consolidated they must be supported and promoted with government strategies and policies for institutional development and seed capital. Care must be taken however to ensure that the risks inherent in this type of financing are not used as an excuse to charge excessively for these services. Moreover, there are certain kinds of risks that cannot be handled by the markets alone, and that will require public systems of guarantees or non-reimbursable funding.

In light of the foregoing, financing policies should address at least three priority aspects of support for AKST systems in the region: strengthening the capacities of those systems, and those of rural people and vulnerable groups, and providing funds to permit the transition of communities towards sustainable productive systems. For these various purposes there is a range of financing policies that can be considered, depending on the institutional context and development strategy adopted in a given country or region. These are considered here in relation to the three goals proposed.

5.6.1 Financing capacity building for AKST
In LAC as a whole and in the individual countries of the region, investment in AKST systems has been low, and this trend needs to be reversed through greater investment in various components of that system, in order to sustain its dynamics and reduce dependency on technological innovation from outside the region. Investment must be increased not only at the national level but also at the subregional and regional levels in order to capitalize on experience and minimize duplication of R&D effort. Since indigenous and agroecology systems have received virtually no financial support, and recognizing that agroecology systems in particular have made great progress over the last decade (e.g., in Cuba), investment in these systems could produce great rewards for the IAASTD goals in terms of supporting AKST, including specific technologies consistent with conditions in the different subregions of LAC, so they can be adapted to local needs. In particular, greater investment should be encouraged in:

• Strengthening agroecology programs in national and local universities and other educational institutions that will foster cultural diversity in LAC;
• Personnel training;
  
• Upgrading and maintaining research and outreach facilities;
  
• Maintenance of education centers for urban agriculture;
  
• Establishing education programs that will promote LAC values and culture.

To meet the objectives of strengthening capacities in the AKST system, the traditional approach of financing policies has been to work through national science and technology councils. Funds will be earmarked for agriculture, but the drive to develop AKST will be left for the most part in the hands of big transnational enterprises with robust R&D programs. Mexico is a typical case. From this perspective, the use of these financing policies for development and application of AKST will have an impact over the medium and long term, because it is subject to the reallocation of

capital and labor that occurs through the play of supply and demand under market conditions.

On the other hand, with policies that stress sovereignty in a context of competition for hegemony in the international sphere, the government will maintain private financial markets for allocating funds, but may apply financing policies to sectors deemed strategic in order to maintain the supply of certain goods without depending on imports, for reasons of food security, for example. These funds can be mobilized by public or private banks or by trust funds. In this case, policies for financing AKST through national science and technology councils could involve the use of public or mixed funds to promote development in specific sectors for reasons of sovereignty. Brazil may be a typical case. The time needed for these policies on rural development and the agricultural application of AKST to have an impact on rural living conditions will depend on the intensity with which the government applies resources and efforts, in light of its strategies with respect to sovereignty objectives.

Within the new approach to public management, the government may assume that it has limited capacity to manage the use of funds devoted to strengthening AKST capacities in the country, and so it will encourage the emergence of nongovernmental public or mixed entities that will apply those funds to developing specific sectors. The impact of these policies will depend on the state’s capacity to make those entities efficient, through various mechanisms of monitoring and accountability.

These policies have an impact on the sustainability of institutions and instruments, since accountability produces an incentive for these new public management entities to make more efficient use of public funds. It could also produce a “virtuous circle” in the application of funds, with progressive involvement of rural people in financial services and technological dissemination, if their development follows the precepts of decentralized private management, but with broad participation and local social oversight.

In these policies, the financing of AKST schemes is decentralized and in many cases involves both public and private funds, but there will be heavy influence exercised by medium- and large-scale producers in defining the institutional work agendas. Consequently, steps should also be taken to include small-scale producers and indigenous communities in managing and monitoring these entities to make sure their needs are addressed. All of this could translate into strengthening the capacities of the AKST system through further creation of decentralized technology centers run according to highly efficient private criteria and with an emphasis on environmental and biotechnology services and the promotion of human capital.

In a more systemic approach, the government could implement these financing policies by forming networks of research centers and institutions to articulate and socialize knowledge, while promoting activities at a scale adequate to assure specialization. As well, selective policies could be applied for financing AKST, through support for competitive networks, local environmental networks, networks promoting innovation, based on training and use of local resources, etc.