The Bank is also embarking on a major effort to develop a comprehensive science and technology strategy to aid its developmental endeavor. Innovations in science and technology are creating new challenges and opportunities for development, and changing the way we approach traditional problems. We must be prepared to exploit science and technology's potential contributions to development. And promoting rural well-being lies at the core of the Bank's strategy to reduce poverty. We must assure adequate investment in science and technology in general, and in agricultural science in particular.
Modern science is an expensive endeavor.
Scientific advance may well be a metaphor for our times, but increasingly advances in science are concentrated on the problems of only those who are willing to pay the costs. Examples abound, from meager investments in malaria research to the development of costly retroviral drugs that are within the reach of less than 1 percent of HIV-affected populations, the special challenge for development practitioners is how to mobilize science to address the needs of the poor. The challenge is to meet the continually-increasing need to greater food productivity while addressing related issues in health, water resources, energy, and other areas. We must give greater coherence to the way science and technology are brought into Bank assistance strategies, lending, and analytic work.