Science, Technology, and Health Capabilities Within the Department of State and USAID at an Inflection Point Proceedings of a Workshop-in Brief (2020) / Chapter Skim
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Science, Technology, and Health Capabilities Within the Department of State and USAID at an Inflection Point: Proceedings of a Workshop - in Brief
Science, Technology, and Health Capabilities Within the Department of State and USAID at an Inflection Point: Proceedings of a Workshop - in Brief
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SESSION 1: PLACING TRANSNATIONAL CHALLENGES AT THE CENTER OF U.S. FOREIGN POLICY To begin the workshop, Frances Colon, Jasperi Consulting, moderated a plenary discussion with former USAID Administrator Gayle Smith and former U.S.
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lack of a global inventory or distribution channel for critical personal protective equipment, though she highlighted Africa's successes in maintaining one, and (2) lack of a global plan for distributing global public goods, noting that vaccine development and distribution should not be dependent on a "coalition of the willing." Ambassador Pickering noted that failures of the World Health Organization (WHO)
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Susan Biniaz (Yale Jackson Institute for International Affairs and former climate lawyer and negotiator at the Department of State) discussed international legal instruments for environmental agreements and the many ways she saw science being taken into account in the Department of State's environmental diplomacy efforts, specifically: (1)
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observed that paradoxically, the current public health emergency has resulted in the international "state of science" receiving greater attention. She noted that properly executed international science cooperation is critical to finding solutions to the pandemic, for global solidarity, and holds numerous benefits for partners.
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Science cooperation was a foundational component for recent meetings between the Japan International Cooperation Agency and African countries. He noted that the blue economy7 is a possible focus for future international collaboration between Japan, the United States and other countries particularly via the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (20212030)
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and expressed a desire to maintain, if not grow, that level of collaboration. As one example of international collaboration, she pointed to the NSF's Industry-University Cooperative Research Centers Program,16 which focuses on early-stage research collaborations between industry, university, and government, and includes several international universities and companies.
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Several participants stressed the importance of human capital, and mentioned the Mandela Washington Fellowship and Engineers without Borders as being successful examples of cross-border exchanges that have lasting impact and inspire participants. BREAKOUT SESSION: INTERNATIONAL SECURITY AND ADDRESSING THE PROMISE AND PERILS OF EMERGING TECHNOLOGY Jason Matheny (Georgetown University, Center for Security and Emerging Technology)
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highlighted recommendations from four recent National Academies reports focused on the Department of State and USAID.22 Some of these recommendations included forming the S&T Advisor's Office at State, a need to create career incentives for STH positions in the United States and in missions; establishing an innovation center at USAID that reports directly to the USAID Administrator; merging disaster response programs with follow-on USAID activities; infusing a culture of S&T throughout the Department of State. Schweitzer also spoke about the importance of foresight activities, understanding digital technologies, broader risk taking, and scaling as core priorities for USAID.
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Several participants noted that technical talent could be better leveraged, including from universities, and networked alumni of fellowship programs, and partnerships were identified as a means for doing this. Participants discussed challenges of the current silos in appropriations between domestic and international funds and the 4-year cycle of funding and noted that champions in Congress can be critical to elevate efforts to fund high-level priorities (e.g., climate change in the Obama administration.)
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Andrew Hebbeler (Nuclear Threat Initiative) stressed that while the AAAS S&T Fellowship is very important, it cannot be the solution for State and USAID's technical talent needs, and Bair noted that fellowship programs like the Pickering, Rangel, and Payne Fellowships have not improved the long-term diversity of State or USAID.
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Kern added that shifting responsibility to the community can help find agents to scale trust. Tilmes highlighted a rise in digital authoritarianism, with several participants noting the need to strengthen data privacy, protection, and governance systems around the world, and proposed the need to develop a database for trusted data algorithms as a global public good.
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WORKSHOP PLANNING COMMITTEE: Cathy Campbell, Co-chair, CRDF Global (retired) ; Andrew Hebbeler, Cochair, Nuclear Threat Initiative; Michael R
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