Good governance in microcredit strategy for poverty reduction: focus on western Mindanao, Philippines

The study argues for the integration of good governance principles in developing financially viable, effective and social equity-laden microcredit strategy for the impoverished agrarian reform beneficiaries in Western Mindanao. It particularly examines the program design and implementation strategies of the Enterprise Development Credit (EDC) sub-component of the Western Mindanao Community Initiatives Project (WMCIP). The study aims to provide lessons and insights for the planning and implementation of comprehensive and integrated Official Development Assistance (ODA)-funded government programs for poverty reduction and rural development. The data and information were generated from combined descriptive and field studies covering a sample survey, group discussions, interviews, field visits and observations, official documents and other secondary sources. The respondents were officials and field personnel of WMCIP, line agencies, local government units (LGUs), and non-government organizations (NGOs); officers and members of cooperatives and people’s organizations (POs); religious leaders and informal moneylenders; and WMCIP beneficiaries. Overall, microcredit is applicable only to the enterprising poor. The application of microcredit to other poverty groups who actually need subsidies and social safety nets would be a mistake. Thus, the EDC sub-component should be reformulated and revitalized following the program design of the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC). Its graduated strategy for helping the poor should be applied to the poverty pyramid by categorizing the WMCIP beneficiaries into four poverty groups: (1) micro-enterprise operators or the less poor, (2) enterprising or moderately poor, (3) laboring or very poor, and (4) poorest of the poor and most vulnerable or the ultra-poor. The results further reveal that based on the poverty pyramid, the credit program designs of the Credit Assistance Program for Program Beneficiaries Development (CAP-PBD) and Quedan Rural Credit and Finance Corporation (QUEDANCOR) are readily applicable to the credit needs and financial capabilities of the enterprising poor. Beyond QUEDANCOR’s microcredit facility, the non- enterprising poor may actually opt for financial assistance from cooperatives or CAP- PBD to help finance their agriculture-and fishery-related production activities. On the other hand, the beneficiaries and their “not-so-strong” organizations that could not readily comply with the minimum credit standards should be provided with farm production subsidies, capability-building services and social safety nets under a special poverty alleviation project. This will enable them to pass minimum credit standards within a transition period of six months to one year. In view of WMCIP’s EDC sub-component, the study further identifies the factors that enable or limit successful design and implementation of microcredit program and the provision of public support services. The enabling factors are vital to planning and decision-making that will eventually make the program effective and appropriate. The limiting factors, on the other hand, facilitate the identification of strategies to manage and control credit risks and other circumstances that may hinder participation and adversely affect the attainment of objectives and desired outcomes. On the whole, the application of good governance will improve program design and will make the implementation strategies acceptable to all organized stakeholders and individual end-beneficiaries. This will also improve the administrative capabilities of partner organizations and enable them to be effective and responsive to the differentiated poverty conditions, credit needs, preferences and financial capabilities of the impoverished target beneficiaries. These are consequently geared towards the attainment of the long-term vision of sustainable human development for the impoverished WMCIP beneficiaries. The integration of good governance into microcredit intends to improve its program design, implementation strategies and processes. However, support services are actually necessary so as to simultaneously attain the desired social equity and financial viability objectives. The program should be orchestrated within a comprehensive and integrated approach to poverty reduction and rural development. The good governance of microcredit requires multiple organizational partnerships among the different government agencies, business sector and the civil society. Most importantly, the financial and technical support programs of the international donor community are absolutely necessary in the light of Philippine economic and fiscal challenges.microfinance; governance; microcredit; poverty; Zamboanga; Philippines

Traffic congestion and management in Zamboanga City, Philippines: The public transport commuters' point of view

This academic research investigates the issue of traffic congestion and management in Zamboanga City, Philippines, from the perspective of public transport commuters. Through a survey conducted among a representative sample of commuters, the study aims to shed light on the challenges faced by commuters in relation to traffic congestion and the effectiveness of existing management strategies. The findings reveal that traffic congestion in Zamboanga City significantly impacts public transport commuters, leading to longer travel times, increased stress levels, and reduced productivity. Moreover, the study identifies key factors contributing to traffic congestion, including inadequate road infrastructure, unregulated street parking, and inefficient traffic flow management. The research also examines the public transport commuters' viewpoint on the current management strategies employed in Zamboanga City. The data indicates that commuters perceive a lack of comprehensive planning and coordination among various transportation authorities, resulting in ineffective traffic management. Based on the analysis of the survey data, this research provides recommendations for improving traffic congestion and management in Zamboanga City. These include enhancing road infrastructure, implementing stricter parking regulations, and developing integrated transportation policies. The study concludes that addressing the concerns of public transport commuters is crucial for achieving efficient traffic management in Zamboanga City and improving overall urban mobility

Good governance in microcredit strategy for poverty reduction: focus on western Mindanao, Philippines

The study argues for the integration of good governance principles in developing financially viable, effective and social equity-laden microcredit strategy for the impoverished agrarian reform beneficiaries in Western Mindanao. It particularly examines the program design and implementation strategies of the Enterprise Development Credit (EDC) sub-component of the Western Mindanao Community Initiatives Project (WMCIP). The study aims to provide lessons and insights for the planning and implementation of comprehensive and integrated Official Development Assistance (ODA)-funded government programs for poverty reduction and rural development. The data and information were generated from combined descriptive and field studies covering a sample survey, group discussions, interviews, field visits and observations, official documents and other secondary sources. The respondents were officials and field personnel of WMCIP, line agencies, local government units (LGUs), and non-government organizations (NGOs); officers and members of cooperatives and people’s organizations (POs); religious leaders and informal moneylenders; and WMCIP beneficiaries. Overall, microcredit is applicable only to the enterprising poor. The application of microcredit to other poverty groups who actually need subsidies and social safety nets would be a mistake. Thus, the EDC sub-component should be reformulated and revitalized following the program design of the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC). Its graduated strategy for helping the poor should be applied to the poverty pyramid by categorizing the WMCIP beneficiaries into four poverty groups: (1) micro-enterprise operators or the less poor, (2) enterprising or moderately poor, (3) laboring or very poor, and (4) poorest of the poor and most vulnerable or the ultra-poor. The results further reveal that based on the poverty pyramid, the credit program designs of the Credit Assistance Program for Program Beneficiaries Development (CAP-PBD) and Quedan Rural Credit and Finance Corporation (QUEDANCOR) are readily applicable to the credit needs and financial capabilities of the enterprising poor. Beyond QUEDANCOR’s microcredit facility, the non- enterprising poor may actually opt for financial assistance from cooperatives or CAP- PBD to help finance their agriculture-and fishery-related production activities. On the other hand, the beneficiaries and their “not-so-strong” organizations that could not readily comply with the minimum credit standards should be provided with farm production subsidies, capability-building services and social safety nets under a special poverty alleviation project. This will enable them to pass minimum credit standards within a transition period of six months to one year. In view of WMCIP’s EDC sub-component, the study further identifies the factors that enable or limit successful design and implementation of microcredit program and the provision of public support services. The enabling factors are vital to planning and decision-making that will eventually make the program effective and appropriate. The limiting factors, on the other hand, facilitate the identification of strategies to manage and control credit risks and other circumstances that may hinder participation and adversely affect the attainment of objectives and desired outcomes. On the whole, the application of good governance will improve program design and will make the implementation strategies acceptable to all organized stakeholders and individual end-beneficiaries. This will also improve the administrative capabilities of partner organizations and enable them to be effective and responsive to the differentiated poverty conditions, credit needs, preferences and financial capabilities of the impoverished target beneficiaries. These are consequently geared towards the attainment of the long-term vision of sustainable human development for the impoverished WMCIP beneficiaries. The integration of good governance into microcredit intends to improve its program design, implementation strategies and processes. However, support services are actually necessary so as to simultaneously attain the desired social equity and financial viability objectives. The program should be orchestrated within a comprehensive and integrated approach to poverty reduction and rural development. The good governance of microcredit requires multiple organizational partnerships among the different government agencies, business sector and the civil society. Most importantly, the financial and technical support programs of the international donor community are absolutely necessary in the light of Philippine economic and fiscal challenges

Good governance in microcredit strategy for poverty reduction: focus on western Mindanao, Philippines

The study argues for the integration of good governance principles in developing financially viable, effective and social equity-laden microcredit strategy for the impoverished agrarian reform beneficiaries in Western Mindanao. It particularly examines the program design and implementation strategies of the Enterprise Development Credit (EDC) sub-component of the Western Mindanao Community Initiatives Project (WMCIP). The study aims to provide lessons and insights for the planning and implementation of comprehensive and integrated Official Development Assistance (ODA)-funded government programs for poverty reduction and rural development. The data and information were generated from combined descriptive and field studies covering a sample survey, group discussions, interviews, field visits and observations, official documents and other secondary sources. The respondents were officials and field personnel of WMCIP, line agencies, local government units (LGUs), and non-government organizations (NGOs); officers and members of cooperatives and people’s organizations (POs); religious leaders and informal moneylenders; and WMCIP beneficiaries. Overall, microcredit is applicable only to the enterprising poor. The application of microcredit to other poverty groups who actually need subsidies and social safety nets would be a mistake. Thus, the EDC sub-component should be reformulated and revitalized following the program design of the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC). Its graduated strategy for helping the poor should be applied to the poverty pyramid by categorizing the WMCIP beneficiaries into four poverty groups: (1) micro-enterprise operators or the less poor, (2) enterprising or moderately poor, (3) laboring or very poor, and (4) poorest of the poor and most vulnerable or the ultra-poor. The results further reveal that based on the poverty pyramid, the credit program designs of the Credit Assistance Program for Program Beneficiaries Development (CAP-PBD) and Quedan Rural Credit and Finance Corporation (QUEDANCOR) are readily applicable to the credit needs and financial capabilities of the enterprising poor. Beyond QUEDANCOR’s microcredit facility, the non- enterprising poor may actually opt for financial assistance from cooperatives or CAP- PBD to help finance their agriculture-and fishery-related production activities. On the other hand, the beneficiaries and their “not-so-strong” organizations that could not readily comply with the minimum credit standards should be provided with farm production subsidies, capability-building services and social safety nets under a special poverty alleviation project. This will enable them to pass minimum credit standards within a transition period of six months to one year. In view of WMCIP’s EDC sub-component, the study further identifies the factors that enable or limit successful design and implementation of microcredit program and the provision of public support services. The enabling factors are vital to planning and decision-making that will eventually make the program effective and appropriate. The limiting factors, on the other hand, facilitate the identification of strategies to manage and control credit risks and other circumstances that may hinder participation and adversely affect the attainment of objectives and desired outcomes. On the whole, the application of good governance will improve program design and will make the implementation strategies acceptable to all organized stakeholders and individual end-beneficiaries. This will also improve the administrative capabilities of partner organizations and enable them to be effective and responsive to the differentiated poverty conditions, credit needs, preferences and financial capabilities of the impoverished target beneficiaries. These are consequently geared towards the attainment of the long-term vision of sustainable human development for the impoverished WMCIP beneficiaries. The integration of good governance into microcredit intends to improve its program design, implementation strategies and processes. However, support services are actually necessary so as to simultaneously attain the desired social equity and financial viability objectives. The program should be orchestrated within a comprehensive and integrated approach to poverty reduction and rural development. The good governance of microcredit requires multiple organizational partnerships among the different government agencies, business sector and the civil society. Most importantly, the financial and technical support programs of the international donor community are absolutely necessary in the light of Philippine economic and fiscal challenges

Women’s representation in local politics: Evidence from The Philippines

Although at the beginning of the 21st century, over 95 percent of all countries in the world have granted women the right to vote and the right to stand for election (Ballington & Karam, 2005), gender equality in terms of representation in political structures remains to be a challenge around the world. This study seeks to determine the level of political representation of women at the level of the smallest unit of Philippine government—the village or barangay. Data comparison—within a span of 11 years—using the results of the July 15, 2002 and October 28, 2013 barangay elections, shows an increase of women’s representation in the 98 barangays of Zamboanga City, Philippines. After the 2013 barangay elections, the total number of female Barangay Captains increased to 14 compared to 8 in the 2002 election results. A total of 159 female Barangay Councilors were also elected in 2013, an increase of 14 percent compared to the 139 female councilors who won in the 2002 elections. The increasing number of elected female barangay officials in 2013 reached 173 women (22 percent) compared to 147 (19 percent) in 2002. In year 2013, a total of 147 women (18.75 percent) were elected as barangay officials out of 784 barangay positions throughout the city. The study concludes that women’s participation in politics at the barangay level is directly and inversely proportional to the representation of men in the same political structures. While existing laws and pertinent public policies promoting women’s equal representation with men in local politics and the efforts to improve the political landscape for women around the world, still the political structures, even at the smallest unit of the government, is a male-dominated arena

First LIGO search for gravitational wave bursts from cosmic (super)strings

We report on a matched-filter search for gravitational wave bursts from cosmic string cusps using LIGO data from the fourth science run (S4) which took place in February and March 2005. No gravitational waves were detected in 14.9 days of data from times when all three LIGO detectors were operating. We interpret the result in terms of a frequentist upper limit on the rate of gravitational wave bursts and use the limits on the rate to constrain the parameter space (string tension, reconnection probability, and loop sizes) of cosmic string models.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures. Replaced with version submitted to PR

Stacked Search for Gravitational Waves from the 2006 SGR 1900+14 Storm

We present the results of a LIGO search for short-duration gravitational waves (GWs) associated with the 2006 March 29 SGR 1900+14 storm. A new search method is used, "stacking'' the GW data around the times of individual soft-gamma bursts in the storm to enhance sensitivity for models in which multiple bursts are accompanied by GW emission. We assume that variation in the time difference between burst electromagnetic emission and potential burst GW emission is small relative to the GW signal duration, and we time-align GW excess power time-frequency tilings containing individual burst triggers to their corresponding electromagnetic emissions. We use two GW emission models in our search: a fluence-weighted model and a flat (unweighted) model for the most electromagnetically energetic bursts. We find no evidence of GWs associated with either model. Model-dependent GW strain, isotropic GW emission energy E_GW, and \gamma = E_GW / E_EM upper limits are estimated using a variety of assumed waveforms. The stacking method allows us to set the most stringent model-dependent limits on transient GW strain published to date. We find E_GW upper limit estimates (at a nominal distance of 10 kpc) of between 2x10^45 erg and 6x10^50 erg depending on waveform type. These limits are an order of magnitude lower than upper limits published previously for this storm and overlap with the range of electromagnetic energies emitted in SGR giant flares.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

Implications For The Origin Of GRB 051103 From LIGO Observations

We present the results of a LIGO search for gravitational waves (GWs) associated with GRB 051103, a short-duration hard-spectrum gamma-ray burst (GRB) whose electromagnetically determined sky position is coincident with the spiral galaxy M81, which is 3.6 Mpc from Earth. Possible progenitors for short-hard GRBs include compact object mergers and soft gamma repeater (SGR) giant flares. A merger progenitor would produce a characteristic GW signal that should be detectable at the distance of M81, while GW emission from an SGR is not expected to be detectable at that distance. We found no evidence of a GW signal associated with GRB 051103. Assuming weakly beamed gamma-ray emission with a jet semi-angle of 30 deg we exclude a binary neutron star merger in M81 as the progenitor with a confidence of 98%. Neutron star-black hole mergers are excluded with > 99% confidence. If the event occurred in M81 our findings support the the hypothesis that GRB 051103 was due to an SGR giant flare, making it the most distant extragalactic magnetar observed to date.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures. For a repository of data used in the publication, go to: https://dcc.ligo.org/cgi-bin/DocDB/ShowDocument?docid=15166 . Also see the announcement for this paper on ligo.org at: http://www.ligo.org/science/Publication-GRB051103/index.ph

Sensitivity to Gravitational Waves from Compact Binary Coalescences Achieved during LIGO's Fifth and Virgo's First Science Run

We summarize the sensitivity achieved by the LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave detectors for compact binary coalescence (CBC) searches during LIGO's fifth science run and Virgo's first science run. We present noise spectral density curves for each of the four detectors that operated during these science runs which are representative of the typical performance achieved by the detectors for CBC searches. These spectra are intended for release to the public as a summary of detector performance for CBC searches during these science runs.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure

Gravitational Waves From Known Pulsars: Results From The Initial Detector Era

We present the results of searches for gravitational waves from a large selection of pulsars using data from the most recent science runs (S6, VSR2 and VSR4) of the initial generation of interferometric gravitational wave detectors LIGO (Laser Interferometric Gravitational-wave Observatory) and Virgo. We do not see evidence for gravitational wave emission from any of the targeted sources but produce upper limits on the emission amplitude. We highlight the results from seven young pulsars with large spin-down luminosities. We reach within a factor of five of the canonical spin-down limit for all seven of these, whilst for the Crab and Vela pulsars we further surpass their spin-down limits. We present new or updated limits for 172 other pulsars (including both young and millisecond pulsars). Now that the detectors are undergoing major upgrades, and, for completeness, we bring together all of the most up-to-date results from all pulsars searched for during the operations of the first-generation LIGO, Virgo and GEO600 detectors. This gives a total of 195 pulsars including the most recent results described in this paper.United States National Science FoundationScience and Technology Facilities Council of the United KingdomMax-Planck-SocietyState of Niedersachsen/GermanyAustralian Research CouncilInternational Science Linkages program of the Commonwealth of AustraliaCouncil of Scientific and Industrial Research of IndiaIstituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare of ItalySpanish Ministerio de Economia y CompetitividadConselleria d'Economia Hisenda i Innovacio of the Govern de les Illes BalearsNetherlands Organisation for Scientific ResearchPolish Ministry of Science and Higher EducationFOCUS Programme of Foundation for Polish ScienceRoyal SocietyScottish Funding CouncilScottish Universities Physics AllianceNational Aeronautics and Space AdministrationOTKA of HungaryLyon Institute of Origins (LIO)National Research Foundation of KoreaIndustry CanadaProvince of Ontario through the Ministry of Economic Development and InnovationNational Science and Engineering Research Council CanadaCarnegie TrustLeverhulme TrustDavid and Lucile Packard FoundationResearch CorporationAlfred P. Sloan FoundationAstronom