Culture in sustainable infrastructure: the polycentric cultural framework model

The state of infrastructure and services is widely perceived as a measure of development and a major catalyst for growth in both developed and developing economies. However, financing, maintaining and replicating existing infrastructures in areas of need have been mostly ineffective. In view of the widespread failures and poor state of infrastructure and services, there is a need to review current delivery and procurement frameworks. Given that sustainable infrastructure is also an essential prerequisite for sustainable development, this paper presents a polycentric cultural framework for infrastructure and service delivery; a framework which emphasises the integration of infrastructure users, communities, public and private sectors throughout the process of conceptualisation to actual delivery of infrastructure, by taking the recipients’ culture, beliefs and values into account. The framework also emphasises the use of systemic referendum among stakeholders by way of the traditional consultative processes and the collaborative consensus paradigm to achieve an effective and sustainable delivery of infrastructure and services

A proposed flat roof variant for the low technology tropical environment

Reports on the failure of built-up bituminous roofs over concrete decks exposed to tropical conditions indicate a worse than below average performance, and thus an urgent need for a re-assessment of the use of this material within this environment. This paper reviews the modes of failure of this roof system under tropical exposure with a view to ascertaining the reasons for the very high rates of failure recorded. It also reviews the trends in this roof type and proposes a system that will be more durable under low technology tropical exposure. (Botswana Journal of Technology: 2002 11(1): 44-51

Accidents and safety violations in the Nigerian construction industry

This paper deals with safety in the Nigerian construction industry. Three aspects of safety were identified as paramount in the study and include accident causations, accident prevention and the most violated safety rules and regulations. The various factors that affect these aspects were identified and questionnaires were used to collect information related to these factors which were analyzed using the 2-step ordinal scale analytical procedure. Only factors relating to causes of accidents and the violation of safety rules are discussed due to limitation in scope. However the majority of factors identified as being responsible for the safety situation in the Nigerian construction industry were found to be human factors and their solutions will involve the prudent management of both men and material resources by the contractor.Journal of Science and Technology(Ghana) Vol. 27 (1) 2007: pp. 81-8

Abortion And Reproductive Rights In Nigeria – A Review Of Criminal Laws And Legislative Policies

Abortion has been defined as the “deliberate destruction of an unborn child”, or it's “intentional expulsion or removal from the womb other than for the principal purpose of producing live birth or the removal of dead tissues”.1 It has also been described as the expulsion of the foetus from the uterus before it has reached the stage of viability.2 The termination of a pregnancy can be either spontaneous when a miscarriage occurs without a direct intervention, or induced when there is direct physical intervention to terminate the pregnancy. This article examines the legislative policies relating to abortion and reproductive rights, and proposes reformative measures in the Criminal and Penal Laws that would effectively control and regulate terminations in Nigeria. Keywords: Legislation, Abortion, Reproductive rights, Criminal code, Penal Code, Nigeria. Annals of Biomedical Science Vol. 2 (1) 2003: pp. 1-1

Reflections on initial reactions and transmission patterns of hiv/aids in sub-saharan Africa.

The sub-Saharan HIV/AIDS epidemic has since become a global concern, while the pattern and spread of the disease remain an extraordinary phenomenon. Despite glaring statistics and evidence of HIV/AIDS as a major health crisis, there was initial under-reaction, self denial, and subdued population response to the disease in the region in the eighties and early nineties. Many of the risk factors and problems associated with HIV/AIDS, including curable STIs, migration, poverty and gender violence were not adequately addressed. Political, business and other leaders either refused to acknowledge the impact of HIV on society, or believed that their particular sector would ‘weather the storm\'. After HIV became clearly established in South and Eastern Africa\'s general populations in the late eighties, the unity of purpose and commitment needed to limit and reverse the spread of infection were still clearly lacking. Although large health corporations considered the consequences of the epidemic, their attitude to it remained largely ambivalent. This article is a review of HIV/AIDS in its early stages in sub-Saharan Africa. It is a historical perspective of the initial reactions and transmission patterns of a disease that was evident and prevalent in the eighties and early nineties but largely ignored by national and international governments until quite recently. Keywords: Reactions, Sub-Saharan Africa, Transmission, HIV/AIDS, Epidemic. Annals of Biomedical Science Vol. 3 (1&2) 2004: pp. 1-1

Interim Project Financing in the Nigerian Construction Industry

Out of the 47 variables identified through a structured survey, that can adversely affect the construction industry in Nigeria, “the difficulties in securing credit for interim construction finance on reasonable terms”, is ranked as the 6th most important factor, while “client's unwillingness to pay for advance for mobilization and purchase of equipment”, was ranked 13th, resulting in the inability of most local capacities to be utilized in the local construction industry. Given that the growth of any industry in any economy is necessarily related to the local participation in that economy and the ability to integrate the local capacities in the developmental process, this paper looks at the implication of the current policies on lending and mobilization fees and postulates that the payment of mobilization fees and or material advances should be encouraged but with enough safeguards to protect the client. (Journal of Civil Engineering, JKUAT: 2002 8: 47-60

Barriers to the Uptake of Concurrent Engineering in the Nigerian Construction Industry

It is the consensus of scholars that the productivity of the construction industry is very low when compared with other industries. Concurrent Engineering (CE), which has a primary goal of reducing the total time from designing a product to releasing it into the market, while creating better designs as well, has been identified as one of the concepts that has yielded effective adaptation in the construction industry. An exploratory survey was used to identify 63 variables with the capacity to influence the uptake of Concurrent Engineering in Nigeria and was used to design a questionnaire, which was distributed to 50 stratified construction industry stakeholders. A statistical software package (STATISTI-XL) was used to analyse the severity index of each variable, in order to establish the importance of each variable in influencing the uptake of Concurrent engineering and also to compute the Kendall's coefficient of concordance, which assess the levels of agreement among the judges on the consistency of the rankings. A Kendall's coefficient of concordance of W=0.57365 was recorded. A lack of awareness emerged as the most important barrier against the integration of this concept into the Nigerian construction industry. The top five variables are all human factors that can be ameliorated by proper education