Principles and Methodologies for STI Strategy Development: Experience and Best Practices from the Republic of Korea

This paper articulates the STI strategy development principles and methodologies that have been elaborated through iterative processes of STI strategy development cases for the past ten years. The consultation cases include poverty traps in Nepal and Laos, African health challenges in Nigeria and Tanzania, and ASEAN global challenges in Indonesian Water, Vietnamese Green Energy, and Filipino Food, in partnership with some multilateral agencies.The iterative elaboration process has continued with consultation activities on Thailand and on Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar in planning partnership with Thailand. The principles were originally conceptualized from the benchmarking process of the Korean STI development experience. They were further incorporated as methodologies with which relevant planning bodies are guided to address individual and regional challenges through science, technology and innovation strategies. The methodologies are strong in providing plausible holistic perspective scenarios by which various stakeholders can be engaged in the planning and implementation process. But it is heuristic in nature and can be learned only through on-the-job training process. This is the structural limitation for scaling up.