An assessment of the benefits and limitations of the shamba agroforestry system in Kenya and of management and policy requirements for its successful and sustainable reintroduction

The shamba system involves farmers tending tree saplings on state-owned forest land in return for being permitted to intercrop perennial food crops until canopy closure. At one time the system was used throughout all state-owned forest lands in Kenya, accounting for a large proportion of some 160,000 ha. The system should theoretically be mutually beneficial to both local people and the government. However the system has had a chequered past in Kenya due to widespread malpractice and associated environmental degradation. It was last banned in 2003 but in early 2008 field trials were initiated for its reintroduction. This study aimed to: assess the benefits and limitations of the shamba system in Kenya; assess the main influences on the extent to which the limitations and benefits are realised and; consider the management and policy requirements for the system's successful and sustainable operation. Information was obtained from 133 questionnaires using mainly open ended questions and six participatory workshops carried out in forest-adjacent communities on the western slopes of Mount Kenya in Nyeri district. In addition interviews were conducted with key informants from communities and organisations. There was strong desire amongst local people for the system's reintroduction given that it had provided significant food, income and employment. Local perceptions of the failings of the system included firstly mismanagement by government or forest authorities and secondly abuse of the system by shamba farmers and outsiders. Improvements local people considered necessary for the shamba system to work included more accountability and transparency in administration and better rules with respect to plot allocation and stewardship. Ninety-seven percent of respondents said they would like to be more involved in management of the forest and 80% that they were willing to pay for the use of a plot. The study concludes that the structural framework laid down by the 2005 Forests Act, which includes provision for the reimplementation of the shamba system under the new plantation establishment and livelihood improvement scheme (PELIS) [It should be noted that whilst the shamba system was re-branded in 2008 under the acronym PELIS, for the sake of simplicity the authors continue to refer to the 'shamba system' and 'shamba farmers' throughout this paper.], is weakened because insufficient power is likely to be devolved to local people, casting them merely as 'forest users' and the shamba system as a 'forest user right'. In so doing the system's potential to both facilitate and embody the participation of local people in forest management is limited and the long-term sustainability of the new system is questionable. Suggested instruments to address this include some degree of sharing of profits from forest timber, performance related guarantees for farmers to gain a new plot and use of joint committees consisting of local people and the forest authorities for long term management of forests.

The impact of ICT on the work patterns of managers and their organisations

Purpose – The main aim of this paper is to present the results of a study examining managers' attitudes towards the deployment and use of information and communications technology (ICT) in their organisations. The study comes at a time when ICT is being recognised as a major enabler of innovation and new business models, which have the potential to have major impact on western economies and jobs. Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire was specially designed to collect data relating to three research questions. The questionnaire also included a number of open-ended questions. A total of 181 managers from a wide range of industries across a number of countries participated in the electronic survey. The quantitative responses to the survey were analysed using SPSS. Exploratory factor analysis using Varimax rotation was used and ANOVA to compare responses by different groups. Findings – The survey showed that many of the respondents appeared equipped to work “any place, any time”. However, it also highlighted the challenges managers face in working in a connected operation. Also, the data suggested that many managers were less than confident about their companies' policies and practices in relation to information management. Originality/value – A next step from this exploratory research could be the development of a model exploring the impact of ICT on management and organisational performance in terms of personal characteristics of the manager, the role performed, the context and the ICT provision. Also, further research could focus on examining in more detail differences between management levels.

Social citizenship, housing wealth and the cost of social care: is the Care Act 2014 'Fair'?

This article assesses the extent to which it is ‘fair’ for the government to require owner-occupiers to draw on the equity accumulated in their home to fund their social care costs. The question is stimulated by the report of the Commission on Funding of Care and Support, Fairer Care Funding (the Dilnot Commission) and the subsequent Care Act 2014. The enquiry is located within the framework of social citizenship and the new social contract. It argues that the individualistic, contractarian approach, exemplified by the Dilnot Commission and reflected in the Act, raises questions when considered from the perspective of intergenerational fairness. We argue that our concerns with the Act could be addressed by inculcating an expectation of drawing on housing wealth to fund older age: a policy of asset-based welfare.

Washington's growth and opportunity act or Beijing's 'Overarching Brilliance': will African governments choose neither?

Growing criticism of Chinese engagement in Africa centres on the risk to African development posed by China's aggressive export policies and the threat to the Washington Consensus and African governance posed by China's 'non-interference' approach to engagement. This article challenges both these assumptions. The growth of Chinese trade has a wide range of impacts, depending on the sector in question, and the current terms of trade Washington extends to Africa under the auspices of the AGOA do not result in uniformly beneficial effects. With regard to African governance, it is argued that the 'Washington Consensus' has been based on competing and often muddled perceptions of US national interest. This fact tempers the regret felt at Washington's loss of influence over the good governance agenda. Evidence is provided to show that China can work within properly regulated countries and industries, if the African governments in question can provide fair, efficient and transparent environments in which to operate.

1930, a Paraíba e o inconsciente político da revolução: a narrativa como ato socialmente simbólico

This work is an attempt to show that the ideological conflict that has been developed by the hegemony of the 1930 Revolution historical events in Paraíba, conceptually turned into an insoluble social contradiction. It ocurred due to imaginary or formal resolutions of the literature that ended up by altering the epistemological rules of the relation between fiction and reality. The present work is based on The unconscious politics: a narrative as a socially symbolic act , book in which all the literary or cultural texts can and should be read as symbolic resolutions to insoluble social contradictions. From string to contemporary literature this phenomenon has been registered by the several ways of textual production turning the 1930 Revolution into one of the main elements which guides the political scene of Paraíba. The ideological groups still centered on the political resentment and committed to a political conflict forged the existence of two historical truths: one which suits the liberais , the winners, and another is of the 1930 conflict. This work argues in favour of the unconscious politics of the 1930 Revolution. This thesis considers necessarily the relation that the Paraibana society maintains with its past and how this past reaches in the present the liberation of a hidden and repressed truth through its narrativization. Beyond that, how the ideological partiality generated the political resentment through the way of thinking of the rivals under the perspective of the good and evil reveals its insoluble social contradiction. Process which comprehends varied narrative forms of the mass culture products and literary production, as in the methodological perspective pointed by Fredric Jameson that all literary or cultural texts can and shall be read as symbolic resolutions of true political and social contradictions. In the case of Paraiba we will have resolutions that search for the reasons which caused the death of João Pessoa: forgery and publicity of love letters, dispute over the official version of suicide commited by João Dantas, the man who assassinated João Pessoa

A política pública de segurança em Mossoró-RN: uma avaliação de processo da implantação da guarda civil (2009-2013)

The subject of public safety is part of the academic and popular discussions, due to several factors that act in society culminating in an increasing criminality. The importance of the evaluation of public policies in this context consists in a possible control tool, monitoring and necessary adjustments to the government to make the necessary changes. Given this reality, it is thought the research problem: how Mossoró (RN) city has implemented his public security policy? In general guideline of the research, we work with the following hypothesis: the own formulation of the National Policy of Public Safety there are elements that hinder the implementation of a public policy of municipal security in Mossoró. The objective of this research is to evaluate the existing security public policy in the city of Mossoró, by the elements that facilitate and/or hamper its implementation, through the actions of municipal government in the activities of the Mossoro Civil Guard (GCM). For this, a review of the implementation process was conducted, specifically its subprocesses of selection, training, and logistical or operational. Was used bibliographical research, documental primary and secondary, and field research, with conducting of interviews. It was found that with a staff of 197 guards, and with five years of creation, the actions developed by this institution refer to an early implementation of the municipal security policy. The guard has the basic pattern selection, part of function relocation and part of public tender. The formation occurs in an introductory way, however, not complete and specific, for the function performance. Its operability is limited by the number of existing effective and by the physical structure that has not matching the demand yet, which touches on the municipal budgetary reality of direct resource intended to safety. It was found the absence of a municipal plan of public security with principles, guidelines and goals that could direct the actions of the guard. It is concluded that despite of the implementation of the GCM Mossoró have not achieved, within the parameters of efficiency, efficacy and effectiveness have played their actions, projects and programs, it could trigger a process of opening for construction of a municipal security policy. As well as break with the paradigm of municipal actions just meant for surveillance of public property, interaction affirmative for the prevention of violence and crime

Violência ocupacional contra profissionais de saúde em um hospital de urgência. natal/rn, 2009

Descriptive exploratory study, with quantitative approach, with data collected from April to May 2009, aiming to identify the types of occupational violence affecting professionals on the nursing and medical staff in an emergency hospital service in Natal/RN, over the last 12 months; to identify emergency sectors where occupational violence episodes took place; to characterize aggressors on each type of occupational violence; to know the procedures adopted after each violent act targeting nursing and medical staff professionals; and to know the consequences of violence suffered by the nursing and medical staff professionals. The sample consisted of 26 nurses, 95 nursing assistants/technicians and 124 physicians, for a total of 245 professionals. The results showed that 50.61% of the professionals were women, aged 41 to 45 (22.45%), with post-graduate studies (51.43%), married (60.82%); 21.22% had 16 to 20 years of experience in the profession and in emergency practice; working 40 weekly hours (86.12%); and working both the day shift and the night shift (70.21%); 27.35% consider violence to be a part of their profession and the patient s companions as an important risk factor (86.53%); couldn t inform whether there was a specific established procedure for reporting occupational violence (45.71%); 73.06% suffered occupational violence in the 12 months; 70.20% verbal assault, 24.08% moral harassment, 6.12% physical assault, and 3.67% sexual harassment; 66.67% of the patients took part in the physical assault; the companions, in verbal assault (58.14%); and the health staff in moral harassment (69.49%); facing episodes violence, 37.65% of the professionals reported the fact to their co-workers; 57.25% uffered from stress as a consequence; on 4.71% of the episodes the professionals had to be bsent from work, resulting in 75 days of occupational violence-related absence. We conclude here was a high rate of occupational violence in the researched population, with verbal ssault and moral harassment as the most frequent violence types. Because factors related to ccupational violence were very diverse, actions seeking to confront this problem shouldn t be limited to the work environment itself. Education ought to be one of the most effective ctions for avoiding or minimizing these events occurrence

Draft programme of work of the ECLAC system, 2008-2009

Includes bibliography

Resolution 623(XXXI): Priorities and programme of work of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean for the biennium 2008-2009

Includes bibliography

Draft programme of work of the knowledge transfer network for statistical training in Latin America and the Caribbean, 2008-2009

Includes bibliography

Acidentes e doenças do trabalho em Botucatu-SP: os registros da previdência social como fonte de informações no periodo de 1995 a 2009

Pós-graduação em Saúde Coletiva - FMB