The Avancemos conditional cash transfer (CCT) program, which has operated since 2006 in Costa Rica, focuses on families living in extreme poverty and social vulnerability with adolescents and youth between the ages of 12 and 25. In August 2015, nearly 157,000 students received the cash transfer upon meeting certain co-responsibilities associated with school attendance and completing the school year in secondary school.

The implementation of educational policies and practices is closely linked to the assessment of student learning, as it enables the monitoring of progress and achievements, the improvement of teaching in the classroom, the improvement of policies and the assessment of program effectiveness, among many other objectives. To ensure that assessment achieves its purposes, it is essential to make an appropriate choice of the learning assessment instruments to be used.

For over thirty years, Chile has been implementing reforms and policies aimed at improving educational efficiency, quality and equity. The latter has been of particular interest over the last decade. The quality and quantity of data available in Chile allows us to explore the evolution of learning gaps among students according to their socioeconomic background over increasingly longer periods of time. The findings of this study indicate positive changes in the distribution of learning achievement according to student socioeconomic level or, in other words, educational equity.

This Technical Note describes the learning inequalities faced by Colombian students and analyzes the equity in the allocation of resources among schools and their relation to learning. Using the SABER 2009database, the analysis demonstrates that there are high inequalities in students' academic results associated with their families' socioeconomic status, the type of school management, and the school's geographic zone. This relation is more important between schools than within a school, denoting a high degree of segregation of Colombian schools according to students' socioeconomic status.

Increasingly, skills are seen as a key component of competitiveness. Employer Skill Surveys (ESS) have an important role to play in: (i) demonstrating the skills that are in most demand and where shortages are evident; and, (ii) understanding the rationale employers provide for investing or not investing in the skills of their workforce. This paper reviews evidence from the UK and other countries and regions that have long experience in developing ESS with the aim of helping countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to design a suitable and effective survey.

This guide reviews the principal instruments and surveys developed for assessing workforce skills. Its main objective is to consolidate the existing information and provide an overview of the different types of instruments available. It is also intended to help readers understand and navigate the vast universe of surveys and instruments for assessing skills in adults. For each instrument, it presents a general description, comparisons with other instruments of the same type, and an analysis of its applicability to the region.

In Latin America and the Caribbean and in more advanced economies there is evidence that suggests an imbalance between the skills of the workforce and the skills demanded by the productive sector. If this skills mismatch is large and persistent it leads to significant economic and social costs: economies cannot use their human capital efficiently and many individuals cannot access good quality jobs.

Job training programs for vulnerable youth are the main response of Latin American governments to address the problem of inadequate employment opportunities for young people. Despite its importance, knowledge about these programs is scarce. This study contributes to filling this gap in the literature by presenting new evidence on the effectiveness of six of these programs operating or that were implemented in Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Peru and Dominican Republic.

The Bahamas faces critical challenges due to an increase in chronic diseases (CDs). Overweight and obesity are on the rise among all age groups. In addition, the prevalence of raised blood glucose is 13% and that of high blood pressure is 31%. CDs are responsible for 45% of deaths in the country. The Ministry of Health has been implementing programs and interventions to slow the growth of CDs. These programs focus on tackling risk factors and developing both the National Dietary Guidelines and the nutrition interventions implemented in primary care facilities and in the community.

Population aging and the growing burden of chronic disease are causing many countries to explore new options as they reorganize their health systems from acute care toward increased chronic care provision. There are several modalities to deliver recuperative intermediate care at a level between the hospital and primary care, but some patients will require a bed-based solution. For these individuals, inpatient non-acute facilities may provide superior outcomes at a lower cost than traditional care on a hospital ward.