90,806 research outputs found
Measurement and reporting of climate-smart agriculture: technical guidance for a countrycentric process
Given the extent of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) initiatives at project, national, regional and global levels, there is increasing interest in tracking progress in implementing CSA at national level. CSA is also expected to contribute to higher-level goals (e.g., the Paris Agreement, Africa Unionâs Vision 25x25, and the Sustainable Development Goals [SDGs], etc.). Measurement and reporting of climate-smart agriculture (MR of CSA) provides intelligence on necessary the status, effectiveness, efficiency and impacts of interventions, which is critical for meeting stakeholdersâ diverse management and reporting needs. In this paper, we build the case for a stakeholder-driven, country-centric framework for MR of CSA, which aims to increase coordination and coherence across stakeholdersâ MR activities, while also aligning national reporting with reporting on international commitments. We present practical guidance on how to develop an integrated MR framework, drawing on findings from a multi-country assessment of needs, opportunities and capacities for national MR of CSA. The content of a unified MR framework is determined by stakeholdersâ activities (how they promote CSA), needs (why MR is useful to them) and current capacities to conduct periodic monitoring, evaluation and reporting (how ready are institutions, staff and finances). Our analysis found that explicit demand for integration of data systems and active engagement of stakeholders throughout the entire process are key ingredients for building a MR system that is relevant, useful and acted upon. Based on these lessons, we identify a seven-step framework for stakeholders to develop a comprehensive information system for MR of progress in implementing CSA
Monitoring Climate Finance in Developing Countries: Challenges and Next Steps
At the 18th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the parties agreed to a standard format for developed countries to follow when reporting on the climate finance they provide to developing countries. Developed countries will use these formats for the first time when they submit their Biennial Reports to the UNFCCC in early 2014. Later in 2014, developing countries are expected to submit Biennial Update Reports showing the financial support that they have received. From initial attempts to measure and report climate finance by developed and developing countries, it is already apparent that information on finance provided is unlikely to match information on finance received.Aside from the reporting requirements of the UNFCCC, better financial data can help decision makers in developing countries identify gaps, improve coordination and management, and raise funds to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Better climate finance information can also enable countries to draw lessons from the use of different financial instruments and develop strategies and policies that aim to expand finance for climate change. Improved data will allow the information reported by developed countries to be cross-checked, thus promoting transparency, completeness, and accuracy. Finally, it can contribute to a more comprehensive picture of climate financial flows in relation to development assistance at the national and international levels. This working paper reports on three workshops in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, in which participants discussed some of the steps that developing countries and their international partners can take toward monitoring and tracking climate finance more effectively. More than 40 representatives from 20 developing countries, regional development banks, and national organizations attended the three workshops. Participants shared information on the limits of existing legislation and mandates, national planning and approval processes, financial management systems, efforts to coordinate among ministries and development partners, and many other unique challenges faced by the participating countries. WRI obtained additional information via a questionnaire, follow-up correspondence, and interviews with representatives of the countries
A Framework to Evaluate Software Developerâs Productivity The VALORTIA Project
Currently, there is a lack in companies developing software in relation to assessing their staffâs productivity
before executing software projects, with the aim of improving effectiveness and efficiency. QuEF (Quality
Evaluation Framework) is a framework that allows defining quality management tasks based on a model.
The main purpose of this framework is twofold: improve an entityâs continuous quality, and given a context,
decide between a set of entityâs instances on the most appropriate one. Thus, the aim of this paper is to
make this framework available to evaluate productivity of professionals along software development and
select the most appropriate experts to implement the suggested project. For this goal, Valortia platform,
capable of carrying out this task by following the QuEF framework guidelines, is designed. Valortia is a
platform to certify users' knowledge on a specific area and centralize all certification management in its
model by means of providing protocols and methods for a suitable management, improving efficiency and
effectiveness, reducing cost and ensuring continuous quality.Ministerio de Ciencia e InnovaciĂłn TIN2013-46928-C3-3-
An Approach to Transform Public Administration into SOA-based Organizations
Nowadays, Service-Oriented Architectures (SOA) is widely spread in private organizations. However, when transferring this knowledge to Public Administration, it is realized that it has not been transformed in terms
of its legal nature into organizations capable to operate under the SOA paradigm. This fact prevents public
administration bodies from offering the efficient services they have been provided by different boards of
governments. A high-level framework to perform this transformation is proposed. Taking it as starting
point, an instance of a SOA Target Meta-Model can be obtained by means of an iterative and incremental
process based on the analysis of imperatives and focused on the particular business context of each local public administration. This paper briefly presents a practical experience consisting in applying this process
to a Spanish regional public administration.Junta de AndalucĂa TIC-578
Goals/questions/metrics method and SAP implementation projects
During the last years some researchers have studied the critical success factors (CSFs) in ERP implementations.
However, until now, no one has studied how these CSFs should be put in practice to help organizations achieve success
in ERP implementations. This technical research report attempts to define the usage of Goals/Questions/Metrics (GQM)
approach in the definition of a measurement system for ERP implementation projects. GQM approach is a mechanism for
defining and interpreting operational, measurable goals. Lately, because of its intuitive nature the approach has
gained widespread appeal. We present a metrics overview and a description of GQM approach. Then we provide an example
of GQM application for monitoring sustained management support in ERP implementations. Sustained management support
is the most cited critical success factor in ERP implementation projects.Postprint (published version
Moving people to deliver services : how can the WTO help?
The previous General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) negotiations produced little liberalization of the movement of individual service providers (mode 4), and the potentially large global gains from suchmovement remain unrealized. In the current negotiations, as part of the Doha Development Agenda, developing countries are seeking greater openness in their area of comparative advantage: the movement of providers unrelated to commercial presence abroad. At the same time, many multinational firms would like easier intra-corporate movement of their personnel. We describe how this coincidence of interest could be harnessed to deliver greater openness at least for skilled service providers.Environmental Economics&Policies,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Decentralization,Public Health Promotion,Banks&Banking Reform,Trade and Services,Environmental Economics&Policies,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Governance Indicators,Banks&Banking Reform
Policy additionality for UK emissions trading projects: a report for the Department of Trade & Industry
No description supplie
Agile methods for agile universities
We explore a term, Agile, that is being used in various workplace settings, including the management of universities. The term may have several related but slightly different meanings. Agile is often used in the context of facilitating more creative problem-solving and advocating for the adoption, design, tailoring and continual updating of more innovative organizational processes. We consider a particular set of meanings of the term from the world of software development. Agile methods were created to address certain problems with the software development process. Many of those problems have interesting analogues in the context of universities, so a reflection on agile methods may be a useful heuristic for generating ideas for enabling universities to be more creative
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