Developing countries and access to knowledge
Access to knowledge is particularly important for developing countries or those that, according to the World Bank, have low and middle incomes. As of 2020, there are 135 countries around the world that are classified as developing countries.’ India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are three examples. Developing countries have particular problems in ensuring that citizens are able to get access to knowledge. These problems are primarily a result of the knowledge gap that exists between developing and developed countries as well as the dominance of the English language in knowledge distribution.
Knowledge gap
One of the key reasons that developing countries face so many problems in ensuring that citizens are able to get access to knowledge is the knowledge gap that exists between developed and developing countries. This gap is most marked in the field of science and technology. Because of this, developing countries are dependent on developed countries for access to scientific and technical knowledge. UNESCO noted that ‘scientific and technological knowledge ... is mostly
concentrated in the [developed countries]’.[1] This problem is compounded by the fact that the level of education and research in developed countries is far more advanced than in most developing countries. Deckelbaum, Ntambi and Wolgemoth observed that there are tremendous gaps between developed and developing countries with regard to science education and research.
The knowledge gap between developed and developing countries in the field of science and technology is manifested in three ways: (1) the amount of books produced, (2) the number of journals published and (3) the materials available on the internet.
Inadequate production of scientific and technical books in developing countries and the resultant dependency of developing countries on the developed world for scientific and technical knowledge products is a long-standing phenomenon. The 1973 UNESCO publication The Book Hunger observed:
Two-thirds of the men, women and children in the world today are handicapped in their search for a better and fuller life by lack of one of the essential tools of progress: books and reading material. ... In Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Arab States, in varying degrees, there is an acute shortage of books. . . . Only one title out of every five produced today originates in a developing country. Of the more than 500,000 titles which are issued every year—a new book a minute—80 per cent come from the countries of Europe, plus Japan, the Soviet Union and the United States.
The situation described by UNESCO has changed little over the years. There is still a large disparity between developed and developing countries with regard to the production and distribution of scientific and technical knowledge products. In particular, the extent of scientific and technical book publishing in developing countries (especially in the African region) is negligible, which, in turn,
makes developing countries heavily dependent on scientific and technical books and reading materials published in developed countries.[2] Shaver observed that ‘[i]n many developing countries, it remains difficult to locate a bookstore [and] [a]cademics and university students in developing countries experience great difficulty [in] meeting their book needs’.
The number of academic journals published and their rankings offer a useful estimate of scientific and technical knowledge production and distribution in countries around the world. This is an area where the disparity between developed and developing countries with regard to the production and distribution of scientific and technical knowledge is most marked. A 2011 research study titled Geographies of World Knowledge revealed that there is ‘a staggering amount of inequality in the geography of the production of academic knowledge’ between the West and the rest of the world. ‘The United States and the United Kingdom publish more indexed journals than the rest of the world combined.’ This is followed by ‘Western Europe, in particular Germany and the Netherlands’, which ‘scores relatively well’. However, ‘[m]ost of the rest of the world . . . scarcely shows up in these rankings’. ‘The non-Western world is not only under-represented in these rankings, but also ranks poorly on average citation score measures.’ The result of this is that:
[T]he world’s codified knowledge remain[s] concentrated among educated and affluent people in industrialised nations. This concentration span[s] all phases in the cycle of information—from the production of knowledge to its distribution and access. Changing these patterns is inevitably hard, as access to knowledge is often a prerequisite to create new knowledge. . . . [Although information can now be produced almost
anywhere, we should never assume that information is produced everywhere. Much of the world remains, both literally and figuratively, absent from the global map of knowledge.[3] The internet plays a key role in the distribution of scientific and technical knowledge in the modern world. Sorosky stated that ‘the Internet has become a primary means of communication and an indispensable tool for gathering information and exchanging ideas’.
The gap that exists between developed and developing countries in terms of the availability of scientific and technical knowledge is a severe problem in developing countries. This is because science and technology are key to economic development. Khan observed that ‘[dependence on Science [and] Technology as an instrument for attainment of national developmental goals, is a phenomenon seen all over the world.’ Also, Enderby noted that ‘[s]cience, engineering, technology; and innovation . . . are the bedrock of a successful economy, particularly as nations are moving toward knowledge-based economies.’
There are a number of reasons for the knowledge gap between developed and developing countries in the field of science and technology. The primary reasons are the lack of financial resources invested in developing countries in scientific and technological research that would create knowledge in these fields and the
lack of expertise in these countries to carry out these activities. Suter stated, ‘Ninety-seven percent of all the world’s scientists are in the developed western and former communist nations. Eighty percent of humankind [only] have 3 percent of the world’s scientists.’[4] To bridge the knowledge gap in the field of science and technology’, developing countries need to have improved access to scientific and technical knowledge created in developed countries. To overcome their lack of scientific and technical expertise, developing countries also need to promote scientific and technical education.
- [1] UNESCO, ‘Towards Knowledge Societies’ (World Report, UNESCO, 2005) 26. In contrast, most developing countries lack scientific and technological knowledge when compared with the developed countries. M Saiful Karim, ‘Implementation of the MARPOL Convention in Developing Countries’ (2010) 79 Nordic Journal of International Law 303, 330. 2 Richard J Deckelbaum, James M Ntambi and Debra J Wolgemuth, ‘Basic Science Research and Education: A Priority for Training and Capacity Building in Developing Countries’ (2011) 25(3) Infectious Disease Clinics of North America 669
. 3 See, e.g., Anthony N Ezeifc and T Arivalagan, ‘Technology Education and Economic Competitiveness in Developing Countries: The Sri Lankan Experience’ (2006) 35(1) Canadian and International Education Journal 12, 15. 4 See Leah A Lievrouw and Sharon E Farb, ‘Information and Equity’ (2003) 37 Annual Review of Information Science and Technology 499,499-500. 5 Ronald Barker and Robert Escarpit (eds), The Book Hunger (UNESCO, 1973) 6 (emphasis added). - [2] Susan Isiko Strba, International Copyright Law and Access to Education in Developing Countries: Exploring Multilateral Legal and Quasi-Legal Solutions (Martinus Nijhoft' Publishers, 2012) 35-36. 2 Lea Shaver, ‘Copyright and Inequality’ (2014) 92 Washington University Law Review 117, 119. Similarly, Askerud stated that ‘[t]extbooks are a rare commodity in most developing countries.’ Pernille Askerud, A Guide to Sustainable Rook Provision (UNESCO, 1997) 16. 3 Pernille Askerud, A Guide to Sustainable Rook Provision (UNESCO, 1997) 16. ‘Even middle-income countries such as Brazil, Uruguay, and Venezuela, have failed to maintain a regular supply of textbooks over the past fifteen years’: at 16. 4 M Graham, SA Hale and M Stephens, Geographies of the World Knowledge, Corinne M Flick (ed), (Corinne M Flick, Convoco Foundation and Oxford Internet Institute, Convoco! ed, 2011)14. 5 Ibid. 6 Ibid. 7 Ibid. 8 Ibid.
- [3] Ibid., 7. 2 Schuyler Sorosky, ‘United States v Forrester: An Unwarranted Narrowing of the Fourth Amendment’ (2008) 41 Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review 1121, 1121. 3 Graham, Hale and Stephens, above n 39, 7. 4 Ibid., 10. 5 Ibid., 26. 6 Hameed Ahmed Khan, Education, Science and Technology in Developing Countries: Some Thoughts and Recollections (COMSATS, 2004) 62. 7 John Enderby, ‘Knowledge, Validation, and Transfer: Science, Communication, and Economic Development’ in Glenn Schweitzer (ed), Science and Technology and the Future Development of Societies, International Workshop Proceedings (The National Academic Press, 2008)
- [4] Keith Suter, Global Order and Global Disorder: Globalization and the Nation-State (Praeger Publishers, 2003) 186. 2 See, e.g., Ezeife and Arivalagan, above n 33, 13. 3 Graham, Hale and Stephens, above n 39, 16. 4 Rogerio Meneghini and Abel L Packer, ‘Is there Science Beyond English?’ (2007) 8(2) EMBO Reports 112. 5 Datus C Smith Jr, ‘The Economics of Book Publishing’ in Philip G Altbach and Edith S Hoshino (eds), International Book Publishing: An Encyclopedia (Garland Publishing, 1995) 71,72.
