Final Report of the CGIAR Working Group on Deliberation and Decision-Making Processes

Report of a working group established at the mid term meeting of the CGIAR in May 1992 by the Chairman of the Group to examine deliberation, decision making, oversight, and information sharing processes in the CGIAR, and to suggest possible changes to accommodate the recent System expansion. The working group was chaired by Robert Herdt.It recommended the CGIAR continue to hold two meetings each year, with mid term meetings in countries where centers were located; also the use of topical parallel sessions at International Centers Week meetings, and streamlining of discussion procedures. The report urged the establishment of a finance committee composed of donor representatives, and a standing committee on system-level evaluation. It suggested combination of existing public awareness activities.Agenda document, CGIAR Mid Term Meeting, May 1993. A preliminary report was discussed at the CGIAR meeting in October 1992

Reframing the EU budget- decision-making process

This paper traces the history of the EU budget and draws lessons for the review to come. Whatever reforms are proposed, the authors believe that they must serve to shift spending to policy areas and instruments where the EU can best add value while at the same time recognising the political need for member states to present EU budget negotiation results in Â?net-balanceâ?? terms. A two-stage negotiation is proposed: first member states should negotiate and agree on what constitute EU public goods. Everything else would thereafter - by default - be deemed redistributive/compensatory spending to be financed on the basis of member statesâ?? current overall net balances.

Decision Making Towards Maternal Health Services in Central Java, Indonesia

Background: Indonesia has always been struggling with maternal health issue even after the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) programs were done. Prior research findings identified many factors which influenced maternal health status in developing countries such Indonesia and even though various efforts had been made, the impact of the transformation of maternal health behavior was minimal.Purpose: This study aimed to seek an understanding of the factors influencing decisions towards maternal health services.Methods: A case study with a single case embedded design was employed. Interviews and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) were held to collect data from 3 health workers and 40 maternal women in a sub-district in Central Java, Indonesia.Results: Interviews with the village midwives as the main health providers in the Getasan sub-district concluded that there were several factors influencing the women\u27s decisions towards maternal services. The factors were options to have services with other health workers outside the area, and shaman services as alternative care and family influencing maternal health behaviors. The analysis of the FGDs also supported the village midwives\u27 statements that in spite of their awareness towards the available maternal health services, the existence of shamans and traditional beliefs strongly affected their decision.Conclusion: The findings in this study showed that cultural issues prevented the maximum maternal health status in Getasan sub-district. This study recommends Puskesmas (Primary Health Care) as the first level of health institutions in Indonesia to support the village midwives\u27 roles within their target area

Decision-Making Under Indeterminacy

Decisions are made under uncertainty when there are distinct outcomes of a given action, and one is uncertain to which the act will lead. Decisions are made under indeterminacy when there are distinct outcomes of a given action, and it is indeterminate to which the act will lead. This paper develops a theory of (synchronic and diachronic) decision-making under indeterminacy that portrays the rational response to such situations as inconstant. Rational agents have to capriciously and randomly choose how to resolve the indeterminacy relevant to a given choice-situation, but such capricious choices once made constrain how they will choose in the future. The account is illustrated by the case of self-interested action in situations where it is indeterminate whether you yourself will survive to benefit or suffer the consequences. The conclusion emphasizes some distinctive anti-hedging predictions of the account

Male and Female Buying Decision Making Processes Seen From BlackBerry Messenger Texts

This study observes the male and female buying decision making processes seen from BlackBerry Messenger texts. It focuses on the way of how male and female customers make a buying decision in the online shop via BlackBerry Messenger. The data are analyzed by using the theory of the consumer decision-making process by Lamb, Hair, McDaniel (2003) which includes five stages. I found that the female customers have almost two times total more than male customers in the four stages in consumer decision making process. It means, the male decision-making seems to be rational, fast, and attentive for product quality and its function. However, the female decision-making is more emotional, attentive for product surface or outside appearance, and careful for choosing a product she wants to buy. Overall, I know that gender is an important factor that makes the buying processes between both gender groups different

Decision-making through sustainability

From immemorial time, dams have contributed significantly for the progress of civilizations. For this reason, nowadays, there is a vast engineering heritage. Over the years, these infrastructures can present some ordinary maintenance issues associated with their normal operation or with ageing processes. Normally, these problems do not represent an important risk for the structure, but they have to be attended. To do it, owners of dams have to finance many ordinary interventions. As it is impossible to carry out all of them at the same time, managers have to make a decision and select the most “important” ones. However, it is not easy because interventions usually have very different natures (for example: repair a bottom outlet, change gates, seal a crack...) and they cannot use a classical risk analysis for these type of interventions. The authors, who are aware this problem, present, in this paper, a multi-criteria decision-making system to prioritize these interventions with the aim of providing engineers a useful tool, with which they can prioritize the interventions from the most important to the least. To do it, the authors have used MIVES. This tool defines the Prioritization Index for the Management of Hydraulic Structures (PIMHS), which assesses, in two phases, the contribution to sustainability of each intervention. The first phase measures the damage of the dam, and the second measures the social, environmental and economic impacts. At the end of the paper, a case of study is presented where some interventions are evaluated with PIMHS.Postprint (published version