Global Accords Consortium

A Growing Knowledge Gap

Knowledge is the key to technological change and sustainable economic development -- in all contexts, at all levels, and in all countries, industrial as well as in industrializing countries. In its 1998 annual Development Report, the World Bank signals the growing dangers of increasing knowledge gaps between rich and poor nations a problem that is now recognized as one of the most serious impediments to development. Indeed, knowledge magnifies the existing challenges. Reducing the knowledge gap is thus an urgent global priority. Notable strides notwithstanding, the knowledge gap reinforces the existing challenges. So much effort is deployed, but there is little coordination, limited synergism, and minimal search for "value added" through collaborative actions. There is a lack of replicability, little attention to cumulative experience, and minimal sharing of what works and what does not.

Pervasive institutional barriers impede the use of knowledge for decision-making, and reinforce the difficulties of bringing existing knowledge into the policy debates. In the sustainability domain - however broadly defined - the making of decisions and the formation of policy seldom draw on the full range of relevant knowledge, critical resources, and overall capabilities.

A Knowledge-Based Partnership

The Global Accords Consortium uses GSSD as its core knoweldge networkingnand management system to address innovative responses to sustainability challenges -- at all levels of development, in all parts of the world. Toward this end, the Consortium seeks to provide multiple forms of networking facilities across stake-holder communities to help identify innovative approaches, enabling technologies, as well as new institutional, financial and regulatory mechanisms for meeting sustainability challenges that confront us all, in both rich and poor countries.

The specific goal is to bring together business and industry, international institutions, national governments, and research and scientific institutions in an effort to formulate more comprehensive and integrated response strategies.

Given the complex realities, the multiplicity of perspectives, and the general lack of consensus worldwide on "best strategies" toward sustainability, strategic collaboration is a necessity; it is not a luxury. No one can "go it alone". This fact has led the UN Commission on Sustainable Development to signal the importance of the strategic collaboration: targeted interaction among three sets of institutions, representing:

Science & technology,
Business & industry
National governments & international organizations

and to recognize the role of the non-governmental organizations in representing various stakeholders (and civil society) in their interactions with all elements of the this triad, referred to as "Technology Triangle". Introduced initially by both the United Nations Development Program and by the Government of Germany, this strategic notion has received international support in terms for its practical implications.

This concept signals the potentials for synergism among institutions that create new ideas, new visions, and new products; institutions that commercialize them and bring them into the market place; and institutions responsible for implementing regulations for managing social and economic relations. It also highlights the functions of the NGO’s in representing stakeholder communities and the equally important role of business and industry. By structuring the Global Accords Consortium as a private-public partnership we can bring specialized expertise from all parts of the Technology Triangle to focus on the challenge of reducing the knowledge gap, shaping evolving policy responses, and contributing to the design and implementation of paths toward sustainability.