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The Working Group for International Cooperation in Skills Development, launched in 1996, is an informal group of donor agencies and international organisations involved in providing assistance in vocational and technical skills development. The Interlaken meeting of the Working Group took place three days after the International Conference ‘Linking Work, Skills and Knowledge’ (indexed at TD/TNC 69.702) which was convened by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) in collaboration with the Working Group. In anticipation of the discussion of the conference and its production of an ‘Interlaken Declaration’, it was decided to organise the Working Group meeting around the same main theme as the conference, but adapted to the concerns of the Group in the following three ways: (1) it was associated to the specific issues surrounding the work of development cooperation agencies in linking work, skills and knowledge; (2) following on from the Latin American focus of the previous meeting (indexed at TD/IRD 88.331), the discussion also centred on lessons emerging from skills development activities in Africa; and (3) as acknowledged by the Interlaken Declaration, wide-ranging changes in the contexts in which development cooperation in skills development take place raise the importance of the Group considering a move from an emphasis on knowledge sharing to a position that also includes knowledge production. This paper documents the discussions of the Interlaken Meeting. It is presented in six sections: Reflections on the Interlaken Conference; Linking skills, work and knowledge: filling in the gaps?; Trends in development cooperation; Skills development in Africa: lessons from research; Building new knowledge on work and skills; Interlaken and beyond: building the future of the Working Group. Show less

The Working Group for International Cooperation in Skills Development, launched in 1996, is an informal group of donor agencies and international organisations involved in providing assistance in vocational and technical skills development. This paper documents the discussions of the sixth meeting of the Working Group which was held in March 2000 in Washington DC and hosted jointly by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the World Bank, with support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and sponsored by UNESCO-UNEVOC. The theme of this meeting was 'Poverty, growth and skills development: a focus on Latin America'. This paper reflects the discussions around this theme and is presented in four sections: the first section contains accounts of the history, evolution and current issues surrounding skills development in Latin America presented by a series of agency and non-agency researchers; section two contains presentations from the three host agencies of their current policies and programs in Latin America; section three contains a synthesis piece bringing together the issues from the papers that were presented and the discussions that ensued; and the final section contains the appendices. The contents are: Introduction; Poverty, growth and training development in Latin America / Pedro Daniel Weinberg; Employer-controlled training in Brazil / Claudio de Moura Castro; Secondary technical and vocational education in Chile / William Experton; Vocational education and training in Colombia / Jaime Ramirez-Guerrero; Training unemployed youth in Latin America; Emerging World Bank concerns in post-basic education / John Middleton; USAID’s approach to workforce development and experiences in Latin America / Emily Vargas-Baron and Robert McClusky; Skills development at the Inter-American Development Bank / Claudio de Moura Castro; Learning in Latin America, learning from Latin America: the evolution of skills development / Simon McGrath. The appendices are: Japan International Cooperation Agency and skills development; Business development services: recent work by the Committee of Donor Agencies for Small Enterprise Development; About the Working Group; List of participants. Show less

Since 1996, there has been a significant growth of interest in knowledge-based aid within development cooperation agencies. This publication examines how knowledge, both the internal and external dimensions, has become a central element of aid and development discourse. It provides a detailed analysis of what knowledge-based aid means for both discourse and practice in four leading development cooperation agencies: the World Bank, the British Department for International Development, the Japan International Cooperation Agency, and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. As knowledge is understood in a number of different, often conflicting, ways, the authors examine how it has been used in practice in development cooperation. Examples are: internal knowledge management and staff development; inter-agency knowledge sharing; infrastructural and institutional development; knowledge transfer; e-learning; technical cooperation and capacity development; and codifying and sharing indigenous knowledge. The authors suggest that at the discursive level, there is a shift away from technical and economistic conceptions of development towards a notion that development is what countries and communities define it as, including cultural and spiritual dimensions. However, some strong tendencies that could result in knowledge-based aid being a worse model than its predecessor are evident. These include the tendency for agency-generated knowledge to be more highly valued than that from external sources, the fact that quantitative, scientific and economic knowledge is given more weight than other kinds of knowledge, and the poor capacity of agency knowledge systems to deal with context, complexity and conflicting interpretations, preferring instead to rely on routine and universal responses. Finally, it is argued that the effect of knowledge-based aid on its supposed beneficiaries is far from apparent. The chapters are: Researching knowledge-based aid; The new aid agenda; Knowledge for development; The World Bank or the knowledge bank?; From information management to knowledge sharing: DFID's [Department for International Development's] unfinished revolution; Knowledge, learning and capacity in the Swedish approach to development cooperation; Experience, experts and knowledge in Japanese aid policy and practice; Conclusions and implications for knowledge, aid and development. Show less

This chapter re-examines the growth potential of Africa's small-scale economy at the end of the 1990s in light of African economic growth, structural adjustments affecting the small-scale sector and education and training institutions (both formal and informal), and trends in donor policy aimed at poverty eradication and pro-poor growth. National and development cooperation policies have both direct and indirect effects on small and micro-enterprises (SMEs) in the countries of the African continent. The productivity of the African small-scale economy is closely linked with the productivity of the economy as a whole and new trends in the donor community during the 1990s have the potential to increase external support for this sector. Both national and donor policies for the promotion of SMEs are accompanied by concerns about the appropriate role of education and training in SMEs. The authors explore existing policies and programs for small-scale pro-capitalist development and for developing the skills needed to sustain the sector.

The volume from which this chapter is taken is indexed at TD/TNC 67.245. Selected chapters are indexed from TD/TNC 67.246 to TD/TNC 67.249. Show less

This paper documents the discussions of the ninth meeting of the Working Group for International Cooperation in Vocational and Technical Skills Development, held in Bonn in April 2003. The theme of the meeting reflected the growing collaboration between UNESCO and ILO. The focus is on attempts by these agencies, and others, to develop notions of life and work skills. As well as a discussion of such skills, the Working Group discussed the February 2003 version of the World Bank's study on skills development in Sub-Saharan Africa. The report also contains an updating of policy positions of donor agencies, including two agencies that have not been 'core' members of previous meetings, the European Training Foundation and the Norwegian Agency for International Development (NORAD). Section one, 'Life skills and their relevance to skills development', contains the following contributions: Life and work skills and their contribution to education and training debates / Simon McGrath; A contribution from the OECD project Definition and Selection of Competences (DeSeCo) / Dominique Simone Rychen; International Adult Literacy Survey/Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey / Richard Desjardins; Core work skills: ILO perspective and recent developments / Trevor Riordan and Gianni Rosas; The life skills dimension of the Dakar Framework on Education for All / Wataru Iwamoto and Anna-Maria Hoffman; Core and entrepreneurial skills in vocational education and training: the Kazakhstan case / Shaizada Tasbulatova. Section two, 'The World Bank study on skills development in sub-Saharan Africa: a revisiting' (see report indexed at TD/IRD 88.290), contains the following contributions: Skills development in sub-Saharan Africa / Richard K. Johanson and Arvil V. Adams; The World Bank study on skills development in sub-Saharan Africa: a South African perspective / Simon McGrath; A low income country perspective on skills development in sub-Saharan Africa / David Atchoarena; An idea perspective / Jean-Marie Byll Cataria. Section three, 'Trends in development cooperation', contains the following contributions: Danida: linking donor policies for skills development to international development goals and national poverty reduction strategies / Mogens Jensen; DFID: recent policy development within DFID affecting technical vocational education and training / David Levesque; The activities of the European Training Foundation / Henrik Faudel and Peter Grootings; ILO-UNESCO collaboration / Trevor Riordan and Rupert Maclean; The Norwegian strategy for delivering education for all by 2015 / Betsy Heen. This report also contains a copy of the meeting program, a list of participants, and information about the Working Group. Show less

Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) was a central tool of development cooperation from the 1950s through to the 1980s. However, with the rise of education for all in the 1990s, TVET ‘fell from grace’. At the beginning of the 21st century, there is a growing interest among development cooperation agencies in the importance of skills development, a broader concept that has come to replace TVET in agency thinking. This article considers the ways in which work and employment have changed in the last decade or so across the South, and the challenges this brings for skills development. It then examines the nature of skills development in current agency formulations. Finally, it links these to the main elements of the changing overall trends in development cooperation and its implications for those involved in skills development work.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less

Internationally, donors are increasing their emphasis on poverty-focused policies and on the notion of pro-poor growth. This publication examines key elements of the debate about small and micro enterprises (SMEs) from the perspective of the current poverty-growth debate and in the specific context of Africa. Contributing authors consider issues such as the effect of the macroeconomic climate on small enterprise development, the effectiveness of enterprises, and policies and programs to support them, and the impact of education on enterprise performance. The introductory chapter 'Enterprise in Africa: new contexts; renewed challenges' is by Simon McGrath and Kenneth King. Part one attempts to situate the subsequent debates about the SME sector in broader contexts of macro-economic prospects, trade patterns, and political disputes. The chapters are: Have Africa's economies turned the corner? / Tony Killick; Developmental states and small enterprises / Thandika Mkandawire; Gender, property rights and trade: constraints to Africa growth / Susan Joekes. Part two examines the overall structure and internal dynamics of the SME sector and the chapters are: MSEs tackle both poverty and growth (but in differing proportions) / Donald C. Mead; Micro-enterprises in West Africa / Jacques Charmes; Small enterprise development in post-apartheid South Africa / Christian M. Rogerson; Inherent gender inequities in small and micro-enterprise development in rural Africa / Fra Von Massow; Enterprise development in Africa: strategies for impact and growth / George Manu. Part three explores linkages, clusters and associations amongst enterprises in the sector and contains the following chapters: Do SMEs network for growth? / Abigail Barr; Enterprise clusters in Africa: linkages for growth and development / Dorothy McCormick; Trading agents and other producer services in African industrialization and globalization / Poul Ove Pedersen; MSE associations and enterprise promotion in Africa / Hans Christiaan Haan. Part four discusses the potential role of education, training and technology in SME development. The chapters are: Technology, NGOs and small enterprises: securing livelihoods through technical change / Andy Jeans; Competences and other factors affecting the small enterprise sector in Ibadan, Nigeria / Susanna Adam; Reshaping vocational training: hopeful signs from a Ghanaian experience / Lawrence A. Honny; The role and potential of technical and vocational education in formal education systems in Africa / Bonaventure Wanjala Kerre; Learning to grow?: the importance of education and training for small and micro-enterprise development / Simon McGrath and Kenneth King.

Selected chapters are indexed from TD/TNC 67.246 to TD/TNC 67.249. Show less

This introductory chapter highlights the nature of some of the major vocational education and training (VET) policy reforms that are underway in southern Africa, their origins and the likelihood of their success to show how VET is an important policy nexus between economic and educational policy, between the state and the market, and between concerns with poverty and growth. It also looks at both internal trends within Africa and international influences. The following key themes are introduced: VET systems have evolved in a piecemeal and unsystematic way; the developments of national training authorities and national qualifications frameworks have been complex and uneven in nature; the core function of VET remains promoting employment opportunities and this has resulted in a growing focus on the need for radical curricular overhaul and better relationships with the world of work; the role of the informal economy is not well-addressed in most countries; the relationship between the state and the market is seen in trends towards the greater marketisation of public providers and a growing acceptance of private providers as a key part of VET systems; and there are concerns about equity and access in VET provision.

The volume from which this chapter is taken is indexed at TD/IRD 88.272; individual chapters are indexed from TD/TNC 85.254 to TD/TNC 85.262. Show less