Water and Development Strategy: Implementation Field Guide

This document is intended to serve as a reference tool to help USAID Operating Units understand and apply the agency's 2013-2018 Water and Development Strategy. By publicly sharing the document, USAID aims to ensure coordination of their efforts with the wider water sector. The Field Guide will be periodically updated and comments from readers are welcome

Price Strategy Implementation

Consider a situation in which a company sells several different items to a set of customers. However, the company is not satisfied with the current pricing strategy and wishes to implement new prices for the items. Implementing these new prices in one single step mightnot be desirable, for example, because of the change in contract prices for the customers. Therefore, the company changes the prices gradually, such that the prices charged to a subset of the customers, the target market, do not differ too much from one period to the next. We propose a polynomial time algorithm to implement the new prices in the minimum number of time periods needed, given that the prices charged to the customers in the target market increase by at most a factor 1 + δ, for predetermined δ > 0. Furthermore, we address the problem to maximize the revenue when also a maximum number of time periods is predetermined. For this problem, we describe a dynamic program if the numberof possible prices is limited, and a local search algorithm if all prices are allowed. Also, we present the integer program that models this problem. Finally, we apply the obtained algorithms in a practical study.operations research and management science;

Influence network linkages across implementation strategy conditions in a randomized controlled trial of two strategies for scaling up evidence-based practices in public youth-serving systems.

BackgroundGiven the importance of influence networks in the implementation of evidence-based practices and interventions, it is unclear whether such networks continue to operate as sources of information and advice when they are segmented and disrupted by randomization to different implementation strategy conditions. The present study examines the linkages across implementation strategy conditions of social influence networks of leaders of youth-serving systems in 12 California counties participating in a randomized controlled trial of community development teams (CDTs) to scale up use of an evidence-based practice.MethodsSemi-structured interviews were conducted with 38 directors, assistant directors, and program managers of county probation, mental health, and child welfare departments. A web-based survey collected additional quantitative data on information and advice networks of study participants. A mixed-methods approach to data analysis was used to create a sociometric data set (n = 176) to examine linkages between treatment and standard conditions.ResultsOf those network members who were affiliated with a county (n = 137), only 6 (4.4%) were directly connected to a member of the opposite implementation strategy condition; 19 (13.9%) were connected by two steps or fewer to a member of the opposite implementation strategy condition; 64 (46.7%) were connected by three or fewer steps to a member of the opposite implementation strategy condition. Most of the indirect steps between individuals who were in different implementation strategy conditions were connections involving a third non-county organizational entity that had an important role in the trial in keeping the implementation strategy conditions separate. When these entities were excluded, the CDT network exhibited fewer components and significantly higher betweenness centralization than did the standard condition network.ConclusionAlthough the integrity of the RCT in this instance was not compromised by study participant influence networks, RCT designs should consider how influence networks may extend beyond boundaries established by the randomization process in implementation studies.Trial registrationNCT00880126

Solutions for Impact Investors: From Strategy to Implementation

In writing this monograph, our main goal is to provide impact investors with tools to tighten the link between their investment decisions and impact creation. Our intent is threefold: to attract more capital to impact investing; to assist impact investors as they move from organizational change to executing and refining their impact investment decision-making process; and to narrow the gap within foundations between program professionals and investment professionals thereby contributing to a mutual understanding and implementation of a portfolio approach to impact investing.Additionally, we intend to help break down the barriers making it difficult to identify opportunities in impact investing. To this end, we provide examples throughout the monograph and at www.rockpa.org/impactinvesting of impact investment opportunities in most major asset classes.While we understand the important role that impact investors can play in providing financial capital, we also want to acknowledge the wide range of non-financial resources needed to address the world's problems. Our intent with this monograph is not to provide a comprehensive list of investments across asset classes nor any type of investment advice with regard to the selected profiles. We strongly encourage the reader to conduct their own assessment and evaluation for risk and suitability before considering any investment

Secure Implementation: Strategy-Proof Mechanisms Reconsidered

Strategy-proofness, requiring that truth-telling is a dominant strategy, is a standard concept in social choice theory. However, the concept of strategy-proofness has serious drawbacks. First, announcing one's true preference may not be a unique dominant strategy, and using the wrong dominant strategy may lead to the wrong outcome. second, almost all strategy-proof mechanisms have a continuum of Nash equilibria, most of which produce the wrong outcome. Third, experimental evidence shows that most of the strategy-proof mechanisms do not work well. We argue that a possible solution to this dilemma is to require double implementation in Nash equilibrium and in dominant strategies, which we call secure implementation. We characterize environments where secure implementation is possible, and compare it with dominant strategy implementation. An interesting example of secure implementation is a Groves mechanism when preferences are single-peaked.

Strategy Implementation for the CTA Atmospheric Monitoring Program

The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is the next generation facility of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes. It will reach unprecedented sensitivity and energy resolution in very-high-energy gamma-ray astronomy. CTA will detect Cherenkov light emitted within an atmospheric shower of particles initiated by cosmic-gamma rays or cosmic rays entering the Earth's atmosphere. From the combination of images the Cherenkov light produces in the telescopes, one is able to infer the primary particle energy and direction. A correct energy estimation can be thus performed only if the local atmosphere is well characterized. The atmosphere not only affects the shower development itself, but also the Cherenkov photon transmission from the emission point in the particle shower, at about 10-20 km above the ground, to the detector. Cherenkov light on the ground is peaked in the UV-blue region, and therefore molecular and aerosol extinction phenomena are important. The goal of CTA is to control systematics in energy reconstruction to better than 10%. For this reason, a careful and continuous monitoring and characterization of the atmosphere is required. In addition, CTA will be operated as an observatory, with data made public along with appropriate analysis tools. High-level data quality can only be ensured if the atmospheric properties are consistently and continuously taken into account. In this contribution, we concentrate on discussing the implementation strategy for the various atmospheric monitoring instruments currently under discussion in CTA. These includes Raman lidars and ceilometers, stellar photometers and others available both from commercial providers and public research centres.Comment: (6 pages, 2 figures, Proceedings of the 2nd AtmoHEAD Conference, Padova, Italy May 19-21, 2014

The Strategy of Innovative Development of Economy of Ukraine till 2030

The Strategy of the development of the innovative activity sphere for the period up to 2030 approved by the Government of Ukraine has been analyzed in the article. It was determined that the innovative activity sphere has several disadvantages. The following issues have not been considered: application of tax privileges for the activation of innovative activity of domestic enterprises; implementation of the list of specific innovative projects, which are fully or partially financed from the state budget; direct connection of the state with business and society; mechanism of interaction between universities and domestic enterprises; people responsible for the implementation of the Country Innovation Strategy at the state and local levels have not been assigned; the priority of public procurement of high-tech products from domestic manufacturers has not been established; mechanisms of annual monitoring and control of the stages of strategy implementation have not been defined.The ways of overcoming these issues have been provided in the article. An algorithm of the implementation of the Innovative Development Strategy of Ukraine until 2030 has been developed and suggested, which will make the state policy in the sphere of innovation activity more systematic and advanced. The suggested algorithm of strategy implementation consists of five main stages: preparatory, computational, organizational, practical implementation and result from analysis. At each of these stages, the functions and responsibilities of each participant in the innovation process are defined: the state, research institutions, local governments, and business structures. The deadlines for the implementation of necessary transformations and practical mechanisms for their realization have been determined. The role of state bodies as the main organizational element of the Strategy development is highlighted.The algorithm of the realization of the Strategy of Innovative Development of the Ukrainian Economy suggested by the author will ensure the consistent and gradual implementation of the structural elements of the national innovation system, its effective transformation, and further development, since each step of the Strategy is a logical stage of implementing a comprehensive program to ensure the development of innovative relations in the state’s economy

Psychological team diversity and strategy implementation

The overwhelming majority of team or group composition studies are restricted to analyzing the link between team demographics and the content of specific strategic choices. We argue that in order to make progress in this domain it is now time to broaden the approach by focusing on psychological team composition and issues of effective implementation. In addition, we propose a more sophisticated theoretical and methodological approach to the use of specific team composition measures. We conducted an experimental study in order to explore the potential of addressing these major limitations of past research. Specifically, we hypothesize on and analyze the relationship between the psychological composition of management teams (in terms of their members'' control perceptions) and two aspects of effective strategy implementation: meticulous planning and the configuration of consistent action patterns. We find that homogeneous ''internal'' teams adapt their strategy-making behavior to the requirements of the environment, whereas homogeneous ''external'' teams do not. As expected, mixed (i.e., heterogeneous) teams experienced most problems in effectively implementing their strategies. The findings provide support for the potential value of analyzing both psychological composition of decision making teams and strategy implementation issues. Furthermore, it underscores the importance of properly matching theoretical expectations and measurement methodology in multi-level research.management and organization theory ;