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International organisations and global problems : theories and explanations
\"Taking a thematic and theoretical approach, this textbook examines international organisations (IOs) and their effectiveness in solving global issues. Through the lens of international relations theory, it focuses on eight key issue areas central to international relations: conflict; weapons; human rights; global health; financial governance; international trade; political and economic unions; development, and the environment. Capturing the best and most up-to-date scholarly research and empirical examples from around the world, the book enables students to develop the theoretical tools to evaluate IOs and answer the key question, 'are IOs a help or a hindrance?'. Text features include suggestions for further reading, questions, highlighted key terms and supplementary online resources, as well as text boxes providing demonstrations of how additional theories and concepts apply to specific IOs in the issue areas discussed. This textbook is an essential resource for undergraduate and graduate courses on global governance, international organisations, and international relations\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
The prioritisation of provinces for public grants allocation by a decision-making methodology based on type-2 fuzzy sets
Regional development agencies (RDA) are the units established for accelerating regional development and increasing local capacity. They aim at activating the regional dynamics and to reduce the intra-regional and inter-regional development gap. In a region, each province may have a different development level. This would pose a problem for socio-economic development. In order to reduce the disparities among the provinces, financial support mechanisms of development agencies would be a beneficial influence only if supports are used with to correct strategies. In order to play a vital role to reduce intra-regional disparities, it is necessary to consider many criteria to categorise settlements in terms of socio-economic development. Some of these criteria are generally subjective and extremely difficult to express in numbers. However, fuzzy sets are a great help to decision makers in a prioritisation of provinces for public grants allocation process with linguistic variables and measurement challenges. In this study, a new city-ranking model has been proposed for development agencies operating in Turkey. To address ambiguities and relativities in real-world scenarios more conveniently, type-2 fuzzy sets and crisp sets have been simultaneously used in multicriteria decision making (MCDM) process of grants allocation. To illustrate the proposed model better, an application with real case data has been performed in the Middle Black Sea Development Agency in Turkey.
Journal Article
The Relationships Between State Health Department Practitioners’ Perceptions of Organizational Supports and Evidence-Based Decision-Making Skills
Objectives
Evidence-based decision making (EBDM) allows public health practitioners to implement effective programs and policies fitting the preferences of their communities. To engage in EBDM, practitioners must have skills themselves, their agencies must engage in administrative evidence-based practices (A-EBPs), and leaders must encourage the use of EBDM. We conducted this longitudinal study to quantify perceptions of individual EBDM skills and A-EBPs, as well as the longitudinal associations between the 2.
Methods
An online survey completed among US state health department practitioners in 2016 and 2018 assessed perceptions of respondents’ skills in EBDM and A-EBPs. We used χ2 tests, t tests, and linear regressions to quantify changes over time, differences by demographic characteristics, and longitudinal associations between individual skills and A-EBPs among respondents who completed both surveys (N = 336).
Results
Means of most individual EBDM skills and A-EBPs did not change significantly from 2016 to 2018. We found significant positive associations between changes in A-EBPs and changes in EBDM skill gaps: for example, a 1-point increase in the relationships and partnerships score was associated with a narrowing of the EBDM skill gap (β estimate = 0.38; 95% CI, 0.15-0.61). At both time points, perceived skills and A-EBPs related to financial practices were low.
Conclusions
Findings from this study can guide the development and dissemination of initiatives designed to simultaneously improve individual and organizational capacity for EBDM in public health settings. Future studies should focus on types of strategies most effective to build capacity in particular types of agencies and practitioners, to ultimately improve public health practice.
Journal Article
The road to evidence based applicable policies for regional entrepreneurial ecosystems
PurposeEntrepreneurial Ecosystems (EES) is among the fastest growing entrepreneurship research topics. With even greater vigour, the non-scientific world of economic development agencies, administrations and policymakers has adopted the construct and applies it widely “in the field”, often lacking a solid empirical foundation and pursuing sub-optimal approaches. Improving policy instruments for EES development requires a data driven approach to first understand an EES of a specific region before making any attempts to change it. The paper showcases an empirical approach to create empirically rooted EES policy implications, contributing to closing the gap for insight in regional EES data of sub-national regions.Design/methodology/approachExploring a mixed method design, utilising quantitative Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data and combining it with EES stakeholder interviews, focusing on dysfunctions, redundancies, power asymmetries and cut off elements as well as in-layer division and public organisation behaviour.FindingsOne finding is, that regional economic development agencies (EDA), as a main public instrument to foster regional entrepreneurial activity, seem to bring the potential of a negative impact on Entrepreneurial Ecosystems bottom-up development and the ability to become self-sustained if they assume the role of competitors towards private organisations and businesses.Research limitations/implicationsAs other work on EES, the approach used in this paper only sub-optimally covers temporal system dynamics.Practical implicationsThis paper contributes to future EES support policies being rooted in an empirical foundation.Originality/valueThis paper not only progresses the empirical basis for research on regional EES but also lays the foundation for specific policy implications for a sub-national level entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Journal Article
Governing the Poor
Every day, we are barraged by statistics, images, and emotional messages that present poverty as a problem to be quantified, managed, and solved. Global generations present the poor as a heterogeneous group and stress globalized solutions to the problem of poverty. Governing the Poor exposes the ways in which such generalized descriptions and quantifications marginalize the poor and their experiences.
eBook
Local economic development agencies and place-based development: Evidence from South Africa
Local economic development agencies (LEDAs) are increasingly important actors in place-based local economic development particularly in the global South. In South Africa there has been an expanded role for LEDAs in terms of the policy significance of local economic development. Although considerable research has been undertaken concerning the merits, challenges and contributions of LED in South Africa only limited material is available concerning the institutional and organisational arrangements to support the implementation of LED. Using policy documents, close engagement with the key national policy-making government departments and a national survey of the activities, operational challenges, and institutional constraints facing LEDAs, the findings from this investigation provide new insight into their role in place-based development. From the unfolding South African experience the strategic establishment of LEDAs potentially can contribute to maximizing the efficiency of place-based strategies. Arguably, key findings confirm the important contribution that LEDAs can make to locality development in the global South albeit that contribution is influenced by context realities.
Journal Article
Local economic development agencies and peripheral small town development: Evidence from Somerset East, South Africa
The activities of Local Economic Development Agencies (LEDAs) represent a channel for place-based development. In South Africa national government has supported the expansion of LEDAs to improve the weak performance of local economic development planning, one of the cornerstones of the developmental state. This article investigates the evolution and operations of a small town LEDA which is situated in one of South Africa’s peripheral regions. The local development facilitation and project work undertaken by the Blue Crane Development Agency (BCDA) in the small town of Somerset East in Eastern Cape Province is discussed. It is shown that this LEDA was innovative in development initiatives which were launched during the period 2004- 2014 for Somerset East and its surrounds. In terms of the projects and operations of BCDA considerable effort was made to identify catalytic opportunities and to support the unlocking of projects in this small town through development facilitation and project management. Nevertheless, the evidence from this case study demonstrates that despite successes, development agencies in South Africa have a strong dependence on parent municipalities which can determine the future direction and sustainability of LEDAs.
Journal Article
Effectiveness of local economic development agencies in the Eastern Cape: Findings from 2023 Auditor General Report
BackgroundThe Eastern Cape, one of South Africa’s most economically challenged provinces, continues to grapple with high unemployment, poverty and underdeveloped infrastructure. To address these persistent issues, local economic development agencies (LEDAs) have been established within municipal structures to promote sustainable economic growth. The efficacy of such LEDAs has been brought into question.AimThis study evaluates the efficacy of LEDAs in the Eastern Cape, drawing on findings from the 2023 Auditor-General’s Report.SettingThe research examines eight LEDAs operating across various municipalities in the Eastern Cape, each tasked with advancing local economic development and improving livelihoods in their communities.MethodsA content analysis of the 2023 Auditor-General’s Report was conducted, using secondary data from official sources. The analysis was guided by frameworks related to financial management, performance, governance and internal controls.ResultsThree findings emerged. Firstly, oversight was hindered by agency-related inefficiencies within the LEDAs. Secondly, weak internal structures and inadequate responses impeded effective performance. Thirdly, micro-level challenges within the agencies limited their ability to respond to broader environmental issues.ConclusionThe study highlights systemic weaknesses in the functioning of LEDAs in the Eastern Cape. Strengthening governance, financial controls and compliance mechanisms can enhance service delivery and improve performance management.ContributionThis research deepens understanding of the operational challenges facing LEDAs and offers practical recommendations to enhance their role in fostering local economic development and addressing the province’s socio-economic challenges.
Journal Article