3500_0911 UN Connecting:3500_0911 UN Connecting 07.11.11 12:13 Seite 99
Networks for Prosperity PART 2, Chapter 3: Knowledge without Frontiers
3.7 Conclusions
As discussed above in Chapter Two, key dimensions of international networking are political (the number of embassies in a country, the number of international organizations of which the country is a member, the number of UN peace missions in which a country participated, and the number of international treaties a country signed) and economic (exports and imports of goods and services, foreign direct investments, the portfolio of investments, and the income payments to foreign nationals). Among the countries for which data is available, the best networked are smaller European countries. From the study group, Ethiopia, Panama and Peru are among the top 50 countries, suggesting that international networking is not solely a function of income. Nor are successful networks easily suppressed by geopolitical adversity, as shown by the case of the Havana Trade Fair, which has overcome many obstacles on its way to success. In the Cuban case, it is likely that new networks will also be needed to meet the needs of a rapidly-changing economic policy.
Testing Laboratories in 2010 to give training courses to technicians in developing countries lacking their own accredited laboratoriesxxxviii. Vimta had already in 2008 collaborated with UNIDO and WAITRO (the World Association of Industrial and Technological Research Organizations, based in Malaysia, with about 160 members worldwide) in launching LABNET, a virtual network for testing laboratories in developing countries worldwide. The LABNET portal is already attracting many visitors from countries such as India, Turkey, the Philippines, Mexico and Brazil.
The cases illustrate networks for politicians, such as the horizontal information-sharing Conference of African Ministers of Industry, and for researchers as in the ‘triangular’ CIEM competitiveness study with NUS and Harvard. They also illustrate the changing functions of networking: in the case of AfrIPAnet, the network moving from knowledge sharing to harmonization, via the application of the biannual investor benchmarking survey.
If knowledge sharing has traditionally been bilateral and North-South, the emergence of regional research networks like ERIA and Red Mercosur shows the growing interest in building relevant, rapid, responsive networks that can produce the knowledge that is needed close to the target audience. “South-South cooperation is a visionary idea that is starting to pay off today,” Rene Castro, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica has said. “Due to their first-hand familiarity with the problems on the ground, actors in South-South cooperation can be more efficient and effective in identifying and implementing solutionsxxxix.”
Dynamic networks tend to proliferate, producing regional variants (e.g. Latin America’s Cleaner Production network). They also produce contentrelated offshoots to meet emerging needs. UNIDO’s Centre for South-South Industrial Cooperation (UCSSIC) was established in 2007 in New Delhi. In cooperation with Vimta Labs in Hyderabad, UCSSIC in turn set up the South-South Training Facility for
In sum, these cases stress the importance of recruiting the right participants in the network, and giving them the mandate to generate and share knowledge.
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