Data envelopment analysis as a benchmarking application for humanitarian organizations

Humanitarian aid organizations are under tremendous pressure and competition for donor funds to sustain their operations. However, donor contribution levels have remained relatively stagnant over the past five years and are unlikely to grow in the foreseeable future. Additionally, donor policies and mandates have added pressure on humanitarian aid organizations to comply with new and more complex requirements. Many humanitarian aid organizations work in some of the most challenging areas of the world, where conflict, famine, environmental, economic, and cultural challenges are prevalent. Given all these factors, a novel form of performance and efficiency measurement is needed to evaluate the performance of humanitarian aid organizations. This study addressed the possible use of Data Envelopment Analysis that measures the efficiency of an organization’s country programs. Limited funding from donors, competition, and the humanitarian imperative to reach people in need requires humanitarian aid organizations to become better and more effective stewards of donor contributions. This study used a mixed-methods approach to compare and evaluate the efficiency of the country portfolios of a humanitarian aid organization using DEA. The DEA models used are CRS and VRS using an output orientation. This study used an explanatory sequential design. First, a quantitative approach using DEA was employed to compare the efficiency of an organization’s country portfolios. Second, a qualitative effort consisted of a focus group of DEA researchers who have performed DEA on humanitarian aid programs. The focus group addressed the views, perspectives, and issues of conducting DEA within the humanitarian sector. The DEA study was conducted in three phases. A sample of 19 country portfolios was used in this study. The results showed that 10% of the countries were efficient in the aggregate under a CRS model, and 20% using a VRS model. The focus group provided insights and perceptions of DEA from a practical perspective. These were categorized from technical requirements and communications with a client. The challenge in the humanitarian sector is that DEA is not a well known methodology. An explanation is often required on what DEA can do for an organization and its limitations. Additionally, an explanation was often needed for a client to understand how decision making units (DMUs), variables, and DEA techniques can be used to support a humanitarian aid organization

Spiritual War: Revival, Child Prophesies, and a Battle Over Sorcery in Vanuatu

Sorcery and Christianity have been in an intimate and seemingly opposing relationship on the small Ahamb Island in Vanuatu for more than a century. While sorcery is seen as the most potent threat to the good life as it brings suffering and death, Christianity appears as the main tool to address this and other problems of cosmological and social character. During a turbulent time on the island in 2014, a Christian charismatic revival, largely led by children, became the subject of hope for change on Ahamb. A main event within the revival was a dramatic spiritual war that confronted the island community with the plain and unvarnished realities of good and evil, of God and sorcery, while revealing secrets that literally became a question of life and death

Rejecting Darwinian evolution: The effects of education, church tradition, and individual theological stance among UK churchgoers

A sample of 2232 committed churchgoers from a range of churches in the UK completed a questionnaire that included a measure of rejection of Darwinian evolution. Respondents with undergraduate or postgraduate qualifications had slightly lower odds of rejecting evolution than those without degrees, but whether qualifications were in non-biological science, biology or theology made little difference to the likelihood of rejection. Those who attended Anglican or Methodist (AM) churches were much less likely to reject evolution than those who attended Evangelical or Pentecostal (EP) churches, but the effect of education on reducing rejection was similar in both groups. Individual theological conservatism was strongly associated with rejection, but whereas liberals showed declining rejection with increased education, there was no such effect for conservatives. Frequent church attendance and Bible reading both predicted rejection, and the effect of Bible reading was most pronounced among AM churchgoers. Higher education of any kind may reduce the likelihood of rejection of evolution among many UK churchgoers, but theological conservatives from any tradition will tend to maintain their belief that Darwinian evolution does not explain the origin of species whatever their educational experience