WORLD BANK RATIONALE
The emphasis on correcting market and government failures focused early Bank support for innovation on projects that emphasized investments in public research infrastructure, improvement in efficiency of public sector R&D systems, and efforts to help the private sector commercialize products from R&D. Examples of projects approved in the 1990s that sought to achieve these objectives include the following: • The Brazil Science and Technology Reform Project (1997), whose objective was to improve the overall performance of Brazil’s S&T sector by undertaking activities that promoted scientific research and technological innovation in an efficient manner (project activities included support for S&T research and advanced training, strengthening IPR, and national quality infrastructure). • The National Agricultural Technology Project in India (1998), whose objectives were to improve the efficiency of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research Organization and management system, enhance the performance and effectiveness of priority research programs and of scientists in responding to the needs of farmers, and develop models that improve the effectiveness and financial sustainability of the technology dissemination system with greater accountability to and participation by the farming communities. Some projects focused on improving firm-level competitiveness. For example, the Industrial Technology Development Project in Indonesia (1995) sought to enhance the competitiveness of Indonesian industry, particularly by SMEs by providing public and private technology support services, facilitating access to public and private service providers, strengthening public technology support institutions, and improving formulation and coordination of industrial technologies. In some projects the Bank used Learning and Innovation Loans to finance experimentation, learning, and piloting of promising STI initiatives prior to supporting large-scale interventions. For example, Chile’s Millennium Science Initiative Project (1999) used a Learning and Innovation Loan to demonstrate significantly improved performance in a highly selected segment of the country’s S&T system and thereby revitalized the country’s S&T system. In the Nicaragua Competitiveness Learning and Innovation Loan (2000), funding was used to test public-private partnerships for developing consensus and introducing reform on business environment issues, and to pilot sustainable information technology-based business development services. An important feature of these projects is that the focus was on strengthening the supply of knowledge and technology through increased funding for public sector research and equipment, improving national quality infrastructure, and IPR. At the firm level, some projects provided support to stimulate R&D in the private sector through An Independent Evaluation | Chapter 1
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