Aquaculture, fisheries, poverty and food security

Fisheries and aquaculture play important roles in providing food and income in many developing countries, either as a stand-alone activity or in association with crop agriculture and livestock rearing. The aim of this paper is to identify how these contributions of fisheries and aquaculture to poverty reduction and food security can be enhanced while also addressing the need for a sustainability transition in over-exploited and over-capitalized capture fisheries, and for improved environmental performance and distributive justice in a rapidly growing aquaculture sector. The focus of the paper is on the poverty and food security concerns of developing countries, with an emphasis on the least developed. The emphasis is on food security rather than poverty reduction policies and strategies, although the two are of course related. The food security agenda is very much to the fore at present; fish prices rose along with other food prices in 2007-8 and as fish provide important nutritional benefits to the poor, food security has become a primary concern for sector policy

Institutions, Governance and Technology catch-up in North Africa

This paper aims to analyse the effects of institution quality on technology catch-up in five North African countries (Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia) compared to 3 groups of developing and emerging countries (Sub Saharan Africa, Asia, and Latin America) over the period 1970-2005. The study adopts a two-stage methodology. In the first step we estimate the technology gap using the matafrontier approach. In second step we test the relationship between the technology gap and the quality of governance. The empirical results show that institutions (corruption, law and rules and investment climate) are very important in closing the technology gap and speeding up the technology catch-up. Other determinants of the technology gap are also identified: foreign direct investment, human capital and trade.metafrontier, technology gap, catching-up, efficiency, stochastic frontier, governance, North Africa

University press publishing consortium for Africa : lessons from academic libraries

This paper presents the results of a case study of the policies and practices of six African university presses. Based on the findings, it posits the formation of a consortium of African university presses. It borrows heavily from consortium formation in the library world

Socrates thematic network to enhance European teaching of operations and supply chain management: goals, tasks and preliminary results

The EurOMA-sponsored THENEXOM network has been approved by the European Commission through its Socrates community action programme. THENEXOM’s short-term goal is to analyse the present state of Operations and Supply Chain Management in European universities and to identify strengths and weaknesses in order to instigate the use of better practices. A census is being drawn up of OM teachers throughout the 24 countries (and 27 universities) making up the network. A survey can then be taken of the teaching-staff, content and methods employed. The network’s medium-term aim is to tighten links between teaching, research and business practice by reducing imbalances. In compliance with EU recommendations, strategic connections are being sought with America and Asia to expand aforesaid objectives and actions throughout the world.La red THENEXOM, promovida por EurOMA, ha sido aprobada por la Comisión Europea (programa de acción comunitaria Sócrates). Su objetivo a corto plazo es estudiar la situación de la Dirección de Operaciones y la Gestión de Cadenas de Suministro en las universidades europeas, buscando identificar fortalezas y deficiencias y promover el empleo de las mejores prácticas. Para ello se está elaborando un censo de docentes de DO en los 24 países representados en la red (por 27 instituciones universitarias); éste permitirá el desarrollo de una encuesta sobre profesorado, contenidos y metodología docente. A medio plazo, la red ha de servir para estrechar vínculos entre enseñanza, investigación y práctica empresarial, limando los posibles desfases. Siguiendo las recomendaciones de la UE, se están realizando conexiones estratégicas con América y Asia para extender los objetivos y actuaciones mencionados

Knowledge and development : a cross-section approach

This paper assesses the effects of knowledge on economic growth. By using an array of indicators, each of which represents an aspect of knowledge, as independent variables in cross-section regressions that span 92 countries for the period 1960 to 2000, they show that knowledge is a significant determinant of long-term economic growth. In particular, the authors find that the stock of human capital, the level of domestic innovation and technological adaptation, and the level of information and communications technologies (ICT) infrastructure all exert statistically significant positive effects on long-term economic growth. More specifically with regard to the growth effects of the human capital stock, they find that an increase of 20 percent in the average years of schooling of a population tends to increase the average annual economic growth by 0.15 percentage point. In terms of innovation, the authors find that a 20 percent increase in the annual number of USPTO patents granted is associated with an increase of 3.8 percentage points in annual economic growth. Lastly, when the ICT infrastructure, measured by the number of telephones per 1,000 persons, is increased by 20 percent, they find that annual economic growth tends to increase by 0.11 percentage point.Environmental Economics&Policies,Labor Policies,Public Health Promotion,Economic Theory&Research,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Growth,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Achieving Shared Growth,Economic Theory&Research

The Tunisian Pharmaceutical Sector in Transformation: Inventory of Fixtures and Innovation Prospects

Since the entrance of Tunisia to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 1995, the Tunisian pharmaceutical industry has recorded considerable changes. Notably, with the extension of patentability to pharmaceuticals, the sector is now at a dynamic stage of transformation, translated by a notable development of the industry of generics. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the mutations that have marked the Tunisian pharmaceutical industry over the last decade and study its potential of developing future innovation. In this purpose, the paper is divided into two main parts. In the first one, we are going to present the legal and economic changes in the Tunisian pharmaceutical sector and highlight the emphasis of the government on the production of generics. In the second part, the paper aims at studying the perspectives for innovation in Tunisia through the study of the innovation capabilities in the Tunisian pharmaceutical sector. The results show that in spite of some strengths of the Tunisian economy, the perspectives for pharmaceutical innovation remain handicapped by several financial and structural deficiencies of the national and pharmaceutical innovation systems. Depuis l’adhésion de la Tunisie à l’Organisation Mondiale du Commerce (OMC) en 1995, le secteur pharmaceutique tunisien enregistre des changements considérables. Il se situe aujourd’hui à un stade dynamique de transformations, traduites particulièrement par le développement notable de l’industrie des génériques. L’objectif de cet article consiste donc à analyser les mutations ayant marqué le secteur pharmaceutique tunisien durant la dernière décennie et d’étudier son potentiel d’innovation. Dans cette perspective, l’article s’articule autour de deux grandes parties. Dans la première, nous allons exposer les changements réglementaires et économiques du secteur pharmaceutique tunisien et mettre l’accent surtout sur l’incitation du gouvernement pour la production des génériques. Dans la seconde partie, nous nous proposons d’étudier les perspectives d’innovation en Tunisie à travers l’étude des capacités d’innovation locales dans le secteur pharmaceutique. Les résultats montrent qu’en dépit de certaines forces qui caractérisent l’économie tunisienne par comparaison à d’autres Pays En Développement (PED) similaires, les perspectives d’innovation pharmaceutique demeurent handicapées par nombreuses défaillances financières et structurelles liées aux systèmes national et pharmaceutique d’innovation.generics, innovation, innovation system, patents, pharmaceuticals, Tunisia