Sustainability Assessment and Agricultural Supply Chains Evidence-Based Multidimensional Analyses as Tools for Strategic Decision-Making—The Case of the Pineapple Supply Chain in Benin

Contributing to Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2030 is a shared objective of all institutions and people. The challenges differ according to the characteristics of every context. In developing countries, strongly dependent on the agricultural sector, agricultural supply chains are recognized as crucial for economic growth and enablers for livelihood improvement. Moreover, sustainable development issues are correlated and can meet in agricultural supply chains. For several decades, parallel to decision-makers, the research community has elaborated sustainability assessment tools. Such tools evolved to fit with actuality, but it is challenging to find decision-making support tools for sustainable development adequate in agricultural supply chains and developing countries contexts. There is a necessity to define evidence-based tools and exhaustive analytical frameworks according to sustainability multidimensionality and strategical tradeoffs necessity. The VCA4D method aims to go beyond the limits of previous methods. It proposes a combination of multidisciplinary analytical tools applied empirically to analyze agricultural supply chains in their context. It provides evidence-based analytical results allowing to identify enablers for strategic sustainable and inclusive interventions. However, to even better meet contextual exhaustiveness’s expectations and indicators’ robustness to lead to relevant interventions, we should insist on a stricter framing of contextual data collection processes.

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How do current sustainability assessment tools support farmers’ strategic decision making?

Ecological Indicators ◽

10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.106298 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 114 ◽

pp. 106298 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Ine Coteur ◽

Hilde Wustenberghs ◽

Lies Debruyne ◽

Ludwig Lauwers ◽

Fleur Marchand

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Sustainability Assessment ◽

Assessment Tools ◽

Strategic Decision ◽

Strategic Decision Making ◽

Sustainability Assessment Tools

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Evidence-Based Decision-Making (Part 1): Origins and Evolution in the Health Sciences

Prehospital and Disaster Medicine ◽

10.1017/s1049023x00007019 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 24 (4) ◽

pp. 298-305 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

David A. Bradt

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Decision Making ◽

Evidence Based Medicine ◽

Strategic Decision ◽

Systematic Research ◽

Evidence Based ◽

Clinical Expertise ◽

Strength Of Evidence ◽

Based Medicine ◽

Evidence Based Decision Making

AbstractEvidence is defined as data on which a judgment or conclusion may be based. In the early 1990s, medical clinicians pioneered evidence-based decision-making. The discipline emerged as the use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients. The practice of evidence-based medicine required the integration of individual clinical expertise with the best available, external clinical evidence from systematic research and the patient's unique values and circumstances. In this context, evidence acquired a hierarchy of strength based upon the method of data acquisition.Subsequently, evidence-based decision-making expanded throughout the allied health field. In public health, and particularly for populations in crisis, three major data-gathering tools now dominate: (1) rapid health assessments; (2) population based surveys; and (3) disease surveillance. Unfortunately, the strength of evidence obtained by these tools is not easily measured by the grading scales of evidence-based medicine. This is complicated by the many purposes for which evidence can be applied in public health—strategic decision-making, program implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. Different applications have different requirements for strength of evidence as well as different time frames for decision-making. Given the challenges of integrating data from multiple sources that are collected by different methods, public health experts have defined best available evidence as the use of all available sources used to provide relevant inputs for decision-making.

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Optimal Loan Pricing for Agricultural Supply Chains from a Green Credit Perspective

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su132212365 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (22) ◽

pp. 12365

Author(s):

Liurui Deng ◽

Wentang Xu ◽

Juan Luo

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Development ◽

Supply Chain ◽

Supply Chains ◽

Interest Rates ◽

Optimization Problems ◽

Bank Loans ◽

Loan Pricing ◽

Pricing Rules ◽

The Incentive Mechanism ◽

Agricultural Supply

In recent years, many countries have proposed various sustainable development strategies around environmental issues. The implementation of green supply chain management is an effective sustainable development approach that combines “environmental awareness” and “economic development.” Therefore, introducing the concept of “green” effectively is the main direction for the sustainable development of agriculture in the future. The impacts of green credit policies on agricultural supply chains have rarely been discussed before. Therefore, we focus on the incentive mechanism of green credit policies in the agricultural supply chain. We use the Stackelberg Leadership Model to construct a pricing model which adds the interest subsidy and required reserve ratio (RRR) cuts, and determines the pricing rules of bank loans and production decisions of the farmer in the agricultural supply chain under the incentive policy of green credit by quantifying the optimization problems of the bank and the farmer. The result shows that optimal decisions exist for both farmer and bank in the supply chain game framework. The implementation of the green credit policies contributes to both of their profits. Additionally, the green credit policies give the bank room to reduce interest rates so that the overall utility level of the supply chain could be improved.

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Importance of on-time decision making in energy sector based on perspectives: Case study new Stavalj project

Thermal Science ◽

10.2298/tsci160828088z ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 21 (5) ◽

pp. 1925-1935

Author(s):

Dragan Zlatanovic ◽

Lato Pezo ◽

Aleksandar Sedmak ◽

Snezana Kirin

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Sustainable Development ◽

Swot Analysis ◽

Numerical Solutions ◽

Thermal Power ◽

Assessment Model ◽

Strategic Decision ◽

Underground Mines ◽

Practical Experiences ◽

Almost All

Expression "Development conditions and perspectives" became important for numerous analyses in various industrial and social areas. Several strategic documents and studies in last two decades analysed projects with topics on perspectives of future development in Serbia. Various tools are used for development of such documents, based on recent scientific and numerical solutions, thus providing reliable assessment for strategic decision making. Almost all analyses tried to implement the theories and practical experiences through the prism of "sustainable development", which included establishment of most important sustainability parameters. Analysis and ranking presented in this paper considered the potential of the Stavalj coal deposit, near city of Sjenica in Serbia, and feasibility of construction project of new mine and thermal power plant. Basis for analysis was a hybrid assessment model which takes into account principles of sustainable development. The model incorporates quantified SWOT analysis, which applies to active underground mines in Serbia. Special attention was given to the parameters describing potential for development.

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Experts address the question: How has the globalization of industrial supply chains impacted sustainable development in developing countries?

Natural Resources Forum ◽

10.1111/j.1477-8947.2007.00131.x ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 31 (1) ◽

pp. 87-90

Author(s):

Julia Schreiner Alves ◽

Thomas Bergmark ◽

Chaiyod Bunyagidj ◽

Bert Scholtens ◽

Evans Kituyi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Development ◽

Developing Countries ◽

Supply Chains

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A framework for designing symbiotic simulation decision support systems for horticultural supply chains involving smallholder farmers

IOP Conference Series Earth and Environmental Science ◽

10.1088/1755-1315/922/1/012050 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 922 (1) ◽

pp. 012050

Author(s):

K Kusnandar ◽

T Perdana ◽

A L H Achmad ◽

F R Hermiatin

Keyword(s):

Developing Countries ◽

Decision Support ◽

Supply Chains ◽

Agricultural Sector ◽

Smallholder Farmers ◽

Close Association ◽

Design Decision ◽

Market Demand ◽

Time Data ◽

The Real

Abstract Horticulture is one of the important components of Indonesia’s economy that come from the agricultural sector. However, many challenges are encountered in the development of horticultural supply chains (HSCs) in Indonesia. One of them is the lack of production planning that suits the market demand. This results in inefficiency, high food losses and price fluctuation. HSCs systems are complex, especially in developing countries like Indonesia in which many smallholders are involved. Concerning this situation, ICT-based approaches have been widely proposed to integrate planning along supply chains. One of the approaches is a symbiotic simulation that enables a close association between the real system and simulation system. Symbiotic simulation is designed to support decision-makers to plan their activities using the real/near real-time data generated by the real systems as the inputs. However, how this system model can be used in HSC systems involving many smallholders is still a question. This paper proposes a framework to design decision support symbiotic simulations for HSC systems involving smallholders. The framework is designed based on the literature study on symbiotic simulation and agricultural supply chains in developing countries. In this framework, four activities in the HSCs are considered: 1) production; 2) post-production; 3) logistics, and 4) market. This framework can be used by farmer organisations or agricultural companies that have partnerships with smallholders to plan their activities along their supply chains.

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ASSURING SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION AT PROJECT FEASIBILITY STAGE IN SRI LANKA

10.31705/wcs.2021.12 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

G.P.D.P. Senanayake ◽

◽

H. Chandanie ◽

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Development ◽

Sri Lanka ◽

Sustainability Assessment ◽

Sampling Strategy ◽

Structured Interview ◽

Assessment Tools ◽

Performance Criteria ◽

Sustainable Construction ◽

Sustainability Performance ◽

The Future

Construction activity is commonly considered to have adverse impacts on the environment, which is the basis of sustainable development for human being. Further, sustainability should be addressed mostly in developing countries, such as Sri Lanka, where a considerable amount of construction works is currently in progress and remain to emerge in the future. It is considered that the proper development and operation of a construction project can make significant contribution to the mission of sustainable development. However, the existing difficulty is the lack of the guidance for implementing sustainable development principles in construction industry. Therefore, this research intends to bring the necessity of mandated project feasibility studies as a guideline for sustainable development in the Sri Lankan Context. The research aim was approached through a qualitative survey strategy. To solicit the perceptions of experts on the identified sustainability performance criteria, a semi-structured interview survey was conducted. Ten experts were selected through purposive sampling strategy, who had experience in sustainable construction and project feasibility evaluation criteria. The manual content analysis method was used to analyse the collected data. Findings of the research revealed that though numerous sustainability assessment tools are being practised, there is a failure in sustainable construction in the current context. Thus, the minimum sustainability requirements were identified under the three pillars of sustainability, aiming to develop the project feasibility study as a guideline and to ensure sustainability performance from the project inception stage. These findings are helpful for industry practitioners especially the project owners to initiate a sustainable construction with concerted actions of all project stakeholders to safeguarding the future

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Methodological bases of priority directions of scientific researches in the agrarian sector of Ukraine

Ekonomìka ta upravlìnnâ APK ◽

10.33245/2310-9262-2021-162-1-50-64 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 50-64

Author(s):

A. Danylenko ◽

O.M. Varchenko ◽

D. Krusanov

Keyword(s):

Data Mining ◽

Decision Making ◽

Sustainable Development ◽

Food Security ◽

Economic System ◽

Local Governments ◽

Agricultural Sector ◽

Strategic Development ◽

Agrarian Sector ◽

The World

The article systematizes the methodological principles and highlights the priority areas of research in the agricultural sector of the economy, taking into account the factors of external and internal environment of its development. The key challenges facing the world and national agricultural sphere are analyzed and systematized, among which the starvation of a large part of the world's population and its poverty, which are also inherent in Ukraine, are considered in detail. It is emphasized that the common challenges of food security in the world and in individual countries imply differences in approaches to their solution. It is proved that solving problems and overcoming challenges is mediated through transformations and changes that have taken place and will continue to take place in the agricultural sector of Ukraine. The main ones are: global climate change, the COVID-2019 pandemic, elections to local governments, regional councils and councils of enlarged districts and local councils of united territorial communities, the opening of the land market, etc. The priority directions of scientific researches in the agrarian sector of economy are substantiated, which are first of all connected with the following tasks: food security, increase of stability in the conditions of development turbulence, maintenance of innovative and sustainable development, increase of competitiveness of agro-food chains, sustainable development of united territorial communities. agricultural production, improving the quality of the rural population life and others. It is established that modern science has formed a powerful methodological and methodological potential, which allows to successfully solve the problem of creating models to support decision-making on the strategic development of any economic system, including agricultural sector of the economy. It is argued that rational scenarios for the long-term development of the agricultural sector can be obtained only on the basis of a reasonable combination of different methodological approaches, models and methods of research in the agricultural sector. The main models of support and decision-making for the strategic development of the agricultural sector as a socio-economic system are identified: data analysis methods (Data Mining), scenario method, simulation models, Monte Carlo method, data mining methods, methods of intellectual and cognitive modeling. Keywords: agricultural sector, methodology, priority scientific researches, territorial communities, agriculture, food industry.

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Assessing the Impacts of Higher Education Institutions on Sustainable Development—An Analysis of Tools and Indicators

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su11010059 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 59 ◽

Cited By ~ 30

Author(s):

Florian Findler ◽

Norma Schönherr ◽

Rodrigo Lozano ◽

Barbara Stacherl

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Sustainable Development ◽

Natural Environment ◽

Sustainability Assessment ◽

Higher Education Institutions ◽

Local Economy ◽

Assessment Tools ◽

Organizational Boundaries ◽

System A ◽

Sustainability Assessment Tools

Many higher education institutions (HEIs) have started to incorporate sustainable development (SD) into their system. A variety of sustainability assessment tools (SATs) have been developed to support HEIs to systematically measure, audit, benchmark, and communicate SD efforts. In recent years, stakeholders have increasingly asked HEIs to demonstrate their impacts on SD. These impacts are the direct and indirect effects an HEI has outside of its organizational boundaries on society, the natural environment, and the economy. This study analyzes to what extent SATs are capable of measuring the impacts that HEIs have on SD. A mixed-method approach, using descriptive statistics and an inductive content analysis, was used to examine 1134 indicators for sustainability assessment derived from 19 SATs explicitly designed for application by HEIs. The findings reveal that SATs largely neglect the impacts HEIs have outside their organizational boundaries. SATs primarily use proxy indicators based on internally available data to assess impacts and thus tend to focus on themes concerning the natural environment and the contribution to the local economy. Updating existing SATs and developing new ones may enable HEIs to fully realize their potential to contribute to SD.

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