The main assumption of the ETF Yearbook 2008 Policy learning in action is that policy learning can lead to sustainable development policies in partner countries. In this context the authors of the ETF Yearbook consider policy learning as the ability of governments, and other stakeholders, to inform policy development by drawing lessons from available evidence, experience and their own past.
The ETF Yearbook 2008 could be said to chart our progress from that of a technical assistance body to that of a recognised centre of expertise in human capital development. The lessons we have learned along the way are ones which have much wider application than the sphere in which the ETF works and so we hope that our readers will be able to benefit by applying the reflections on our experience to their own working contexts, different though these may be, states ETF Director Muriel Dunbar.