Closing the Gap
By Román Mayorga (01/97, SOC97-101, En, Es) See also Education, Training and Science & Technology
Unlike the approach taken by other international financial institutions in the 1960s, at the outset of that decade the IDB began financing the development of higher education and science and technology. Since then, it has approved many loans and technical cooperation operations in those fields and for agricultural research and extension activities, middle-level technical education, and job training. The IDB's contribution has been the main, although by no means the only source of external support for science and technology development in LAC for more than three decades. Although the region's capacity in this field is relatively weak in comparison with other developed and newly-industrialized countries, it would have been much weaker without the Bank's support.
Knowledge is increasingly recognized throughout the world as the most important resource of nations and a determining factor in their competitiveness on international markets. This study seeks to explain how the IDB has envisioned and performed its work in science and technology (S&T) and to offer a conceptual basis for a new strategy, needed to assist the region in tackling the challenges of the twenty-first century with respect to knowledge. The document presents a review of institutional memory in chapter I and an analysis of current issues in chapter II, as background for future efforts. Chapters III and IV make suggestions for specific actions for different kinds of countries. Chapter V discusses S&T financing problems which are of special interest for the Bank, explains possible objectives of its strategy and includes an example of what a program financed by it might be like. The table on the following page summarizes the problems that should be addressed, the suggested objectives for the Bank's strategy and the typical tools that would be used to implement it.
Last updated: 05/08/07
