Capacity development for urban development: The evolution of the integrated urban management Masters course at the Ethiopian Civil Service University

This paper reviews the experiences with an integrated urban management Masters course, which saw an increase from 20 participants to 400 students in a period of 5 years. After a few years it became clear that it was difficult to absorb this number of Masters students in the government sector and that their skills did not match all the requirements. The paper looks at the external factors determining the success of the integrated urban management Masters course, and the desire of the Ethiopian government to make decentralization a reality. It also analyses the internal factors leading to positive outcomes of the interventions over time. The increasing complexity of urban problems cannot be managed by general urban managers; therefore specialized Masters programmes were launched. The programme evolved over time, reflecting the priorities of the Ethiopian government. Starting as a unified programme, the course was split into a series of specializations, focusing on water-related and environmental issues. The cooperation evolved over the period of the relationship into a partnership with leadership on the Ethiopian side. This contributed to the success in terms of the capacity built, the number of people trained, and their contribution to dealing with water and environmental problems in an urban context

Coordinating technology introduction and entrepreneurial activities in rural areas

The main purpose of this research is to investigate how technology introduction projects in rural areas should be coordinated in order to achieve local economic development and the role of social capital and entrepreneurial activities.Characteristics of three approaches were considered including top-down conventional coordination, Communities of Practice (CoP) and social entrepreneurship. Previous literature suggests the last two methods can lead to increased bridging social capital, which generates relationship between social and commercial entrepreneurship. By qualitatively researching two successful case studies in Indonesia, it was found that for a top-down approach using CoP elements, bridging social capital was developed leading to both profit and non-profit entrepreneurial activities. However, the reverse was also found, even though it was less obvious. For a top down approach with a local leader functioning as a social entrepreneur, bridging social capital was also developed leading to both profit and non-profit entrepreneurial activities

Uncertainties in the Bidirectional Biodiesel Supply Chain

For remote areas, small-scale local biodiesel production is particularly attractive if producers and consumers are the same. Such supply chains are labeled as bidirectional. However, little is known on how raw material supply, transportation, logistics, production and operations uncertainties impact the operational performance of such Bidirectional Biodiesel Supply Chains. This paper contributes by exploring these uncertainties in a multiple case study, directed at mobile processing of rubber seeds, in a remote area. Scientifically, the paper contributes by identifying several novel sources of uncertainty: a short-term perspective, lack of knowledge and the previously unrecognized influence of the local government. Additionally, based on these findings, an extended theoretical framework is proposed which links sources of uncertainty to operational performance. The study provides also insights for stakeholders aiming to increase local biofuel production and provides a stepping-stone to investigate adequate measures to manage the identified uncertainties. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved