UN OWG Proposed Target 4.b
RATING: GOOD - Evidence is emerging that doctoral students are effective channels of technology transfer when they return home, so there could be large gains from expanding those flows through scholarships and fellowships. Such extensions for undergraduate and MA-level training would likely involve much larger costs for small benefit gains. The returns (for both the student and the originating country) will be greater if students are offered scholarships to academic institutions that exhibit better learning outcomes (often in developed countries), than the ones available in their domestic country.
Setting the Right Global Goals
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You can read about our prioritization project, setting smart, cost-effective goals in this op-ed published around the world including Turkey, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Uganda, South Korea, Costa Rica and the Philippines.
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In our recent report, not just the target above, but all 169 targets have been assessed by 60 teams of the world’s top economists. The targets have been categorized into five ratings based on evidence of economic, social, and environmental costs and benefits. While we applaud that the UN Open Working Group's final outcome document contains 43 fewer targets than the previous document, we are concerned that many targets have simply been combined, therefore reducing the number of both phenomenal and poor targets assessed according to our cost-benefit analysis. Our new assessment includes suggestions for how these can be improved as reported in this article by the Financial Times.