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Now showing 1 - 10 of 13
  • Publication
    The State of the Global Education Crisis: A Path to Recovery
    (UNESCO, Paris, UNICEF, New York, and World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-12-10) UNESCO; UNICEF; World Bank
    Even before Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) hit, the world was already experiencing a learning crisis. 258 million primary- and secondary-school age children and youth were out of school. Many children who were in school were learning very little: 53 percent of all ten-year-old children in low- and middle-income countries were experiencing learning poverty, meaning that they were unable to read and understand a simple age-appropriate text at age 10. This report spotlights how COVID-19 has deepened the education crisis and charts a course for creating more resilient education systems for the future. Section one gives introduction. Section two documents COVID-19’s impacts on learning levels by presenting updated simulations and bringing together the latest documented evidence on learning loss from over 28 countries. Section three explores how the crisis has widened inequality and had greater impacts on already disadvantaged children and youth. Section four reviews evidence on learning recovery from past crises and highlights current policy responses that appear most likely to have succeeded in stemming learning losses, while recognizing that the evidence is still in a nascent stage. The final section discusses how to build on the investments made and the lessons learned during the pandemic to accelerate learning recovery and emerge from the crisis with increased education quality, resilience, and equity in the longer term.
  • Publication
    Guidance Note on Using Learning Assessment in the Process of School Reopening
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-11-21) Luna Bazaldua, Diego; Liberman, Julia
    As countries consider how to reopen schools safely in the context of COVID-19 (coronavirus), one key question is how to assess students' learning to support learning recovery. The expected magnitude of learning losses, particularly among students with the highest needs, makes it essential for key stakeholders in the education process — policymakers, teachers, school principals, students, and their parents — to determine where students are in their learning trajectory relative to what had been expected prior to the pandemic, so they can adjust instruction and allocate resources accordingly. To collect this information, stakeholders can rely on student learning assessment, which is an essential feedback mechanism in the education system. This note provides key steps that countries with different availability of resources should consider in developing their plans for learning assessment activities to support learning recovery in the context of school reopening. Throughout this note, assessment of student learning is defined as gathering and evaluating information on what students know, understand, and can do to make informed decisions about the next steps in the educational process. In addition, some considerations and country examples for the implementation of high-stakes examinations are discussed. This note concludes with examples of learning assessment activities that countries around the world are planning or implementing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Likewise, this note highlights important lessons that can support resilience to future emergencies and crises.
  • Publication
    When We're Sixty-Four: Opportunities and Challenges for Public Policies in a Population-Aging Context in Latin America
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2020-10-02) Rofman, Rafael; Apella, Ignacio
    Latin American countries are in the midst of a demographic transition and, as a consequence, a population-aging process. Over the next few decades, the number of children will decline relative to the number of older adults. Population aging is the result of a slow but sustained reduction in mortality rates, given increases in life expectancy and fertility. These trends reflect welcome long-term improvements in welfare and in economic and social development. But this process also entails policy challenges: many public institutions—including education, health, and pension systems and labor market regulations—are designed for a different demographic context and will need to be adapted. When We’re Sixty-Four discusses public policies aimed at overcoming the two main challenges facing Latin American countries concerning the changing demographics. On one hand, older populations demand more fiscal resources for social services, such as health, long-term care, and pensions. On the other, population aging produces shifts in the proportion of the population that is working age, which may affect long-term economic growth. Aging societies risk losing dynamism, being exposed to higher dependency rates, and experiencing lower savings rates. Nonetheless, in the interim, Latin American countries have a demographic opportunity: a temporary decline in dependency rates creates a period in which the share of the working-age population, with its associated saving capacity, is at its highest levels. This constitutes a great opportunity in the short term because the higher savings may result in increases in capital endowment per worker and productivity. For that to happen, it is necessary to generate institutional, financial, and fiscal conditions that promote larger savings and investment, accelerating per capita economic growth in a sustainable way.
  • Publication
    What Have We Learnt?: Overview of Findings from a Survey of Ministries of Education on National Responses to COVID-19
    (Paris, New York, Washington D.C.: UNESCO, UNICEF, World Bank, 2020-10) UNESCO; UNICEF; World Bank
    As part of the coordinated global education response to the COVID-19 pandemic, UNESCO, UNICEF and the World Bank have conducted a Survey on National Education Responses to COVID-19 School Closures. In this joint report, we analyze the results of the first two rounds of data collection administered by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS). They cover government responses to school closures from pre-primary to secondary education. The first round of the survey was completed by Ministry of Education officials of 118 countries between May and June 2020, and the second round from 149 countries between July and October 2020. The survey instrument was designed to capture de jure policy responses and perceptions from government officials on their effectiveness, providing a systematic understanding of deployed policies, practices, and intentions to date.
  • Publication
    The Human Capital Project
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-10-11) World Bank
    By improving their skills, health, knowledge, and resilience—their human capital—people can be more productive, flexible, and innovative. Human capital is a central driver of sustainable growth and poverty reduction. Investments in human capital have become more important as the nature of work has evolved. Yet despite substantial progress, significant gaps in human capital investments are leaving the world poorly prepared for what lies ahead. The World Bank Group has launched the Human Capital Project (HCP) to mobilize efforts to address these gaps. The project is intended to raise awareness of the costs of inaction and make the case for investing in people through country engagement and analytical work. The goal of the HCP is a world in which all children arrive at school ready to learn, the time spent in school translates into better learning, and they can grow up to live and work as healthy, skilled, and productive adults. The main text of this volume—which also appears as chapter 3 in the 2019 World Development Report: The Changing Nature of Work —describes the evidence supporting the importance of human capital for people, economies, and societies and lays out the rationale and context for the HCP’s theory of change. The Human Capital Index methodology is detailed in the appendix.
  • Publication
    Toward More Efficient and Effective Public Social Spending in Central America
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-05-18) Acosta, Pablo A.; Almeida, Rita; Gindling, Thomas; Lao Pena, Christine
    Central America has come a long way both in terms of economic and political stability. Increasingly the region is focusing on implementing productivity-enhancing reforms as well as supporting reductions in poverty and inequality. This report analyzes recent trends in public social spending in Central America from 2007 to 2014, conducts international benchmarking, examines measures of the effectiveness and efficiency of social spending, and discusses the quality of selected institutions influencing this spending. We examine total social spending, as well as detailing its four components: public spending on the education, health, and social protection and labor (SPL) sectors. In analyzing public social spending, the report addresses three crucial policy issues: (a) how to improve the coverage and redistributional incidence of public social spending; (b) how to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of public social spending; and (c) how to strengthen the institutions governing public spending in the social sector. While based heavily on a series of recent analytical social spending studies in six countries in the subregion—Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama—this report also takes a broader regional perspective and includes some comparisons to countries in other regions.
  • Publication
    Impact Evaluation in Practice, Second Edition
    (Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank and World Bank, 2016-09-13) Gertler, Paul J.; Martinez, Sebastian; Premand, Patrick; Rawlings, Laura B.; Vermeersch, Christel M. J.
    The second edition of the Impact Evaluation in Practice handbook is a comprehensive and accessible introduction to impact evaluation for policy makers and development practitioners. First published in 2011, it has been used widely across the development and academic communities. The book incorporates real-world examples to present practical guidelines for designing and implementing impact evaluations. Readers will gain an understanding of impact evaluations and the best ways to use them to design evidence-based policies and programs. The updated version covers the newest techniques for evaluating programs and includes state-of-the-art implementation advice, as well as an expanded set of examples and case studies that draw on recent development challenges. It also includes new material on research ethics and partnerships to conduct impact evaluation. The handbook is divided into four sections: Part One discusses what to evaluate and why; Part Two presents the main impact evaluation methods; Part Three addresses how to manage impact evaluations; Part Four reviews impact evaluation sampling and data collection. Case studies illustrate different applications of impact evaluations. The book links to complementary instructional material available online, including an applied case as well as questions and answers. The updated second edition will be a valuable resource for the international development community, universities, and policy makers looking to build better evidence around what works in development.
  • Publication
    Central America Social Expenditures and Institutional Review: Nicaragua
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-08-30) World Bank
    Nicaragua has had decent economic growth in the past decade, which has contributed to substantial poverty reduction (the largest in Central America), as well as improvements in human development indicators. Fiscal accounts have deteriorated recently, which may pose some challenges to the sustainability of current levels of financing for social sector expenditures. Better planning and monitoring of social spending are needed to improve Nicaragua’s budget management. While Nicaragua has a medium-term development plan, the use of results-oriented budget formulation is still in its early stages. Low and inefficient public spending in education, coupled with outdated legal and institutional frameworks and high dropout rates present are significant barriers to increasing enrollment and providing quality education. Progress in key areas such as child and maternal mortality, but lowest per capita health spending in Central America, as well as institutional and governance challenges limit coverage and quality of services. There is need for increased spending in social assistance interventions, better coordination among implementing agencies, and revised targeting to ensure decent coverage of programs among the poorest. Government policies also reflect the need for improved controls and implement social audits, which are considered a pillar of participatory governance. However, these still need to be implemented on a broader scale and publicly disseminated.
  • Publication
    Central America Social Expenditures and Institutional Review: Guatemala
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-08-25) World Bank
    Social spending in Guatemala needs to achieve efficiency gains and increase to minimum levels to meet basic human development objectives. Current levels are so low that fiscal reform (in revenue generation and spending allocation) is urgently needed so that the state can fulfill its mandated coverage and quality in social service provision. In the last ten years, Guatemala has had decent economic growth but failed to improve human development indicators or reduce poverty (which has increased). Low and inefficient public spending, coupled with outdated legal and institutional frameworks, are significant barriers to increasing enrollment and providing quality education. Moving forward, more efficient, equitable, and cost-effective public education spending will require some important policy and institutional changes, including greater use of the incipient monitoring and evaluation system. There is need for increased spending in social assistance interventions, better coordination among implementing agencies, and revised targeting to ensure decent coverage of programs among the poorest. On the institutional side, the launching of the Ministry of Social Development (MIDES) provided a platform to manage the different programs of the sector under one umbrella; however, MIDES has not yet been able to tackle technical deficiencies in implementation.
  • Publication
    Central America Social Expenditures and Institutional Review: Panama
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-07-06) World Bank Group
    Panama has experienced impressive and significant economic growth, emerging as one of the better performers in Central America in recent years and one of the fastest growing economies worldwide. From 2003 to 2013, Panama has averaged an annual GDP growth rate of approximately 7 percent, surpassing the average GDP growth in Central America. It has also emerged as one of the fastest growing economies worldwide. Even during the economic crisis of 2008-2009, its economy continued to grow albeit at a lower rate. This note recommends that Panama prioritize three main aspects: a) improving the effectiveness of social public spending by further enhancing the pro-poor and pro-indigenous features of targeting mechanisms; b) reducing inefficiencies in the various sectors, for example, by improving the coordination between the Ministries of Education, Health, Social Development, and CSS to minimize duplication of efforts and resources; and c) strengthening planning, budgeting, and information tools and systems, legislation, and institutions to support implementation and track progress toward Government goals.