Soil water dynamics under field crops

Imperial Users onl

Intimate Partner Survivors’ Help-Seeking and Protection Efforts: A Person-Oriented Analysis

Domestic violence advocates and researchers advocate for a survivor-centered approach for assisting women experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV), with individualized safety plans and services; yet little empirical work has been done to determine IPV survivors’ specific combinations of vulnerabilities and assets that might inform such an approach. Using latent profile analysis of a cohort of 448 survivors, five distinct subgroups were previously identified in terms of biopsychosocial asset and vulnerability profiles. The purpose of the current study was to apply person-oriented methodology for survivor-centered investigation of differences in help-seeking and protective actions according to subgroup membership within this cohort. Though not differing demographically, the subgroups were found to differ significantly and meaningfully in their patterns of IPV help-seeking and protective actions. Thus, reliance on population-aggregate linear relationships between IPV exposure and safety efforts may risk overlooking important variation by vulnerability and asset profile, and knowledge of distinct clusters among functioning profiles may help with understanding of survivors’ coping strategies. The authors outline service-need considerations across the subgroups and provide guidance for targeted outreach, locating IPV survivors and matching services to their needs

A Comprehensive HIV Program by an Indigenous Organization in Nigeria: A 5 Year Progress Report

Background: Nigeria has a high HIV burden with over 3,500,000 infected and more than 200,000 deaths annually. Since 2004, international donor agencies and implementing partners managed HIV programs in Nigeria. Excellence and Friends Management Care Centre (EFMC) was the first local organization to be funded to provide comprehensive HIV services in Nigeria. Aim: To document the need, processes and products of five years of indigenous HIV programming in Nigeria. Materials and Methods: PEPFAR funded EFMC from 2011 to provide comprehensive HIV services in Nasarawa State and Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). EFMC engaged staff, assessed and activated sites, trained and empowered healthcare workers, provided consumables, enrolled clients and provided preventive, treatment and support services. EFMC also strengthened healthcare systems and refurbished and equipped facilities for integrated HIV services. Results: EFMC decentralized, commonized and integrated HIV services in over 120 service delivery points with an average cost per target of US$ 273.12. We tested 623,148 people for HIV. The positivity rate was 3.3% (annual range 1.9–4.5%). We placed 10,150 on Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy. In addition, we tested 164,746 pregnant women for HIV with 5,442 (3.3%) positive and provided 4,189 (77.0%) positive pregnant women with ARV prophylaxis. More than 500 healthcare workers in HIV program management. Conclusions: EFMC’s “commonization” model is cost-effective and efficient. Progressively funding local partners will ensure sustainability of HIV programs. Using program results as national figures will save cost from periodic sentinel studies. Government should support local NGOs to control the HIV epidemic in Nigeria

Starting-up unregistered and firm performance in Turkey

© 2016 The Author(s) Recent years have seen a questioning of the negative representation of informal sector entrepreneurship and an emergent view that it may offer significant benefits. This paper advances this rethinking by evaluating the relationship between business registration and future firm performance. Until now, the assumption has been that starting-up unregistered is linked to weaker firm performance. Using World Bank Enterprise Survey data on 2494 formal enterprises in Turkey, and controlling for other determinants of firm performance as well as the endogeneity of the registration decision, the finding is that formal enterprises that started-up unregistered and spent longer unregistered have significantly higher subsequent annual sales and productivity growth rates compared with those registered from the outset. This is argued to be because in such weak institutional environments, the advantages of registering from the outset are outweighed by the benefits of deferring business registration and the low risks of detection and punishment. The resultant implication is that there is a need to shift away from the conventional eradication approach based on the negative depiction of informal entrepreneurship as poorly performing, and towards a more facilitating approach that improves the benefits of business registration and tackles the systemic formal institutional deficiencies that lead entrepreneurs to decide to delay the registration of their ventures

State owned enterprises as bribe payers: the role of institutional environment

Our paper draws attention to a neglected channel of corruption—the bribe payments by state-owned enterprises (SOEs). This is an important phenomenon as bribe payments by SOEs fruitlessly waste national resources, compromising public welfare and national prosperity. Using a large dataset of 30,249 firms from 50 countries, we show that, in general, SOEs are less likely to pay bribes for achieving organizational objectives owing to their political connectivity. However, in deteriorated institutional environments, SOEs may be subjected to potential managerial rent-seeking behaviors, which disproportionately increase SOE bribe propensity relative to privately owned enterprises. Specifically, our findings highlight the importance of fostering democracy and rule of law, reducing prevalence of corruption and shortening power distance in reducing the incidence of SOE bribery