Towards a Common Framework of Performance Measurement for Social Assistance Programs in Low-Income Countries in Transition: Rationale and Potential Structure

After the dissolution of the former Soviet Union, low-income countries in transition: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan have faced challenges of widespread poverty and sharp inequality. To reduce poverty and inequality, this group of countries, also known as CIS-7, has committed to rapid reforms in social assistance programs. This article proposes a new Common Framework of Performance Measurement for social assistance programs in CIS-7 countries that allows social administrators and policymakers to assess the performance of social assistance programs for the purposes of management improvement, encouraging accountability, and promoting benchmarking. Combining efficiency, quality, and effectiveness perspectives into a framework is a practical approach to assess the achievements of social assistance programs in CIS-7 towards poverty and inequality reduction

Social Assistance and the Challenges of Poverty and Inequality in Azerbaijan, a low-income country in transition

Although low-income countries in transition are facing the challenges of poverty and inequality, evidence on the performance of safety nets in these countries is scarce. This article uses micro-file data from a nationally representative household budget survey to analyze the existing social assistance programs in Azerbaijan, a low income country in transition, from the perspectives of poverty and inequality reduction. The empirical evidence presented in this paper indicates that the poverty and inequality reduction effectiveness of social assistance programs is inadequate. First, the benefits are very modest and the poor receive only a small proportion of them. Second, some programs are not aimed at poverty reduction by design. Third, the heterogeneous nature of poverty and the significant scale of shadow economy during transition make the identification of the poor complicated. Finally, the existing patchwork of numerous programs with small-scale benefits is costly and administratively demanding. A consolidated and better designed social assistance program is needed to effectively tackle the challenges of poverty and inequality in Azerbaijan

Social Assistance and the Challenges of Poverty and Inequality in Azerbaijan, a Low-Income Country in Transition Special Issue with Coping with Poverty

Although low-income countries in transition are facing the challenges of poverty and inequality, evidence on the performance of safety nets in these countries is scarce. This article uses micro-file data from a nationally representative household budget survey to analyze the existing social assistance programs in Azerbaijan, a low income country in transition, from the perspectives of poverty and inequality reduction. The empirical evidence presented in this paper indicates that the poverty and inequality reduction effectiveness of social assistance programs is inadequate. First, the benefits are very modest and the poor receive only a small proportion of them. Second, some programs are not aimed at poverty reduction by design. Third, the heterogeneous nature of poverty and the significant scale of shadow economy during transition make the identification of the poor complicated. Finally, the existing patchwork of numerous programs with small-scale benefits is costly and administratively demanding. A consolidated and better designed social assistance program is needed to effectively tackle the challenges of poverty and inequality in Azerbaijan

El SIE, letra muerta en la instituci?n educativa

139 p. Recurso Electr?nicoEn Colombia, la evaluaci?n de los aprendizajes de los estudiantes, se rige por el Decreto 1290 del a?o 2009, el cual brinda autonom?a a las instituciones educativas para crear su propio Sistema Institucional de Evaluaci?n. El objetivo de la presente investigaci?n es describir el papel del SIE en el desarrollo de las pr?cticas evaluativas de los docentes de la Instituci?n Educativa T?cnica Pedro Pab?n Parga, en su proceso de ense?anza aprendizaje, para hacer de la evaluaci?n un elemento motivador y generador de aprendizaje, debido a que en la realidad, los prop?sitos que este documento contempla, no se reflejan de manera planeada y contundente en las pr?cticas evaluativas desarrolladas por los profesores en las aulas de clase. Para el desarrollo de este estudio, se emple? una investigaci?n de enfoque cualitativo, con dise?o descriptivo y se emple? una muestra representativa, compuesta por 16 docentes integrantes del consejo acad?mico y 38 alumnos del consejo estudiantil. En el dise?o metodol?gico se elabor? una tabla de cotejo que permiti? realizar una revisi?n documental del SIE, de acuerdo con los criterios establecidos en el art?culo 4? del Decreto 1290 de 2009; Igualmente, se administraron encuestas a docentes y estudiantes, adem?s se dise?? un grupo focal, con el fin de determinar el conocimiento y apropiaci?n del SIE, develar la definici?n de evaluaci?n que el SIE proclama como documento institucional y la que le asignan los docentes, las t?cnicas e instrumentos utilizados y el uso que le dan a los resultados de la evaluaci?n. Con los resultados obtenidos, se realiz? un an?lisis que permiti? sugerir estrategias para darle funcionalidad al Sistema de Evaluaci?n de la Instituci?n Educativa T?cnica Pedro Pab?n Parga, dentro del proceso educativo y de esta manera fortalecer las pr?cticas evaluativas, en beneficio de toda la comunidad educativa. Palabras claves: Evaluaci?n educativa, Sistema Institucional de Evaluaci?n de Estudiantes (SIE), pr?cticas evaluativas y Decreto 1290 del 16 de abril de 2009.In Colombia, the evaluation of students learning is oriented by Decree 1290 of 2009, which gives educational institutions the autonomy to create their own Institutional Evaluation System. The objective of this research is to describe the role of the SIE in the development of the evaluation practices of the teachers of the Pedro Pab?n Parga Technical Educational Institution, in their process of teaching and learning, in order to make the evaluation an element that motivates and generates learning, due to the fact that in reality, the purposes that this document contemplates are not reflected in a planned and forceful way in the evaluation practices developed by the teachers in the classrooms. For the development of this study, qualitative approach was used, with a descriptive design, and are presentative sample of 16 faculty members from the academic council and 38 students from the student council was used. In the methodological design, a checklist was prepared that allowed for a documentary review of the SIE in accordance with the criteria established in article 4 of Decree 1290 of 2009; Likewise, surveys were administered to teachers and students, in addition to a focal group, to determine the knowledge and appropriation of the SIE, to reveal the definition of evaluation that the SIE proclaims as an institutional document and that which the teachers assign to it, the techniques and instruments used and the use they make of the results of the evaluation. With the results obtained, an analysis was made that allowed to suggest strategies to give functionality to the Evaluation System of the Pedro Pab?n Parga Technical Educational Institution, within the educational process and in this way strengthen the evaluation practices, for the benefit of the entire educational community. Keywords: Educational evaluation, Institutional Evaluation System (SIE), evaluation practices, Decree 1290 of April 16 of 2009

El E- Portafolio como estrategia metodol?gica de evaluaci?n del ?rea de ciencias sociales en b?sica secundaria. Una experiencia educativa en el sector rural en la Instituci?n Educativa T?cnica Camacho Angarita, El Lim?n ? Chaparral

80 P?ginasEl presente trabajo tiene como objeto de estudio proponer el e-portafolio como estrategia metodol?gica de evaluaci?n del ?rea de Ciencias Sociales en los estudiantes del grado noveno de la Instituci?n Educativa T?cnica Camacho Angarita ubicada en el sector rural, corregimiento el Lim?n ? Chaparral, con el fin de promover en el educando una mayor capacidad de reflexi?n sobre su aprendizaje. Esta propuesta surge con la utilizaci?n inicialmente de recursos audiovisuales hasta el uso de las TIC en el ?rea de Ciencias Sociales, caracterizando al docente con un papel orientador m?s que transmisor, a la clase con un lenguaje audiovisual interactivo de im?genes y conceptos que favorecen los procesos de comunicaci?n y socializaci?n entre el docente y los estudiantes. La evaluaci?n en esta experiencia ocupa un lugar central en el proceso educativo, al ser tenida en cuenta en cada momento de la construcci?n del e-portafolio del estudiante, considerando de igual manera que en la actualidad los procesos educativos requieren en el aula curr?culos flexibles en los que el estudiante cuente con espacios no s?lo para aprender, sino tambi?n para reaprender al tener la oportunidad de reestructurar sus producciones acad?micas. El trabajo comprende la sistematizaci?n de una experiencia educativa: antecedentes, caracterizaci?n, etapas para el desarrollo e implicaciones del e-portafolio del estudiante, de igual manera se resaltan las dificultades, obst?culos, alcances y posibles reformas consider?ndose categor?as desde lo rural, pedag?gico, did?ctico, evaluativo y social. Finalmente, se pretende motivar a los docentes para que se integren a los procesos educativos de manera reflexiva y consciente dentro de formas educativas y en especial evaluativas no tradicionales. Palabras claves: TIC, educaci?n, sector rural, evaluaci?n, portafolio educativo, e-portafolio.ABSTRACT. The present work aims to propose the e-portfolio as an assessment methodological strategy of Social Sciences in ninth grade students at the Technical Educational Institution Camacho Angarita located in the rural areas of the district El Lim?n - Chaparral, with the purpose of promoting in students a greater ability to reflect on their own learning. This proposal arises initially with the use of audiovisual resources until the use of ICT in the area of Social Sciences, characterizing the teacher with a guiding role rather than transmitter, adding to the class an interactive audiovisual language of images and concepts that promote processes of communication and socialization between teacher and students. The evaluation of this experience is central to the educational process, when taken into account all the time during the construction of the e-portfolio for the student, also considering that nowadays the educational processes in the classroom require flexible curricula through which the student has space not only to learn, but also to relearn by having the opportunity to restructure their academic productions. This work includes the systematization of an educational experience: backgrounds, characterization, development stages and implications of the student portfolio; likewise It is highlighted the difficulties, obstacles, achievements and possible reforms considering some categories as the rural, pedagogical, didactic, evaluative and social. Finally, it is intended to motivate teachers to be integrated into educational processes in a thoughtful and conscious way in educational forms and more especially in non-traditional evaluative forms.La Facultad de Ciencias de la Educaci?n de la Universidad del Tolima, el director, codirector y el jurado calificador, no son responsables de los conceptos ni de las ideas expuestas por los autores del presente trabajo. Art?culo 16, Acuerdo 032 de 1976 y Art?culo 29, Acuerdo 064 de 1991, Concejo Acad?mico de la Universidad del Tolima.INTRODUCCI?N 13 1. JUSTIFICACI?N 15 2. OBJETIVOS 17 2.1 OBJETIVO GENERAL 17 2.2 OBJETIVOS ESPEC?FICOS 17 3. ANTECEDENTES 18 4. MARCO CONCEPTUAL 20 4.1 GENERALIDADES Y EVOLUCI?N DE LA EDUCACI?N EN LAS INSTITUCIONES EDUCATIVAS DESDE EL CONTEXTO RURAL 20 4.2 EDUCACI?N DEL ?REA DE CIENCIAS SOCIALES EN B?SICA SECUNDARIA 26 4.3 INTEGRACI?N DE LAS TIC AL PROCESO ENSE?ANZA-APRENDIZAJE 28 4.4 GENERALIDADES DE LA EVALUACI?N EDUCATIVA 34 4.5 LA EVALUACI?N DEL APRENDIZAJE EN EL ?REA DE CIENCIAS SOCIALES EN B?SICA SECUNDARIA 39 4.6 EL PORTAFOLIO EDUCATIVO 42 4.7 EL E-PORTAFOLIO COMO ESTRATEGIA METODOL?GICA PARA LA EVALUACI?N DE LOS ESTUDIANTES 46 5. METODOLOG?A DEL TRABAJO 51 6. DESCRIPCI?N DE LA EXPERIENCIA CON EL PORTAFOLIO EDUCATIVO 52 6.1 RECUENTO HIST?RICO DE LA INCORPORACI?N DE LAS TIC Y EL PORTAFOLIO EDUCATIVO EN LA INSTITUCI?N EDUCATIVA T?CNICA CAMACHO ANGARITA 52 6.2 RECUENTO HIST?RICO DEL DESORRALLO DEL PORTAFOLIO EDUCATIVO Y DEL USO DEL E-PORTAFOLIO EN EL ?REA DE CIENCIAS SOCIALES 53 6.3 CARACTER?STICAS DEL PORTAFOLIO EDUCATIVO. 55 6.4 COMPONENTES DEL PORTAFOLIO EDUCATIVO 58 6.5 EL E-PORTAFOLIO DEL ESTUDIANTE COMO ESTRATEGIA DE EVALUACI?N 61 6.5.1 Alcances del e-portafolio del estudiante en la evaluaci?n 62 6.5.2 Uso pedag?gico del software educativo Edraw Max. 65 6.5.3 Implicaciones del portafolio educativo y del e-portafolio del estudiante. 66 7. CONCLUSIONES 71 REFERENCIAS 73 ANEXOS 7

The Paradox of Institutional Trust and Entrepreneurship in Transitional Countries

The relationship between institutional trust and entrepreneurship is not straightforward but is intertwined with social context. This study explores this relationship by estimating the relationship between entrepreneurship and institutional trust together with a set of individual social demographics and the country of residence in 27 transitional countries in Eastern Europe and countries of the former Soviet Union using the data of the 2016 Life in Transition Survey (LiTS). The analytical framework in this study is that individuals make their decisions in choosing the type of employment by weighing the level of institutional trust in their communities, a set of democratic factors and social indicators.The results of our 2SLS estimations indicate a consistent negative association between institutional trust and entrepreneurship for all the sub-datasets. However, this cannot be interpreted as evidence for the negative effect of institutional trust on entrepreneurship. Given our analytical framework, this counter common-sense phenomenon would be interpreted as when the institutional trust was high, individuals would rather choose to have a paid job instead of running their own business in these transitional countries. This study provides evidence of how far these countries have gone on the path of transition three decades after the transition

Exotic cluster structures in the mean-field theory

Investigations of exotic cluster-like phenomena in the framework of the Skyrme-Hartree-Fock approach are reported. The occurrence of highly excited isomeric states is discussed in connection with the question of their stability in static and time-dependent Hartree Fock (TDHF) calculations. We find rotational stabilization of a 4α chain structure in 16O occurring for a limited range of angular momenta. A toroidal configuration of 40Ca was also stabilized by rotation and provides a very interesting example of rotation about a symmetry axis with a strictly quantized total angular momentum. Finally we look at the formation of nuclear pasta phases in a time-dependent approach and their classification

A Qualitative Study of Women's Lived Experiences of Conflict and Domestic Violence in Afghanistan.

This article empirically explores women's lived experiences of domestic violence and conflict in Afghanistan. A thematic analysis of 20 semistructured interviews with women living in safe houses produced three main themes about the relationship between conflict and domestic violence: (a) violence from loss of patriarchal support, (b) violence from the drug trade as an economic driver, and (c) violence from conflict-related poverty. We discuss the bidirectional nature of this relationship: Not only does conflict contribute to domestic violence, but domestic violence contributes to conflict through justifying armed intervention, separating women from economic and public life, and perpetuating patriarchy

Prevalence and consequences of noncardiac incidental findings on preprocedural imaging in the workup for transcatheter aortic valve implantation, renal sympathetic denervation, or MitraClip implantation

Background: Dedicated data on the prevalence of incidental findings (IF) stratified according to overall clinical relevance and their subsequent correlation to outcome are lacking. The aim of the present study was to describe the prevalence and consequences of noncardiac IF on computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging in the workup for interventional cardiovascular procedures. Methods: A total of 916 patients underwent preprocedural computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging in the workup for transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI), renal sympathetic denervation (RDN), or MitraClip implantation. Results: IF were found in 395 of 916 patients (43.1%), with an average of 1.8 IF per patient. Classifying the IF resulted in 155 patients with minor, 171 patients with moderate, and 69 patients with major IF. The intended procedure was delayed or canceled in only 15 of 916 (1.6%) of the patients because of the presence of potential malignant IF. In patients that did undergo the intended procedure (n = 774), the presence of a moderate or major IF (23.8%) did not impact 1-year mortality compared to no or minor IF (adjusted HR 0.90, 95% CI 0.56-1.44, P value =.65). These findings were consistent among patients referred for TAVI, RDN, or MitraClip. Conclusions: IF are frequent in patients referred for cardiovascular procedures. IF did not result in a delay or cancellation of the intended procedure in the vast majority of cases, irrespective of their clinical relevance. The presence of a major or moderate IF did not significantly impact 1-year mortality