The Role of Civil Society in Decentralisa-tion and Alleviating Poverty: An Exploratory Case Study from Tanzania

This research report gauges Tanzanian civil society's influence in setting the decentralisation agenda, in providing crucial basic services (e.g. health) or to which extent CSOs advocate the rural poor about their rights and obligations

Cell me the money: unlocking the value in the mobile payment ecosystem

This report examines the challenges and benefits of mobile commerce in the United States. The report is based on a survey of senior executives from the mobile payment value chain. Survey results shed light on the key barriers that have traditionally challenged the mobile payment market in the United States, including the lack of revenue-sharing agreements, a dearth of consumer knowledge, low levels of demand and competing platforms in a fragmented market. Getting ahead of the curve will require companies to develop mutually beneficial business models and take advantage of further innovations made on the mobile platform. Ultimately, mobile carriers and financial institutions must come to the table and sacrifice in the short-term to create an opportunity to win big down the road

Australian home care quality : a political tango

The performance of Australian home care and how it is enacted has been significantly impacted by the economic and political challenges since the announcement of the Aged Care Reforms in July 2012 and the launch of the National Disability Insurance Scheme in July 2013. As a result, the home care business arena has changed, and the effects are being felt as the marketplace shifts, and businesses adapt to new policy directions. The purpose of this research study was to investigate the social context of Australian home care, and to collect information regarding how home care (under the various auspices of government funded and privately funded) service provision is enacted in terms of quality during this time of change. The qualitative research process for this study involved critical reflexive practice and face-to-face semi-structured interviews of 10 home care business leaders from the states of Queensland and Victoria. In listening to the voices of the participants, this research study sought to develop new discursive approaches in order to understand the practice of caring for the Australian community’s most vulnerable people – those who are frail, aged, and for those who have ill-health or a disability. The analytical framework adopted for this study used a post-structural discourse analysis, which was informed by the work of French philosopher Michel Foucault and other contemporary theorists. The philosophical framework of governmentality and discourse analysis helped to situate the voice of the participants at a time when new ideas and the ways of conducting the business of home care are emerging. In using this approach to analyse the data, it became apparent that the discursive practices that had been instituted by government in the home care sector had been constructed to remove progressive inclusionary policies that were contrary to the democratic principles of governing. The research study’s findings reveal the problematic changes that impact on business but more so for consumers as the rules are interpreted. By using the metaphor of ice dancing, the study problematized the leadership of government and the challenges participants faced in maintaining quality service provision in the home care arena. What emerged was the dance of a political tango. These leaders in the arena revealed the importance of knowing when to lead and when to push back. Like the different genres of tango, there are different ways of viewing the world of home care and performing in its different spaces, and there are other ways of viewing quality in caring service provisions. By participating in the research, the participants highlighted the need of being inclusive to hearing and seeing all performers in the arena of home care regardless of social or geographical positioning. This research concludes that hearing and acting on the voices from the wider home care arena continues to be necessary in order to inform future policy direction for quality performance improvements for Australia’s consumers of home care and to move away from home care traditions of governing and ruling. The research additionally advocates for more inclusive governing approaches through more even distribution of power in consultative processes, research, oversight in the marketplace and access to resources for all groups. This thesis is a contribution to creating a new political dance in the space of Australia’s home care politics.Doctor of Philosoph

Rethinking Suburban Governance in the CEE Region: A Comparison of Two Municipalities in Poland and Lithuania

In this article, we seek to analyse and compare the modalities of suburban governance in Polish and Lithuanian municipalities looking at the territorial development trends typical for the Central Eastern Europe region. The theoretical elaborations on suburban governance are evolving towards the analysis of constellations of diverse actors, institutions and processes that define the politics and design of suburban spaces. We assume that there are similarities and differences in suburban governance in the analysed localities compared to Western countries in terms of networks, actors and territorialisation of local politics. Despite both suburban municipalities showing similarities in suburban development patterns (growing middle-class population, economic capital accumulation, suburban sprawl and interconnectedness with the metropolitan zone), the analysis reveals the main differences in terms of composition and importance of horizontal and vertical networks, the role of local stakeholders and collective action. The article concludes that both localities represent a specific approach to suburban governance marked by low stakeholders’ participation, dependence on the top down vertical state and regional networks and the creation of urban-suburban policies within metropolitan areas

An assessment of the influence of CCAFS' climate data and tools on outcomes achieved 2010-2016

These four volumes comprise an evaluation report commissioned by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). The evaluation was undertaken by the independent evaluators Kornelia Rassmann and Tonya Schuetz and supported by the CCAFS internal evaluation team led by Philip Thornton and Laura Cramer. It mainly used Outcome Harvesting (OH) but also elements from Impact Pathway thinking and Contribution Analysis to describe and analyze ‘development outcomes’ that were directly or indirectly influenced by one of three CCAFS’ climate products – the GCM Climate Portal, MarkSimGCM, and the Climate Analogues tool. Volume 1 is the main evaluation report. Volume 2 presents survey results and user perspectives. Volume 3 contains outcome stories. Volume 4 has definitions of terms and the coding book used during the evaluation

Unions in Germany: Searching to regain the initiative

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A Cautious New Approach

"‘As a student of international relations and a former diplomat, Zhang brings the insights of a practitioner and the eye of scholar to explain why Chinese actors choose to engage in aid cooperation with traditional donors in the Asia-Pacific. This book is among the first to take a holistic approach to understanding the motivations of the many agencies involved in China’s aid program, and it will challenge the expectations of many readers.’ —Dr Graeme Smith, The Australian National University ‘This book breaks new ground by examining a little-known dimension of China’s foreign policy: trilateral aid cooperation. Denghua Zhang sets this highly original analysis in the context of the new assertiveness of Chinese foreign policy under Xi Jinping, the China International Development Cooperation Agency established in 2018, and the Belt and Road Initiative, which now serves as the framework for Chinese overseas aid and engagement. At a time when the debate in the West about the rise of China has intensified, not always knowledgeably, this book fills an important gap in our understanding of China in Southeast Asia and the Pacific.’ —Dr Stewart Firth, The Australian National University ‘This thoroughly researched work examines trilateral cooperation as a new and interesting aspect of China’s growing international aid program, and as a window into the changing nature of that program as well as the wider foreign policy in which it is embedded. The broad themes and topics discussed are clearly significant, ultimately touching on one of the most important international issues of our time, the implications of the rise of China for a long-established Western-dominated international system.’ —Prof. Terence Smith-Wesley, University of Hawai‘i