Appropriate technology for Aboriginal Enterprise Development

RADG has been developing appropriate health technology for use in remote communities in Australia. The greatest need for these technologies has been in Aboriginal communities. In developing appropriate technical artifacts, RADG has confronted two problems. Firstly we require good contact with remote communities for consultation and feedback. Secondly, part of making artifacts appropriate for under-developed countries or regions, is the need to include employment and self-determination as part of the benefits of a technology

Appropriate Technology

Social and technical innovations are crucial to solving or alleviating many important contemporary problems; for example improvement of living and working conditions in the developing countries. In this paper we try to explore some problems of technological change. The main ideas contained in this paper are the result of discussions among the three authors, who have very different social backgrounds and viewpoints. Most of the ideas in the paper were presented at the IFAC Symposium "Criteria for Selecting Appropriate Technologies Under Different Cultural, Technical and Social Conditions", (Bari, Italy, 21-23 May 1979). The discussions at this meeting and at other scientific meetings, especially those at IIASA, the East-West Center Honolulu, and at the Institute for Developing Countries, in Berlin, German Democratic Republic, stimulated our thinking about appropriate technology

Technology Selection and Appropriate Technology

This paper provides a formal model of technology choice by a single region. Case studies have indicated that the technology acquired by LDCs often seem unsuitable, although the criteria for suitability are often unclear. The reasons which are presented for inappropriateness of the selection often rely more on political arguments then economic ones, or treat the recipient country as a passive actor in the whole process. Can a technology actively selected by a recipient country ever by inappropriate, assuming factor cost ratios represent true relative values? A model presented by Evenson and Bingswanger (1978) indicates that a technology developed in one economic or physical environment may be 'appropriate' to a second, very different environment if the second environment can generate a very limited range of technological possibilities on its own. Ranis (1978) has emphasized the importance of information on technological alternatives flowing smoothly and accurately within the system and the need to acquire capacity for adaptive research. Both these approaches recognize the importance of indigenous research capacity, although Ranis accords more emphasis to friction and proper incentives within the system. Barring policy and management problems, their conclusions appear to be that technology choice will be efficient--the appearance of inappropriateness stems from the lack of explicit recognition of the constraints on technology generation in the system. The model presented below builds on the early models of rational technology selection of Evenson- Binswanger and Ranis. It shares common elements with the Evenson-Binswanger model and may be regarded as a generalization of their model. It goes further, however, in several crucial aspects. It allows the extent of both adaptive and independent research to be choice variables in the technology acquisition decision. It allows for selection out of a continuum of technologies which differ in the environments for which they were designed. It allows for limits to the extent to which technologies can be adapted across environments and allows for losses because of incomplete adaption. The public goodnature of research plays a critical role in determining the efficiency of resource allocation as well. The model presented immediately below is couched in terms relating to agricultural technology. A reason for first presenting a model of agricultural technology selection is that many of the conceptual issues possess more intuitive natural interpretations. A second section will consider the impact of market structure on the development of technology, and a third section will broaden the basic model of agricultural technology development to one which encompasses certain types of fixed capital investment. A fourth section discusses testing of the model.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Appropriate Technology

Appropriate Technology described as low impact technology is based on highly advanced scientific and engineering research. The strong attraction to industrial and developing countries is due to its low cost, small scale, and low environmental impact

Tuko Pamoja: A guide for peer educators

This guide was developed by Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH) and is part of the Kenya Adolescent Reproductive Health Project’s Tuko Pamoja (We Are Together) series. Based on KARHP’s Adolescent Reproductive Health and Life Skills Curriculum, the guide is designed to help facilitate dialogue between adults and young people on issues related to adolescent reproductive health. It can be used to help peer educators share information and lead discussions with their peers on physical and emotional changes during adolescence, staying healthy, planning for the future, making good decisions, and preventing pregnancy and HIV and AIDS. The information can be shared widely among students, however not all material may be appropriate for younger students. Peer educators are advised to consult with their teachers to plan what subjects they will talk about in their groups, and to ask questions about the information in the guide

Beyond “appropriate” technology. Mobilizing education for development

Having established that technology mediated instruction of some kind\ud has potential and a valuable role to play in education for on the move and remote\ud area learners the paper looks at practice as documented and suggests that social\ud and cultural barriers are a greater challenge than technological ones. It concludes\ud by suggesting that successful implementation may depend both on use of familiar\ud technology i.e. phones rather than internet, and establishing for users a social and\ud cultural validity for using that technology for the delivery of education

Appropriate technology for sustainable food security:

CONTENTS: Brief 1. Overview / Per Pinstrup-Andersen Brief 2. Farmer-Based Agro-Ecological Technology / Jules Pretty Brief 3. Conventional Research-Based Technology / Prabhu Pingali Brief 4. Modern Biotechnology / Calestous Juma Brief 5. Modern Technology for African Agriculture / Jennifer Thomson Brief 6. Information and Communcations Technologies / Nuimuddin Chowdhury Brief 7. GIS, GPS, and Remote Sensing / Uwe Deichmann and Stanley Wood Brief 8. Alternative Energy Sources / R. K. Pachauri and Pooja Mehrotra Brief 9. Food Irradiation / Morton SatinTechnology., Technological innovations., Food security., Sustainability.,

Patents, appropriate technology, and North-South trade

In this paper, the authors discuss the possibility that the North and South may have differing technological needs. Just as the North would like to develop drugs against cancer and heart disease, and the South drugs against tropical disease, so the North's labor saving innovations are less useful in the South, where labor is cheap. Southern patents might promote the development of technologies appropriate to the South that might not have been developed if there were no patents. In this case, lower patent protection in the South would not benefit the South and increased patent protection in the South can hurt the North when the resources to go into R&D are limited. The authors develop a formal model for inteellectual property rights, emphasizing the dimension of technological choice. This model allows for a continuum of potential technologies, with a range of preferences in the North and South; free entry in the R&D sector rather than duopolistic competition; and gradations of patent protection. The report concludes by reviewing the results of the analysis.ICT Policy and Strategies,General Technology,Economic Theory&Research,Earth Sciences&GIS,Environmental Economics&Policies

Patents, Appropriate Technology, and North-South Trade

We consider the differential incentives of the North and the South to provide patent protection to innovating firms in the North. The two regions are assumed to have a different distribution of preferences over the range of exploitable technologies. Due to the scarcity of R&D resources, the two regions are in potential competition with each other to encourage the development of technologies most suited to their needs. This provides a motive for the South to provide patent protection even when it constitutes a small share of the world market and hence has strong free riding incentives otherwise. A benevolent global planner will set equal rates of patent protection only when it weights the welfare of the two regions equally. We find that the comparative statics of the Nash equilibrium exhibit considerable ambiguity. Numerical simulations in the benchmark case yield the following results: (i) when the technological preferences of the two countries become more similar, the level of patent protection provided by the South is reduced; (ii) when the relative market size of the South is increased, the South enhances its patent protection. In both cases, the level of Northern patents is relatively insensitive.

Pengembangan Appropriate Technology Sebagai Upaya Membangun Perekonomian Indonesia Secara Mandiri

Artikel ini membahas kegagalan perkembangan teknologi tinggi di Indonesia melalui penelusuran pustaka. Studi ini memperlihatkan bahwa kegagalan perkembangan teknologi (tingkat) tinggi menjadikan teknologi tersebut tidak sesuai bagi Indonesia karena tidak mencerminkan kebutuhan dan sumber daya negeri ini. Tulisan ini juga menganalisis beberapa variabel yang menyebabkan Indonesia tidak berhasil mengekspor produk hasil teknologi tinggi dan gagal menjadikannya sebagai keunggulan kompetitif Akhirnya, studi ini mengajukan usulan teknologi yang sesuai yang mendukung perkembangan ekonomi berbasis sumber daya lokal dan sesuai dengan tingkat kapabilitas teknologi negeri ini