Exponential Innovation and Human Rights Faculty Research Working Paper Series Calestous Juma Harvard Kennedy School February 2018 RWP18-011 Visit the HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series at: https://www.hks.harvard.edu/research-insights/publications?f%5B0%5D=publication_types%3A121 The views expressed in the HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the John F. Kennedy School of Government or of Harvard University. Faculty Research Working Papers have not undergone formal review and approval. Such papers are included in this series to elicit feedback and to encourage debate on important public policy challenges. Copyright belongs to the author(s). Papers may be downloaded for personal use only. www.hks.harvard.edu SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND GLOBALIZATION Exponential Innovation and Human Rights Implications for Science and Technology Diplomacy Calestous Juma PAPER FEBRUARY 2018 Science, Technology, and Globalization Project Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs Harvard Kennedy School 79 JFK Street Cambridge, MA 02138 www.belfercenter.org Statements and views expressed in this report are solely those of the authors and do not imply endorsement by Harvard University, the Harvard Kennedy School, or the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Design & Layout by Andrew Facini Cover photo: The Opening Session of UN’s Millennium Summit, September 6, 2000. Presiding over the meeting are (left to right): Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and Co-chairs of the Summit, Tarja Halonen of Finland, and Sam Nujoma of Namibia. (UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe) Copyright 2018, President and Fellows of Harvard College Printed in the United States of America SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND GLOBALIZATION Exponential Innovation and Human Rights Implications for Science and Technology Diplomacy Calestous Juma PAPER FEBRUARY 2018 Abstract The international community has historically maintained hope that advances in science and technology offer humanity a wide range of options for improving its well-being. Recently anxieties arising from rapid advancement in science and technology and the emergence of new global business models have re-opened debates on the relations between exponential innovation and human rights. The search for inclusive innovation models has led to the need to rethink traditional views about concepts such as “technology transfer” that continue to underpin international negotiations, especially under the United Nations (UN). This paper explores these themes and proposes alternative ways for emerging economies to expand their human potential without undue reliance on the one-way flow of scientific and technological knowl- edge from the industrialized countries. It calls on strengthening international science and technology advice, especially in the UN Secretariat, to help sup- port more constructive discussions on the interactions between innovation and human rights. ii Exponential Innovation and Human Rights: Implications for Science and Technology Diplomacy About the Author Calestous Juma was Professor of the Practice of International Development at Harvard Kennedy School and director of the Science, Technology, and Globalization Project at the School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. He co-chaired the High-Level Panel on Emerging Technologies established by the Chairperson of the African Union. Juma was elected to several prestigious scientific academies including the Royal Society of London, the US National Academy of Sciences, the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), the UK Royal Academy of Engineering, and the African Academy of Sciences. He was named four times as one of the 100 most influential Africans by the New African magazine. In 2015 he was named by Scientific American as one of the world’s 100 most influential people in biotechnology. Juma was the first permanent Executive Secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and founding Executive Director of the African Centre for Technology Studies in Nairobi. He was Chancellor of the University of Guyana and member of the selection jury of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering. He also served on the board of The Nature Conservancy. Juma held a DPhil in science and technology policy studies from the University of Sussex (UK) and has received several international awards and honorary degrees for his work on the application of science and technology for sustainable development. He authored The New Harvest: Agricultural Innovation in Africa (2015) and Innovation and Its Enemies: Why People Resist New Technologies (2016). His forthcoming books include Emergent Africa: Evolution of Regional Economic Integration (with Francis Mangeni); A New Culture of Inno- vation: Technology, Entrepreneurship and Prosperity; and Game Over? Science and Ethics of Biological Extinctions in Africa. )FQBTTFEBXBZPO%FDFNCFS Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs| Harvard Kennedy School iii Table of Contents Introduction ........................................................................................1 1. Technological abundance and exponential innovation .............5 2. Human rights and technology transfer ......................................9 Normative principles ........................................................................................ 9 Technology transfer or acquisition? ...............................................................11 3. Technological capabilities and innovation systems .................17 Technological capabilities ...............................................................................17 Innovation systems ......................................................................................... 19 Financing innovation .......................................................................................23 4. Human rights in the age of exponential innovation ................ 27 Infrastructure, technology, and human capabilities .................................... 27 Technical education and the expansion of human capabilities ....................31 Entrepreneurship and creativity as expressions of human capabilities .....32 5. Science and technology diplomacy in the United Nations Secretariat ........................................................35 From global science advice to developing country focus ............................36 The slow return to global perspectives .........................................................39 Conclusion .......................................................................................43 Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs| Harvard Kennedy School v The Opening Session of UN’s Millennium Summit, September 6, 2000. Presiding over the meeting are (left to right): Secretary- General Kofi Annan, and Co-chairs of the Summit, Tarja Halonen of Finland, and Sam Nujoma of Namibia. (UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe) Introduction1 Technological innovation and the politics of global justice are two fields that interact quite extensively in international diplomatic discourse and public debate. Controversial issues, such as accessing essential medicines, reducing greenhouse gases, conserving biological diversity, providing clean energy, and expanding the adoption of green technol- ogies, require answers at the intersection of technological innovation, international diplomacy, and global justice. Our approach is to start off with the broader understanding that justice is rights-based and then proceed to analyze it using a goal-based framework. This brings into sharp focus the relationships between innovation and human rights. However, it is rare that scholarly work specifically explores the inter- actions between the two fields.2 Where such studies exist, they have tended to be too narrow in scope to support the identification of new research frontiers on technological innovation and human rights. As the international community explores new paths to find solutions to grand global challenges, it often encounters novel human rights concerns that need to be addressed. This search will need to review the relevance of concepts such as “technology transfer” from industrialized countries to emerging economies. The emergence of “technology transfer” as a major theme in international diplomacy needs to be placed in the context of broader efforts following World War II to advance development as a 1 This paper draws from the author’s forthcoming book, A Culture of Innovation: Technology, Entrepreneurship and Prosperity. An earlier version of this paper was prepared for a Research Handbook on Human Rights and Development under the leadership of Professor Stephen Marks of the Program on Human Rights in Development at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Professor Balakrishnan Rajapogal of the Program on Human Rights and Justice at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I would like to sincerely thank Professor Ruth Okediji (Harvard Law School) and Dr. Theo Papaioannou (The Open University, UK) for their generosity in sharing the valuable sources that helped me to prepare this paper. I am grateful to Katherine Gordon for her research support during the preparation of this paper and to Kate Bauer for her support in the finalization of the draft. 2 See, for example, Theo Papaioannou, “Technological Innovation, Global Justice and Politics of Development,” Progress in Development Studies 11, no. 4 (2011): 321–28; Hans Morten Haugen, Technology and Human Rights—Friends or Foes? Highlighting