Areas of outstanding natural beauty management plans - a guide

This is a summary of the guidance produced by the Countryside Agency to assist local authorities, AONB staff units, AONB partners and others concerned with the production and implementation of AONB Management Plans in England. A parallel text has been produced by the Countryside Council for Wales to cover Welsh AONBs. The aims of the guide are to: • assist local authorities and conservation boards to discharge their statutory functions with regard to the production of AONB Management Plans; • help ensure that Management Plans that are produced are appropriate to the needs of the AONB, have the commitment of all AONB partners1 and other stakeholders, are implemented, and their policy objectives achieved. The guide is has statutory force under the 2001 Countryside and Rights of Way Ac

Managing the impact on biodiversity of supply chain companies

Industrial development has had a major role in creating the situation where bio-diverse materials and services essential for sustaining business are under threat. A key contributory factor to biodiversity decline comes from the cumulative impacts of extended supply chain business operations. In order to contribute to stopping this decline, the industrial world needs to form a better understanding of the way it utilizes the business and biodiversity agenda in its wider operations. This thesis investigates the perceptions and attitudes to biodiversity from government, society and a wide cross-section of industry. The research includes the extent of corporate attention to and use of environmental business tools and guidelines in reporting on biodiversity issues. A case study of three companies from different industrial sectors is undertaken to observe procurement and related environmental management of their supply chains. The use of accredited and non-accredited environmental management systems (EMS) are analysed as frameworks for introducing biodiversity aspects into supply chain management. The outcome is a methodology, which can be used either as a bespoke in-house biodiversity management system or within an accredited ISO 14001 EMS, for incorporating the assessment and management of the potential risks and opportunities involving environmental impacts on biodiversity of supply chain companies

Competencies of the twenty-first century superstore manager: Implications for professional postsecondary education

In recent years, supermarkets have become more complex and challenging to operate. Many supermarkets offer an expanded selection of products and services not found in the traditional format. These new generation supermarkets have been labeled by the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) as superstores. The purpose of this study was to identify a competency model needed to successfully operate a superstore over the next 5-10 years. In addition, the study sought to identify the core competencies that formulate the superstore competency model and to compare the results of the model to the Contemporary Store Manager Model which was created from a similar study conducted in 1984. The Contemporary Store Manager Model identified three distinct roles of the 1984 contemporary store manager. These roles were culture builder, local strategist, and computer-assisted analyst. The findings presented in this study can provide a blueprint for professional development programs established by the retail food industry and higher education.;This study utilized three panels of experts to generate and validate the core competencies required to be successful in a superstore over the next 5-10 years. The first panel consisted of eight superstore managers from Ukrop\u27s Super Markets who were rated as outstanding performers. This group generated the initial pool of core competencies. The second panel consisted of 10 well-known supermarket industry experts. These individuals rated the initial pool of competencies created by the superstore managers. The third panel of experts consisted of 29 senior leaders from the most innovative supermarkets in the United States. These individuals rated the results of the second panel. The final pool of core competencies was clustered by the panel of superstore managers to create the Superstore Competency Model.;The Superstore Manager Competency Model consists of 46 core competencies bundled into four clusters. The clusters include the ambassador, the educator, the technician, and the futurist The four clusters identified in this model are generally consistent with the roles identified in the Contemporary Store Manager Model. The new model provides greater clarity in terms of the core competencies.;The Superstore Competency Model can be utilized by the supermarket industry as well as the field of higher education to build curriculums targeted to the professional development of the superstore manager. These curriculums could involve undergraduate degrees, certificates, and non-credit seminars. Further research could focus on using the results to build superstore manager selection systems

Poverty measures: from production to use

This thesis uses the analogy between poverty measures and products to explore how poverty measures are designed, produced, distributed and used by different communities. Three historical case studies are analysed with this product approach: Charles Booth’s poverty surveys of London developed in the late nineteenth century, Mollie Orshansky’s poverty thresholds in the USA in the 1960s and two international measures of the Human Development Index (HDI) and the dollar-a-day in the late twentieth century. The product approach to statistical measurements offers a number of advantages. It shows how poverty measures do not provide numbers only, but packages of complementary products. Booth produced a set of innovations from his survey: numbers, maps and causal analyses; Orshansky a system for statistical and administrative use; and the UNDP a platform for human development – all three facilitating action to reduce poverty. Sometimes the products compete strongly in the market, as the UNDP’s HDI and World Bank’s dollar-a-day have done. Sometimes they help to establish new modes of social science, as Booth’s products did. Sometimes the original designs prove resistant to innovation as Orshansky’s thresholds did. More generally, this product approach places the numbers in their historical context. It demonstrates the importance of both the producers and the users in what happens to poverty measurements; it looks in particular at the way in which such measures are influenced by the interests of the different user groups and their political environment. It shows how co-production between the producers and users of poverty measures, or the lack thereof, influences the trust given to numbers

The Palgrave Handbook of Development Cooperation for Achieving the 2030 Agenda

This open access handbook analyses the role of development cooperation in achieving the 2030 Agenda in a global context of ‘contested cooperation’. Development actors, including governments providing aid or South-South Cooperation, developing countries, and non-governmental actors (civil society, philanthropy, and businesses) constantly challenge underlying narratives and norms of development. The book explores how reconciling these differences fosters achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals

Assessing the impact of integrated service delivery on poverty and employment creation: a case study of Operation Sukuma Sakhe in the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality.

M.A. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2014.Following the declaration of War on Poverty campaign by former president Thabo Mbeki in 2008, a number of provinces engaged in a process of aligning their long and short-term service delivery objectives with those of the campaign. In KwaZulu-Natal this engagement produced what is today known as Operation Sukuma Sakhe (OSS). OSS came into existence in 2009 and it aims to fast tract services delivery by promoting participatory democracy where the gap between government (service providers) and KwaZulu-Natal citizens (end-users of services) is significantly reduced. OSS, inter alia, promotes integrated services delivery, integrated planning and participation of end-users of government services in decision-making. The provincial government, district municipalities, local municipalities and wards each form the structure of overall arrangement of OSS. The Youth Ambassadors and Community Care Givers are the foot soldiers in OSS and their role is mainly to profile households in order to identify community needs. The study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of OSS as a mechanism used to address poverty and unemployment in KwaZulu-Natal. The findings of this study suggest that all the OSS structures have already been set-up in the EThekwini Municipality but are marred with operational challenges such as absenteeism of key stakeholders, lack of necessary resources and other deficiencies and challenges. Indeed OSS has contributed meaningfully to job creation as there are Youth Ambassadors who are employed and given about R 1500 monthly stipend. OSS can also be commended for reducing the severity of poverty in the Municipality where poverty alleviation projects are afoot such as the One Home One garden campaign and communal gardens just to name a few. What transpired from the focus group discussions with different focus groups that form part of the study sample is that OSS is a viable model but it still needs to be reform especially in terms of creating a monitoring and evaluation unit and a system of accountability to ensure that members behave in acceptable standards

Mergers and Alliances in Higher Education: International Practice and Emerging Opportunities

Higher Education; Educational Policy and Politics; International and Comparative Educatio

Advancing Health and non-Health Security, Diplomacy and International Relations through the Enlightened Design and Delivery of Smart Global Health Programs

Foreword: We live in an era of blurred lines – between disciplines, professions, pursuits. Phones are no longer phones, but are camera and diaries, entertainment systems and work stations. Engineers have become environmental engineers – considering the environmental impact of their work, just as much as its structural integrity. Similarly, ecological modernizers attempt to unify development and industrialization with environmental protection and advancement in a synergistic, mutually supportive manner. In the realms of global health, diplomacy, security and international relations, as addressed in the following, such synergistic, interdigitated and smart approaches are also in play. In all such cases, such enlightened approaches are the hallmark of enlightened human evolution