Options for Export Diversification and Faster Export Growth in Ghana

This paper discusses how Ghana’s path to a middle income status does not have to be paved with only manufactured products. There are multiple paths and processed natural resources-based products are not necessarily a curse, and if Ghana wants and it builds the requisite capacity, it can turn them into an opportunity. This chapter suggests that one policy challenge for Ghana is to facilitate a comprehensive package of sector specific polices dedicated to fostering the technological capabilities and other nontradable public inputs necessary to potentially scale up 6 identified sectors. We also find that 3 of the 4 Presidential Special Initiative products––starch, salt, palm oil are efficient choices but the efficiency of textiles is unclear. Our analysis also indicates that when income enhancement is the objective, there is no blueprint for a diversification strategy.Ghana; economic growth; export diversification; structural transformation

The Post-2015 Global Agenda: A Framework for Country Diagnostics

With the 2015 deadline for the current Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) drawing near, the global community is shaping a new set of international development goals for the longer term. The process has involved consultations led by the UN Open Working Group guided by the 2013 report, "A New Global Partnership" of the UN High-level Panel. The work so far indicates that the post-2015 development agenda will encompass goals for social, economic, and environmental sustainability with broader coverage than the current MDGs. This paper refers to these post-2015 development goals as Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs.The World Bank Group is developing a diagnostic framework to assess the implications of implementing the post-2015 global development agenda at the country level. This framework has been applied to a pilot case study on Uganda, and some of the results of this study are highlighted here for illustrative purposes. The WBG has also developed a multi-country database that provides a starting point for similar diagnostics in other countries. Subject to data availability, the framework may be used to analyze likely progress in SDGs and their determinants and to discuss policy and financing options to accelerate their progress. This work has been shared with the Intergovernmental Committee of Experts on Sustainable Development Financing.The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the application of this framework, drawing on the pilot study of Uganda

Options for Income-Enhancing Diversification in Burkina Faso

One of the objectives of this CEM was to identify the most promising products and conduct competitiveness diagnostic. The products list is summarized in Table 1 below. Competitiveness, in this report, is seen as a combination of productivity and costs, and the second section of the CEM presents industry chapters that systematically benchmarks Burkina’s competitiveness performance against its main competitors. Sectoral chapters also explore reforms achieved and their impact on productivity, list remaining bottlenecks and opportunities and discuss possible emulation from other countries.Burkina Faso; Exports; Product Space; Economic Diversification; Economig Growth;

Succession Planning Strategies in the Air National Guard to Retain Skilled Workers

The military faces unprecedented limitation of resources due to fiscal cuts through all branches of service. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore succession planning (SP) strategies used by Air National Guard leaders to retain skilled workers. The target population consisted of 5 leaders of the Washington Air National Guard (ANG) with a minimum of 5 years of experience in the ANG. The five tenured candidates were selected given proven leadership performance, ability to influence the organization, and they provided institutional knowledge and corporate insight of SP efforts spanning nearly a century. Additionally, these leaders had direct first-hand experience with local selective retention process and successful force management practices. The conceptual framework included organizational leadership theory, succession theory, and employee retention. Semistructured interviews were conducted and relevant documents collected. All interpretations from the data were subjected to member checking to ensure trustworthiness of findings. Coding, clustering, and thematic analysis were methods used for data analysis. Prominent ideas and actions taken were coded, common codes were clustered and themes evolved. Based on the methodological triangulation of data, 5 themes surfaced: (a) skills focus verses strategic, (b) informal verses formal SP, (c) individual verses organizational, (d) priority for retention verses recruitment, and (e) limited skill leads to mission gaps. The application of the findings from the study may contribute to social change by inspiring military leadership to adopt more strategic succession planning and ensure business sustainability by changing existing SP from a recruitment-based technique to culture of retention

Commodity Export Diversification in Rwanda - Many Export Discoveries with Little Scaling-Up

Increased diversification of commodity exports, and increased numbers of high-value commodity exports, are needed to generate employment and meet the Government of Rwanda´s targets for poverty reduction. This chapter presents evidence that increased diversification of exports is linked to increased export and GDP growth. Yet, commodity exports in Rwanda are concentrated in a few commodities. The relationship between export diversification and export growth in SSA confirms that for stable, sustainable, and higher export growth, export diversification is necessary. In addition to export promotion policies such as those which attract FDI, decision makers need to design policies to accelerate diversification of the export mix. The effect of diversification on export growth will be maximized if diversification shifts the export mix in the direction of manufactured or resource-based products (low or medium technology). This implies both sector specific public strategies that can influence the export mix; and second, public investments in human capital and supporting infrastructure.Rwanda; economic growth; export diversification; structural transformation

ELEMENTOS VISIBLES PARA CREAR UNA NUEVA SOCIEDAD DESDE LA REGIÓN

La crisis social que vive hoy la humanidad exige a los científicos sociales repensar formas de reorganización social que sean una alternativa al sistema capitalista que hoy muestra un agotamiento que está llevando a la humanidad a un callejón sin salida. En este sentido se tiene que revalorar los logros que sociales que se tuvieron en el socialismo y que deben ser la pauta para el replanteamiento de un sistema social que solucione y mitigue la crisis social como efecto directo de la globalización. Pero es la crisis ecológica la que realmente es ya la alerta máxima que empuja con desesperación a plantear un nuevo camino que en el caso de la América Latina ya se está construyendo por sectores sociales marginados de la visión globalizadora. Es así como este trabajo agrega más elementos para el planteamiento del Nuevo Proyecto Histórico que ya tiene elementos económicos importantes e ideas que contribuyen al cambio sistémico

Substituent Effects on the E/Z Alkene Ratio in Medium-Membered Rings Synthesized via RCM

Ring closing metathesis (RCM) reactions using Grubb\u27s 1st generation catalyst form rings with an alkene. If the ring size permits, then a mixture of E and Z products can result but the dominant isomer cannot be predicted. By synthesizing a series of substituted 10-membered lactones and measuring the resulting E/Z ratios after RCM we are examining how steric effects control the stereoselectivity of the reaction. differences in the relative stabilities of E and Z RCM intermediates have been explored computationally at the DFT-B3LYP level of theory for series of methyl substituted and t-butyl substituted 10-membered lactones. For most substrates, the difference in energy between the two intermediates is negligible. We have synthesized five methyl substituted RCM substrates and are currently determining experimental E/Z rations for this series. We have so far observed ~1:1 E/Z ratios for substrates with a methyl group distant from the forming alkene

Deformation and chaining of flexible shells in a nematic solvent

A micrometer-scale elastic shell immersed in a nematic liquid crystal may be deformed by the host if the cost of deformation is comparable to the cost of elastic deformation of the nematic. Moreover, such inclusions interact and form chains due to quadrupolar distortions induced in the host. A continuum theory model using finite elements is developed for this system, using mesh regularization and dynamic refinement to ensure quality of the numerical representation even for large deformations. From this model, we determine the influence of the shell elasticity, nematic elasticity and anchoring condition on the shape of the shell and hence extract parameter values from an experimental realization. Extending the model to multi-body interactions, we predict the alignment angle of the chain with respect to the host nematic as a function of aspect ratio, which is found to be in excellent agreement with experiments and greatly improves upon previous theoretical predictions.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure