https://thesis.eur.nl/col/5015/ List of Publications en https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/15496/ Fri, 13 Dec 2013 00:00:01 GMT <div>Barafon, Angeli Joyce P.</div> This paper explores the participation or the lack of it by the local actors in the Solid Waste Management sector in the City of Tagbilaran, Bohol, Philippines. It endeavours to understand the rationale behind a case of ‘disconnect’ in ‘participatory roles’ amidst the background of democratization, decentralization and participatory governance leading to the notions of state and community failure. The paper takes advantage of governance theories in conceptualizing the main argument that is in an episode of what may be categorized as a situation of ‘failure’ on the part of the actors in the ‘governance triangle1’, the bureaucracy still stands as the most significant driver to revolutionize solutions to development issues by virtue of its ‘responsibility to its citizenry’ or more formally its nature institutionally, legally and organizationally. It is not the people in the community, the private firms and non-government organizations nor funding donors who have the inherent role to induce participation despite becoming parallel bodies mirroring this intrinsic responsibility by the government. While most often than not, in today’s era of globalization and modern societies these other actors are acknowledged to have more capacity in all aspects especially financially and technical expertise wise, the point of the matter is that, in the absence of the state’s participation, the whole exercise is deemed futile. It is therefore the state who is the absolute actor in the position to ‘induce participation2’ where there is lack in ‘organic participation3’ among other players. Different forms of partnership may evolve e.g. as depicted in the ‘expanded governance triangle’ (see chapter 2) but it is important to acknowledge that despite the apparent incapacity of the state, it should at the very least still remain as the ‘non-negotiable actor’ of participation process in local development. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/15485/ Fri, 13 Dec 2013 00:00:01 GMT <div>Chae, Eunsil</div> Nowadays, NGOs have become one of the main players in Korean development practices, and increasing social awareness on development NGOs has led to significant increases of donations on NGO development projects over developing countries every years. Especially, increases of individual donations and corporation donations tend to have impacted on enlarging of significant numbers of NGO development projects gradually. However, in deep insights, it may be asked whether the increasing numbers of projects are well-interacted with local desire in project processes, especially, in the complicated aid-relations conditions between donors and beneficiaries, as well as, whether the projects in-tended for development of beneficiaries are well-reflected to their voice or not. Therefore, in order to find the factors impacting on engaging with locality in project processes, this research explores that NGO management in different types of projects consisting of Korean development, which are projects funded by individual donations and projects funded by corporations, with NGO field office perspectives by examining the causality between autonomy, accountability, and ownership, and then this research will suggest the ways of strengthening the local voice in NGO project process. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/15449/ Fri, 13 Dec 2013 00:00:01 GMT <div>Aikins, Victoria</div> In the last decades, processes of democratisation in Sub-Saharan African countries have put great pressure on governments to create a system of checks and balances. Beyond free and fair elections, state accountability and citizen participation in decision-making have also emerged as key issues, especially regarding the allocation of national resources and priorities to be chosen. This study explores the potentials and limitations of the role of media in the process of democratisation in Ghana, with a close examination of the budget preparation process as a critical area of transparency and accountability for managing public resources. The study employed qualitative data through interviews with public officials, civil society and media representatives; as well as review of relevant journal articles, documents and reports on the research area. The findings reveal that the media has had a positive impact on Ghana’s democratisation as conduits of political education, watchdog of political and social accountability as well as information disseminator. Thus, activities of the media has increased and involved as many people in the country’s democratic discourses. Nonetheless, findings further show that several factors such as economic survival can subject the media to political manipulation. In consequence, the media rather works to shield corrupt government officials instead of exposing them - a situation that could undermine freedom of expression. In spite of this, the study argues that the budget process presents an opportunity for the media to extend its discussions on politics to include finance thereby strengthen its watchdog functions. As the findings show, presently, not all budget information is made available to the public. Additionally, three key budget documents; Pre-Budget Statement, Citizens’ Budget and the Year-End Report which are vital for participation is not produced by the government. Even more, participation is rather encouraged after the budget has been read through public education campaigns. Generally, the lack of transparency in budget processes results from unwillingness of government to provide the public with budget information. In the case of Ghana, the budget process excludes the larger public, there is limited budget information or non-availability, may provide some explanation. Given that, (i) information is intrinsic to transparency, accountability and participation; (ii) citizens may not understand the budget; and (iii) the media remains a medium through which people are able to exercise their voice; the findings suggest the involvement of the media in the budget process could lead to the improvement in the budget process. Further, among the media types, radio could be effectively used in ways that promotes transparency, accountability and participation in the budget. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/15495/ Fri, 13 Dec 2013 00:00:01 GMT <div>Artiga-Purcell, James Alejandro</div> This paper explores the Political Economy of gold mining and particularly, the prevalence of Canadian mining firms in Latin America in relation to U.S. firms. In order to understand how and why Canadian TNCs have become so dominant, this research examined mainstream explanations from Transaction Cost Economics and Historical Institutionalism perspectives. The study argues that such explanations are limited due to their underlying biases and assumptions that produce reductionist analysis of complex phenomena. In an effort to improve upon such reductionist analyses, the current paper applies French Régulation theory and its concept of ‘mode of régulation’ (MoR) in order to analyze how distinct, yet interconnected ‘Institutional Forms’—mainly the ‘form of state’, ‘form of competition’, and the ‘insertion of the state into the international regime’—characterize Latin America’s gold mining industry. Using Guatemala and Peru as illustrations, the findings suggest that an analysis of the MoR of the gold mining industry provides a more holistic and systematic (yet not deterministic) explanation than TCE and Historical Institutional explanations, that acknowledges the totality of relevant actors and the confluence of historically situated political, social and economic forces that shape the gold mining industry, and Canadian firms’ place within it. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/15463/ Fri, 13 Dec 2013 00:00:01 GMT <div>Arah, Azubuike Chukwunweike</div> In the last decade, the debate on “youth” and “youth policy” has gained momentum worldwide, due to emerging demands by young people to exercise their rights and growing unemployment among young people in many parts of the world. Supra national institutions and national governments have all adopted a new approach to youth policy with the belief that this will help solve youth problems. The Nigeria experience, contrast with the international expectations about the efficacy of solving youth issues, by adopting this new approach. Since 2001, two national youth policies have been adopted by the Nigerian government; however, youth problems, particularly unemployment has steadily increased from 3.6% to 26.7% in 2012. This study explores how the policy environment around youth and development is affected by the con-ceptualization of youth; and concludes that, adopting youth policies alone does not guarantee that youth issues will be solved; there are other factors that af-fect young people’s social situation. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/15465/ Fri, 13 Dec 2013 00:00:01 GMT <div>Samphaokaeo, Aksarapaak</div> Political turmoil and violence has been with Thailand for a decade. People are divided into political camps since 2005 and they become uncertain to discuss about politics in daily life and turn to use online social media. In light of these problems, this paper analyses how Thai use Facebook for political purposes and how it plays role in spreading hatred in Thai politics during Yingluck Shinawatra’s Administration. This is to understand and analyse how Thai use Facebook for political purposes; how hatred is provoked among online users though they do not know each other before, and what will be the result of this hatred provocation. The main methodology is qualitative study using the methods of personal interviews with 45 Facebook users and the analysis of contents posted on timeline of political selected Facebook pages., the case study on the Thai PM’s speech in Mongolia is brought in to exemplify how Thai use Facebook for expressing political views and how hatred is provoked on Facebook. The analysis reveals that there are at least two main reasons that divided Thai into political camps: the political conflicts in Thailand that divided people into political camps since 2005 and the taboo in discussing some political is-sues in real life. This political division becomes more divided in Yingluck’s government due to its policies. Therefore, people turn to use online communi-ties to express political views. Facebook gains popularity due to its potential in facilitating political communication and participation; the success of using Fa-cebook among Thai during the 2011 flood; the less risk in discussing politics that is sensitive and tabooed in reality; the availability of internet and low cost of multimedia mobile phones; simplicity of Facebook in using; the collection of like-minded members in the political Facebook pages. The main objectives of political Facebook pages mainly are for publicizing political views; attacking political opponents; sanctioning in online community; threatening to use vio-lence; to mobilize people; and to reproduce political discourses. However, the results from the case study found that in expressing political views, Thai use rude and curse words which results further to the existence of hatred against the political opponents on political Facebook pages. The contents found from the case are full with the uses of hate speech which has potential in leading to violence in reality such as the exclusion, the killing or the genocide of those who are opponents based on nationality, languages, religion or political views. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/15501/ Fri, 13 Dec 2013 00:00:01 GMT <div>Jha, Shankar Kumar</div> Road accident is one of the major man made tragedies, killing millions of people across the world every year. The situation is quite alarming in the developing countries, experiencing increasing motorisation, without adequate institutional mechanism to combat the problem. Even within these developing countries, the vulnerable road users comprising pedestrians, bicyclists and two-wheeler riders are the worst affected. Experiences of some of the successful countries in improving road safety have shown that the road accidents are preventable to an extent, subject to concerted efforts by the government at the highest level. It is also necessary to bring all stakeholders on board to carry out the task effectively. Situation in case of India is quite grim, where more than 100,000 people are killed and many more get seriously injured in these accidents every year. In Delhi, the Capital city of India, though there has been some declining trend in the number of fatalities on account of these accidents during the last three years, the situation is far from satisfactory. There is an urgent need to take necessary steps for improving road safety environment of the city. For this purpose, necessary institutional mechanisms need to be evolved by bringing major stakeholders on board so that right policies are framed to save the lives of thousands of people. There is enough scope to learn from the experiences of the developed countries in this field. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/15436/ Fri, 13 Dec 2013 00:00:01 GMT <div>Hernandez, Christian Leny Garde</div> This research explores the potential of performance contracting as a management tool in the context of a developing country by examining its actual use in one of the executive departments in the Philippines. Using the managerialism beliefs and performance contracting literature, I deduced the benefits as well as issues and challenges of applying this tool in the public sector. As a management tool, performance contracting enables the specification of responsibilities of employees for more accountability and the measurability of performance for monitoring and evaluation purposes. Yet, in order to fully maximize its potential, supervisors and supervisees need to develop a partnership culture, which promotes innovation and support rather than hierarchy and control. This shift entails that the organization should pay more attention to processes of performance contracting, develop a functional incentive scheme, promote high level of trust, and cultivate a compliance culture to formal rules of the game. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/15434/ Fri, 13 Dec 2013 00:00:01 GMT <div>Sashi, Bwalya</div> Inadequate and reliable water infrastructure to service communities is pervasive in Zambia, especially in rural areas. Under the Water Policy of 1994, the government of Zambia embarked on a rural water reform programme that includes the constructions of small dams guided by the principles of “participation” of rural communities. This paper explores the link between participation and sustainability of community managed water projects, drawing on the experience of Muyembe dam. Constructed in 2004, the Muyembe dam in Kawambwa, a place that experiences serious water crisis, collapsed three times since it was constructed, raising concerns in parliament about its rehabilitation in relation to benefits. The causal factors behind deterioration of dam may include technical as well as social aspects. Taking a social perspective, the paper shows how despite the government’s commitment to the participatory approach and decentralising management in the water resources sector, clarity of roles in the informal and formal institutions to manage conflicting interests is absent. Unclear legal framework regarding the roles and responsibilities of actors can lead to non-accountability of Water Users Association to the people. Customary land use, gender relations and customary law in participation have not been taken into account. The study emphasizes that given the connection between participation and sustainability of community managed water projects, a clear understanding of contextual factors and the ability of actors to resolve the tension, or bridge the distance, between state-based institutional frameworks and locally embedded practices.is crucial to ensure success. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/15432/ Fri, 13 Dec 2013 00:00:01 GMT <div>Adam, Abdul-Wahid</div> The dramatic growth of the millennium city of Accra has generated a lot of challenges for city authorities to manage-including the increasing slum development and the inadequate provision of basic services such as education, health, water and sanitation especially for the urban poor. The complexity and challenge of urban governance is exacerbated by the multiplicity of central and local government as well as other development actors performing these urban development functions. With the hinge side that ‘urban inefficiency and inequality can be reduced through improved governance’, the paper contends that any effort to reduce urban poverty should be preceded with the right appreciation of the factors that influence the delivery basic services to the urban poor. Using a mixed qualitative and quantitative method approach in five secured slums; the paper explores the extent to which key socio-economic, institutional and political factors influence the delivery of basic services to slum settlements under AMA. In the explorative process, the study highlights real life slum issues, including the complex and opaque conditions under which they have to cope amidst the limited basic services available to them. In an added perspective, the study explored the key challenges and remedial strategies employed by AMA to meet the growing demands of basic urban services of the urban poor. Based on available evidence from the field study, it was found that the slums of Accra are adversely affected by the socioeconomic, institutional and political factors influencing basic urban service delivery in the city. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/15437/ Fri, 13 Dec 2013 00:00:01 GMT <div>Rutazigwa, Johnlee</div> Water service delivery has increasingly become controversial with the attempts to push services to market-based models of delivery. This is happening in the developing countries with the assistance of the international development agencies like World Bank and other big multilateral organizations. The resistance against such mechanisms is not sometimes understood fully. This study looks at the case of Rwanda and Musanze district in particular. The findings show that there are still difficulties in broader policy practice and reporting in analysing deeper difficulties communities face in accessing water. The measurement of only distance from the nearest source conceals several issues communities go through. Community members with low income levels end up spending far larger proportions of their incomes on water than the well-off ones and it becomes unfair for community well-being. There is need to analyse poverty in various dimensions and factor it into the design of water service delivery mechanisms. But more so, water may best be provided without market-oriented principles of cost-recovery and ‘user-pays’ as is being promoted internationally. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/15445/ Fri, 13 Dec 2013 00:00:01 GMT <div>Banda, Obinna Onukogu</div> This study examines the role of minimum wage policy in the working conditions of domestic workers in Zambia. The introduction of a minimum wage generally tends to improve domestic worker wages, although an increasing number of domestic workers in the labour market (excess supply) tends to maintain their vulnerability since it reduces their bargaining power. This paper identifies the key actors in domestic work and suggests a model for formalising it that focuses on maid centres (domestic worker agencies). This paper uses theories concerning the structure and agency of DWs, and discusses issues of asymmetries of power; but there are some differences between live-ins and live-outs. This is related to societal perceptions, as well as weak legal and institutional frameworks. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/15440/ Fri, 13 Dec 2013 00:00:01 GMT <div>Guerrero Cuan, Lizbeth</div> https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/15438/ Fri, 13 Dec 2013 00:00:01 GMT <div>Hernández Ramírez, Felipe</div> As seen in the case study, small firms engage in development processes in the Bogota-Region applying either shared value models or corporate social responsibility strategies, contributing to local economic development through partnership building. While developing either one, private sector seeks for partnerships because they offer a collaborative advantage. Specifically, when implementing shared value, partnerships are sought because partner organizations are depending on resources, alliances are used as steering mechanisms to solve policy problems and actors are motivated around core issues or metaproblems. Particularly, while executing corporate social responsibility, partnerships are built because organizations depend on resources for responsibility purposes. Nevertheless, the essence of this research is how the contribution is done, embracing that the alliances promoted (1) can be understood as “local impact” of local economic development (2) incentivize processes of learning and entail a source of innovation (3) enhance the local governance scenario and (4) promote a local economic development driven by endogenous forces. Reflecting on theory and practice of how small enterprises apply shared value and corporate social responsibility, four elements are analyzed: first, it has been identified that the shared value model requires considering organizational support, innovation and absorptive capacity, defining the core competence and price and population focus, as important elements to fit small firms needs. Second, the main theoretical difference between shared value and corporate social responsibility is the extent to which the social issues are embedded in the core of the business. Third, there is an overlap in practice between shared value and responsibility activities, however. Fourth, the theoretical relation among local economic development, partnerships and shared value on one side and local economic development, partnerships and CSR on the other side has sensible variations. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/15498/ Fri, 13 Dec 2013 00:00:01 GMT <div>Meister, David</div> This research paper aims to analyse the effects of government interventions in alternative renewable energy markets, focusing on the regulation of wind power markets. The research method is based on a comparative case study between the policy design and respective instruments applied by highly industrialized and emerging industrializing country economies to promote and develop such markets. Germany and Brazil were taken as the representatives to illustrate the policy strategies and implementation choices in the contexts of highly industrialized and emerging industrializing country economies, respectively. The basic hypothesis underlying this work is that in spite of the similarities that may exist among the energy policies objectives, such as security of supply and import dependence reduction, there will be also particularities derived from the particular national needs, priorities and values. The specific approaches adopted by German and Brazil enable the reflection upon lessons that may be shared in regard to the development of infant industries, such as the wind power market. In this sense, the findings point out that the success of alternative renewable energy policies are influenced by special factors like: i)- government commitment to the policy stability; ii)- effective and continuous investments on R&D; iii)- integration of the energy policy with the industrial and scientific-technologic policies; iv)- awareness regarding the dynamic and evolutionary nature of the policy instruments; and v)- freedom to put into practice innovative and experimental policy instruments as part of the learning process towards national social and economic development. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/15441/ Fri, 13 Dec 2013 00:00:01 GMT <div>Majija, Athi</div> This research paper contends that tourism-led development should be cognisant of local peoples’ own measures for change. The study argues that local peoples’ aspirations for welfare should be based on the substantial, social, cultural and economic aspects of their livings. The basis of any meaningful alternative tourism development should support and strengthen the existing endogenous resources within communities. It also should encourage interface between tradition and modernity- endogenous and exogenous approaches. Thus, this research paper positioned in the broader theory of Local Development (LD), seeks to situate both endogenous and exogenous approaches as complementary tools to promote competitiveness of the two cases, Cape Care Route in Cape Metropole and West Coast Biosphere Reserve Trails in West Coast Region. This research acknowledges that, local participation in tourism is not always good as hypothesised in literature. Despite that, ways to enhance integration of communities for greater local ecotourism development and nature conservation are theorised as a possible solution for sustainability of ecotourism projects. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/15500/ Fri, 13 Dec 2013 00:00:01 GMT <div>Das, Shadhan Kumar</div> This study analyses design and performance of anti-corruption agencies – Bu-reau of Anti-Corruption (BAC) and Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) of Bangladesh – under two different political regimes (democratic and authoritari-an) and deep-rooted causes of their performance. It begins from the hopes of an effective and independent ACC that were created mainly by civil society and international development partners. However, the study finds the faded hope emanated by bad performance, and tries to understand it through assessing expectations, powers, safeguards, focus, resources, results and value-addition of anti-corruption agencies and highlighting complementary conditions and institutions regarding political space, leadership qualities, key NIS institution, social organization, civil society and markets. The long-nurtured paralytic condition of ACC was not an accidental out-come, rather it is a programmatic error of initiation based on following princi-pal-agent theory where both key actors are underperforming and not loyal to their respective duties in fertile conditions of clientelism, patrimonialism, and neo-patrimonialism. The coercive policy transfer – a shift from BAC to ACC that was a shift from multiple-agency paradigm to single agency approach – was insisted on by the international development partners who never tested the feasibility and followed up effectiveness continuously during implementation but compelled Bangladesh to replicate the Hong Kong ICAC-model. Although ACC achieved some stunning outcomes such as filing corruption charges against central leaders of political parties, bureaucrats and influential business-persons and created dynamism and pro-activeness in the organization during the extra-constitutional arrangement of the authoritarian regime (2007-2008), then the new democratic government swept away all achievements and tamed it by their directives. Additionally, a culture of politicizing governance institu-tions was re-established, so key complementary institutions, for instance politi-cal leadership and commitment, judiciary, markets etc. are not conducive to make ACC independent and effective. Though strong civil society and social organizations are raising mass awareness against corruption, their coverage of audiences and access to policy level is quite a limited so they cannot compel or persuade political elites to make substantive change in policies regarding ACC and in implementation mechanisms for public interest. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/15499/ Fri, 13 Dec 2013 00:00:01 GMT <div>Mehta, Reena</div> Elderly people are much more vulnerable to loneliness and social isolation due to loss of family, friends, income and mobility. This vulnerability be-comes more acute in the case of elderly belonging to ethnic minority be-cause of their lack of integration and participation in society. This scenario is more intense with the first generation elderly of ethnic minority community due to their low level of education and the subsequent language disadvantage which shrinks their opportunities to be part of larger society. This disadvantage increases their dependency on their children and the inability of the children in most cases to look after their needs, making them in the process more lonely and isolated. Relations with neighbours either from their own community or from other communities are also not very meaningful due to cultural, language and trust barriers. As Putnam (2007) puts in that diversity in society leads to more social isolation rather than triggering in-group and out-group division. There is a positive link between engagement with activities and the life satisfaction elderly draw out of it. Their dis-engagement from society is rather enforced than voluntary. Given the opportunity to participate through different facilities they show an increase in their life satisfaction with increased self-worth. However, having a social need and making social facilities available to fulfil those needs is not an end in itself for effective social participation. There is a need to ensure that the elderly do not lack the required social skill to bring out fulfilling experience out of these social participations, otherwise, they would end up being more lonely and isolated. In multi-ethnic societies the role of the community networks becomes very crucial in providing effective voice and support to the disadvantaged members especially elderly within the community. How-ever, in ethnically heterogeneous societies to promote social capital and cohesion in the society, the dilemma of promoting ‘bonding’ within the communities or ‘bridging’ amongst the communities remains largely unanswered, as, one can be achieved only at the cost of other. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/15506/ Fri, 13 Dec 2013 00:00:01 GMT <div>Tshabangu, Sukoluhle</div> This paper develops and tests hypotheses that influence the choice of financing instruments that are used in agricultural value chain development interven-tions. Using data from ninety-four agricultural value chain interventions in de-veloping countries, the research explores macro-economic variables, namely financial market sophistication, business regulatory environment and level of economic development. As well, as variables at the meso-economic level such as type of upgrade, stage of intervention, main intervener, source of funds, end market, institutional structure, the next process that the product feeds into, type of product and time of the intervention. The study focuses on exploring the underlying conditions of the value chains to establish whether an association exists with different financing mo-dalities, that is, the use of asset based finance, group collateral based finance and grants/subsidies. Evidence from these ninety-four value chains showed minimal influence of macro level factors, possibly due to a long relationship link. Instead, select meso-economic factors showed association with the fi-nance instruments, especially with grants and subsidies. These findings suggest that innovative and heterogeneous forms of value chain finance, especially as-set based finance, are more adaptable to a range of external and internal value chain conditions. https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/15504/ Fri, 13 Dec 2013 00:00:01 GMT <div>Kedze, Sandra</div> When seen through the rate of enrolment, School feeding programs (SFPs) have been praised as having made significant contribution to the achievement of Universal Primary Education (UPE) - goal 2 of the United Nations Millen-nium Development Goals. However, the process of institutional building to sustain such programmes for effective and efficient delivery of education re-mains problematic in many cases. This study analyses school feeding in Ghana from the perspective of ‘multi-functionality’, a cross-sector approach (educa-tion, agriculture and health) that brings together different types of institutions and actors to provide the means to keep children in school and ensure their education. A close examination of the case of Adentan Municipality in the Greater Accra region shows how the multi-functional approach can produce distorted effects on some of the schools that have benefited from the well known Home Grown School Feeding Programme (HGSFP). These programmes involve the cooperation between governmental and non-governmental actors, using mar-ket and non market mechanisms. Significantly, the cooperative mechanisms of multi-functionality tend to weigh heavily on the direct service providers, that is, those who deliver meals and education to the beneficiaries. Despite their commitment, caterers face arrears in salary and teachers must deal with an in-creased number of school children using very limited infrastructure. Future research on the relationship between SFP and UPE in Ghana should focus on the necessary balance in the operative mechanisms that involve the coopera-tion between national institutions responsible for UPE and locally embedded institutions and actors.