Abstract New technological options that permit the use of digital systems to create and disseminate information around the world are paving the way for new means of organizing society and economic production and are gradually giving rise to a meta-paradigm that has come to be referred to as the Information Society. Viewed from the perspective of developing countries, the question of how to employ this emerging paradigm to achieve broader development goals and to integrate them more fully into the global Information Society is an issue of the utmost importance on the development agenda…
The Andean countries, a region with abundance of natural resources and other valuable assets, exhibit a variety of governance problems that hinder its potential for social peace, stability and economic prosperity. Their empirical governance record, based on historical and recent data, although varies from country to country has been characterized by political instability, considerable frequency of constitutional reforms, presidential crisis, volatility of democratic institutions and violence. In turn, the empirical evidence on quality of institutions put the Andean region in a relatively modes…
Our Caribbean civilisation has been very much shaped by the sea. The evidence of this in our region abounds from time immemorial: the peopling of our Caribbean; its trading; its economy and commerce, ancient and modern; its daily living and eating; its culture and its thinking. All these facets of life and production have been moulded, even determined, by the sea. Yet, strangely our Caribbean civilisation has yet to reflect in public policy the real value and significance of the sea which joins us all. To be sure, each country in the region has its own ministry of fisheries but each m…
Latin America has a long history of political violence that include civil wars; guerrilla movements, military intervention, coup d'état, terrorism and others form of violent confrontation. As conflict and terrorism (C-T) produces losses of human lives and destroy assets and property there is an obvious need for prevention and insurance against this kind of risk. Insurance can be provided by both the state and by the market. In countries subject to long and violent conflict there is need for direct provision of insurance and compensation to the victims of conflict and their families. Howe…
The paper highlights the importance of good economic and social data to measure the change in the economy and the society in the light of external stimuli. It also highlights the need for governments to base policy decisions on good data. The paper discusses the issues of design and coordination of data collection mechanisms in a manner that optimizes the limited resources available for data collection and ensures that the data collected fit into an information mosaic that enables planning. To the extent that knowledge of self is the first step towards self-actualization, the success of any s…