Applying Gender Action Plan Lessons: A Three-Year Road Map for Gender Mainstreaming (2011- 2013)

This transition plan identifies key lessons from the implementation of the World Bank Group action plan, Gender Equality as Smart Economics (GAP), and sets out a proposal to improve the performance on Gender and Development. It seeks to strengthen the implementation of the Bank?s gender policy and places special emphasis on improving attention to gender in Bank instruments (CASs). It covers World Bank Group (WBG) operations from 2011 to 2013, and was produced on a request by the World Bank Board of Executive Directors. A GAP Three-year Progress Report accompanies this plan

System dynamics advances strategic economic transition planning in a developing nation

The increasingly complex environment of today's world, characterized by technological innovation and global communication, generates myriads of possible and actual interactions while limited physical and intellectual resources severely impinge on decision makers, be it in the public or private domains. At the core of the decision-making process is the need for quality information that allows the decision maker to better assess the impact of decisions in terms of outcomes, nonlinear feedback processes and time delays on the performance of the complex system invoked. This volume is a timely review on the principles underlying complex decision making, the handling of uncertainties in dynamic envrionments and of the various modeling approaches used. The book consists of five parts, each composed of several chapters: I: Complex Decision Making: Concepts, Theories and Empirical Evidence II: Tools and Techniques for Decision Making in Complex Environments and Systems III: System Dynamics and Agent-Based Modeling IV: Methodological Issues V: Future Direction

Benefits of and barriers to involving users in medical device technology development and evaluation

Objectives: This study investigated the benefits of, and barriers to user involvement in medical device technology development and evaluation. Methods: A structured review of published literature in peer-reviewed journals. Results: This review revealed that the main benefits of user involvement were an increased access to user needs, experiences and ideas; improvements in medical device designs and user interfaces; and an increase in the functionality, usability and quality of the devices. On the other hand, resource issues, particularly those of time and money were found the key impediments to involving users in the development and evaluation of medical device technologies. This study has categorised both the benefits and barriers to user involvement also. Conclusions: The involvement of users in MDTD&E requires resources, which are limited; however, it is essential from both users and manufacturers perspectives