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UNESCO SCIENCE REPORT

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<strong>UNESCO</strong> <strong>SCIENCE</strong> <strong>REPORT</strong><br />

In Venezuela, the collapse of the Brent crude price since<br />

mid-2014 has complicated an already difficult political<br />

situation but the economy is still performing vigorously.<br />

Argentina, meanwhile, is facing a debt crisis that has pitched<br />

it against private creditors in the USA; it showed almost zero<br />

growth in 2014 and this indicator may slip further in 2015.<br />

The combination of numerous administrative barriers and<br />

successive fiscal and monetary policies designed to stimulate<br />

household and business spending have engaged both<br />

Argentina and Venezuela in a spiral of high inflation levels<br />

and low foreign reserves.<br />

On the political front, there has been some turbulence.<br />

A corruption scandal involving the Brazilian oil company<br />

Petrobras has taken a political turn (see Chapter 8).<br />

In Guatemala, President Pérez Molina resigned in September<br />

2015 to face charges of fraud after months of street<br />

protests; such a development would have been inconceivable<br />

a few decades ago, suggesting that the rule of law has<br />

gained traction in Guatemala. The normalization of bilateral<br />

relations with the USA in 2015 should give Cuban science<br />

a considerable boost. Meanwhile, political tensions persist<br />

in Venezuela, the only country in the region to have seen<br />

its scientific publications decline between 2005 and 2014<br />

(by 28%).<br />

Political stability, the absence of violence, government<br />

effectiveness and the control of corruption are all vital<br />

to achieve long-term development goals and improve a<br />

country’s scientific and technological performance. However,<br />

only Chile, Costa Rica and Uruguay currently have positive<br />

values for all of these governance indicators. Colombia,<br />

Figure 7.2: Relation between governance indicators and scientific productivity in Latin America, 2013<br />

2.0<br />

300 articles per million inhabitants<br />

1.5<br />

Chile<br />

50 articles per million inhabitants<br />

Note: The size of the bubble is proportionate to<br />

the number of articles per million inhabitants in<br />

2013. Horizontal and vertical axis values should be<br />

read from the centre of each bubble.<br />

1.0<br />

Government ef fectiveness (2013)<br />

Colombia<br />

Mexico<br />

0.5<br />

0.0<br />

-2.0 -1.5 -1.0 -0.5 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0<br />

Peru<br />

Guatemala<br />

Panama<br />

Brazil<br />

Bolivia<br />

-0.5<br />

Ecuador<br />

Honduras<br />

El Salvador<br />

Dominican<br />

Republic<br />

Costa Rica<br />

Argentina<br />

Cuba<br />

Uruguay<br />

Paraguay<br />

Nicaragua<br />

-1.0<br />

Venezuela<br />

-1.5<br />

-2.0<br />

Political stability/absence of violence (2013)<br />

Source: author, based on World Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicators; United Nations Statistics Division; and Thomson Reuters’ Science Citation<br />

Index Extended<br />

176

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