The social impact of social funds in Jamaica - a mixed-methods analysis of participation, targeting, and collective action in community-driven development

The authors develop an evaluation method that combines qualitative evidence with quantitative survey data analyzed with propensity score methods on matched samples to study the impact of a participatory community-driven social fund on preference targeting, collective action, and community decision-making. The data come from a case study of five pairs of communities in Jamaica where one community in the pair has received funds from the Jamaica social investment fund (JSIF) while the other has not-but has been picked to match the funded community in its social and economic characteristics. The qualitative data reveal that the social fund process is elite-driven and decision-making tends to be dominated by a small group of motivated individuals. But by the end of the project there was broad-based satisfaction with the outcome. The quantitative data from 500 households mirror these findings by showing that ex-ante the social fund does not address the expressed needs of the majority of individuals in the majority of communities. By the end of the construction process, however, 80 percent of the community expressed satisfaction with the outcome. An analysis of the determinants of participation shows that better educated and better networked individuals dominate the process. Propensity score analysis reveals that the JSIF has had a causal impact on improvements in trust and the capacity for collective action, but these gains are greater for elites within the community. Both JSIF and non-JSIF communities are more likely now to make decisions that affect their lives which indicates a broad-based effort to promote participatory development in the country, but JSIF communities do not show higher levels of community-driven decisions than non-JSIF communities. The authors shed light on the complex ways in which community-driven development works inside communities-a process that is deeply imbedded within Jamaica's socio-cultural and political context.Community Development and Empowerment,Social Capital,Education and Society,Decentralization,Public Health Promotion,Governance Indicators,Education and Society,Social Capital,Community Development and Empowerment,Civil Society

Developing a Feasible Survey for Community Organizations to Evaluate a Healthy Relationships Program

For community-based organizations that work with vulnerable youth, evaluation measures and activities are important strategies for assessing a program’s impact on youth on different outcomes. However, rigorous program evaluation involving pretest-posttest measures and control trials are impractical to implement in community settings. It is critical for organizations to continuously measure programming efficacy, as it is an issue of accountability, ethical responsibility, and program improvement. Additionally, funders, policymakers, and stakeholders typically require organizations to monitor the effects of programming in their setting to continue receiving support. However, organizations conduct program evaluation under many constraints. There is an emergent need for a feasible tool for community organizations to collect data from their programs in an efficient yet effective manner that captures impactful information about program efficacy. The present study follows the development of a retrospective survey for community organizations to evaluate the Healthy Relationships Plus – Enhanced (HRP-E) program. The purpose of such a survey is to provide a measure for organizations to use so they can engage in ongoing program evaluation when more rigorous approaches are not feasible. An initial pool of items was generated based on HRP-E content and previous Fourth R surveys. Upon the development of the survey, nine experts were interviewed to gain their feedback on the draft. Interview transcripts from experts were coded and used for an inductive thematic analysis to organize, find patterns, and extract meaning from the interviews. Results discuss the major themes from the interviews and provide insight on important considerations for survey development in the context of research with community organizations and youth

Commercial Property Rent Dynamics in U.S. Metropolitan Areas: An Examination of Office, Industrial, Flex and Retail Space

This paper is concerned with the market rental rate for space offered by commercial property and how that rental rate evolves over time. Rental rates reflect the value of the services provided by the property and can have a significant impact on the ability of its owners to make monthly debt obligations. We investigate commercial property rent dynamics for 34 large metropolitan areas in the U.S. The dynamics are studied from the second quarter of 1990 through the second quarter of 2009 and the results are compared across four property types or uses (office, industrial, flex, and retail). There is substantial heterogeneity in both the long and short run responses to changing demand and supply conditions. In general, the office market is the slowest to adjust back towards equilibrium while industrial and flex markets adjust back to the long run equilibrium very quickly. For industrial and office types, the speed of adjustment is substantially faster within quality segments and is strongest for grade A properties

Advances in genetic and molecular understanding of Alzheimer\u27s disease

Alzheimer\u27s disease (AD) has become a common disease of the elderly for which no cure currently exists. After over 30 years of intensive research, we have gained extensive knowledge of the genetic and molecular factors involved and their interplay in disease. These findings suggest that different subgroups of AD may exist. Not only are we starting to treat autosomal dominant cases differently from sporadic cases, but we could be observing different underlying pathological mechanisms related to the amyloid cascade hypothesis, immune dysfunction, and a tau-dependent pathology. Genetic, molecular, and, more recently, multi-omic evidence support each of these scenarios, which are highly interconnected but can also point to the different subgroups of AD. The identification of the pathologic triggers and order of events in the disease processes are key to the design of treatments and therapies. Prevention and treatment of AD cannot be attempted using a single approach; different therapeutic strategies at specific disease stages may be appropriate. For successful prevention and treatment, biomarker assays must be designed so that patients can be more accurately monitored at specific points during the course of the disease and potential treatment. In addition, to advance the development of therapeutic drugs, models that better mimic the complexity of the human brain are needed; there have been several advances in this arena. Here, we review significant, recent developments in genetics, omics, and molecular studies that have contributed to the understanding of this disease. We also discuss the implications that these contributions have on medicine

Polypill strategy at the heart of cardiovascular secondary prevention

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The Impact of Migration in Latin America and the Caribbean. A Review of Recent Evidence

This paper summarizes recent evidence on the effects of migration on a variety of outcomes including labor markets, education, health, crime and prejudice, international trade, assimilation, family separation, diaspora networks, and return migration. Given the lack of studies looking at migration flows between developing countries, this paper contributes to fill a gap in the literature by providing evidence of the impact of South-South migration in general and for the Latin American countries in particular. The evidence highlighted in this summary provides useful insights for designing policies to leverage the developmental outcomes of migration while limiting its potential negative effects

Analisis comparativo de la institucionalidad del manejo del recurso hidrico para riego entre Chile y provincia de Mendoza, Argentina.

94 p.La escasez de agua a nivel mundial es evidente, cada día que pasa existe menos cantidad de recurso hídrico disponible para ser utilizado. En el futuro la agricultura será la única manera de combatir la escasez de alimentos que provoca las hambrunas, y por supuesto el agua para riego, es y seguirá siendo, fundamental para el desarrollo de los cultivos. Actualmente se viven conflictos bélicos relacionados con un recurso escaso y fundamental para el funcionamiento de las ciudades mundiales como es el petróleo. A partir de esta situación se puede pronosticar que cuando la escasez de agua sea realmente crítica, los conflictos que se van a observar serán mucho más violentos, ya que el recurso hídrico no sólo es fundamental para el funcionamiento de las ciudades, sino que para la existencia de la vida. Cada país tiene su propia legislación y administración del agua para riego. Mientras que en algunos casos el Estado es el que controla este recurso, en otros son los privados los encargados de él. Independiente de cual sea la institucionalidad presente, todos los sistemas tienen aspectos favorables y desfavorables que se deben considerar para que todos los procesos relacionados con el agua para riego sean más eficientes. En este estudio se comparó la institucionalidad presente en Chile; porque en este país existe un “mercado de aguas” muy poco común a nivel mundial, con la que presenta la provincia de Mendoza, Argentina, que es absolutamente contraria, ya que el sistema es completamente estatal.En primer lugar se estudió la legislación referente al recurso hídrico para riego en ambas zonas de estudio, donde se evidenció que en Chile ha existido una constante promulgación de este tipo de leyes, mientras que en Mendoza se ha ido reformando una sola ley existente desde 1884. El estudio de la administración del agua para riego indicó que el sistema utilizado en Chile es descentralizado, es decir, existen muchas instituciones, públicas y privadas, vinculadas con este recurso que tornan más difícil la toma de decisiones, pero que ejercen un control social. La situación en Mendoza es contraria, ya que al existir un sistema absolutamente centralizado y estatal, se facilita la ocurrencia de irregularidades en el entorno y las decisiones se toman con mayor rapidez. Al observar las características de los cauces en las zonas de estudio, se comprobó que en Mendoza la agricultura está condicionada a la oferta hídrica anual, que los caudales presentes son muy variables, y que no existe mucha inversión en revestimiento de cauces que permita una mayor eficiencia en la conducción. En cambio en Chile, los caudales de los cauces son más constantes, la distribución del recurso hídrico se realiza de acuerdo a la demanda de los cultivos, y en muchos casos existe una importante inversión en revestimiento de cauces que eleva la eficiencia en la conducción del caudal disponible. ABSTRACT The chortage of water resources througout the world is real, every new day less water is available to be used. In the future the agriculture will be the only way to face the lack of food that brings the hunger crisis, and of course the irrigation water, is fundamental to produce farm food products. Nowadays there are wars due to the importance of the oil on the development and life of modern cities. From this situation we can predict that when the water resources gets critical, the conflicts will become even worse, because water means life for men. Each country has its own regulations and administration for the water for agriculture. In some cases the Goverment controls the water administration, in other cases it is the private corporations. No matter which is the present control system of the water, each system has positive and negative items to be considered so that the processes related with water become more efficient. In this analysis the actual situation of Chile (where exists “water market”) was compared to the Mendoza administration which is entirely performed by the provincial Goverment. The legislation referred to water resources for agriculture was analyzed on both countryes, and was found that while in Chile new laws are constantly presented in Mendoza just one law from 1884 is being modified once in a while. The review of the administration of water resources proved that the chilean system is not handled in just one place, but in many private and goverment`s institutions related to the subyect that make late decisions, but every one has the chance to say something about it. The situation in Mendoza is the opposite, that is one department controls every situations that means a rapid decision but a probability of corruption. As we observed the river flow systems on the areas we studied it was found that in Mendoza the agriculture activities are related directly to the annual water availability; the amount of water is changing from one year to another and also during the season. The investment in improving the water transportation and supply is low. In Chile is different, the river water capacity is more constant, the water distribution is made according to the cultivations demand, and in many cases there is an important investment in transportations works for the water