1,133 research outputs found
Practical Innovations in Accountability: Comparative Constituency Feedback
This is a tool for obtaining feedback on a program's perception by various stakeholders (it can be applied at different points along the development value chain, between funders and grantees, and between organizations and their primary constituents). It uses a questionnaire to collect perceptions from organizations' constituents on key aspects of the organizations' performance. The questionnaire is administered simultaneously to a comparable constituency group for a cohort of similar organizations
Creating the Missing Feedback Loop
This article describes how agricultural development agencies can implement feedback systems to hear systematically from the intended beneficiaries of their work. Feedback systems relate to debates on reforming accountability, participatory monitoring and evaluation and social accountability. Based on reasoning and the best available evidence, the article argues that in most projects, quantified summaries of smallholder farmersâ views can be collected. The data can provide real?time performance indicators which create incentives for staff to focus on the priorities of intended beneficiaries. If acted on, this can improve impact and sustainability. Feedback processes can also be inherently empowering. Leading examples are discussed as are three major challenges: ethical issues, practical issues and management incentives. The article concludes that feedback systems can create an organisational link between participatory processes and management systems. As such, they can make a substantial contribution to improving performance
I Want You, Dearie
https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/4717/thumbnail.jp
The State of Health Insurance in California: Findings From the 2009 California Health Interview Survey
Analyzes sources of coverage and uninsurance rates by county, effects of declines in income and employer-sponsored insurance, disparities, access to and affordability of care, role of public insurance, and projected impact of federal healthcare reform
On the ecological approach to Information and control for roboticists
The ongoing and increasingly important trend in robotics to conceive designs that decentralize control is paralleled by currently active research paradigms in the
study of perception and action. James Gibsonâs ecological approach is one of these paradigms. Gibsonâs approach emerged in part as a reaction to representationalist and
computationalist approaches, which devote the bulk of their resources to the study of internal processes. The ecological approach instead focuses on constraints and
ambient energy patterns in the animalâenvironment coalition. The present article reviews how the emphasis on the environment by ecological psychologists has given
rise to the concepts of direct perception, higher order information, active information pick up, informationbased control laws, prospective control, and direct learning. Examples are included to illustrate these concepts and to show how they can be applied to the
construction of robots. Action is described as emergent and selfâorganized. It is argued that knowledge about perception, action, and learning as it occurs in living organisms may facilitate the construction of robots, more obviously so if the aim is to construct (to some extent) biologically plausible robots.This material is based upon work supported by grant FFI2009â13416âC02â02 of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation
Juries in U.S. Patent Cases: A Comparative Portrait of the Boundaries of Democracy
âIt is clear that juries will necessarily differ in âcompetence,â but it is at best incongruous to suggest that a society that sends its citizens routinely into space could never produce a jury competent to determine a case some judge might consider too âcomplexâ for people with âcommon experienceâ to decide.
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