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Building indigenous knowledge capacity for development

AMER AL-ROUBAIE, AHLIA UNIVERSITY, KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN

Abstract: The aim of this article is to highlight the importance of indigenous knowledge for fostering economic growth and sustaining development. The article focusses on the role that traditional knowledge and local cultural values play in the process of development. Recent literature on development studies considers knowledge as a key resource that can alleviate poverty, promote innovations, enhance competitiveness and create wealth. Development is a complex process of multidimensional factors involving both local and external forces. Knowledge for development must be appropriate in relation to a country’s environmental, social, cultural, spiritual and economic landscape. This article highlights the relationship between the traditional knowledge system and the modern knowledge system driven by globalisation. Benefiting from the global economy requires building capacity to ensure leapfrogging and sustained development. In this regard, traditional knowledge becomes vital for speeding up the process of transformation and reducing the knowledge-gap. Indigenous knowledge, although often short-shirted, establishes a harmonious relationship between the social system and the environment in any given developing country.
Keywords: Development, Capacity Building, Indigenous Knowledge, Environment, Globalization, Poverty

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