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One year ago a learning process on Science, Technology and Innovation policies in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria was launched, with the support of the World Bank and Korea Development Institute. A regional workshop held in Amman in June 2009, with the academic, business and research communities of the 3 countries resulted in a work program to further the learning process on this important topic. This year, a rapid diagnosis of each of the three country’s science, technology and innovation policies, including impact evaluation and gap analysis – “Rapid Innovation Action Learning” or RIAL-, was carried out with the support of World Bank and international experts, culminating in a regional workshop with country teams from government, academia and the private sector held in Beirut on the 5th and 6th of July. In addition to sharing experiences both regionally and internationally, and building a regional community of practice on STI policies, specific action plans were developed based on the diagnoses which are particularly relevant to help boost growth and job creation.
Academics and practitioners agree that innovation is a key component of economic growth and poverty reduction, particularly in developing countries where new approaches and technologies help provide entry into the 21st century global economy. Innovation can be defined as the application of new ideas, technologies, or processes to productive activities, in a given context. Technological innovation should thus be broadly understood as not only the creation of new knowledge and technology and the adaptation of existing ones, but more importantly, the diffusion and use of technologies, products, processes, and practices that are new in a given country context.
Innovation is, therefore, about the transformation of traditional sectors into higher value-added, knowledge intensive sectors, as well as increased investments in new and emerging technology and service intensive sectors. Increasing value-added through innovation is often mistakenly associated exclusively with high-tech and academic research and development. However, besides technological innovation based on R&D and led by S&T trained persons, two other strands of non-technological innovation have become central: enterprise-led business model and process innovation; and creative class-led fresh thinking-based innovation. With countries’ GDPs coming increasingly from services, where little R&D occurs, these non-technological innovation forms, which often revolve around or involve services, are becoming central to innovation success. An explicit and focused innovation policy can help foster and support innovative activities – including the adoption and adaption of foreign knowledge and technologies - throughout the economy.
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