Mapping Research and Innovation in in Lao People’s Democratic Republic

Description

Mapping Research and Innovation in Lao People’s Democratic Republic is the seventh of a series of country profiles prepared by UNESCO’s Global Observatory of Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Instruments (GOSPIN). The series is designed to expose – through the rigorous application of an assessment lens—usable insights about science, technology and innovation (STI) policies and their context. The GOSPIN programme is helping Member States to reform and upgrade national innovation systems and governance. It promotes building capacity to monitor and evaluate the policy performance, through a structural analysis (covering the explicit policy, the STI national ecosystem, the legal framework and operational policy instruments), because such analysis points to implicit policies and gaps, and situates the performance of Lao PDR’s policy. In this way, the scope of standard STI assessment can be widened, to consider country-specific contexts, as well as emerging knowledge of technological advances that contribute to sustainable development. While complementing efforts to promote evidence-based STI policy-making as well as efforts to evaluate policy performance, GOSPIN offers a good baseline for the promotion of scientific and technological foresight studies. The present country profile is the result of a collaboration process initiated by UNESCO through its field office at Bangkok and its Division of Science Policy and Capacity Building at Headquarters, joined by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Government of Lao People’s Democratic Republic. The publication was possible thanks to the financial support provided by the Government of Sweden and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). This study is an attempt to systematize the different dimensions of STI policy in Lao PDR from the late sixties to present. It compiles statistical information as well as presenting inventories of the fundamental instruments in order to create a reliable framework for policy analysis. The volume is organized so as to present the following items: (a) a long-term description of the political, economic, social, cultural and educational contextual factors; (b) a description on the status of women in science and engineering; (c) a study of R&D and innovation indicators; (d) a long-term scientometric analysis of scientific publications, patents, trademarks and utility models; (e) a historical background to STI policies in Lao PDR, (f) a description of the STI policy cycle within the country; (g) a standard content analysis of the explicit STI policies, (h) a complete analysis of the STI organizational chart at five different levels (policy-making level; promotion level; research and innovation execution level; scientific and technological services level and evaluation level); (i) an inventory of all the STI government bodies and organizations related to research and innovation activities and to science and technology services; (j) an inventory of the STI legal framework, including acts, bills, regulations and international agreements; (k) a standard inventory with 18 different analytic dimensions of all the STI operational policy instruments and (l) an analysis of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) of the country’s research and innovation landscape. Acronyms and Abbreviations iii Foreword by the Director General of UNESCO 1 Executive Summary 3 Acknowledgments 7 Lao PDR: mapping the landscape of a small-economy innovation system 9 Women in science and engineering 69 R&D indicators for Lao PDR 83 A scientometric analysis of Lao PDR 99 Historical background to STI policies in Lao PDR 119 The STI policy cycle of Lao PDR 133 Analytical Content of Lao PDR’s STI Policy 137 Analysis of the STI organizational chart in Lao PDR 143 Inventory of the STI and higher education institutions in Lao PDR 147 Inventory of Lao PDR’s legal framework for STI 173 Inventory of STI operational policy instruments in Lao PDR 187 SWOT analysis of Lao PDR’s research and innovation system 193 References 201 Glossary 211 Annex 1: The methodological framework for this series 215 Annex 2: Members of the GOSPIN Survey Team in Lao PDR 233 Titles in this series 235