An Impact Evaluation of the District Assembly Common Fund in the Suaman Dadieso District in the Western Region of Ghana

This study aimed at evaluating the impacts of the districts assembly common fund in the Suaman Dadieso District in the Western Region of Ghana. A mixed method approach employing the simple random sampling procedure was used to select eighty (80) participants for the study. The participants were recruited from two communities within the District- thus Dadieso and Karlo. The leaders of the Youth for Suaman Development were also interviewed. The data was collected between the months of May 2016 and June 2016.  The outcome of the evaluation indicates that community members are not contacted when the Assembly seeks to embark on developmental projects with District Assembly Common Fund since decisions are taking from the top-down approach instead of the bottom-up model that encourages community member participation. The outcome of the study also showed that most community members have not benefited much from the District Assembly Common Fund regarding poverty alleviation, health and education as poverty continues to persist in the district. The results of the study show that the district has not lived up to expectations of the community members since its creation in 2012.  It is therefore imperative for the District take important steps in developing areas where it failed and work towards achieving the set goals in subsequent years. Keywords: District Assembly, Common Fund, Local Governmen

On pragmatist institutional economics

There are two logics of the functioning of science as an institution: the logic of production and dissemination of knowledge oriented to solve existing socio-economic problems and the logic of survival of members of the profession. These two logics could contradict each other. The first logic corresponds to the fulfilment by the science of its social task. The second corresponds to aspirations of members of any social organism to survive as members of this organism. To our mind Pragmatist Institutional Economics can fulfil successfully its social task but could have enormous problems to become a normal science in the sense of Thomas Khun. Economic realities are very complex, determined to a large degree by cultural heritage but at the same time very dynamic. Knowledge concerning these realities for different countries, and even for different regions and different economic sectors inside the same countries, in different periods of time can hardly be presented on the basis of the same categories. It means that communication between members of the modern community of academic economists, which is to a great extent international, is difficult. In this situation advantages for career oriented academic economists for the creation of their professional communities on the basis of Cartesianism rather than Pragmatism are obvious. This paper is an appeal to economists to adopt the pragmatist method which, in its modern form related to social sciences, is Qualitative Research.Існує дві логіки функціонування науки як інституту: логіка виробництва і розповсюдження знань, спрямованих на вирішення існуючих соціально-економічних проблем, і логіка виживання представників професії. Ці дві логіки можуть суперечити одна одній. Перша відповідає логіці виконання наукою її соціальних завдань. Друга відповідає сподіванням членів будь-якого суспільного організму з метою виживання в якості членів цього організму. На погляд автора статті, прагматична інституціональна економіка може не тільки успішно виконувати свою соціальну задачу, але і отримати колосальні проблеми в «розумінні» Томаса Куна. Економічні реалії дуже складні, визначаються значною мірою культурною спадщиною, але в той же час і дуже динамічні. Знання в області цих реальностей для різних країн, і навіть для різних регіонів і різних секторів економіки усередині однієї країни, в різні періоди часу навряд чи можуть бути представлені, виходячи із зазначених категорій. Це означає, що спілкування між членами сучасного співтовариства вчених-економістів, яке є в значній мірі міжнародним, складне. В цій ситуації переваги для проведення профорієнтації вчених-економістів для створення професійних спільнот на основі картезіанства швидше прагматичні, ніж очевидні. Цей документ є зверненням до економістів прийняти прагматичний метод, який, в його сучасній формі, відноситься до соціальних наук, – це якісні дослідження.Существует две логики функционирования науки как института: логика производства и распространения знаний, направленных на решение существующих социально-экономических проблем, и логика выживания представителей профессии. Эти две логики могут противоречить друг другу. Первая соответствует логике выполнения наукой ее социальных задач. Вторая соответствует чаяниям членов любого общественного организма, чтобы выжить в качестве членов этого организма. На взгляд автора статьи, прагматическая институциональная экономика может не только успешно выполнять свою социальную задачу, но и получить колоссальные проблемы в «понимании» Томаса Куна. Экономические реалии очень сложны, определяются в значительной степени культурным наследием, но в то же время и очень динамичны. Знания в области этих реальностей для разных стран, и даже для разных регионов и различных секторов экономики внутри одной страны, в разные периоды времени вряд ли могут быть представлены, исходя из указанных категорий. Это означает, что общение между членами современного сообщества ученых-экономистов, которое является в значительной степени международным, сложно. В этой ситуации преимущества для проведения профориентации ученых-экономистов для создания профессиональных сообществ на основе картезианства скорее прагматичны, чем очевидны. Этот документ является обращением к экономистам принять прагматический метод, который, в его современной форме, относится к социальным наукам, – это качественные исследования

On pragmatist institutional economics

The movement of New Institutional Economics (NIE), born in the seventies, followed the Institutional Economics of John R. Commons by putting the notion of ‘transaction’ in the centre of its study. The seventies were a period of appearance of an absolute authority of neoclassical economics with its hypothetic-deductive (Cartesian and positivist) methodology and the NIE followed this methodology. The NIE was assimilated by many of the members of its community with ‘transaction costs economics’. In this way they have distorted totally the initial design of Commons’ institutional economics who saw the transaction as a unit of activity common to law, economics and ethics. Instead of Cartesian analytic philosophy, which is the philosophical foundation of neoclassical economic theory, he based his institutional economics on pragmatist philosophy of Charles S. Peirce and John Dewey. As Philip Mirowski has noted “these two traditions have a profound conflict over their respective images of a ‘science’, and therefore profoundly incompatible images of ‘economic man’ and ‘rationality’” (Mirowski, 1987). Commons used the pragmatism as a model of human behaviour and as a method of research. The paper discusses the pragmatist methodology and techniques from an institutional economist point of view. It is based on a personal experience of the author in application of these methodology and techniques for economic institutional investigations. This paper is an appeal to economists to adopt the pragmatist method. This method, in its modern form related to social sciences, is Qualitative Research. It is called ‘qualitative research’ because it deals with primarily qualitative data but its most important characteristic is its affiliation to the pragmatist paradigm

On pragmatist institutional economics

The movement of New Institutional Economics (NIE), born in the seventies, followed the Institutional Economics of John R. Commons by putting the notion of ‘transaction’ in the centre of its study. The seventies were a period of appearance of an absolute authority of neoclassical economics with its hypothetic-deductive (Cartesian and positivist) methodology and the NIE followed this methodology. The NIE was assimilated by many of the members of its community with ‘transaction costs economics’. In this way they have distorted totally the initial design of Commons’ institutional economics who saw the transaction as a unit of activity common to law, economics and ethics. Instead of Cartesian analytic philosophy, which is the philosophical foundation of neoclassical economic theory, he based his institutional economics on pragmatist philosophy of Charles S. Peirce and John Dewey. As Philip Mirowski has noted “these two traditions have a profound conflict over their respective images of a ‘science’, and therefore profoundly incompatible images of ‘economic man’ and ‘rationality’” (Mirowski, 1987). Commons used the pragmatism as a model of human behaviour and as a method of research. The paper discusses the pragmatist methodology and techniques from an institutional economist point of view. It is based on a personal experience of the author in application of these methodology and techniques for economic institutional investigations. This paper is an appeal to economists to adopt the pragmatist method. This method, in its modern form related to social sciences, is Qualitative Research. It is called ‘qualitative research’ because it deals with primarily qualitative data but its most important characteristic is its affiliation to the pragmatist paradigm

Investigation of an intelligent personalised service recommendation system in an IMS based cellular mobile network

Success or failure of future information and communication services in general and mobile communications in particular is greatly dependent on the level of personalisations they can offer. While the provision of anytime, anywhere, anyhow services has been the focus of wireless telecommunications in recent years, personalisation however has gained more and more attention as the unique selling point of mobile devices. Smart phones should be intelligent enough to match user’s unique needs and preferences to provide a truly personalised service tailored for the individual user. In the first part of this thesis, the importance and role of personalisation in future mobile networks is studied. This is followed, by an agent based futuristic user scenario that addresses the provision of rich data services independent of location. Scenario analysis identifies the requirements and challenges to be solved for the realisation of a personalised service. An architecture based on IP Multimedia Subsystem is proposed for mobility and to provide service continuity whilst roaming between two different access standards. Another aspect of personalisation, which is user preference modelling, is investigated in the context of service selection in a multi 3rd party service provider environment. A model is proposed for the automatic acquisition of user preferences to assist in service selection decision-making. User preferences are modelled based on a two-level Bayesian Metanetwork. Personal agents incorporating the proposed model provide answers to preference related queries such as cost, QoS and service provider reputation. This allows users to have their preferences considered automatically

Key aspects of quality assurance in the teaching and training of the South African Police Service in the Northern Cape

It is imperative to have quality assurance processes in place in division training to provide quality training to enable members of the South African Police Service (SAPS) to provide quality services to communities within their area of jurisdiction. The aim of the study was to determine the presence of and the need for implementation of effective quality assurance processes in education and training in the South African Police Service (SAPS). The concepts quality and quality assurance were explained in the literature review. Questionnaires were completed by the trainers in the South African Police Service (SAPS) at various training centers in the Northern Cape Province. The researcher advocates to promote and enhance quality assurance in education and training programmes in the South African Police Service (SAPS). Therefore, it is recommended that quality assurance programmes be introduced based on total quality management system for continuous improvement which can provide any training programme with a set of “tools” to meet and exceed the present needs and expectations of the adult learners in the South African Police Service (SAPS) context.Teacher EducationM. Ed. (Education Management

Developing Pre-service Teacher Education in Environmental Education for Sustainability in Papua New Guinea

Government policies in Papua New Guinea (PNG) identify the need for environmental education for sustainability (EEfS) to respond to environmental and sustainability issues faced within the country. However, little has been achieved to develop EEfS in pre-service teacher education. This doctoral study developed an intervention to address this problem in one PNG teachers college. The intervention design was underpinned by a theoretical framework comprising conceptual knowledge and pedagogical ideas from the EEfS literature, conceptions of teacher education and the local traditional knowledge of PNG, and a survey of pre-service teacher students and document analysis. The intervention was delivered to 300 year one pre-service teachers. An evaluation of the intervention used pre and post intervention questionnaires, student reflective journals and student work of 81 pre-service teacher participants. The analysis involved simple statistical and thematic analysis, using themes that both were informed by the literature and emerged from the data. Student perceptions indicate that knowledge, skills and attitudes for EEfS were developed during the intervention. After the intervention, the students identified land problems and biodiversity depletion especially that of endangered species, as important issues for PNG, but their views on poverty as an issue were more complex. The data further suggests that the pre-service teachers were motivated and confident to teach EEfS, using learning approaches that were modelled in the intervention. While, it is unclear if the pre-service teachers will take personal action to contribute to future sustainability, it appears that the implementation of the intervention has had some impact on the pre-service teachers’ awareness, interest, and confidence to deliver EEfS in their future classrooms. The study also indicated that further development of an EEfS course in pre-service teacher education in PNG may require changes to current teacher education practice

The operationalisation of cluster foster care schemes : a social developmental perspective

The presence of poverty, unemployment and children been infected or affected by HIV/Aids contributed to a high level of children in need of care and protection (Patel, 2005:165) and forced communities to came up with a ways of addressing this increasing need of alternative care. Cluster foster care schemes were one of the initiatives that were started spontaneously by community members to address need for more alternative care options (Colby-Newton, 2006:18). This form of alternative care was also included with the proclamation of the Children’s Act, 38 of 2005 and the Children’s Amendment Act, Act 41 of 2007 (Matthias, 2010:172-176). Although cluster foster care schemes are acknowledge and practice as a form of alternative care for children in need of care and protection the operationalising thereof remain a grey area. In an unpublished study by Taback and Associates, it was suggested that further research should be conducted regarding elements that need to be included in the operationalising of cluster foster care schemes (Taback and Associates, 2010:4). The above form the motivation for this study and also provide the basis for the formulation of the research question namely: “What are the operational elements necessary for the operationalising of cluster foster care schemes?” Following from the research problem and research question, the goal for this research was to explore and describe the present functioning of cluster foster care schemes in order to identify operational elements to be documented in a guideline for service providers and social workers. The researcher made use of qualitative research approach to explore and describe the participants’ perception on the research problem. This research endeavour firstly falls in the ambit of the phenomenology research design, which aimed to describe the conscious experience of the everyday life of the participants, which were in this study the managers of cluster foster care schemes as well as foster parents that provide foster care as part of a cluster foster care scheme. In addition to this the researcher also opted to include the exploratory, descriptive and contextual research design, which guided the exploration, description and contextualising of the views of the participants on elements needed to operationalise cluster foster care schemes. In order to achieve the above the researcher the researcher decided to make use of an intervention research model by Rothman and Thomas (1994:3-51), namely the “Intervention Develop and Design” framework (IDD framework). In this study the researcher only used phases one to phase four and certain steps of the IDD framework to develop the operational guidelines for the operationalising of cluster foster care schemes. In concluding the report of the study, the researcher provided summaries of and conclusions related to the background rational; research questions; goals and task objective of the study; the research methodology implemented; the empirical findings and literature consulted; and the developed operational guidelines. He concluded the document with recommendation related to the research process and methodology employed; research findings; and recommendation for further research on the research topic.Social WorkD. Soc.Sc. (Social Work