Sustained Impacts of Kaizen Training

We conducted a randomized controlled trial of short-term management training for small manufacturers in two study sites in Vietnam and collected follow-up data repeatedly for two years to assess longer-term impacts than the existing studies of management training. Our training programs introduced participants to Kaizen, a common-sense approach to production management. In both sites, many participants started to recognize the importance of learning about management and improved their management skills. The impacts on management skills were statistically significant two years after the programs. Our results suggest that the training program increased participants’ value added in one of the two study sites, likely because they learned how to eliminate wastes in production.Emerging State ProjectJEL Classification Codes: L2, M1, O1http://www.grips.ac.jp/list/jp/facultyinfo/sonobe_tetsushi

Willingness to Pay for Managerial Training: A Case from the Knitwear Industry in Northern Vietnam

経済学 / EconomicsManagerial capital has received attention in recent years as one of the major determinants for enterprise productivity, growth, and longevity. While recent empirical studies make it clear that training intervention can improve the management level, it remains unclear why the managers had not made efforts to obtain these basic knowledge. To test the hypothesis that the reason lies in low valuation for obtaining knowledge, we conduct experimental training programs for the managers of SMEs in a knitwear cluster in rural town in Vietnam. We find that the demand for these trainings was indeed low prior to trainings, but increased greatly with own learning experience, and that those with a higher prior demand tended to benefit more from the training. We also examine the spill-over effects from their peers and find their heterogeneous impacts across the types of trainings conducted.http://www.grips.ac.jp/list/jp/facultyinfo/sonobe_tetsushi

A hidden HIV epidemic among women in Vietnam

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The HIV epidemic in Vietnam is still concentrated among high risk populations, including IDU and FSW. The response of the government has focused on the recognized high risk populations, mainly young male drug users. This concentration on one high risk population may leave other populations under-protected or unprepared for the risk and the consequences of HIV infection. In particular, attention to women's risks of exposure and needs for care may not receive sufficient attention as long as the perception persists that the epidemic is predominantly among young males. Without more knowledge of the epidemic among women, policy makers and planners cannot ensure that programs will also serve women's needs.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>More than 300 documents appearing in the period 1990 to 2005 were gathered and reviewed to build an understanding of HIV infection and related risk behaviors among women and of the changes over time that may suggest needed policy changes.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>It appears that the risk of HIV transmission among women in Vietnam has been underestimated; the reported data may represent as little as 16% of the real number. Although modeling predicted that there would be 98,500 cases of HIV-infected women in 2005, only 15,633 were accounted for in reports from the health system. That could mean that in 2005, up to 83,000 women infected with HIV have not been detected by the health care system, for a number of possible reasons. For both detection and prevention, these women can be divided into sub-groups with different risk characteristics. They can be infected by sharing needles and syringes with IDU partners, or by having unsafe sex with clients, husbands or lovers. However, most new infections among women can be traced to sexual relations with young male injecting drug users engaged in extramarital sex. Each of these groups may need different interventions to increase the detection rate and thus ensure that the women receive the care they need.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Women in Vietnam are increasingly at risk of HIV transmission but that risk is under-reported and under-recognized. The reasons are that women are not getting tested, are not aware of risks, do not protect themselves and are not being protected by men. Based on this information, policy-makers and planners can develop better prevention and care programs that not only address women's needs but also reduce further spread of the infection among the general population.</p

RPE Indigenous Peoples (Asia)

Sections 9, 11 and 12 missing; section 10 incomplet

Report on the Third Workshop on Social Sector Decentralization (Southeast Asia), phase II, Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia, 22-24 July, 1999

Meeting: Workshop on Social Sector Decentralization (Southeast Asia), phase II, 3rd, 22-24 July, 1999, Denpasar, I

Flash-Flood Susceptibility Assessment Using Multi-Criteria Decision Making and Machine Learning Supported by Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques

Concerning the significant increase in the negative effects of flash-floods worldwide, the main goal of this research is to evaluate the power of the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), fi (kNN), K-Star (KS) algorithms and their ensembles in flash-flood susceptibility mapping. To train the two stand-alone models and their ensembles, for the first stage, the areas affected in the past by torrential phenomena are identified using remote sensing techniques. Approximately 70% of these areas are used as a training data set along with 10 flash-flood predictors. It should be remarked that the remote sensing techniques play a crucial role in obtaining eight out of 10 flash-flood conditioning factors. The predictive capability of predictors is evaluated through the Information Gain Ratio (IGR) method. As expected, the slope angle results in the factor with the highest predictive capability. The application of the AHP model implies the construction of ten pair-wise comparison matrices for calculating the normalized weights of each flash-flood predictor. The computed weights are used as input data in kNN–AHP and KS–AHP ensemble models for calculating the Flash-Flood Potential Index (FFPI). The FFPI also is determined through kNN and KS stand-alone models. The performance of the models is evaluated using statistical metrics (i.e., sensitivity, specificity and accuracy) while the validation of the results is done by constructing the Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) Curve and Area Under Curve (AUC) values and by calculating the density of torrential pixels within FFPI classes. Overall, the best performance is obtained by the kNN–AHP ensemble model.© 2019 by the author