Reconstructing child welfare through participatory and child-centred professional practice : a conceptual approach

The 'child' in child welfare/protection is seen as a dependent waif and an object of interest, on whose behalf adults speak and act. An alternative perspective has argued for child-centredness, and includes concepts of child liberation, rights and citizenship. Policymakers and practitioners who may accept the underlying principles may be concerned about the appropriateness and applicability of such principles in relation to practice with children and their parents in child welfare/protection cases. This paper discusses a conceptual framework for research that aims to explore participatory and child-centred professional practice by critically evaluating and developing, for professional practice, the practical meanings of 'participatory' and 'children as citizens'. We do not present research outcomes based on empirical data; instead, we present our conceptual framework as the first stage of research in progress into participatory and child-centred professional practice.

The federal solution to ethnic conflicts

Conflicts over ethnic homeland rule, the right to territorial autonomy, and even nation-statehood have been played out in Asia, where it has been debated whether federalism is the best system to reduce or contain ethnic conflicts. The international community has questioned whether the multinational federalism of Spain and Canada offers a successful model for Asia.

Reconstructing child welfare through participatory and child centred professional practice

This questionnaire study examined the adjustment of 245 lone-parenting women following marital separation. A composite model included intrapsychic variables as intervening between demographic and contextual variables and adjustment (life satisfaction). Regression analyses showed that the demographic and contextual variables were partially mediated by the intrapsychic variables. The path model indicated that the intrapsychic variables (sense of coherence, control, depression, and grief) had a direct impact on life satisfaction and that there was an indirect path for depression through sense of coherence (SOC) and control. It was concluded that the intrapsychic variables had a more powerful relationship with women's post-separation life satisfaction than did the demographic/contextual variables. Social implications and recommendations for future policy are considered.

Macroeconomic impact of foreign aid to developing countries

The thesis looks at the macroeconomic impact of foreign aid. It is specially concerned with aid's impact on the public sector of less developed countries < LDCs> . Since the overwhelming majority of aid is directed to the public sector of LDCs, one can only understand the broader macroeconomic impact of aid if one first understands its impact on this sector. To this end, the thesis econometrically estimates " fiscal response" models of aid. These models, in essence, attempt to shed light on public sector fiscal behaviour in the presence of aid inflows, being specially concerned with the way aid is used to finance various categories of expenditures. The underlaying concern is to extent to which aid is " fungible" -that is, whether it finances consumption expenditure and reductions in taxation revenue in LDCs. A number of alternative models are derived from a utility maximisation framework. These alternatives reflect different assumptions regarding the behaviour of LDC public sectors and relate to the endogeniety to exogeniety> of aid, whether or not recurrent expenditure is financed from domestic borrowing and the determination of domestic borrowing. The original frameworks of earlier studies are extended in a number of ways, including the use of a public sector utility function which is fully consistent with expected maximising behaviour. Estimates of these models' parameters are obtained using both time-series and cross-section data, dating from the 1960s, for Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and the Philippines. Both structural and reduced-form equations are estimated. Results suggest that foreign aid to the official sector> is indeed fungible, albeit at different levels. Moreover, the overall impact of aid on public sector investment, consumption, domestic borrowing and taxation varies between countries. Generally speaking, aid leads to increases in investment and consumption expenditure, but reduces taxation and domestic borrowing. Comparative analysis does, however, show that these results are highly sensitive to alternative behavioural assumptions and, therefore, model specification.

Mothers' transition back to work and infants' transition to child care : does work-based child care make a difference?

The overall aim in this study was twofold: to compare the use of work-based (WB) and non-work-based (NWB) child care on the transition back to the workplace for women after a period of maternity leave, and on the transition into child care for the infants of these women. Thirty-five mothers with infants in WB centres and 44 mothers with infants in NWB centres completed a battery of questionnaires, retrospectively, in relation to their first four weeks of resuming work and their infant’s transition into child care. We first explored whether the mothers of infants in WB centres were less stressed and anxious
about separating from their infant, were more satisfied with their child care, and whether they felt more productive and supported at work than mothers of infants in NWB child
care centres. Our findings revealed no differences between mothers using WB centres and NWB centres in their transition to work. In exploring whether infants placed in WB centres settled faster and more easily than infants placed in NWB centres, the findings, once again, revealed no differences in the infant’s affective states at child care and maintenance of their routines, such that all infants were equally settled and happy irrespective of the type of care used. The theoretical and practical implications of our findings are discussed.

Aid to conflict-affected countries : lessons for donors

Investigates how aid might prevent conflicts from breaking out or becoming worse.

Aid to conflict-affected countries : lessons for donors

The first section looks at the implications of conflict for aid effectiveness and selectivity. We argue that, while aid is generally effective in promoting growth and by implication reducing poverty, it is more effective in promoting growth in post-conflict countries. We then consider the implications of these findings for donor selectivity models and for assessment of donor performance in allocating development aid among recipient countries. We argue that, while further research on aid effectiveness in post-conflict scenarios is needed, existing selectivity models should be augmented with, inter alia, post-conflict variables, and donors should be evaluated on the basis, inter alia, of the share of their aid budgets allocated to countries experiencing post-conflict episodes. We also argue for aid delivered in the form of projects to countries with weak institutions in early post-conflict years. The second section focuses on policies for donors operating in conflict-affected countries. We set out five of the most important principles: (1) focus on broad-based recovery from war; (2) to achieve a broad-based recovery, get involved before the conflict ends; (3) focus on poverty, but avoid ‘wish lists’; (4) help to reduce insecurity so aid can contribute more effectively to growth and poverty reduction; and (5) in economic reform, focus on improving public expenditure management and revenue mobilisation. The third section concludes by emphasising the fact that there is no hard or fast dividing line between ‘war’ and ‘peace’ and that it may take many years for a society to become truly ‘post’-conflict’. Donors, therefore, need to prepare for the long haul.

An observational approach to testing bi-directional parent–child interactions as influential to child eating and weight

Obesity among children has been on the rise globally for the past few decades. Previous research has centred mainly on self/parent-reported measures examining only uni-directional parental feeding styles and practices. Recent discussions in the literature have raised the importance of bi-directional parent–child interactions in influencing children's weight status. The aims of this paper are to highlight the importance of an observational approach when investigating positive bi-directional parent–child interactions during mealtimes and to outline how these interactions may be linked to positive child eating and weight outcomes. We examine the current literature on self-reported parental patterns and argue for the influential roles of responsiveness, affect and parental control dimensions within the parent–child dyad. Information about the ways in which the parent and the child can influence each other on these dimensions, as observed in parent–child interactions around food, is likely to provide greater insights into the aetiology of childhood obesity.