically fit into the country’s economic development process and provide a mechanism by which South African citizens can earn economic equality. Microsoft, General Electric and PACE College are offered as case studies that reveal strategies transnational companies (TNCs) and small to medium enterprises (SMEs) can deploy or refine, resulting in mutually beneficial outcomes for citizens who crave transferrable, portable technology skills and employers who value and reward ICT ready talent

Bridging the Innovation Divide: An Agenda for Disseminating Technology Innovations within the Nonprofit Sector

Examines technology practices -- such as neighborhood information systems, electronic advocacy, Internet-based micro enterprise support, and digital inclusion initiatives -- that strengthen the capacity of nonprofits and community organizations

Working Paper 65 - Governance in Africa: The Role for Information and Communication Technologies

The information and knowledge age is upon us due to rapid advances ininformation and communication technologies (ICTs). These new technologies arechanging the way we live and work, and they are transforming many aspects ofsocial and economic organization in ways we could have hardly imagined less thantwo decades ago. ICTs offer developing countries formidable and cost-effectivetools for accelerated development. This paper assesses the role that ICTs can playin Africa’s development with special emphasis on governance. The 21st centurychallenges for governance in Africa are reviewed. The paper summarizes the usesof ICTs in governance and discusses possible risks. It also attempts to offer ideasthat should be considered in employing ICTs for governance, and identifies keyareas for intervention by African countries and the African Development Bank. Thepaper stresses the importance of the human factor in realizing good governance,given that ICTs are only tools.

INFORMATION SYSTEMS CONTRIBUTION TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF A SUSTAINABLE PURCHASING POLICY

Sustainability has become a central corporate concern as well as a key factor of success in terms of both image and productivity. In turn, the purchasing function is crucial to the definition and implementation of a sustainability policy. It drives a company’s sourcing activities and connects its other functions (i.e. internal customers) to external suppliers and providers. In short, sustainable purchasing plays a key role in global strategy and therefore requires high performance tools. Information systems, which have come under heavy criticism due to their negative environmental effects, can provide support services while also stimulating and disseminating sustainable purchase policies. This is because despite their poor reputation, purchasing information systems - which are usually designed to manage transactions and generate quick and significant gains through costcutting – have evolved to become virtual communities of practice where purchasers collaborate with one another and with internal or external partners to create sustainable value. The present study combines a literature review with a qualitative study to illustrate this emergence and show how information systems can and will contribute to the development of corporate sustainable purchasing policies. Using an exploratory approach and constructivist positioning, a “business forecasting” method is implemented to suggest a possible future for sustainable purchasing management, along with a new role for information systems. Towards this end, a scenario is co-constructed by 12 purchasing function experts responding to questions about their customs and practices and talking about their experiences, the effects of the rising wave of environmentalism, the problems they face in implementing and optimizing information systems and their professional. They also offer a few predictions and suggest new methods and modes of coordination. The study traces the development of new and innovative modes of sustainable purchasing management. These are aligned with a company’s global strategy thanks to the use of innovative information systems facilitating the dissemination of policies that purchasing departments implement both internally and externally through the integration of suppliers. Purchasing functions and information system departments work together to reduce the environmental footprint of technology and to exert greater influence on collaboration and teamwork by building an economic environment that is more viable and livable and also fairer. The originality of this article resides both in its sophisticated methodology, which associates several complementary approaches, and in its conclusions, which anticipate a probable future

Reaching more farmers: Innovative approaches to scaling up climate-smart agriculture

The purpose of this working paper is to provide insight into how we can use novel approaches to scale up research findings on climate-smart agriculture (CSA) to meaningfully address the challenges of poverty and climate change. The approaches described include those based on value chains and private sector involvement, policy engagement, and information and communication technologies and agro-advisory services. The paper draws on 11 case studies to exemplify these new approaches to scaling up. These are synthesised using a simple conceptual framework that draws on a review of the most important challenges to scaling up. This provides the material for a discussion around how particular scaling up approaches can help to address some of the challenges of scaling up. The analysis offers insights into scaling approaches, challenges and some opportunities for scaling CSA practices and technologies. We conclude that multi-stakeholder platforms and policy making networks are key to effective upscaling, especially if paired with capacity enhancement, learning, and innovative approaches to support decision making of farmers. Projects that aim to intervene upstream at higher leverage points can be highly efficient and probably offer cost-effective dissemination strategies that reach across scales and include new and more diverse partnerships. However, these novel approaches still face challenges of promoting uptake, which remain contextualized and thus require a certain level of local engagement, while continuously paying attention to farmer’s needs and their own situations

The Co-Evolution of Global Legitimation and Technology Upgrading: The Case of Huawei

This study explores the underlying relationship between acquisition of global legitimacy and the search for technology upgrading by Chinese multinational enterprises (MNEs). Using Huawei’s investment in Russia, Kenya, the United Kingdom and Canada as an in-depth case study, we observe that through corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities in foreign markets and engaging with local community, Chinese MNEs can acquire global legitimacy and gradually catch up with industry leaders. However, the process of global legitimation and innovation continues to evolve. We find that, together with engaging in CSR activities, acquisition of sophisticated knowledge and creation of innovation bring more legitimacy challenges to these firms. Thus, we suggest that Chinese MNEs’ global legitimation and innovation processes are closely coupled and mutually influential, resulting in co-evolution

Horizontal collaboration in the freight transport sector: barrier and decision-making frameworks

Abstract In the freight transport sector, competing companies horizontally collaborate through establishing Collaborative Transport Networks (CTNs). Fruitful implementation of CTNs will leverage environmental and socio-economic goals of sustainable development in the freight transport sector. The benefits of CTNs in horizontal collaborative settings have been widely demonstrated through several modelling approaches. However, in practice, the real applications of CTNs have been challenging and most did not achieve satisfactory performances. Some studies have addressed this issue by identifying different barriers to CTN implementation. However, a conceptual framework for the barriers is not well-established. In addition, the literature lacks a decision-making framework for the CTN implementation which considers the different barriers. To address this gap, this paper conducted a literature review of the barriers to CTN implementation. In total, 31 different barriers were identified. A conceptual barrier framework is developed by grouping the 31 barriers into five categories: the business model, information sharing, the human factors, the Collaborative Decision Support Systems (CDSSs), and the market. The paper additionally proposes a stage-gate model integrating the conceptual barrier framework into the CTN implementation decision-making process. The current work contributes to the existing literature by developing both theoretical and practical understandings of the barriers to implementing CTNs and will support decision makers in CTN implementation to maximize the CTN benefits and minimize the risk of CTN failure