Development assistance and the lasting legacies of rebellion in Burundi and Rwanda

Abstract: Rwanda and Burundi have both emerged from civil wars over the past 20 years and foreign donors have provided significant contributions to post-conflict reconstruction and development in the two countries. Yet, although Rwanda and Burundi share several important characteristics, their post-conflict social, political and economic trajectories have been different. This article argues that the nature of the ruling parties in Rwanda and Burundi is key to understanding the countries’ relationships with donors. Rather than seeing aid as an exogenous factor, causing particular development outcomes, it shows how local party elites exert considerable agency over the aid relationship. This agency is influenced by a number of different local contextual factors, including how the parties were established, how they evolved and the ways in which their civil wars ended. Thus, the article provides an analysis of how local context matters in understanding donor–recipient aid relationships, and how the ruling party in Rwanda (the RPF) and in Burundi (the CNDD–FDD) emerged from their respective conflicts with different relationships with international donors

Skill competency development strategies by a contractor

Construction skills are one of the vital aspects of construction work which is growing in importance due to skill gaps and skill shortages during different economic cycles. The aim of this study was to investigate competence development strategies by a traditional construction company within its own pool of skill resources and among its supply chain members. The study was carried out via literature review, empirical studies involving a focus study, analysis of documentary evidence supported by unstructured interviews and a report of skill development/supply chain conference. The study demonstrates how long-term skill development can be achieved through: (a) strategic capacity planning which allows high retention, continuous training, and balanced construction demand and contractor’s supply capacity over the long term; (b) updating and upgrading the knowledge base of the supply chain through conferences and training schemes; (c) strategic investment in the workforce through training, vocational and higher degrees; and (d) acquaintance with different sources of finance. This study will assist small traditional firms in building competencies in skill development and improvement. It will assist an international audience who may face similar issue with their construction firm

Chasing Graduate Jobs?

ABSTRACT Chasing Graduate Jobs? * This paper examines empirically the relationship between under-employment and migration amongst five cohorts of graduates of Scottish higher education institutions with micro-data collected by the Higher Education Statistical Agency. The data indicate that there is a strong positive relationship between migration and graduate employment -those graduates who move after graduation from Scotland to the rest of the UK or abroad have a much higher rate of graduate employment. Versions of probit regression are used to estimate migration and graduate employment equations in order to explore the nature of this relationship further. These equations confirm that there is a strong positive relationship between the probability of migrating and the probability of being in graduate employment even after other factors are controlled for. Instrumental variables estimation is used to examine the causal nature of the relationship by attempting to deal with the potential endogeneity of migration decisions. Overall the analysis is consistent with the hypotheses that a sizeable fraction of higher education graduates are leaving Scotland for employment reasons. In turn this finding suggests the over-education/under-employment nexus is a serious problem in Scotland. JEL Classification: I23, J24, J61, R2

Application of reliability-based robustness assessment of steel moment resisting frame structures under post-mainshock cascading events

This paper proposes a reliability-based framework for quantifying structural robustness considering the occurrence of a major earthquake (mainshock) and subsequent cascading hazard events, such as aftershocks that are triggered by the mainshock. These events can significantly increase the probability of failure of buildings, especially for structures that are damaged during the mainshock. The application of the proposed framework is exemplified through three numerical case studies. The case studies correspond to three SAC steel moment frame buildings of three, nine, and 20 stories, which were designed to pre-Northridge codes and standards. Two-dimensional nonlinear finite-element models of the buildings are developed with the Open System for Earthquake Engineering Simulation framework (OpenSees), using a finite length plastic hinge beam model and a bilinear constitutive law with deterioration, and are subjected to multiple mainshock-aftershock seismic sequences. For the three buildings analyzed herein, it is shown that the structural reliability under a single seismic event can be significantly different from that under a sequence of seismic events. The reliability based robustness indicator shows that the structural robustness is influenced by the extent to which a structure can distribute damage

Considering embodied energy and carbon in heritage buildings – a review

Approximately 20% of UK buildings can be defined as ‘heritage buildings’, offering unique values that should be preserved. They tend to use more energy than newer buildings, creating a strong case for energy retrofits to reduce energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, and improve thermal comfort. However, few studies of heritage retrofits examine embodied impacts, which are the energy and carbon impacts required to manufacture, transport and construct materials and components. This study considers the whole life (embodied plus operational) impacts of retrofitting heritage buildings, through a systematic literature review and thematic analysis. It concludes that; both embodied and operational impacts should be considered in retrofitting projects, retrofitting is better than demolish and rebuild in lifecycle terms, there is a lack of policy mandating for the measurement of lifecycle impacts and low impact retrofitting can be better for conserving heritage values and reducing embodied carbon

Temperature in housing: stratification and contextual factors

Overheating in new and retrofit low carbon dioxide homes is a growing issue in the UK due to climate change and other factors, with 99% of existing housing predicted to be at medium to high risk if summer temperatures become 1·4°C warmer. A year-long field study in two residential developments in the north of England monitored housing at three different scales: two-storey houses and three- and ten-storey blocks of flats. This revealed significant temperature stratification in the staircase zone, which allows a stack effect, as well as temperature differences between dwellings depending on their location in the building, both for summer and winter conditions even in the low-rise housing. Further investigation revealed that albedo and east–west orientation also contributed to non-linear overheating. Analyses of inhabitants’ thermal comfort and security practices as well as occupancy patterns also challenge the regulatory modelling used to predict building performance. It is suggested that these additional physical as well as user factors in residential developments need further investigation and should now be considered in relation to thermal comfort modelling

Examining the quality and management of non-geometric building information modelling data at project hand-over

Through the exponential global increase of Building Information Modelling (BIM) adoption across the Construction industry, and the emergence of inter-connected, strategic and data-rich solutions; such as Big Data, the Internet of Things and Smart Cities, the importance associated with activities and decisions reliant on exact data input, transaction, analysis, and resulting actions becomes exponentially magnified. The supply of inaccurate BIM data may negatively impact on systems and processes that require fully assured data of appropriate quality/veracity, to support informed decision making, deliver functionality, facilitate services, or direct strategic actions within the built environment. This preliminary research intends to provide a catalyst for discussion, analysis and information retrieval relating to Building Information Modelling (BIM) processes where non-geometric data errors may; or are predicted to occur within a project environment. This may result in the delivery of data that cannot be described as representing truth or of good quality, and therefore of little value or use to the data user. The wider aspects of this research investigates specifically non-geometric data veracity & associated dimensions of data quality; in order to discover and explore future solutions to resolve current industry data quality assessment challenges. This paper provides feedback from the research focusing on the current state, presenting existing industry challenges and proposes further research areas based on initial findings

Shear behaviour of crushed concrete and bricks

Demolition waste materials mainly consist of concrete and bricks and arise from the demolition of existing structures and buildings. Environmental and economical reasons make their recycling necessary, but to date, their use is curtailed due to the lack of research in determining their properties. This paper reports on the efforts to understand the behavioural characteristics of three types of recycled material to determine their potential for engineering fill applications. For this purpose, their physical and mechanical characteristics were extensively investigated. Two types of crushed concrete, one obtained straight after demolition and the other processed to industry specifications, and one type of crushed brick were tested. An extensive large-scale shear box test regime was employed to determine the shear strength behaviour of the materials. The influence of the normal stress on the peak friction angle, the shear stress– horizontal displacement relationship and horizontal displacement– vertical displacement behaviour of the materials are discussed in this paper. The results showed that the behaviour of the three recycled materials during shear testing was similar to the behaviour exhibited by natural granular materials from literature. In conclusion, the shear box test results have shown that the specific demolition waste products exhibit considerable shear strength and can be utilised in construction as low-level engineering fill