Testing selected innovation-targeted tools in practice

One of the crucial questions in public policy is how to protect the vulnerable from the risks of economic globalisation without undermining their efforts to become independent entrepreneurs who can take advantage of the opportunities of the global knowledge economy and generate value for themselves and their own community. Existing policies in the areas of development, environment and agriculture in affluent societies tend to focus on protecting the poor from economic and technological change but they have been less concerned with the question on how to enable them to participate sustainably in this inevitable change, for instance by promoting public–private partnerships.
The Doha Ministerial Declaration made technical assistance and capacity building a key component of the development dimension of this Round and set up for that purpose a WTO work programme on ‘Aid for Trade’ at the Sixth Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong in December 2005. ‘Aid for Trade’ might therefore have the potential to facilitate sustainable change in poor countries through the promotion of entrepreneurial infrastructure.
Against this backdrop and building on the substantial experience gathered during the NCCR’s first phase, this project explores the various ways in which resources in the domestic private sector can be mobilised to facilitate home-grown sustainable development through innovative entrepreneurship.