Dr. Eduardo Velez Bustillo Delivered a Career Seminar

A Career Seminar on “Lessons to be Learned If You Want to Work in the International Education and Development Field” was held in Kobe University’s Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies (GSICS) on November 28th, 2017. The presenter was Dr. Eduardo Velez Bustillo, Visiting Professor of Kobe University and former World Bank Education Sector Manager. Nearly thirty graduate students participated in this seminar.

Dr. Velez Bustillo is an expert on education policy and practice with more than 40 years of international experience including at the World Bank. He kicked off the seminar with his presentation on general introduction of the World Bank. He shared his own development experiences at the World Bank. He particularly stressed the importance of applying economic analysis into education policy and practice to support the education sector in developing countries. The ten major dimensions of economic analysis he mentioned are as follows:

• Linkage with other country and general experience and studies in the country;
• Quantitative analysis of alternatives;
• Financial and fiscal impact assessment;
• Cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis;
• Sensitivity analysis;
• Institutional analysis;
• Poverty impact analysis;
• Environmental assessment;
• Outline of economic performance indicators/criteria; and
• Overall project justification.

Dr. Velez Bustillo closed his presentation with a thought-provoking conclusion by stating that “there are no magic bullets, nor universal solutions. However, there are some useful lessons we can learn from our experiences, which can be applicable to improve decision making on the education sector”. This seminar was valuable for the participants to acquire knowledge of the application of economic analysis for policy making and practice to support the education sector in developing countries.

Authored by Meng Xiaodong (Doctoral Student)