Ebook: Mapping Research and Innovation in in Lao People’s Democratic Republic

Mapping Research and Innovation in Lao People’s Democratic Republic is the seventh of a series of
country profiles prepared by UNESCO’s Global Observatory of Science, Technology and Innovation
Policy Instruments (GOSPIN). The series is designed to expose – through the rigorous application of
an assessment lens—usable insights about science, technology and innovation (STI) policies and their
context. The GOSPIN programme is helping Member States to reform and upgrade national innovation
systems and governance. It promotes building capacity to monitor and evaluate the policy performance,
through a structural analysis (covering the explicit policy, the STI national ecosystem, the legal framework
and operational policy instruments), because such analysis points to implicit policies and gaps, and situates
the performance of Lao PDR’s policy. In this way, the scope of standard STI assessment can be widened,
to consider country-specific contexts, as well as emerging knowledge of technological advances that
contribute to sustainable development. While complementing efforts to promote evidence-based STI
policy-making as well as efforts to evaluate policy performance, GOSPIN offers a good baseline for the
promotion of scientific and technological foresight studies.
The present country profile is the result of a collaboration process initiated by UNESCO through its field
office at Bangkok and its Division of Science Policy and Capacity Building at Headquarters, joined by
the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Government of Lao People’s Democratic Republic. The
publication was possible thanks to the financial support provided by the Government of Sweden and the
Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).
This study is an attempt to systematize the different dimensions of STI policy in Lao PDR from the late
sixties to present. It compiles statistical information as well as presenting inventories of the fundamental
instruments in order to create a reliable framework for policy analysis.
The volume is organized so as to present the following items: (a) a long-term description of the political,
economic, social, cultural and educational contextual factors; (b) a description on the status of women
in science and engineering; (c) a study of R&D and innovation indicators; (d) a long-term scientometric
analysis of scientific publications, patents, trademarks and utility models; (e) a historical background to
STI policies in Lao PDR, (f) a description of the STI policy cycle within the country; (g) a standard content
analysis of the explicit STI policies, (h) a complete analysis of the STI organizational chart at five different
levels (policy-making level; promotion level; research and innovation execution level; scientific and
technological services level and evaluation level); (i) an inventory of all the STI government bodies and
organizations related to research and innovation activities and to science and technology services; (j) an
inventory of the STI legal framework, including acts, bills, regulations and international agreements; (k) a
standard inventory with 18 different analytic dimensions of all the STI operational policy instruments and
(l) an analysis of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) of the country’s research and
innovation landscape.