World bank publications jun 2008 (5 risultati)

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - This paper explores an area of tertiary education that is currently understudied--the extent and nature of differentiation and articulation in African tertiary education systems. The overall finding of the study is that a binary system is dominant, characterized by universities and polytechnics as distinct types of institutions. Differentiation is clearly evident in Africa, though mostly horizontal as opposed to vertical. Articulation, on the other hand, seems to be in its infancy, as some universities, in their admission requirements, do not recognize polytechnic qualifications, and mobility between similar institution types is rare. National policy, market forces, institutional reforms, industry, and regional initiatives drive differentiation. Resource constraints, isomorphism, governance and funding structures, and the absence of debate over size and shape act as inhibitors. Demand for access appears to be the only driver for articulation, while national policies, internal governance structures, and industry/labor market inhibit growth. …

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - 'Developing Tests and Questionnaires for a National Assessment of Educational Achievement' is the second in the 'National Assessments of Educational Achievement' series. It is designed to help build capacity in carrying out technically adequate assessments of national levels of student achievement. It introduces readers to the activities involved in the development of achievement tests, and includes developing an assessment framework, writing multiple choice and constructed response type items, pretesting, producing test booklets, and handscoring items. A section on questionnaire construction features designing questionnaires, writing questions, coding responses, and linking questionnaire and test score data. The final section covers the development of a test administration manual, selecting test administrators, and contacting sampled schools. A companion CD contains examples of released items from national and international tests, sample questionnaires, and administrative manuals. The book should serve as a useful resource for those interested in educational assessment and evaluation, especially for personnel engaged in national assessments of student achievement. 'National Assessments of Educational Achievement' Effective assessment of the performance of educational systems is a key component in developing policies to optimize the development of human capital around the world. The five books in the National Assessments of Educational Achievement series introduce key concepts in national assessments of student achievement levels, from policy issues to address when designing and carrying out assessments through test development, questionnaire design, sampling, organizing and carrying out data collection, data cleaning, statistical analysis, report writing, and using results to improve educational quality.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - Despite the existence of effective interventions, there are many developing countries which are not on track to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for health. In many countries, the delivery of health services is inadequate and one way of improving the situation is to contract with non-state providers. Effective contracting for health services can be facilitated by using a systematic approach, as described in this toolkit, which addresses key issues. The toolkit also includes a review of 14 evaluated examples of contracting in developing countries which concludes that the current weight of evidence indicates that contracting improves the coverage and quality of services rapidly.…

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - The design of a federal system to deal with growth, stabilization, and regional and local development issues is the primary concern of this volume, edited by Anwar Shah. The book provides analytical tools to address issues arising from globalization, localization, and regional integration. It discusses tax harmonization issues associated with subnational value added tax administration. It provides a framework for fiscal discipline in a federal system. Lessons from international experiences from policies to deal with lagging regions are drawn. The book empirically examines the effect of fiscal decentralization on the overall size of the public sector. Finally, it draws lessons from industrial countries' experiences on local governance. This important new series represents a response to several independent evaluations in recent years that have argued that development practitioners and policy makers dealing with public sector reforms in developing countries and, indeed, anyone with a concern for effective public governance could benefit from a synthesis of newer perspectives on public sector reforms. This series distills current wisdom and presents tools of analysis for improving the efficiency, equity, and efficacy of the public sector. Leading public policy experts and practitioners have contributed to the series. …

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - For humanitarian reasons and the concern for households' economic and health security, the health sector is at the center of global development policy. Developing countries and the international community are scaling up health systems to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and are improving financial protection by securing long-term support for these gains. Yet money alone cannot buy health gains or prevent impoverishment due to catastrophic medical bills; well structured, results-based financing reforms are needed. Unfortunately, global evidence of "successful" health financing policies that can guide the reform effort is very limited and therefore the policy debate is often driven by ideological, one-size-fits-all solutions.Good Practices in Health Financing: Lessons from Reforms in Low- and Middle-Income Countries attempts to begin to fill the void by systematically assessing health financing reforms in nine low- and middle-income countries that have managed to expand their health financing systems to both improve health status and protect against catastrophic medical expenses. The participating countries are: Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Estonia, the Kyrgyz Republic, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tunisia, and Vietnam. The study seeks to identify common enabling factors of their good performance. While the findings for each country are important, collectively they send a clear message to the global community that more attention is needed to define "good practice" and then to evaluate and disseminate the global evidence base.…