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This report summarizes the findings of an extensive literature survey of the experiences of implementing BEECs in developed countries. It also includes case studies of four developing countries- China, Egypt, India, and Mexico and the state of California in the United States of America. It aims to inform both the World Bank Group and its client countries about global best practices and emerging lessons from developing countries in the design and implementation of BEECs. The report also serves as a primer on the basic features of BEECs and the commonly adopted compliance and enforcement approaches. The key challenges to improving compliance enforcement in developing countries include the level of government commitment to energy efficiency, the effectiveness of government oversight of the construction sector, the compliance capacity of domestic/local building supply chain, and the financing constraints. These challenges are surmountable in countries where economic growth is sustained and energy efficiency is pursued as a key element of national energy strategy.

Monitoring the qualitative status of freshwaters is an important goal of the international community, as stated in the Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) indicator 6.3.2 on good ambient water quality. Monitoring data are, however, lacking in many countries, allegedly because of capacity challenges of less-developed countries. So far, however, the relationship between human development and capacity challenges for water quality monitoring have not been analysed systematically. This hinders the implementation of fine-tuned capacity development programmes for water quality monitoring. Against this background, this study takes a global perspective in analysing the link between human development and the capacity challenges countries face in their national water quality monitoring programmes. The analysis is based on the latest data on the human development index and an international online survey amongst experts from science and practice. Results provide evidence of a negative relationship between human development and the capacity challenges to meet SDG 6.3.2 monitoring requirements. This negative relationship increases along the course of the monitoring process, from defining the enabling environment, choosing parameters for the collection of field data, to the analytics and analysis of five commonly used parameters (DO, EC, pH, TP and TN). Our assessment can be used to help practitioners improve technical capacity development activities and to identify and target investment in capacity development for monitoring.

This study tests the hypothesis that lean manufacturing improves the social performance of manufacturers in emerging markets. We analyze an intervention by Nike, Inc., to promote the adoption of lean manufacturing in its apparel supply chain across 11 developing countries. Using difference-in-differences estimates from a panel of more than 300 factories, we find that lean adoption was associated with a 15 percentage point reduction in noncompliance with labor standards that primarily reflect factory wage and work hour practices. However, we find a null effect on factory health and safety standards. This pattern is consistent with a causal mechanism that links lean to improved social performance through changes in labor relations, rather than improved management systems. These findings offer evidence that capability-building interventions may reduce social harm in global supply chains. Data, as supplemental material, are available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2015.2369 . This paper was accepted by Bruno Cassiman, business strategy .

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify and assess the perceptions of constructional professionals on barriers to implementation of building information modeling (BIM) within the Nigerian construction industry.Design/methodology/approachA scoping literature review was conducted to identify the fourteen barriers to implementation of BIM, which were employed to design a questionnaire survey. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics, mean score, Kruskal–Wallis test, analysis of variance and multivariate techniques such as factor analysis.FindingsThe descriptive and empirical analysis demonstrated a disparity of ranking of the 14 barriers factors among the groups; however no statistically significant differences among the 14 barriers to BIM. Based on the mean score ranking results, only three (out of 14) barriers are identified as critical (mean score greater than 3.5): few studies available on BIM and lack of knowledge, inexistence or inadequate government policies, and high cost of implementation. The results of the one-sample t-tests show that they were statistically significant differences in 10 out of 14 barriers as follows: few studies available on BIM and lack of knowledge, lack of demand for use and acceptance of BIM, inadequate contractual coordination, lack of specified standards, cost of data and information sharing, technological availability issues, reluctance of other stakeholders, business and cultural changes, data and intellectual property issues, and interoperability issues. The study, through factor analysis, categorized the fourteen barriers to BIM implementation into four principal factors. The factors are: technology and business-related barriers; training and people-related barriers; cost and standards-related barriers; and process and economic-related barriers.Practical implicationsThe identification and assessment of the key barriers to BIM implementation would be useful for the construction professionals and other stakeholder of the construction industry with the view to advance BIM adoption in Nigeria. This could also be extended to other developing countries through considerations of the local economic conditions, given the status of BIM as being in the germinating stage of development in Africa.Originality/valueThe study provides insights on the barriers to BIM implementation across the Nigerian construction sector environments. The innovative aspect of the study is the identification of the ordered and grouped (composite) set of barriers to BIM which could be used to developing appropriate mitigating solutions.

Background This systematic review assessed the effectiveness of capacity building interventions relevant to public health practice. The aim is to inform and improve capacity building interventions. Methods Four strategies were used: 1) electronic database searching; 2) reference lists of included papers; 3) key informant consultation; and 4) grey literature searching. Inclusion (e.g., published in English) and exclusion criteria (e.g., non-English language papers published earlier than 2005) are outlined with included papers focusing on capacity building, learning plans, or professional development plans within public health and related settings, such as non-governmental organizations, government, or community-based organizations relating to public health or healthcare. Outcomes of interest included changes in knowledge, skill or confidence (self-efficacy), changes in practice (application or intent), and perceived support or supportive environments, with outcomes reported at the individual, organizational or systems level(s). Quality assessment of all included papers was completed. Results Fourteen papers were included in this review. These papers reported on six intervention types: 1) internet-based instruction, 2) training and workshops, 3) technical assistance, 4) education using self-directed learning, 5) communities of practice, and 6) multi-strategy interventions. The available literature showed improvements in one or more capacity-building outcomes of interest, mainly in terms of individual-level outcomes. The available literature was moderate in quality and showed a range of methodological issues. Conclusions There is evidence to inform capacity building programming and how interventions can be selected to optimize impact. Organizations should carefully consider methods for analysis of capacity building interventions offered; specifically, through which mechanisms, to whom, and for which purpose. Capacity-building interventions can enhance knowledge, skill, self-efficacy (including confidence), changes in practice or policies, behaviour change, application, and system-level capacity. However in applying available evidence, organizations should consider the outcomes of highest priority, selecting intervention(s) effective for the outcome(s) of interest. Examples are given for selecting intervention(s) to match priorities and context, knowing effectiveness evidence is only one consideration in decision making. Future evaluations should: extend beyond the individual level, assess outcomes at organizational and systems levels, include objective measures of effect, assess baseline conditions, and evaluate features most critical to the success of interventions.

Prefabricated decoration effectively addresses resource waste, environmental pollution, and quality issues associated with traditional decoration methods. It also enhances the functionality of prefabricated buildings and offers promising market potential. Currently, insufficient attention from both the public and managers hinders prefabricated decoration development. To address this, this study analyzed 68 relevant documents from the China National Knowledge Infrastructure and Web of Science databases, identified 34 factors affecting the promotion of prefabricated decoration, and constructed a co-occurrence network model based on an adjacency matrix. The centrality index was used to identify four key factors related to the three core stakeholders: government support, technical level, developers’ willingness to use, and consumers’ willingness to use. Subsequently, the four key factors were simulated using Vensim software. The evolutionary trends of the system and the interactions between these factors were analyzed. The findings reveal that both developers and consumers show strong sensitivity to financial subsidies. As a result, the government can effectively increase subsidies to encourage adoption of prefabricated decoration. Additionally, enhancing the use of BIM technology throughout the project life cycle has been shown to promote synergy within the industrial chain, thereby improving promotion efficiency. Consumer feedback is essential for ensuring policy accuracy and plays a crucial role in advancing the industry's development. The novel contributions of this paper include the integration of co-occurrence network analysis with a system dynamics model, identifying key factors through the co-occurrence network, and uncovering the complex interactions between these factors via the system dynamics model. Based on the simulation results, this study predicts the development prospects of prefabricated decoration, offering both a theoretical foundation and practical guidance for policy formulation and promotion strategies.

This study introduces a pioneering structural equation modeling (SEM)-based framework to assess BIM-DT adoption readiness in sustainable construction. The research’s approach delves into the intricate correlation between key success factors (KSFs) and sustainable parameters (SPs), fostering BIM-DT deployment. This interdisciplinary perspective provides a holistic understanding of the impact of KSFs on BIM-DT adoption. The research aims to identify KSFs and parameters, prioritize their relative weights for BIM-DT implementation, analyze KSFs and SPs correlations, and offer practical insights into the findings. The results revealed the importance of sustainability considerations in BIM-DT adoption, with cost optimization and resource management playing pivotal roles. The findings also revealed that the readiness of the organization to adopt the technology, availability of technology operators, availability of standards and codes for the new technology, availability of knowledge, skills, and competencies to adopt the technology, and availability of funds and financial investment are the top-ranked KSFs contributing to the successful adoption of BIM-DT.

Science and technology are key to economic and social development, yet the capacity for scientific innovation remains globally unequally distributed. Although a priority for development cooperation, building or developing research capacity is often reduced in practice to promoting knowledge transfers, for example through North–South partnerships. Research capacity building/development tends to focus on developing scientists’ technical competencies through training, without parallel investments to develop and sustain the socioeconomic and political structures that facilitate knowledge creation. This, the paper argues, significantly contributes to the scientific divide between developed and developing countries more than any skills shortage. Using Charles Taylor’s concept of irreducibly social goods, the paper extends Sen’s Capabilities Approach beyond its traditional focus on individual entitlements to present a view of scientific knowledge as a social good and the capability to produce it as a social capability. Expanding this capability requires going beyond current fragmented approaches to research capacity building to holistically strengthen the different social, political and economic structures that make up a nation’s innovation system. This has implications for the interpretation of human rights instruments beyond their current focus on access to knowledge and for focusing science policy and global research partnerships to design approaches to capacity building/development beyond individual training/skills building.

When building homes, sustainability principles should be followed throughout the process to achieve maximum advantages. Building information modeling (BIM) activities can aid in achieving sustainable goals. Third-world countries’ building industry implements informal approaches to information dissemination through email newsletters and websites. This research seeks to provide a model for the application of BIM and its relationship with overall sustainable success (OSS) in building projects. BIM activities were identified from the literature, and a survey form was distributed to 180 professionals in the Egyptian construction industry. Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to establish the structure of BIM activities and assess their correlation with project success, revealing BIM accounts for 30% of sustainability. The study’s findings inform decision-making to improve project sustainability and reduce costs by introducing BIM to developing countries’ construction industries.