POST-PROJECT ASSESSMENT OF PIT LATRINES IN RURAL PANAMA

In Panama, one of the Environmental Health (EH) Sector’s primary goals is to improve the health of rural Panamanians by helping them to adopt behaviors and practices that improve access to and use of sanitation systems. In complying with this goal, the EH sector has used participatory development models to improve hygiene and increase access to latrines through volunteer managed latrine construction projects. Unfortunately, there is little understanding of the long term sustainability of these interventions after the volunteers have completed their service. With the Peace Corps adapting their Monitoring, Reporting, and Evaluation procedures, it is appropriate to evaluate the sustainability of sanitation interventions offering recommendations for the adaptions of the EH training program, project management, and evaluation procedures. Recognizing the need for evaluation of past latrine projects, the author performed a post project assessment of 19 pit latrine projects using participatory analysis methodologies. First, the author reviewed volunteers’ perspectives of pit latrine projects in a survey. Then, for comparison, the author performed a survey of latrine projects using a benchmarking scoring system to rate solid waste management, drainage, latrine siting, latrine condition, and hygiene. It was observed that the Sanitation WASH matrix created by the author was an effective tool for evaluating the efficacy of sanitation interventions. Overall more than 75%, of latrines constructed were in use. However, there were some areas where improvements could be made for both latrine construction and health and hygiene. The latrines scored poorly on the indicators related to the privacy structure and seat covers. Interestingly those are the two items least likely to be included in project subsidies. Furthermore, scores for hygiene-related indicators were low; particularly those related to hand washing and cleanliness of the kitchen, indicating potential for improvement in hygiene education. Based on these outcomes, the EH sector should consider including subsidies and standardized designs for privacy structures and seat covers for latrines. In addition, the universal adoption of contracts and/or deposits for project beneficiaries is expected to improve the completion of latrines. In order to address the low scores in the health and hygiene indicators, the EH sector should adapt volunteer training, in addition to standardizing health and hygiene intervention procedures. In doing so, the sector should mimic the Community Health Club model that has shown success in improving health and hygiene indicators, as well as use a training session plan format similar to those in the Water Committee Seminar manual. Finally, the sector should have an experienced volunteer dedicated to program oversight and post-project monitoring and evaluation.

Common Social Work Education Standards in the Nordic Countries - opening an issue

The article analyses the option of common Nordic Standards for social work education in these countries. The option is viewed through the lens of trends in education in the different countries. In the article the notion of an Integrated Field Model is used to indicate the starting point for a common model of education. This model covers the field characteristics of Denmark and Norway and their current move towards a more research-based education. It also covers the research characteristics of education in Finland, Iceland and Sweden and their current move towards a new field connection based on research-oriented education. Some thoughts on international requirements on comparability and compatibility in this setting are addressed in the final section.

The Position of xMOOCs in Educational Systems

The idea of xMOOCs initially aimed at fundamentally changing the US tertiary education system by providing open mass education. This attempt failed for a number of reasons. They include: the ignorance of the importance and benefits of face-to-face instruction, the high workload imposed on students by xMOOCs, the consequences of current xMOOC didactics, the financing of the high costs, and the difficulties of integration into the teaching organization. As a consequence, xMOOCs are turning into methods for professional continuing education including a business model that covers the institution’s cost.

Septic osteitis and osteomyelitis in foals - are antimicrobials alone enough?

The case report by Lawrence and Fraser (2012) describes the successful management of 2 weanlings with septic osteitis of the proximal sesamoid bones, using prolonged (6 weeks) antimicrobial therapy alone. Doxycycline, an antimicrobial with excellent bone penetration properties, was deemed essential to treatment success. In contrast to the poor outcome in previously reported cases of septic sesamoid bone osteitis, the authors were able to show the value of a conservative approach over surgical debridement. The question is to what extent are we able to extrapolate this to the general treatment of septic osteitis and osteomyelitis in young horses?

The role of chance events in the school-to-work transition: The influence of demographic, personality and career development variables

Chance events are considered important in career development, yet little empirical research is available on their predictors and consequences. The present study investigated socio-demographic (gender, nationality, school-type), personality (openness, locus of control) and career development variables (career decidedness, career planning) in relation to perceived chance events with a retrospective (N = 229, eleventh grade), and 1-year longitudinal prospective study (N = 245, eighth/ninth grade) among Swiss adolescents. The results showed that the majority of both groups reported a significant influence of chance events on their transition from compulsory school to vocational education or high school. Importance of chance events related to socio-demographics and personality but not career preparation. Career preparation and chance events predicted subjective career success in terms of wish correspondence and overall satisfaction with transition outcome among the younger cohort. Implications include the necessity to integrate both thorough career preparation and chance events in theory and counseling practice.

Human Capital Externalities and Private Returns to Education in Kenya

We use micro data to analyse the effect of human capital externality on earnings and private returns to education. The earnings equations are estimated using the OLS method for a sample of full-time workers. The results show that human capital has a positive effect on earnings, indicating that an increase in education benefits all workers. However, men benefit more from women's education than the women do from men's. The effects of human capital externality on private returns to schooling are shown to vary substantially between rural and urban areas and across levels of the education system.