This book summarizes, and highlights main messages from, a February 2007 Global Forum convened by the World Bank to discuss strategies, programs, and policies for building science, technology and innovation (STI) capacity to promote sustainable growth and poverty reduction in developing countries.

The term capacity building refers to enabling the indigenous people of developing countries to carry out development processes successfully by empowering them through strengthened domestic institutions, provision of domestic markets, and improvement of local government efforts to sustain infrastructures, social institutions, and commercial institutions. Capacity building also involves the need to recognize indigenous interest groups, encourage local efforts, provide incentives for privatization, and coordinate local, regional, and international strategies to enhance productivity and wise use of natural and human resources. Most important, capacity building encourages a bottom-up or grassroots effort for sustainable development. The grassroots effort begins with the family unit. Capacity building addresses all areas of social, economic and health, and environmental processes through a holistic approach. The chapters of this book, written by experts in their fields, address these three areas of the developing societies.

'The United Nations system was a pioneer in the field of technical cooperation, and capacity development is its central mandate. UNDP has long played an important leadership role in both, as a source of technical cooperation funds and advisory services and as the home of innovative intellectual research and analysis on how to make them more efficient and effective. This book [presents] a vision that builds on new possibilities for knowledge-sharing, for which the revolution in information and communications technologies offers ample opportunities... a vision that is firmly founded on genuine ownership by the ultimate beneficiaries of development efforts: the government and citizens of developing countries' From the Foreword by MARK MALLOCH BROWN, Administrator, UNDP Capacity for Development brings together innovative and well-supported studies of technical cooperation along with its potential to build sustainable capacities in developing countries, by enhancing the knowledge, skills and productive aptitudes of their populations. A team of eminent development professionals and economists examine the achievements of technical cooperation and offer recommendations for reform in the context of globalization, democratisation, the information revolution and the growth of capacities in the South. They analyse the issues from three perspectives: ownership, capacity enablers and knowledge. The team show how the complex processes involved can be restructured to produce local involvement and empowerment, set out a normative framework for the input from society, and describe a new paradigm of knowledge for capacity building in the network age. This book will be essential reading for all development professionals and policy-makers, as well as providing an invaluable research and teaching resource.

This book contributes to our understanding of a neglected and poorly-understood concept within the development field: ‘capacity development’ in the context of human and organisational sustainable development. Relating ‘capacity development’ to other perspectives in development thinking and practice and giving an account of the concept’s genesis, the book introduces readers to recent empirical research initiatives that help to elucidate the concepts of capacity, capacity development, and capacity management. While capacity development initiatives and programmes have been used by most international and national agencies over the course of the last five decades, the term means different things to different people and especially to different major players in the international community. This weakens its effectiveness. This book therefore strives first of all to set ground rules that can be utilised by international aid providers such as UNDP, OECD, World Bank, and CIDA and practitioners alike.

This book presents papers from the 11th Sustainable Education and Development Research Conference on the theme: "Build Resilient Infrastructure, Promote Inclusive and Sustainable Industrialization, and Foster Innovation." Papers related to the sub-themes were presented: i. Develop quality, reliable, sustainable, and resilient infrastructure, including regional and transborder infrastructure, to support economic development and human well-being, with a focus on affordable and equitable access for all. ii. Promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and, by 2030, significantly raise industry's share of employment and gross domestic product, in line with national circumstances, and double its share in the least developed countries. iii. Increase the access of small-scale industrial and other enterprises, in particular in developing countries, to financial services, including affordable credit, and their integration into value chains and markets. iv. By 2030, upgrade infrastructure and retrofit industries to make them sustainable, with increased resource-use efficiency and greater adoption of clean and environmentally sound technologies and industrial processes, with all countries taking action in accordance with their respective capabilities. v. Enhance scientific research and upgrade the technological capabilities of industrial sectors in all countries, in particular developing countries, including, by 2030, encouraging innovation and substantially increasing productivity. SEDRC gathers papers that explain how key education on the Sustainable Development Goals is transforming lives, eradicating poverty, professing solutions to the infrastructural deficit in Africa, and providing innovative ways to provide affordable housing in Africa. This book will be of interest to academics, postgraduate students, and industry professionals.