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Table of contents :
Country Profiles in Science, Technology and Innovation Policy - Volume 13
Contents
Acronyms and Abbreviations vi
List of Illustrations x
Foreword by the Director General of UNESCO xv
Executive summary 1
Acknowledgments 8
Analysing Jamaica through the GOSPIN lens: An introduction to the country profile 9
Jamaica-Mapping the landscape of the research and innovation system in a small island developing state 21
Women in science and engineering in Jamaica 103
R&D and innovation indicators for Jamaica 113
A scientometric analysis of Jamaica 131
Historical background to STI policies in Jamaica 163
The analytical content of Jamaica’s STI policy 175
The STI policy cycle of Jamaica 193
Analysis of the STI organisational ecosystem in Jamaica 199
Inventory of Jamaica’s legal framework for STI 227
Inventory of STI operational policy instruments in Jamaica 239
SWOT analysis of Jamaica’s research and innovation landscape 257
Conclusions and recommendations 269
References 275
Glossary 291

Citation preview

Mapping Research and Innovation in Jamaica

GOSPIN Country Profiles in Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Volume 13

Published in 2024 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 7, place de Fontenoy, 75352 Paris 07 SP, France and UNESCO Kingston Office, United Nations House, 14-20 Port Royal Street, Kingston, Jamaica © UNESCO 2024 ISBN 978-92-3-100723-1 DOI https://doi.org/10.54677/ZYPR3733

This publication is available in Open Access under Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO (CC-BY-SA 3.0 IGO) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/igo/). By using the content of this publication, the users accept to be bound by the terms of use of the UNESCO Open Access Repository (https://www.unesco.org/en/open-access/cc-sa). The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The boundaries and names shown, and the designations used on the map on the cover do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations. The ideas and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors; they are not necessarily those of UNESCO and do not commit the Organization. Suggested citation: UNESCO (2024). Mapping Research and Innovation in Jamaica. G. A. Lemarchand, ed. GOSPIN Country Profiles in Science, Technology and Innovation Policy, vol. 13. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization: Paris and Kingston. The original text, figures and statistical analysis were prepared by Guillermo A. Lemarchand based on information provided by local authorities, the UNESCO Kingston Office, international databases, and specialised literature.

Countries interested in maintaining an inventory of their national research and innovation system within GOSPIN are invited to contact: Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences UNESCO 7 place de Fontenoy 75352 Paris 07 SP, France E-mail: [email protected] and [email protected] Website: https://gospin.unesco.org/ Cover, graphic design and layout: Marie Moncet Printed in Kingston by the Ministry of Science, Science, Energy, Telecommunications and Transport of Jamaica

S H O R T

S U M M A R Y

Uncovering the vibrant role of research and innovation in Jamaica It is the sole publication about Jamaica that encompasses the complete range of available science, technology and innovation (STI) indicators and scientometric statistics, inventories of research and innovation institutions, the legal system, funding mechanisms, and their contextual factors, providing a comprehensive view of the evolution of these variables over the past six decades. It also includes a standardised content analysis of the explicit national STI policy, the Jamaican STI policy cycle, and a brief overview of STI policies since Jamaica’s independence. With the latest Gross Expenditure on R&D (GERD) estimation representing 0.07% of GDP, nine times lower than the average for Latin America and the Caribbean, Jamaica has set an ambitious goal of achieving a GERD equivalent to 1.5% of its GDP by 2029.

Jamaican residents contributed

358 scientific

In 2023, Jamaican residents contributed 358 scientific articles to the Scopus database. This ranked Jamaica 140th amongst countries worldwide, fifth in the Caribbean (32 states and territories), and second in CARICOM.

articles to the Scopus database

Based on the analysed and displayed evidence, the report provides a list of short- and medium-term recommendations organised into four pillars to address these issues. This volume is the first UNESCO GOSPIN country profile focusing on a Small Island Developing State.

“Since wars begin in the minds of men and women it is in the minds of men and women that the defences of peace must be constructed”

Mapping Research and Innovation in Jamaica

GOàSPIN Country Profiles in Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Volume 13

Mapping Research and Innovation in Jamaica

Acronyms and Abbreviations

vi 

ASTI

Agriculture Science and Technology Indicators

CARICOM

Caribbean Community

CASE

College of Agriculture, Science and Education

CCST

Caribbean Council for Science and Technology

CDB

Caribbean Development Bank

CHASE

Culture, Health, Arts, Sports and Education

CPI

Corruption Perceptions Index

DBJ

Development Bank of Jamaica

ECLAC

United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean

EDPRS

Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy

EU

European Union

EV

Electric Vehicles

FDI

Foreign Direct Investment

FTE

Full-time equivalent

GDP

Gross Domestic Product

GERD

Gross Expenditures on Research and Development

GII

Global Innovation Index

GoJ

Government of Jamaica

GOSPIN

Global Observatory of Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy Instruments (UNESCO)

HC

Head Count

HCI

Human Capital Index

HDI

Human Development Index (UNDP)

HEART/NSTA

Human Employment and Resource Training / National Service Training Agency

ICENS

International Centre for Environmental and Nuclear Sciences

ICT

Information and Communication Technologies

IDB

Inter-American Development Bank

IFPRI

International Food Policy Research Institute

IGNITE

Innovation Grant from New Ideas to Entrepreneurship

IP

Intellectual Property

IPR

Intellectual Property Rights

ISC

International Science Council

ISCED

International Standard Classification of Education

JAMPRO

Jamaica Promotions Corporation

JANAAC

Jamaica National Agency for Accreditation

JIPO

Jamaica Intellectual Property Office

JMEA

Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters Association

JTEC

Jamaica Tertiary Education Commission

  GOàSPIN Country Profiles in Science, Technology and Innovation Policy - Volume 13



LDC

Least Developed Countries

MIEP

Mentors for Innovation & Entrepreneurship Programme

MIIC

Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce

MoAFM

Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining

MoEY

Ministry of Education and Youth (Jamaica)

MSET

Ministry of Science, Energy and Technology (preceded MSETT)

MSETT

Ministry of Science, Energy, Telecommunications and Transport

MSMEs

Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises

NCST

National Commission on Science and Technology

NDP

National Development Plan

NFDST

National Foundation for Development of Science and Technology

NGO

Non-governmental organisation

NQFJ

National Qualifications Framework of Jamaica

NRF

National Research Fund

NSC

National Standards Curriculum

OA

Open Access

OAS

Organization of American States

OECD

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

PCT

Patent Cooperation Treaty

PIOJ

Planning Institute of Jamaica

PPP

Purchasing Power Parity

PPPs

Public-Private Partnership

PV Photovoltaic R&D

Research and Experimental Development

RICYT

Ibero-American and Inter-American Network of Science and Technology Indicators

S&T

Science and Technology

SDG

Sustainable Development Goal

SETI

Science, Engineering, Technology, and Innovation

SIDS

Small Island Developing States

SME

Small and Medium Enterprises

STATIN

Statistical Institute of Jamaica

STEM

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics

STI

Science, Technology, and Innovation

STS

Scientific and Technological Services

SWOT

Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats

TKS

Traditional Knowledge Systems

TVET

Technical and Vocational Education and Training

UCJ

University Council of Jamaica

UIS

UNESCO Institute for Statistics

UNCTAD

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development

UNDESA

United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs

UNDP

United Nations Development Programme

UNESCO

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

USPTO

United States Patents and Trademark Office

UTech, Jamaica

University of Technology, Jamaica

UWI

University of the West Indies

WIPO

World Intellectual Property Organization

WTO

World Trade Organization

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Contents Acronyms and Abbreviations

vi

List of Illustrations

x

Foreword by the Director General of UNESCO Executive summary

xv 1

Acknowledgments 8 Analysing Jamaica through the GOSPIN lens: An introduction to the country profile

9

Jamaica: Mapping the landscape of the research and innovation system in a small island developing state 21 Women in science and engineering in Jamaica

103

R&D and innovation indicators for Jamaica

113

A scientometric analysis of Jamaica

131

Historical background to STI policies in Jamaica

163

The analytical content of Jamaica’s STI policy

175

The STI policy cycle of Jamaica

193

Analysis of the STI organisational ecosystem in Jamaica

199

Inventory of Jamaica’s legal framework for STI

227

Inventory of STI operational policy instruments in Jamaica

239

SWOT analysis of Jamaica’s research and innovation landscape

257

Conclusions and recommendations

269

References

275

Glossary 291 Titles in this series

296

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Mapping Research and Innovation in Jamaica

List of Illustrations

FIGURES Figure 1.

Jamaican research and innovation policy landscape.

14

Figure 2.

GOSPIN analytic units.

16

Figure 3.

Evolution of the population of Jamaica, 1960−2022.

24

Figure 4.

Evolution of the population growth rate of Jamaica (%), 1960−2022.

25

Figure 5.

Evolution of Jamaica’s Human Development Index, 1990−2021.

26

Figure 6.

Evolution of life expectancy at birth in Jamaica, 1960−2022.

27

Figure 7.

Evolution of GDP expressed in constant 2015 billion US$ in Jamaica, 1966−2022.

32

Figure 8.

Evolution of GDP per capita, expressed in constant 2015 US$ and in constant 2017 international PPP $, in Jamaica, 1966−2022.

33

SDGs dashboards and trends for Jamaica in 2024.

40

Figure 9.

Figure 10. Status of SDG targets for Jamaica (% trend indicators).

41

Figure 11. Evolution of net inflow of Foreign Direct Investment in Jamaica, expressed as a percentage of GDP, 1970−2022.

47

Figure 12. Evolution of gross fixed capital formation in Jamaica, expressed as a percentage of GDP, 1965−2022.

48

Figure 13. Evolution of government effectiveness worldwide, as measured against political stability/absence of violence, 2022.

53

Figure 14. Evolution of government effectiveness in Jamaica, as measured against political stability/absence of violence, 1996–2022.

54

Figure 15. Evolution of the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) in Jamaica and world rank, 2005−2022.

54

Figure 16. Evolution of the Control of Corruption indicator in Jamaica 2002–2022.

55

Figure 17. Jamaica installed electricity generation capacity by technology in 2021.

64

Figure 18. Jamaica estimated electricity generation capacity by technology for 2037.

64

Figure 19. Evolution of internet users per 100 inhabitants, 1995–2022.

68

Figure 20. Evolution of mobile cellular subscriptions per 100 inhabitants, 1995–2022.

68

Figure 21. Computers, communications, and other services as a percentage of commercial services exports and imports for Jamaica from 1976 to 2022.

69

Figure 22. Jamaican current gross exports in US$ billions against the major categories of products, 1995–2021.

72

Figure 23. Jamaica’s main export products as percentage of the global market share, 1994–2021.

73

Figure 24. The 15 new products included in Jamaica’s export basket since 2006.

74

Figure 25. High-tech exports as a percentage of manufactured exports versus manufactured exports as a percentage of merchandise exports in Jamaica, 1991–2020. 74

x 

Figure 26. Government expenditure in education as a percentage of GDP, 1973–2021.

84

Figure 27. Distribution of government expenditure by level of education (primary, secondary, and tertiary), 1973–2018.

85

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Figure 28. HEART/NSTA Trust total enrolment and certification (number), 2013–2022.

88

Figure 29. Higher education enrolment in Jamaica 1948–2022.

93

Figure 30. Enrolment for tertiary education in Jamaica as a percentage of gross, 1970–2015.

94

Figure 31. Ecological framework of factors influencing girls’ and women’s participation, achievement and progression in STEM studies.

104

Figure 32. The four pillars of the Global Gender Gap Index 2023 in Jamaica.

105

Figure 33. The STEM leaky pipeline: global percentage of women in higher education and research, 2018.

110

Figure 34. Historical series for the Gross Expenditures on R&D (GERD) as a percentage of the GDP in Jamaica between 1971 and 2021.

118

Figure 35. Budget allocation for selected STI programmes and agencies in Jamaica in current million US$, 2012–2021.

119

Figure 36. Evolution of the number of scientific articles listed by the SCIE, SSCI and A&HCI for Jamaica, 1965−2018.

137

Figure 37. Evolution of the number of articles listed by the SCIE, SSCI and A&HCI for Jamaica per million population, 1965−2018.

137

Figure 38. Evolution of the number of scientific articles listed by Scopus for Jamaica, 1990−2023. 138 Figure 39. Evolution of the number of articles listed by Scopus for Jamaica per million population, 1990−2023.

138

Figure 40. Evolution of international collaboration in scientific publications as a share of total annual publications in Jamaica, 1996–2023.

139

Figure 41. Evolution of co-authorship of scientific articles listed in the SCIE, SSCI and A&HCI between Jamaica and the US, 1967–2016.

141

Figure 42. Evolution of co-authorship of scientific articles listed in the SCIE, SSCI and A&HCI between Jamaica and UK, 1966–2016.

141

Figure 43. Evolution of co-authorship of scientific articles listed in the SCIE, SSCI and A&HCI between Jamaica and Canada, 1970–2017.

142

Figure 44. Evolution of co-authorship of scientific articles listed in the SCIE, SSCI and A&HCI between Jamaica and South Africa, 1974–2016.

142

Figure 45. Percentage of scientific articles by main field of science, 1996−2023.

145

Figure 46. Number of citations per articles versus h-index by number of publications and fields and subfields of science for Jamaica 2021–2022.

147

Figure 47. Distribution of research articles related to the SDGs, published with at least one author living in Jamaica, 2011–2019.

149

Figure 48. OA publications in Jamaica as a percentage of the total number of citable documents 1996–2023.

153

Figure 49. Evolution of patent applications in Jamaica by residents and non-residents, 1963−2022. 157 Figure 50. Evolution of granted patents in Jamaica by residents and non-residents, 1963−2022. 157 Figure 51. Patent publications in Jamaica by technology, 2011–2021.

158

Figure 52. Evolution of the number of trademark applications in Jamaica, 1973−2021.

159

Figure 53. Evolution of the number of trademark registrations in Jamaica, 1982−2021.

160

Figure 54. STI policy cycle in Jamaica (circa 2023).

197

Figure 56. Distribution of operational policy instruments in Jamaica classified by standardised objectives and goals.

245

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Mapping Research and Innovation in Jamaica

TABLES Table 1

National goals and outcomes from Vision 2030 Jamaica.

Table 2

Annual percentage change in real GDP for a selection of Caribbean countries 2010−2022 34

Table 3

Indicators required to establish the advancement of SDG 9 (Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation). 42

Table 4

Indicators required to establish the advancement of SDG 17 (Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development).

42

Table 5

FDI inflows in Jamaica by destination sector, 2008–2022 (US$ million).

47

Table 6

Cross-border mergers and acquisitions over a billion US$ in Latin America and the Caribbean, 2022.

48

Table 7

National strategies and responsible agencies to achieve Effective Governance.

56

Table 8

Basic statistics on Jamaica’s opportunities for diversification

77

Table 9

Sectors with higher export opportunities for Jamaica (percentage of export opportunities). 77

Table 10

Potential new products with higher export opportunities

77

Table 11

Potential new agribusiness products with higher export opportunities.

78

Table 12

Human Capital Index for a selected group of countries in the Caribbean, 2020.

81

Table 13

Integrated qualification frameworks in Jamaica and in CARICOM.

83

Table 14

Labour force, education and training indicators in Jamaica, 2013–2022

85

Table 15

Description of the programmes and interventions implemented by HEART/ NSTA Trust in 2022.

88

Table 16

Description of the programmes and interventions implemented by HEART/ NSTA Trust in 2022 according to the Priority Sectors proposed by Vision 2030 Jamaica. 88

Table 17

Enrolment in tertiary education in Jamaica by ISCED programmes and gender, 2016–2022.

94

Percentage of the population age 25+ whose highest level of education is ISCED 6, or higher, 1970–2011.

94

Graduates from ISCED 6 programmes in Jamaica, 1980−1997, by main field of knowledge and gender.

95

Graduates from ISCED 7 programmes in Jamaica, 1980−1993, by main field of knowledgend gender.

95

Graduates from ISCED 8 programmes in Jamaica, 1990−1993, by main field of knowledge and gender.

95

Graduates from ISCED 6 programmes within community colleges in Jamaica by gender, 2015/16−2021/22.

96

Table 23

Total graduates by Faculty at the UWI in Jamaica, 2012/13 − 2022/23, both sexes.

96

Table 24

Jamaican graduates from ISCED 6 programmes (first degrees) at the UWI in Jamaica, 2016/17 – 2022/23, by main field of knowledge and gender.

96

Graduates from ISCED 7 programmes at the UWI in Jamaica, 2016/17 – 2022/23, by main field of knowledge and gender.

97

Graduates from ISCED 8 programmes at the UWI in Jamaica, 2016/17 – 2022/23, by main field of knowledge and gender.

97

Graduates from ISCED 6 programmes at the UWI in Jamaica, 2012/13 – 2022/23, by main field of knowledge and gender.

97

Table 18 Table 19 Table 20 Table 21 Table 22

Table 25 Table 26 Table 27

xii 

28

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Table 28 Table 29

Graduates at ISCED 7 programmes at the University of Technology Jamaica, 2012/13 – 2022/23, by main field of knowledge and gender.

98

Graduates from ISCED 8 programmes at the University of Technology Jamaica, 2012/13 – 2022/23, by main field of knowledge and gender.

98

Table 30

Higher education students from Jamaica studying abroad by regions and year.

100

Table 31

Proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments (percentage of total number of seats)

106

Executive power over the last three periods (percentage of women in ministerial cabinet positions).

107

Table 33

Judicial power (percentage of female judges in the highest court or supreme court).

107

Table 34

Number of graduates in STEM by gender and ISCED level for UWI in Jamaica and UTech, Jamaica 2016/17 − 2022/23

111

Table 35

Characteristics of R&D expenditures on agriculture sciences, 2007–2012

120

Table 36

Number of HC researchers in Jamaica, breakdown by main field of science, 1971, 1986. 121

Table 37

Number of researchers (HC) in Jamaica 2016–2018 by gender, sector and per million population.

121

Table 38

Number of FTE researchers in agricultural sciences in Jamaica, 2007–2012.

123

Table 39

Number of FTE researchers in agricultural sciences by formal qualification and gender in Jamaica, 2007–2012.

123

Number of FTE researchers in agricultural sciences in Jamaica by sector and gender, 2007–2012.

123

Number of FTE researchers in agricultural sciences in Jamaica by sector and level of formal qualification, 2007–2012.

123

Table 42

Main characteristics of firms in Jamaica according to the WBES 2010.

127

Table 43

Main characteristics of Caribbean firms according to the WBES 2010.

128

Table 44

Characteristics of the innovation activities in Caribbean firms, based on the WBES 2010. 128

Table 46

Distribution of scientific publications with at least one author with residence in Jamaica, listed in several international databases, 1990–2023.

136

Countries with which Jamaican scientists co-authored mainstream scientific publications, 1970−2017.

140

Top foreign research institutions and centres co-authoring articles with Jamaican scientists, 1970−2017.

143

Distribution of mainstream scientific publications in Jamaica, by national institution and laboratory, 1970−2017

144

Table 50

Distribution of mainstream scientific articles by subfields, 1970−2017.

146

Table 51

Scientific articles published by Caribbean countries on topics related to SDG 2, SDG 3, SDG 6, SDG 9, SDG 13, SDG 14 and SDG 15, 2011–2019.

150

Table 52

Applications and registrations of Industrial Designs in Jamaica 1982–2022, by residents and non-residents

161

Number of legal instruments classified by standardised themes and by type of instrument (circa 2023).

229

SWOT analysis of Jamaica’s research and innovation landscape

268

Table 32

Table 40 Table 41

Table 47 Table 48 Table 49

Table 53 Table 55

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BOXES Box 1 Box 2

xiv 

Vision 2030 Jamaica – Science, Technology and Innovation as a Driver for Sustainable Development

29

Excerpts from the OAS Declaration of Jamaica: “Harnessing the Power of Transformative Science and Technologies to Drive our Communities Forward”

37

Box 3

Partnership between The Sustainable Development Solutions Network and Uitecn Nations Resident Coordinators in SIDS

43

Box 4

Vision 2030 Jamaica: Effective Governance

56

Box 5

UNESCO Recommendation on Science and Scientific Researchers (2017)

57

Box 6

A Guide to Conducting an R&D Survey For Countries Starting to Measure R&D

115

Box 7

New ways of collecting standardised information on R&D personnel, expenditures, institutions, funding sources and research qualifications by subfield of science

124

Box 8

Composite indicators may not be suitable for monitoring public policies

129

Box 9

UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science (2021)

153

Box 10

Recent activities geared towards the development of a modern IP regime in Jamaica

162

Box 11

UNESCO and the Caribbean Council for Science and Technology (CCST)

167

Box 12

UNESCO Kingston Office and the promotion of STI policies in Jamaica

173

Box 13

UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence (2021)

192

Box 14

The National Commission on Science and Technology (NCST)

205

Box 15

Scientific Research Council (SRC)

207

Box 16

The Caribbean Academy of Sciences

225

Box 17

State Funding is Needed to Support STI in Jamaica

241

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Foreword by the Director General of UNESCO

Science, technology and innovation (STI) are essential drivers of sustainable development. They provide a crucial foundation for understanding complex systems, predicting future societal challenges and devising effective strategies to achieve sustainability. A deep understanding of STI is therefore vital for decision makers to formulate and implement policies that foster transformative and lasting progress.

Photo © UNESCO 2018

Integrating STI data and insights into national and international development strategies is now more imperative than ever. This urgency highlights the pivotal role of UNESCO’s GOSPIN programme, which for over a decade has provided a scientific foundation for Member States to reform their national research, innovation, and governance systems.

Each report in the ‘Mapping Research and Innovation’ series presents a structural analysis of a country’s legal frameworks, operational policy instruments and national STI ecosystem. This country profile report for Jamaica, the thirteenth in the series, is an important milestone as it is the first to focus on a small island developing State (SIDS) and underscores the key contributions of this group of countries in the global STI landscape. Moreover, it is the first country profile report to be published during the International Decade of Sciences for Sustainable Development. The publication of the Mapping Research and Innovation in Jamaica report has been made possible by a collaborative effort led by the UNESCO Office in Kingston, the Planning Institute of Jamaica, the Ministry of Science, Energy, Telecommunications and Transport, the Jamaica National Commission for UNESCO and the National Commission on Science and Technology. I am confident that this latest volume will not only provide actionable guidance and critical insights to promote inclusive, evidence-based science and human-centred innovation and technology, but also inspire meaningful policy shifts and best practices both within SIDS and on a global scale. By harnessing the transformative potential of STI to strengthen governance, we can shape a more sustainable, innovative and peaceful future for all.

Audrey Azoulay, Director General of UNESCO

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Executive summary

Mapping Research and Innovation in Jamaica is the thirteenth of a series of country profiles prepared by UNESCO’s Global Observatory of Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Instruments (GOSPIN) and the first focusing on a Small Island Developing State (SIDS). Through the rigorous application of an assessment lens, the series is designed to expose relevant insights about science, technology, and innovation (STI) policies and their context. The proposition that evidence about the effects of different policy options should inform and support policy decisions is undisputed. The GOSPIN programme helps Member States reform and upgrade national research and innovation systems and their governance, based on evidence. It promotes building capacity to monitor and evaluate the policy performance through a structural analysis (covering the explicit policy, the STI national ecosystem, the legal framework and operational policy instruments) because such analysis points to implicit policies and gaps and situates the performance of Jamaica’s policy. In this way, the scope of a standard STI assessment can be widened to account for country-specific contexts and emerging knowledge of technological advances that contribute to sustainable development. While complementing efforts to promote evidence-based STI policy-making and evaluate policy performance, GOSPIN offers a good baseline for promoting national scientific and technological foresight studies. The report attempts to systematise the different dimensions of STI policy in Jamaica from the late 1960s to the present. It compiles statistical information and presents inventories of the fundamental instruments to create a reliable framework for policy analysis. Some key findings arising from this work of describing the Jamaican research and innovation landscape are summarised below: Jamaica has a strong infrastructure and effective governance, which contribute to its development. The country is known for its political stability, government effectiveness, cultural influence, and liberty, all of which are important for advancing science, engineering, technology, and innovation (SETI). Jamaica has made significant progress in developing its infrastructure, including airports, seaports, ground transportation, digital connectivity, and strong brand recognition in major markets. These assets provide a solid foundation for the growth of creative industries, outsourcing services, and other sectors. Additionally, Jamaica’s geography makes it an appealing destination for tourism. In 2022, Jamaica witnessed a negative population growth rate of -0.01%, which is expected to remain constant before gradually declining around 2030. This decline can be attributed to the projected net migration rate remaining at least -16,000 over the next 30 years and the birth rate below two children per average Jamaican woman. Based on current projections, the growth rate is expected to decrease significantly to -0.62% by 2050. Consequently, the population of Jamaica is predicted to be around 2,932,629 in 2030, declining gradually towards 2,858,381 in 2040 and 2,703,591 by 2050. Implementing favourable policy outcomes in critical areas such as education, savings investment, and employment could amplify the magnitude of these demographic dividends. Between 1993 and 2023, Jamaica’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita expressed in constant 2015 US dollars and constant 2017 purchasing power parity (PPP) dollars remained stable at US$ 5,118 and

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Mapping Research and Innovation in Jamaica

PPP$ 9,879, respectively. This stability persisted throughout the period with less than +7% dispersion. This implies that, over the last three decades, the population of Jamaica did not perceive any significant economic growth. Notably, from 2012 to 2021, life expectancy at birth decreased by 3.7 years for men and 2.5 years for women. Moreover, the Jamaican Human Development Index (HDI) score oscillated between 2013 and 2022, exhibiting values below the 2013 score in five of the past eight years. This indicates stagnation in the HDI after a continued improvement of the HDI score between 2000 and 2013. Furthermore, according to the 2023 status report of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of Jamaica, 41.5% of the Sustainable Development Goals targets have limited progress, 32.6% are worsening, and only 26.5% have been achieved or are in progress. Jamaica’s export sector has faced significant challenges over the past three decades, resulting in a decline in global market share for its primary export products. The country’s economic growth has been negatively impacted due to the services sector’s decreasing exports, which have been declining in the global market. In the past fifteen years, Jamaica has added only 15 new products to its export portfolio, generating a meagre income of US$ 8 per capita in 2021. Moreover, the export volume is still relatively small, which limits the potential for substantial income growth. Jamaica’s inability to increase its exports is due to various factors, including high trade costs, multiple taxes and fees, inadequate coordination among agencies, lack of a uniform framework for border agencies, manual processes, and weak capacity of firms to implement international requirements. Over the past two decades, the share of manufactured exports of all merchandise exports remained stable at between 3% and 26%. Likewise, the high-tech component of manufactured exports remained between 0.03% and 7.98%. Jamaica’s sustainable development relies heavily on economic diversification. Based on Jamaica’s current technological and productive capabilities, 3,630 potential new products can be included to expand its export basket, with 79% being more complex than the average exported product. Around half of these products (47%) provide an opportunity to replace imports and improve the complexity of Jamaica’s average export basket. However, to take advantage of these opportunities, the government must implement specific funding mechanisms and incentives to generate synergies between the research and experimental development (R&D) capacity available at the university level and government labs (R&D supply side) with the business enterprise sector potentialities (R&D demand side). Fostering the synergistic interaction between the R&D supply and demand sides will help develop the most promising new products from the identified lists and consequently contribute to economic growth and sustainable development. The agriculture industry has immense potential to increase the production of specialised horticultural exports catering to tourism and domestic needs. However, to improve the sector’s competitiveness, additional reforms are required. The industry faces challenges such as adapting to climate change, acquiring land, establishing market links, conducting research and development, implementing extension services, logistics, post-harvest infrastructure, food safety, and accessing finance. Developing horticulture requires strong coordination among the government, public, and private sectors through a clear action plan and a system of accountability for implementation. Moreover, there is a shortage of qualified R&D staff due to a gap between agricultural education, modern challenges, and private sector needs. Investment in R&D for new crop varieties, modern production techniques, and agricultural infrastructure is necessary to address these challenges. This includes greenhouses, improved irrigation systems, climate-resilient structures, and post-harvest infrastructure such as cold storage and warehousing. These investments can enhance yields and productivity in horticulture while ensuring food safety and security. SIDS, due to their intense exposure to meteorological hazards and rising sea levels, are particularly vulnerable to natural disasters. Their small size, high population density, and limited infrastructure exacerbate this vulnerability. The high per capita costs of roads, ports, and airport infrastructure, coupled with the limitations to diversification and building resilience against external shocks, lead to the growth of external debt. This debt servicing capacity weakens when exports drop dramatically, such as during the recent COVID-19 crisis. Jamaica’s situation is representative of the Caribbean statistics. Damage and loss costs due to hydrometeorological hazards between 2000 and 2021 were over US$ 870 million, with infrastructure damage accounting for over 45%. During the past two decades, hydrometeorological events such as hurricanes, storms, and droughts have caused damage and losses of over US$ 190 million in

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agriculture. This includes almost destroying the banana export industry in 2007 and damaging other crops, livestock, irrigation systems, and farm roads. The lack of adequate scientific and technological infrastructure and qualified R&D human resources to address these challenges will substantially diminish evidence-based decision-making towards improved resilience and mitigation. Jamaica has recently recorded a ten-year high in transactions valued at US$ 1.6 billion, the secondlargest deal in the telecommunications sector of Latin America and the Caribbean region. The Jamaican Government is committed to positioning the country as a significant global investment player. To achieve this, it has introduced Vision 2030 Jamaica, a programmatic framework for policies and strategies, and the National Investment Policy, which aims to make the country more attractive to experts who can comprehend the intricacies involved in the investment process. Jamaica has a comprehensive policy and legal framework to manage, promote, and facilitate investment opportunities. The success of this policy lies in a coordinated national, bipartisan approach and partnerships with the private sector and civil society, which the National Competitiveness Council embodies. The country’s strategic location, along with its large English-speaking workforce and competitive costs, has been instrumental in driving the growth of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry. According to government estimates, the sector’s revenue has significantly increased from US$ 400 million in 2016 to approximately US$ 780 million in 2021. In line with this growth, the number of direct employees in the sector has also risen considerably, from 17,000 in 2015 across 30 companies to over 44,000 in 2021 across 95 domestic and international firms. The new strategy for 2020–25 emphasises higher-value services. Jamaica could benefit significantly from aligning its Information and Communication Technologies policies and digital strategies with the changing industry requirements. It must also develop a broader incentive plan to support the sector’s growth overall. Jamaica’s BPO industry is thriving and has the potential to expand further with advancements in affordable high-speed internet connectivity. This can create more e-commerce opportunities, shared economy transactions, and fintech. To promote the financial inclusion of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), it is crucial to establish a digital financial services ecosystem supported by demand-side measures like e-governance initiatives, revisions of laws and regulations, and improving digital literacy and skills. Digitalising logistics services can reduce trade costs and informality while increasing the traceability of cross-border activities. The emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies, blockchains and open science practices will require new cohorts of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) specialists, appropriate legal frameworks, and incentives to increase the number of graduates with new profiles suitable for the new technologies and practices. Implementing appropriate policy instruments to achieve these goals will help to lead the next generation of innovation in Jamaica’s productive system. In 2024, the Government declared Jamaica as a ‘STEM Island.’ Jamaica’s national development plan, Vision 2030 Jamaica, has underscored the importance of research and innovation in the country’s economic growth and global competitiveness. The 2022 National Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy, building on the challenges identified by Vision 2030, has proposed a series of policy interventions. These interventions are designed to foster effective linkages among critical stakeholders and facilitate the diffusion of science, engineering, technology, and innovation throughout the economy and society. The policy envisions research and innovation as not just important, but as crucial pillars of Jamaica’s transition to a technology-enabled society. The Human Employment and Resource Training / National Service Training Agency (HEART/NSTA) Trust is the primary provider of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in Jamaica and has played a pivotal role in shaping the country’s workforce over the past four decades. The Agency has demonstrated exceptional proficiency in preparing learners to meet the unique challenges of the present and future labour market. As Jamaica’s principal human capital development agency, the HEART/NSTA Trust has established strong partnerships with key stakeholders, particularly employers, which have been critical to its continued success. While 48% of its training programmes are focused on technical and vocational education and training students, the Agency also invests in other areas such as adult learning, entrepreneurship, business development, digital literacy, and a Tech$ense programme, which aims to enhance citizens’ financial and technical skills.

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Mapping Research and Innovation in Jamaica

Over the past five decades, public investment in education in Jamaica has seen significant fluctuations. It has ranged from 3.2% of GDP in 1993 to a peak of 6.4% in 2010. The most recent figure, published in 2021, stands at 6% of GDP. However, it is essential to note that around 20% of this public investment is allocated to the higher education system. The period between 2013 and 2022 saw a notable decline in enrolment at primary (ISCED 1) by 27.6%, secondary (ISCED 2 and 3) by 17.7%, and university levels (ISCED 6, 7, and 8) by 19.7%. On the other hand, tertiary institutions (ISCED 4 and 5) expanded their enrolment by 52.6%. The literacy rate, a key indicator of educational development, remained steady at 91.7% throughout the period. In 2022, 89.4% of primary-level students in Jamaica were proficient or developing in mathematics, while 78.8% were proficient or developing in science. However, at the secondary level, all STEM-related subjects experienced declines in pass rates except for biology, which saw a 4.1% increase. Pass rates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and related subjects in the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination were higher than in the Caribbean Secondary Education Certification level. Female students had higher pass rates than male students for Units 1 and 2. Jamaica ranked 24th out of 146 countries on the Global Gender Gap Index. While the country has performed well in education, health, and economy, it has not done so in political representation, with women representing 29% of Parliamentarians and 27% of Cabinet members. Additionally, there is a reverse gender gap in education, where boys experience lower school enrolment rates, higher dropout rates, and underachievement. Regarding STEM graduation rates, the University of the West Indies (UWI) has seen high percentages of women graduating with Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Ph.D. degrees. From 2016/17 to 2022/23, 58.3%, 52.9%, and 51.9% of women graduated with these degrees, respectively. Meanwhile, the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech, Jamaica) has reported lower percentages of female graduates at the Bachelor’s and Master’s levels, with no STEM graduates at the Ph.D. level reported during this period. While gender equality has not been achieved at the Master’s level in UTech, Jamaica the university’s academic staff is 59.4% female. This highlights the progress being made by women in Jamaica in moving into senior employee positions. The country has the highest proportion of women managers in the Caribbean and the world, with 59% of all managers being women. In 2023, the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ) implemented a new operational policy instrument as part of its Innovation Grant Fund. This new financial instrument aims to promote gender inclusiveness in business projects and support the growth of women-led businesses. Between 2011 and 2021, 78% of Jamaican international students choose North America and Europe. Moreover, over the same period, 58% of the registered Jamaican international students have been studying in the US, where the biggest diaspora of Jamaican scientists is located. It is estimated that 36% of Jamaica’s population lives abroad. A poll conducted in 2017 among the Jamaican diaspora revealed that 58% of them hold higher education degrees, with 29% holding Bachelor’s degrees, 23% Master’s degrees, and 6% a Ph.D. This data implies a diaspora of approximately 61,000 doctorates. The most common fields of specialisation among them were entrepreneurship (12%), education (11%), and medicine (9%). Jamaica has never conducted a comprehensive R&D survey, and its most recent attempts failed to identify the different funding sources such as government, business enterprise, private non-profit, and foreign. As a result, the Gross Expenditures on R&D (GERD) in Jamaica has been estimated to be around 0.07% of GDP, which is nine times lower than the average for Latin America and the Caribbean (i.e., 0.61%). According to the 2022 National Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy, Jamaica has set an ambitious goal of achieving a GERD equivalent to 1.5% of its GDP by 2029. This target is equivalent to the investment performed by Singapore (another SIDS) in 1998. A comparison with the latter provides a scaling order of magnitude of the type of changes that Jamaica must achieve by 2029. For instance, it might need to increase its GERD and the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) researchers per million inhabitants by 21 times and the number of scientific articles per million population by seven times. Considering that the country produces around eight new Ph.D.s in STEM (i.e., natural sciences, and engineering and technology) each year (average taken over the period 2016/17–2022/23), it implies that achieving these objectives in just five years is a daunting task. As of 2018, Jamaica had a head count (HC) of 282 researchers per million population, with the majority working in the higher education sector. This is consistent with the fact that about 90% of all scientific

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publications produced in Jamaica were from the University of the West Indies. Assuming that most researchers work in the higher education sector, the number of FTE researchers could be approximately half the number of HC researchers due to the academic staff’s time spent on other teaching and administrative duties. Consequently, a rough estimation for Jamaica is 145 FTE researchers per million population. From a global perspective, the critical mass required to trigger innovation nationally is between 1,800 and 2,000 FTE researchers per million population (e.g., China, Malaysia, and Thailand). For developed countries, the numbers rise to 7,000–9,000 FTE researchers per million population. For instance, Singapore in 2021 had 7,230 FTE researchers per million population. As mentioned earlier, there is an exciting window of opportunity for innovation and expanding exports within the agricultural sciences sector. Nevertheless, no Ph.D.s in agricultural sciences are graduating in Jamaica, and only the College of Agriculture Science and Education produces graduates in these topics. Moreover, the country has less than 15 FTE researchers in agricultural science with doctorates. Therefore, Jamaica must develop and implement an explicit human resources policy to expand the number of researchers and new STEM Ph.D.s to fulfil the objectives of its National STI Policy. In 2023, Jamaican residents accounted for 358 scientific articles listed in the Scopus database. This ranked Jamaica 140th amongst nations worldwide, fifth in the Caribbean (among 32 states and territories), and second in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). On the one hand, in articles per million population, Jamaica ranks 27th and 12th in the Caribbean and CARICOM, respectively. On the other hand, regarding impact, Jamaica ranks 20th and 12th in citations per article and third and first in h-index in the Caribbean and CARICOM, respectively. Over 66% of scientific articles were co-published with authors from other countries, and 49% were open-access publications. During the past 30 years, the number of articles listed on Scopus shows a slight logistic growth trend (i.e., s-type shape). On the other hand, between 2011 and 2021, patent applications and granted patents by residents per year ranged between seven to 33 and one to six, respectively. These granted patents are broken down against technologies showing the following distribution: special machines (19), pharmaceuticals (16), transportation (15), engines, pumps, and turbines (11), basic material chemistry (9), and organic fine chemistry (8). The scientometric analysis performed from 1970 to the present shows that Jamaica produces the most significant co-authorship of scientific articles with those nations where a meaningful Jamaican diaspora exists (i.e., United States, United Kingdom, Canada). Recently, Jamaica has been increasing co-authorship with South Africa, a nation for which a new Bilateral Cooperation Agreement has just been signed. In the past decades, only a few articles were co-authored with Caribbean countries like Trinidad and Tobago or Barbados. This observation reaffirms the assumption that the intra-CARICOM collaboration has been historically negligible and that Caribbean countries prioritise cooperation with more extensive scientific networks than their peers. The UWI has emerged as the dominant player, with nearly 90% of the country’s scientific output regarding scientific articles in mainstream journals. The UTech, Jamaica, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining, and the Scientific Research Council each contributed 1% of the publications. The UWI has several research centres, most operating at the regional level. Historically, medical and health sciences were Jamaica’s most relevant research fields. Over the past 28 years, the thematic average distribution of publications in the period showed that 44.3% were in medicine and health sciences, while natural sciences, engineering and technology, and agricultural sciences represented 23.8%, 10.8% and 6.5%, respectively. Most publications from UWI were authored by the Faculty of Medical Sciences, with the West Indian Medical Journal serving as the primary publication outlet. This trend aligns with the prevalence of medical and health science research topics in the total number of publications from Jamaica. The UWI receives most of the government funding allocation for R&D in the country, while the university also obtains a substantial contribution for R&D from external donors. Over the past decade, it was the only institution producing Ph.D.s in STEM (i.e., in natural sciences and engineering and technology) in Jamaica. Jamaica has recently updated its legal framework governing patents and designs. The country has introduced several national legal instruments that are crucial for protecting intellectual property (IP), such as the Protection of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture Act (2013), the Copyright Act (2015), the Protection of Geographical Indications Act (2018), the Patents and Designs Act (2020),

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Mapping Research and Innovation in Jamaica

and the Trademarks Act (2021). In addition, by ratifying the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), Jamaica can now benefit from international protection and safeguards in multiple countries without requiring individual filings. Furthermore, in 2022, Jamaica has become a State party to three international treaties administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization: the PCT, the Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks, and the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs. However, after conducting a thorough analysis of Jamaica’s legal framework for STI, it is evident that there is a significant absence of crucial legal devices to regulate various aspects of research and innovation activities. While some legal instruments indirectly relate to STI, such as environmental regulations and the creation of institutions or regulatory authorities, several other relevant legal instruments are missing. These include regulating the rights and duties of scientific researchers and academic freedom, ensuring the protection of human rights in research, incentivising innovation through tax and fiscal policies, securing funding for research and innovation activities, fostering greater collaboration between the supply and demand sides of STI, ensuring adequate working conditions for researchers, promoting gender equality, open science, ethics of AI and biotechnologies, transfer of technology regulations at national and international levels, establishing mechanisms to ensure responsible research and innovation activities, facilitating regional and international mobility of STI personnel, promoting the development of inclusive blue and green technologies, and implementing regulations on research labs safety and security, inter alia. Jamaican institutional funding allocations usually provide scarce public funds to R&D. Minimal funds are available by competitive mechanisms. The inventory of STI operational policy instruments showed low diversity of funding mechanisms. Furthermore, diverse strategic areas should be funded to create a solid research and innovation ecosystem. For instance, no funding mechanisms are available for strengthening the infrastructure of research laboratories; promotion of green, blue and social-inclusion technologies; promotion of Indigenous Knowledge Systems; synergising the research and innovation ecosystem or linking the STI supply and demand sides; strengthening the quality of STI foresight studies; science diplomacy and regional cooperation; mobility of researchers at national, regional and international level;, among many other topics. The lack of competitive mechanisms for funding the best projects in all these missing areas jeopardises Jamaica’s future. On the other hand, in recent years, Jamaica has implemented an essential series of financial mechanisms to promote innovation. These instruments include Angel Funds, Venture Capital, Patent Funds, Innovation Funds, the Innovation Grant from New Ideas to Entrepreneurship, and Accelerator Programmes, among many other initiatives. Most of these instruments were launched under the Access to Finance programme, a joint effort involving the Government of Jamaica, the World Bank Group, and the Inter-American Development Bank. The DBJ is the implementing agency of this programme. It is also responsible for executing two significant projects to improve MSMEs’ access to finance. Over the past fifty years, Jamaica and the Caribbean have been establishing an enclave of regional institutions to share infrastructure, human and financial resources to promote higher education (e.g. the UWI), the consolidation of cooperation mechanisms for a joint R&D and innovation programmes (e.g., Caribbean Council for Science and Technology), interaction among scientific communities (i.e., Caribbean Academy of Sciences; CARISCIENCE), funding of joint development projects (i.e., Caribbean Development Bank; Caribbean Science Foundation), and the creation of specialised R&D institutions (e.g., Caribbean Institute for Health Research; Caribbean Agriculture Research and Development Institute; International Centre for Environmental and Nuclear Sciences; CARICOM Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality; Caribbean Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency, to mention a few). This great diversity of regional institutions constitutes a step forward in increasing cooperation in R&D and integration under the umbrella of CARICOM. Nevertheless, the scarce funding and the small number of human resources involved have prevented the results of such cooperation from being made more visible. The GOSPIN Country Profile of Jamaica demonstrates how implicit national policies can influence the outcomes of explicit ones, emphasising the importance of fully understanding interconnected policy tools and national contextual factors. The SWOT analysis performed in this study identified key variables and underscored the necessity of aligning policy aims with strategic policy instruments to meet the objectives

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outlined in Vision 2030 Jamaica and the 2022 National Science, Technology and Innovation Policy. Drawing on long-term evidence and systematic data collection, including the use of foresight effects, such as anticipated positive outcomes like increased funding, research staff, institutional collaboration, and improved innovation capacity, a set of recommendations was formulated by integrating policy instruments to address various national policy targets. These recommendations, when implemented, hold the promise of a brighter future for STI in Jamaica, with potential positive outcomes that can transform the STI landscape. The recommendations were organised into four pillars: I.

Establish new mechanisms for prioritisation, harmonisation, and consolidation of national strategic areas for research and innovation. These mechanisms, carefully designed and thoroughly scrutinised, aim to leverage the national research and innovation capacity to expand the export basket with more complex and value-added products; prioritise agricultural R&D and innovation, with a particular focus on the horticulture sector; improve the transition to renewables to foster local enterprises’ productivity, competitiveness and innovation; and transform Jamaica’s productive and services sectors by rapidly adopting digitalisation, AI technology, blockchains, and open science innovation. These mechanisms’ meticulous design and rigorous vetting ensures their effectiveness and potential for a significant positive national impact.

II.

STI national institutional ecosystem adjustment to improve synergies and optimise resources to achieve the goals of Vision 2030 Jamaica and the cross-cutting set of national policies related to scientific research, technological development and innovation. This is not a disjointed approach but a comprehensive strategy that includes a new inter-ministerial level council for STI priority setting, a National STI Observatory and a National Research and Innovation Fund, ensuring that no aspect of STI development is overlooked and that all resources are optimally used. This comprehensive approach instils confidence that Jamaica’s STI landscape will be transformed holistically and effectively.

III.

Development and adequation of the legal frameworks for STI in order to fill significant gaps, such as regulations about the rights and responsibilities of scientific researchers and academic freedom; ensuring the protection of human rights in research; providing incentives for innovation through tax and fiscal policies; securing funding for research and innovation activities; fostering collaboration between the supply and demand sides of STI; ensuring appropriate working conditions for researchers; addressing the ethics of AI and biotechnologies; regulating the transfer of technology at national and international levels; establishing mechanisms to ensure responsible research and innovation activities; facilitating regional and international mobility of STI personnel; promoting gender equality, open science, and the development of inclusive blue and green technologies; and implementing regulations on research lab safety and security, among other areas; and

IV.

Design of new policy tools to guarantee the financing of the STI national strategic areas and their corresponding human resources needs. This involves establishing a solid research and innovation ecosystem, providing competitive research funding for critical areas, improving the infrastructure of research facilities, promoting green, blue and social-inclusion technologies, acknowledging Indigenous Knowledge Systems, enhancing the interaction between STI supply and demand sides, fostering the quality of STI foresight studies, promoting science diplomacy and regional cooperation, and enabling the mobility of researchers at national, regional, and international levels, among other initiatives.

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Mapping Research and Innovation in Jamaica

Acknowledgments

Mapping Research and Innovation in Jamaica is the outcome of a collaboration process initiated by the UNESCO Kingston Cluster Office for the Caribbean, the Jamaica National Commission for UNESCO, the Ministry of Science, Energy, Telecommunications and Transport (MSETT), the National Commission on Science and Technology (NCST) and the Planning Institute of Jamaica. We express our gratitude to the Honourable Daryl Vaz, Minister of Science, Energy, Telecommunications and Transport, for his support to the project, as well as to Natwaine Gardner, Principal Director of MSETT, for her active participation in organising the GOSPIN Validation Workshop and for supervising the review process in Jamaica. We highlight the participation of Olive-Jean Burrowes, Executive Director of the NCST, for her involvement with UNESCO in organising these activities and for her text contribution to this volume. We extend our acknowledgements to Ronald Young, Chair of the Natural Sciences Advisory Committee of the Jamaican National Commission for UNESCO and Delores Wade from the Planning Institute of Jamaica for their enormous support in the organisation of the “Introductory Workshop on Mapping the Science, Technology and Innovation System in Jamaica” (Kingston, 4 and 5 May 2022). We acknowledge the significant contributions of a diverse group of individuals and organisations: Paul W. Ivey from the University of Technology, Jamaica; Ryan Francis, Debbie-Ann Edwards-Kennedy, Michelle Morris and Denee Gilman from the Scientific Research Council; Michael Taylor, Pamela McLaughlin and Marcia Roye from the University of the West Indies; and Sadpha Bennett from the Ministry of Education and Youth. All these played a crucial role in preparing this volume in different ways, including providing texts published as special boxes. Their collective efforts have truly enriched this project. Implementation of the GOSPIN programme in Jamaica was made possible by the unwavering commitment of a series of professionals from the UNESCO Kingston Office. We are deeply grateful to Alibek Otambekov, Programme Specialist for Natural Sciences and Officer-in-Charge for the publication of this volume, as well as to Jean-Paul Ngome Abiaga (Programme Coordinator of Natural Sciences and the IOC, now working at UNESCO Headquarters), and Patricia Lewin (Project Officer) who participated in the early stages of this endeavour. We want to extend our acknowledgements to the personnel of the Science Policy and Partnership Section from the Division of Science Policy and Capacity Building at UNESCO Headquarters, Ezra Clark (Chief of Section) and Kornelia Tzinova (Programme Specialist, now at UNESCO Dakar Office) for managing the GOSPIN Programme and to Natalia Tolochko from the Executive Office of UNESCO’s Natural Sciences Sector, for her contribution to the publication of this volume. We wish to thank L. Anathea Brooks, UNESCO Consultant, for copy editing the volume. We want to express our appreciation to our colleagues from the Social and Human Sciences Sector at UNESCO Headquarters, Doaa Abu Elyounes (Programme Specialist from the Ethics of AI Section), Rosanna Fanni and Carl Vannetelbosch (Project Officer), for their contributing texts about recent UNESCO Standard Setting Instruments.  Lastly, we would like to express our deep appreciation to the author of the present volume, Guillermo A. Lemarchand (UNESCO Senior Consultant). His meticulous work and dedication have transformed the report into an informative and readable study, for which we are truly grateful. Anna Paolini, Director, UNESCO Kingston Office March 2024 8 

  GOàSPIN Country Profiles in Science, Technology and Innovation Policy - Volume 13

Analysing Jamaica through the GOSPIN lens: An introduction to the country profile

Mapping Research and Innovation in Jamaica

ANALYSING RESEARCH AND INNOVATION POLICIES THROUGH THE GOSPIN LENS The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)’s Global Observatory of Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy Instruments (GOSPIN) is a programme designed to expose relevant insights about science, engineering, technology, and innovation (SETI) policies and their context through the rigorous application of an assessment lens. This programme is helping UNESCO Member States to create local capacity for analysing SETI evidence-based policies to detect gaps and introduce reforms and upgrades to their national innovation systems and their governance. It promotes building capacity to monitor and evaluate the policy performance through a structural analysis (covering the explicit policy, the SETI national ecosystem, the legal framework and operational policy instruments) because such analysis points to implicit policies and gaps and situates the performance of each individual national policy. In this way, the scope of standard SETI assessment can be widened to consider country-specific contexts, such as Jamaica, as well as emerging knowledge of technological advances that contribute to sustainable development. While complementing efforts to promote evidence-based SETI policymaking as well as efforts to evaluate policy performance, GOSPIN offers a good baseline for the promotion of national scientific and technological foresight studies. Regrettably, there is a tendency among several scholars to conflate science policies and engineering policies under the popular umbrella term STI1 (i.e., Science, Technology and Innovation). This acronym is often used in national and international documents without clearly distinguishing between ‘science’ and ‘engineering’ policies.2 However, the truth is that the acronym SETI describes the four distinct types of public policies, each with unique objectives and goals and, therefore, requiring different sets of skills and policy interventions from governments, decision-makers, academics, entrepreneurs, and other practitioners. It is crucial to understand these distinctions to effectively address the challenges and opportunities in the fields of science, engineering, technology, and innovation. Nevertheless, in order to normalise the nomenclature to other international publications, hereinafter we will use the STI acronym with the “implicit assumption” that this denomination includes the four distinct types of public policies mentioned above. STI policy priorities must be intricately linked to national objectives and visions, which are embedded within broader development strategies and trajectories. A STI policy framework with a transformational focus aimed at sustainable development can support shared objectives such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other national and global priorities, as well as other UN commitments or recommendations. For instance, GOSPIN is contributing to monitoring the implementation of the 2017 UNESCO Recommendation on Science and Scientific Researchers. STI policies are implemented through various policy instruments with distinctive features and focus, which are often combined in ‘policy mixes,’ requiring coordination, consistency, and coherence across

1

2

10 

Over the past three decades, the STI acronym has been applied in different contexts, such as, (1) Science and Technology Indicators, (2) Science, Technology, and Industry, or (3) Science, Technology, and Innovation. Nevertheless, according to the Cambridge English Dictionary, ‘STI’ stands for ‘Sexually Transmitted Infections.’ Moreover, to avoid any misinterpretation, the official documents of Jamaica utilise the acronym ‘ST&I’ for Science, Technology and Innovation. In developing a standard methodology for country reviews, UNESCO and International Development Research Centre (IDRC) agreed that “engineering” was critical to achieving sustainable development through research and innovation activities, and this can be obtained by enhancing the use of the SETI acronym. It was recognised that earlier reviews have tended to relegate engineering to the background because engineering was viewed as a generic activity designed to solve technological problems. Nevertheless, to achieve greater effectiveness and impact, particularly within developing economies, it was agreed that future attention should be focused on the review of SETI (UNESCO, 2006: 15). Moreover, the characteristics of “engineering policies” which are not covered by traditional STI reviews can be seen as a twofold endeavour: (1) to help create public policy related to the utilisation of technology to solve public problems as well as to monitor and ensure compliance with such policies and (2) to use engineering knowledge to assist in the construction of policy directives to help solve social problems. In many cases, the development and implementation of such regulations and laws require both a technical understanding of the functioning of these artefacts and an understanding of how this technology interacts with social and natural systems and would benefit from the involvement of a technical expert. The issues addressed by engineering policies are vast and global in nature and include water conservation, energy, transportation, communication, food production, habitat protection, disaster risk reduction, technology assessment and the deterioration of infrastructure systems. 

  GOàSPIN Country Profiles in Science, Technology and Innovation Policy - Volume 13

Analysing Jamaica through the GOSPIN lens: An introduction to the country profile

government. Differences in the levels of maturity of countries’ national research and innovation systems require different STI policies and instruments. STI activities are becoming increasingly crucial for socio-economic and sustainable development. During the past 60 years, both developed and developing countries have recognised this fact by increasing the complexity of their STI ecosystems, establishing new legal frameworks for STI, and implementing a diverse set of new STI operational policy instruments and financial tools. This has driven investment in scientific research, technological development, and innovation, led to an increase in the number of scientists and engineers and fostered exponential growth in the number of new scientific articles and patents worldwide (UNESCO, 2021). Nevertheless, the lack of or weaknesses in data, information, indicators, and capabilities to formulate, analyse and monitor STI policies and instruments continue to be a significant challenge in many countries. Consequently, UNESCO’s GOSPIN programme was designed to fill these gaps. The information economy, a pivotal concept in explaining modern economic shifts, has seen the infrastructure for managing STI information emerge as a critical resource for national competitiveness in research and innovation (Neelameghan and Tocatlian, 1985). As the globalisation of STI information infrastructure continues, the need for comprehensive strategies to connect, share, and trade both domestic and foreign information at the national level becomes a national priority (Lee and Kim, 2009). The GOSPIN methodological approach, with its transformative potential, aids Member States in identifying, standardising, monitoring, and analysing the relevant variables to generate STI evidence-based policies. Developing effective STI policies is crucial to addressing modern challenges such as mitigating the impacts of global climate change, developing alternative energy sources, promoting innovation for social inclusion, and ensuring sustainable management and conservation of freshwater, terrestrial resources, and biodiversity. These policies should also focus on disaster resilience, eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, and addressing the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, they need to be aligned with the various dimensions of the SDGs. The GOSPIN methodological approach, a key tool in understanding the relationship between STI and the achievement of SDG targets, has been included by the United Nations Inter-Agency Task Team (IATT) on STI for the SDGs Roadmaps. This approach has been successfully applied in various national contexts, such as Botswana, Cambodia, Guatemala, Israel, Kenya, Lao PDR, Malawi, Paraguay, and Rwanda, among others, demonstrating its effectiveness and relevance. It serves to consolidate a shared framework and common language across different professional communities rooted in public, private, academic, civil society, and international organisations (i.e., UN Technology Facilitation Mechanism, 2020; EU-UN‑IATT, 2021).

BETTER WAYS OF MEASURING EVIDENCE-BASED POLICIES The proposition that evidence about the effects of different policy options should inform and support policy decisions is a complex and multifaceted one. It is more than just a matter of governments being genuinely committed to evidence-based policy. The reality is that evidence-based policymaking is a labyrinth of challenges, from national contextual and cultural factors to the balancing act of long-term vision versus short-term political tensions. Even the disagreement among technical experts about different weights of relative costs and benefits can be a significant hurdle. These differences may stem from the value base underlying a distinctive theoretical perspective, their institutional role, or support for a particular group or groups affected by the policy options under consideration. Furthermore, the road to achieving the objectives set by national development plans, such as Vision 2030 Jamaica (GoJ, 2009a), is fraught with challenges. These include the lack of reliable information on the national potential of the research and innovation capacity, difficulties in coordinating the various STI stakeholders, and the privation of mechanisms to foster a robust interaction between the supply side (academy and governmental research units) and the demand side (business-enterprise, productive and services sectors).

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Mapping Research and Innovation in Jamaica

The absence of competitive funding mechanisms for prioritised research and innovation projects, R&D infrastructure, or the promotion of specialised human resources further compounds these challenges. Precise data forms the foundation of any national STI landscape. This is especially critical in developing nations like Jamaica. These data should be presented in a manner that enables decision-makers and experts to gauge whether the status of STI aligns with societal needs or expectations. Policymakers stand to gain from additional policy tools to aid them in budget allocation decisions or in the creation of new STI policy instruments, particularly if these are real-time tools or new innovative foresight methodologies. Empirical studies underscore the importance of suitable STI information services on the long-term influence of research and innovation policies crafted to enhance national competitiveness (i.e., Lee and Kim, 2009). For these reasons, the design, analysis, and monitoring of any national STI policy will strongly depend on the adequate mapping of the structure of the STI ecosystem, the national legal framework for STI, and the implicit and explicit operational STI policy instruments that are implemented (Herrera, 1972; Sagasti and Aráoz, 1976; Lemarchand, 2020). During the past two decades, international organisations have been developing new tools to monitor evidence-based STI policies based on policy instrument analysis (Lemarchand, 2008, 2010, 2021a, 2022b; Tsipouri, 2014; UN Technology Facilitation Mechanism, 2020; EU-UN-IATT, 2021; Meissner and Kergroach, 2021). UNESCO’s GOSPIN programme is one of the most comprehensive of these tools. This volume involved the construction of a sixty-year baseline set analysis of national policies, contextual factors, STI indicators, and scientometric variables for Jamaica. It also included a standard content analysis of the 2022 National Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (GoJ, 2022a) and the compilation of inventories about different categories of policy instruments (i.e., institutional ecosystem, legal instruments for STI, and funding mechanisms for research and innovation activities). The systematic analysis of these variables in the GOSPIN Country Profile of Jamaica has identified the most significant policy gaps, which have been pinpointed within the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis chapter. These gaps, if not addressed, could significantly hinder the achievement of evidence-based policymaking and national development plan objectives, underlining the gravity of the situation.

MAPPING THE LANDSCAPE OF RESEARCH AND INNOVATION IN JAMAICA The systemic perspective recognises that responsibilities are often distributed across various stakeholders, highlighting the potential of coordination between government agencies and additional actors such as firms, higher education institutions, civil society, and regional and international organisations, among other stakeholders. Governments should play an essential role in fostering an environment which is conducive to a variety of STI activities by different performers, inspiring a sense of hope for effective coordination. STI policymaking is not just a process, but a complex and dynamic journey. It involves distinct stages, and a combination of instruments or policy mixes designed to meet a common objective. This complexity underlines the urgent need for a comprehensive understanding and effective coordination, as the challenges are not to be underestimated. Research and innovation, as cross-cutting activities, involve a multitude of ministries including those for science and technology (S&T), higher education, health, agriculture, industry, energy, mining, environment, water, foreign affairs, finance, and planning. The complexity of STI policy interventions necessitates effective coordination and coherence among these diverse government departments, programmes, and policies. However, governments often struggle with this task due to their traditionally departmentalised structures, which are ill-equipped to handle such complex and interconnected policy issues as ‘research and innovation.’ The coordination mechanisms in place may be static and short-term, lacking the necessary dynamism to address the significant institutional fragmentation and short-term considerations that dominate agenda-setting processes. As a result, coordination efforts may be reduced to annual budget-

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  GOàSPIN Country Profiles in Science, Technology and Innovation Policy - Volume 13

Analysing Jamaica through the GOSPIN lens: An introduction to the country profile

related decisions and decentralised to implementing institutions, often failing to establish long-term or strategic policy priorities. Moreover, all national STI policies, implicit or explicit (Herrera, 1971, 1972), attempt to harness a country’s creative potential to its socio-economic, environmental, and cultural objectives. An explicit STI policy is a statement by a high-level government official or institution, such as a ministry or the planning secretariat, which deals with STI-related activities, such as, Ministry of Science, Energy, Transport and Telecommunication (MSETT). The policy expresses a purpose (e.g., effects according to STI variables). It may set objectives, define desired outcomes, and establish quantitative goals (i.e., Vision 2030 Jamaica, 2022 National Science, Technology and Innovation Policy). The implicit STI policies (and their instruments) produce effects on variables that do not belong to the group of STI functions and activities, but, as a result, unintended effects happen to the latter. Such unintended effects may be termed ‘side effects’ or ‘implications.’ A better understanding of them is crucial, as it can enable policymakers to minimise or eliminate their harmful influence, heighten their positive effects, and eventually transform these implicit policies and their related instruments into purposeful indirect policies and instruments for research and innovation (e.g., fiscal and investment policy, higher-education policy, industrial policy, regional integration policy, among several others). On the one hand, an analysis of the STI implicit policies within general laws on industrialisation, education, communication and information, health, mining, foreign investment, energy and other relevant areas should uncover the main implications or side effects for STI functions and their activities. The first step would be identifying policies oriented to areas other than STI that could substantially impact them. For this, there is an urgent need for a comprehensive understanding of how the country’s research and innovation system functions by examining its place in terms of the implicit policies and the contextual factors that characterise each country. These issues are critical to Small Island Developing States (SIDS) like Jamaica. The next chapter is focused on addressing these issues in the medium and long term with specific details related to STI activities. Adopting a coherent approach means recognising the interdependence of a multitude of policy moves dictated by the core set of research and innovation policies, such as those for higher education and entrepreneurship. It also involves evaluating their potential interaction with policies pursuing other primary objectives, such as fiscal policy, competition policy, and laws and regulations that provide the framework for innovation. In the broad context, the vertical axis of Fig. 1 represents the symbiotic relationship of the most relevant governmental bodies and policies within Jamaica’s STI landscape. Developing effective governance also requires a fine-tuning harmonisation among the local, regional, national, and international levels in an increasingly complex innovation landscape (i.e. horizontal axis in Fig. 1). 3 With the broadening of innovative processes, players, and locations, the systems of governance that nourish their relationships and proper functioning become even more critical. As no single stakeholder has the knowledge and resources to tackle the innovation challenge unilaterally, a country like Jamaica – in one way or another – faces the task of better coordinating the various actors involved in formulating and implementing policy.

3

The horizontal axis includes the acronyms of the following institutions: Caribbean Council of Science and Technology (CCST); Caribbean Development Bank (CDB); Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters Association (JMEA), Jamaica Promotions Corporation (JAMPRO); Caribbean Academy of Sciences (CAS); Caribbean Science Foundation (CSF); Caribbean Institute for Health Research (CAIHR); Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI); Caribbean Food and Nutrition Institute (CFNI); CARISCIENCE, a network of regional scientists; Caribbean Community (CARICOM); Caribbean Forum (CARIFORUM); InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB); World Bank (WB); United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The vertical axis includes show the acronyms of the following institutions: Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ); Ministry of Finance and Public Service (MoFPS); Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN); Ministry of Science, Energy, Telecommunications and Transport (MSETT); Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining (MoAFM); Ministry of Education and Youth (MoEY); Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade (MoFAFT); Ministry of Health and Wellness (MoHW), Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce (MIIC); Ministry of National Security (MNS); National Commission of Science and Technology (NCST); Scientific Research Council (SRC); University of the West Indies (UWI); University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech, Jamaica); College of Agriculture and Science Education (CASE), Bureau of Standards Jamaica (BSJ); International Centre for Environmental and Nuclear Science (ICENS); Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ); Culture, Health, Arts, Sports and Education (CHASE) Fund; Human Employment and Resource Training/National Service Training Agency Trust (HEART/NSTA Trust).

GOàSPIN Country Profiles in Science, Technology and Innovation Policy - Volume 13 

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Mapping Research and Innovation in Jamaica

Implementing explicit and implicit policies will also strongly depend on national contextual factors. The latter cannot be ascribed to the current or recent government policies; they are a consequence of the country’s history, cultural and social features, resources, geography, lifestyle, freedom, structural factors, political stability, and human development, among others. The different variables of the explicit and implicit national policies (i.e., vertical axis of Fig. 1) interact with the international and regional agendas, as well as with different business-enterprise and civil society stakeholders (i.e., horizontal axis of Fig.1). Moreover, the performance of these complex interactions between policies, policy instruments, agendas and stakeholders are all embedded in a set of national contextual factors (i.e., background of Fig. 1) which set strong boundaries conditions for the achievement of the goals expressed within the policies. Political stability and good governance sustained over decades are relevant prerequisites for developing sound public policies. Stability and predictability are essential for research and innovation since both endeavours involve risk-taking with long time horizons. They thus require a stable framework of institutions and policies. Political instability may inhibit innovation by increasing uncertainty for innovators and venture capitalists; it may lessen the effectiveness of STI policy instruments by weakening the incentives they provide.

L

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Vision 2030, Jamaica Prime Minister Cabinet Parliament PIOJ MoFPS STATIN

C O N F ct A TE to ur C X pr ca al f T T o re a O U or vis , w cto R AL fu g io o rs S S

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International and Caribbean Agendas

Business-enterprise sector (public and private), NGOs, NPOs and International and Regional Organizations CCST, CDB, eGov Jamaica Ltd., JMEA, JAMPRO, CAS, CSF, CAIHR, CARDI, CFNI, CARISCIENCE, CARICOM, CARIFORUM, IDB, WB, UNDP, UNESCO

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O FA NT ab o C EX T T w se liti re cor ar nc cal OR UA gu ru an e o s a la pt d f ta S L nd

to ion te vi bil ac ry , r rro ole ity, co qu ule ris nc un ali o m e, ta ty, f la , bi vo w lit ic , y… e ,

National Science, Technology and Innovation Policy MSETT, MoAFM, MoEY, MoFAFT, MoHW, MIIC, MNS, NCST, SRC, NFDS, UWI, UTech, CASE, ICENS, BSJ, DBJ, CHASE Fund, HEART/NTSA Trust

L

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n X RS me at E p O o y T N T el nc to r f O C ev ta s de o C FA d ec es n on e i an xp acc , g ut um fe e th, tion trib … H li ir a is e b uc , d m y o ed alit inc u q e

Figure 1. Jamaican research and innovation policy landscape. The ‘explicit’ STI policies and their policy instruments interact and collide with other ‘implicit’ policies (designed by different stakeholders), including the objectives and goals proposed by Vision 2030 Jamaica and by other international and regional agendas (e.g., SDGs; CARICOM Strategic Plan). Most importantly, this complex combination of policy interventions is immersed in a set of contextual factors which drastically modifies the expected results. Source: Modified from Lemarchand (2021a).

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  GOàSPIN Country Profiles in Science, Technology and Innovation Policy - Volume 13

Analysing Jamaica through the GOSPIN lens: An introduction to the country profile

In this context, the GOSPIN methodological approach is critical to mapping the national research and innovation landscape and determining the systemic strengths and weaknesses of their policies and the characteristics of the infrastructure ecosystem, legal framework, policy instruments, and contextual factors. In the subsequent sections, each individual dimension of Jamaica’s case will be analysed in detail. The following reference to the UNESCO GOSPIN country profiles series can be found in the chapter on the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) of the 2015 UNESCO Science Report: “…By providing an indepth situation analysis, these mapping exercises help countries devise evidence-based strategies to correct structural weaknesses and improve the monitoring of their national innovation system. This type of mapping exercise is just what the Caribbean needs. Without a similar rigorous understanding of the status and potential of STI in their countries, Caribbean governments will be advancing in a haze…” (Ramkissoon and Kahwa, 2015: p. 163). The preparation of this GOSPIN Country Profile in STI Policy spanned nearly a decade. It represents not only the first Caribbean country but also the first SIDS.

OPENING THE BLACK BOX: ANALYSING JAMAICA’S EXPLICIT STI-POLICY THROUGH DISTINCT CATEGORIES OF POLICY INSTRUMENTS Policies also contain criteria for choosing from several alternatives to guide decision-makers on how STI should work. Research and innovation policies might also be formulated with representatives from the business-enterprise sector, who bring their unique perspectives and expertise to the table. Several factors impinge on the efficiency of STI governance, namely, the extent to which policy processes have the most significant effect on a given use of resources. It must be acknowledged that overall efficiency is not easily defined and measured in a multi-objective, multi-actor world. A policy may remain a mere rhetorical statement if no means are provided for its implementation or to realise its potential effect. A few things may be needed to do this, which will be incorporated under the term ‘policy instrument.’ A policy instrument constitutes the set of ways and means used to implement a given policy. It can be considered the vehicle through which those in charge of formulating and implementing policies actualise their capability to influence decisions taken by others. Public policy instruments are the mechanisms by which governmental authorities wield their power in order to ensure support and produce a change in the behaviour of different stakeholders. The choice of diverse policy instruments will lead to the design of a ‘policy mix,’ a combination of different instruments that work together to achieve policy objectives. Interventions are the channels through which policy instruments are made operational. Implementing the policy mix is expected to shape the whole economic and societal growth process, including technological change, through different socio-economic incentives. The rationale for using instruments as an empirical window on the policy process is that they represent an interface between policymakers and policy targets and give insights into how a given policy is implemented and with what effects. Studying public policy instruments in national settings has contributed significantly to understanding policy, political systems and relations between the State and citizens. Research on policy implementation usually focuses principally on the effects of a specific instrument into a broader reflection on whether the correct instrument has been chosen for the purpose. Regarding new governance models, the search for suitable instruments is governed by pragmatism (Bruijn and Heuvelhof, 1991; Kassim and Le Gales, 2010; Howlett and Ramesh, 2003; Howlett, 2019). Governments use a wide diversity of instruments and methods to operationalise broad policy decisions. These can include direct funding for research and development (R&D), tax incentives for innovation, and regulatory frameworks to protect intellectual property rights (IPR). Like in other policy domains, the choice of specific instruments will be guided not only by the overall STI policy objectives, the nature of local conditions, priorities, and challenges (including the political context, governance, and institutional

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Mapping Research and Innovation in Jamaica

frameworks) but also by the level of maturity of the country’s research and innovation ecosystem. However, choosing policy instruments and designing policy portfolios becomes more complex when, as is quite common in many policy-making situations, multiple goals and sectors are involved in a national STI policy. Different stakeholders are involved in formulating and choosing different policy instruments depending on the governing arrangements in a nation or policy sector.

STI POLICY INSTRUMENTS

Policy design or formulation is thus not just a matter of the character of individual policy instruments and mixes but also of the context (Howlett, 2019).

STI POLICY

Statements by high-level government officials or representatives of the private sector, generally associated with top-level government bodies

STI LEGAL FRAMEWORK

Laws, decrees, regulations, by-laws, contracts and international agreements

ORGANIZATIONAL CHART FOR STI

Individual institutions and organizations; procedures and methodologies they employ

OPERATIONAL POLICY INSTRUMENTS

Actual working mechanisms that make the instrument function on a day-to-day basis

EFFECTS

Figure 2. GOSPIN analytic units. Source: UNESCO, inspired in Sagasti and Aráoz (1976).

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  GOàSPIN Country Profiles in Science, Technology and Innovation Policy - Volume 13

Analysing Jamaica through the GOSPIN lens: An introduction to the country profile

The GOSPIN methodological approach categorises the characteristics of different policy instruments into four distinctive groups: I.

STI policy: contents of official policy documents and texts (i.e., working as political rhetoric or ‘sermons’).

II.

Legal framework for STI: regulations by legal devices (i.e., working as ‘sticks’).

III.

Organisational chart for STI: institutional ecosystem (i.e., working as the ‘implementation machinery’) and

IV.

Operational policy instruments: subsidisations and other financial or incentive mechanisms (i.e., working as ‘carrots’).

The last categories of explicit policy instruments configure the fundamental four analytic units employed by the GOSPIN methodological approach. This approach is a comprehensive framework for analysing and detecting gaps in implementing national STI policies. The present study includes specific chapters analysing the contents of the explicit policy documents and compiling inventories and descriptions of the other three categories of policy instruments.

HOW IS THE JAMAICA’S COUNTRY PROFILE ORGANISED? This volume marks a significant milestone as the first GOSPIN country profile published by UNESCO focusing on a SIDS. It stands as the sole publication about Jamaica that encompasses the complete range of available STI and scientometric statistics, inventories of research and innovation institutions, legal system and operational policy instruments, and their contextual factors, providing a comprehensive view of the evolution of these variables over the past six decades. It also includes a standardised content analysis of the explicit national STI policy, the Jamaican STI policy cycle, and a brief overview of the evolution of STI policies since Jamaica’s independence. Over the years, several studies have been conducted to analyse the scientific and technological potential of the Caribbean region, including a few on Jamaica (e.g., Barrett, 2023a, 2023b; CARICOM, 2007; Dellimore, 1979; Gajadhar and Kahwa, 2021; Girvan, 1988; Irvine, 1988; Jones, 1974; Kahwa and Ramkissoon, 2005; Kahwa and Steward, 2014; Lemarchand, 2010; Marcelle, 2009; Mohan et al., 2016; Nurse, 2007; Ramkissoon and Kahwa, 2015; Ventura, 1979, 2006). Undoubtedly, the GOSPIN country profile study is a comprehensive endeavour. Its objective is to establish a baseline over the past sixty years, encompassing contextual factors, explicit and implicit STI policies, institutional ecosystem, national, regional, and international agendas, the interactions among the STI supply and demand sides with government strategies, and the behaviour—over the same period—of R&D input, output, and impact indicators (see Fig. 1). The GOSPIN methodological approach is meticulous and multifaceted. It involves examining the four types of policy instruments, including standard content analysis of all Jamaican policy documents and the creation of standardised inventories of the STI institutional ecosystem and the legal framework for STI. It also created a detailed portfolio of the available funding mechanisms and other incentives, such as, operational policy instruments (see Table 54). At its core, the GOSPIN methodology is a comprehensive and holistic framework, as depicted in Fig. 1. This approach provides a structured practice for the detailed analysis of contextual, historical, geographical, and cultural factors that influence the implementation of various national policies. The report delves into the dynamics between different national stakeholders (i.e., the Prime Minister, Cabinet, Planning Institute of Jamaica, ministries and departments) and external entities like the business enterprise sector, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), nonprofit organisations, and international cooperation agencies. It covers a wide range of topics, including history, demographics, human development, the national development plan, long-term economic growth, regional and international agendas for sustainable

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Mapping Research and Innovation in Jamaica

development, research and innovation for the SDGs, the profile of foreign direct investment and its relation with STI, the National Investment Policy (i.e., GoJ, 2022d), the complex dynamics of the export basket, a detailed analysis of the correlation between governance indicators and scientific productivity, the profile of the STI demand side through the characteristics of the business enterprise sector, energy, agriculture, ICT, the influence of climate-related hazards, education and human capital profiles for science and engineering and the initiatives for the promotion of Indigenous Knowledge Systems. These topics are supported by exhibiting the long-term behaviour of representative indicators, which are used to identify trends and correlations. A specific chapter on Jamaica’s cultural and contextual factors that summarise the societal behaviour towards gender is introduced, focusing on women in science and engineering and their corresponding statistical analysis. One chapter stands out for its comprehensive collection of all available R&D and innovation input indicators from Jamaica, a testament to the depth and relevance of the GOSPIN report. These indicators, produced since the early 1970s, provide a rich source of data for understanding the evolution of STI policies in Jamaica. Another chapter presents a detailed scientometric analysis over the past sixty years, including a sophisticated bibliometric study of scientific publications from different global databases and the profile of patents, trademarks, and industrial designs. The second part of the country profile delves into the STI activities, with a particular focus on explicit STI policies and their policy instruments. A chapter is dedicated to tracing the evolution of Jamaican STI policies and their institutional ecosystem from colonial times to the present. This historical perspective allows the reader to estimate the rate of change in policies, challenges, and restrictions addressed in different epochs. Based on the first GOSPIN analytic unit (see Fig. 2), another chapter presents a standardised content analysis of the latest National Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (GoJ, 2022a). The subsequent chapter provides a detailed examination of the STI policy cycle, a recurrent pattern of processes that lead to the formulation of the corresponding public policy and its renewal. The GOSPIN methodological approach breaks down the complexity of the process into a limited number of stages. This analytical model of an STI policy cycle offers a significant advantage as it facilitates an understanding of public policymaking. It enables an investigation of each stage alone or in terms of its relationship to any or all the other stages of the cycle. This approach also allows the reader to examine the role played by all stakeholders and institutions dealing with STI policies, not just the governmental agencies formally charged with the task. The GOSPIN approach divides the STI policy cycle into five stages: agenda setting, policy formulation, decision-making, implementation, and evaluation. The identification of the institutions participating in each stage of Jamaica’s STI policy cycle is provided, focusing on the significant gaps that the Jamaican procedures exhibit. The STI national ecosystem is examined in another chapter by a standardised organisational chart representing the distribution of responsibilities according to distinct functions. Within the GOSPIN template, the organisational chart is organised into five levels:

18 

I.

The policy-planning level (i.e., policy design).

II.

The promotional level (i.e., funding and regulations of STI activities).

III.

The performance level (i.e., scientific research, technological development, and diffusion of innovations throughout the productive and services sectors).

IV.

Scientific and technological services (STS) level (e.g., Bureau of Standards, Accreditation Agencies, IP Offices, Statistical Units, Geological Surveys, Science Museums).

V.

The assessment/evaluation level (few countries have an independent agency to assess STI policies and activities).

  GOàSPIN Country Profiles in Science, Technology and Innovation Policy - Volume 13

Analysing Jamaica through the GOSPIN lens: An introduction to the country profile

Following this scheme, the STI national ecosystem is represented and described by listing the main characteristics of the inventory of STI institutions in Jamaica. Moreover, the subsequent two chapters analyse the inventory of legal instruments for STI and the inventory of operational policy instruments and other financial mechanisms and incentives. Jamaica’s country profile has been organised according to this specific template, ensuring a thorough review of evidence-based STI policies. Each chapter provides essential information that supports each item of the final SWOT analysis. Based on these findings, a series of conclusions and recommendations have been logically determined and presented in the last chapter.

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Jamaica: Mapping the landscape of the research and innovation system in a small island developing state

Mapping Research and Innovation in Jamaica

OFFICIAL NAME: Jamaica ABBREVIATIONS: JM, JAM CAPITAL CITY: Kingston CHIEF OF STATE: King Charles III (since 8 September 2022); represented by Governor General Sir Patrick L. Allen (since 26 February 2009); the Jamaican Government, in May 2023, announced plans to transition to a republic and to hold a referendum in 2024 to remain in the Commonwealth or become a republic. HEAD OF GOVERNMENT: Prime Minister Andrew Holness (since 3 March 2016) NATURE OF GOVERNMENT: Parliamentary democracy (Parliament) under a constitutional monarchy; a Commonwealth realm POPULATION: 2,820,982 (2023 est.) SURFACE AREA: 10,991 km2 ETHNIC GROUPS: Black 92.1%, mixed 6.1%, East Indian 0.8%, other 0.4%, unspecified 0.7% (2011 est.) OFFICIAL LANGUAGE: English RELIGIONS: Protestant 64.8% (includes Seventh Day Adventist 12.0%, Pentecostal 11.0%, Other Church of God 9.2%, New Testament Church of God 7.2%, Baptist 6.7%, Church of God in Jamaica 4.8%, Church of God of Prophecy 4.5%, Anglican 2.8%, United Church 2.1%, Methodist 1.6%, Revived 1.4%, Brethren 0.9%, and Moravian 0.7%), Roman Catholic 2.2%, Jehovah’s Witness 1.9%, Rastafarian 1.1%, other 6.5%, none 21.3%, unspecified 2.3% (2011 est.). UNIT OF CURRENCY: Jamaican dollars (J$) DATE OF INDEPENDENCE: 6 August 1962 DATE OF CONSTITUTION: Several previous (pre-independence); latest drafted 1961–62, submitted to British Parliament 24 July 1962, entered into force 6 August 1962 (at independence)

HISTORY OF A PEOPLE Jamaica, the largest English-speaking Caribbean Island, is located around 145 km south of Cuba and 1,300 km from the United States (US). The island is characterised by mountain ranges running east to west, which contribute to slight temperature variations in the tropical climate. The 1,022-km-long coastline is marked by natural harbours, isolated bays, reef-lined beaches, and rocky cliffs. The capital, Kingston, is situated on the southeast coast, while the second largest city, Montego Bay, is located on the northwest coast. The island of Jamaica has a rich history. The Arawaks, who arrived from South America prior to Christopher Columbus’s first visit, were decimated by disease, slavery, and war during Spain’s occupation of the island. Jamaica became a British colony in 1655, and Great Britain gained formal possession in 1670. For over 150 years, the island was a valuable sugar-producing territory. Slavery was abolished by the British Parliament in 1834. The maintenance of a source of cheap labour did not prevent the rapid decline in the sugar industry in Jamaica between 1840 and 1860, although the consequences for the island’s economy were moderated by the production of copious amounts of rum (Clarke, 2018). In the period after 1940, constitutional reforms were introduced across the British West Indies. Jamaica was the first British Caribbean colony to attain universal adult suffrage in 1944. In 1952, to promote local development, Jamaica created an industrial development corporation to provide government finance to businesses, purchase land and build factories, and participate in managing an enterprise that received a loan. Moreover, the Jamaican government authorised protective tariffs against imports in an effort to support local businesses. Jamaica briefly joined the West Indies Federation in 1958 but withdrew in 1961 after voters rejected membership. In 1962, Jamaica gained independence but remained a member of the Commonwealth. Jamaica has a long history of emigration, with significant numbers of Jamaicans moving to the US and Canada since the United Kingdom (UK) restricted emigration in 1967. The number of Jamaicans living abroad is equivalent to 36% of the country’s population (World Bank Group, 2022b). Remittances from

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  GOàSPIN Country Profiles in Science, Technology and Innovation Policy - Volume 13

Jamaica: Mapping the landscape of the research and innovation system in a small island developing state

expatriate communities in these countries have become an increasingly significant contributor to Jamaica’s economy (21.4% GDP in 2020). From 2012 to 2021, the remittance by corridor inflows to Jamaica exceeded US$ 20 billion (Haughton and Ivey, 2023). The 1962 constitution established a parliamentary system based on the UK model, with King Charles III appointing a Governor General as his representative in Jamaica. The Governor General’s role is mostly ceremonial, with executive power vested in the Cabinet led by the Prime Minister. Parliament is made up of an appointed Senate and an elected House of Representatives. The Senate comprises thirteen nominated senators on the advice of the Prime Minister and eight on the advice of the opposition leader. General elections must be held within five years of a new government forming, but the Prime Minister can request elections sooner. The Senate may submit and review legislation, but it cannot delay budget bills for more than a month or other bills for more than seven months. The Cabinet is selected from Parliament, with at least two and no more than four members coming from the Senate. The judiciary is modelled on the UK system, with the Court of Appeals being the highest appellate court in Jamaica. Under certain circumstances, cases may be appealed to the Privy Council of the UK. Jamaica’s parishes have elected councils that exercise limited powers of local government (Gall and Hobby, 2007). Jamaica presents a unique set of opportunities and challenges as a small island nation off the coast of North America. The country is known for its political stability, cultural influence, and advanced infrastructure assets such as airports, seaports, and ground transportation, as well as digital connectivity and brand recognition in major markets. These assets provide a strong foundation for the development of tourism, creative, and outsourcing services sectors, and also offer potential for other industries to thrive. Jamaica’s natural geography makes it an attractive destination for tourism. However, the country faces many of the challenges typical of SIDS, including limited export diversification and vulnerability to natural disasters. These challenges include exposure to climate variability and sea-level rise, low resilience to natural hazards, limited resource base, dependence on external markets, high public sector and civil infrastructure costs, fragile natural environments, high debt levels, and limited fiscal space.

DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE Jamaica, the largest English-speaking Caribbean country, has a population of approximately 2.8 million people. Since the end of World War I, the country’s annual population growth rate has been stable, except for between 1881 and 1921, when emigration and disease caused the growth rate to fall to exceptionally low levels. During this time, 156,000 Jamaicans emigrated, which was then 35% of the country’s population. Between 1911 and 1921, the growth rate was only 0.4% per year as workers left Jamaica for Costa Rican banana plantations, Cuban sugar estates, and the Panama Canal. The US and Canada also attracted many Jamaicans during this period. However, with the fall of sugar prices that was precipitated by the Great Depression, thousands of Jamaicans returned home. As a result, from 1921 to 1954, the population growth rate rose to an average of 1.7% per year. After World War II, increased emigration reduced the population growth rate once again.4 Between 1954 and 1970, the growth rate was only 1.4% (see Fig. 4) as many Jamaicans moved to the UK, the US, Canada, and elsewhere. Fostered by the 1965 US Immigration Act, the exodus continued during the 1970s and early 1980s, when over 10% of the total population, or 276,200 men and women, departed. A significant percentage of the emigrants were skilled workers, technicians, doctors, and managers, resulting in a significant drain on Jamaica’s human resources. The global economic recession of the 1980s reduced opportunities for migration as many countries tightened their immigration laws. Nevertheless, by the

4

Between 1948 and 1962, the UK saw a significant influx of Jamaican immigrants in response to the British Government’s invitation to assist in the country’s post-World War II reconstruction efforts. Over 82,000 Jamaicans migrated to the UK during this period, contributing to rebuilding the country devastated by the war (GoJ, 2022g).

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Mapping Research and Innovation in Jamaica

mid‑1980s, more than half of all Jamaicans lived outside the island. Today, this number has been reduced to 36% of the current population on the island.

Millon

Fig. 3 shows the long-term evolution of the population of Jamaica (1960–2021). Over the past fifty years, the gap between the cohorts aged 0–14 years and 15–64 years increased by a factor of 25. The workingage people (ages 15–64) now account for 73% of the population. The retired population’s share has also been rising. Approximately 56% of Jamaicans reside in urban areas, which is significantly below the Latin American and Caribbean countries’ average of 83%. Working-aged people will remain the largest share of the population until 2050. 3.5

Total Population Population aged 0-14 yr

3.0

Population aged 15-64 yr 2.83

Population aged 65 yr and above

2.5

2.06

1.89

2.0

1.5

1.0

0.92 0.86 0.56

0.5 0.21

0.12

0.0 1960

1965

1970

1975

1980

1985

1990

1995

2000

2005

2010

2015

2020

2025

Figure 3. Evolution of the population of Jamaica, 1960−2022. Source: Author, based on data provided by the UN Statistics Division.

To leverage the demographic dividend and achieve sustained productivity increases, efficient investments in human capital are required, even after the share of the working-age population begins to decline. Overall, the magnitude of the demographic dividends could be greater if Jamaica can achieve policy outcomes in education, savings investment, and employment (World Bank Group, 2022b). Over the past fifteen years, Jamaica’s population growth has slowed dramatically, down to 0.26% as of 2019 and -0.01% in 2022 (see Fig. 4). According to the PIOJ, the country is now on track to stabilise its growth and stay in line with United Nations (UN) recommendations. In the years to come,5 the population growth rate in Jamaica is expected to continue to be constant before slowly declining around the year 2030. Contributing factors are that the net migration is expected to remain at least -16,000 over the next 30 years, and the birth rate will continue to be under two children born to the average Jamaican woman. Current projections believe that the growth rate will be down to -0.62% by the year 2050, and the population of Jamaica will be around 2,932,629 in 2030 before beginning to decline towards 2,858,381 in 2040 and 2,703,591 by 2050.

5 https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/jamaica-population

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  GOàSPIN Country Profiles in Science, Technology and Innovation Policy - Volume 13

Jamaica: Mapping the landscape of the research and innovation system in a small island developing state The working-age population (15–64 years) will continue to dominate Jamaica’s demographic landscape until 2050. To fully capitalise on the demographic dividend and ensure sustained productivity growth, making efficient investments in human capital is crucial. Achieving favourable policy outcomes in areas such as education, savings investment, and employment could amplify the magnitude of the demographic dividends (World Bank Group, 2022b). 1.8% 1.6% 1.4%

1.56%

1.50%

1.30%

1.2%

1.24%

1.20%

1.01%

1.0% 0.8% 0.79%

0.6%

0.50% 0.50%

0.4%

0.38%

0.26%

0.2% 0.0% -0.01%

-0.2% 1960

1965

1970

1975

1980

1985

1990

1995

2000

2005

2010

2015

2020

2025

Figure 4. Evolution of the population growth rate of Jamaica (%), 1960−2022. The dotted line represents the best-fitting curve. Source: Author, based on data provided by the UN Statistics Division.

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IN JAMAICA The concept of human development focuses on the result rather than the means of achieving development. This holistic approach puts people at the centre of the development process. Since 1989, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has been measuring the Human Development Index (HDI). It describes in a summary way the achievements of a country in relation to three dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, access to knowledge, and a decent standard of living.6 If inequalities in human development persist and grow, the aspirations of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development will remain unfulfilled. Gaps are narrowing in critical dimensions of human development, while others are only now emerging. Policy choices determine inequality outcomes – as they do the evolution and impact of climate change or the direction of technology, both of which will shape inequalities over the next few decades. The HDI’s country coverage is, of course, limited by data availability. A long and healthy life is measured by life expectancy. Knowledge level is measured by mean years of schooling among the adult population, which is the average number of years of schooling received in a lifetime by people aged 25 years and older, and access to learning and knowledge by expected years of schooling for children of school-entry

6 https://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/2021-22_HDR/hdr2021-22_technical_notes.pdf

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Mapping Research and Innovation in Jamaica

age, which is the total number of years of schooling a child of school-entry age can expect to receive if prevailing patterns of age-specific enrolment rates stay the same throughout the child’s life. Standard of living is measured by Gross National Income per capita expressed in constant 2017 international dollars converted using purchasing power parity (PPP) conversion rates. The data for the three dimensions are normalised with the corresponding lowest and highest values obtained from a sample of 191 countries and then combined into a single index. Each country will have a HDI value situated between 0 and 1. The global rank of countries is obtained by representing each HDI value in descending order. Over the past three decades, the HDI methodology has been evolving. Fig. 5 shows the long-term evolution of Jamaica’s HDI, following the latest methodology for computing it (UNDP, 2022). The trends shown in Fig. 5 can be best explained by disaggregating dimensions into their components. For example, one of the components of a long and healthy life is life expectancy at birth. In 2021, the HDI achieved a score of 0.709, corresponding to the 110th rank over 191 countries. Between 1990 and 2008, the country has shown continuous improvement, moving from a medium human development (0.550 < HDI < 0.699) to a high human development (0.700 < HDI < 0.799). Between 2011 and 2021, the score remained stable with a slight variation. The latest behaviour corresponds to a period where the Gross National Income per capita had a negligible variation (see Fig. 8). At the same time, there was a decrease in the life expectancy at birth (see Fig. 6) and a slight increase in the mean years of schooling. On the other hand, UNDP has been implementing the Gender Development Index which measures gender inequalities in relation to three basic dimensions of human development: health, measured by female and male life expectancy at birth; education, measured by female and male expected years of schooling for children and female and male mean years of schooling for adults ages 25 years and older; and command over economic resources, measured by female and male estimated earned income. The 2021 female HDI value for Jamaica is 0.704 in contrast with 0.711 for males, resulting in a Gender Development Index value of 0.990. 0.730

0.720

0.719

0.714

0.710

0.709

0.712

0.709

0.700

0.690

0.687

0.680

0.669

0.670

0.671 0.664

0.660

0.659

0.650 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 2022

Figure 5. Evolution of Jamaica’s Human Development Index, 1990−2021. Source: Author based on data provided by UNDP (2022).

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  GOàSPIN Country Profiles in Science, Technology and Innovation Policy - Volume 13

Jamaica: Mapping the landscape of the research and innovation system in a small island developing state

76

Women

75.0

Men

74

73.4

73.3

73.4

Total

72.3

72.5

72 70.8

72.2

71.2

70.5

70

68

68.5

68.2 65.7

66

64

62

64.0

62.2

60 1960

1965

1970

1975

1980

1985

1990

1995

2000

2005

2010

2015

2020

2025

Figure 6. Evolution of life expectancy at birth in Jamaica, 1960−2022. Source: Author, based on data provided by the UN Statistics Division.

Moreover, the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index considers inequalities in all three dimensions of the HDI by ‘discounting’ each dimension’s average value according to its level of inequality in the distribution. The ‘loss’ in human development due to inequality is given by the difference between the HDI and the Inequality-adjusted HDI. As the inequality in a country increases the loss in human development also increases. Jamaica’s loss due to inequality is 16.6 %, which lowers the HDI to 0.591 in 2021. Finally, the Gender Inequality Index measures gender inequalities (the loss in human development due to inequality between female and male achievements) in three key dimensions – reproductive health, empowerment, and the labour market. Reproductive health is measured by maternal mortality ratio and adolescent birth rates; empowerment is measured by the shares of parliamentary seats held and population with at least some secondary education by each gender; and labour market participation is measured by the labour force participation rates for women and men. Jamaica has a Gender Inequality Index value of 0.335, ranking it 80 out of 170 countries in 2021.

LONG-TERM VISION AND THE NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN In 2005, the then-Minister of Finance and Planning challenged the PIOJ to elaborate a national development plan that was “realistic, achievable, and more relevant to the country’s realities.” This was the beginning of Vision 2030 Jamaica. The PIOJ was encouraged to create Vision 2030 Jamaica, a 25-year national development plan. The Plan Advisory Group, chaired by a leader in the private sector and comprised of members from the public, private, and civil society sectors, provided strategic guidance and a national perspective during the plan’s formulation. It also championed support for the process among civil society organisations and the private sector. A core team within PIOJ oversaw the timely preparation, articulation, and monitoring of the plan.

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Mapping Research and Innovation in Jamaica

The development of Vision 2030 Jamaica (GoJ, 2009a) was a collaborative effort that included workshops, consultations with various stakeholders, and a national scoping exercise. These stakeholders included the Prime Minister, Cabinet members, opposition leaders, political parties, civil society groups, young entrepreneurs, students, the media, the private sector, and international development partners. The preparation of Vision 2030 Jamaica started in 2006 under the People’s National Party government but was finalised under the Jamaica Labour Party government. During the budget debate in May 2009, then-Prime Minister Bruce Golding presented the plan and its companion implementation guide, the Medium-Term Socio-Economic Policy Framework 2009–2012, in the Houses of Parliament. Despite changes in government or administration over the past decade, the national development plan has been steadfastly implemented and each government has taken ownership of it, ensuring its sustainability. The National Vision Statement of the plan establishes “Jamaica, the place of choice to live, work, raise families, and do business.” The Vision 2030 Jamaica plan is based on four strategic goals that are interdependent and designed to complement each other. These goals serve as the pillars for Jamaica’s sustainable prosperity and are crucial for achieving the country’s vision. The four national goals are further broken down into 15 national outcomes, which will be pursued through focused national strategies. These outcomes reflect the desired changes in development conditions and are aligned with specific goals, illustrating the roadmap for success under Vision 2030 Jamaica. The table below provides a brief overview of the goals and outcomes. Moreover, according to the Medium-Term Socio-Economic Policy Framework 2021–2024 and National Outcome #11 – A Technology-Enabled Society, the GoJ proposes to Implement the National Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (GoJ, 2022a), conduct a technology readiness assessment for Jamaica’s first S&T research park, support MSMEs though the innovation lab and science resource centre in capacity building, product development and accrediting of analytical services (PIOJ, 2022b).

Table 1. National goals and outcomes from Vision 2030 Jamaica. National Goals

National Outcomes A healthy and stable population

Jamaicans are empowered to achieve their fullest potential

World-class education and training Effective social protection Authentic and transformational culture

Jamaican society is safe, cohesive, and just

Security and safety Effective governance A stable macroeconomy An enabling business environment Strong economic infrastructure Energy security and efficiency A technology-enabled society

Jamaica’s economy is prosperous

Jamaica has a healthy natural environment

International competitive industry structures Agriculture Manufacturing Mining and quarrying Construction Creative industries Sport Information and communications technology Services Tourism a. Sustainable management and use of environmental and natural resources b. Hazard risk reduction and adaptation to climate change c. Sustainable urban and rural development

Source: GoJ (2009a)

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Jamaica: Mapping the landscape of the research and innovation system in a small island developing state

BOX 1. VISION 2030 JAMAICA – SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION AS A DRIVER FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT The National Commission on Science and Technology (NCST) has been Jamaica’s main coordinating agency for STI. A draft National S&T Policy was prepared by NCST to strengthen the framework governing STI within the framework of Vision 2030 Jamaica (GoJ, 2009b). Through the “National Outcome # 11: A Technology-Enabled Society,” Vision 2030 Jamaica identified the following issues and challenges:

Issues and Challenges Low Levels of Investment in R&D. Our capacity for research and innovation is limited by the relatively low levels of overall expenditure on R&D. Despite path-breaking work in agricultural research and the recent expansion of the science infrastructure, we spend less than 1% of GDP on scientific R&D. Lack of a National Innovation System. A National Innovation System (NIS) can contribute to the delivery of economic and social prosperity. There are many real challenges in our STI development processes, which are still relatively underdeveloped. Linkages between key players in the innovation process are weak or, in some cases, non-existent compared to innovation processes in the developed world and rapidly developing economies deliberately poised to leapfrog into developed country status. Without effective linkages among key stakeholders, the diffusion of STI into our economy will remain challenging. Protection of Intellectual Property. IP is the fundamental resource of innovation. We already possess the basic legal framework for the protection of IP. However, the framework has several weaknesses, including limited capacity of collecting agencies and other institutions, existing elevated levels of piracy, and relatively low public appreciation of the importance of IPR. Jamaica is not a signatory to many IP treaties and conventions, including the Madrid Protocol. The longterm development of innovative potential will require planning to address these weaknesses. Limited Role of Government. In addition to its role in providing the regulatory and legislative framework, the Government can play a greater catalytic role through the demonstration effect of its adoption of information technology and the impetus it can provide through the promotion of e-government for online access and provision of Government services. However, there has been no specific vision or agenda for STI development, nor specific approaches on how STI can advance a broader national vision. Human Resource Development. There is still inadequate S&T education at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels. Secondary school examination pass rates are particularly low in subjects that are critical for technological progress, including mathematics and sciences. We have a low capacity for enquiry-based approaches to learning, and scientific enquiry is not a core component of teacher training. Technology deployment and usage is still curtailed by a combination of human resource factors including high illiteracy rates, loss of ICT skills due to migration, and low skill levels and high technology anxiety among the elderly. Inadequate Data on the ICT industry. The ICT industry suffers from the absence of quantitative data at both the micro and macro levels. There is also inadequate information on the status of ICT for development and the application of ICT in other industries and sectors. Financial support and attention will be placed on obtaining the necessary data to better inform the decisions that must guide the creation of a technology-enabled society.

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Mapping Research and Innovation in Jamaica

National Strategies STI is fundamental to fostering economic growth and global competitiveness and is a sine qua non for advancing national development. Under Vision 2030 Jamaica, we will maximise the contribution of S&T to all areas of national development. We will undertake strategies to build our capacity for R&D and apply and adapt S&T to practical and productive uses. These strategies will lay the foundation for our long-term transition to a knowledge-based society and innovation-based economy. The National Strategies, an elaboration of each and some selected sector strategies are listed below: 11.1 Integrate science and technology into all areas of development. Integrating S&T into all areas of development is important in creating a knowledge-based economy and fostering economic growth and global competitiveness. Vision 2030 Jamaica will enable our country to leap forward to become an acknowledged leader in this field through increasing participation in the sciences; developing capacities among the public and private sectors and academia to identify and adopt appropriate technologies; applying S&T to economic and social processes; and promoting access to technological solutions for all categories of our population. Selected Sector Strategies: • Build capacity for effective S&T education in primary and secondary schools. • Use ICT to enhance learning in the formal education system. • Build strong links and create a two-way knowledge transfer between research in tertiary institutions and the marketplace. • Create and improve strategic public-private sector partnerships to build S&T skills and competencies and improve infrastructure. • Review and define roles of R&D institutions to gain maximum output of STI investments. • Make available and accessible geospatial data, products, and services to all users, to facilitate planning, sustainable use, management, and development of the island’s resources. • Create and maintain a coordinated and creative funding mechanism for R&D and innovation such as venture capital, foreign direct investment, revolving loan scheme for MSMEs, tax concessions on R&D equipment, and a national R&D fund. • Create an effective policy and legislative framework to support and advance STI including strengthening the IPR System. • Develop a viable and robust STI policy aligned with other policies (including biotechnology, energy, agriculture, environment, industrial, science education, health, mining, and ICT). • Align STI investments to solve national problems in industry, environment, and society. • Commercialise research and innovation. • Encourage innovative use and application of ICT by Jamaican private enterprises and Government. • Promote lifelong learning in ICT. • Strengthen and modify the policy, legislative and regulatory framework governing the ICT sector in a transparent, effective, and efficient way. • Integrate ICT in the administration of justice and law enforcement. • Promote greater use of Free and Open-Source Software. • Entrench a dynamic national and local decision-making process based on reliable scientific and other relevant information. 11.2 Establish a Dynamic and Responsive National Innovation System

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  GOàSPIN Country Profiles in Science, Technology and Innovation Policy - Volume 13

Analysing Jamaica through the GOSPIN lens: An introduction to the country profile

Vision 2030 Jamaica will develop an effective world-class NIS to contribute to the delivery of economic and social prosperity. We will create effective linkages among key NIS stakeholders to diffuse STI in the economy. We will also build STI capacity (laboratories, processes, and organisations) and the critical mass necessary for transforming Jamaica’s economy and society. This NIS will enable us to ‘catch up’ as quickly as possible and take a leap forward in moving our country to become an acknowledged leader in the application of STI. Selected Sector Strategies: • Align investment in STI infrastructure with national development goals. • Create financing and incentive mechanisms to attract more research-intensive activity in Jamaica. • Promote the formation of and nurture STI professional organisations as vehicles for STI capacity formation and conduits for the flow of STI knowledge and skills into the country’s innovation system. • Create knowledge parks and centres of excellence to facilitate R&D and innovation, emphasising indigenous technology. • Identify priorities for STI infrastructure development consistent with state development objectives and the STI vision to deliver joint investment by industry, research institutions and Government. • Develop and organise world-class research teams across all disciplines. • Create a national research and development agenda and establish appropriate mechanisms to encourage the private sector to become a dominant player in STI and R&D activities. • Increase commercial funding and grants for ICT research and innovation. Source: Excepts from Vision 2030 Jamaica (GoJ, 2009a)

LONG TERM ECONOMIC GROWTH Jamaica’s real GDP has grown at an average annual rate of 0.2% since 2010, which is considerably lower than the 0.8% growth rate of the Caribbean small states (see Table 2). The country experienced a period of financial liberalisation in the early 1990s, which led to a growth acceleration. However, this was short-lived as a domestic financial crisis emerged, causing a deep recession and a significant increase in public debt in the latter half of the decade. A modest economic recovery occurred from 2001 to 2007, but it was short-lived as the global financial crisis of 2008 triggered another recession. This resulted in a further decline in Jamaica’s economic performance and an increase in debt levels (World Bank Group, 2022b). Since 2013, Jamaica’s real GDP growth has averaged 0.38% per year, coinciding with the implementation of successive stabilisation programmes led by the International Monetary Fund. Nonetheless, even Jamaica’s best-performing sectors, such as tourism, transport, storage, and communications, have grown slower than those of several regional peers over the past three decades. Fig. 7 shows the long-term trends in Jamaica’s GDP from 1965 to 2022 expressed in 2015 constant billion US$. Analysis of the graph reveals four periods where the GDP grew steadily – from 1965 to 1972, 1985 to 1995, 1998 to 2007, and 2010 to 2018. These periods were followed by periods of decline from 1972 to 1985, 1996 to 1998, 2007 to 2010, and 2019 to 2020.

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Billion

Mapping Research and Innovation in Jamaica

15.6 14.9

14.7

13.6

14.7

13.7

13.1

13.5

12.6

11.6 10.8

9.6 8.8

8.3

7.6

8.4

7.0

5.6 1965

1970

1975

1980

1985

1990

1995

2000

2005

2010

2015

2020

Figure 7. Evolution of GDP expressed in constant 2015 billion US$ in Jamaica, 1966−2022. The dotted line exhibits the best fitting curve. Source: Author, based on data provided by the World Bank databank (2023).

The country’s progress was hindered by the North American Free Trade Agreement, which negatively impacted critical sectors like the garment industry. Additionally, a domestic financial crisis in the mid-1990s led to a sharp contraction in economic activity and a 40% spike in public debt-to-GDP ratio. Although a modest recovery took place between 2001 and 2007, the global financial crisis in 2008 led to another recession, amplifying the already weak domestic economic performance and increasing debt levels. The strategic location of the country, along with its large English-speaking workforce and competitive costs, has been instrumental in driving the growth of BPO services. As per government estimates, the sector’s revenue has witnessed a significant surge from US$ 400 million in 2016 to approximately US$ 780 million in 2021. In line with this growth, the number of direct employees in the sector has also risen considerably, from 17,000 in 2015 across 30 companies to over 44,000 in 2021 across 95 domestic and international firms. Over the past three decades, even the best-performing sub-sectors such as tourism (+2.8% annual growth) and transport, storage, and communication (+2.6% annual growth) failed to match the respective averages of their regional peers, which were 7.4% and 7.6%. Mining and agriculture have also made negligible contributions to growth during this period. Greater private sector participation was required to bolster the growth sectors, which could have been achieved by liberalisation and the government’s retreat from selected sectors in the 1990s. Jamaica’s economic growth has persistently remained low, and per capita income has remained relatively constant over the past thirty years. Between 2010 and 2022, the real GDP expanded at an annual average rate of 0.2%, which was the lowest positive rate in the region, ranking 15th out of 22 countries listed in Table 2. This was insufficient to prevent a slight decline in per capita income, which fell to US$ 5,187 in 2022 from its peak of US$ 5,648 in 1972, when adjusted for inflation. The same trend is observed when analysing the income per capita in 2017 constant PPP international dollars (see Fig. 8).

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  GOàSPIN Country Profiles in Science, Technology and Innovation Policy - Volume 13

Jamaica: Mapping the landscape of the research and innovation system in a small island developing state

12,000 10,500

10,056

10,244

10,012

10,000 9,700

9,445

8,000

5,648

6,000

4,000

9,208

8,693

5,440

5,210

5,308

4,771 3,971 3,684

2,000 Constant 2015 US$ 0 1965

1970

1975

1980

1985

PPP Constant 2017 International $ 1990

1995

2000

2005

2010

2015

2020

Figure 8. Evolution of GDP per capita, expressed in constant 2015 US$ (green line) and in constant 2017 international PPP $ (circles), in Jamaica, 1966−2022. The dotted line exhibits the best-fitting curve. Source: Author, based on data provided by the World Bank databank (2023).

Jamaica’s economy, heavily dependent on tourism, has been severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Strategies such as border closures, business shutdowns, and school closures meant to curb the spread of the virus have adversely affected economic performance. The emergence of the Omicron strain of the virus has further dented any prospects of economic recovery, given the challenges posed by key source markets like the US. The Jamaican Government’s policy focus remains on protecting citizens from community spread of COVID-19, reducing vaccine hesitancy, and supporting economic growth. As per the Bank of Jamaica, the Jamaican economy shrank by 10% in 2020, with the pandemic having a particularly damaging effect on travel, production, distribution, and entertainment industries. The services sector, especially hotels and restaurants, the “other services” category, and transport, storage, and communications, saw sharp drops in value-added due to the decline in travel and the slowdown of port activity. These effects may lead to a deterioration of fiscal gains and balance of payments if tourism receipts do not recover soon (ECLAC, 2023b). The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented damage to the economy and society of Jamaica. After the first case was declared, losses related to the outbreak amounted to J$ 84.59 billion, or 4.01% of GDP/Real Value Added, over four months. Almost 60% of the total losses were attributed to the Productive Sector, with the Tourism industry alone accounting for J$ 32.35 billion. The pandemic has resulted in significant changes to the economic trajectory, which was previously showing positive signs (Henry, 2022). The pandemic has disrupted the supply chain across all sectors, causing delays or freezes to project activities and overruns in costs and time. The fisheries sector faced challenges in importing hormones from Asia, causing adverse impacts on the aquaculture sub-sector that relies on imported inputs. Social services projects, primarily infrastructure and social services activities, including the Jamaica Disaster Vulnerability Reduction Project and Rural Economic Development Project, faced delays in scheduled activities (GoJ, 2020a).

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Mapping Research and Innovation in Jamaica

Table 2. Annual percentage change in real GDP for a selection of Caribbean countries 2010−2022.

Country

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022

Average 2010-22

Antigua and Barbuda*

-9.1

-3.1

2.3

-1.5

2.9

3.0

4.8

2.5

6.2

3.8

-18.0

5.9

7.8

0.6

Aruba (Netherlands)

-3.8

2.4

-1.8

5.6

-0.7

2.9

1.5

4.9

4.7

0.2

-18.7

17.2

..

1.2

0.1

-0.6

2.0

-3.8

0.9

0.1

-0.9

1.6

0.8

-1.4

-23.9

16.6

13.8

0.4

Barbados*

-2.7

-1.0

-0.7

-1.7

-0.3

2.3

2.3

0.3

-1.2

-0.3

-13.5

-0.4

9.8

-0.5

Belize*

-1.2

-2.4

1.5

2.2

1.8

1.2

-1.9

-3.6

-0.8

2.6

-14.7

13.7

10.7

0.7

Bermuda (UK)

-1.7

-2.9

-5.6

-0.6

-3.9

0.6

0.4

4.7

-0.5

0.3

-6.8

3.2

3.3

-0.7

The Bahamas*

2.3

2.7

2.9

2.6

1.0

4.4

0.5

1.9

2.3

-0.1

-10.8

1.7

..

0.9

-1.2

-0.8

-0.9

-1.9

-2.5

-1.0

-1.9

-2.0

-1.7

-2.2

-17.1

6.0

..

-2.3

Dominica*

0.7

-0.2

-1.3

-0.9

3.9

-3.6

2.7

-7.1

2.9

4.6

-17.3

6.3

5.5

-0.3

Dominican Republic

6.9

1.8

1.4

3.6

5.7

5.7

5.4

3.5

5.8

3.9

-7.7

11.1

3.8

3.9

-1.2

0.0

-2.0

1.4

6.4

5.5

2.9

3.6

3.6

-0.1

-14.4

3.9

5.1

1.1

Cuba Curacao (Netherlands)

Grenada*

4.6

5.7

5.3

3.2

1.2

0.2

3.3

3.2

1.5

3.6

43.8

19.0

57.0

11.7

Haiti*

-6.7

3.9

-1.0

2.8

1.4

0.0

0.4

1.1

0.3

-3.0

-4.6

-3.0

-2.8

-0.9

Jamaica*

-1.9

1.3

-1.1

0.0

0.3

0.6

1.1

0.8

1.8

0.8

-10.1

4.3

4.2

0.2

..

..

..

..

..

..

..

..

..

7.0

-5.3

1.3

3.0

1.5

Guyana*

Montserrat*

0.1

0.8

1.2

0.8

0.4

0.7

0.7

-0.5

-0.4

1.7

-6.8

1.0

4.7

0.3

St. Kitts and Nevis*

-0.2

1.2

-0.8

5.6

7.5

0.7

3.9

0.0

2.1

4.2

-14.4

-0.8

8.9

1.4

St. Lucia*

-0.4

3.6

-0.7

-2.5

0.8

-0.4

3.0

3.0

2.5

-1.0

-24.6

12.0

15.3

0.8

St. Vincent and the Grenadines*

-4.0

-0.1

1.7

3.1

1.7

3.2

4.7

1.9

3.4

1.0

-3.5

1.0

5.3

1.5

Puerto Rico**

Suriname*

4.0

4.7

1.6

1.9

-0.8

-4.4

-5.9

0.5

3.9

0.1

-16.9

-3.7

1.1

-1.1

Trinidad and Tobago*

2.7

-1.0

5.8

3.1

2.6

-1.4

-7.3

-5.3

-2.6

-0.9

-7.6

-1.5

2.1

-0.9

Caribbean Small States

0.7

0.5

2.5

0.8

1.5

-0.3

-2.3

-1.1

0.3

0.2

-9.4

5.2

12.2

0.8

Source: World Bank databank (2023) Notes: * Member of CARICOM. ** Unincorporated organised territory of the US with local self-government; republican form of territorial government with separate executive, legislative, and judicial branches.

Delivery of social protection services, particularly in education, health, assistance to the poor, vulnerable, youth, and persons with disabilities, was severely disrupted by the pandemic. The loss of employment and markets resulted in immediate impacts on thousands of people who rely on customer-driven livelihoods and informal economic activity (Henry, 2022). In order for Jamaica to attain high-income status by 2030, the country needs to make a strong recovery from the economic impact of COVID-19 and achieve a sharp and consistent acceleration in economic growth. This can be accomplished by maximising the potential of existing industries like tourism and promoting higher-value-added products and services. Additionally, the country needs to move towards innovation-driven development, which includes strengthening the business environment, enhancing economic infrastructure, increasing energy security and efficiency, and promoting internationally competitive industry structures. To achieve these goals, the government must explore innovative financing solutions such as public-private partnerships (World Bank Group, 2022a).

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JAMAICA AND THE REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL AGENDAS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT The Jamaican National Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (GoJ, 2022a) proposes strategy 1.2.4, defined as to “Promote regional and international research and technological cooperation in areas of interest to Jamaica with special focus on South-South Cooperation (SSC).” Jamaica’s cooperation issues are handled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, specifically by its Multilateral Affairs Division and Bilateral, Regional and Hemispheric Affairs Division. The PIOJ, through the External Cooperation Management Division, aids in managing cooperation agreements and programmes into which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade enters. However, Jamaica’s access to development finance has been restricted, although it has a long-standing history of strong South-South Cooperation partnerships with Latin America and the Caribbean countries, which have expanded since the 1990s (Byron and Laguardia Martínez, 2021a). Bilateral joint commissions have been effective governance mechanisms in these processes. Multilateral agencies and partner countries working through triangular cooperation agreements have supported Jamaica in building the capacity it needs to make further progress with implementation of the 2030 Agenda. The country has established an extensive network of partners in the global South, located in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean. Among its partners are the CARICOM, and Cuba. Since 2010, China and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela have been Jamaica’s two key partners (ECLAC, 2023c). Particularly, UNESCO has assisted Jamaica in implementing successive roadmaps for its sustainable development, starting with the Barbados Programme of Action in 1994, then the Mauritius Strategy in 2005 and the SAMOA Pathway in 2014. Jamaica is also part of the new UNESCO Operational Strategy for SIDS (2023–2029), its six SIDS Accelerator Programmes and the related partnership and resource mobilisation plan (UNESCO, 2023c). Moreover, the International Science Council (ISC) has recently identified a set of priority science issues for SIDS, including determining critical pillars for resilience, innovation, and prosperity. This call to action underscores the importance of the SIDS scientific community’s response, highlighting their integral role in addressing these issues (ISC, 2014), which also constitute a priority for Jamaica.

Regional Agendas for STI In 2007, the Caribbean Council for Science and Technology (CCST) presented a Regional Policy Framework for Science, Technology and Innovation to the CARICOM. This framework was an attempt to precisely guide the region’s policy and decision-makers on building STI capacity to meet the pressing new demands of the knowledge-driven era (CARICOM, 2007). For the CARICOM region, achieving meaningful human resource development improvements is critical to enhancing workforce productivity, global competitiveness, and innovation. The regional strategy is focused on expanding the number of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) graduates in the tertiary education sector to become a significant enabler for driving innovation and technological advancement (CARICOM, 2018). Developing robust labour market information and intelligence systems is crucial to assess skills requirements and inform education and training systems in CARICOM Member States. This requires a greater emphasis on STEM, entrepreneurship education, as well as technical and vocational education and training (TVET). The Strategic Plan for the Caribbean Community (CARICOM, 2014) outlines a holistic approach to reviewing education and training systems’ existing structure and content. This approach

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emphasises the relevance of curricula at all levels and highlights innovation and creativity, digital literacy, entrepreneurship, gender and inclusiveness, teacher preparation, and the efficient use of resources. Advancing these areas will contribute to creating a more robust workforce that can meet the demands of a rapidly changing labour market. The CARICOM Strategic Plan also calls for a policy and legislative framework to set R&D agendas, allocate resources, and promote intra-regional cooperation. Moreover, the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) has a specific private sector strategy to increase innovation and entrepreneurship (CDB, 2017). Jamaica has several initiatives that allow its insertion into the international scientific community and seek to improve its position. The International Centre for Environmental and Nuclear Science (ICENS), founded in 1984, is a multidisciplinary research centre based on peaceful atomic applications. The main programmes at present deal with environmental geochemistry and health, with the overall objective of contributing to the solution of socio-economic problems, including environmental protection and the development of local scientific talent. The centre was created under the aegis of the Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South (COMSATS), and it was jointly funded by the UWI and the Jamaican Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining. Jamaica is also part of CARIFORUM. The relationship between Africa, CARIFORUM and Pacific countries with the European Union (EU) is governed by the ACP-EU Partnership Agreement (2000), also known as the Cotonou Agreement, which unites over one hundred partner countries and some 1.5 billion people. It is the most comprehensive partnership agreement ever signed between the EU and non-member countries. Among the stated objectives of the Agreement are the following: (a) sustainable development of member states making poverty reduction a matter of priority, (b) establishing a new, fairer, and more equitable world order and the establishment and (c) consolidation of peace and stability in a free and democratic society. The Cotonou Agreement regulates the cooperation of Jamaica with the EU on STI issues. Within the hemispheric framework, Jamaica has a pivotal role within the Organization of American States (OAS) in hosting the Sixth Meeting of Ministers and High Authorities on Science and Technology (known as VI REMCYT) within the Framework of the Inter-American Council for Integral Development, the 2022 International Seminar on Transformative Technologies and Technology Foresight for the Americas and led Jamaica’s efforts towards the facilitation of the Ninth Summit of the Americas (held in Los Angeles, from 6 to 10 June 2022). The VI REMCYT organised in Jamaica (December 2021) focused on promoting the use of STI to address the main imperatives concerning integral development in the Americas and to solve pressing priorities in the region, such as food security, health, education, security, energy, connectivity, risk management for disaster mitigation and preparedness, addressing climate change, COVID-19 and future challenges, through strengthened collaboration and cooperation in research, technological development and innovation, sharing of science and data-driven inputs for informed decision making among member states. The resolutions assumed by the hemispheric Ministers and High Authorities on Science and Technology within the “Declaration of Jamaica” are listed in Box 2. Moreover, the Minister of Science, Energy, Telecommunications and Transport, the Honourable Daryl Vaz, was also named Chairperson of the Inter-American Committee of Science and Technology (COMCYT) for the OAS for the ministerial cycle 2022–2024. This was the first time a Caribbean nation has held this post since establishing the committee 18 years ago. The COMCYT is a high-level regional forum for the design and execution of public policies and the establishment of alliances for development in the areas of STI. The mission of COMCYT is to contribute to the definition of OAS policy on scientific, technological and innovative partnerships for development. Jamaica’s implementation of SSC programmes has been successful due to the leadership of public sector agencies and civil-society actors. South-South cooperation has had a significant impact on Jamaica’s health, education, energy, social protection, and other areas of social policy. The country is also emerging as a contributor to South-South cooperation in several areas of expertise, including sports development, election monitoring, tourism development, and social protection programmes (ECLAC, 2023c).

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BOX 2. EXCERPTS FROM THE OAS DECLARATION OF JAMAICA: “HARNESSING THE POWER OF TRANSFORMATIVE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGIES TO DRIVE OUR COMMUNITIES FORWARD” WE, THE MINISTERS AND HIGH AUTHORITIES ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF THE MEMBER STATES OF THE ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES (OAS), gathered virtually on December 7 and 8, 2021, on the occasion of the Sixth Meeting of Ministers and High Authorities on Science and Technology within the Framework of the Inter-American Council for Integral Development (CIDI), …resolve: 11. To implement the Declaration of Jamaica as the framework to advance action driven cooperation on science, technology and innovation in the Americas for the period 2022-2024. 12. To renew our commitment and support to the COMCYT and the work of its four Working Groups 1: Innovation; 2: Human Resources and Engineering Education; 3: National Quality Infrastructure; and 4: Technological Development, including the ongoing voluntary programmes of Prospecta Americas and the HUB on Commercialisation and Transfer of Technology for the Americas. 13. To support the launch of the “Americas Youth Academy on Transformative Science and Technologies,” building on existing resources and partner offerings, to provide online training, dynamic learning, remote training labs, mentoring and hands-on experiences to equip youth with the necessary skills and credentials to obtain the jobs of the future and skills in transformative technologies and encourage member states to support this initiative with offers of cooperation and partnership opportunities to serve up to 10,000 youth by 2024 with a focus on women, youth, rural and indigenous communities individuals within traditionally underrepresented groups or populations in vulnerable situations. 14. To pursue the development of an OAS Regional Network of Centres of Excellence in science and technologies to map trends and capabilities in the Americas, address strategic challenges, and find solutions to everyday problems through shared expertise and resources from multiple stakeholders of OAS member states. We commend the Governments of Colombia, Mexico, and Jamaica/Caribbean for the launch of the first Centres of Excellence including Prospecta Americas on Robotics and Artificial Intelligence in Barranquilla, Colombia (Universidad Simon Bolivar), Blockchain in the State of Hidalgo, and in Jamaica/ Caribbean. We invite member states to collaborate with these initiatives and pursue other Centres of Excellence to enhance regional cooperation on transformative technologies between governments, research universities and centres, private sector, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other partners of the COMCYT. 15. To urge member states to exchange guidelines for protecting human rights in the context of transformative science, innovations, and technologies, good practices, lessons learned, experiences, training opportunities, and technical assistance to promote research, the use and dissemination of transformative science, innovation, knowledge from local, indigenous, afro descendant, and other ethnic groups; and the voluntary transfer of technology on mutually agreed terms to support post-COVID-19, recovery, the implementation of Industry 4.0 technologies, the development of a sustainable bioeconomy and the digital transformation of member states within the framework of the COMCYT and its four Working Groups. 16. To promote collaboration on science, technology, and innovation with OAS Permanent Observer States and COMCYT partners including universities, research centres, NGOs, private sector, and other international organisations to support the implementation of the Declaration of Jamaica. 17. To endeavour to allocate the technical, human, and economic resources necessary for participation in the meetings and activities of the working groups and to disseminate their convocation, meetings, and results to ministries of other sectors, international organisations, and other related institutions that could contribute to, and benefit from, those groups, according to available resources in each member state and the OAS. 18. To acknowledge with gratitude the contributions made by the Chairs and Vice-Chairs of Working Group 1: Mexico, Costa Rica, Working Group 2: Argentina, Nicaragua, Working Group

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3: Canada, United States and Paraguay; and Working Group 4: Guatemala and Chile, as well as the partners of all the Working Groups of the COMCYT. 19. To instruct the Executive Secretariat for Integral Development (SEDI), as Technical Secretariat of the COMCYT, to continue providing technical assistance and facilitating communication in the Working Groups and implementation of collaborative projects and initiatives agreed on by member states, including by convening and organising videoconferences and face-toface meetings, when possible, among others. 20. To instruct SEDI to prepare a draft work plan based on this Declaration and the action plans of the four COMCYT Working Groups, for consideration by the ministerial process authorities. 21. To thank the Government of Jamaica for its commitment, and contribution to the success of the Sixth Meeting of Ministers and High Authorities on Science and Technology within the Framework of CIDI. 22. To refer the following recommendations contained in this Declaration of Jamaica to the Summit of the Americas, to be held in the United States in 2022: a. Connectivity for ALL in the Americas. To accelerate the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, reduce the widening technological and social gaps, and pursue a sustainable, green, resilient and equitable future, we make an urgent regional call to action to close the digital divide and promote secure, reliable connectivity for ALL to high-quality broadband services at affordable prices in all of our countries, with a special focus on access for women, youth, rural and indigenous communities and individuals within traditionally underrepresented groups or populations in vulnerable situations. b. Americas Youth Academy on Transformative Science and Technologies. To harness the power of transformative science and technologies to drive our communities forward and address our youth’s skills gap and readiness to participate in the digital and innovationdriven economies and societies, We support the launch of the “Americas Youth Academy on Transformative Science and Technologies” with concrete offers of cooperation and partnership opportunities to serve up to 100,000 youth by 2026, to support those most affected by the pandemic, including students in lower socioeconomic status, women, minorities, and less skilled workers. c. Centres of Excellence Prospecta Americas. To promote the use of S&T to address the main imperatives concerning integral development in the Americas and to solve pressing challenges in the region, such as food security, health, education, security, energy, disaster mitigation and preparedness, mitigation and adaptation to climate change, COVID-19 and others. We support the development of an OAS Regional Network of Centres of Excellence focused on top transformative science and technologies to improve collaboration on research, sharing of science and data driven inputs for decision making, enhance the acquisition and distribution of knowledge of transformative technologies, assess potential risks and promote collaboration in the Americas. Source: OAS; Inter-American Council for Integral Development (SIDI); Sixth Meeting of Ministers and High Authorities of Science and Technology, OEA/Ser K/XVIII.6.

International Agendas – Research and Innovation for SDGs The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development acknowledges that STI are vital drivers in enabling the transformation towards prosperous, inclusive and environmentally sustainable economies. Advancing the SDGs requires innovating both socially and technologically while keeping in mind the practicality, costeffectiveness, and scalability of the technologies employed. This will need significant investment in R&D, and a redirection of subsidies and incentives towards sustainable technologies and practices. Once these technologies reach a tipping point in terms of cost and market conditions, investors can step in and scale finances throughout the transition (UNDESA, 2019; EU-UN-IATT, 2021; Ciarli, 2022).

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The scientific knowledge required to achieve the necessary transformations for meeting the 2030 Agenda has been available for some time. The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) affirms that the current challenge is to enable society, including scientists, to persuade governments to make bold and often tough decisions, and promote behavioural change to effectively utilise the power of S&T, which can serve as an effective lever to initiate, hasten, and stabilise the transformation process (UNDESA, 2023). The least developed countries (LDC) require better access to mature technologies and cooperation in R&D pertaining to their specific needs. Apart from technological advancements, more investment in international cooperation is needed, including research and innovation that covers social, economic, environmental, cultural, and political aspects of transformation. Researchers in the scientific community can help the public understand complex and emerging sustainable development concepts through evidencebased solutions devised in collaboration with governments and other stakeholders (UNDESA, 2023). In order to develop an effective research and innovation roadmap for the SDGs, it is crucial to establish a baseline that assesses a country’s current situation regarding the selected SDGs. This assessment is necessary to set realistic goals, and it also helps to identify the factors that will likely impact the situation in the future. Factors such as population growth, climate change, extreme weather, water and food availability, conflict, and security need to be evaluated to determine how they will affect the targeted SDGs and how STI can mitigate or exacerbate those impacts. Moreover, more is needed to assess the current SDG gaps; it is also essential to predict how these gaps will evolve under different scenarios by considering the emerging trends likely to shape the future. This analysis allows for a better understanding of the magnitude of the challenges and helps prioritise the 2030 Agenda, which comprises 17 goals, 169 targets and 231 indicators. The SDG Index is based on inputs gathered from the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), which is the largest global network of scientists and experts that work towards achieving the SDGs. The SDSN conducts an annual open online consultation using draft SDG Index results before the final report is presented. The selection of indicators and performance thresholds is based on several rounds of consultations with SDSN experts, scientists, and the general public. Around one-third of the indicators are sourced from outside official statistics, such as scientific papers or NGOs, to help fill data gaps in official statistics. Although it takes several years to standardise international statistics, especially when methods need to be designed from scratch, the SDG Index aims to fill existing gaps with third-party data wherever possible. The SDG Index is used as a conversation starter within the research and policy community. The SDG Index measures countries’ performance on the 17 SDGs. It tracks distance to pre-defined performance thresholds and evaluates whether countries are on track or off track (based on past growth rates extrapolated to 2030). The SDG Index includes around 100 indicators (this year’s edition includes precisely 97 global indicators), clustered by SDG and normalised on a 0–100 scale using a classic min-max function. Scores are calculated using the arithmetic mean of normalised indicators and presented for each indicator, individual goals, and the SDGs as a whole. For instance, the SDG Index Rank for Jamaica is 77/167, the Index Score is 69.51, and the Spillover Score is 86.8. The missing data to calculate the SDG Index of Jamaica was estimated at 3%, while the statistical performance index is 61.6 (Sachs et al., 2024). Moreover, the dashboards tackle the issue of “compensation” in constructing composite indices. Compensation happens when robust performance in some indicators compensates for weak performance in others. The dashboards address this by targeting the two indicators with the lowest scores under each goal. Since 2015, Vision 2030 Jamaica has served as the national development plan framework for implementing the SDGs in Jamaica (PIOJ, 2021, 2022b). For the PIOJ, the SDGs constitute an interdependent set of 17 “broad and universal” goals to achieve sustainable and inclusive development within and among countries by 2030. The SDGs advance an approach to development that aims to “leave no one behind.”

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Fig. 9 exhibits the 2024 SDGs dashboards and trends for Jamaica. The partnership for the goals index (SDG 17) is the only one on track, but challenges remain. Four other SDGs are moderately improving: three (i.e., SDG 1, SDG 5 and SDG 13) with challenges remaining and one (SDG 9) with significant challenges remaining. There are eight SDGs which are stagnating: four (SDG 3; SDG 7; SDG 8 and SDG 11) with significant challenges remaining and four (SDG 6, SDG 14, SDG 15 and SDG 16) with major challenges remaining. Three SDGs are decreasing: SDG 4, with challenges remaining; SDG 12 with significant challenges and SDG 2. Finally, data was only available about the status of SDG 10 related to the reduction of inequalities, but significant challenges still need to be addressed. Likewise, Fig. 10 shows the 2023 status of SDG targets for Jamaica (% trend indicators), where 40.6% of the SDGs targets have limited progress, 31.9% of the targets are worsening, and only 27.5% of the targets have been achieved or are on track. In order to achieve the SDGs, a combination of new knowledge and technological innovation is necessary.7 This requires the development and implementation of feasible, cost-effective, and scalable technologies, which can be achieved by investing in research and development and shifting subsidies and incentives towards sustainable technologies and practices. Once the technologies have reached a tipping point in terms of cost and market conditions, investors can provide the necessary finance for scaling the transition. In addition, it is essential to provide better access to mature technologies and cooperation for the LDC. Moreover, investment in international cooperation for research and development should not be limited to technological aspects only, but also cover social, economic, environmental, cultural, and political dimensions of the transformation. Finally, scientific researchers can play a crucial role in enhancing public understanding of complex and emerging sustainable development issues, by working together with governments and other stakeholders to devise evidence-based solutions.

S

G

D

G

S

D

D

D

S



D

G

S

D

D

D

A

Major challenges

p Decreasing

Significant challenges

5 Stagnating

Challenges remain

SDG achieved

D Moderately improving L On track or maintaining SDG achievement

Information unavailable

• Information unavailable

Note: The full title of each SDG is available here: https://sdgs.un.org

Figure 9. SDGs dashboards and trends for Jamaica in 2024. Source: https://dashboards.sdgindex.org/profiles/jamaica (Oct. 1, 2024).

7

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In the chapter “A scientometric study of Jamaica” a special section is included on the “Scientific Research in relation to SDGs: Jamaica and the Caribbean” (see pp. 149–151).

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Jamaica: Mapping the landscape of the research and innovation system in a small island developing state

40.6%

31.9%

Worsening Limited progress

27.5%

Achieved or on progress

Figure 10. Status of SDG targets for Jamaica (% trend indicators). Source: Author based on information available at https://dashboards.sdgindex.org/profiles/jamaica (Oct. 1, 2024).

Another hurdle facing most SIDS, like Jamaica, is the lack of high-quality, disaggregated data. Even when the data exist, the small size of their populations often makes it difficult to use standard data metrics to track progress on various SDG indicators. For example, the cases of two sustainable development goals (SDG 9 and 17) where STI are explicitly mentioned are analysed. SDG 9 proposes to build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation. A functioning and resilient infrastructure is the foundation of every thriving community. In order to meet future challenges, industries and infrastructure must be upgraded. For this, we must promote innovative, sustainable technologies and ensure equal and universal access to information and financial markets. This will bring prosperity, create jobs and make sure that we build stable and prosperous societies across the globe. SDG 9 comprises eight targets and twelve indicators. Table 3 describes the indicators in Jamaica (STATIN, 2016) which are produced (PRO), non-produced but data available (NPA) and those indicators which are not produced, and no data is available (NPN). Unfortunately, the most relevant indicators for STI activities are not produced in Jamaica today. Goal 17 of the Sustainable Development Goals emphasises the need for collaboration and access to STI through a global technology facilitation mechanism. Given the multiple crises that are affecting the world, it is more crucial than ever to establish robust mechanisms for cooperation and knowledge sharing. By creating synergies among the expertise and resources available in different regions and institutions, we can achieve the Sustainable Development Goals more efficiently and equitably, rather than working in isolation. SDG 17 comprises nineteen targets and twenty-four indicators. Table 4 describes the indicators in Jamaica, as reported by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) which are produced (PRO), non-produced but data available (NPA), non-available (N/A) and those indicators which are not produced, and no data is available (NPN). Again, the most relevant indicators for STI activities (i.e., 17.6.1) are not produced in Jamaica today (STATIN, 2018). The GOSPIN country profile will contribute to estimate this number.

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Table 3. Indicators required to establish the advancement of SDG 9 (Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation). Status

Indicator

NPN

9.1.1 Proportion of the rural population who live within 2 km of an all-season road

PRO

9.1.2 Passenger and freight volumes, by mode of transport

PRO

9.2.1 Manufacturing value added as a proportion of GDP and per capita

PRO

9.2.2 Manufacturing employment as a proportion of total employment

NPN

9.3.1 Proportion of small-scale industries in total industry value added

NPN

9.3.2 Proportion of small-scale industries with a loan or line of credit

NPA

9.4.1 CO2 emission per unit of value added

NPN

9.5.1 Research and development expenditure as a proportion of GDP

NPN

9.5.2 Researchers (in full-time equivalent) per million inhabitants

NPA

9.a.1 Total official international support (official development assistance plus other official flows) to infrastructure

NPN

9.b.1 Proportion of medium and high-tech industry value added in total value added

PRO

9.c.1 Proportion of population covered by a mobile network, by technology

Notes: NPA (non-produced but data available), NPN (non-produced but data not available), PRO (produced). Source: STATIN (2016).

Table 4. Indicators required to establish the advancement of SDG 17 (Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development). Status

Indicator

NPA

17.1.1 Total government revenue as a proportion of GDP, by source

NPA

17.1.2 Proportion of domestic budget funded by domestic taxes

N/A

17.2.1 Net official development assistance, total and to least developed countries, as a proportion of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Development Assistance Committee donors’ gross national income (GNI)

NPA

17.3.1 Foreign direct investments (FDI), official development assistance and South-South Cooperation as a proportion of total domestic budget

NPA

17.3.2 Volume of remittances (in United States dollars) as a proportion of total GDP

NPA

17.4.1 Debt service as a proportion of exports of goods and services

NPN

17.5.1 Number of countries that adopt and implement investment promotion regimes for least developed countries

NPN

17.6.1 Number of science and/or technology cooperation agreements and programmes between countries, by type of cooperation

NPA

17.6.2 Fixed Internet broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants, by speed

NPA

17.7.1 Total amount of approved funding for developing countries to promote the development, transfer, dissemination and diffusion of environmentally sound technologies

PRO

17.8.1 Proportion of individuals using the Internet

N/A

17.9.1 Dollar value of financial and technical assistance (including through North-South, South-South and triangular cooperation) committed to developing countries

N/A

17.10.1 Worldwide weighted tariff-average

NPA

17.11.1 Developing countries and least developed countries’ share of global exports

N/A

17.12.1 Average tariffs faced by developing countries, least developed countries and small island developing States

NPN

17.13.1 Macroeconomic Dashboard

NPA

17.14.1 Number of countries with mechanisms in place to enhance policy coherence of sustainable development

NPA

17.15.1 Extent of use of country-owned results frameworks and planning tools by providers of development cooperation

NPN

17.16.1 Number of countries reporting progress in multi-stakeholder development effectiveness monitoring frameworks that support the achievement of the sustainable development goals

NPA

17.17.1 Amount of US$ committed to public-private and civil society partnerships

NPA

17.18.1 Proportion of sustainable development indicators produced at the national level with full disaggregation when relevant to the target, in accordance with the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics

PRO

17.18.2 Number of countries that have national statistical legislation that complies with the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics

NPN

17.18.3 Number of countries with a national statistical plan that is fully funded and under implementation, by source of funding

NPA

17.19.1 Dollar value of all resources made available to strengthen statistical capacity in developing countries

PRO

17.19.2 Proportion of countries that (a) have conducted at least one population and housing census in the last 10 years; and (b) have achieved 100% birth registration and 80% death registration

Notes: NPA (non-produced but data available), NPN (non-produced but data not available), PRO (produced), N/A (not available). Source: STATIN (2016).

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BOX 3. PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT SOLUTIONS NETWORK AND UNITED NATIONS RESIDENT COORDINATORS IN SIDS The United Nations Resident Coordinators serving in SIDS launched a joint project at the request of the Alliance of Small Island States. The project aimed to develop the first Multidimensional Vulnerability Index (MVI) to capture inherent vulnerabilities hindering the progress of the SDGs in SIDS. The purpose of the MVI is to complement measures of per-capita gross national income and to define special development contexts such as SIDS. This will enable vulnerable countries to access development financing without income graduation. The UN Resident Coordinator in Samoa coordinated the MVI project and partnered with the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) team in Paris to strengthen the robustness of the MVI and to ensure consistency in measuring countries’ development progress. The MVI is structured to capture sources of vulnerabilities that generate human and economic losses and hinder development progress. The SDSN experts analysed correlations between the value of a country’s MVI and its progress across the 17 SDGs, confirming that the MVI captures vulnerabilities that impede sustainable development progress with high precision. The partnership with SDSN continued with the creation of the first SDG financing gap measure to link the MVI to the actual financing needs of SIDS. This will help them achieve sustainable development by 2030. The MVI, SDG Index, and the SDG financing gap measure will allow the United Nations Resident Coordinators in SIDS to identify policies and practices that have led to better SDG progress in countries with similar levels of multidimensional vulnerability. Moreover, measuring SDG financing gaps of countries with similar MVI levels informs the analysis of a country’s development finance model and the quality of the external financing it receives. Source: Simona Marinescu, Senior Advisor for Small Island Developing States, United Nations Office for Project Services (i.e., Sachs et al., 2023)

Recent scientific assessments have shown that our societies and economies will likely face significant changes that have already begun and, to some extent, become irreversible. These changes include climate change, biodiversity loss, and demographic shifts. However, depending on how we address these issues, many opportunities exist to achieve positive outcomes across a wide range of SDGs (UNDESA, 2023). The SDG framework has not only inspired new knowledge and ways of systematically identifying positive and negative interlinkages. Nevertheless, it has also sparked a plethora of initiatives, partnerships, and commitments that can be intensified and delivered during the second half of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Jamaica can benefit from stronger interaction between international, regional and national agendas (e.g., 2030 Agenda, the Strategic Plan for the Caribbean Community, Vision 2030 Jamaica, National Science, Technology and Innovation Policy) to combine strategies with human and financial resources in order to achieve the goals identified in the different agendas synergistically.

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ATTRACTING FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT FDI8 is also usually considered a significant source of growth. FDI is an important source of finance for transition economies, as it helps cover the current account deficit and fiscal deficit (in the case of privatisation-related FDI) and supplements inadequate domestic resources to finance ownership change and capital formation. Secondly, compared with other financing options, FDI may facilitate the international transfer of technology, know-how and skills, including more advanced technologies and managerial skills, and may help local enterprises expand into foreign markets. It may increase the activity of FDI-beneficiary firms and have a knock-on effect on other firms and sectors through technological spillover and increased competition, thus raising productivity for the whole industry. Although FDI is commonly considered an essential vehicle of international knowledge transfer, the effectiveness of this process depends crucially on the absorption capacity of the host economy, which is determined by a complex set of political, structural, and institutional variables, such as competition policies, IPR, quality of education, availability of scientists and engineers, R&D infrastructure, inter alia (Igbinigie, Cook and Zheng, 2020; Hoffmann, 2013). Countries can increase the inflow of FDI by creating a business climate that makes foreign investors feel that their capital is safe, for example, by improving the rule of law, stabilising the regulatory framework, establishing and protecting private property rights, and reducing corruption. Among the incentives or policy instruments that governments can offer, one could cite low tax rates or other tax incentives, access to loans and co-funding, zoning in proximity to where workers live, and improved infrastructure that allows products and services to reach markets. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) World Investment Report (UNCTAD, 2023) reveals a widening annual investment deficit that developing countries face as they work to achieve the SDGs by 2030. The gap is now about US$ 4 trillion annually – up from US$ 2.5 trillion in 2015 when the SDGs were adopted. The UNCTAD’s report shows that global FDI fell 12% in 2022 and analyses how investment policy and capital market trends impact SDG investment. The most significant gaps are in energy, water, and transport infrastructure. The increase is the result of both underinvestment and additional needs. The growing SDG investment gap in developing countries contrasts with positive sustainability trends in global capital markets. The value of the sustainable finance market reached US$ 5.8 trillion in 2022. Sustainable funds had positive net inflows, while traditional funds experienced net outflows. It highlights that developing countries need renewable energy investments of about US$ 1.7 trillion yearly but attracted only US$ 544 billion in clean energy FDI in 2022 (UNCTAD, 2023). Foreign economies obtain useful modern technologies through various channels, such as FDI, international trade and the international diffusion of knowledge and innovation. Technology transfer may be a significant reason for the growth in total factor productivity in many economies. Market failures imply a potential for policies to increase welfare by encouraging technology transfer (Sagasti and Aráoz, 1976; Berg and Fuchs, 2013). To be effective, policy must alter the incentives of agents that possess innovative technologies to ensure that they transfer them. In practice, this means encouraging the means for technology transfer: for example, licensing and inflows of FDI. Wang and Wong (2012) demonstrated that FDI is an effective conduit for technology transfer through technology spillovers to domestically owned firms in the host country. This concept implies that significant knowledge spillovers occur through backward linkages from foreign firms in upstream sectors to local

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The International Monetary Fund defines (foreign) direct investment in its Balance of Payments Manual as the category of international investment that reflects the objective of obtaining a lasting interest by a resident entity in one economy (direct investor) in an enterprise resident in another economy (direct investment enterprise). A direct investor is defined by its ownership of 10% or more of the ordinary shares or voting power in a direct investment enterprise.

  GOàSPIN Country Profiles in Science, Technology and Innovation Policy - Volume 13

Jamaica: Mapping the landscape of the research and innovation system in a small island developing state

firms in downstream sectors. This is consistent with a vertical technology spillover hypothesis: foreign firms have an incentive to facilitate knowledge transfer to local firms to enable them to produce intermediate inputs more efficiently, thereby making them available to foreign firms upstream at a lower cost. FDI levels vary widely by region, sector, and country. Constraints on all investments, such as weak infrastructure and fragmented markets, also adversely affect FDI.

The potential of FDI for improving technical efficiency In their study, Wang and Wong (2012) define technical efficiency as a country’s ability to obtain maximum output from a given vector of inputs, so technical efficiency improvement refers to the movements toward greater productivity. Based on showing that the inflow of foreign R&D via FDI continuously improves technical efficiency across countries, they could estimate technical efficiency scores for individual countries (as a multiple inflow of foreign R&D transferred via FDI). Whereas least developed countries typically do not have adequate domestic resources to promote the accumulation of R&D stock, this work points to the conclusion that adopting preferential policies to promote trade and capital inflows to access results of foreign R&D can be extremely important to improve technical efficiency and, consequently, industrial competitiveness. However, technical efficiency, innovation and competitiveness also depend on other variables, such as infrastructure and political stability. Arnold (2004) identified still other factors, such as managerial deficits; a lack of technological understanding, learning ability or absorptive capacity to make use of externally generated technology; failure to (re)configure public institutions, such as universities or research institutes, to work effectively within an innovation system; deficiencies in regulatory frameworks (i.e., health and safety rules); as well as other indirect factors, related to the sophistication of demand or cultural and social values, which can harm innovation and economic performance. Improvements in infrastructure and political stability, combined with adequate human capital policies, can help improve a country’s technical efficiency and attractiveness for FDI.

FDI trends in Jamaica since 1970 The flow of FDI is influenced by macro-economic conditions in host countries. In a study by Williams (2016), the relationship between country conditions and FDI to SIDS was modelled. The study identified critical variables, defined as country conditions, to measure their impact on FDI flows to SIDS. The analysis showed that per capita income (see Fig. 8), rather than fiscal balance, current account balance, or debt burden (debt to GDP ratio), is the most crucial factor in driving FDI to SIDS. This finding has significant implications for FDI attraction programmes in most SIDS and might be applied to attract investments for the promotion of innovation policies within the Jamaican business-enterprise sector. According to UNCTAD (2023), FDI inflows to the SIDS rose by 39% to US$ 7.8 billion in 2022 – about 0.6% of global FDI. Reflecting differences in levels of development and factor endowments, a handful of SIDS continued to attract the bulk of inflows. The top five recipients (the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas, Maldives, Jamaica and Timor-Leste) accounted for 85% of FDI flows to the group, in this order. Inflows to the eleven Caribbean SIDS rose by 27% to US$ 5.9 billion due to some recovery in international tourism investment. FDI flows in the Dominican Republic rose 25% to US$ 4 billion. The number of greenfield projects doubled to 30, and the value more than quadrupled to US$ 3.5 billion. Fig. 11 shows the evolution of the net inflow of the annual FDI in Jamaica, expressed as a percentage of GDP, 1970−2022. This graph is handy for cross-correlating the FDI with the different national contextual factors and implementing various policies and policy instruments. It is possible to distinguish three different periods. During 1970–1980, there was a continuous decrease from 11.4% GDP in 1970 to an outflow of 1.1% GDP in 1980. Then, a second period (1981–2008) with a relative expansion of the FDI, reaching 10% GDP

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in 2008, followed by a drop to 1.2% GDP in 2011. Finally, a new expansion reached 6.6% GDP in 2016, followed by a contraction to 1.9% GDP in 2022. Table 5 shows the FDI inflows by destination sector. No data was available for the manufacturing sector. On average, during 2008–2022, the sector of natural resources received 20.2% of the FDI inflows, the sector of services 38%, while the combination of all other FDI received 41.7%. In the early 1990s, investment in the country grew rapidly following an ambitious government divestment programme and increased foreign direct investment in mining, tourism, as well as information, communication, and ICT sectors. However, over the past two decades, the country’s investment trend has slowed down due to a series of factors including the domestic financial crisis of the late 1990s, the global financial crisis of 2008, and fiscal consolidation measures implemented since 2010. This trend of slower investment has coincided with a 5% contraction in return on investment caused by reduced external competitiveness and insufficient structural reforms to support productivity growth and spillovers (ECLAC, 2023b). As a result, the drivers of economic growth have shifted towards net exports and consumption, though the country remains heavily reliant on imports, which has constrained the overall contribution from net exports. Jamaica’s public investment has been below other Caribbean nations, with an annual average of less than 3% over the last 20 years. This is significantly lower than the investment levels observed in structural, regional, and aspirational peers. Due to a persistent debt overhang, limited fiscal space has constrained public investment (ECLAC, 2023b). Despite this, Jamaica’s infrastructure indicators are generally on par with countries at its income level, albeit with some challenges that have weakened its competitiveness. Improvements in the investment climate, helping to attract higher FDI inflows, will translate into higher gross fixed capital formation9 (GFCF), leading to more significant economic growth. This is more important in transition countries not endowed with natural resources or with few state assets left to be privatised. The gross fixed capital formation is a component of the expenditure on GDP that indicates how much of the new value added in an economy is invested rather than consumed. Fig. 12 shows the long-term evolution of the gross fixed capital formation in Jamaica, expressed as a percentage of GDP, from 1965 to 2022. Jamaica is noteworthy as the country posted a ten-year record amount for transactions —US$ 1.6 billion, linked to a sale, the second largest transaction in the telecommunications sector of Latin America and the Caribbean region (see Table 6). Australian telecommunications giant Telstra acquired the Digicel Pacific division of Jamaican company Digicel for US$ 1.6 billion. The Government of Australia financed the transaction through Export Finance Australia. Digicel Pacific is a division of the Jamaican company that operates in six South Pacific countries: Fiji, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga, and Vanuatu. The transaction is still subject to international arbitration in Singapore owing to a dispute over a tax imposed by Papua New Guinea (ECLAC, 2023b). Jamaica received the fourth most significant amount of FDI in the Caribbean, totalling US$ 319 in 2022. This figure was similar to the amount received in 2021 (-0.2%), and investment has still not returned to prepandemic levels. Tourism attracted the most investment in the country (51% of the total), and as a result, services accounted for the bulk of FDI inflows (59% of the total), reflecting a 15% increase compared to 2021 (ECLAC, 2023b).

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The gross fixed capital formation, also known as “investment,” is the acquisition of produced assets (including purchases of second-hand assets), including the production of such assets by producers for their use, minus disposals. The relevant assets relate to assets intended to produce other goods and services for over a year. The term “produced assets” means that only those assets that come into existence due to a production process are included; therefore, it does not include, for example, the purchase of land and natural resources.

  GOàSPIN Country Profiles in Science, Technology and Innovation Policy - Volume 13

Jamaica: Mapping the landscape of the research and innovation system in a small island developing state

14%

12% 11.4% 10.0%

10%

8%

7.2%

7.1% 6.6%

6.3%

6%

5.3% 4.0%

4%

4.6%

2.1%

2%

1.6%

1.0%

1.9%

1.9%

1.4%

0.5%

1.2%

0% -0.4% -0.3%

-2% 1970

-1.1%

1975

1980

1985

1990

1995

2000

2005

2010

2015

2020

2025

Figure 11. Evolution of net inflow of Foreign Direct Investment in Jamaica, expressed as a percentage of GDP, 1970−2022. The dotted line indicates the best-fitting curve. Source: Author, based on raw data from the World Bank databank (2023).

Table 5. FDI inflows in Jamaica by destination sector, 2008–2022 (US$ million). Year

Natural resources

Manufacturing

Services

Other

Total

2008

152

-

453

832

1,437

2009

54

-

292

195

541

2010

31

-

155

42

228

2011

57

-

93

68

218

2012

107

-

100

206

413

2013

87

-

155

303

545

2014

56

-

139

387

582

2015

82

-

369

474

925

2016

118

-

371

439

928

2017

237

-

214

438

889

2018

403

-

106

266

775

2019

342

-

120

203

665

2020

65

-

171

90

326

2021

35

-

163

122

320

2022

29

-

188

102

319

Source: ECLAC (2023b)

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Mapping Research and Innovation in Jamaica

35% 31.8% 29.5%

30%

28.1% 25.8%

25%

24.1%

23.4% 22.1% 21.1%

20%

19.6% 16.2%

15%

16.1% 14.5% 11.8%

10%

5%

0% 1965

1970

1975

1980

1985

1990

1995

2000

2005

2010

2015

2020

2025

Figure 12. Evolution of gross fixed capital formation in Jamaica, expressed as a percentage of GDP, 1965−2022. The dotted line indicates the best-fitting curve. Source: Author, based on raw data provided by the World Bank databank (2023).

Table 6. Cross-border mergers and acquisitions over a billion US$ in Latin America and the Caribbean, 2022. Company

Country of origin

Assets acquired shares

Percentage

Country of assets

Investment amount (billion US$)

Univision United Communications Inc. States

Grupo Televisa S.A.B.

31%

Mexico

Information and communications

4.80

Telstra Corp. Ltd.

Australia

Digicel Pacific Ltd.

100%

Jamaica

Telecommunications

1.60

Prosus NV

Netherlands

iFood.com Agency Restaurants Online SA

33%

Brazil

Computer programming, consultancy, and related activities

1.55

South32 Ltd.

Australia

Sierra Gorda project

45%

Chile

Mining and quarrying support service activities

1.55

Mondelez International Inc.

United States

Ricolino SA de CV

100%

Mexico

Manufacture of food products

1.30

Indorama Ventures Public Co. Ltd.

Thailand

Oxiteno SA Industria e Comercio

100%

Brazil

Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products

1.30

SoFi Technologies Inc.

United States

Technisys SA

100%

Argentina

Computed programming consultancy and related activities

1.10

Source: ECLAC (2023b)

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Sector

  GOàSPIN Country Profiles in Science, Technology and Innovation Policy - Volume 13

Jamaica: Mapping the landscape of the research and innovation system in a small island developing state

The National Investment Policy The Jamaican Government is committed to promoting the country as a significant player in the global investment community by creating a favourable environment for private investments to drive economic growth. Vision 2030 Jamaica is the programmatic framework for formulating and implementing policies and strategies that encourage private investments. The aim is to put Jamaica in a position to achieve developed country status by 2030 (GoJ, 2009, 2022d). The recently introduced National Investment Policy by the Government of Jamaica (GoJ) is oriented towards addressing the varied needs of the society by fostering a conducive investment climate that facilitates investment decision-making in the country (GoJ, 2022d). The policy seeks to enhance the technical aspects of the investment ecosystem to make it more attractive for experts who can comprehend the intricacies involved in the investment process. Jamaica has established a comprehensive policy and legal framework to effectively create, manage, promote, market, and facilitate investment opportunities. With more than a decade of experience and a proven track record in the global and local investment marketplace, data and research have been used to analyse recent trends in FDI, investment modalities and their impact on the economy, and Jamaica’s current business environment. This situational analysis provides a detailed overview of the aspects mentioned earlier, catering to experts well-versed in technical details. Jamaica’s Government has recently undertaken numerous policy and regulatory reforms to encourage private investment. Over the past decade, the country has implemented over 50 business process reforms and legislative/policy changes. By analysing the track record of the past ten years, it is clear that Jamaica is dedicated to improving business conditions and adhering to international best practices in order to facilitate business growth and attract more liability-driven investment and FDI. JAMPRO, the Jamaica Promotions Corporation, is responsible for implementing the National Investment Policy (GoJ, 2022d), which aims to achieve sustained economic growth through increased private sector investment. The policy is designed to create a more favourable environment for innovation and investment in the productive sector, thereby enhancing Jamaica’s competitiveness. The policy’s success hinges on a coordinated national, bipartisan approach and partnership with the private sector and civil society, embodied by the National Competitiveness Council. The policy’s ten goals are the basis for achieving these objectives. The National Competitiveness Council is a body formed by a partnership between public and private sectors aimed at promoting a conducive business environment and accelerating private investment. The council’s success is proof of the positive outcomes of such collaborations. Jamaica has made significant headway in enhancing its business environment through the introduction of the Jamaica Development Applications Portal, improving property registration and enforcing contracts. These milestones were only achievable through an all-encompassing approach involving government ministries, agencies, and private sector stakeholders listed in the National Investment Policy. Such an approach is critical in promoting transparency and openness to facilitate investor projects and is crucial in achieving the policy goals. The policy goals are focused on (i) strengthening a mechanism for coordinated strategic investment planning; (ii) streamlining customer-centric investor experience across Government; (iii) positioning Jamaica as the investment destination of choice in the Caribbean; (iv) enforcing and guaranteeing protection of investor rights in Jamaica; (v) strengthening the policy framework for safeguarding IP; (vi) improving the framework for sustainable, productive and equitable development, use and management of the country’s land resources and other Government assets; (vii) spurring investments and respond to the needs of investors through Immigration and Labour service delivery; (viii) incentivising investments; (ix) strengthening Jamaica’s economic position and broaden investment growth opportunities through the Global Logistics Hub Initiative; (x) strengthening; and (xi) engaging with, and facilitating, established investors in a bid to retain and expand their investment interest in Jamaica through proactive facilitation and advocacy responsiveness, mechanisms for trading across borders that will support national economic

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Mapping Research and Innovation in Jamaica

growth. Together, they frame a modernised policy to attract and facilitate investment opportunities and create jobs. The National Investment Policy has a specific policy issue 5, focused on IP, which is a fundamental tool for promoting technological development and innovation activities, mainly within the business-enterprise sector. The policy goal is to safeguard IP in keeping with international standards. The objective is to support creating and promoting a modern legislative framework that allows easy access to IP protection by (a) implementing key initiatives to strengthen the IP rights framework in Jamaica and (b) enhancing efforts for information dissemination about IP. The proposed policy strategies are oriented toward supporting the enactment and implementation of the new Patents and Designs Law (2020) and the Trademarks Act (2021) to encourage the registration of patents and trademarks and prioritising the passing of several supporting and related legislation on IP in order to establish Jamaica as a premier IP registration jurisdiction.

THE CORRELATION BETWEEN GOOD GOVERNANCE AND SCIENTIFIC PRODUCTIVITY In an increasingly complex innovation landscape, developing effective governance requires better coordination at and among the local, regional, national, and international levels. With the broadening of innovative processes, players and locations, the systems of governance that provide for their proper functioning become even more critical. As no single actor has the knowledge and resources to tackle the innovation challenge unilaterally, all countries – in one way or another – face the challenge of better coordinating the various actors involved in formulating and implementing policy. Political stability and good governance sustained over decades are prerequisites for developing sound public policies. Stability and predictability are crucial for research and innovation since both endeavours involve risk-taking with long time horizons. They thus require a stable framework, institutions, and policies. Political instability may inhibit innovation by increasing uncertainty for innovators and venture capitalists; it may lessen the effectiveness of STI policy instruments by weakening the incentives they provide. Moreover, research and innovation are cross-cutting activities that involve the ministries of S&T, higher education, health, agriculture, energy, mining, environment, water, and planning. To be effective, research and innovation measures require co-ordination and coherence among government departments, programmes, and policies; empirical studies over the past two decades show that governments find this difficult since their traditionally departmentalised structures are generally ill-suited to deal with crosscutting policy issues such as research and innovation. How STI policies are managed in Jamaica by different ministries, universities, and research centres, which interact little, is an example of this. Adopting a coherent approach entails not only co-ordinating a multitude of policy moves dictated by the core set of research and innovation policies, such as those for higher education and entrepreneurship but also evaluating their possible interaction with policies pursuing other primary objectives, such as the fiscal policy, competition laws and regulations which provide the framework for innovation (OECD, 2010). According to GoJ (2003): “Governance is the exercise of power in the economic, political and administrative management of the country’s resources. Governance comprises the traditions, institutions and processes that determine how power is shared and exercised, how decisions are made and how authority responds on issues of public concern.” In Jamaica, the principles of governance are not only applicable to the government but also to the private sector and citizens’ organisations. It encompasses the social coordination mechanisms that contribute to political action, beyond the issues of institutions and forms of government. The decision-making process in all political and social bodies and at all levels of government, from local to global, is analysed. Jamaica has developed a better understanding of good governance and its importance to sustainable development in the last 50 years. The Government is leading many initiatives and programmes, which involve the active participation of the private sector and civil society (GoJ, 2009a).

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  GOàSPIN Country Profiles in Science, Technology and Innovation Policy - Volume 13

Jamaica: Mapping the landscape of the research and innovation system in a small island developing state

Over the past twenty years, the GoJ has implemented the Reform of the Public Sector (GoJ, 2003) that has improved the delivery of services in public sector institutions, the accountability framework of these institutions, and transparency in the public service. The Access to Information Act has facilitated access to information, and the Justice System has been modernised. The framework for Local Government Reform has been established, and the Local Sustainable Development Planning Framework has been developed and implemented. The Medium-Term Socio-Economic Policy Framework has also been developed and implemented (GoJ, 2009a). The National Outcome # 6 “Effective Governance” of Vision 2030 Jamaica, utilises targets based on different governance indicators designed by the World Bank. Since 1996, the World Bank has published a set of standardised governance indicators each year for every country in the world. The World Bank’s team defines governance as the traditions and institutions by which authority in a country is exercised. This includes the process by which governments are selected, monitored, and replaced; the government’s capacity to formulate and implement sound policies; and the level of respect on the part of both citizens and the state for the institutions that govern economic and social interactions (Kaufman et al., 1999). Within UNESCO’s GOSPIN programme, some correlation among these governance indicators and STI productivity was found (Lemarchand, 2014). For example, in Fig. 13, countries are represented in a Cartesian graph (four quadrants) according to their positive or negative values for two governance indicators, such as, “government effectiveness” and “political stability and absence of violence/terrorism”. The bubble size reflects the number of scientific publications listed by Scopus per million population. Few nations fall in the first quadrant (positive values for political stability and absence of violence/terrorism and positive values for Government effectiveness in implementing public policies). This quadrant is usually dominated by developed countries with the highest GDP per capita and the highest number of scientific publications per million population (Lemarchand, 2014). Nevertheless, small countries and SIDS are frequently included within this first quadrant due to their reduced population size and limited power disputes. Fig. 14 shows on a magnified scale the evolution of the same two governance indicators (and scientific productivity) for Jamaica over time, between 1996 and 2022. Both indicators, political stability and absence of violence/terrorism, and government effectiveness, had negative values for the period 2003–2005 when the government realised the need to prepare a national development plan, namely Vision 2030 Jamaica. The period from 2006 to 2011 was dominated by negative values for political stability and absence of violence/terrorism, while government effectiveness had positive values. Finally, in the period from 2012 to 2021, both governance indicators had positive values, which were correlated with an increase in the number of scientific articles per million population. One of the above indicators (political stability and absence of violence/terrorism) also reflects how internal violence might affect national governance. Crime and violence severely impact Jamaica’s economy by discouraging investment, reducing productivity, driving up business costs, and limiting the ability to develop deeper connections with the broader economy, particularly in sectors such as tourism. The National Security Policy (2013) identified that crime has adversely affected the country’s economy by deterring investment, destroying capital formation, and discouraging business development. Henry (2022) highlights that elevated levels of crime and violence in Jamaica pose a significant challenge to attracting foreign investment, which is essential for supporting scientific research and technological innovation. Furthermore, crime reduction efforts divert resources that could have been used in other areas. The internal threat of crime and violence presents challenges to the STI landscape in Jamaica. However, it also presents an opportunity for innovative homegrown solutions. These issues have also been analysed in the context of the National Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (GoJ, 2022a: 25). Cybersecurity is another area of concern for Jamaica, given the rising cybersecurity threats. The country has developed legislative and technical systems such as the Data Protection Act (2020), Cyber Crimes Act (2015), and the National Cyber Security Strategy (2015) to safeguard businesses and citizens from

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cyberattacks. Despite these efforts, the current state of the local infrastructure and systems could make them vulnerable, reducing confidence in the digital economy. Corruption is another important variable – associated with the quality of governance – which has increasingly been incorporated in most of the regional and international studies. In Jamaica, corruption, in perception and reality, has grown to become a significant widespread concern and public policy issue (GoJ, 2009a). Over the past four decades, Jamaica has implemented a number of institutions aimed at curtailing corruption within the country. Despite these efforts, the effectiveness of such measures has been limited (Haughton and Ivey, 2023). In response to concerns about corruption, the GoJ has taken steps to increase transparency and accountability in public bodies. The list included the introduction of the Ministry Paper ‘Government at Your Service’ (GoJ, 2003) as part of broader public sector reform efforts, as well as the passing of several bills such as the Public Bodies Management and Accountability Act (2001), the Corruption Prevention Act (2002), the Financial Audit and Administration Act (2002), the Contractor General’s Act (1983), and the Access to Information Act (2002). Vision 2030 Jamaica has also established specific targets to eliminate corruption. Corruption is a major hindrance to economic growth and prosperity of a nation. Despite strong accountability and a well-established regulatory and legal framework, Jamaica has had difficulties enforcing the rule of law and controlling corruption (World Bank Group, 2022b). In the fight against corruption, the National Integrity Action (NIA) has been actively advocating for the implementation and enforcement of laws such as the Single Anti-Corruption Agency (Integrity Commission), Revision of the Political Code of Conduct, Political Party Financing and Registration, Award of Government Contracts, Public Education, and Capacity Building. However, the NIA does not have the legal power to prosecute offenders. Despite some successful prosecution of senior public officials and private individuals, only one notable conviction has been achieved in recent times (Haughton and Ivey, 2023). The GOSPIN methodological approach has been employing the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) in the different volumes of the UNESCO series to determine the evolution of this variable, which affects the prosperity of the country and the implementation of STI public policies. Since 1998, Transparency International has been publishing the CPI. The CPI ranks countries and territories based on how corrupt their public sector is perceived to be, on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (exceptionally clean). A country’s rank indicates its position relative to the other countries and territories listed in the index. The total number of countries included in the survey varies each year, ranging from 85 (1998) to 180 (2021). The CPI is calculated using data from 10 independent institutions. All 13 sources measure the overall extent of corruption (frequency and/or size of bribes) in the public and political spheres, and all sources provide a ranking of countries.10

10 To determine the mean value for a country, the data are standardised using the technique of matching percentiles. This method uses the country ranking reported by each individual source. It is useful for combining sources that have a different distribution. Whereas there is some information loss with this technique, it allows all reported scores to remain within the bounds of the CPI, between 0 and 100. A beta-transformation is then performed on scores. This increases the standard deviation among all countries included in the CPI and avoids a smaller standard deviation from year to year, one of the drawbacks of the matching percentiles technique. All the standardised values for a country are then averaged, to determine a country’s score. The CPI score and the ranking position are accompanied by the number of sources, high-low range, standard deviation, and confidence range for each country. The confidence range is determined by a bootstrap (non-parametric) methodology, which allows inferences to be drawn from the underlying precision of the results. A 90% confidence range is then established, whereby there is a 5% probability that the value is either below or above this confidence range. Source: Alvarez Diaz et al. (2018).

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  GOàSPIN Country Profiles in Science, Technology and Innovation Policy - Volume 13

-3.0

Syrian Arab Rep.

Somalia

Yemen

Iraq

Mali

-2.5

South Sudan

Lybia

Myanmar Dem. Rep. of Congo

Sudan

Nigeria

Pakistan Ethiopia Burkina Faso

Ukraine

-2.0

-1.5

-1.0

0.5

Bahrain Saudi Georgia Arabia China

1.0

US

1.5

Egypt

-0.5

Sri Lanka Tunisia Togo Algeria

Kenya

India

Rep of Korea

Spain

-0.5

0.0

Australia

Croatia

Cuba Mongolia

0.5 MaldivesSt. LuciaA&B 1.0

Cabo Verde

Namibia

Romania

American Samoa

Uruguay

Tuvalu

Eritrea

-3.0

-2.5

-2.0

Comoros

-1.5

-1.0

Political stability and absence of violence/terrorism (2022)

Haiti

Venezuela

Niger Mozambique

1.5

Dominica

Cook Islands

Greenland

2.0

Cayman Islands

Liechtenstein

Aruba

New Zeland

Iceland

Monaco San Marino

Singapore

Barbados Micronesia Samoa Kiribati Grenada

Bhutan Palau

Guam

Mauritius Malta Seychelles

Italy Hungary Fiji Slovak Rep. St. Kitts and Nevis Kuwait Poland Nauru Oman Costa Rica

North T&T Macedonia

Albania

Greece Rwanda

Cyprus Chile Jamaica

Malaysia

Austria

Japan

Luxembourg

Switzerland

UK Czechia France Qatar Slovenia Macao SAR, China Lithuania Portugal

French Guiana

Netherlands

Finland

Norway

Denmark

Canada Hong Kong SAR, China

Panama Bulgaria Argentina Ecuador Cambodia Belize

0.0

Indonesia Viet Nam Jordan Kasakhstan Philippines Serbia Thailand Azerbaijan Morocco South Colombia Africa Türkiye Mexico Armenia

Israel

2.0

2.5

3.0

Paraguay Vanuatu Puerto Rico Brazil Uganda Bolivia Mauritania Zambia Lao PDR Russian Eswatini Tajikistan Solomon Islands Fed. Djibouti Malawi Gabon Timor Leste Bangladesh Belarus Nepal Kyrgyz Lesotho Sao Tome and Principe Cameroon Guatemala Iran Guinea Rep. Suriname Angola Bosnia and Herzegovina Equatorial Guinea Zimbabwe Burundi Rep. of Congo Liberia Dem. Rep of Korea Guinea Lebanon Bisseau

10 articles per million population

100 articles per million population

1,000 articles per million population

10,000 articles per million population

OCEANIA

EUROPE

ASIA

AMERICAS

AFRICA

2.5

3.0

Jamaica: Mapping the landscape of the research and innovation system in a small island developing state

Figure 13. Evolution of government effectiveness worldwide, as measured against political stability/ absence of violence, 2022. The size of the bubbles reflects the number of scientific publications per million population in 2022. Jamaica appears in the first quadrant. Most countries with high scientific productivity appear in the first quadrant (positive values for political stability/absence of violence and government effectiveness).

Source: Author, based on raw data provided by World Bank, the UN Statistics Division and Scopus.

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0.7

2022

0.6

2020

2017

2018 2019

0.5

Government Effectiveness

2010

2009

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-0.5

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-0.4

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150 articles per million population

-0.5

100 articles per million population

-0.6

50 articles per million population

-0.7

Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism

Figure 14. Evolution of government effectiveness in Jamaica, as measured against political stability/ absence of violence, 1996–2022. The size of the bubbles reflects the number of scientific publications per million of population for the same years. Source: Author, based on raw data provided by the World Bank, the UN Statistics Division and Scopus.

0

50 44

45 41

CPI score

35

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40

44

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120

Figure 15. Evolution of the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) in Jamaica (triangles associated with the left-axis) and world rank (rhombuses associated with the right-axis), 2005−2022. The dotted lines represent the best-fitting curves. Source: Author, based on raw data generated by Transparency International.

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0.2

0.1

0

-0.023

-0.047 -0.053

-0.114

-0.1 -0.187

-0.208

-0.2 -0.266

-0.291

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-0.512

-0.6 2002

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Figure 16. Evolution of the Control of Corruption indicator in Jamaica 2002–2022. Source: author, based on raw data provided by the World Bank databank (2023).

Fig. 15 shows the CPI scores of Jamaica and its corresponding world ranking between 2005 and 2022. From the lowest score (30), Jamaica’s transparency level has been slowly improving to remain practically constant (score 44) within the period from 2017 to 2022. On the other hand, the World Bank has been estimating the Control of Corruption indicator, a number between -3 and 3. As shown in Fig. 16, over the past two decades ( from 2002 to 2022), Jamaica has been smoothly improving the value of the Control of Corruption from -0.512 (2002) to -0.023 (2022), almost reaching the positive values. Moreover, for measuring the level of implementation of National Outcome # 6, ‘Effective Governance’, the Vision 2030 Jamaica plan (see Box 4) proposed the use of the Control of Corruption indicator. In this case, the defined targets fixed a value of -0.24 for 2012, > 0.13 for 2015 and > 1.96 for 2030. According to the values shown in Fig. 16, the first two targets were not achieved. At this point, it is imperative to enhance the fact that establishing a standard corruption indicator for all nations is an arduous task, and it is practically impossible to avoid flaws. For instance, for this GOSPIN study, we calculated the linear correlation between the CPI score and the Control of Corruption indicator for the case of Jamaica between 2005 and 2022 (coincidence range between the two temporal series). Unfortunately, the coefficient of determination R2 was 0.48, meaning that the correlation between the two indicators is mathematically negligible. This result implies that we must be extremely cautious about using and interpreting this type of indicator.

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BOX 4. VISION 2030 JAMAICA: EFFECTIVE GOVERNANCE Vision 2030 Jamaica proposes a strengthening of the current model of governance to overcome the various challenges that cut across our country’s developmental spheres. The Plan recognises the following as fundamental to the development of our society: strong and accountable institutions; political commitment to effective management of the State; transparency in government; a justice system that is accessible and fair; equity; and tolerance and respect for human rights and freedoms. Other key areas of focus of this National Plan include engaging in constitutional reform, reform of the justice system, modernisation of the public sector, and a vibrant civil society that balances the power of the Government and holds it accountable for delivering better services and improving the well-being of all. The Plan also presents a framework for the achievement of social transformation through a new paradigm of local governance which will give communities greater scope for their self-management and enable them to actively participate in policy decisions at the national level. The following Table 7 identifies the National Strategies that will take Jamaica onto the path of good governance. These strategies are designed to reflect the important roles civil society, the private sector and the State collectively have to play to achieve governance that embodies participation, transparency, accountability, efficiency and promotion of the rule of law in our country. The National Strategies, an elaboration of each and some selected sector strategies are listed below. Table 7. National strategies and responsible agencies to achieve Effective Governance. National Strategies

Responsible Agencies

6.1 Strengthen the process of citizen participation on governance

Cabinet Office Department of Local Government Office of the Prime Minister Local Authorities (Parish Councils) Social Development Commissions Ministry of Justice

6.2 Reform the Justice System

Ministry of Justice Cabinet Office

6.3 Ensure tolerance and respect for human rights and freedoms

Ministry of Justice Office of the Political Ombudsman Public Defender

6.4 Engage in constitutional reform

Ministry of Justice Houses of Parliament

6.5 S  trengthen public institutions to deliver efficient and effective public goods and services

Cabinet Office Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies Local Authorities (Parish Councils)

6.6 Foster equity in all spheres of society

Office of the Prime Minister Bureau of Women’s Affairs Ministry of Labour and Social Security Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies

6.7 Strengthen accountability and transparency mechanisms

Cabinet Office Houses of Parliament Auditor General Contractor General Office of the Ombudsman Source: Excerpts from Vision 2030 Jamaica (GoJ, 2009a)

The National Outcome 6 “Effective Governance” from Vision 2030 Jamaica includes two national strategies (i.e., Table 7, items 6.3 and 6.6) relevant to the contents of UNESCO Recommendation on Science and Scientific Researchers.

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On the one hand, National Strategy 6.3, to ensure tolerance and respect for human rights and freedoms, has a specific sector strategy to guarantee the incorporation of human rights concerns into all national policies (i.e., GoJ, 2009a: p.121). Unfortunately, the new National Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (GoJ, 2022a) does not address the issue of human rights and STI. In the context of the abovementioned UNESCO Recommendation, its follow-up key area 6 considers that any scientific conduct is subject to universal human rights standards. Research should be conducted in a responsible manner that respects the human rights of scientific researchers and human research subjects alike. Open Access to research results and the knowledge derived from it promotes the human right to share in scientific advancement and its benefits (Tash, 2021). On the other hand, National Strategy 6.6 to foster equity in all spheres of society, the 2022 National Science, Technology and Innovation Policy address the equity issue addressed by Policy Objective 4.3, to increase and improve the human resource capital for STI, by increasing the representation of women and persons with disabilities. The last statement is related to the UNESCO Recommendation’s follow-up key area 5, which promotes inclusive and non-discriminatory work conditions and access to education and employment in science. All citizens enjoy equal opportunities for the initial education and training needed and equal access to employment in scientific research. Scientific researchers enjoy equitable conditions of work. The participation of women and other underrepresented groups should be actively encouraged in order to remediate inequalities.

BOX 5. UNESCO RECOMMENDATION ON SCIENCE AND SCIENTIFIC RESEARCHERS (2017) UNESCO’s Recommendation on Science and Scientific Researchers (RS|SR) provides a vision for science that goes beyond growth and productivity and puts human well-being and inclusion at the centre. The Recommendation was adopted by UNESCO Member States at the 39th General Conference in 2017, superseding the Recommendation on the Status of Scientific Researchers of 1974. The 2017 Recommendation defines the vision and provides the operational guidance for placing social justice, inclusion and human rights at the centre of science ecosystems. Enabling women and girls to follow a career in science; making scientific applications accessible to all; providing the conditions for scientists to work in freedom and safety; favouring trust and a scientific culture in society; and ensuring science-led policymaking are some of the Recommendation’s building blocks. This Recommendation has a particular value today, including for developing countries in building their scientific skills and institutions. It provides a useful checklist of political and institutional requirements and promotes a fair and appropriate status of scientific researchers and a responsible use of knowledge from all scientific fields. Member States organised the RS|SR around 10 key areas to facilitate monitoring and reporting and to increase focus and uptake (UNESCO, 2024). Source: UNESCO, https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000260889.page=116

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INDUSTRIAL, ENERGY, AGRICULTURE, ICT AND EXPORT PROFILES: ANALYSING THE STI DEMAND-SIDE IN JAMAICA The national innovation system paradigm usually characterises the relationship among institutions that support and foster knowledge creation and firms that exploit this knowledge. This stream of work suggests that to maximise innovation, institutions within a country need to complement each other and work in tandem. In addition, technology policy, aiming to create efficient institutional mechanisms for integrating knowledge production and commercialisation functions, is likely to enhance a country’s ability to sustain an innovative technology system over time (Stern et al., 2002). Innovation policy is usually defined as a set of policy instruments and appropriate institutions that assist in the local adoption of technology and the introduction of new products and services to the market. This may include adapting imported technologies to local conditions. Appropriate technology and innovation policies can be derived only from understanding how technical change occurs in local enterprises. Whereas companies everywhere must try to master or adapt existing technologies, a prominent level of basic knowledge and capabilities exists in most firms in mature industrial countries or can be easily acquired from other firms, labour markets, support institutions or consultants. This makes it relatively easy and routine to master existing technologies. In developing countries, by contrast, the internal knowledge base for mastering technologies is relatively weak, and the support network provided by other enterprises, institutions, and human capital also needs to be developed (Lall and Teubal, 1998). Promoting innovation at the firm level involves both public and private sectors (e.g., entrepreneurs, researchers, public servants, financiers, among other social actors) and may include civil society organisations. Successfully launching and running initiatives involving innovation requires aligning the interests of numerous stakeholders. This implies a problematic coordination process. The state is often best placed for the role of initiating, guiding, or facilitating coordination owing to its stronger convening and coordinating power. It has a crucial tool available only to it. Incentives can be designed in public policies to influence the behaviours and relations of actors involved in the innovation process. By, for example, aligning incentives with stakeholders, establishing risk-sharing mechanisms for multi-stakeholder ventures, and promoting knowledge sharing and dissemination, the state significantly promotes the coordination process. In developing countries, inadequate public sector involvement to coordinate stakeholders may stifle innovation. The productive sector and its markets represent the demand side for STI. The characteristics and behaviour of this STI demand side over time determine whether it is possible, in a country’s economy, to absorb the results of research obtained by universities and research centres (STI supply side) to generate new goods and services. To handle and incorporate new knowledge into production, a firm must make several technological decisions. Some are clearly concerned with the choice of alternatives regarding the source of new knowledge, the source of equipment and the use of such inputs. Others have to do with building up the firm’s capacity (technical and design groups, administrative organisation, information) to make such choices, adapt foreign technology, and effectively incorporate new knowledge into production. Adapting foreign technology is critical since it contributes to the optimal use of foreign technology and can link foreign technology to domestic science and technology. Supply-side and demand-side analysis should guide the public sector’s involvement. A lack of adequate understanding of the characteristics and potentialities of each country’s STI supply and demand sides will trigger failure for any research and innovation policies, as well as their policy instruments and incentives put in place. Jamaica’s manufacturing industry lacks a dedicated curriculum and training programme (GoJ, 2020c). While there are courses and training modules that cover general disciplines and skills required for manufacturing, such as engineering, technology applications, and production management, there is a need for specialised

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training in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, which are particularly relevant to the manufacturing sector. A nation’s ability to become competitive depends on its capacity to attract, develop, and retain top science and engineering talent to drive innovation and R&D. This includes education systems that equip students with advanced STEM skills, creative problem-solving skills, entrepreneurial training, and leadership skills. Consequently, a critical driver of a nation’s competitiveness in manufacturing is a workforce with solid foundations in science and mathematics. This section will analyse the characteristics of the economy’s manufacturing, energy, agricultural, ICT and export sectors. All of them are part of the STI demand side, and each of them requires specific know-how and financial incentives to prosper.

Characteristics of the business-enterprise sector According to a recent World Bank Group (2022a) study, Jamaica’s private sector has a dualistic structure comprising a few thriving and often multisectoral large firms and many micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Although large firms contribute significantly to the GDP, they account for just under a third of jobs and are most active in tourism, finance, electricity, and agro-processing. Conversely, MSMEs provide more than two-thirds of jobs, primarily in wholesale, accommodation, food services, and agriculture. The MSMEs Entrepreneurship Policy, through policy goal 4, aims to foster entrepreneurship and innovation (GoJ, 2017b). Most firms in Jamaica are young, with limited export activity, high import dependence, and low innovation capacity. The most recent World Bank Group (2010) Enterprise Survey (i.e., pp. 126–129) found that half of all Jamaican firms were under 15 years old, and only 16% of formal firms were involved in exports, below the average for other upper-middle-income countries. Furthermore, 74% of manufacturing firms imported from abroad, above the average of comparator countries. Extensive dependence on imported inputs reflects, among other things, Jamaica’s high production costs and limited innovation. In Jamaica, firm productivity is closely correlated with size and ownership structure. Large foreign-owned companies and retail enterprises are the most productive regarding sales per worker. Meanwhile, small firms, domestic companies, and firms in manufacturing and other services exhibit low productivity. The World Bank Group (2022b) considers that Jamaica must improve its business regulatory environment; weaknesses in competition, tax, land, and other policies remain. Limited competition undermines firm innovation and affects the prices, reliability, and penetration of network services such as telecommunications and energy. Lack of pro-competition regulation in critical sectors, the prevalence of state-owned enterprises, and weak competition enforcement are contributing factors. Jamaica’s trade practices limit domestic firms’ ability to integrate with global value chains and create market distortions. High trade costs have hampered the growth of Jamaican exports. The time and costs to export and import are relatively elevated because of high and multiple taxes and fees, weak coordination among agencies, absence of an integrated, harmonised framework for border agencies, prevalence of manual processes, and low capacity of firms to implement international requirements, among other factors. According to the reports of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Jamaica’s economy can be significantly transformed with the rapid adoption of technology, innovation, and digitalisation (ECLAC 2022, 2023a). Jamaica already has a flourishing business process outsourcing industry, and further technological advancements, particularly in affordable high-speed internet connectivity, can create more opportunities such as expanding ecommerce, shared economy transactions, and fintech. To accelerate the financial inclusion of MSMEs, it is necessary to establish an ecosystem that encourages the use of digital financial services with broad reach, complemented by demand-side measures such as e-governance initiatives, revisions of laws and regulations to support the digital economy, and strengthening of digital literacy and skills. Digitalising logistics services can reduce trade costs and informality while increasing the traceability of cross-border activities.

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In several industries, including Jamaica’s informal sector, perverse incentives discourage the creation of backward linkages due to factors such as high informality and unreliable local supplies. The business environment in Jamaica has limited the inclusion of many informal firms, primarily in wholesale or retail trade, in productive supply chains that generate employment. The informal sector constitutes about 35 to 44% of Jamaica’s total GDP, according to Shik et al. (2017). The Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce (MIIC) is dedicated to facilitating the growth of emerging industries. These industries are defined as sectors that are in early-stage development and are characterised by high growth rates and significant market potential. Emerging industries typically rely on new products, services, technologies, or ideas. Currently, the Ministry focuses on nurturing the development of such industries to support their growth. Some examples are the following: ▶ International Financial Services: The Jamaican Government is committed to establishing the economy as a globally competitive destination for international companies offering financial services. In so doing, it aims to transform the country into an offshore financial hub. Direct employment prospects for the long term could be as high as 15,000 local professionals, with potential estimated revenues to the Government being as high as US$ 300 million per annum. ▶ Medical Cannabis and Hemp: Based on the amendments to the Dangerous Drugs Act, Jamaica is poised for the development of medical cannabis and hemp industries. The regulatory framework for these new industries is currently being developed. ▶ Bamboo: This industry presents immense opportunities for commercialising bamboo and its byproducts. The MIIC is currently developing a framework to support and facilitate this lucrative industry’s organisation, growth and development. ▶ Creative Industries: The creative industries sector presents lucrative opportunities for Jamaica to share its culture with the world while obtaining an income. Initiatives to support the improved monetisation of this sector include the Jamaica Film Festival, efforts to develop a Film Fund and strengthening the IP regime to facilitate increased access to capital by the sector. The MIIC supports the National Quality Infrastructure, a platform to strengthen the quality and standard threshold for locally produced goods and services based on international benchmarks. The production of goods and services that meet internationally accepted quality standards is the only platform on which Jamaica can compete and become a strong player in the global marketplace. Its implementation will require the private sector to adhere to international standards (voluntary) and technical regulations (mandatory). However, the country stands to benefit from increased revenue and opportunities for business expansion. The implementation of the National Quality Infrastructure is guided by the following four pillars: (a) Standards development; (b) Conformity assessment which involves testing, inspection and certification; (c) Metrology; and (d) Accreditation. Recent developments towards the implementation of the National Quality Infrastructure include: ▶ Draft National Quality Policy 2015: The new policy is guided by current global standards and quality requirements per the World Trade Organisation (WTO)-Technical Barriers to Trade. Consultations are currently underway. ▶ The establishment of a National Compliance and Regulatory Authority. The Division will be responsible for registering processed food establishments and inspecting goods at the ports of entry and in the domestic market for compliance. ▶ Jamaica National Accreditation Agency (JANAAC) is a signatory to the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation Mutual Recognition Arrangement, which facilitates global acceptance of the results generated by the conformity assessment bodies that the JANAAC accredits. This recognition helps reduce costs for manufacturers and exporters and eliminates the need for redundant testing of exported products. ▶ The Nuclear Safety and Radiation Act (2015) ensures that activities relating to radioactive material, nuclear material, and ionising radiation apparatus are subject to safety and security standards. The

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Act also makes provision for establishing a national regulatory body, referred to as the Hazardous Substances Regulatory Authority. ▶ Amendments to the Weights and Measures Act (2015). The legislation ensures uniformity in the laws, regulations and standards that govern weights and measures to achieve equity between buyers and sellers in the marketplace. Jamaica’s flagship growth initiative, the Foundations for Competitiveness and Growth Project (FCGP), was managed by the MIIC between 2014 and 2020. The FCGP was funded by a US$ 50 million loan from the World Bank and aimed at strengthening Jamaica’s business environment to attract significant private-sector investment (i.e., p. 249). The FCGP comprised three components designed to enhance competition in the business environment. The first component focused on implementing reforms to make it easier for businesses to operate and be established. The second component aimed to facilitate strategic private investment reforms, while the third component supported the capabilities and financing of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ) spearheaded one of the project components, which was geared towards supporting privatisation and public-private partnerships (PPPs). This component financed studies and technical assistance to enable the government to prepare and close large strategic investment transactions with private sector participation. The strategic sectors included agribusiness, energy, information and communications technology, logistics, transportation, airports, ports, social sector PPPs (such as health and education), tourism, and water and sanitation. The component supporting the establishment of Jamaica’s Special Economic Zone regime facilitated large-scale foreign and domestic investments while upgrading the productivity of over 240 SMEs in supply chains. Other initiatives included completing the Business Plan for the Cultural and Creative Industries, conducting the Jamaica Survey of Establishments to create a database of businesses operating in the country, and providing aggregate information for policy development, research, and future sample surveys for sector and industry analyses. The Survey is expected to contain approximately 50,000 firms. Beyond all the previous initiatives implemented by the GoJ, access to finance is a significant challenge for MSMEs in Jamaica, with only a quarter of them having a bank loan or line of credit. This is much lower than the regional average in Latin America and the Caribbean, where nearly half of MSMEs have access to bank loans or lines of credit. Microfinance laws and regulations have been introduced recently, which is a positive step towards regulating the microfinance sector in Jamaica. However, alternative financing sources such as leasing, factoring, and venture capital are underdeveloped, and MSMEs need more access to digital financial services or fintech. Fintech could provide a cost-effective solution and improve access to credit and payment systems for MSMEs. Promoting fintech requires changes in regulations and active policies to encourage its use. Employers in Jamaica need help finding workers with the necessary skills, especially in higher-value services. A contributing factor is the limited number of tertiary graduates in critical fields, including computer science, programming, and engineering. Moreover, brain-drain and a lack of occupation-specific and socioemotional skills worsen the situation. The National Training Agency’s Human Employment and Resource Training Trust and various government and nongovernmental agencies offer labour market initiatives. To address the situation, the government is trying to find mechanisms for encouraging Jamaica’s large, relatively well-educated diaspora to return, but the domestic job market offers insufficient incentives. Overcoming skill mismatches, especially in higher-value activities, requires strengthening links between education, training providers, and private sector needs. On the one hand, to enhance the national quality infrastructure, the certification of public and private entities, national product and service standards have been adopted. In 2021, the Bureau of Standards Jamaica established 76 products and services standards that pertain to health sciences, information technology, electrical practices, food, cannabis, and bamboo-related products. Additionally, 31 companies

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have successfully met the requirements of ISO 9001:2015, while 23 companies have received product certifications from the National Certification Body of Jamaica (Henry, 2022). On the other hand, Jamaica has signed double taxation agreements with several countries, including Canada, CARICOM members, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK. Additionally, the country has entered into a bilateral Income Tax Convention with the US, established in 1981. This convention aims to prevent double taxation while simultaneously preventing income tax evasion. An inter-government agreement was signed between both countries in 2014, allowing for reciprocal information sharing by the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. More recently, in 2018, a similar agreement was signed between Jamaica and Mexico. These legal instruments are integrated into the internal legal order to eliminate or reduce international double taxation, which can impede the exchange of goods and services, capital movements, technologies, and people, ultimately benefiting natural or legal persons, residents, or those domiciled in any Contracting States (GoJ, 2022d).

Energy profile According to the GoJ, the National Energy Policy 2009–2030 (GoJ, 2009c) supports Vision 2030 Jamaica, providing the enabling environment for the achievement of the national outcome of “a secure and sustainable energy supply for our country” as articulated in the National Development Plan and the implementation of the two national energy strategies: to diversify the energy supply and to promote energy efficiency and conservation. It would also support achieving two other national strategies articulated in the Plan: “adaptation to climate change” and “contributing to the effort to reduce the global rate of climate change.” Jamaica has one of the highest energy costs in the world. In 2020, the country’s energy sector had an installed capacity of 1,340 MW, with the majority (81%) powered by fossil fuels and the remainder by renewable sources. However, the energy production process is inefficient and expensive. The average electricity tariffs in Jamaica from 2010 to 2020 ranged between US$ 0.26/kWh and US$ 0.39/kWh, which is significantly higher than the average for countries in Latin America and the Caribbean and other countries with similar economic conditions (ECLAC, 2022). The high energy costs are due to several factors, including the country’s dependence on expensive imported oil, above-average generation and distribution losses, and limited competition in the energy market, which hinders efficiency. Jamaica loses approximately 26% of the electricity generated, 8% due to technical losses in transmission and distribution, and 18% due to non-technical factors like theft. The country’s electricity system losses are among the highest globally. High electricity tariffs have adverse effects on households and businesses. Energy services consume a sizeable portion of disposable income of households, especially the poorest ones, which spend 13.8% of their income on energy, while the richest spend 11.3%. This is significantly higher than the regional and peer country averages, which range from 7% to 9% (IDB, 2020). The high energy burden limits the resilience of households to withstand economic shocks. Non-residential consumers, such as the commercial and industrial sectors, consume 67% of the electricity produced, with energy-intensive industries like agriculture, extractives, and manufacturing leading the way. Higher electricity tariffs increase the overall cost of production and reduce the competitiveness of export products. The high energy costs in the country are constraining the competitiveness of local businesses compared to other countries. This is due to the limited use of renewable energy, system losses, and unfavourable contract terms with foreign fuel oil and natural gas providers (World Bank Group, 2022b). The prohibitive costs and occasional outages are disproportionately affecting MSMEs. The Government and its development partners are increasingly recognising the importance of renewable energy and energy efficiency (GoJ, 2020b). To reduce costs and accelerate decarbonisation, the Government needs to implement reforms

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that stimulate investment in renewable energy. Additionally, businesses would benefit from reforms that increase efficiency and reduce system losses. Jamaica is one of the many Caribbean islands heavily dependent on imported fossil fuels, with only 6.6% of its primary energy coming from domestic sources. When we exclude the sugar industry’s usage of bagasse, fuelwood, and charcoal, the percentage of renewable energy technologies such as hydro, wind, and solar photovoltaic (PV) is only roughly 1.5%. This reliance on fossil fuels is also reflected in the energy generation sector, where the majority of the country’s primary energy (88%) is derived from imported fossil fuels such as petroleum and liquid natural gas, with renewable resources accounting for just 12% of the energy mix in 2021 (GoJ, 2023a). Jamaica has set ambitious targets for transitioning to renewable energy sources. The country’s National Energy Policy, established in 2009, aimed to achieve 20% renewable energy by 2030 (GoJ, 2009c). However, the Jamaican Prime Minister has recently announced that the country will increase its target to 50% by the same year (ECLAC, 2022). As of 2021, Jamaica had achieved 17.5% renewable energy capacity (IRENA, 2023). The country’s Integrated Resource Plan, approved in 2018 and updated in 2020, sets out a plan until 2037, with renewable energy expected to account for 49% of Jamaica’s electricity matrix (GoJ, 2020b). This Plan outlines the use of diverse technologies, such as solar, wind, hydropower, waste-to-energy, and biomass to achieve these objectives. Although many Caribbean countries have pledged to become carbon-neutral by 2030, Jamaica’s plan relies on natural gas to replace oil imports (i.e., Figs. 17 and 18). The Integrated Resource Plan estimates that Jamaica would require a capital investment of approximately US$ 1.9 billion to procure 1,270 MW of wind and solar power generation by 2037. The MSETT has led the development of Jamaica’s first Electric Vehicle Policy (GoJ, 2023a) with a broad cross-section of stakeholders. Jamaica spends more than US$ 1.6 billion (2021) a year importing petroleumbased fuel, and the country’s transportation sector depends on oil products. It is firmly believed that adopting Electric Vehicles (EV) in the country will alleviate the difficulties mentioned earlier and result in job creation and economic advancement with the appropriate governmental framework. Jamaica faces challenges in adopting EV technology due to a lack of a local supply chain and supporting infrastructure. The absence of local experiences, specialised training, and research programmes has led to a significant skills gap. A comprehensive EV ecosystem requires integrating several components, including waste management, affordable product offerings, and EV repair and maintenance services. To address these issues, universities and public and private sector representatives must conduct research and analysis on EV. As part of an all-encompassing and systemic mobility strategy, EV require a multidisciplinary approach, rewarding research and innovation that bridges engineering, social sciences, urban planning, economics, and policy. Jamaica has made a significant effort to promote renewable energy technologies. The Caribbean Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency mapped four institutions in Jamaica that offer vocational and professional certification courses in renewable energy technologies, namely HEART Trust/National TVET Engineering Institute, Jamaica Society of Energy Engineers, Vector Technology Institute, and the UWI Mona Campus. In addition, there are two Bachelor’s degrees, and three Master’s degrees offered by the UWI Mona Campus and the UTech, Jamaica, which have either dedicated courses or core courses in renewable energy technology (CCREEE, 2020). Although energy insecurity is a significant challenge in Jamaica, the government has set ambitious renewable energy targets for 2030 and has been showing increased interest in renewable energy R&D. However, the energy policy approved in 2009 did not identify how R&D in renewable energy could contribute to national sustainable development. Researchers in Jamaican universities are currently interested in solar PV, wind, biofuels, and waste-to-energy technologies, which are considered to be promising areas for future research and development.

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2021

6%

7%

21%

2% 2%

Solar PV Wind Hydropower

62%

Other renewables Oil Natural gas

Figure 17. Jamaica installed electricity generation capacity by technology in 2021. Source: Author based on raw data from IRENA (2022) and GoJ (2020b)

2037

37%

Solar PV Wind

51%

Hydropower Other renewables Oil Natural gas

3% 4%

5%

Figure 18. Jamaica estimated electricity generation capacity by technology for 2037. Source: Author based on raw data from IRENA (2022) and GoJ (2020b).

Notably, Objective 5.2 of the Electric Vehicle Policy (GoJ, 2023a) proposes the development of specialised training and research programmes related to battery reuse and recycling while Strategy 5.2.2. establishes the promotion of entrepreneurship programmes to incentivise innovative solutions for the second use of batteries. Fostering entrepreneurship programmes can be beneficial by introducing specialised research initiatives created to encourage business-people to develop creative solutions to the problems associated with battery second use. By doing so, innovation regarding R&D in the areas relating to EV and batteries will be facilitated and encouraged. GoJ (2023a) considers the need for the development of e-mobility R&D programmes with industries, the public and private sectors and educational institutions (e.g., universities, research centres) to promote

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research and innovation activities and projects, focusing on the primary areas of e-mobility, such as power generation, energy storage or battery applications. To successfully incentivise these projects, public authorities shall: (1) define the requirements for the development of these programmes, (2) implement financing procedures to grant funding, and (3) deploy pilot programmes for further evaluation and monitoring.

Agriculture sector, research and development Historically, the Jamaican agriculture system was built based on a well-established structural dichotomy. The country boasts of a diversified agricultural sector that involves domestic crop production, crop exportation, and fishing. The export market primarily depended on large-scale operations that produced crops like sugarcane, bananas, and coffee. These operations trace their roots back to the colonial expansion period of the 18th and 19th centuries when the economy relied heavily on plantation agriculture and slave labour. On the other hand, the small-scale sector, which emerged after the abolishment of slavery, provides the majority of farm labour in Jamaica and offers an array of crops for the domestic market, including tubers, banana and plantain, legumes, and tropical vegetables (Osborne, 2006). However, due to natural disasters and the termination of preferential trade agreements, the profitability of these exports has dwindled over time, leading to a shift in focus towards tourism. Additionally, the global financial crisis has further compounded matters, resulting in limited government funding for agricultural research and development, with most of the available funding being directed towards salaries instead of operating expenses or capital investments. As a result, many laboratory facilities in the region are currently in a state of disrepair (Flaherty et al., 2015). As per Vision 2030 Jamaica, agriculture has been recognised as one of the nine internationally competitive industries. The objective is to support agriculture through various institutions such as the Agro Investment Corporation and by offering agricultural credit, infrastructure, and R&D facilities. The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining (MoAFM) has a Research and Development Division to generate cost-effective technology for improving agricultural production. The division operates four subprogrammes – livestock research and improvement, crop research and development, plant protection, and post-entry quarantine – intended to apply modern technology to increase production and productivity. The R&D Division has led to collaboration with international and regional entities involved in agricultural research. This is to effect greater efficiency and global competitiveness. To achieve these objectives, the Ministry has embarked on a programme of resuscitation and upgrading of the three research stations at Bodles in St. Catherine, Orange River in St. Mary, and Montpelier in St. James. Jamaica has a unique opportunity to take a leading role in research across all stages of the value chain due to its abundance of scientific capacity from various institutions such as the Scientific Research Council (SRC), College of Agriculture, Science and Education (CASE) UWI Mona Campus, UTech, Jamaica, and other commodity-specific organisations like the Coconut Industry Board. The Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) aims to leverage these partnerships and undertake research interventions to advance the coconut, root and tuber, small ruminant, and cannabis/industrial hemp industries in Jamaica. Traditionally, research interventions have focused on production-level activities, but CARDI’s Strategic Plan 2018–2022 focuses on processing added-value products for cassava and coconuts (CARDI, 2018). Livestock research will primarily focus on breed development for small ruminants, with a particular emphasis on goats instead of sheep. The research team will validate production models for small ruminant enterprises of varying scales, including feasibility studies for technical and financial aspects. Similar research interventions will be undertaken for the cannabis/industrial hemp industry. A combination of policy actions is required to effectively address the issue of limited resources and fragmented research in the agricultural sector. Firstly, agricultural R&D activities across government, higher education,

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and regional agencies must be coordinated to ensure efficient utilisation of limited resources and seek additional funding from available international sources. Secondly, a fixed financial allocation of agricultural GDP should be committed to agricultural research. Finally, providing incentives for patent applications and ICT-led innovation in agricultural R&D can further boost research outcomes (Flaherty et al., 2015). Agriculture is crucial to Jamaica’s economy, contributing 7% of the GDP in 2019 (Gachot et al., 2021). The agricultural sector in Jamaica comprises two main types of producers: a small group of commercial plantations that produce monoculture crops for export and a large group of small mixed-crop farms that produce goods primarily for domestic consumption or sale in the local market. Small farms constitute 41% of Jamaica’s agricultural land, with most operating on plots of two hectares or less. Jamaica’s agroclimatic conditions are conducive to cultivating various crops, including high-value horticulture, such as fruits, vegetables, and spices. Unlike other Caribbean countries that face challenges in expanding agricultural production, Jamaica has abundant unused land, with over a third of its agricultural land lying fallow. This presents an opportunity to invest in and expand the production of high-value horticulture crops for export to existing and new markets (World Bank Group, 2022b). Jamaica’s export market is highly concentrated in products and destinations, with limited diversification. However, the country’s high-value horticulture crops present a promising opportunity for export diversification. Given its size and firm scale, Jamaica faces challenges in competing with more significant regional and global agricultural powerhouses specialising in products with high returns to scale. To overcome this, Jamaica must encourage transformative investments that produce goods at a reasonable scale and consistent quality. A few successful exporters demonstrate that Jamaica has the potential to become a leading player in high-value niche exports. The global trend of increasing demand for high-value horticulture products provides an opportunity for Jamaica to enhance its exports in this segment, which includes strawberries, pineapples, avocados, mangoes, citrus fruits, speciality vegetables, dry peppers, ginger, and turmeric. Jamaica currently exports more than two-thirds of its agrifood products to Canada, the UK, and the US, indicating room for diversification within the Caribbean region and beyond. Agriculture has enormous potential for scaling up the production of specialised horticultural exports that cater to the tourism industry and domestic consumption. However, according to the World Bank Group (2022b), several reforms are necessary to face serious challenges, such as adapting to climate change, enhancing access to land, strengthening research and development and extension services, logistics, postharvest infrastructure (such as cold storage and warehousing), food safety, access to finance, and links to markets. Strong coordination is required between the government, public, and private sectors to develop horticulture. This should include a clear action plan and a system of accountability to identify who is responsible for implementing each action. Private sector activities and innovation are crucial in accelerating Jamaica’s economic growth and diversifying its economy. According to the prioritisation exercise, the most effective ways to boost inclusive economic growth are strengthening agricultural support services, improving economic and business support services, and enhancing trade facilitation. Diversification plays a critical role in achieving sustainable development in commodity-dependent countries. To successfully identify new potential sectors for diversification, it is essential to conduct a thorough analysis of the country’s technological and productive capabilities. This analysis should consider the current technological and productive capacity level and identify realistically viable sectors while also delivering significant benefits. Using this approach, UNCTAD (2022) has identified, for the case of Jamaica, an extensive list of potential new agribusiness products with higher export opportunities (i.e., Table 11, p. 78). Horticulture is a highly competitive industry, especially for crops with high nutritional value or unique characteristics. Therefore, innovation and product development play a critical role in staying competitive. Jamaica, unfortunately, lags behind its regional competitors in agricultural productivity, indicating the need for increased investment in R&D to improve agricultural competitiveness. Although there have been efforts to increase production and productivity, R&D in this area remains underfunded and insufficient compared to other regional competitors. Another challenge is the shortage of qualified R&D staff due to a disconnect between agricultural education, modern challenges, and private sector needs. To address these challenges, it is necessary to invest in R&D for new crop varieties adapted to Jamaica’s climate and soils, as

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Jamaica: Mapping the landscape of the research and innovation system in a small island developing state

well as for modern production techniques and agricultural infrastructure, such as greenhouses, improved irrigation systems, and climate-resilient structures, to enhance yields and productivity in horticulture. The Agriculture Sector Plan contained within Vision 2030 Jamaica includes Goal 6, ”An Environmentally Sustainable Sector” with outcomes that include: 6.2 Organic Farming as Major Mode of Production, and 6.3 Strengthened Risk and Hazard Mitigation for the Sector. Nascent organic farming, permaculture and agroecology research units in Jamaica, such as The Source Farm Foundation11 and its Guango Wild Garden Conservancy Organic Research Station, offer promise to support outcome 6.2. Agricultural lands and coastlines can retain high biodiversity value and be more resilient to climate change if farmed or fished using such techniques. Agricultural products which can meet organic labels have higher export value, and Jamaica is just beginning to see significant on-island demand, primarily from the tourism industry. The Jamaica Organic Agriculture Movement12 is working to obtain organic certification as a US certifying body and aims to sponsor all Jamaican organic producers. To address outcome 6.3 the MoAFM, through the Food Security, Agribusiness Development, Climate Change Technologies, and Export Expansion of Food Initiative, has been supporting climate-smart techniques such as rainwater harvesting, contour cropping, and stocking fish species that can adapt well to climate change impacts. The GoJ has adopted a Country Programming Framework with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations that prioritises inter alia building resilience and sustainable livelihoods.13 Finally, Jamaica has obtained funding from the Global Environment Facility, the Green Climate Fund14 and the Adaptation Fund to support climate-smart agriculture and fisheries, and to conduct research on crop suitability modelling.

Information and communication technologies: A potential driver for Jamaica’s Economy The 2011 Information and Communications Technology Policy was formulated based on the recommendations of Vision 2030 Jamaica. It was developed through horizontal and vertical consultation, primary and secondary data analysis, and resolution of core issues (GoJ, 2011). The policy is founded on several principles, which include the belief that ICT are developmental tools that should be widely accessible and used by the general population. Additionally, the policy aims to promote competition and innovation through a neutral approach to technology selection and regulation to benefit consumers, producers, and service providers. In essence, the GoJ seeks to provide a comprehensive framework for the ICT Sector, facilitating investment, strengthening all productive sectors, and creating a knowledge-based society. The current ICT policies in Jamaica require an overhaul to meet the industry standards, as they are outdated due to the rapid technological advancements of the past decade. The policies should prioritise adopting digital technologies at the national level and assess their implementation across all sectors. Vision 2030 Jamaica was finalised in 2009 and requires revision to incorporate the impact of COVID-19 and the changing industry requirements. Although the 2030 Goals do not specifically mention BPO, the government has decided to review it. The previous national outsourcing strategy for 2015–20 focused on low-value services such as contact centres. However, the new strategy for 2020–25 emphasises higher-value services. Jamaica could benefit significantly from aligning its ICT policies and digital strategies with the changing industry requirements. It must also develop a broader incentive plan to support the sector’s growth overall. Fig. 19 and Fig. 20 illustrate the penetration of ICT in Jamaica, with the former depicting the parabolic growth of internet users per 100 inhabitants from 1995 to 2022 and the latter showing the logistic growth of mobile cellular subscriptions per 100 inhabitants over the same period. The logistic growth curve reached market saturation in 2010. On the other hand, Fig. 21 exhibits the evolution of computers, communications, and other services as a percentage of commercial service exports and imports for Jamaica from 1976 to 2022. 11 https://www.thesourcefarm.com/ 12 https://joamltd.org/ 13 https://www.fao.org/jamaica-bahamas-and-belize/programmes-and-projects/en/ 14 https://www.greenclimate.fund/document/jamaica-country-programme

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100 90 79

80

82

68

70 60

55

50 44 37

40 30

40

24

20 10

13

3

1

0 1995

8

2000

2005

2010

2015

2020

2025

Figure 19. Evolution of internet users per 100 inhabitants, 1995–2022. The dotted line indicates the bestfitting curve. Source: Author, based on raw data provided by the International Telecommunications Union.

140

117

116

120

106 99

100

102

98

80 74

60 47

40

23

20 3

0 1995

2000

2005

2010

2015

2020

2025

Figure 20. Evolution of mobile cellular subscriptions per 100 inhabitants, 1995–2022. The dotted line indicates the best-fitting curve. Source: Author, based on raw data provided by the International Telecommunications Union.

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Jamaica: Mapping the landscape of the research and innovation system in a small island developing state

50% Exports 45%

Imports

40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% 1975

1980

1985

1990

1995

2000

2005

2010

2015

2020

2025

Figure 21. Computers, communications, and other services as a percentage of commercial services exports and imports for Jamaica from 1976 to 2022. The dotted lines indicate the best-fitting curves. Source: Author based on raw data from the World Bank databank (2023).

The level of ICT use in a country is a significant indicator of its development status and the readiness of its enterprises to integrate with the digital economy. The last Enterprise Survey (World Bank Group, 2010) reported that only 36% of small firms had a website, while 78% of large firms did. Additionally, only 67% of small firms used email to communicate with clients or suppliers, compared with 96% of large ones. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has likely increased these numbers. Expanding ICT access and providing ICT training could help Jamaican firms transfer knowledge, innovate, and increase productivity. Most informal firms in Jamaica are small, uncompetitive, and have low ICT adoption and export orientation. International evidence indicates that opportunities for export growth and integration with global value chains often trigger firms to formalise. In June 2020, 95% of Jamaica’s population was covered by 3G networks and 90% by 4G networks, higher than the Latin America and the Caribbean averages of 94% and 86%, respectively. Despite the nearly universal coverage, Jamaica’s unique mobile penetration rate was 67%, the lowest in the English-speaking Caribbean. The unique mobile internet penetration rate was 48%, compared with the regional averages of 70% and 53%, respectively. Similarly, fixed broadband service adoption is only 36%, compared with 75−85% in Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago. Moreover, the adoption of ICT in production needs to be higher, which limits economic transformation through closer integration with global technological value chains (World Bank Group, 2022b). Broadband speeds in the Caribbean have undergone a portentous increase in recent years. However, there are still significant disparities among countries regarding internet speeds. Similarly, there are significant disparities in the cost of access to fixed broadband. In many countries in the subregion, the cost of fixed broadband exceeds the international targets, and in some cases, it does so significantly. This has raised concerns for entities responsible for digital inclusion.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly changed how individuals and businesses use the internet. A critical lesson from this experience is the essential role of high-speed connectivity in supporting remote work, which may become a long-term consideration for the outsourcing industry. However, in 2023, Jamaica’s digital connectivity falls behind its income peers, ranking only 81 out of 182 countries regarding average fixed broadband download speed.15 This lack of investment in modern technology, such as fibre optics, is particularly noticeable outside major urban areas. In the knowledge process outsourcing industry, which can operate in remote work environments with high-quality connectivity, many firms offer employees the option to work from home permanently. Unfortunately, the level of broadband market development in Jamaica is hampering the country’s competitiveness compared to other nearshore locations that offer cheaper, partially remote work environments with lower costs. Digital connectivity in Jamaica is significantly more expensive for institutional and retail consumers than other nearby locations. While significant market players can offset high connectivity costs through economies of scale, these costs can discourage smaller investors from entering the market. Jamaica’s telecommunications industry is presently dominated by two major players, resulting in a highly concentrated market. Additionally, the regulatory framework governing the industry is outdated, which limits the Office of Utilities Regulation’s ability to foster investment and competition. On a global scale, more competitive markets result in better outcomes, including improved access to and adoption of broadband services by individuals and businesses. Competition in Jamaica has recently been boosted, with the government awarding a license to a third mobile operator. However, full implementation of unbundling the local loop and access to essential infrastructure such as towers, ducts, and poles is ongoing. In the mobile sector, the assignment of the available spectrum appears to be something other than data-driven, which has triggered ongoing discussions to reform the current system (World Bank Group, 2022b). Outsourcing refers to the process of obtaining business services from a third party or a different location. It involves using ICT to reduce costs and take advantage of other technical and business benefits. The outsourcing sector used to be classified into two categories: Information Technology Outsourcing and BPO. However, with the rise of digital technologies, a new category known as digital services has emerged. Jamaica’s outsourcing industry mainly operates in contact centres for BPO-type activities. The sector has experienced significant growth in terms of revenue and employment. Between 2016 and 2021, estimated revenues from Jamaica’s BPO activities nearly doubled to US$ 780 million, and the number of employees increased from 17,000 to 44,000, with the majority being women (World Bank Group, 2022b). At the regional level, during the CARICOM Heads of Government Meeting held in February 2019, a Cooperation Agreement was signed between the Government of Estonia, a leader in e-government, and CARICOM to promote the CARICOM Digital Agenda 2025. The ultimate goal of this agenda is to establish a single CARICOM ICT space based on the Regional Digital Development Strategy that was approved in 2013 (UNESCO, 2022a). The CARICOM Digital Agenda 2025 aims to establish an ICT ecosystem comprising regionally harmonised policies, legislation that addresses cybersecurity and other concerns, technical standards and best practices, and networks and services that promote the development of an ICT-enabled space without borders. This space will help to encourage socio-economic and cultural integration.

15 https://www.speedtest.net/global-index

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Characteristics of merchandise exports Governments are interested in setting up support programmes to enable firms to increase their export sales, given the positive impact that a surge in exports has on a country’s economic growth and competitiveness. Despite the recognised importance of micro-enterprises and SMEs, these still face significant challenges associated with business creation, survival, and growth today. Embedding domestic firms into global value chains has been identified as a critical government priority to support export growth and diversification, bolster private sector development and leapfrog the various impediments that continue to hinder the contribution of the country’s private sector. In 2021, Jamaica’s exports had a total value of US$ 4.38 billion. Over the last five years, the annual average growth rate of exports has been 0.6%, which is higher than the country’s overall economic growth. This indicates that the export sector is becoming increasingly important to the economy. However, the annual average growth rate of non-oil exports has been -0.4% over the same period, which is below the global average growth. In 2021, Jamaica’s imports totalled US$ 9.12 billion, resulting in a trade deficit in goods and services. Countries whose exports are more complex than expected for their income level grow faster. Therefore, diversifying know-how can drive growth to produce a broader and increasingly more complex set of goods and services (Hidalgo and Hausmann, 2009; Freire, 2017, 2019). Fig. 22 exhibits Jamaica’s current gross exports in US$ billion against the major categories of products, 1995–2021. Jamaica’s most significant exports are in low- and high-complexity products, such as agriculture and chemicals. Jamaica has seen a static pattern of export growth, with the most significant contribution to export growth coming from moderate-complexity products, particularly ICT and travel and tourism products. Jamaica still needs to start the traditional process of structural transformation. A key source of economic growth, this process reallocates economic activity from low to high-productivity sectors. It broadly moves activities out of agriculture into textiles, followed by electronics and/or machinery manufacturing. Global market share in textile exports in Jamaica has stagnated over the previous decade; electronics and machinery have yet to take off in Jamaica, limiting their income growth. Fig. 23 shows Jamaica’s main export products as a percentage of the global market share, 1994–2021. From this graph, it is clear that Jamaica has been losing global market share in its most significant export products during the past three decades. Over the past five years, the services sector has powered Jamaica’s export dynamics. However, there has been a concerning decline in exports within this sector, which has impeded economic growth by focusing on a declining segment of global exports. Economic growth is fuelled by diversifying into new products that are increasingly complex. Since 2006, Jamaica has successfully added 15 new products to its export portfolio, contributing US$ 8 in income per capita in 2021. Although Jamaica has diversified into a sufficient number of new products, the volume of these exports is still relatively small, which limits the potential for substantial income growth. Fig. 24 exhibits the names and proportions of the new 15 products. Jamaica has been facing challenges in increasing its exports due to high trade costs. The country has been experiencing delays and excessive costs in exports and imports, which can be attributed to multiple taxes and fees, inadequate coordination among agencies, lack of a uniform framework for border agencies, manual processes, and weak capacity of firms to implement international requirements. These issues have led to market distortions and limited the ability of domestic firms to integrate with global value chains. It is necessary to intensify efforts to enhance participation in international markets and leverage preferential market access conditions with key trade partners. The government facilitates trade by improving cooperation among border agencies, implementing risk management in border clearance, and enhancing customs regulations and data systems (World Bank Group, 2022a).

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To visualise research and innovation as components of merchandise exports over time (1991–2020), Fig. 25 shows the percentage of manufactured exports as a percentage of merchandise exports (horizontal axis) against high-tech exports expressed as a percentage of all manufactured exports (vertical axis). Over the past three decades, the share of manufactured exports of all merchandise exports in Jamaica remained stable at between 3% and 26%. Likewise, the high-tech component of manufactured exports remained between 0.03% and 7.98%. On the other extreme, the economies with the highest export valueadded in 2022 were the Philippines (79% merchandise exports with 67% high-tech exports), Ireland (90% merchandise exports with 41% high-tech exports) and Vietnam (86% merchandise exports with 39% hightech exports). Some of the Jamaican high-tech export products (2021) included the following items: cars (US$ 4.96 million), motor vehicles for transporting foods (US$ 3.86 M), equipment for temperature change of materials (US$ 1.81 million), watches with precious metals (US$ 1.15 million), other aircraft (US$ 1.07 million), centrifuges (US$ 987,000), transmission apparatus for radio, telephone and TV (US$ 891,000).

7 Services

Other

Electronics

Machinery

Vehicles

Chemicals

Metals

Minerals

Stone

Agriculture

Textiles

6

5 Agriculture

4

Textiles

Chemicals

3

2 Services

1

0 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021

Figure 22. Jamaican current gross exports in US$ billions against the major categories of products, 1995–2021. Source: Author based on data from the UN Statistical Division (COMTRADE).

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Jamaica: Mapping the landscape of the research and innovation system in a small island developing state

0.18 0.17

Services

Chemicals

Textiles

Agriculture

Stone

Minerals

Metals

Other

0.16 0.15 0.14 0.13 0.12 0.11 0.10 0.09 0.08 0.07 0.06 0.05 0.04 0.03 0.02 0.01 0.00 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015 2017 2019 2021 Figure 23. Jamaica’s main export products as percentage of the global market share, 1994–2021. Source: Author based on data from the UN Statistical Division (COMTRADE).

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Tanks < 300 litres, iron or steel 6.98%

Other sugars 8.83%

Plastic waste 12.36%

Other prepared or preserved meat 14.38%

Other glass articles 4.13%

Paper waste 4.57% Coffee extracts 6.78%

Nails and similar articles of iron or steel 2.19%

Processed cereal grains 2.39%

Scrap of precious metal 13.44%

Paints and varnishes, nonaqueous 5.63%

Plastic builders' ware 11.74%

Soap 3.92%

Plant material for animal feed 1.73%

Wooden casks and barrels 0.92%

Figure 24. The 15 new products included in Jamaica’s export basket since 2006. The total volume represents less than 1% of the total national exports. Source: Author, based on data from the UN Statistical Division (COMTRADE).

High-technology exports as % of manufactured exports

9% 8%

2018

2011

7% 6%

More Added-value

2017

5%

2014 2019

4%

2013

2016

2008

3%

2010

2020

2012

2009

2% 2015

1% 0%

2006 2005

3%

5%

2004

7%

2002

9%

1991

11%

13%

1999

15%

17%

1992

19%

1997

21%

1996

23%

1995

1994

25%

27%

Manufactured exports as % of merchandise exports

Figure 25. High-tech exports as a percentage of manufactured exports versus manufactured exports as a percentage of merchandise exports in Jamaica, 1991–2020. Source: Author, based on raw data provided by the World Bank databank (2023).

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Diversifying the export product space of Jamaica Over the past two decades, collaboration between economists and physicists have produced innovative research on the relationship between economic diversification and development (Hidalgo et al., 2007; Hidalgo and Hausmann, 2009). These researchers found that economies grow by upgrading the products they produce and export. The technology, capital, institutions and skills needed to make newer products are more easily adapted from some products than others. The study of this network of relatedness between products, or product space, shows that more sophisticated products are located in a densely connected core. In contrast, less sophisticated products occupy a less connected periphery. Empirically, countries move through the product space by developing goods close to those they currently produce. Most countries can reach the core only by traversing empirically infrequent distances, which may help to explain why least developed countries have trouble developing more competitive exports and fail to converge to the income levels of rich countries. This type of analysis can be applied directly to formulating customised STI policy instruments to foster the development of specific technologies where the country has detected a potential new technological niche. Technological transformation occurs when there is a new establishment of production in the country that results in economic diversification, or when there is a modification in the way a product is produced to increase productivity and reduce costs. Both forms of innovation lead to changes in income, consumption, employment, and output, which result in structural economic change (Freire, 2017, 2019). Structural transformation is driven by technological transformation when process and product innovation lead to a change in the economy’s structure. This change involves shifting employment and output from low-productivity sectors to existing or new, more productive sectors associated with higher levels of technology. Innovation is the combination of existing technologies in new configurations or economic activities. This combination usually requires the exchange of knowledge among firms, research centres, universities, governments, and consumers, which are the main actors of the national innovation systems (Freire, 2021). Firms and entrepreneurs have a critical role in innovation by taking risks to bring a new good or service to the market. The decision to innovate depends on many factors, not just the availability and access to technology. Innovation is path-dependent since it requires a combination of existing technologies. Larger “jumps” in innovation, which involve technologies not available in the economy and have to be learned or transferred from abroad, require more government support to facilitate innovation. Incentives for innovation are affected by the global demand for new or improved products. Product innovation or imitation is crucial for structural transformation by diversifying the economy and adding more productive sectors. The more diversified an economy, the higher its technological level, as each product requires specific capital- and labour-embodied technologies to be produced. The information about the level of diversification and how common the exports of the country are can be used to compute indices that serve as a proxy of the level of technologies in the economy or productive capacities, the so-called economic complexity. Indices are also used to estimate the level of technology that goes into the production of each product. More complex products require higher levels of technology. Development policies should be designed to promote new economic activities through targeted industrial policies. This requires identification of the appropriate sectors and products to targets based on the country’s productive structure and changes in global demand. Freire (2021) proposed a three-tier strategy of innovation and entrepreneurship to promote technological and structural transformation in developing countries, particularly those dependent on commodities: (1) Promote economic diversification, (2) promote the implementation of the digital revolution, which

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is considered one of the current techno-economic paradigms (i.e., Drechsler et al., 2011; Lemarchand, 2016b), (3) prepare the environment for implementing Industry 4.0 and enter into possible value chains related to this paradigm. In order to achieve sustainable development, it is crucial to develop a strategy that aligns with the national development plan and sustainable development objectives. This strategy comprises three main steps: identification of opportunities, design of policy instruments, and implementation. Identifying opportunities should be a government-led process with the participation of crucial innovation ecosystem actors, such as the private sector, universities, the organised civil sector, and the financial sector. The private sector plays a critical role since it possesses productive capacities and is best positioned to identify opportunities for innovation. Diversification is a crucial step towards sustainable development for countries that rely on commodities. In this regard, it is necessary to identify new potential diversification sectors that are realistically viable, given the current technological and productive capacity level, and which will bring more benefits. This requires a thorough analysis of the country’s technological and productive capabilities. The following steps suggested by Freire (2021) should be considered in this process: a. Identify the sectors close to the country’s current production space that are more complex than the country’s average production. This will increase the technological level. The more complex the product, the higher the government support that will be required. b. Identify the sectors in the product space’s densest parts. This will facilitate future diversification. c. Identifying products subject to increasing returns (productivity increases with increased production). The primary sector should not be included on this list. d. Identifying sectors that meet other social and environmental goals (e.g., sectors that employ more women, use less water, or have less negative impact on climate change). e. List the sectors with the highest export opportunities in terms of global demand and for which the country can leverage traditional trading partners or regional trade integration. The analysis can also identify the main markets of the potential new products for diversification, which could inform trade policies. Moreover, UNCTAD (2022) has recently released a comprehensive catalogue that presents a range of potential new products for diversification for 233 economies. The catalogue is based on an in-depth analysis of the economic complexity and position of these economies in the product space. The objective of this catalogue is to help governments, private sectors, and other stakeholders of national innovation systems to identify the possible directions for technological transformation of these economies. Of course, GoJ should consider the island’s natural conditions and the sustainable development implications of any new products that may be selected for adoption. Table 8 exhibits the basic statistics of Jamaica’s opportunities for diversification. Here, the term “current diversification” presents the number of products exported by Jamaica, which is based on trade classification HS 6-digit and further disaggregated by unity price range. The term “potential new products” implies the number of potential new products that Jamaica could export with high probability – i.e., eight in every ten countries that export the products exported by Jamaica also export these potential new products. Moreover, the “potential new products more complex” shows the percentage of potential new products that are also more complex than the average product exported by Jamaica. Export opportunity in more complex products shows the percentage of potential export opportunities, in terms of growing markets, of new products that are more complex, in total export opportunities. Finally, the phrase “import replacement opportunity in more complex products” presents the percentage of potential import replacement opportunities of new products that are more complex in total import replacement opportunities.

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Table 8. Basic statistics on Jamaica’s opportunities for diversification Diversification Opportunities

Number

Current diversification (number of products)

2,323

Potential new products

3,630

Potential new products more complex than the country’s average

2,876

Percentage

79%

Export opportunity in more complex products

47%

Import replacement opportunity in more complex products

47%

Source: UNCTAD (2022)

Table 9. Sectors with higher export opportunities for Jamaica (percentage of export opportunities). Product Machinery and mechanical appliances

Percentage 14%

Plastics and articles thereof

9%

Electrical, electronic equipment

8%

Organic chemicals

7%

Iron and steel

6%

Optical, photo, technical, medical, apparatus

6%

Articles of iron or steel

4%

Paper & paperboard, articles of pulp, paper and board

3%

Vehicles other than railway, tramway

2%

Miscellaneous chemical products

2%

Sum of others with smaller share

39%

Source: UNCTAD (2022)

Table 10. Potential new products with higher export opportunities Product category

Organic chemicals

Miscellaneous chemical products

(HS code) product description, unit price range (293390) Heterocyclic compounds with N-hetero-atom(s) only, US$ 1,018−6,469

2,026.2

(293339) Heterocyclic compounds with unfused pyridine ring, US$ 25−354

1,408.6

(290121) Ethylene, US$ 0−6

969.3

(293490) Heterocyclic compounds, US$ 0−25

896.3

(293490) Heterocyclic compounds, US$ 326−777

715.5

(381800) Chemical element/compound wafers doped for electronic, US$ 45−743

846.8

(380820) Fungicides, packaged for retail sale, US$ 17−36

810.1

(380810) Insecticides, packaged for retail sale, US$ 28−63

736.0

(380830) Herbicides, sprouting and growth regulators, US$ 4−18

708.3

(381590) Reaction initiators, accelerators, catalysts, US$ 17−36

Plastics and articles thereof

Articles of iron or steel

483.6

(390120) Polyethylene - specific gravity >0.94 in primary form, US$ 1−1

2,290.7

(390190) Polymers of ethylene, in primary forms, US$ 0−1

1,671.2

(390690) Acrylic polymers, in primary forms, US$ 0−1

1,294.5

(390230) Propylene copolymers in primary forms, US$ 0−1

1,132.3

(390410) Polyvinyl chloride in primary forms, US$ 0−1

1,128.0

(480100) Newsprint, US$ 0−3

2,871.7

Paper and (480411) Paper, Kraft liner, unbleached, uncoated, US$ 0−1 paperboard, articles (480100) Newsprint, US$ 0−1 of pulp, paper and (480560) Paper, weighing 150 g/m2 or less, uncoated, US$ 0−1 board (481021) Paper, fine, lightweight coated, US$ 0−2

Iron and steel

Export opportunity (US$ million)

571.5 491.8 333.7 327.1

(721049) Flat rolled iron or non-alloy steel, coated with zinc, width >600mm, US$ 0-0

1,826.6

(721049) Flat rolled iron or non-alloy steel, coated with zinc, width >600mm, $ 0−1

1,586.8

(720842) Hot rolled iron or non-alloy steel, flat, width >600mm, t >10mm, US$ 0−1

1,397.4

(720842) Hot rolled iron or non-alloy steel, flat, width >600mm, t >10mm, US$ 0−1

1,220.9

(722590) Flat rolled alloy-steel, width >600mm, US$ 0−2

1,181.5

(730820) Towers and lattice masts, iron or steel, US$ 1−7

891.4

(732290) non-electric heaters (with fan), parts, of iron/steel, US$ 10−37

677.7

(730660) Hollow profiles/tubes, iron/steel, non-circular, welded, US$ 0−1

490.0

(730610) Pipe (oil/gas line) iron or steel, diameter