Science and Technology in the Islamic World: Harnessing the Power of the Private Sector – the Importance Of the Technology Private Sector in U.S. Foreign Policy

Harnessing the power of U.S. science and technology in the region is supported by opinion polls which demonstrate that even as our standing in Islamic countries has dropped, U.S. science and technology is still held in high regard. Part of this attraction may be the realization, although not consciously, that the U.S. – especially the private sector - has long been a leader in sharing its S&T advances with the world. Just as much of U.S. science and technology is due to our private sector research and development, much of our sharing of S&T is through private sector activities. The U.S. way of doing business and our earnest efforts to apply honest, best practices in business and institutional partnerships reinforces our attraction to the Islamic World. Our public and private sector S&T communities are perceived as reliable, non-controversial, and beneficial to Islamic society.

I am going to present to you a number of ways the U.S. government supports S&T activities in the Muslim world. Some of these are through partnerships directly with private companies; some of these are through government-to-government S&T agreements that also support and encourage science-to-market activities; and some build the culture, especially in the next generation, who will provide the entrepreneurs, the political support, and the understanding of the value of science and technology.

At one level, you can say the clamoring for access to U.S. science education and the strong appreciation for U.S. S&T that exists in the region means the battle has been won. At another level, we believe that, until appreciation for the critical thinking and problem solving that is necessary for business success as well as for scientific success is built into the society, the Islamic world won't realize its potential in the world economy. Islamic cultures have a long history of commerce and industry. However, modern business practices in a globalized world developed in isolation from trends in most Islamic countries. This is beginning to change but is threatened by voices who wish to go back rather than to move forward. Promoting and expanding S&T business capacities in the Islamic World through partnership with U.S. private and public entities is a high priority of the Department of State.

Since its creation in 2001 USAID's Global Development Alliance (GDA) has forged 31 public private partnerships in Islamic countries focused on science and technology. One of which, the “Networking Academy Alliance” received the Secretary of State's 2005 Award for Corporate Excellence. Cisco systems received this award for its work in Jordan that according to Secretary Rice is “revolutionizing how teachers are trained, how subjects are taught, and how students are prepared for the future.”

GDA has issued its 2007 call for proposals to create global partnerships in over 80 countries. Applications are due December 31, 2006. Program areas range from education and health, to business and technology, to women's issues and youth employment, as well as democracy and the environment. For information on how to apply please visit the US government's sustainable development partnership website (www.SDP.gov). To put these programs into a larger strategic vision, in July 2005, Secretary Rice approved a science and technology strategy for the Islamic world. The Secretary's strategy recognizes the promise of science and technology and private sector engagement to both advance American national interests and promote the freedom and dignity of others.

A key line item in that strategic plan is, and I quote, “to increase cooperative exchanges on technology incubators, innovation centers, and product-to-market entrepreneurship.” Beyond this strategy is our engagement in 11 broad S&T framework programs in Islamic countries. We are working to increase this number. These activities are either signed, in some form of implementation, or in negotiation. Usually we start our S&T dialogue with a prospective partner by negotiating an umbrella S&T agreement that states our shared interest in promoting S&T capacities, protecting intellectual property and stimulating entrepreneurship and innovation through partnership with U.S. companies and institutions.

We are currently engaged in negotiating new agreements with Jordan and Saudi Arabia. The agreements serve as platforms that provide convenient means for U.S. business and government agencies to cooperate with counterpart entities. We back up these agreements with proposed activities that strive to achieve the aims and objectives set forth in the agreements.

Let me give you a few examples of programs that we are in the process of advocating or implementing. Our negotiations on an S&T agreement with Jordan started only a few weeks ago. We decided to strengthen the agreement framework by proposing that the agreement be affiliated with creation of a technology accelerator known as the Jordan Science and Technology Initiative (JSTI), or “justy” as it is familiarly referred to in Jordan and the United States.

JSTI is based on a business plan that evolved from a feasibility study funded by the United States Trade and Development Agency. It is both business development and technology policy oriented. The concept can be replicated almost anywhere. We chose to associate JSTI with the Jordanian S&T agreement because of Jordan 's good record in protecting intellectual property rights, the existing Free Trade Agreement between Jordan and the United States and Jordan 's demonstrable efforts to create a strong entrepreneurial S&T business sector and S&T leadership role in the region.

JSTI will be Jordanian owned and U.S. backed. It is a business initiative. It is not a foreign assistance program. JSTI is composed of a team of U.S. and Jordanian stakeholders from the public and private sectors. These include venture capitalists, Jordanian and U.S. government agencies, noteworthy “thought leaders” who are particularly concerned with promoting innovative entrepreneurship in Jordan, and experts in technology transfer and business start-ups from the United States and Jordan.

JSTI is a comprehensive innovation support system that addresses the complex process of creating wealth from technology. It aims to empower entrepreneurs and innovators. It encourages risk taking by helping to reduce some of the impediments faced by S&T business start-ups. The program is envisioned to demonstrate how protection of intellectual property rights can stimulate innovation. It offers opportunities for stakeholders to discuss ways to commercialize research undertaken at government owned facilities, and to explore how to create, adapt, and hopefully adopt technology transfer policies similar to the Bayh-Dole Act.

JSTI focuses aggressively on market drivers for selecting technologies that can be developed into business opportunities. It applies proven processes and practices to accelerate the growth of technology-based enterprises that are regionally focused and globally competitive from the outset.

The initiative can help overcome the major barrier to S&T business success in any country, a lack of access to capital and to markets. The initiative proposes to create a modest fund composed of a majority contribution from the Government of Jordan and a smaller contribution from the United States. The fund will be used to help U.S. and Jordanian business partners to bridge the chasm between prototype development and a business plan that will attract investment for going to market.

JSTI will offer four key services to its participating U.S. and Jordanian companies:

• Business Creation and Acceleration will provide comprehensive services spanning the venture lifecycle.
• Technology Sourcing and Collaboration will source and match technologies from the U.S. with Jordanian entrepreneurs and innovative companies, assist Jordanian entrepreneurs to launch companies based on Jordanian innovation, and serve as a focal point for international activities and foreign direct investment. It also will identify market and social needs in the country and region and then link Jordanian entrepreneurs with the appropriate technology from the U.S. or Jordan to create businesses to address these needs.
• Capital Provision will connect Jordanian entrepreneurs and innovators to capital at all stages of development.
• Coordination and Integration will foster networking and collaboration among stakeholders so that they can leverage existing efforts.

In addition to strictly business oriented S&T activities and policy dialogue such as I have just described, the Department strongly supports educational programs in the Islamic World that we hope will help produce the next generation of S&T entrepreneurs. These educational programs include Greenscreen, Globe, and Global Schoolhouse.

I will describe one of these, Greenscreen, a little further. With the support of Department funds, a Boston-based, educational non-profit NGO translated its website, www. Greenscree n.org , its newsletters, and teacher education materials into Arabic and French. Teacher guides focus on developing student skills in multiple subject areas, including science, mathematics, and environment themes. Materials provide step-by-step, how-to instructions on carrying out student projects and scientific experiments to be undertaken in the classroom. The Greenscreen web portal allows students to share their science-writing and create linkages with peers domestically and overseas. Until now, top countries accessing the site have been the United Arab Emirates , Libya , Tunisia , and Kuwait.

Another way of promoting the next generation of S&T businesses and a culture that supports them is through our K-12 science and math education partnerships in the Islamic world. This element of the Secretary's S&T strategy includes reaching out to youth and women in the predominantly Islamic societies of South Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East by improving teacher training and curriculum development.

USAID and UNDP studies have found that in the majority of Islamic countries, education is dominated by information-based curriculum and a teaching style that reduces children's questioning, exploration, and initiative. Improvements in basic science and mathematics education to a more projects-based approach can help counteract these trends by promoting the development of critical thinking and problem solving skills that according to surveys of employers, constitute key requirements for success in today's knowledge-based economy.

The conduct of science and technology also reinforces the key building blocks of democracy. S & T values such as critical inquiry, meritocracy, transparency, access to information and innovation closely mirror the values of democracy. These skills enable citizens to make informed decisions for their communities. To advance this initiative we are launching a series of teacher training pilot projects that promote critical thinking through project based learning. These will take place in Oman , Pakistan , and North Africa in 2007. 

One project is a partnership with Rubicon, a Jordanian multi-media e-education company and the American company “Cisco” and features interactive math and science lessons. We continue to seek additional private sector partnerships that will support these science education collaborations, a requirement for long-term economic development.

More of our work involves the direct, person-to-person programs that are so much more effective. Of course, they also entail certain risks when dealing with that part of the world. For example, staff in our Science and Advanced Technology Office recently worked for months to organize a conference in Amman, Jordan that had ambitious scientific, education and diplomatic objectives, not the least of which was to strengthen relations between the United States and the Islamic world. But for all the challenges of organizing such a conference, they hadn't counted on a war. On the eve of the conference, war exploded on 12 July between Israel and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon. For our staff it was a time of acute uncertainty. Would professionals from around the Middle East and North Africa still attend? Would it be best to postpone it, or cancel it?

The conference started on schedule, and while the four-day gathering was deeply colored by tension and sadness arising from the conflict fought just 150 miles away, it proved to be a powerful reminder that diplomacy based on science and technology is an effective way to encourage constructive relations among the nations of the Middle East and North Africa and between the United States and the Islamic world.

The GeoInformation for Sustainable Cities C onference in Amman drew 50 planners, scholars and government officials, representing 10 countries and regions in the Middle East and North Africa—Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Libya, the West Bank and Gaza, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Kuwait, and Yemen. Fifteen of the participants were women; seven of the experts were from Libya , and seven more from Iraq. The mayor of Marrakesh, Morocco, was there, as was the former mayor of Kuwait City. So were representatives from the U.S. government and private industry.

What they shared was a high-level exchange of counsel and insight on the uses of geographic information systems (GIS), from tracking leaks in an urban water system to charting broad development and poverty patterns. They were able to build knowledge-sharing networks that could help with planning for a generation to come. Geographic information systems use high-powered computer hardware and software along with mapping systems, satellite images and other technology to create rich data sets. When socio-economic data is added to the mix, the systems are able to construct illuminating portraits of where and how people live.

Those tools could be crucial in coming decades as millions of people around the world leave rural areas to live an often precarious life as squatters in urban slums. Such urban areas are growing exponentially; by some estimates, as many as 2 billion people worldwide may be living as squatters by 2030. That will create enormous challenges for their governments at home and around the world. The roots of the Amman conference go back to the 2002 World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg , where members of the U.S. delegation were involved in exchanges on how geospatial technology could help policymakers address issues related to AIDS, poverty and education. Subsequent discussions led our staff to apply for an internal State Department grant under a program aimed at using science and technology to aid in a number of diplomatic objectives, including engagement with the Islamic world.

A small grant came through in late 2005, and that was used to leverage additional funds and other support from an array of federal and private partners including the U.S. Agency for International Development; the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; Environmental Systems Research Institute Inc. (ESRI); and Trimble Navigation. The workshop itself was organized by the International City/County Management Association.

One of the important lessons from this conference was how little Amman was directly affected by the war, but how much participants were concerned about the nearby tragedies. Among the conference participants, there was an enormous hunger to share their knowledge and to obtain new insights about how GIS can help keep a city running. Jordan 's Minister of Public Works and Housing, delivered welcoming remarks at a reception. Others came hundreds of miles, making a rare trip out of their countries. Different countries had different levels of GIS experience and skill. From country to country among those represented, there were different levels of freedom to use GIS and related technology. While much time was spent between sessions and over meals watching grim news reports and discussing the war's impact, many participants expressed deep gratitude for the hope that the conference offered.

The GIS manager for the Water Authority of Jordan, made a presentation on how the technology is improving the management of water infrastructure in the Amman area. In an e-mail interview after the conference, he predicted that the session would have broad positive effects—creating new understanding about the potential of GIS, promoting cooperation and open-exchange of information between different countries, and helping transfer knowledge from experienced countries to those with less GIS experience.

Many of you will recall that in 1995, the United States and Egypt launched the U.S. – Egypt Partnership for Economic Growth and Development (“the Partnership”), which was spearheaded by Vice President Gore and Egypt 's President Mubarak. As part of the Partnership, and in response to the Government of Egypt's interest in strengthening S&T ties with the US government, the two countries signed an Agreement on Science and Technology Cooperation on March 20, 1995. The Agreement was recently renewed for another five years. A wide array of joint U.S.-Egyptian S&T research activities that have occurred and been funded under the Agreement. In addition to the more tangible and pragmatic S&T benefits observed, both countries have benefited from the cultural understanding and goodwill these relationships foster. The U.S.-Egypt S&T Agreement continues to play a significant role in a very important bilateral relationship for the US government. Egypt plays a key role in helping to ensure a stable Middle East.

The benevolent works carried out under the auspices of the U.S.-Egypt S&T Agreement enhance the image of the U.S. in Egypt and in the wider Islamic world; this is particularly important at a time when the majority of Muslims across the world have an unfavorable opinion of the U.S. Moreover, it may be claimed that the peer-review and science-based decision-making practices promulgated by the S&T Agreement, as well as the parties working under its auspices, have contributed toward realizing the groundbreaking democratic reforms that have occurred in Egypt over the past year.

On December 12, Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Dina Habib Powell announced a new Community College Scholarship Exchange Initiative with Egypt bringing more than 1,000 Egyptian students, junior faculty and vocational school administrators to the United States.   Th e initiative will bring the Egyptians to U.S. community colleges for one year of vocational and professional certificate study in fields critical to Egypt 's economic growth and development.  The exchange is designed to allow participants to enter the workforce immediately after they return to Egypt.  The U.S.-Egyptian partnership will help Egyptian students participate in the building of an innovative, dynamic, and prosperous society in Egypt , using the skills they gain in the program.

In addition to the student scholarships, the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs will provide 25 scholarships to junior faculty and vocational school administrators during the second year of the program for institutional capacity building in Egypt.  The program will incorporate intensive English language training ensuring that participants are able to take full advantage of their U.S. study program. 

In mid-February 2007 the Department will host, in cooperation with the National Science Foundation, a meeting of the United States-Pakistan Joint S&T Committee. In October of this year, staff from our Office of Science and Technology Cooperation accompanied the Director of the NSF, who is co-Chair of the Committee, in meetings in Islamabad with his counterpart, the S&T Advisor to the Prime Minister of Pakistan. The co-chairs agreed that a key priority of the committee would be cooperation in developing U.S.-Pakistan business S&T partnerships. The committee will include a component of its organization that is composed of representatives from the business communities of the United States and Pakistan.

In July of this year, one-week after Libya 's designation as a state sponsor of terrorism was rescinded ; the Under Secretary for Democracy and Global Affairs led a team of senior U.S. officials to Libya. Assistant Secretary McMurray traveled to Libya for Part II of the Libya Partnership, focusing on energy, health, standards and metrology, and water.  Together, they and their team are initiating a series of projects across the region under the new working title of Islamic World Science Partnerships (formerly Muslim World Outreach). 

Assistant Secretary McMurray also traveled to Morocco to sign an S&T agreement and initiate a series of science partnerships with that country. Under Secretary Dobriansky is co-hosting the “Conference of Women Leaders in Science, Technology, and Engineering,” in Kuwait January 8 to 10.  Under Secretary Dobriansky will be leading a delegation of distinguished scientists and business persons to attend the event. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the U.S. co-sponsor, and the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research and the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences, are the Kuwaiti partner co-hosts. 

The culmination of many months of close bilateral cooperation, the conference offers women scientists in the region an opportunity to create stronger networks with U.S. counterparts and each other, and will build their capacity to serve as leaders, innovators, and mentors. This conference will bring together over 200 prominent scientists, science entrepreneurs, science administrators, and graduate students from 19 Arab countries, Turkey , and the United States  for discussions, training, networking, and strategizing.  The private sector is also involved with this project.

The U.S. participants include three-time space flight veteran Astronaut Janet Kavandi, and Anne Stevens, President of Carpenter Technology, and former Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Ford Corporation. They will engage in a cosmopolitan exchange of ideas with women leaders from the region – individuals who are the role models that young aspiring scientists and researchers will admire – role models who will be leveraging tools of influence. Great strength and advancement is gained through the exchange of ideas, and the establishment of new relationships.  We hope that global science partnerships will spring from the interaction of these women leaders. We hope to establish mentoring, research, and commercial relationships that will advance both science and human relations throughout the region and with the United States.

Last year, the Department gave funds to a private Tunisian film company, CINETELFILMS, to help cover production costs for their documentary called “Kussuf:  Wafa and Ahmed's Excellent Adventures,” (that's their own title, chosen by young students!)  “Kussuf” records the visit of two Tunisian science club students who came to the United States to meet NASA astronomers, and the students' return to Tunisia with the NASA scientists to record and measure an October 2005 annular solar eclipse--visible in southern Tunisia.  The experience for the scientists, students, and the film company was, in the words of one of the astronomers, “amazing.”  It prompted further thinking on the part of CINETELFILMS to propose future collaboration with the Department on science-themed films aimed at youth from across the Middle East and North Africa.  A number of media outlets in the region have expressed interest in broadcasting the film on television, including Al-Jazeera for their Children's TV station.

The Department of State we will continue to develop new programs that will build an innovative cadre of S&T business ventures in the Islamic World. Some of our planned activities for the future include:

• Providing challenge grants to produce television programs on science that use people's curiosity about the latest in science and technology to explore common values between the U.S. and Islamic society.
• Helping U.S. NGOs such as GLOBE, Greenscreen, and iEARN, as well as science museums around the country to produce highly effective S&T public information materials that can be translated and adapted to Islamic cultures.
• Funding science workshops and exchange programs to bring U.S. and Islamic scientists together in the Islamic region.
• Reaching younger audiences through producing and distributing posters/stickers/other non-traditional media.
• Helping U.S. scientific societies and S&T trade associations to establish chapters in the Islamic region
• We will accomplish our objectives in partnership with you; the U.S. private sector and civil society. It will take time, but the sustainable results are so desirable to everyone; economic growth, social development, and friendlier and mutually respectful relations.

Thank you.