Smallholder Cash Cropping, Food Cropping and Food Security in Northern Mozambique: Summary, Conclusions and Policy Recommendations

Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Directorate of Economics, Republic of Mozambiquefood security, food policy, Mozambique, cash cropping, food cropping, Crop Production/Industries, Food Security and Poverty, Q18,

Virginia Commonwealth University Professional Bulletin

Professional programs bulletin for Virginia Commonwealth University for the academic year 2018-2019. It includes information on academic regulations, degree requirements, course offerings, faculty, academic calendar, and tuition and expenses for graduate programs

Did Anyone Ask the Child?: Recognizing Foster Children’s Rights to Make Mature Decisions Through Child-Centered Representation

A child placed in foster care finds themselves in an especially vulnerable position. Removed from their homes, apart from family, and living with strangers, a foster child’s voice often gets lost in the shuffle. While the Supreme Court has recognized some constitutional rights for children, legislators and judges tread lightly when expanding children’s rights for fear of infringing upon parents’ fundamental rights to determine the care and upbringing of their children. This situation creates a unique disadvantage for a child in foster care who is subject to the trauma of removal, placement in a temporary home of strangers, outside the bounds of parental protection, and often without a voice or an advocate. This Comment focuses on the plight of foster children in America’s legal system and how children’s lack of decision-making authority leaves their rights under-protected. Through analysis of prominent Supreme Court cases discussing parents’, children’s, and foster parents’ rights, and an examination of state and federal foster care legislation, this Comment argues that the foster child often falls through the gaps among parents, foster parents, and state officials, none of whom exercise full authority over the child. Moreover, the Court’s justification for its failure to grant children the full spectrum of rights rests largely on the premise that the child is cared for by a fit, loving parent who acts in the child’s best interests. However, for the child in foster care, this premise is flawed from the start. The foster child is not in the custody of their legal parent. This Comment argues that courts must adopt and expand the mature minor doctrine to provide a framework for entertaining and assessing the foster child’s ability to make rational, informed decisions about their own life. Moreover, states must amend their statutory child welfare schemes to guarantee children in foster care the right to an attorney, and, specifically, an attorney who advocates for the child’s expressed wishes throughout the child’s time in foster care. Through these measures, states can return some of the continuity that children in foster care have lost by allowing the children themselves to have a voice

Industry structure and regulation

As private firms become increasingly involved in the development of key infrastructure, redefining the role of government from that of serviceprovider to regulator presents both challenges and opportunities. The factors that give rise to sector reforms color how much policymakers invest in regulatory design during the reform process. Nevertheless, two factors are essential to sustainable sector and regulatory reform. First, the right structure must be established for the industry concerned, a structure that allows competition appropriate for that industry. Second, the objectives of regulation must be well defined, with a clear distinction between policymaking, policy implementation, and operations. The extent to which competition can be harnessed to help make regulation efficient, effective, and sustainable depends on the intrinsic technical characteristics of the sector. Each decision affects the sustainability of the regulatory regime in the face of the threat of regulatory capture (both political and commercial). Careful regulatory design is crucial not only for successful sectoral reform but also to balance the interests of various actors (government, consumers, developers, investors, and financiers). One model that has been relatively successful combines new entry, unbundled services, and the unambiguous spelling out of the legal rights and duties for both public and private service providers, administered by an autonomous regulatory authority. Problems with regulation often result as much from inadequate attention to sector structure and fostering competition as from weaknesses in the regulatory authority's institutional capacity. As for the tools of regulation, despite differences in some details between licenses and concessions (and their many contractual variations), these are basically instruments that establish the rights and obligations of contracting parties. Choices about where these rights and obligations are located in the legal hierarchy are shaped by a country's institutional capacity and legal traditions. But the existence of instruments to establish those rights and obligations does not eliminate the need for institutionsto administer them, and thus carry out the regulatory function. Establishing effective sectorwide regulation can be difficult in a developing country, but it is necessary. Policymakers will be able to create effective regulatory regimes where adequate attention is given to sector structure, competition, and institution-building.Environmental Economics&Policies,Trade Finance and Investment,Knowledge Economy,ICT Policy and Strategies,Decentralization,Environmental Economics&Policies,Administrative&Regulatory Law,ICT Policy and Strategies,Water and Industry,Knowledge Economy

Technological activities and their impact on the financial performance of the firm: Exploitation and exploration within and between firms

This paper analyzes the consequences for financial performance of technology strategies categorized along two dimensions: (1) explorative versus exploitative and (2) solitary versus collaborative. The financial performance implications of firms’ positioning along these two dimensions has important managerial implications, but has received only limited attention in prior studies. Drawing on organizational learning theory and technology alliances literature, a set of hypotheses on the performance implications of firms’ technology strategies are derived. These hypotheses are tested empirically on a panel dataset (1996-2003) of 168 R&D-intensive firms based in Japan, the US and Europe and situated in five different industries (chemicals, pharmaceuticals, ICT, electronics, non-electrical machinery). Patent data are used to construct indicators of explorative versus exploitative technological activities (activities in new or existing technology domains) and collaborative versus solitary technological activities (joint versus single patent ownership). The financial performance of firms is measured via a market value indicator: Tobin’s Q index.Innovation, Tobin’s q, R&D collaboration, exploration & exploitation

Identity construction and information processing in a coaching relationship: The effects of coach behavior on coachee goal-setting and commitment

Coaching (professional, business, executive, leadership) has been shown to be effective generally speaking, but questions remain regarding the explanatory mechanisms underlying coaching. I first propose a context-general model that unpacks the sociocognitive dynamics within coaching. The model explains the emergence of different types of coaching relationships, and how the nature of these relationships differentially determine coaching outcomes. Research and theory on social identity construction and information processing in dyads provides the foundation upon which I outline a model describing the process and dynamics of coaching identity emergence. Beyond this emergence, my proposed model states that the coachee\u27s understanding of appropriate interpersonal relations and division of labor between coach and coachee (i.e., his/her situated coaching identity or coaching structure schema) should partially dictate the focus and depth of the coachee\u27s information processing during a coaching engagement. Past research has shown information processing to be a key determinant of decision-making and goal commitment, both of which are desirable outcomes within the coaching domain. To explore these issues, I developed a coaching exercise which simulated some of the early aspects of business, leadership, or executive coaching. During this simulation, participants were guided through a process which enabled them to think and talk about their strengths and weaknesses when using different conflict management behaviors. In discussing these aspects of conflict management, participants and coaches (i.e., trained research associates) walked through a supplementary process to facilitate the development of a series of goals (an action plan ) that would enable the participant to improve his or her conflict management behaviors. At the end of the coaching session, participants were asked to what extent they felt committed to the goals they had developed and whether or not they expected them to be efficacious. Throughout the coaching session, participants were also asked at designated break points to report their levels of information processing and their understanding of the coaching structure schema for that particular coaching relationship. The experimental manipulation was presented at the beginning of the session, wherein the coach would explain to the coachee what the ideal nature of coaching should be. These explanations varied in terms of ascribing responsibility and division of labor - either to a generic coaching process, to the skill and ability of the coach, to the creativity of the participant, or to the joint interaction between coach and participant. Among other things, I hypothesized that coaching structure schemas that emphasized the participant\u27s role in the coaching process would encourage more information processing, and consequently higher levels of goal commitment. Hypotheses were largely confirmed, showing that information processing and coaching structure schemas are important predictors of goal commitment at the end of one coaching session. The effects of the manipulation were mixed. Claiming behaviors - that is, the coach ascribing responsibility for coaching effectiveness to him/herself - were only marginally effective in shaping participants\u27 coaching structure schemas. Granting behaviors - communicating to the participant that they are responsible for coaching effectiveness - were much more effective in facilitating helpful information processing and driving higher levels of goal commitment. One possible explanation for the relative effectiveness of granting over claiming may be that claiming requires a degree of credibility which the coach (again, a trained research associate) had not attained with the participants. Other findings pertain to: (1) the unique variance that independent measures of coach- and coachee-relevant structure schemas contribute to models predicting information processing and goal commitment, (2) the importance of identifying the type or focus of coachee information processing, and (3) the role that psychological mindedness may play in characterizing a more coachable coachee. Implications include: (1) measuring coachees\u27 coaching structure schemas, (2) intentionally encouraging a more appropriate schema, (3) measuring coachees\u27 psychological mindedness prior to coaching, and (4) dynamically monitoring coachees\u27 schema and their information processing in order to assure better coaching effectiveness. Future researchers should explore ways to enact these implications and also to further explore the theoretical components of these practical implications, such as: (1) measurement methods for better assessing coaching schemas and information processing, (2) what the ideal timings are for different kinds of coaching schemas, and (3) different ways to encourage maximally adaptive and appropriate coaching structure schemas