Usability of government websites in Uganda

Government websites offer great benefits to citizens and governments. Such benefits, however,cannot be realized if websites are unusable. This study investigates usability of government websites in Uganda.Using the feature investigation method, the study evaluated four Ugandan government websites according tothree perspectives. Results show that websites are partially usable in the design layout and navigationperspectives but are rather weak in stating legal policies. Evaluation results provide the Ugandan governmentwith a clear picture of what needs to be improved according to international website design standards. Moreover,the parsimonious evaluation framework proposed in the research is useful for any country that wants to do aquick and easy evaluation of their government websites.

A green revolution in Mozambique: a study about the government possibilities to launch a sustainable green revolution

The present study is focused on the analysis of the political, economical and social factors that may interfere with the possibility of a Green Revolution as a solution for Mozambique to reach self-sufficiency and to reduce poverty. In order to perform such analysis, the study analyzes the consequences of the decolonization process in Mozambique focusing that the independence process in Mozambique did not create non-colonial models for the Agriculture Sector. Later on, the study tries to understand the impact of HIV/AIDS and Malaria on the labor force. By then, it explores the concepts of the Green Revolution and its successful history in India. At the end, it tries to evaluate if a Green Revolution is possible in Africa, especially in Mozambique, first identifying the factors, which characterized the Green Revolution in India, and trying to link those factors with the reality of Mozambique. The report is structured as followed; Chapter 2, ¿The decolonization process and its impacts on the agriculture sector¿. It gives information about the decolonization process, and explores its consequences. Chapter 3, ¿The Impacts of HIV/AIDS and Malaria on the Labor Force¿. It analyzes the impact of those diseases in the labor force. Chapter 4 ¿The Green Revolution and the Agriculture Sector¿, explores the concepts of Green Revolution, its success in India and its history in Mozambique. Chapter 5, finally, centers on conclusions, findings and recommendations.

Government policy and private investment in Brazil (1955/82)

The questlon of the crowding-out of private !nvestment by public expenditure, public investment in particular , ln the Brazilian economy has been discussed more in ideological terrns than on empirical grounds. The present paper tries to avoid the limitation of previous studies by estlmatlng an equation for private investment whlch makes it possible to evaluate the effect of economic policies on prlvate investment. The private lnvestment equation was deduced modifylng the optimal flexible accelerator medel (OFAM) incorporating some channels through which public expendlture influences privateinvestment. The OFAM consists in adding adjustment costs to the neoclassical theory of investrnent. The investment fuction deduced is quite general and has the following explanatory variables: relative prices (user cost of capitaljimput prices ratios), real interest rates, real product, public expenditures and lagged private stock of capital. The model was estimated for private manufacturing industry data. The procedure adopted in estimating the model was to begin with a model as general as possible and apply restrictions to the model ' s parameters and test their statistical significance. A complete diagnostic testing was also made in order to test the stability of estirnated equations. This procedure avoids ' the shortcomings of estimating a model with a apriori restrictions on its parameters , which may lead to model misspecification. The main findings of the present study were: the increase in public expenditure, at least in the long run, has in general a positive expectation effect on private investment greater than its crowding-out effect on priva te investment owing to the simultaneous rise in interst rates; a change in economlc policy, such as that one of Geisel administration, may have an important effect on private lnvestment; and reI ative prices are relevant in determining the leveI of desired stock of capital and private investrnent.

Quebrando as regras: o poder discricionário na linha de frente do programa esportivo-social RIO 2016 um estudo sobre a situação do integrador de núcleo, um verdadeiro "sociological citizen"

Este estudo analisa o indivíduo que atua na linha de frente do RIO 2016, um programa social do Governo do Estado do Rio de Janeiro que opera 800 unidades de atendimento no Estado, com gestão da Secretaria de Estado de Esporte e Lazer. O indivíduo analisado nesta pesquisa é denominado Integrador de Núcleo Esportivo e é o responsável pela gestão de uma dessas unidades — Núcleo Esportivo — que atende em média 50 alunos de uma comunidade carente no Estado do Rio de Janeiro. Essa pesquisa analisa o Integrador de Núcleo Esportivo sob uma perspectiva inédita, entendendo-o como um agente que atua além do seu escopo burocrático de trabalho. Para esse estudo foram consideradas teorias sobre burocracia organizacional, lançando mão da literatura de Michel Crozier ―The Bureaucratic Phenomenon‖ (1964), que analisa as relações entre pessoas, grupos e poder para entender a influência da organização burocrática no indivíduo. O termo ―sociological citizen‖,desenvolvido por Silbey (2009), também foi considerado para classificar esse indivíduo que se mostra mais aplicado que outros nos serviço de seu mandato organizacional e legal. Silbey aplica também o termo ―relational regulation‖ para denominar esta forma particular de prática da ―cidadania sociológica‖ (tradução do autor), por meio da qual os agentes ―governam a lacuna existente entre as expectativas regulatórias e o desempenho requerido‖.

Campaign donation and government contracts in Brazilian states

A corporate firm may influence policies in its favor by transferring money to political candidates. However, empirical studies which document evidence about the return on campaign donations are rare (Großer, Reuben and Tymula, 2013). In this paper we estimate the net expected return of a campaign donation in eight Brazilian states using a Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD) to separate the return of winning and losing state deputy candidates in the electoral coalition in 2006. Our results show that that the net return is quite high (i.e., the investment of donor firms is almost 2% of the net expected return), and is larger among traditional electoral parties than any other parties, on average. Looking at the heterogeneity of local executive and legislative levels, we find that net returns are higher when donor firms finance deputies within a governor’s electoral coalition than deputies outside this coalition.

A cooperação trilateral brasileira em Moçambique: um estudo de caso comparado: o ProALIMENTOS e o ProSAVANA

A arquitetura do sistema de ajuda internacional passa por um processo de transformação, no qual as barreiras Norte e Sul tornam-se cada vez mais indefinidas, e a cooperação trilateral, que une as práticas opostas da cooperação Norte-Sul com a cooperação Sul-Sul, emerge como uma nova modalidade da cooperação técnica brasileira. Com o objetivo de compreender esse cenário, esta tese almeja identificar e contrastar as motivações e as práticas dos agentes da cooperação trilateral brasileira por meio de um estudo de caso comparado de dois projetos, desenvolvidos pela Agência Brasileira de Cooperação (ABC), no setor agrícola em Moçambique: o ProALIMENTOS, parceria entre a United States Agency for International Development (USAID- -Brasil) e ABC, e o ProSAVANA, parceria entre Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) e ABC. Para isso, a pesquisa parte dos pressupostos da actor-oriented approach para estabelecer uma análise multinível, que cria desta forma um elo entre o agente e a estrutura, a prática e a política, com um olhar sobre o contexto macro, meso e micro. A utilização da metodologia qualitativa aplicada a essa investigação combinou a técnica de participação observante com a técnica de análise documental, acrescentando à análise 59 entrevistas semiestruturadas, realizadas principalmente entre os meses de março e junho de 2013, em Moçambique. Os resultados da pesquisa indicam que, no caso do ProALIMENTOS, há ganhos em complementaridade e troca de conhecimento para as três contrapartes, porém há a sobreposição das práticas Norte-Sul de cooperação para o desenvolvimento internacional sobre as práticas da cooperação Sul-Sul. Enquanto que, no caso do ProSAVANA, não há qualquer ganho de complementariedade, uma vez que o Programa enfrenta desafios internos e externos. A falta de harmonização e coordenação técnica no âmbito interno intensificam o embate externo com os representantes da sociedade civil ao gerar constantes falhas de comunicação, o que coloca em xeque a própria continuidade do ProSAVANA. Por último, a pesquisa mostra que é necessário um maior comprometimento do governo brasileiro nos projetos de Cooperação Trilateral, uma vez que os resultados desses projetos podem impactar e afetar a credibilidade do Brasil como um novo prestador de ajuda internacional.

Capital misallocation and mitigating policies

The purpose of this work is to study the role for government in mitigating capital misallocation. We develop an entrepreneurship model in which heterogeneous producers face collateral constraints on production, but can hedge idiosyncratic shocks. Hedging works as a tool for reallocating resources to states in which they are more productively deployed, and can alleviate the effect of the financial frictions and be a counteracting force to capital misallocation. Government incentives to hedging improve workers’ welfare in steady state through an increase in TFP and wages. The intervention leads to a reduction in the rate of return of entrepreneurs and an increase in wealth dispersion. These two effects cause entrepreneurial welfare to decrease.

Leadership of portuguese community schools in the East Coast of the United States and the public policies of education: a multiple case studies

The Portuguese community schools of the United States located in the areas of larger Portuguese population concentration are social organizations that come materializing throughout decades the designs of the educative policies of the Portuguese government in relation to the expansion and preservation of the language, the culture and the history of Portugal. These designs of the educative policies are enrolled in the Constitution of the Republic (1976), in the Basic Law of Educative System (1986) and, over all, in the successive legislative norms (Decree-laws and ordinances) of the successive governments. Portuguese community schools in the United States are structuralized in analogous way to schools of the Portuguese geographic space. For this qualitative study (multiple case), four directors of Portuguese schools of the East Coast of the United States were interviewed; two schools are in the state of Rhode Island and the other two are in the state of Massachusetts. Also, it was administered the questionnaire on practices of leadership “Leadership Practices Inventory” (LPI) of Kouzes and Posner (2002) to collect additional data about practices of leadership on the directors of the schools. The LPI evaluates practices of leadership classifying them in five domains: (a) Model the way; (b) Inspire a shared vision; (c) Challenge the process; (d) Enable others to act; and, (e) Encourage the heart. Results of this qualitative research indicate that the Portuguese Government has not had an educative policy stimulant, coherent and consistent of support, incentive, maintenance and diffusion of the Portuguese language and culture and the directors of the studied schools they have a proactive and serving leadership style in conducting the management of Portuguese community schools. The five practices of leadership are highly practiced by the directors of the studied schools above all the practices “Enable others to act” and “Encourage the heart”.

Trabalho e formação docente na rede municipal de ensino de natal

The study Teacher work and education in the municipal schools of Natal objectifies the analysis of the education and work conditions of the teachers in the municipal schools of Natal, placing them within the scenario of the public policies outlined for Basic Education (2005-2010). The thesis is based on the perspective that the educational reforms implemented by the Brazilian government in an attempt to answer to the new contextual demands originated from the world of work and globalization, demanding increasingly higher levels of qualification and constant extension of the teaching functions in school from the teachers, have been configured withal as a strategy for intensifying the teacher s work. The empirical field of study was constituded by thirteen municipal schools that offer basic education. Four hundred and seventeen teacher subjects that work in the municipal school system of Natal, two representatives of the Secretaria Municipal de Educação de Natal (SME)1 that work in the pedagogical team and one representative of the Sindicato dos Trabalhadores em Educação do Rio Grande do Norte2 took part in the study. The procedures/instruments used in the research were: bibliographic review, document research, questionnaires and recording of information in a field journal. The study confirmed that the majority of the teachers that work in the municipal school system were admitted by means of public entry exams, therefore meeting the requirements set by Law 9.394/96. Most of the teachers have the initial education demanded to work in basic education, although with some limitations due to the fact that they do not correspond to the needs of the educational system. The SME has a plan for continued training of the teachers in accordance to the current ideas defended by researchers of this field. There is, although, a disconnection between the purpose of the plan and the training strategies, because, in truth, predominate repetitive and specific actions that do not contemplate the training needs of the teachers, nor the demands of the system. Although the work conditions are evaluated, by the teachers, as relatively good, limits in relation to the physical structure of the schools are observed (dirty walls with holes in them, broken ceiling fans, old chairs and desks, old and stained black boards, inadequate restroom installations, poor maintenance of the computers, amongst other items). It was also verified the an increase in the functions of the teachers and an intensification of their work, materialized through an overburden of activities undertaken daily at school (and outside of it) and through the demand in taking part in activities that go beyond those inherent to the teaching process, such as the elaboration of political-pedagogical projects, participation in collegiate, registration of student information solicited by the SME and the participation in commissions, has been happening

Financing for sustainable development: visions and proposals for action from a Latin American and Caribbean perspective

Foreword Throughout the preparatory process for the World Summit on Sustainable Development and at the Summit itself, which was held in Johannesburg, South Africa, from 26 August to 4 September 2002, discussions were dominated by one central concern: the need to define and reach consensus on concrete, quantitative goals, with fixed deadlines for implementation, which were to supplement the Millennium Development Goals and facilitate progress towards an effective transition to sustainable development. Participants at the Summit explicitly affirmed the need, as a matter of urgency, to identify the financial and technical resources whereby sustainable development would become a reality and benefit directly and particularly rural and urban communities in the developing countries. The document we are now presenting is the outcome of extensive discussions held at a high-level forum during the Johannesburg Summit. Led by representatives of the Government of Mexico, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Andean Development Corporation, those discussions were based on the ECLAC/UNDP study entitled Financing for sustainable development in Latin America and the Caribbean: from Monterrey to Johannesburg, which considers the opportunities and challenges for improving prospects for investment and financing for sustainable development and underscores the need to establish a new balance between the market economy and public interest through joint public/private initiatives that combine market innovation, social responsibility and appropriate regulations. Other eminent persons attending the event included heads of State, such as Gustavo Noboa, then President of Ecuador; Enrique V. Iglesias, President of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB); José María Figueres, Managing Director of the Global Agenda of the World Economic Forum and former President of Costa Rica; and Gro Harlem Brundtland, the legendary figure who pioneered sustainable development. Valuable contributions to the discussions were made by Yolanda Kakabadse, President of the World Conservation Union; Xóchitl Gálvez Ruiz, head of the Unit for the Development of Indigenous Peoples of the Office of the President of Mexico; Cecilia López, former Minister for the Environment of Colombia; and Juan Carlos Maqueda, then Vice President of Argentina. The views emerging from the forum as set forth in this document are designed to facilitate and promote application of the Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development within the framework of the Millennium Development Goals and the commitments assumed at the International Conference on Financing for Development, which was held in Monterrey, Mexico. We also aspire to continue moving forward with the adoption of measures and policies to increase investment and financing for sustainable development as well as to foster partnerships between the public and private sectors and nongovernmental organizations. We recognize, in this context, the importance of strengthening and improving public and private institutions in order to meet the operational needs associated with the effort to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and pursue the Plan of Implementation formulated in Johannesburg. We trust that this document will contribute to in-depth discussions on the application of the Plan of Implementation in the relevant forums, in particular the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development. The Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development opens up new opportunities for Latin America and the Caribbean to renew and revive their own regional agenda -with emphasis on global and especially regional public goods- and to interweave it more cohesively with the global agenda in order to promote the common interests of Latin America and the Caribbean more forcefully in international development forums. The regional agenda and the global agenda cannot be separated in a contrived manner; indeed, to an increasing degree, what we are witnessing are global environmental processes which call for action at the local level. The achievement of sustainable development in Latin America and the Caribbean, where the necessary economic, social, environmental and geopolitical conditions are combined, requires a subtle balance between the market economy, the State and the citizen. Such a balance will result in the consolidation of democratic governance in the service of human development. VICENTE FOX President of Mexico JOSÉ ANTONIO OCAMPO Executive Secretary, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) ELENA MARTÍNEZ Assistant Aministrator and Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) ENRIQUE GARCÍA Executive President, Andean Development Corporation (ADC)""

Latin America and the Caribbean: policies to improve linkages with the global economy

Includes bibliography

Labour markets, worker protection and lifelong learning in a global economy: experiences and perspectives of Latin America and the Caribbean

Includes bibliography

Business development service centres in Italy. An empirical analysis of three regional experiences: Emilia Romagna, Lombardia y Veneto

Includes bibliography

Savings in Latin America after the mid 1990s: determinants, constraints and policies

Includes bibliography