Evaluating the World Academy of Sciences’ support to sustainability science in LDCs

The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), founded in 1983, is an international organization dedicated to promoting scientific capacity and excellence for sustainable development in the developing world. As a programme unit of UNESCO, TWAS supports research, provides fellowships, and encourages collaboration among scientists in the global South. With its headquarters at the International Center for …

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West Africa: regional trade and integration in global value chains

West Africa faces significant trade challenges, including aging infrastructure, inefficient customs processes, and high logistics costs that hinder regional and international trade. The high transport delays and costs, as well as non-tariff barriers, limit their competitiveness in global markets. Against this backdrop, UNCTAD has conducted a technical cooperation project and assigned to ECOPER its final …

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Supporting literacy in West Africa

Despite rising school enrolment rates in Burkina Faso, Niger and Senegal, research into primary school reading literacy have revealed poor results. With the aim of addressing this, UNESCO’s International Bureau of Education (IBE) launched the project ‘The results of learning to read in the first years of primary school: integration of the curriculum, teaching, learning aids and assessment’ in November 2013. ECOPER has recently presented its evaluation report of the project. The evaluation applied a mixed methodology, taking in surveys, interviews and focus groups with project stakeholders, and field missions to the three beneficiary countries.

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