THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN: Business innovation from the South

Adrian Wooldridge, management editor and Schumpeter columnist of The Economist, outlines how innovative companies and entrepreneurs in countries like Brazil, China and India are ‘turning the world upside down’. The report focuses on how South Africa’s education system is affecting our ability to participate as much as possible in these recent trends, the role of self-reliance and individual responsibility in generating innovation and entrepreneurship, the role of the policy environment, the impact of climate change on innovation and the potential of ‘frugal innovation’ to promote rapid growth in a place like South Africa.

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Vocational education in South Africa: Strategies for improvement

CDE recently commissioned research on the international experience of vocationally-oriented education relevant to South Africa. As the third edition of the Building on What Works in Education series, the paper summarises what needs to be done to strengthen vocationally-oriented education in South Africa. Vocationally-oriented education exposes school leavers to engineering, technological, electrical, building related, agricultural and other occupations, but they need further post-school training before they can enter the labour market.

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HEALTHCARE REFORM IN SOUTH AFRICA: What role for the private sector?

South Africa faces a healthcare crisis consisting of a badly designed and managed public sector, and a private sector which serves its customers well, but at prices which only a small minority can afford. The Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE) commissioned 10 research papers documenting the strengths and weaknesses of both the public and private healthcare sectors. Based on this research, a new CDE report – REFORMING HEALTHCARE IN SOUTH AFRICA: What role for the private sector? – concludes that reforms to the private sector and the market conditions under which it operates will be essential to the massive task of reforming and rehabilitating public sector healthcare.

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VALUE IN THE CLASSROOM: The quantity and quality of South Africa's teachers

South Africa is producing too few teachers, especially in key subjects such as maths and science. Also, existing teachers spend too little time in the classroom and many teach poorly when they are in the classroom. With research showing overwhelmingly that good teaching is vital for better student results, the Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE) asked four experts to conduct in-depth studies of the supply of, demand for, and quality of South Africa's teachers, particularly in respect of maths and science. Their findings are summarised in a new CDE report - VALUE IN THE CLASSROOM: The quantity and quality of South Africa's teachers.

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Over the past two years South Africa’s Centre for Development and Enterprise has led an initiative to establish an international consortium of policy think tanks from democratic developing countries. The initiative – to be called INCLUDE - will involve research, workshops and debate among leading experts, politicians, officials, business organizations and leaders.

The first Round Table discussion of the international consortium was held in Johannesburg in 2011.

The presentations and insights from this workshop are summarized in a new report