Uruguay

The development objective of the Promoting Innovation to Enhance Competitiveness Project for Uruguay is to strengthen Uruguay's capacity to generate, transfer and adapt... Show More + knowledge and technology by supporting: (i) the institutional framework for science, technology, and innovation (STI); (ii) investments in human capital and high-quality research teams; (iii) technology transfer and private sector innovation; and (iv) cross-sectoral and international research collaboration and mobility of researchers between public institutions and the productive sector. The main purpose of this restructuring is to extend the closing date of the project, in order to allow for a more complete realization of Project Development Objectives (PDOs). In particular, there is room to fully achieve the objective of 'strengthen capacity to transfer knowledge and technology', by improving and completing execution of activities. Taking advantage of this restructuring process, additional changes encompassing the three components and indicators will strengthen implementation and monitoring of the project as a whole. Consistent with the changes to project activities and timetable, PDO indicators will change as follows: one indicator will be dropped; one new indicator will be created; four indicators will be revised in structure and or target. Targets for eight out of eighteen intermediate indicators included in the 2010 restructuring will change to reflect the evolution of activities observed until 2012 and two new intermediate indicators will be created to monitor key activities. The closing date will be extended by 18 months to June 13, 2014. Show Less -

The objective of the Third Basic Education Quality Improvement Project is to increase equity, quality, and efficiency in providing preschool and primary education. The... Show More + reallocation is necessary to finance: (i) existing and newly created additional in-service teacher training courses, which require (a) additional expenditures such as the per-diem and travel cost of the trainees, rental of facilities, seminar or workshop materials, and administrative support, and (b) the contracting of more teacher trainers than estimated at the beginning of the Project; and (ii) additional technical advisers hired to work in the preparation and supervision of works at full-time schools. Show Less -

The report is organized around the main achievements and challenges Uruguay faces from the perspective of expanding opportunities for children in the XXI century, a... Show More + perspective that is consistent with the country's stated social welfare goals and upper middle-income status. Chapter two presents the main achievements and challenges faced at the national level in access to opportunities for key goods and services: education, health, housing and infrastructure, and information and communications technology. It also presents results over time using limited comparable data. Chapter three explores the geographic distribution of the Human Opportunity Index (HOI) in depth as well as the distribution of gains and losses over time. Both chapters measure opportunities to access a basic set of goods and services and an expanded set more consistent with Uruguay's relative development, whenever data allows. This report also offers some policy applications of the equality of opportunity framework as well as policy considerations to support an opportunity-enhancing environment. Chapter four provides an assessment of how recent education, social, and technological programs may fare from the perspective of expanding opportunities to children. Chapter five concludes. Show Less -

The Promoting Innovation to Enhance Competitiveness Project development objective is to strengthen Uruguay's capacity to generate, transfer and adapt knowledge and technology... Show More + by supporting: (i) the institutional framework for science, technology, and innovation (STI); (ii) investments in human capital and high-quality research teams; (iii) technology transfer and private sector innovation; and (iv) cross-sectoral and international research collaboration and mobility of researchers between public institutions and the productive sector. The project changes are: i) project documentation (including the Loan Agreement) is amended to in line with prior agreement of the Bank to finance Uruguay's access to the international database of scientific publications, TIMBO (Trama Interinstitucional y Multidisciplinaria de Bibliografía On-line - Internet portal offering access to multiple sources of science publications). In particular, a new category is created for these expenditures, and loan funds are reallocated to ensure that there is enough money in this category to cover these payments; and ii) some project outcome and output indicators and targets are adjusted to reflect implementation experience, indicators that cannot be measured in practice are dropped or replaced by those that can, and a new indicator is introduced to measure the use of TIMBO portal. The main result of the restructuring will be ensuring sufficient funding for the financing of TIMBO payments. In addition, other small changes to monitoring and evaluation (M&E) indicators will facilitate project monitoring and reporting. Show Less -

The objective of the Third Basic Education Project for Uruguay is to increase equity, quality and efficiency in the provision of preschool and primary education. The... Show More + safeguard policy OP 4.01 included: (i) construction of new schools, (ii) construction of new classrooms in existing schools, and (iii) rehabilitation of classrooms. The primary risks considered in the environmental evaluation are associated with the construction period and include: (i) an increase in air and noise pollution; (ii) disposal of construction waste; (iii) potential interruption or limitation of access to homes or businesses near to the construction/rehabilitation site of the schools; (iv) potential increase in accidents; and (v) potential disruptions during construction (for example noise, dust, waste). An evaluation of the implementation of the environmental mitigation plan in the places where the schools were constructed or renovated has shown that environmental impacts can and were mitigated through appropriate and satisfactory implementation of the PMA. Show Less -

The project development objective is to strengthen Uruguay's capacity to generate, transfer and adapt knowledge and technology by supporting: (i) the institutional framework... Show More + for science, technology, and innovation (STI); (ii) investments in human capital and high-quality research teams; (iii) technology transfer and private sector innovation; and (iv) cross-sectoral and international research collaboration and mobility of researchers between public institutions and the productive sector. There are 3 components. Component one is to support STI policies and institutional strengthening .and will help establish a coherent policy framework for science, technology, and innovation (STI); consolidate and improve existing policies and programs; develop a strong monitoring and evaluation capacity; and raise awareness of STI among stakeholders. It will achieve the above through three subcomponents: (i) support the development of public STI policies; (ii) support the National Research and Innovation Agency; and (iii) set up and support the STI Observatory. Component two is to build human capital and high-quality research teams and will strengthen the capacity to develop new knowledge by: (i) promoting excellence in science and technology research in priority areas; (ii) increasing the stock of advanced human capital and ensuring the early integration of young researchers in research networks and the private sector; and (iii) strengthening priority technical tertiary education programs. Component three will promote innovation and technology transfer to the productive sector and will: (i) seek to introduce new instruments to promote technology transfer and accelerate the adaptation of new technologies and innovations by firms in key clusters; and (ii) promote high impact innovations by fostering new collaborations between the productive sector and knowledge institutions such as universities and research centers. Show Less -