Failure by design: the rise and fall of a microfinance institution in Zambia – a case of Pride Zambia

Contemporary microfinance has been taken to task over a number of possible failings. At the same time insight into grassroots microfinance institution (MFI) failure is lacking. To that end this paper seeks to articulate and explain different stakeholder narratives about how a once promising Zambian microfinance institution actually failed while seeking to become a for-profit MFI. There are presently few in-depth studies of failed MFIs in those countries where microfinance is still emerging, just as it is in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), and greater focus upon high profile performers in South Asia and Latin America, which leaves other developments in regions such as SSA much less represented. Using field data from Zambia this study examines the failure of Promotion of Rural Initiatives and Development Enterprises (PRIDE Zambia, hereafter PZ) initiative. It finds poorly practiced governance and accountability mechanisms, and unstable relationships between international donors and the Board, the Board and CEO and with middle management, to be central to its final failure. The study also reveals a lack of transparency and disregard for moral obligations, and poses serious questions about how it and its finances were managed and accounted for, even while this MFI still provided much needed financial services to the poor and vulnerable clients

Genome size variation in deep-sea amphipods

Funding: This work was supported by the HADEEP projects, funded by the Nippon Foundation, Japan (2009765188); the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), UK (NE/E007171/1); Total Foundation, France; National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), New Zealand (CO1_0906); Schmidt Ocean Institute, USA (FK141109) (A.J.J. and S.B.P); Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland (MASTS) (HR09011 and DSSG15) (H.R., A.J.J., S.B.P); and the Leverhulme Trust (S.B.P.). Acknowledgements: We thank the chief scientists, crew and company of the New Zealand RV Kaharoa (KAH1301 and KAH1310) and the United States RV Falkor (Cruise FK141109). From NIWA, we thank Malcolm Clark, Ashley Rowden, Kareen Schnabel, and Sadie Mills for logistical support at the NIWA Invertebrate Collection. We thank NOAA Marine National Monuments, Richard Hall and Eric Breuer for their support and collaboration. We also thank Attila Bebes and the Iain Fraser Cytometry Centre (IFCC) for technical assistance. Electronic supplementary material is available online at https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3868216.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

A Princely Gift for Technical Education

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The relevance of the natural environment to social work : a comparison of fields that consider the natural environment in social problems : a project based upon an independent investigation

Given the natural environment\u27s importance to humans, this study was undertaken to understand how social work has considered the natural environment in approaching social problems compared to other fields that consider the natural environment. In addition, comparing literature from several fields, the author sought to evaluate the adequacy of social work\u27s attention to the natural environment as the field analyzes and conceives solutions to social problems and carries out its mission. The study examined the gaps in social work literature regarding the natural environment. The author compared published literature from social work, psychology, environmental health and medicine, and environmentalism to understand how the other fields can inform social work on levels from micro to macro. Apparently little literature attends to the natural environment in social work despite the field\u27s origination in response to problems due to urbanization and industrialization. The study gives greater attention to social work scholar John Coates\u27s (2003) comprehensive new paradigm for social work and the natural environment. The selected comparison fields provide perspective and information (both scientific and philosophical) on the natural environment\u27s relevance in social work\u27s domains including ecological systems approach (person-in-environment), child development, social welfare policy, environmental justice, and clinical practice. In addition, current global challenges call on social workers to collaborate with environmental and social activists and participate in community led responses