36,390 research outputs found

    Linking African smallholders to high-value markets : practitioner perspectives on benefits, constraints, and interventions

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    This paper provides the results of an international survey of practitioners with experience in facilitating the participation of African smallholder farmers in supply chains for higher-value and/or differentiated agricultural products. It explores their perceptions about the constraints inhibiting and the impacts associated with this supply chain participation. It also examines their perceptions about the factors affecting the success of project and policy interventions in this area, about how this success is and should be measured, and about the appropriate roles for national governments, the private sector, and development assistance entities in facilitating smallholder gains in this area. The results confirm a growing'consensus'about institutional roles, yet suggest some ambiguity regarding the impacts of smallholder participation in higher-value supply chains and the appropriateness of the indicators most commonly used to gauge such impacts. The results also suggest a need to strengthen knowledge about both the'old'and'new'sets of constraints (and solutions) related to remunerative smallholder inclusion, in the form of the rising role of standards alongside more long-standing concerns about infrastructure and logistical links to markets.Access to Finance,Environmental Economics&Policies,Labor Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems

    Intersecting Worlds: Promoting Affordable Care Act Enrollment Through Community Tax-Preparation Programs

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    This report tells how four tax-preparation programs are breaking the mold and tackling the world of health care enrollment. Readers will learn the challenges and opportunities associated with such a move, which has the potential to help millions of low-income Americans take a critical first step toward a healthier future

    Salient Trends in Organic Standards: Opportunities and Challenges for Developing Countries

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    This paper presents an overview of the fundamental issues in the production, trade and regulation of organic products. It notes the changing consumer and trade environments that are driving organics beyond the realm of niche products toward an increasingly relevant position among other important agricultural standards. Rather than a comprehensive analysis it outlines key elements that are most relevant to developing country producers including the likely impacts of adopting organics and the salient trends drawing from recent empirical research and the current literature on the subject. Finally, this document briefly assesses the significant constraints and opportunities facing the sector in order to draw some practical policy and investment conclusions

    Iowa Department on Aging Performance Plan, FY2013

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    Agency Performance Plan, Iowa Department of Elder Affair

    Environmental Management Systems as soruces of competitive advantage

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    An increasing number of firms are adopting environmental management systems as a way of dealing with challenges from the natural environment. Many of these firms also decide to have their environmental management systems certified according to one or both of the available international standards, ISO 14001 and EMAS (The European Union’s Eco Management and Audit Scheme). Both the environmental management system and the certification process involve significant investment of financial resources and management effort, which raises the question of what benefits firms might derive from these activities. Three levels of strategic advantage are identified in this paper. The first level of advantage is transient on nature, being based on competitive preemption and development of first mover advantage. The second level involves development of valuable competencies and more durable resources inside the firm, while the third level advantage depends on the extent to which such resources can be extended and conserved when emphasis shifts from an internal pollution prevention focus towards life cycle oriented environmental management.Natural environment, strategy, resource-based view

    Quality Management in Supply Chain Networks - The Case of Poland

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    In this article we suggest that rising quality requirements are key factors for the redesign of food chains. We argue that the food supply proceeds through pyramidalhierarchical strategic networks coordinated by powerful focal firms. These firms choose a quality strategy and employ chain quality management concepts by exerting managerial discretion to achieve the super-ordinate network aims. We introduce and elaborate upon two types of chain quality management: strategic and operative. The theoretical findings have been tested using evidence from the Polish dairy market. Semi-structured interviews were conducted across the various hierarchical levels of the 19 largest Polish dairy cooperatives during the spring of 2006. The results show that the firms’ activities are generally aligned with current market opportunities for optimal enterprise performance. Thus, we determined that manufacturers of well-branded products create an advanced network structure and apply strategic quality management. Networks that have a focal company acting as an external customer of a processor use operative quality management. Some Polish dairies are still not embedded in any supply chain networks; no chain quality management concepts can be installed in these chains because they have no powerful focal firm.chain quality management, dairy cooperatives, network theory, Poland, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Demand and Price Analysis, Farm Management, International Development, Livestock Production/Industries, Production Economics,

    Precision measurement of the neutrino velocity with the ICARUS detector in the CNGS beam

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    During May 2012, the CERN-CNGS neutrino beam has been operated for two weeks for a total of 1.8 10^17 pot in bunched mode, with a 3 ns narrow width proton beam bunches, separated by 100 ns. This tightly bunched beam structure allows a very accurate time of flight measurement of neutrinos from CERN to LNGS on an event-by-event basis. Both the ICARUS-T600 PMT-DAQ and the CERN-LNGS timing synchronization have been substantially improved for this campaign, taking ad-vantage of additional independent GPS receivers, both at CERN and LNGS as well as of the deployment of the "White Rabbit" protocol both at CERN and LNGS. The ICARUS-T600 detector has collected 25 beam-associated events; the corresponding time of flight has been accurately evaluated, using all different time synchronization paths. The measured neutrino time of flight is compatible with the arrival of all events with speed equivalent to the one of light: the difference between the expected value based on the speed of light and the measured value is tof_c - tof_nu = (0.10 \pm 0.67stat. \pm 2.39syst.) ns. This result is in agreement with the value previously reported by the ICARUS collaboration, tof_c - tof_nu = (0.3 \pm 4.9stat. \pm 9.0syst.) ns, but with improved statistical and systematic errors.Comment: 21 pages, 13 figures, 1 tabl

    Certification Systems as Tools for Natural Asset Building: Potential, Experiences to Date, and Critical Challenges

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    Certification systems are becoming important tools to encourage and reward social and environmental responsibility. This paper explores whether these systems, which generally have not been designed for the explicit aim of poverty reduction, can assist poor people, either individually or in community-based and small-to-medium production units, to build their natural assets as a basis for sustainable livelihoods. The paper examines two leading certification systems -- the Forest Stewardship Council(TM); and the Fair Trade Certified(TM); system -- and emerging systems in tourism and mining. The results to date have been mixed. In the forestry sector, poverty reduction benefits of certification have been modest relative to its environmental benefits. In the agricultural commodity trade, where certification systems have been designed with a stronger focus on reducing poverty, the benefits have been greater. The long-term challenge is to ensure that the rapid global uptake and 'mainstreaming' of certification systems does not create new hurdles for low-income individuals and communities

    Iowa Department of Human Rights - Community Action, Agency Performance Plan, 2006

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    Annual Report, Agency Performance Pla

    Broken Hearts: A Review of Industry Efforts to Eliminate Child Labor in the Cocoa Industry

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    Report by the International Labor Rights Forum analyzing the chocolate industry’s initiatives to eliminate the worst forms of child labor in West Africa’s cocoa sector. Shows how chocolate companies have continued to control these initiatives and, as a result, have allowed child labor to continue
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