•   Human health and nutrition. Major public and private AKST investments will be needed to contribute to: the reduction of chronic diseases through scientific pro­grams and legislation related to healthy diets and food product formulations; the improvement of food safety regulations in an increasingly commercialized and glo­balized food industry; the control and management of infectious diseases, through the development of new vaccines, global surveillance, monitoring and response systems and effective legal frameworks. In addition, in­vestments are needed in science and legislation cover­ing occupational health issues such as pesticide use and safety regulations (including child labor laws).
•   Equity. Preferential investments in equitable develop­ment, as in literacy, education and training, that con­tribute to reducing ethnic, gender, and other inequities would   advance  the   development   and   sustainability goals. Measurements of returns to investments require indices that give more information than GDP, and that are sensitive to environmental and equity gains. The use

of inequality indices for screening AKST investments and monitoring outcomes strengthens accountability. The Gini-coefficient could, for example, become a pub­lic criterion for policy assessment, in addition to the more conventional measures of growth, inflation and environment.

In many developing countries, it may be necessary to com­plement these investments with increased and more targeted investments in rural infrastructure, education and health and to strengthen capacity in core agricultural and related sciences.
     In the face of new global challenges, there is a urgent need to strengthen, restructure and possibly establish new intergovernmental, independent science-based networks to address such issues as climate forecasting for agricultural production; human health risks from emerging diseases such as avian flu; reorganization of livelihoods in response to changes in agricultural systems (population movements); food security; and global forestry resources.