Filling the gap : a learning network for health and human rights in the Western Cape, South Africa

We draw on the experience of a Learning Network for Health and Human Rights (LN) involving collaboration between academic institutions and civil society organizations in the Western Cape, South Africa, aimed at identifying and disseminating best practice related to the right to health. The LN’s work in materials development, participatory research, training and capacity-building for action, and advocacy for intervention illustrates important lessons for human rights practice. These include (i) the importance of active translation of knowledge and awareness into action for rights to be made real; (ii) the potential tension arising from civil society action, which might relieve the state of its obligations by delivering services that should be the state’s responsibility—and hence the importance of emphasizing civil society’s role in holding services accountable in terms of the right to health; (iii) the role of civil society organizations in filling a gap related to obligations to promote rights; (iv) the critical importance of networking and solidarity for building civil society capacity to act for health rights. Evidence from evaluation of the LN is presented to support the argument that civil society can play a key role in bridging a gap between formal state commitment to creating a human rights culture and realizing services and policies that enable the most vulnerable members of society to advance their health. Through access to information and the creation of spaces, both for participation and as a safe environment in which learning can be turned into practice, the agency of those most affected by rights violations can be redressed. We argue that civil society agency is critical to such action

The Empowerment of Households Towards Independence Through Social Capital in Program Keluarga Harapan (PKH)

This research aims to reveal 1) The Role of Program Keluarga Harapan or known as PKH (Family of Hope Program) in empowering beneficiary households or known as KPM (Keluarga Penerima Manfaat), 2) The Role of Social Capital in realizing the independence of KPM-PKH in Sukoharjo district, Central Java Province, Indonesia. This research was qualitative by using a case study approach. The determination of informants used a purposive sampling technique. The informants were eight beneficiary households and four key informants they were the Head of Sukoharjo district office of the Ministry of Social Services, coordinator of Sukoharjo district, PKH supervisor, PKH facilitator, and two key informants to support any information. Data were collected through observation, interviews, and documentation. The data were analyzed into three stages; data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing. The data were verified by observation and source triangulation and time. The result showed that 1) The Role of PKH in empowering the beneficiary households by providing social assistance, strengthening by the regular meeting of Family Development Session, known as P2K2 (Pertemuan Peningkatan Kemampuan Keluarga), strengthening by PKH cooperative, and joint business group, known as KUBE (Kelompok Usaha Bersama), 2) The Role of social capital to build independence of KPM-PKH by adopting cultural values, trust, reciprocity, participation, communication system, and venture networks of beneficiary households. This is caused by the relevance of social bonding, social bridging and social linking carried out by KPM-PKH. To conclude, livelihoods choice of KPM-PKH by employing social capital becomes strategic and productive opportunities to empower independence among poor households as beneficiary of PKH

Social Responsibility as a Driver for Local Sustainable Development

The increased interconnection among local and global players induced by globalization, as well as the need for a complete application of the “subsidiarity principle”, calls for a re-thinking of the “corporate social responsibility” concept. This new concept broadens the perspective of the single company interacting with its own stakeholders in relation to specific social and environmental impacts, to a network of organizations, with different aims and natures, collaborating on relevant sustainability issues. In this paper, the authors will provide a definition of “Territorial Social Responsibility”, sustaining the multi-stakeholder approach as a driver toward local sustainable development. Firstly, theoretical approaches to sustainable development at the territorial level will be examined, identifying the most innovative ideas about governance, network relation and development theories. The idea of development focuses not only on the economic aspects, but on the structural and institutional factors. The existence of cooperative territorial networks is essential to fulfil the creation of tangible and intangible assets at the local level. At the same time, the effectiveness of the decision-making and rules’ system can stimulate and empower territorial networks to tackle sustainable development. An analytical framework, scheme-shaped, will be set in order to identify the main aspects, indicators and practices characterizing the territorial social responsibility concept. It will represent a first attempt to create a feasible instrument aimed at understanding how cooperative social responsible actors, operating in the same territory, could direct the path toward sustainable development.Local Sustainable Development, Territorial Social Responsibility, Participation, Local Governance, Accountability, Sustainability Reporting, Multi-Stakeholder Approach, Networks

The role of social capital in homogeneous society: Review of recent researches in Japan

It is widely and increasingly acknowledged that social capital plays a crucial role in the economic performance, which covers various facets of　human behavior. A growing body of literature has sought to investigate the role of social capital mainly in heterogeneous societies such as USA, whereas works concerning homogeneous society have not yet sufficiently been　provided. From the comparative point of view, researches on homogeneous society are called for. In this paper, therefore, I aim to introduce researches to explore how social capital affects the socio-economic outcomes of Japan, which is considered as a relatively homogeneous society. Recent preliminary empirical works attempted to provide the interesting evidence in Japan, which covers the following topics.　 (1) Criminal prevention, manner of driving, suicide, lawyers demand for conflict resolution (2) cinema and baseball attendance, (3) voter turnout, response to Census, and protection against natural disasters, (4) diffusion of knowledge, efficiency improvement and industrial development, (5) quality of life in terms of health, (6) formation of trust in a community. It follows from them that the social capital enhances the collective action, leading to benefit, however such effect has changed over time.social capital, Japan

Entrepreneurial Community Development - Exploring Earned Income Activities and Strategic Alliances for Community Development Nonprofits

This paper examines social entrepreneurship from a community-development perspective. The target audience is community-development nonprofit organizations. The paper begins by contextualizing social entrepreneurship in community development and creating an analytical framework in which to think about efforts of organizations to integrate entrepreneurial and businesslike thinking. The paper presents key findings regarding both earned-income activities and strategic alliances as options for these organizations, as well as 10 key issues that arose as factors that impact their successful implementation. Information was gathered through a literature review, 29 interviews of practitioners, policymakers and academics and a survey of 59 community-development nonprofit organizations

Institutions of sustainability in Central and Eastern European Countries

The agricultural sector in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) is confronted by two huge problems simultaneously: transition processes and sustainability. Institutions are very important for both these problems. The purpose of this paper is to make clear that the institutional setting is very important, and to give insight into the initial situation of institutions for sustainability and transitions. For this purpose we carried out surveys in CEE with questions about government performance, institutional environment, government structures and social capital. There is strong relationship between the determinants of good government performance in general and those for good government for realizing sustainable agriculture. However, besides formal rules, the informal rules of the institutional environment and social capital are also very important for realizing of sustainable agriculture. Results of surveys show that these institutional elements and the level of social capital are different in the countries of CEE, and have to be developed. Knowledge of government performance, institutional environment and social capital is a necessary condition for developing more suitable governance structures for realizing sustainable agriculture.institutions, social capital, sustainable agriculture and Central and Eastern Europe, Institutional and Behavioral Economics,

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

Linking Audiences to News: A Network Analysis of Chicago Websites

The mass media model, which sustained news and information in communities like Chicago for decades, is being replaced by a "new news ecosystem" consisting of hundreds of websites, podcasts, video streams and mobile applications. In 2009, The Chicago Community Trust set out to understand this ecosystem, assess its health and make investments in improving the flow of news and information in Chicagoland. The report you are reading is one of the products of the Trust's local information initiative, Community News Matters. "Linking Audiences to News: A Network Analysis of Chicago Websites" is one of the first -- perhaps the first -- research projects seeking to understand a local

El capital social como enfoque teórico en Dirección Estratégica

[EN] The objective of this research paper is to investigate, from a theoretical point of view, the strategic relevance of social capital. In recent years, academic literature in this field has witnessed remarkable growth, recognizing social capital as a key element for companies, due to its contribution to the creation of competitive advantages. However, it might be said that its development is still emerging, given the number of discrepancies among researchers regarding its definition, measurement, and its positive or negative impact on other variables. For this reason, a set of empirical studies that show the social capital effect on diverse types of organizational results have been reviewed, taking as a reference the definition and dimensions proposed by Nahapiet and Ghoshal (1998). Additionally, different theoretical links between social capital and four related Strategic Management approaches are presented, such as the Intellectual Capital-Based View, the Knowledge-Based View, the Resource-Based View and the Dynamic Resource-Based View. A main conclusion drawn from this review is that social capital, being a knowledge-based resource, enables access to both internal and external resources and thus a firm’s competitive advantage and, consequently, its value creation can be generated from the combination of both areas. Going in depth and clarifying this strategic linkage are thus a challenge to address in future studies.[ES] El principal objetivo de este trabajo es mostrar la relevancia estratégica del capital social organizacional desde un punto de vista teórico. En los últimos años, la literatura académica relacionada con este concepto ha experimentado un notable crecimiento, reconociendo que el capital social es un elemento fundamental para que las empresas generen ventajas competitivas. Sin embargo, se podría afirmar que su desarrollo es todavía incipiente al existir multitud de discrepaciancias entre los investigadores acerca de su conceptuación, la medición de sus dimensiones o los efectos positivos o negativos que podría tener sobre otras variables. Por este motivo, tomando como referencia la definición y dimensiones propuestas por Nahapiet y Ghoshal (1998), se ha realizado una revisión de las investigaciones que, de manera empírica, han estudiado las relaciones entre el capital social y distintos tipos de resultados organizacionales. Igualmente, se exponen diferentes nexos teóricos encontrados entre el capital social y los principales enfoques en Dirección Estratégica como son Enfoque Basado en el Capital Intelectual, el Enfoque Basado en el Conocimiento, el Enfoque Basado en los Recursos y el Enfoque Basado en las Capacidades dinámicas. Se concluye que el capital social, como recurso basado en el conocimiento, podría permitir el acceso a otros recursos internos o externos, y que la creación de valor y la generación de ventajas competitivas de una empresa puede provenir de la combinación de ambos ámbitos. Así, futuros estudios deben encaminarse hacia la profundización y clarificación de este nexo estratégico

Global Institutional Philanthropy: A Preliminary Status Report

Philanthropy is growing and gaining visibility around the world. Private giving has an increasingly important role in addressing human suffering, promoting social justice and equitable economic growth, and strengthening and supporting a broad array of civil society goals and organizations. Yet as a field of study -- if indeed it is a "field" of study -- global philanthropy is in its infancy. It defies definition at the same time that it provokes interest and inquiry. While many have contributed to our understanding of global giving, it is fair to say that there are no individual or institutional experts. Reliable giving data can be found in only a limited number of countries. Globally comparable data is non-existent. Careful analysis of philanthropic giving through a global lens is hard to find. Given the vast and uncharted landscape of global philanthropy, any effort to define its boundaries or describe its contours is likely to be misleading. Such efforts are equally likely to obscure or at least only partially represent the rich diversity and complexity of philanthropy as it is practiced in countries and cultures around the world