Capacity Building
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Capacity Building

START is now widely recognized as the focal point for global change science capacity building. In recent evaluations, START has been assessed as “filling an important and unique role” and being “highly successful in developing regional research networks and research driven capacity building”.

The underlying philosophy for most START initiatives has been research-driven capacity building. Priority is given to capacity building activities closely linked to research and research themes and activities of the international global change science programmes enhancing research capabilities to contribute to those programmes. START's capacity building activities have included a range of activities, including fellowships, small grants, collaborative research networks and projects and research linked training - all primarily focused on developing and enhancing research capacity.

START's initiatives in this area have prepared an important foundation for future capacity building initiatives. The principal benchmarks of accomplishment have been the following:

• Establishment of infrastructures for collaborative regional research in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific
  
• Enhanced regional cooperation in global change research
  
• Increase in research initiatives and publications
  
• Increased understanding of global change issues at regional levels
  
• Increase in number of trained developing country scientists
  
• Enhanced resource mobilization
  
• Dialogue with policy community and impact on policy formulation
  

Despite these accomplishments the need for an expanded effort of capacity building for global change science is self-evident.

The regions and countries that are home to a majority of mankind, and most vulnerable to global change, are those with the least capacity to conduct necessary research, assess global change impacts and develop meaningful coping strategies. They especially lack scientists trained in emerging cross-disciplinary and integrative approaches that are increasingly required for the study of the earth system and assessment of vulnerabilities and risks. In many countries the scientific population is aging , and very few scientists are being recruited to academic positions. The effective involvement of developing country scientists in global programs must take into account the many obstacles they face, including lack of access to recent literature, equipment and research funding, and isolation from other scientists and the global scientific community.

Throughout the developing world, scientists are operating under extreme pressures as they cope with many conflicting and often irreconcilable demands on their time: teaching, research, advising governments, involvement in international science programmes, and intergovernmental assessments. All of this has resulted in a vicious cycle within many developing countries: university teaching and the research necessary to underpin graduate education has inevitably suffered, putting at risk the training of a future generation of scientists.

Specifically the next stage of Capacity Building will focus on:

1) Needs of the least developed and low-income countries. Opportunities will be directed to countries identified as most vulnerable to the impact of global change and which have been underrepresented in the first decade of START's capacity building programmes. These will include selected countries in Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and the Pacific.

2) In many instances this will mean initial capacity building with quality MA programmes, not only doctoral and postdoctoral programmes as in the first decade.

3) In this new phase greater emphases will be given to training in emerging cross-disciplinary and integrative approaches, e.g., those addressing assessment of impacts of environmental change, vulnerabilities and risks and of management and adaptation options.

4) A related thrust in the next phase of Capacity Building will be training of what has been termed “science policy amphibians” - individuals who are well trained in global change science but also capable of translating science findings into the policy arena. Such individuals are still lacking or in short supply in most developing countries and are especially needed in the least developed countries which commonly lack a cadre of scientists to serve as advisors to their policymakers. In the absence of such advisors, the LDCs remain greatly disadvantaged in international negotiations as well as in the application of scientific advances to national development needs.