What lies beneath? The role of informal and hidden networks in the management of crises

Crisis management research traditionally focuses on the role of formal communication networks in the escalation and management of organisational crises. Here, we consider instead informal and unobservable networks. The paper explores how hidden informal exchanges can impact upon organisational decision-making and performance, particularly around inter-agency working, as knowledge distributed across organisations and shared between organisations is often shared through informal means and not captured effectively through the formal decision-making processes. Early warnings and weak signals about potential risks and crises are therefore often missed. We consider the implications of these dynamics in terms of crisis avoidance and crisis management

Disease Surveillance Networks Initiative Global: Final Evaluation

In August 2009, the Rockefeller Foundation commissioned an independent external evaluation of the Disease Surveillance Networks (DSN) Initiative in Asia, Africa, and globally. This report covers the results of the global component of the summative and prospective1 evaluation, which had the following objectives:[1] Assessment of performance of the DSN Initiative, focused on its relevance, effectiveness/impact, and efficiency within the context of the Foundation's initiative support.[2] Assessment of the DSN Initiative's underlying hypothesis: robust trans-boundary, multi-sectoral/cross-disciplinary collaborative networks lead to improved disease surveillance and response.[3] Assessment of the quality of Foundation management (value for money) for the DSN Initiative.[4] Contribute to the field of philanthropy by:a. Demonstrating the use of evaluations in grantmaking, learning and knowledge management; andb. Informing the field of development evaluation about methods and models to measure complex networks

Embedding gender in conservation agriculture R4D in Sub-Saharan Africa: Relevant research questions

This resource examines the impact of gender relations on Conservation Agriculture (CA) adoption and adoption mechanisms. It offers a set of research questions to help integrate gender considerations into CA research for development, including on topics such as gender dynamics at the household and community level, minimum tillage, crop rotation and diversification, residue management, and knowledge networks

A novel middleware for the mobility management over the Internet

The features of mobility, which enormously impact on how communication is evolving into the future, represent a particular challenge in today’s wireless networking research. After an identification and evaluation of the gap between the discontinuities of the communication service inherent to the physical layer of mobile networks and the continuity requirements issue from the stream centric multimedia applications, we propose a novel middleware 3MOI (Middleware for the Mobility Management Over the Internet) which can perform efficient and context-aware mobility management and satisfy new mobility requirements such as dynamical location management, fast handover, and continuous connection support

Learning Networks: A Chinese Model of Collective Impact

Over the past several years, the Foundation has explored supporting sustainable marine resource management in China. Seeking to answer the question "what capacity building interventions in China can produce the capacity required to drive sustainable marine resource management and conservation," the Foundation supported a research project to highlight current and past successful capacity building models. This document is the full discussion paper on learning networks, which the grantee, Root Change, describes as a "Chinese model of collective impact." A synthesis of this research that examines four models of interest can be found here

Assessing Interaction Networks with Applications to Catastrophe Dynamics and Disaster Management

In this paper we present a versatile method for the investigation of interaction networks and show how to use it to assess effects of indirect interactions and feedback loops. The method allows to evaluate the impact of optimization measures or failures on the system. Here, we will apply it to the investigation of catastrophes, in particular to the temporal development of disasters (catastrophe dynamics). The mathematical methods are related to the master equation, which allows the application of well-known solution methods. We will also indicate connections of disaster management with excitable media and supply networks. This facilitates to study the effects of measures taken by the emergency management or the local operation units. With a fictious, but more or less realistic example of a spreading epidemic disease or a wave of influenza, we illustrate how this method can, in principle, provide decision support to the emergency management during such a disaster. Similar considerations may help to assess measures to fight the SARS epidemics, although immunization is presently not possible