The current dominant account of aid to education focuses on schooling and official development assistance and talks in terms of policy work, donor harmonisation and, increasingly, budgetary support. However, this approach is limited in a number of ways. The return of international policy interest in vocational education provides an opportunity to…

In post-war contexts, education is widely regarded as essential not only for civic reconciliation, but also as a key force for gender equity. In Sierra Leone, however, despite enhanced educational opportunities for girls, much of the emphasis on post-war educational reconstruction is unlikely to rectify gender inequities that remain entrenched…

Described in this issue of "Children in the Tropics" are handicraft, semi-industrial, and industrial projects which produce weaning foods in developing countries. The introductory section briefly discusses the global epidemiology of malnutrition and offers guidelines for combatting malnutrition. Chapter I provides a framework for…

Discussion of the Cuban library system includes comments from interviews with leading librarians in that country. Effects of the Castro regime and the U.S. embargo on Cuba and its libraries are considered. (MES)

The ability of small and medium-sized enterprises in developing nations to evolve technologically is frequently constrained by a variety of environmental factors that are beyond their control. In many cases, it is necessary for the strategy of SMEs to be aligned with the international supply chain strategies of multinational firms, who can provide…

Access to higher education is a key challenge of the 21st century state. The link between higher education and personal and socio-economic development has intensified the need for ensuring that greater numbers of citizens have expanded access to and have been provided with quality higher education. The article seeks to explore how initiatives for…

How widespread is the production of food in old and new member states of the European Union and what is the social meaning or logic of such activities? We show that growing food is (a) more widespread in former communist countries than in traditional market economies and (b) is predominantly a hobby or recreational activity in affluent countries,…

With today's computer and telecommunications technologies, every young person can have a quality education regardless of his or her place of birth. This is the dream that Open Educational Resources (OERs), when viewed as a right rather than a privilege, are directed to realize. For developing countries, we propose a type of OER initiative that…

This article reports on new programs that focus on training skilled scientists and mathematicians who will help solve Africa's myriad problems. The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, in Cape Town, South Africa, offers one of the first working examples of a growing effort to develop a cadre of highly trained, practically minded scientists…

This publication presents an overview of the Asia-Pacific Regional Planning Meeting on the Literacy Initiative for Empowerment (LIFE). Countries in Asia and the Pacific that participate in the LIFE initiative are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan and Papua New Guinea. The purpose of the meeting was to assist…

Learning is valuable, but in Africa it is more than that: It is prohibitively expensive. In Ethiopia, where the per-capita income is about $100 a year, a single textbook at Addis Ababa University can cost $50. In order to get more textbooks to students in developing nations, two people are leading an ambitious project to produce and freely…

This article traces the construction of the educational dimension of the global development agenda over the period 1990 to 2006. It argues that the multilateral agencies, and notably the World Bank, UNICEF, UNESCO and UNDP, played vital roles in designing the architecture of this world agenda, supported at a key stage by the Development Assistance…

Education is a fundamental right for all children which must be guaranteed in every nation. Unfortunately, children with disabilities have been marginalized in many countries preventing them from accessing an appropriate education. Although some countries have legislation that guarantees educational rights to children with disabilities, some of…

As developing countries gradually rely less upon agriculture for rural income, rural economies require new solutions to access knowledge and information systems for rural development. Non-agricultural rural knowledge and information systems can play a significant role in developing and disseminating successful strategies to escape rural poverty.…

With the rapid advances in technology, several online learning tools come onto the stage. Being an online learning delivery tool to support a full range of teaching and learning activities conducted by educational institutions Moodle facilitates online content creation and collaboration by entailing various social and communication tools that…