Evaluation of the Restorative Practices Programme of the Childhood Development Initiative

This report presents the key findings of an independent evaluation, undertaken by the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre at the National University of Ireland, Galway, of the Restorative Practice Programme, part of the Childhood Development Initiative's (CDI) Community Safety Initiative (CSI). The study comprises (i) a process study evaluation of programme implementation under the headings of programme utilisation, programme organisation and programme fidelity; and (ii) an outcomes study evaluation of programme impact on participants' work, lives, organisations and family, and also the wider impact on community building and collaborative action

Mixed-initiative control of intelligent systems

Mixed-initiative user interfaces provide a means by which a human operator and an intelligent system may collectively share the task of deciding what to do next. Such interfaces are important to the effective utilization of real-time expert systems as assistants in the execution of critical tasks. Presented here is the Incremental Inference algorithm, a symbolic reasoning mechanism based on propositional logic and suited to the construction of mixed-initiative interfaces. The algorithm is similar in some respects to the Truth Maintenance System, but replaces the notion of 'justifications' with a notion of recency, allowing newer values to override older values yet permitting various interested parties to refresh these values as they become older and thus more vulnerable to change. A simple example is given of the use of the Incremental Inference algorithm plus an overview of the integration of this mechanism within the SPECTRUM expert system for geological interpretation of imaging spectrometer data

An uneasy reality: Donor support for IDPs in Ukraine Łukasz Wenerski, Andriy Korniychuk, Oleksandr Kliuzhev (cooperation)

According to international organizations, since the annexation of Crimea and the beginning of the war in Donbas, internal migrations might have affected from two to three million people. From Crimea and Donbas alone, 1.5 million Ukrainian citizens had to change their place of residence. Concerns that these internally displaced persons (IDPs) will become “Ukraine’s lost generation” have been voiced. A considerable number of Ukrainian citizens affected by the war in eastern Ukraine have started to look for either international protection on the territory of the EU or possible ways to pursue economic migration. Taking into account the unresolved refugee crisis in Europe, the international community has a particular interest in making sure the situation in Ukraine does not get out of hand. In this regard, the effectiveness of the assistance to the Ukrainian state and its civil society provided by international donors is of paramount importance. Whereas the migration crisis has revealed new challenges faced by the Ukrainian state as it is undergoing the process of reform, it has also contributed to an increase in the public activity of Ukrainian citizens. Some of the most active IDPs have managed to find their place in the new reality (within the country or outside Ukraine), however, many have failed to cope with the displacement and are still struggling with huge economic and social problems. In some places, basic humanitarian aid is still required, yet IDPs today generally face other problems, most frequently difficulties in finding a job and the lack of proper housing. There are several reasons for IDPs’ critical situation on the labor market: the unfavorable condition of the Ukrainian economy, skills that do not fit the Ukrainian economy (a consequence of the fact that Donbas was dominated by heavy industry and the mining industry, in particular), and sometimes the inactivity of the displaced people themselves (an effect of living many years under non- democratic rule in the region). This paper aims at analyzing the socio-economic reality of IDPs in Ukraine as well as the state’s response to their challenges from the perspective of the IDP community. In addition, it presents how Ukrainian NGOs assess donor support for IDPs and what Ukrainian civil society expects from the international community in those areas where assistance is needed most

Distributed Leadership: A Review of Literature

A review of empirical research studies of distributed leadership from public and private sector settings completed since 1995

A systems approach to evaluate One Health initiatives

Challenges calling for integrated approaches to health, such as the One Health (OH) approach, typically arise from the intertwined spheres of humans, animals, and ecosystems constituting their environment. Initiatives addressing such wicked problems commonly consist of complex structures and dynamics. As a result of the EU COST Action (TD 1404) “Network for Evaluation of One Health” (NEOH), we propose an evaluation framework anchored in systems theory to address the intrinsic complexity of OH initiatives and regard them as subsystems of the context within which they operate. Typically, they intend to influence a system with a view to improve human, animal, and environmental health. The NEOH evaluation framework consists of four overarching elements, namely: (1) the definition of the initiative and its context, (2) the description of the theory of change with an assessment of expected and unexpected outcomes, (3) the process evaluation of operational and supporting infrastructures (the “OH-ness”), and (4) an assessment of the association(s) between the process evaluation and the outcomes produced. It relies on a mixed methods approach by combining a descriptive and qualitative assessment with a semi-quantitative scoring for the evaluation of the degree and structural balance of “OH-ness” (summarised in an OH-index and OH-ratio, respectively) and conventional metrics for different outcomes in a multi-criteria-decision-analysis. Here, we focus on the methodology for Elements (1) and (3) including ready-to-use Microsoft Excel spreadsheets for the assessment of the “OH-ness”. We also provide an overview of Element (2), and refer to the NEOH handbook for further details, also regarding Element (4) (http://neoh.onehealthglobal.net). The presented approach helps researchers, practitioners, and evaluators to conceptualise and conduct evaluations of integrated approaches to health and facilitates comparison and learning across different OH activities thereby facilitating decisions on resource allocation. The application of the framework has been described in eight case studies in the same Frontiers research topic and provides first data on OH-index and OH-ratio, which is an important step towards their validation and the creation of a dataset for future benchmarking, and to demonstrate under which circumstances OH initiatives provide added value compared to disciplinary or conventional health initiatives

Reframing Resolution - Managing Conflict and Resolving Individual Employment Disputes in the Contemporary Workplace

The resolution of individual workplace conflict has assumed an increasingly important place in policy debates over contemporary work and employment. This is in part due to the decline in collective industrial action and the parallel rise in the volume of employment tribunal applications. It reflects a growing concern over the implications of individual employment disputes for those involved but has perhaps been driven by concerns over the cost of litigation and the perceived burden that this places on employers. Against this backdrop, an ESRC-funded seminar series, entitled ‘Reframing Resolution – Managing Conflict and Resolving Individual Employment Disputes in the Contemporary Workplace’, was held between October 2012 and September 2013. This comprised six seminars held at: University of Strathclyde; University of Central Lancashire; Swansea University; Queen’s University Belfast; IRRU, University of Warwick and University of Westminster. The series brought leading academic researchers, practitioners and policy-makers together to explore new empirical and conceptual developments, examine innovative practice and provide insights into key questions of public policy

Civil Society and Conflict Transformation in Abkhazia, Israel/Palestine, Nagorno-Karabakh, Transnistria and Western Sahara

The paper describes and analyses the role of civil society in five conflict cases – Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, Transnistria, Western Sahara and Israel/ Palestine. It evaluates the relative effectiveness of civil society organisations (CSOs) and assesses the potential and limits of CSO involvement in conflicts. In particular it concentrates on civil society activities in the fields of peace training and education, including formal and non-formal education, as well as research and media work. The research also identifies the obstacles that local third sector is faced with, examining experiences and lessons learned. The study then presents critical assessments of local CSO contributions to conflict transformation and concludes with a set of suggestions for local and mid-level civil society actors involved in these five conflict cases and beyond. This paper is an overview study, to provide ideas and documentation to the more detailed empirical research carried out in the context of the MICROCON Work Package ‘Conflict in the European Neighbourhood’.Civil society, European Union, European Neighbourhood, Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, Transnistria, Western Sahara, Israel/Palestine, violent conflict, conflict transformation

Systemic lean intervention: enhancing lean with community operational research

This paper discusses how the theory and methodology of Community OR can enhance Lean initiatives. We argue that Lean practice can benefit from going beyond just the involvement of organizational stakeholders: local communities can be swept into the process too, with the aim of achieving an environment that is (as far as possible) pollution-free, for the benefit of organizations and their local communities. Our only proviso is that, in the spirit of Community OR, such an initiative must facilitate the meaningful involvement of community representatives, so change is agreed through stakeholder engagements that respect the inputs and framings of these representatives. Organizations should not impose ‘solutions’ on communities. An example of an intervention with a food production company in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria is provided. The paper ends with some reflections on the added value that Community OR can offer Lean practitioners