Water and Development: An Evaluation of World Bank Support, 1997-2007, Volume 1

The Independent Evaluation Group at the World Bank has evaluated a decade of the Bank's water lending and grants in terms of overall shifts in the water portfolio and project performance, as well as successes and failures in addressing water resource management, environment, water use and service delivery, and institutions and water. The Bank increased its lending for water during the period and has generally seen improvements in project performance; however, IWRM has made limited progress in client countries, environmental restoration has been underemphasized by the Bank, sanitation needs much greater attention, and support for institutional reform and capacity building has had limited success

Investigation of risk management changes in insurance companies

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.This thesis studies the change process of risk management practices associated with the implementation of Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) and the extent to which it can lead to changes in capital allocation practices. The study develops a theoretical framework to study risk management changes, which draws on structuration theory (Giddens, 1979, 1984) and institutional theory, particularly the institutional framework of Burns and Scapens (2000), as well as new institutional sociology theory. A two-stage empirical study was undertaken in non-life insurance companies. The first stage was a field study of 10 listed non-life insurance companies, while the second stage was a case study of a large non-life insurance company. Multiple data collection methods were used including semi-structured interviews, documentary evidence, annual reports, and publicly available data. Findings show internal, coercive, and normative pressures have mainly driven the ERM adoption decision. The literature supports the impact of coercive, mimetic, and normative pressures on the trend toward ERM in financial industries. However, the study finds that internal pressures related to achieving the company's objectives are either equal to or surpass the external pressures. The study also provides empirical evidence of the changes in risk management practices, which include capital allocation change process associated with ERM implementation. Effective capital allocation requires the incorporation of ERM elements in the whole process of allocating capital. Furthermore, new capital allocation routines and institutions are produced. The study shows that the risk-based capital allocation method is intra- and extra-institutionalised at the company level. The main contribution of this thesis is to identify the nature of ERM adoption and implementation in insurance companies. More specifically, this study provides a better understanding of the institutional forces driving ERM adoption and offers empirical evidence on ERM implementation and the change in risk management practices (routines) within nonlife insurance companies. Moreover, this study avoids the limitations of previous research that was based on surveys, and it does so by conducting an exploratory field study and explanatory case study to address the changes in risk management practices. Practices and process need to be located in their institutional context and hence cannot be reflected in surveys

Is image analysis based on Gestalt theory a valuable approach teaching photography?

The general aim of the thesis is to justify the claim that image analysis based on Gestalt psychology can be helpful in improving students' understanding and practice in photography. The thesis firstly identifies the technique-led curriculum as the major problem in photographic education in Taiwan as well as in the teacher-researcher's classroom. A new teaching programme integrating image analysis with Gestalt theory was formulated at the beginning of the target semester, in an attempt to develop students' ability to produce and appreciate photographs.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Quantitative storytelling in the making of a composite indicator

The reasons for and against composite indicators are briefly reviewed, as well as the available theories for their construction. After noting the strong normative dimension of these measures—which ultimately aim to ‘tell a story’, e.g. to promote the social discovery of a particular phenomenon, we inquire whether a less partisan use of a composite indicator can be proposed by allowing more latitude in the framing of its construction. We thus explore whether a composite indicator can be built to tell ‘more than one story’ and test this in practical contexts. These include measures used in convergence analysis in the field of cohesion policies and a recent case involving the World Bank’s Doing Business Index. Our experiments are built to imagine different constituencies and stakeholders who agree on the use of evidence and of statistical information while differing on the interpretation of what is relevant and vital

2010-2011, University of Memphis bulletin

University of Memphis bulletin containing the graduate catalog for 2010-2011.https://digitalcommons.memphis.edu/speccoll-ua-pub-bulletins/1430/thumbnail.jp

2009-2010, University of Memphis bulletin

University of Memphis bulletin containing the graduate catalog for 2009-2010.https://digitalcommons.memphis.edu/speccoll-ua-pub-bulletins/1429/thumbnail.jp