scholarly journals Indigenous data in effective humanitarian responses

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wakanyi Hoffman
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Local Context ◽  
International Strategy ◽  
Local Data ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Sustainable Solutions ◽  
Rural Settings ◽  
Communication Devices

In the international humanitarian landscape, crisis interventions are deployed based on a long-standing working culture that presupposes that local authorities are usually overwhelmed during a crisis and unable to mobilise local capacity. Thus, external human resource mobilisation is necessary. However, this may only be true in various instances, such as natural disasters, where rapid response is needed to extinguish further harm to human life. In most cases, there are no mechanisms to make prior assessments that can inform decision-makers about the kind of international assistance needed in the local context. This is because existing data for the availability of resources is produced mainly by international aid agencies and their governing political institutions. This database of knowledge, which leans heavily on a post-colonial Anglocentric viewpoint about ‘best practices’, is used as the baseline to assess the ability of potential partners to mobilise their resources, while failing to include the capacity of local agents to determine what capacity exists in a particular context, what they are already capable of delivering and how best to support their response system (United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction [UNISDR] 2008). However, as access to digital communication devices and other globally useful technology in resource-constrained rural settings continues to emerge, this may soon change. This paper explores the ways in which Indigenous and local knowledge should contribute to the exploration of intelligent and sustainable solutions that are well-suited within the local context to mitigate and understand humanitarian crises before, during and after they occur, and how to curate, analyse and use local data and knowledge systems to create innovations that are sustainable and adaptive to the priorities of the local population.

scholarly journals Sharing Knowledge, Transforming Societies: The Norhed Programme 2013-2020

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tor Halvorsen ◽  
Skare Orgeret ◽  
Roy Krøvel
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
Capacity Development ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Local Data ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
The World ◽  
The Right ◽  
Academic Content

In June 2016, the Norwegian Programme for Capacity Development in Higher Education and Research for Development (Norhed) hosted a conference on the theme of 'knowledge for development'in an attempt to shift the focus of the programme towards its academic content. This book follows up on that event. The conference highlighted the usefulness of presenting the value of Norhed's different projects to the world, showing how they improve knowledge and expand access to it through co-operation. A wish for more meta-knowledge was also expressed and this gives rise to the following questions: Is this way of co-operating contributing to the growth of independent post-colonial knowledge production in the South, based on analyses of local data and experiences in ways that are relevant to our shared future? Does the growth of academic independence, as well as greater equality, and the ability to develop theories different to those imposed by the better-off parts of the world, give rise to deeper understandings and better explanations? Does it, at least, spread the ability to translate existing methodologies in ways that add meaning to observations of local context and data, and thus enhance the relevance and influence of the academic profession locally and internationally? This book, in its varied contributions, does not provide definite answers to these questions but it does show that Norhed is a step in the right direction. Norhed is an attempt to fund collaboration within and between higher education institutions. We know that both the uniqueness of this programme, and ideas of how to better utilise the learning and experience emerging from it, call for more elaboration and broader dissemination before we can offer further guidance on how to do things better. This book is a first attempt.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) & Education for Sustainable Development

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 112
Author(s):  
R.S.S. Nehru
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Corporate Social Responsibility ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Knowledge Generation ◽  
Bottom Line ◽  
Sustainable Solutions ◽  
Strategic Csr ◽  
Corporate Social

Corporate Social Responsibility is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large” According to World Business Council for Sustainable Development, In globalization era education plays a crucial role in building the society and Nation. India is the highest country in a number of universities which constitute more than seven hundred universities, including private, public and semi sectors. Despite India have more institutions and strategies for education still Indian education is not competitive and performing infancy stage as compared to world class level. Education has pivotal role in nation building and molding superb wings of human recourse. In globalized economy and the privatization the education have been transformed into rural or root level of sustainable development in all sorts of human life. Adopting a businesslike approach which emphasizes a strategic CSR is important to survival in this increasingly competitive arena. It does not appear as a surprise to see universities and colleges discover the opportunity to move the focus beyond the classrooms into their own institutional operations. Universities, colleges and schools are the centers of knowledge generation and sharing perform a very important role in addressing the Triple Bottom Line of the world’ socioeconomic and environmental issues by promoting sustainable solutions. This paper discusses the good CSR practices and some suggestions that can boost up the CSR management and make invites on education sector.

scholarly journals Values and Preferences for Domestic Water Use: A Study from the Transboundary River Basin of Mékrou (West Africa)

Water ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 1232
Author(s):  
Vasileios Markantonis ◽  
Celine Dondeynaz ◽  
Dionysis Latinopoulos ◽  
Kostas Bithas ◽  
Ioannis Trichakis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Willingness To Pay ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Western World ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Domestic Water ◽  
Water Provision

Water is indispensable for human life and sufficient domestic use is considered as a regularity in the western world. The conditions are substantially different in African countries where poverty and lack of life-supporting services prevail. The provision of domestic water is an essential problem, which requires action. The lack of sufficient funding for the development of infrastructure supports claims for citizen participation in related costs. However, can citizens pay and to what extend for sufficient water provision? The present study investigates a household’s willingness to pay for domestic water in the transboundary Mékrou River Basin in West Africa (Burkina Faso, Benin and Niger) and explores the payment for domestic water provision to poverty. The paper uses the results of a household survey that was undertaken in the Mekrou basin including a representative sample from all three countries. Based on this survey the paper presents basic socio-economic characteristics of the local population as well as qualitative water provision and management attributes. In the core of the econometric analysis the paper presents the results of the survey’s Contingent Valuation (CV) scenario estimating the households’ willingness to pay (WTP) for a domestic water provision. The households of the Mekrou basin are willing to pay 2.81 euro per month in average for a domestic water provision network but this is strongly related with the wealth of households. This finding although it may support the “user pays principle”, it also raises serious questions over the provision of water to poor households.

scholarly journals A CRITICAL REVIEW AND LOCAL AUDIT OF THE PREVALENCE OF MENTAL ILL-HEALTH IN HEART FAILURE PATIENTS

2020 ◽  
pp. 10-16
Author(s):  
MARIAM AHMED ◽  
HANA MORRISSEY ◽  
PATRICK ANTHONY BALL
Keyword(s):  
Heart Failure ◽  
Heart Diseases ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Population Data ◽  
Management Plan ◽  
Local Data ◽  
Heart Failure Patients ◽  
Cardiac Outcomes ◽  
Artery Disease ◽  
Two Phases

Objective: To establish if depression results in poor adherence to therapy in patients with heart diseases. Methods: This concept scoping study was conducted in two phases; the first was a systematic review of the literature, and the second part was local data analysis. Statistical analysis was performed using RevMan® V.5.3 (Cochrane Community). Results: Patients who received multidisciplinary collaborative care showed significantly reduced major adverse cardiac outcomes in patients with cardiovascular diseases. They also demonstrated higher rates of self-reported remission of depression. The review also showed endpoint mortality after PCI was associated with patients having depression. Local population data showed that 26% of heart failure patients had mental ill health comorbidity, however, only 12% had a formal diagnosis recorded. Conclusion: Depression is associated with poor cardiac outcomes in patients with coronary artery disease. It is widespread in patients with cardiovascular disease and must be screened for throughout the management plan.

Philosophy and Climate Change

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Independent Interest ◽  
The Social

Climate change is poised to threaten, disrupt, and transform human life, and the social, economic, and political institutions that structure it. In light of this, understanding climate change, and discussing how to address it, should be at the very center of our public conversation. Philosophy can make an enormous contribution to that conversation, but only if both philosophers and non-philosophers understand what it can contribute. The sixteen original articles collected in this volume both illustrate the diverse ways that philosophy can contribute to this conversation, and ways in which thinking about climate change can help to illuminate a range of topics of independent interest to philosophers.

Expert Surveys as a Measurement Tool

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cherie Maestas
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Survey Design ◽  
Questionnaire Design ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Measurement Tool ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Validity And Reliability ◽  
Alternative Strategies ◽  
Expert Surveys ◽  
Key Questions

Polling political elites, academics, or other types of knowledgeable experts has provided scholars with a trove of information about political institutions, processes, and local context. Expert surveys are an especially useful method for measuring concepts that would be difficult or impossible to measure through alternative strategies and permits scholars to create indicators that are comparable across diverse contextual settings. This chapter provides an overview of the key questions researchers face when using experts as a tool of measurement. It highlights considerations regarding survey design, questionnaire design, and aggregation procedures with an eye toward identifying ways to enhance the validity and reliability of expert-based measures. The chapter also emphasizes the importance of design transparency and systematic reporting of procedures and measures of uncertainty about scores derived from expert surveys.

Inhabiting modern landscape

1997 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denis Cosgrove
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Decisive Role ◽  
Human Geography ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Social Sciences And Humanities ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Modern Landscape

Archaeology, anthropology, human geography: three disciplines born out of a nineteenth-century imperative among Europeans to apply a coherent model of understanding (Wissen-schaft) to varied forms of social life within a differentiated physical world; three disciplines stretched between the epistemology and methods of the natural sciences (Naturwissenschaften) which promised certainty, and the hermeneutic reflexivity and critical doubt of the Humanities (Geisteswissenschaften) which promised self-knowledge. Each of these disciplines is today in crisis, and for the same reason. Europe as the place of authoritative knowledge, of civilization, has been decentred upon a post-colonial globe; the white, bourgeois European male has been dethroned as the sovereign subject of a universal and progressive history. Thus, the enlightened intellectual project represented by archaeology, anthropology and human geography, whose findings were unconsciously designed to secure the essentially ideological claims of liberal Europeans, are obliged to renegotiate their most fundamental assumptions and concepts (Gregory, 1993). The linguistic turn in the social sciences and humanities which has so ruthlessly exposed the context-bound nature of their scientific claims — what Ton Lemaire refers to as a critical awareness of their inescapable cultural and historical mediation — forces a recognition that their central conceptual terms, such as ‘culture’, ‘nature’, ‘society’, and ‘landscape’, are far from being neutral scientific objects, open to disinterested examination through the objective and authoritative eye of scholarship. They are intellectual constructions which need to be understood in their emergence and evolution across quite specific histories. Ton Lemaire seeks to sketch something of the history of landscape as such a socially and historically mediated idea: as a mode of representing relations between land and human life, which has played a decisive role in the development of archaeology as a formal discipline. On the foundation of this history he develops a critique of the social and environmental characteristics and consequences of modernity, and seeks to relocate archaeological study within a reformed project of sensitive contemporary ‘dwelling’ on earth.

Intricate relations between Western anthropologists and Eastern ethnologists

Focaal ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 (63) ◽  
pp. 20-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michał Buchowski
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
The Other ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Paradigm Shifts ◽  
Pecking Order ◽  
The West ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Hierarchical Order ◽  
Colonial Studies ◽  
Communist Past

Western representations of the Other are criticized by anthropologists, but similar hegemonic classifications are present in the relationships between anthropologists who are living in the West and working on the (post-socialist) East, and those working and living in the (post-communist) East. In a hierarchical order of scholars and knowledge, post-socialist anthropologists are often perceived as relics of the communist past: folklorists, theoretically backward empiricists, and nationalists. These images replicate Cold War stereotypes, ignore long-lasting paradigm shifts as well as actual practices triggered by the transnationalization of scholarship. Post-socialist academics either approve of such hegemony or contest this pecking order of wisdom, and their reactions range from isolationism to uncritical attempts at “nesting intellectual backwardness“ in the local context (an effect that trickles down and reinforces hierarchies). Deterred communication harms anthropological studies on post-socialism, the prominence of which can hardly be compared to that of post-colonial studies.

Kautilya's model of sustainable development

Humanomics ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Bhalachandran
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Modern Concept ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Global Perspectives ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Short Run ◽  
Level Of Understanding

PurposeThe purpose of this seminal paper is to present the concept of sustainability in its purest form as conceived by Kautilya and bring out its relevance to the current issues and the areas of concern in the global perspectives.Design/methodology/approachThis paper goes with the premise that the concept of sustainable development (SD) as enunciated by the western theorists has not been fitted in an integrated framework. An attempt is made in this study, to bring to light an unwritten model of SD of Kautilya, which is universal in approach and relevant to many of the current issues of today.FindingsThe Kautilya's model of SD is an assimilation of idealistic and realistic views of human life. The quintessence of this model is that SD can be realized only if each one in a society lives for the other and all collectively for the welfare of the mankind.Research limitations/implicationsThe success of this model depends on the level of understanding, design of socio‐economic and political institutions required, the goals and the means set for oneself and society and the degree of accountability exhibited in implementing the model.Practical implicationsThis model can be tailored to suit the requirements of modern society in the short run as well as in the long run.Originality/valueThis paper is original in nature because a modern concept like SD is analytically linked to the development‐design of Kautilya with a view to infusing profundity, realism and applicability to it.

scholarly journals Revolutionary medicine: a response to corporatizing healthcare in India

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Prakash Kona
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Social Revolution ◽  
Developing Nation ◽  
Legislative Power ◽  
Definition Of

This article explores Che Guevara’s notion of “revolutionary medicine” and how it is imperative to challenge the corporatization of healthcare in a developing nation such as India where millions live under subhuman conditions owing to lack of basic necessities that constitute any definition of a human life. With the corporatization of healthcare the deprivation gets further magnified creating the grounds for a social revolution. The notion of “revolutionary medicine” helps us analyze the role of corporatization of healthcare in furthering the haves-have nots divide, the need for nationalization of healthcare, the possibilities of a social revolution and the role of a revolutionary doctor in changing the order. Political institutions are formed upon the consideration of what will frequently tend to the good of the whole, although now and then exceptions may occur. Thus it is better in general that a nation should have a supreme legislative power, although it may at times be abused.

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