Browse by: "M"

The Dominican Republic has made strides on many socioeconomic fronts over the years. The country has been one of the leading economies in Latin America and the Caribbean in terms of GDP growth, reaching upper middle-income status in 2011. However, progress on the different dimensions of well-being has been insufficient. In particular, socioeconomic and territorial disparities are still important, and public institutions remain insufficiently solid. For the Dominican Republic to embark on a more prosperous development path, three critical dimensions must be tackled. First, providing quality jobs for all, with particular emphasis on boosting formalisation and productive transformation. Second, mobilising more public and private finance for development, with more progressive and effective taxation systems, more efficient public expenditure and deeper capital markets. Third, accelerating digital transformation to boost productivity, enhance inclusion and support job creation.

Since the launch of the Ðổi Mới economic reforms in 1986, Viet Nam has achieved tremendous economic and social progress. Today, it is well integrated on global markets, has enjoyed robust growth, and has seen remarkable poverty reduction. With its recent successful fiscal consolidation, its attractiveness as a trading destination and rapidly growing domestic middle class, Viet Nam faces a window of opportunity for its transition to an inclusive market economy. Three guiderails should form the basis of this strategy: integration, transparency and sustainability. Better integration between state-owned enterprises, foreign investors and domestic private companies in open markets will be key to future performance gains. Partnerships between universities and enterprises would also help upgrade skills and create innovation, thereby making the integration durable. Transparency and performance of government are prerequisites for trust and a key lever to enhance efficiency and productivity in most areas of the state and the economy. A more sustainable development path will need better management of water, air and energy to address climate change. Reforms of the social security system can also ensure that no one is left behind, especially in the face of a fast ageing population.

Paraguay has set itself ambitious development goals for 2030. To achieve them, it will have to tackle two major challenges: buttressing sources of sustainable economic prosperity and putting the country on a more inclusive development path. Progressing towards a more inclusive society will require a broad and vigorous reform agenda. First, the country’s healthcare system requires systemic reform to widen its coverage, reduce Paraguayans’ vulnerability in the face of health risks and increase the efficiency of health service provision. Second, the social protection system needs to overcome its fragmentation and become more effective in delivering the right services and risk management tools to citizens according to their needs. In particular, the pension system requires reforms to increase its coverage and become more equitable and more sustainable. Third, the quality and the inclusiveness of its education and training system need to be strengthened to generate the skills the economy needs, and provide opportunities to all. Based on the analysis and recommendations undertaken in Volumes 1 and 2 of this Multi-dimensional country review, this report identifies key areas for action and presents targeted action plans to kick-start reform. The report also provides a dashboard of monitoring indicators to support the reform agenda in the country.

Having achieved robust economic growth and remarkable macroeconomic stability over the past 15 years, Paraguay has set a course to become not only more prosperous, but also more inclusive by 2030. To deliver on its development ambition, the country will have to overcome a number of crosscutting constraints that limit progress towards widely shared improvements in citizen well-being, as identified in Volume 1 of the review. Putting Paraguay on a more inclusive development path requires co-ordinated actions to increase the capacity of the state to redistribute, to improve the delivery of public services, and to break the persistence of poverty and inequality across generations. This report discusses policy actions and priorities in three critical areas to make Paraguay’s development more inclusive. It presents in-depth analysis and recommendations to improve the effectiveness of social protection, the delivery of health services, and the formation of skills for all Paraguayans.

This MDCR is designed to help Panama formulate development strategies, and identify and support the policy reforms needed to achieve further sustainable and inclusive development. This review comes at a time when Panama is achieving high economic growth but further policy action is needed to expand socio-economic benefits across all economic sectors, regions and households.

El Salvador has made significant development progress in the past 30 years. The end of the civil war in 1992 marked the establishment of a liberal democracy and an open export-led development model, which led to a reduction in poverty and inequality. However, with economic growth averaging a modest 2.4% in the years before the COVID-19 pandemic, and productivity growth of 0.1% over the past decade, the post-war model has not generated the economic momentum or the jobs that the country needs. Decisive action is necessary to kickstart more robust, inclusive and sustainable development. Based on a multi-dimensional analysis of development in El Salvador, this report makes four priority recommendations: 1) build the conditions for a productive transformation and modernisation of the economy; 2) increase the quantity, quality and relevance of education; 3) manage water resources better to deliver water and sanitation for all in a sustainable manner; and 4) modernise the State so it can effectively deliver key public goods, from security to education to health, and successfully steer the next stage in the country’s development.

Teachers can shape their students' educational careers. Research shows that children taught by different teachers often experience very different educational outcomes. This begs the questions: how are teachers assigned to schools in different countries? And to what extent do students from different backgrounds have access to good teachers? Building on literature identifying the characteristics and practices of teaching that boost student achievement, this report shows how teachers with different characteristics and practices tend to concentrate in different schools, and how much access students with different socio-economic backgrounds have to good teachers. It points out the aspects of different educational systems that influence how teachers are allocated to schools. The report also discusses the consequences that inequitable teacher allocation systems have on students’ educational outcomes.

A review of innovative policies in OECD countries shows that progress has already been made in moving beyond the poor information provided by standardised educational certification. Spurred by the emerging "knowledge economy", government policy makers, human resource managers, financial accountants and educators are developing methods for systematically evaluating and recording knowledge assets acquired through experience, education and training. This book explains why it is possible, in terms of economic theory, and feasible, from the perspective of accounting practices, to implement new human capital information and decision-making systems.

The PISA 2000 Assessment of Reading, Mathematical and Scientific Literacy introduces the PISA approach to assessing reading, mathematical and scientific literacy and describes the PISA 2000 assessment instruments in terms of: the content that students need to acquire, the processes that need to be performed, and the contexts in which knowledge and skills are applied. Each of the assessment domains is illustrated with a broad range of sample items.

Knowledge management involves any activity related to the capture, use and sharing of knowledge by an organisation. Evidence shows that these practices are being used more and more frequently and that their impact on innovation and other aspects of corporate performance is far from negligible. Today, there is a recognition of the need to understand and to measure the activity of knowledge management so that organisations can be more efficient and governments can develop policies to promote these benefits. This book offers a synthetic view of the results of the first systematic international survey on knowledge management carried out by national statistical offices in Canada, Denmark, France and Germany.

Measuring innovation in education and understanding how it works is essential to improve the quality of the education sector. Monitoring systematically how pedagogical practices evolve would considerably increase the international education knowledge base. We need to examine whether, and how, practices are changing within classrooms and educational organisations and how students use learning resources. We should know much more about how teachers change their professional development practices, how schools change their ways to relate to parents, and, more generally, to what extent change and innovation are linked to better educational outcomes. This would help policy makers to better target interventions and resources, and get quick feedback on whether reforms do change educational practices as expected. This would enable us to better understand the role of innovation in education.

This new edition of Measuring Innovation in Education examines what has (or has not) changed for students over the past decade in OECD education systems. It reviews no fewer than 150 educational practices. The report casts light on systemic innovation in primary and secondary education, with a focus on pedagogical innovation. Has the use of technology spread? Have assessments become more important in pedagogical practices? Are students given more agency in their learning? Are they still asked to memorise facts and procedures? Do teachers increasingly engage students in peer learning activities? These are some of the questions this book seeks to answer. This report also presents some preliminary findings about the links between innovation and educational performance.

This book will offer precious insights to policy makers, the education community and all those who seek to understand how educational practices are evolving.