Public/private partnerships for biotechnology in Africa

This monograph is concerned with the role of public/private sector partnerships in the development of African biotechnology. Its basic message is that since the role of such partnerships is becoming increasingly common in the Northern industrialized countries, it seems sensible to consider similar possibilities in countries at an earlier stage of economic development. Arguably, the need is espe-cially pressing in technology development since it is technological change that will drive such cou-tries forward in the coming decades. And of course biotechnology is crucial in this respect simply because its generic status has implications for economic production in sectors as widely dispersed as agriculture, health, industry and the environment. In fact, world growth in biotechnology Research and Development (R&D) has been rapid in recent years but most takes place in the private sector. Thus private agricultural R&D expenditures grew from $3.9 billion in 1981 to more than $7 billion in 1993. In 1998 Monsanto alone allocated some $1.2 billion for biotechnology research while in the same year Novartis announced the establishment of its Agricultural Discovery Institute (for genomic studies) at a cost of $600 million. In contrast the CGIAR1, the largest public spender in the same area spends around $370 annually, only 7 per cent of which is on biotechnology.2

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