Rwanda's Miracle: From Genocide and Poverty to Peace and Economic Prosperity

The purpose of this thesis was to examine how liberalization and the introduction of pro-poor policies can be successful in post-conflict countries using the Rwanda coffee market as a case study. My research supports the notion that economic development, political stability and peace can be a result of liberalization when policies that are pro-poor and focus on the largest sector of the population are created. The study examines why and how Rwanda chose to liberalize their economy in the way they did by focusing on the intentions of the actors and the effects their actions have had on the coffee market and country as a whole. The findings suggest that Rwanda’s coffee market liberalization has been successful and has contributed to stability and economic development in Rwanda. The conclusion indicates that pro-poor liberalization policies with the assistance from a variety of actors and institutions can lead developing countries on the path to development in ways the international community has not seen before.

Understandings of transnational families in debates on Migration and development

International migration sets in motion a range of significant transnational processes that connect countries and people. How migration interacts with development and how policies might promote and enhance such interactions have, since the turn of the millennium, gained attention on the international agenda. The recognition that transnational practices connect migrants and their families across sending and receiving societies forms part of this debate. The ways in which policy debate employs and understands transnational family ties nevertheless remain underexplored. This article sets out to discern the understandings of the family in two (often intermingled) debates concerned with transnational interactions: The largely state and policydriven discourse on the potential benefits of migration on economic development, and the largely academic transnational family literature focusing on issues of care and the micro-politics of gender and generation. Emphasizing the relation between diverse migration-development dynamics and specific family positions, we ask whether an analytical point of departure in respective transnational motherhood, fatherhood or childhood is linked to emphasizing certain outcomes. We conclude by sketching important strands of inclusions and exclusions of family matters in policy discourse and suggest ways to better integrate a transnational family perspective in global migration-development policy.

Merging Paradigms: A framework for meeting the goals of sustainable development and corporate sustainability for cruise industry firms

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Development Begins at Home: Women and the Domestic Economy in Brazil, 1945-1975

A number of historians of twentieth-century Latin America have identified ways that national labor laws, civil codes, social welfare programs, and business practices contributed to a gendered division of society that subordinated women to men in national economic development, household management, and familial relations. Few scholars, however, have critically explored women's roles as consumers and housewives in these intertwined realms. This work examines the Brazilian case after the Second World War, arguing that economic policies and business practices associated with “developmentalism” [Portuguese: desenvolvimentismo] created openings for women to engage in debates about national progress and transnational standards of modernity. While acknowledging that an asymmetry of gender relations persisted, the study demonstrates that urban women expanded their agency in this period, especially over areas of economic and family life deemed "domestic." This dissertation examines periodicals, consumer research statistics, public opinion surveys, personal interviews, corporate archives, the archives of key women’s organizations, and government officials’ records to identify the role that women and household economies played in Brazilian developmentalism between 1945 and 1975. Its principal argument is that business and political elites attempted to define gender roles for adult urban women as housewives and mothers, linking their management of the household to familial well-being and national modernization. In turn, Brazilian women deployed these idealized roles in public to advance their own economic interests, especially in the management of household finances and consumption, as well as to expand legal rights for married women, and increase women’s participation in the workforce. As the market for women's labor expanded with continued industrialization, these efforts defined a more active role for women in the economy and in debates about the trajectory of national development policies.

The development of the accounting professional in a postcolonial context: evidence from Sierra Leone

Despite increasing interest in the development of the accountancy profession and constitutive professional bodies in ex-colonies, little is known about the development of professional accountants as individuals. Similarly, although the continuing influence of the legacies of colonialism and imperialism on the accounting professionalisation trajectory in ex-colonies has been recognised, little attempt has been made to theorise such continuing colonial intervention as a postcolonial condition of accommodation and resistance, with implications for the development of professional accountants. This thesis fills this vacuum by employing four aspects of the critical lens of postcolonial theory – local-global nexus, psycho-existential complex, postcolonial hybridity and diaspora - to gain an insight into the development of accounting professionals in ex-colonies with specific reference to Sierra Leone. Specifically, it examines the current model of accounting professionalisation adopted in Sierra Leone and implications for the development of professional accountants in the country; investigates the historical and ideological legacies of colonialism that shaped and continue to influence the professionalisation trajectory in Sierra Leone; explores the perceptions of Sierra Leonean chartered and aspiring accountants of their professional identity in terms of their professional development within Sierra Leone; and explores the lived experiences of Sierra Leonean chartered and aspiring accountants in the diaspora and the diaspora effect on accountancy in Sierra Leone. The empirical evidence presented here emanated from two sources: a web-based survey and semi-structured interviews with Sierra Leonean chartered and aspiring accountants both within and outside the country at the time of the study. The model for developing professional accountants in Sierra Leone comprises a partnership between the local professional body, ICASL, and the British-based global body, the ACCA. A postcolonial analysis of the empirical evidence reveals that an unintended consequence of this model is that the local is co-opted within the global while the global becomes increasingly localised. The analysis also shows that the presence of a perceived global body ‘inferiorises’ the local body to the point of undesirability among local chartered and aspiring accountants. Thus the partnership has to date done little by way of developing ICASL’s capacity to ensure the development of a localised profession and professionals. Instead, it produces, within the Sierra Leone accountancy space, professional hybrids that at once pose as global as well as local accountants. This has significant implications for the local profession because many of the hybrid professional accountants who could potentially drive the local profession forward end up in the diaspora, which leaves the local profession in a weaker state. Also, given the established link between a robust accountancy profession and sustainable economic development, such professional diasporisation could negatively impact on the country’s economic development. In sum, Sierra Leone has failed to establish an accounting professionalisation model that develops professional accountants (through contextualised professional education and training) that meets the specific accounting needs of its growing economy.

Pre-colonial institutions and long-run development in Latin America

The present doctoral thesis studies the association between pre-colonial institutions and long-run development in Latin America. The thesis is organised as follows: Chapter 1 places the motivation of the thesis by underlying relevant contributions in the literature on long-run development. I then set out the main objective of the thesis, followed by a brief outline of it. In Chapter 2, I study the effects of pre-colonial institutions on present-day socioeconomic outcomes for Latin America. The main thesis of this chapter is that more advanced pre-colonial institutions relate to better socioeconomic outcomes today - principally, but not only, through their effects on the Amerindian population. I test such hypothesis with a dataset of 324 sub-national administrative units covering all mainland Latin American countries. The extensive range of controls covers factors such as climate, location, natural resources, colonial activities and pre-colonial characteristics - plus country fixed effects. Results strongly support the main thesis. In Chapter 3, I further analyse the association between pre-colonial institutions and present-day economic development in Latin America by using the historical ethnic homelands as my main unit of analysis. The main hypothesis is that ethnic homelands inhabited by more advanced ethnic groups -as measured by their levels of institutional complexity- relate to better economic development today. To track these long-run effects, I construct a new dataset by digitising historiographical maps allowing me to pinpoint the geospatial location of ethnic homelands as of the XVI century. As a result, 375 ethnic homelands are created. I then capture the levels of economic development at the ethnic homeland level by making use of alternative economic measures --satellite light density data. After controlling for country-specific characteristics and applying a large battery of geographical, locational, and historical factors, I found that the effects of pre-colonial institutions relate to a higher light density --as a proxy for economic activity- in ethnic homelands where more advanced ethnic groups lived. In Chapter 4, I explore a mechanism linking the persistence of pre-colonial institutions in Latin America over the long-run: Colonial and post-colonial strategies along with the ethnic political capacity worked in tandem allowing larger Amerindian groups to "support" the new political systems in ways that would benefit their respective ethnic groups as well as the population at large. This mechanism may have allowed the effects of pre-colonial institutions to influence socioeconomic development outcomes up to today. To shed lights on this mechanism, I combine the index of pre-colonial institutions prepared for the second chapter of the present thesis with individual-level survey data on people's attitudes. By controlling for key observable and unobservable country-specific characteristics, the main empirical results show that areas with a history of more advanced pre-colonial institutions increase the probability of individuals supporting present-day political institutions. Finally, in Chapter 5, I summarise the main findings of the thesis, and emphasise the key weaknesses of the study as well as potential avenues for future research.

School Development in Urbanizing Areas

Good schools are essential for building thriving urban areas. They are important for preparing the future human resource and directly contribute to social and economic development of a place. They not only act as magnets for prospective residents, but also are necessary for retaining current population. As public infrastructure, schools mirror their neighborhood. “Their location, design and physical condition are important determinants of neighborhood quality, regional growth and change, and quality of life.”2 They impact housing development and utility requirements among many things. Hence, planning for schools along with other infrastructure in an area is essential. Schools are very challenging to plan, especially in urbanizing areas with changing demographic dynamics, where the development market and housing development can shift drastically a number of times. In such places projecting the future school enrollments is very difficult and in case of large population influx, school development can be unable to catch up with population growth which results in overcrowding. Typical is the case of Arlington County VA. In the past two decades the County has changed dramatically from a collection of bedroom communities in Washington DC Metro Region to a thriving urban area. Its metro accessible urban corridors are among most desired locations for development in the region. However, converting single family neighborhoods into high density areas has put a lot of pressure on its school facilities and has resulted in overcrowded schools. Its public school enrollment has grown by 19% from 2009 to 2014.3 While the percentage of population under 5 years age has increased in last 10 years, those in the 5-19 age group have decreased4. Hence, there is more pressure on the elementary school facilities than others in the County. Design-wise, elementary schools, due to their size, can be imagined as a community component. There are a number of strategies that can be used to develop elementary school in urbanizing areas as a part of the neighborhood. Experimenting with space planning and building on partnership and mixed-use opportunities can help produce better designs for new schools in future. This thesis is an attempt to develop elementary school models for urbanizing areas of Arlington County. The school models will be designed keeping in mind the shifting nature of population and resulting student enrollments in these areas. They will also aim to be efficient and sustainable, and lead to the next generation design for elementary school education. The overall purpose of the project is to address barriers to elementary school development in urbanizing areas through creative design and planning strategies. To test above mentioned ideas, the Joint-Use School typology of housing +school design has been identified for elementary school development in urbanizing areas in this thesis project. The development is based on the Arlington Public School’s Program guidelines (catering to 600 students). The site selected for this project is Clarendon West (part of Red Top Cab Properties) in Clarendon, Arlington County VA.

Pros and cons on legislative issues relevant to the Iowa Development Commission, February 17, 1972

This material provides information which will assist committee members in making decisions on the pros and cons on Legislative issues relevant to the Iowa Development commission.

Research, development, and innovations in health risk assessment for brazilian agriculture.

Agriculture and livestock are key sectors of the Brazilian economy, which are essential for the country?s economic growth and for the equality between the domestic currency?s supply and demand. Agribusiness answered for about 23% of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2015, according to Confederação Nacional da Agricultura (CNA), and reached 50.3% of total exports in February 2016, according to Secretaria de Relações Internacionais do Agronegócio (SRI) of Ministério da Agricultura, Pecuária e Abastecimento (Mapa) (Brasil, 2016). Currently, this sector is recognized as the most competitive and efficient in Brazil, considering the global scenario.