Engineering: issues, challenges and opportunities for development ...

This landmark report on engineering and development is the first of its kind to be produced by UNESCO, or indeed by any internationalorganization.Containing highly informative and insightful contributions from 120 experts from all over the world, the report gives a new perspectiveon the very great importance of the engineer’s role in development.Advances in engineering have been central to human progress ever since the invention of the wheel. In the past hundred andfifty years in particular, engineering and technology have transformed the world we live in, contributing to significantly longer lifeexpectancy and enhanced quality of life for large numbers of the world’s population.Yet improved healthcare, housing, nutrition, transport, communications, and the many other benefits engineering brings are distributedunevenly throughout the world. Millions of people do not have clean drinking water and proper sanitation, they do nothave access to a medical centre, they may travel many miles on foot along unmade tracks every day to get to work or school.As we look ahead to 2015, and the fast-approaching deadline for achieving the United Nations’ eight Millennium DevelopmentGoals, it is vital that we take the full measure of engineering’s capacity to make a difference in the developing world.ForewordIrina Bokova, Director-General, UNESCOThe goal of primary education for all will require that new schools and roads be built, just as improving maternal healthcare willrequire better and more accessible facilities. Environmental sustainability will require better pollution control, clean technology,and improvements in farming practices.This is why engineering deserves our attention, and why its contribution to development must be acknowledged fully.If engineering’s role is more visible and better understood more people would be attracted to it as a career. Now and in the yearsto come, we need to ensure that motivated young women and men concerned about problems in the developing world continueto enter the field in sufficient numbers. It is estimated that some 2.5 million new engineers and technicians will be needed insub-Saharan Africa alone if that region is to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of improved access to clean water andsanitation.The current economic crisis presents challenges and opportunities for engineering. The risk is great that cuts in education fundingwill reduce training opportunities for potential engineering students. However, there are encouraging signs that world leadersrecognize the importance of continuing to fund engineering, science and technology at a time when investments in infrastructure,technology for climate change mitigation and adaptation in such areas as renewable energy may provide a path to economicrecovery and sustainable development.Engineering is often the unsung partner to science – I hope Engineering: Issues Challenges and Opportunities, UNESCO’s first reporton engineering, will contribute to changing that.3