Do Businesses from the BRICS Contribute to Development in Africa?

As businesses from emerging economies become more globalised, expectations are raised about their role as responsible corporate citizens and development actors when operating in low-income countries. While businesses from the global North have been the usual targets for praise or criticism with regards to their contributions (or lack thereof) to African development, little is known about the development contribution of firms from the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). It is important to explore a variety of activities of these firms in Africa, which they consider to be developmental, and the justification behind them. In this context, there is a need to ask and understand how these firms view their own role as development partners for Africa.UK Department for International Developmen

Businesses from the Rising Powers: Traditional or Progressive Development Partners for Africa?

Expectations about the role of businesses as development actors have become almost unrecognisable from the ones summarised by Milton Friedman: ‘The only social responsibility of business is to increase its profits’ (Friedman 1970). Despite Friedman’s relative abruptness, the role of business in contributing to the overall economic growth of a given country cannot be overstated. Businesses create employment, a taxation base for the state, generate innovation and provide goods and services for the population. No country has been able to develop (including the BRICS – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – and other rising powers) without a vibrant and competitive business sector. However, there is growing pressure on businesses nowadays to go well beyond their contribution to overall economic growth (which may be called the ‘traditional’ role of business in development) and become directly involved in poverty alleviation schemes, environmental regeneration activities and even the promotion of human rights. This second set of expectations depicts a more ‘progressive’ role for businesses in development. It may have begun with the more general term ‘corporate social responsibility’ but this progressive role keeps on evolving and can take many different forms, including business models such as the ‘Base of the Pyramid’ approach (first espoused by C.K. Prahalad), which proposes that business can involve the poorest inhabitants of a country both as consumers and as producers for their economic benefit as well as for the improvement of the businesses’ bottom line (Prahalad 2004). Other such business models are ‘inclusive business’ (ensuring that businesses include poor people within their core operations and not only as charity activities which do not challenge the companies’ business model), ‘making markets work for the poor’ (tackling the systemic market failures that exclude the poor from productive activities), and ‘pro-poor value chains’ (removing inefficiencies that prevent the poor from getting greater shares of the profits generated in a given chain). As globalisation of business has spread around the world, these expectations about the role of businesses in development extend to the operation of business in developing countries and particularly in low-income countries in Africa. There are, however, concerns about the capacity and intent of any foreign business operating in Africa and claiming to be a responsible corporate citizen. Businesses from the global North have been the usual targets of these concerns but as firms from the BRICS increase their presence beyond their ‘near abroad’ and venture into African markets, their role as true progressive partners in development has been increasingly scrutinised.UK Department for International Developmen

Case study: Effect of climatic characterization on river discharge in an alpine-prealpine catchment of the spanish pyrenees using the SWAT model

The new challenges in assessment of water resources demand new approaches and tools, such as the use of hydrologic models, which could serve to assist managers in the prediction, planning and management of catchment water supplies in view of increased demand of water for irrigation and climatic change. Good characterization of the spatial patterns of climate variables is of paramount importance in hydrological modelling. This is especially so when modelling mountain environments which are characterized by strong altitudinal climate gradients. However, very often there is a poor distribution of climatic stations in these areas, which in many cases, results in under representation of high altitude areas with respect to climatic data. This results in the poor performance of the models. In the present study, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was applied to the Barasona reservoir catchment in the Central Spanish Pyrenees in order to assess the influence of different climatic characterizations in the monthly river discharges. Four simulations with different input data were assessed, using only the available climate data (A1); the former plus one synthetic dataset at a higher altitude (B1); and both plus the altitudinal climate gradient (A2 and B2). The model''s performance was evaluated against the river discharges for the representative periods of 2003-2005 and 1994-1996 by means of commonly used statistical measures. The best results were obtained using the altitudinal climate gradient alone (scenario A2). This study provided insight into the importance of taking into account the sources and the spatial distribution of weather data in modelling water resources in mountainous catchments

Análisis sedimentológico del embalse de Barasona, Huesca

[Resumen] La pérdida de capacidad debido al aterramiento es un grave problema en numerosos embalses. El pantano de Barasona, en la cuenca del Esera-Isábena, Pirineos Centrales, uno de los más antiguos de España, ha perdido un tercio de su 3 capacidad inicial (71 Hm ) desde su construcción en 1932. El estudio de 23 sondeos ha permitido caracterizar el sedimento,definir facies sedimentarias, reconstruir tridimensionalmente el relleno del vaso y proponer un modelo deposicional dominado por las fluctuaciones en el régimen de aporte de los ríos. Las variaciones en la composición mineralógica proporcionan información sobre áreas fuente y procesos de erosión y transporte en la cuenca. Correlacionando los niveles de limos arenosos con los episodios de avenidas, se ha construido una cronología preliminar que permitirá evaluar variaciones en la tasa de aporte de sedimentos al embalse y en la dinámica del sistema embalse-cuenca..[Abstract] Sediment deliver and consequent loss of water storage capacity aggravate reservoir management problems. The Barasona reservoir in the Esera-Isabena watershed, Central Pyrenees, is one of the oldest in Spain (1932) and has lost one 3 third of its initial water capacity (71 Hm ). In this study we analyze the composition of the infilling of the Barasona reservoir, identify sedimentary facies, and reconstruct the tri-dimensional geometry based on 23 cores. Sedimentary dynamics is mainly controlled by fluctuations in the river inflow. Changes in mineral composition inform of sediment provenance and transport processes in the catchment area. A preliminary chronology based on the identification of floods in the sedimentary record (sandy silt layers) will allow to investigate changes in the sediment yield and in the interaccions reservoir-catchment

The Möbius inversion formula for Fourier series applied to Bernoulli and Euler polynomials

AbstractHurwitz found the Fourier expansion of the Bernoulli polynomials over a century ago. In general, Fourier analysis can be fruitfully employed to obtain properties of the Bernoulli polynomials and related functions in a simple manner. In addition, applying the technique of Möbius inversion from analytic number theory to Fourier expansions, we derive identities involving Bernoulli polynomials, Bernoulli numbers, and the Möbius function; this includes formulas for the Bernoulli polynomials at rational arguments. Finally, we show some asymptotic properties concerning the Bernoulli and Euler polynomials

Asymptotic estimates for Apostol-Bernoulli and Apostol-Euler polynomials

We analyze the asymptotic behavior of the Apostol-Bernoulli polynomials $\mathcal{B}_{n}(x;\lambda)$ in detail. The starting point is their Fourier series on $[0,1]$ which, it is shown, remains valid as an asymptotic expansion over compact subsets of the complex plane. This is used to determine explicit estimates on the constants in the approximation, and also to analyze oscillatory phenomena which arise in certain cases. These results are transferred to the Apostol-Euler polynomials $\mathcal{E}_{n}(x;\lambda)$ via a simple relation linking them to the Apostol-Bernoulli polynomials.Comment: 16 page