International law reconceptualised: the role of NGOs.

International law has largely adhered to its traditional foundations, centring upon states as the pre-eminent actors. States have generally remained as the main subjects of international law, and state-centric considerations such as their jurisdiction, sovereignty and relations with other states, the law's main concern. There has been a general lack of attention, or sufficient attention, to the 'other' international players now common in the twenty-first century. This is concerning. A greater recognition and acceptance of these 'other' international players is needed, and this could lead to the reconceptualisation of international law in the twenty-first century. The development of international law from the central tenets of its Westphalian inception to a form that adequately reflects modern international society is required. A failure of evolution could bring about its irrelevance. The reconceptualisation of the paradigm of international law in a way that makes it more reflective of contemporary realities would lead to its enduring relevance. A failure to adapt could be its downfall. The Westphalian conception of international law can be seen as the glue that holds the international legal framework together; shaping and defining the space within which states relate. However, in the twenty-first century, other actors have come to play a real role in that international space, and have done so actively and relevantly. Expectedly, the proliferation of activities by these new players in the international space has worn the adhesive attribute of the proverbial glue of the Westphalian notion of international law. It is becoming more apparent that the reconceptualisation of the international legal paradigm is necessary. Amongst the new players, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) play a prominent role. NGOs have played and continue to play a highly relevant and important role in today's global community. Their influence and impact are becoming increasingly pivotal to the legal, social, economic and political construct of today's global community, and their role remains central to the reconceptualisation of international law and the international legal framework. This thesis argues that NGOs must play a central role in the imperative that is the reconceptualisation of the international legal paradigm to maintain its fitness for purpose in the face of globalisation

Strategies to Reduce Corrupt Practices at the Firm Level in Nigeria

Corruption is harmful to businesses and impedes performance and growth. When business leaders fail to mitigate fraud and corruption, their business and the local economy suffer. Grounded in the principal-agent theory and the integrative social contract theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies business leaders in Nigeria use to reduce firm-level corrupt practices. The participants were six anticorruption officers at three firms who implemented successful strategies to reduce corrupt practices to enhance performance. Data collected came from semistructured interviews and company documents. Five themes emerged from the thematic analysis: bribery and corruption are part of the culture, leaders must create anticorruption policies that promote a climate of integrity, leaders must provide appropriate training, leaders must evaluate compliance with laws, and there are multiple benefits to fighting corruption. A key recommendation is for business leaders to embed a culture of integrity and compliance, establish a unified strategy to combat noncompliance, and communicate and collaborate across different operational levels. The implications for social change include the potential to promote the worth, dignity, and development of the employees and leaders, consequently increasing their self-worth, which supports a higher ability for exceeding goals—moreover, when organizations promote public trust, society\u27s confidence rises

Equity in Financing Health Care Services in Nigeria

Health care services in Nigeria are mainly financed through out-of-pocket payment. This study investigated the extent to which payments towards health care are related to ability to pay and if poor households make proportionally more out-of-pocket payment on health. In analyzing this, the study utilized data from the General household survey of the National Bureau of statistics of 2014. The study employed the Kakwani progressivity index in analyzing the objectives of the study. The findings from the study shows a regressive out-of-pocket payment which suggests that payments towards healthcare are not related to ability to pay. The result also shows that the poor households make proportionally more out-of-pocket payment. Keywords: Out-of-Pocket payments, Ability to Pay, Kakwani Progressivity Inde

Export Diversification Journal. A Tool for Economic Growth. A Case Study of Selected Sub-Saharan African Countries

Export diversification was highlighted by the works of Hesse, 2008 and strauss-khan, 2011 by stating the importance of it. And they stated that an increase in export diversification will lead to increase in the gross domestic product of countries. Though, previous studies have shown that less developed nations likes those in Africa concentrate more on the export of single product which in most instances does not favour them. This is further understood by the report from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) which reflects that the level of export concentration by the less developed nation leads to unstable/ lopsided way of growth. Sources of major revenue for some developing nations are derived from the production, sales and export of primary products. This makes them experience distortions in economic plans because of the irregularities in the world demand for goods and services.This work brings to light the importance and need for export diversification and some countries like; Angola, Cameroon, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria and South-Africa were studied between 1995-2015 using indices like exchange rate, labour force, export of goods and services and gross capital formation which were studied and analyzed to determine the impact of export diversification on GDP per-capita growth in these selected countries on one part and to determine the impact of export diversification on the terms of trade of these countries selected. Results from the SUR regression that was run revealed that there exists a linear relationship between the dependent and independent variables of the cross-sectional entities/ units. The result of the Johansen normalization test also revealed/indicated that the independent variables (exchange rate, export of goods and services and gross capital formation) are all positively related to the dependent variable (gross domestic product). From the outcome, export diversification seems to best suit developing nations especially those that are focused in this study. Keywords: Export Diversification, Export Concentration, Exchange Rate, Gross Capital Formation, SUR (Seemingly Unrelated Regression), Labour Force. DOI: 10.7176/JESD/10-21-07 Publication date: November 30th 2019

Inequality in Under-Five Child Malnutrition: Evidence from Nigeria Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey

This paper evaluates inequality in under-five child malnutrition in Nigeria; using cross-sectional data from 2011 multiple indicator cluster survey. The concentration curve was employed to ascertain whether inequality in under-five child malnutrition is pro-poor or pro-rich whereas the concentration index was used to determine the size of this inequality in Nigeria. We found that inequality in malnutrition concentrates amongst the poor under-five children and that the size of this inequality is reasonably large. This result is consistent for the three anthropometric measures of child malnutrition i.e., stunting, underweight and wasting. However, inequality in stunting and wasting were found to be fairly the same and bigger than that of wasting. Put differently, inequality in stunting and that of underweight were found to be the strongest in Nigeria, while that of wasting was discovered to be the weakest. We recommend increase in food production and distribution, investment in nutrition education and increase in access to nutritious food, mainly for children left behind (i.e., the poor children) in the country. Keywords: Under-Five Child Malnutrition, Inequality, Concentration Curve, Concentration Inde

Synthesis and spectroscopic analysis of Schiff Bases of Imesatin and Isatin derivatives

A series of new Schiff bases of Imesatin and Isatin derivatives which have been previously prepared from the reaction of Hydrazine monohydrate, p-phenylenediamine and 4,4- diaminodiphenylmethane with Isatin were reported. The compounds were characterized by elemental analyses, UV-visible, Infrared and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (1H NMR and 13C NMR) spectroscopic analyses. The synthesized Schiff bases were obtained in moderate to excellent yields between 55.3 – 89.3%. Infrared spectra of all synthesized compounds contain the characteristic azomethine linkage (-CH=N) between 1580 – 1630 cm-1 and the N–H of the Isatin ring signals between δ 8.32 – 10.68 ppm in their 1H NMR spectra. The present work affords reaction pathway that is efficient and operational simplicity for the synthesis of Schiff bases derivatives.Keywords: Schiff bases, isatin, imesatin, spectroscopic analysis, biological activit

Xenocentrism and consumer buying behavior: a comparative analysis of malaysian vs. nigerian consumers

Artigo publicado em revista científica internacionalAcross the globe, xenocentrism has emerged as a critical concept for understanding the behavior of consumers towards the purchase of local and foreign products. In line with this context, and based on samples collected from Malaysia and Nigeria, this study analyzed the direct effects of xenocentrism on the buying behavior of consumers towards imported products with perceived product quality, purchase intention, and product attitude as the variables used to measure consumers’ buying behavior. XSCALE was used to measure xenocentrism, and the research model was analyzed with the partial least squares form of structural equation modeling. A total of 400 responses were gathered from Malaysia, whereas 453 responses were gathered from Nigeria. Findings from the investigation show that xenocentrism has a positive influence on perceived product quality (Malaysia = 46.7%, Nigeria = 35%), purchase intention (Malaysia = 46%, Nigeria = 47.3%), and product attitude (Malaysia = 39.2%, Nigeria = 38.4%), Based on these findings, this study concluded that xenocentrism is a valid construct for assessing the purchase behavior of consumers in Malaysia and Nigeria towards foreign products competing in their local markets. On the same note, the findings from this research can be used to develop sustainable marketing strategies suitable for xenocentric consumers across Malaysia and Nigeria (in particular), and the entire developing economies (in general).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Effects of Covid-19 Pandemic on Women’s Mental Health: A Critical Review of Literature

Although COVID-19 has affected both men and women, it seemingly has impacted on women’s mental health in peculiar ways, specifically in terms of varying forms of abuse such as increased gender-based violence (GBV), which dehumanizes women. Across the globe, women have been notable victims of gender-based violence, but the surge of COVID-19 has worsened the records of GBV. Therefore, this chapter provides a critical review of literature conducted through three database sites: Google Scholar, Research Gate, and Sage based on researches published across 2020–2022 (and other available data documents) in relation to the effects of COVID-19 on women’s mental health. Based on the reviewed articles, recommendations were made for strategic adjustment, particularly for policy makers and for women themselves to be more proactive in being agentive toward self-protection and advocacy

Implications of Governance, Natural Resources, and Security Threats on Economic Development: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

Artigo publicado em revista científica internacionalSub-Saharan African countries are known to be bedeviled with some challenges hindering the economic development. Meanwhile, some of these issues have not been exhaustively investigated in the context of the region. Thus, this study aimed at investigating the implications of government effectiveness, availability of natural resources, and security threats on the regions’ economic develop ment. Yearly data, spanning from 2007 to 2020, was converted from low frequency (yearly) to high frequency (quarterly) and utilized. Data analysis was conducted using Dynamic heterogeneous panel level estimators (PMG and CS-ARDL). Findings show that while PMG estimator confirms a long-run causal effect of governance, natural resources, and security threats on economic development, only natural resources show a short-run causal effect with economic development, while the CS-ARDL (model 2) confirms the significance of all the variables both in the long and short-run. Moreover, the ECT coefficients for both models were found to be statistically significant at less than 1% significance level, which indicates that the systems return back to equilibrium in case of a shock that causes disequilibrium, and in addition, reveals a stable long-run cointegration among the variables in the model. Finally, this study suggests that the policy makers in SSA countries should place more emphasis on improving governance, managing security challenges, and effectively utilizing rents from the natural resources, as all these have severe implications for the economic development of the region if not addressed.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

KNOWLEDGE OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY WITH BLOOD PRESSURE DISTRIBUTION AND DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL ADOLESCENTS IN EBONYI STATE, NIGERIA

This study determined the knowledge of physical activity on blood pressure distribution among Secondary School Students in Ikwo Local Government Area of Ebonyi State. A cross-sectional survey was employed for this study. Five research questions and 5 hypotheses guided the study. The instrument used for the study was validated by three experienced lecturers. The population for this study consisted of all secondary students in the area. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 264 senior secondary students from 6 schools as they were properly guided on the complete filing and return of the questionnaires titled, Physical Activity and Blood Pressure Questionnaire, (PABPQ). The reliability coefficient value obtained was r=0.763. Two hundred and sixty-four questionnaires were administered and had a return rate of 95%. Data obtained were analyzed using frequency and percentages to answer research questions and chi-square to test research hypotheses at .05 alpha levels. The findings of the study showed a high level of knowledge of physical activity on blood pressure among respondents. Also, knowledge of physical activity on blood pressure distribution based on class, age and gender of the students were indicated to be high. Based on the findings, it was thus recommended amongst others that there should be the inclusion of the practical aspect of physical activity into the school system, as more suitable physical activities should be taught at all levels of learning. Nevertheless, there is a need to put into practice this knowledge gained for optimal and healthy living.  Article visualizations