School Autonomy and Accountability

The authors present a database of indicators of innovative activity around the world since the early 1960s. The data include measures of innovation outcomes as well as variables related to innovation effort. The main indicator of innovation outputs is patents. The main variables related to innovation inputs are investment in research and development (R&D) and technical personnel (engineers, scientists) working in R&D activities.

While many Latin American countries have succeeded in providing access to basic education for the great majority of children, educational quality in the region remains very low. In an increasingly global world where workers' skills and knowledge play an ever-important role, countries with predominantly low-skilled workers are doomed to stay behind, their citizens earning low wages, and continuing to miss opportunities to escape poverty and enjoy a better life.

Driving along the stretch of road that connects the city of Arusha to the coffee growers and association offices in Moshi, Tanzania's contrasts are visibly striking. Looking out at the lush lowlands against the backdrop of the mountainous Kilimanjaro region, the magnificence of the country's ecological resources is overwhelming. This vast area is home to a wealth of mineral resources, including newly exploited gold deposits and precious stones such as the rare Tanzanite gem. The region's fertile soil produces a rich Arabica coffee sold in specialty stores in the US and Europe.

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can provide existing companies and new entrepreneurs an opportunity to engage in, and manage, the new dynamics of the global marketplace. Most important, ICT offer the opportunity for firms to learn from the best in the world, at a keystroke. ICT, used correctly, can level the playing field. Going high tech, however, does not in and of itself make a firm competitive. ICT are tools that are as effective as the strategies driving their use.

This paper challenges the long-held belief in the international development community that tertiary education has little role in promoting economic growth. It reviews evidence about the impact that tertiary education can have on economic growth and poverty.

With the guidance and approval of its donors, infoDev has revised its overall strategy and structure and developed a new set of priority themes. On this basis, infoDev has begun to implement an ambitious new work program designed to address the priority needs of our donors and other partners for knowledge on how to effectively harness ICTs as tools to fight poverty and promote broad-based, sustainable development.

The Guidelines provided here are designed to encourage the development of the skills and resources needed by the community and the mining operation in a participatory and consultative way. This process should commence at exploration stage and continue through to closure. If this is done, each preceding stage will build on the next so that, at closure, the community has the skills and capacity to continue to develop without the mine.

The application of social analysis, and the integration of social dimensions within Bank operations seeks to attain improved development effectiveness of investment lending, through more comprehensive and efficient mainstreaming of social development into project-level processes and analyses, as well as strengthening the social development thematic portfolio. To this end, frameworks and guidance have been developed for more macro-level social analysis.

In 1994 the Kenya government through the Women Bureau set out to integrate women into the development agenda of the day. The Bureau was meant to influence the integration of women friendly issues into the design and implementation of programs through government planning processes. The desire to involve women especially in the economic and social activities was based on the various statistics drawn from various credible studies stating economic and social disparities that exist between men and women.

The report offers policy options to support developing countries and transition economies in adapting their secondary education systems to the demands arising from the successful expansion of primary education and the socio-economic challenges presented by globalization and the knowledge-based economy. The work is the result of an extensive consultative process that involved education specialists worldwide.