Claudia Sheinbaum will not only be the first female president of Mexico, she is also the first female scientist to lead the politics of a country in all of America.
The president-elect has already given signs of the importance that knowledge and science will have in her government project. On the one hand, seven of the 21 people in charge of secretaries in her cabinet have training in natural or exact sciences. On the other hand, she highlights the creation of a new Secretariat of Science, Humanities, Technology and Innovation, which will be chaired by Rosaura Ruiz Gutiérrez, and the opening of a Digital Transformation Agency, headed by José Antonio Peña Merino.
Mexico has a solid system of knowledge, science, technology and innovation (STI), including public, private, intercultural and community universities, research centers, science academies, traditional knowledge, technological ventures, and research networks in different fields.
However, several challenges remain. These include achieving a more open and accessible science for the people; promoting scientific and technological advances while respecting ethical and human rights frameworks; strengthening the link between higher education and STI policies; and ensuring that scientific research helps inform, in a relevant and pertinent way, the policies to make the social, economic and environmental transformations that the country needs.
To achieve this, greater investment in research and development must be a priority. According to the regional report State of Science 2023published annually by RICYT/OEI with the support of UNESCO, in 2021, Mexico invested 0.28% of its GDP in research and development, while Argentina invested 0.52% and Uruguay 0.44%. Canada and Spain invested 1.70% and 1.43%, respectively.
Positioning STI can help take greater advantage of economic opportunities such as nearshoring. Science and technology programs and hubs can also be promoted in strategic fields for Mexico, such as health, in light of the experience with COVID-19, or in water security, renewable energy, biodiversity, and artificial intelligence, among others.
These advances will be important if we put people and the planet at the center. Here, the role of the social sciences and humanities is fundamental. Generative artificial intelligence (AI), for example, is an opportunity and can help find solutions to social and environmental challenges, but it must be approached from an ethical and rights-based perspective, which avoids discrimination and bias, and protects privacy and personal data. A comprehensive vision of AI is necessary for the country and requires a national strategy, as suggested by the report by AI readiness stage in Mexico, recently published by UNESCO in collaboration with ANIA and Centro-i.
A special priority must be the inclusion of more women in science. Their participation in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) remains very low. Only 37% of scientific research in the world is done by women, while in Mexico it was 31.8% in 2021.
A few days ago, Zapotec students Shanni Mora and Rosa Mendoza received the Diploma of Excellence during the 2024 International Youth Water Prize awarded in Sweden, for the design of a filtration system to purify wastewater from textile dyeing in Oaxaca. They demonstrate the potential that the country has and that work can be done to ensure that they are no longer exceptional cases, by creating a comprehensive program for women in science, with an emphasis on STEM areas, that generates incentives, recognizes achievements, and is supported with care measures.
As a United Nations agency that promotes knowledge and the human right to science, UNESCO offers all of its technical capacity and international experience to support the government, at the federal and local levels, and the entire scientific and technological community, in developing policies and actions that make Mexico a benchmark for knowledge at the service of well-being and prosperity.
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