Social dimensions of sea turtle protection in Orissa, India: Case study of Gahirmatha (marine) Wildlife Sanctuary and the nesting beaches of Rushikulya and Debi

pdf has 37p

Improving Diabetes with an Exercise Log

Diabetes is a prevalent and costly disease. Everyone benefits from physical activity, but it is particularly beneficial for people with diabetes. One method to improve motivation and adherence to physical activity may be the use of monitoring with an exercise log.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/fmclerk/1367/thumbnail.jp

Employee Empowerment: The Key to Foundation Staff Satisfaction

Although few in numbers, foundation staff are responsible for managing hundreds of billions of dollars in charitable assets. These staff make crucial decisions about how best to allocate those resources to address some of our most pressing domestic and global challenges -- from child welfare to climate change. Given the important goals that foundation staff members are working to achieve, their performance should be a concern not just to those who supervise them, but to all of us. If we accept the argument that staff experiences are connected to performance, then foundation staff perceptions matter greatly. To better understand the experience of foundation staff, the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) surveyed 1,168 staff members at 31 foundations. The surveys were conducted from 2007 to 2011 as part of CEP's Staff Perception Report (SPR) process. Through these surveys, we collect quantitative and qualitative data from respondents. Though our dataset is limited to the 31 foundations that chose to commission an SPR from CEP, it is the largest dataset that exists about foundation staff members' job satisfaction. We have sought, therefore, to analyze it to understand the answers to some basic questions: How satisfied are foundation staff in their jobs? What contributes to their satisfaction? What the data strongly indicate is that leaders set the tone. Their choices -- about a wide range of issues, including communication, delegation of authority, role definition, availability of resources, provision of feedback, recognition of contributions, and opportunities for learning and growth -- shape staff experiences. These dimensions matter far more than the issues that often are the focus of conversations about staff retention and satisfaction, such as pay levels or workload.Also included in this report are case studies of two foundations whose SPR results were particularly strong: The Commonwealth Fund and The Skillman Foundation. These two foundations' staff members rated highly on satisfaction and a host of other dimensions

Multiple Traits in the Marriage Market: Does Diversity Sometimes Win?

A critical part of forming a long-term partnership, be it marriage, employment, co-authorship or some other commitment, is having to trade off among the various traits of one's potential partners. The nature of this trade-off depends both on the type of commitment being considered, as well as on the person making the commitment. In this paper I focus on the impact that this trade-off has on the marriage market equilibrium. Agents differ from one another along more than one trait, and preferences over traits is not homogenous. This implies that all agents do not agree completely on the desirability of potential partners. I characterize both the core allocation as well as the equilibrium that results when there are costly search frictions. The main finding is that in the presence of frictions, an individual who is moderately appealing to diverse tastes among the opposite sex may make a better match than someone who is found to be stunning by one group, but leaves the others cold. Assortative matching patterns emerge along more than one dimension, with the result that there is positive correlation along more than one trait in matched individuals.

Gender Equity in Education: A Review of Trends and Factors

This review paper draws on recent data to map the access and participation rates of girls relative to boys. This paper offers a critical assessment of findings of different recent researches on school education in India identifying the areas that need further research. The paper reveals that while enrolment of girls has increased rapidly since the 1990s, there is still a substantial gap in upper primary and secondary schooling and gender inequalities interlock with other forms of social inequality, notably caste, ethnicity and religion. The paper concludes with recommendation for implementation of enabling policy to meet the challenges for improving the quality of schools ensuring better opportunities for girls at higher levels of education, notably upper primary and secondary schools

The Role of the Food & Beverage Sector in Expanding Economic Opportunity

The food and beverage industry has a unique role in expanding economic opportunity because it is universal to human life and health. The industry operates at multiple levels of society where billions of people grow, transform, and sell food, particularly in developing countries where agriculture dominates all other economic sectors. Yet a vast share of these workers cannot both satisfy their immediate consumption needs and earn sufficient income from food markets to improve their lives. This report applies the results of primary and secondary research to a number of case studies to draw lessons on strategies for expanding economic opportunity in the food & beverage sector. Primary research consisted of telephone interviews and secondary research included a review of reports, studies, and articles from a range of sources for each case study. The result is a paper that provides insight into how pioneering large firms are breaking this dilemma and building economic opportunity around food beverage value chains

How Far Have We Come? Foundation CEOs on Progress and Impact

The performance of major U.S. foundations is much discussed and debated. It is also very difficult to gauge. The past decade or so has seen increased interest and effort related to the question of how foundations are doing, and how they might do better. These questions are not new. The earliest major American philanthropists were interested in answering them. But recent years have seen an uptick in at least the discussion of these issues.Indeed, our organization, the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) has focused much energy on this issue, and we have noted how uniquely challenging assessing foundation performance can be. Among the challenges are the difficulty of drawing a causal link between what a foundation funds and change on the ground, the extended time horizons associated with making progress on the difficult issues foundations often address, and the fact that information from different program areas cannot be easily aggregated using some common measure. There is no universal measure -- no easy analog to return on investment -- for foundations.So what conclusion do foundation leaders draw about their success? Brest and others suggest that, "philanthropy remains an underperformer in achieving social outcomes."6 Do foundation CEOs agree? How much progress do they believe foundations have made?In January 2013, we sent surveys to 472 full-time CEOs leading U.S.-based foundations that give at least $5 million annually in grants; 211 CEOs completed the survey for a 45 percent response rate. The survey was designed to collect data on CEOs' understanding of progress and their attitudes and practices in relation to foundation impact. This research was not meant to serve as an objective evaluation of how much progress foundations have made through their work