This publication explains the evaluation and strategic investment priorities of the Government of the Lao People's Democratic Republic and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in the agriculture, natural resources, and rural development sector. It highlights sector performance, priority development constraints, government plans and strategy, other development partner support, and ADB's past experience and future sector strategy. The country partnership strategy of ADB is also discussed and updated as strategic developments and program changes occur. Other background information about the sector for ADB's investment and technical assistance operations are also provided.

Social science research provides not only abstract, conceptual knowledge about society but also concrete, instrumental knowledge. It enables us to take action to recompose the world we live in. However, this book rejects narrow and simplistic conceptions of research use and its impact on policy-making, to embrace a more complex approach to seeing and dealing with social science. In the paradigm of "evidence-based policy", "evidence" is understood in its broad sense as information that helps form policies. Nonetheless, within current practices and discourse, it is not clear what "information" is, what is really meant by "evidence", and how it can be obtained objectively. The book draws on papers presented at the International Forum on the Social Science-Policy Nexus, where experts examined current practices and problems in areas such as social policy, migration, urban policies and globalisation. The Forum set a precedent in terms of dialogue between researchers and policy-makers. The authors contribute to enriching and elucidating the most common conceptualisations of the research-policy nexus. They represent a rich diversity of views, although most agree that an effective strategy to enhance social science-policy linkages should be underpinned by a theoretical and methodological framework that takes into account the interplay of different social actors.

There are fewer grounds today than in the past to deplore a North‑South divide in research and innovation. This is one of the key findings of the UNESCO Science Report: towards 2030. A large number of countries are now incorporating science, technology and innovation in their national development agenda, in order to make their economies less reliant on raw materials and more rooted in knowledge. Most research and development (R&D) is taking place in high-income countries, but innovation of some kind is now occurring across the full spectrum of income levels according to the first survey of manufacturing companies in 65 countries conducted by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics and summarized in this report. For many lower-income countries, sustainable development has become an integral part of their national development plans for the next 10–20 years. Among higher-income countries, a firm commitment to sustainable development is often coupled with the desire to maintain competitiveness in global markets that are increasingly leaning towards ‘green’ technologies. The quest for clean energy and greater energy efficiency now figures among the research priorities of numerous countries. Written by more than 50 experts who are each covering the country or region from which they hail, the UNESCO Science Report: towards 2030 provides more country-level information than ever before. The trends and developments in science, technology and innovation policy and governance between 2009 and mid-2015 described here provide essential baseline information on the concerns and priorities of countries that could orient the implementation and drive the assessment of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in the years to come.

"This book is about the many ways in which people are creating new and more effective answers to the biggest challenges of our times: how to cut our carbon footprint; how to keep people healthy; and how to end poverty. It describes the methods and tools for innovation being used across the world and across different sectors – the public and private sectors, civil society and the household – in the overlapping fields of the social economy, social entrepreneurship and social enterprise. It draws on inputs from hundreds of organisations to document the many methods currently being used around the world." -- Back cover.