scholarly journals Extension-Led Demonstration: Grameen Microfinance Methods and Capital Access for Low-Income Female Entrepreneurs

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Edelman
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Performance Metrics ◽  
Financial Institution ◽  
Peer Group ◽  
Female Entrepreneurs ◽  
Loan Repayment ◽  
Credit Scores ◽  
Capital Access ◽  
Survey Responses ◽  
Almost All

A nonprofit community development financial institution and Extension collaborated to conduct a demonstration project to evaluate efficacy of Grameen peer-group microfinance methodology in addressing barriers faced by low-income women entrepreneurs in a small metro area. Program performance metrics achieved by 284 culturally diverse, low-income entrepreneurs (almost all women) over 5 years included a program loan repayment rate of 99%, increased average client income, bank savings accumulation, and increased opportunities for improved credit scores. Client survey responses indicated program methods developed confidence and skills in finances, leadership, and teamwork. Extension professionals may play various roles in such endeavors.

Drug policy and control at the international level

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas F. Babor ◽  
Jonathan Caulkins ◽  
Benedikt Fischer ◽  
David Foxcroft ◽  
Keith Humphreys ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Drug Control ◽  
Prescription Medications ◽  
Access To Treatment ◽  
Illicit Markets ◽  
Pain Medications ◽  
Almost All ◽  
And Control ◽  
Illicit Trafficking

International drug control efforts are designed to coordinate domestic laws with international activities that regulate or limit the supply of psychoactive substances. These efforts are organized around three main drug control treaties that almost all countries have ratified in order to prevent illicit trafficking and other drug-related crime, while at the same time allowing access to prescription medications. The effects of the system have been evaluated mostly in terms of the ability to eliminate illicit markets and supply. The gross imbalance in world consumption of legal opiates is a pointer to the limited availability of effective pain medications in many low-income countries, with 80% of the world’s population having either no or inadequate access to treatment for moderate or severe pain.

Start-up motives and challenges facing female entrepreneurs in Tanzania

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 102-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nsubili Isaga
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Access To Finance ◽  
Female Entrepreneurs ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Developed Country ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Government ◽  
Survey Responses ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose Research on women-owned business is more extensive in developed countries than in developing countries and such one cannot compare the results. This paper aims to examine the motives of women in Tanzania (a less developed country) to start their own businesses and the challenges they faced in running their businesses. Design/methodology/approach Based on 400 response to a semi-structured questionnaire and in-depth interview with 20 female entrepreneurs. Subsequently, descriptive and factors analysis were performed to analyze the data Findings Based on survey responses, the primary reason for starting a business was to create employment for the woman herself. Other motives include supplementing income and enabling women to be able to do the kind of work they wanted to do. According to the factor analysis, female entrepreneurs are driven more by push factors than pull factors. The most serious problems faced by female entrepreneurs are lack of access to finance, gender-related problems and social and cultural commitments. Research limitations/implications The sample was selected from urban areas of only three regions, out of 26 regions in Tanzania. Researchers may extend the study to other regions; also, the non-probability sampling method used in this study essentially means that there is a limitation to the extent to which the research findings can be generalized to the rest of the population of female entrepreneurs in Tanzania. Practical implications Policy makers, financial institutions and all organization that have a stake on development on female entrepreneurs in Tanzania should design policies and programs that encourage and promote the creation and growth of businesses. Collective efforts from the government, public and private institutions and NGOs are needed to eliminate the challenges, especially gender-related problems. Practical implications By studying female owner-managers’ motivations and constraints, the author suggests that to a greater extent, gender-related problems, social and cultural commitments and access to finance and networks are the constraints faced by female entrepreneurs. Originality/value The research on female entrepreneurs in the context of Tanzania is scarce, this study responds to a need of better understanding women motivations and constraints. By studying these factors, this study shows that startup motives and constraints faced by female entrepreneurs are unique to different contexts.

scholarly journals Strategic value of interviewer training and local community-based organisations for WaSH and antibiotic resistance surveys

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gopal Iyer ◽  
Myra J. Giesen ◽  
Rohit Juneja ◽  
David W. Graham
Keyword(s):  
Antibiotic Resistance ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Local Community ◽  
New Delhi ◽  
Quality Of Data ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Strategic Value ◽  
Interviewer Training ◽  
Survey Responses ◽  
Community Dwellers

Abstract Water, sanitation, and hygiene (WaSH) research has long relied on household surveys to gather knowledge, attitudes, and practice (KAP) data with local enumerators or community correspondents (CCs). However, CCs must be trained to build capacity and ensure representative survey responses. Here, we use a case study in low-income, informal communities from New Delhi, India to assess the value of structured training for individuals who lead the gathering of KAP data (CC leaders, CCLs) on WaSH and antibiotic resistance. Feedback from CCLs showed that directed training increased their motivation, confidence, and technical competence and provided them skills that enhanced data collection. Training further strengthened relationships and empowered our local community-based organisation (CBO), expanding their role beyond being an implementing partner. Empowerment led to new insights, such as evident problems with communications between local doctors and community dwellers. Only three of 38 focus group attendees knew what an antibiotic was, apparently because they were never told. Overall, this work shows that interviewer training has many trickle-down benefits, improving the quality of data, building confidence in field teams, and empowering local CBOs, but most importantly, by increasing knowledge among community dwellers, such that they also might be empowered.

scholarly journals Women Employment Opportunity on SMEs Sector: Bangladesh Perspective

2020 ◽  
pp. 105-118
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Study Finding ◽  
Income Group ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Female Entrepreneurs ◽  
Job Opportunities ◽  
Savings Rate

This study explores women's work prospects in the SME sector of Bangladesh. The researcher has identified two different reasons to conduct this study separately. Number one is that in the last few decades, have played a very active and important role, and the second is that by empowering women, female entrepreneurs build new job opportunities and solve the different problems of society. Small and medium-sized enterprises, which play an important role as engines of economic growth in many countries, provide growth opportunities for low-cost jobs. The results of the study illustrate the correlation between job opportunities for SMEs and women. Women's entrepreneurship is seen as a crucial instrument of women's empowerment and emancipation. Small and medium-sized enterprises, which play an important role in many countries as engines of economic growth, provide opportunities for low-cost employment with growth. The study finding shows the relationship between employment opportunities for SMEs and Women. Women entrepreneurship is seen as a key tool for empowering and liberating women. Developing countries such as Bangladesh are better off starting a small and medium-sized company because Bangladesh belongs to the low-income group facing problems of unemployment, poverty, low savings rate, low capital accumulation. Business on the micro and small scale did not require huge investment, it begins with limited capital. Developing nations such as Bangladesh are better off starting a small and medium-sized business because Bangladesh is part of the low-income community facing unemployment, poverty, low savings rate, low accumulation of capital problems. Micro and small-scale companies did not need tremendous investment but began with minimal resources.

scholarly journals Students’ Perspective on Remote On-Line Teaching and Learning at the University of Latvia in the First and Second COVID-19 Period

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (21) ◽  
pp. 11890
Author(s):  
Sanita Baranova ◽  
Dita Nīmante ◽  
Daiga Kalniņa ◽  
Alise Oļesika
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Short Period ◽  
Digital Skills ◽  
On Line ◽  
Study Process ◽  
Survey Responses ◽  
Almost All ◽  
The University ◽  
Remote Learning

In Spring 2020, due to the rapid spread of COVID-19, all educational institutions in Latvia, including the University of Latvia (UL), transitioned from face-to-face on-site learning to remote learning. After a short period of face-to-face on-site learning in autumn, UL returned to remote learning in November for the second time. This paper investigates the UL students’ perspectives on remote teaching and learning at the UL during the first and second COVID-19 periods. The research assesses several remote study organization aspects, including the lecturer’s and student’s digital skills, their access to information and support during the study process, planning and implementation of the study process, and students’ acquisition of the content. The study used an original questionnaire designed in the Spring 2020 semester. Seven questions from the first questionnaire were included in another follow-up questionnaire distributed in the Spring 2021 semester. A total of 2248 UL students from the Spring 2020 semester and 742 students from the Spring 2021 semester participated in the study, representing 13 faculties across all study levels. The survey responses were collected via a QuestionPro survey platform and then downloaded into an IBM SPSS 28 file for a reliability check. Next, descriptive statistical analyses were conducted for each reported survey item using Microsoft Excel 2016. The research presented here implies that, in general, students perceive positive improvements in almost all the investigated aspects of the organization of the remote study process when comparing the first and second COVID-19 periods, which could indicate a certain level of resilience in students and university lecturers when subject to COVID circumstances. However, the results reveal that students have, in one year, developed a more realistic approach in assessing their digital skills. The results lead us to believe that remote on-line learning is not just a short-term solution but could become a valuable element for providing qualitative education in the long term. It could indicate that the students and lecturers at university are ready for new and sustainable higher education study organization solutions in the future.

Bank Deposit Prediction Using Ensemble Learning

2021 ◽  
pp. 42-51
Author(s):  
Muhammed J. A. Patwary ◽  
S. Akter ◽  
M. S. Bin Alam ◽  
A. N. M. Rezaul Karim
Keyword(s):  
Neural Network ◽  
Ensemble Learning ◽  
Banking Sector ◽  
Performance Metrics ◽  
Financial Institution ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Ensemble Methods ◽  
Support Vector ◽  
Classification Algorithms ◽  
Economic Depression

Bank deposit is one of the vital issues for any financial institution. It is very challenging to predict a customer if he/she can be a depositor by analyzing related information. Some recent reports demonstrate that economic depression and the continuous decline of the economy negatively impact business organizations and banking sectors. Due to such economic depression, banks cannot attract a customer's attention. Thus, marketing is preferred to be a handy tool for the banking sector to draw customers' attention for a term deposit. The purpose of this paper is to study the performance of ensemble learning algorithms which is a novel approach to predict whether a new customer will have a term deposit or not. A Portuguese retail bank data is used for our study, containing 45,211 phone contacts with 16 input attributes and one decision attribute. The data are preprocessed by using the Discretization technique. 40,690 samples are used for training the classifiers, and 4,521 samples are used for testing. In this work, the performance of the three mostly used classification algorithms named Support Vector Machine (SVM), Neural Network (NN), and Naive Bayes (NB) are analyzed. Then the ability of ensemble methods to improve the efficiency of basic classification algorithms is investigated and experimentally demonstrated. Experimental results exhibit that the performance metrics of Neural Network (Bagging) is higher than other ensemble methods. Its accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity are 96.62%, 97.14%, and 99.08%, respectively. Although all input attributes are considered in the classification method, in the end, a descriptive analysis has shown that some input attributes have more importance for this classification. Overall, it is shown that ensemble methods outperformed the traditional algorithms in this domain. We believe our contribution can be used as a depositor prediction system to provide additional support for bank deposit prediction.

Recognizing Physical Activity of hospitalized Older People from Wearable Sensors Data using IoT

2022 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 0-0
Keyword(s):  
Technical Assistance ◽  
Performance Metrics ◽  
Wearable Sensors ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Elderly Person ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Classification Algorithms ◽  
Complex Task ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Different Sources

The IoT is a new concept that provides a world where smart, connected, embedded systems operate, giving rise to the amount of data from different sources that are considered to have highly useful and valuable information. Data mining would play a critical role in creating smarter IoT. Traditional care of an elderly person is a difficult and complex task. The need to have a caregiver with the elderly person almost all the time drains the human and financial resources of the health care system. The emergence of Artificial intelligence has allowed the conception of technical assistance where it helps and reduces the time spent by the caregiver with the elderly person. This work aims to focus on analyzing techniques that are used for prediction purposes of falls in the elderly. We examine the applicability of three classification algorithms for IoT data. These algorithms are analyzed and a comparative study is undertaken to find the classifier that performs the best analysis on the dataset using a set of predefined performance metrics to compare the results of each classifier.

10. Women and Poverty: The Feminization of Urban Poverty in Canada

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura G. Ritenburg
Keyword(s):  
Social Exclusion ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Urban Poverty ◽  
People With Disabilities ◽  
Government Programs ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Recent Immigrants ◽  
Feminization Of Poverty ◽  
Almost All

Poverty is disproportionately experienced among men and women. Gender plays a significant role when examining the effects and problems that poverty poses. While poverty can be experienced in differing extremes, it is women who suffer higher poverty rates in almost all societies (Christopher et al.). It is people with disabilities, recent immigrants, and racialized men and women who face additional disadvantages and “all of these groups have extremely high rates of low income and, in all of them, women are the most vulnerable” (Townson). In this paper I discuss how the ‘feminization of poverty’ has created a situation where the number of women in poverty far outnumbers that of men, and how the discourse of feminized poverty is directly affected by the processes and structures of social exclusion. I argue that gender significantly influences the experience and response to urban poverty in Canada through unequal caregiving responsibilities, the dynamics that surround pay inequality, and inadequate government programs.

Augmentation Systems

2011 ◽  
pp. 283-293
Author(s):  
Mohammad S. Sharawi
Keyword(s):  
Performance Metrics ◽  
Satellite System ◽  
Space Vehicles ◽  
Gps Receivers ◽  
Commercial Use ◽  
Global Positioning ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Gps System ◽  
Year 2000 ◽  
Route Navigation

The global positioning satellite system (GPS) has been utilized for commercial use after the year 2000. Since then, GPS receivers have been integrated for accurate positing of ground as well as space vehicles. Almost all aircrafts nowadays rely on GPS based system for their take off, landing, and en-route navigation. Relying on GPS alone does note provide the meter level accuracy needed to guarantee safe operation of aircrafts. Thus several augmentation systems have been deployed worldwide to enhance the accuracy of the GPS system. Several augmentation systems that serve local as well as wide coverage areas are discussed in this chapter, specifically the LAAS system, the WAAS system as well as the EGNOS system. The architecture as well the performance metrics for each of these augmentation systems are presented and discussed.

scholarly journals Perception of Nature’s Contributions to People in Rural Communities in the Eastern Amazon

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (18) ◽  
pp. 7665
Author(s):  
Rafael Melo de Brito ◽  
Valente José Matlaba ◽  
Vera Lúcia Imperatriz-Fonseca ◽  
Tereza Cristina Giannini
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Statistical Tests ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Environmental Conservation ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Almost All ◽  
First Time

Nature’s contributions to people (NCP) are increasingly being considered in decisions by policy-makers because of their relevance to the well-being of people. Learning the value of nature from the perception of communities can help to define priorities and to guide the development of public policies for environmental conservation. The objective of this study was to analyze the perception of the importance, benefits, and problems of NCP among residents of five rural communities, and their opinion about the protected areas of the municipality, considering their socioeconomic characteristics. The method consisted of conducting questionnaire-based, semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with a sample of 214 randomly selected households in five rural communities of Parauapebas (Pará, Eastern Amazon). We used appropriate statistical tests for data analysis. The main results show that the communities were highly homogeneous and that 52% of the households had low income (below a minimum wage of USD 250). A high proportion of respondents gave the highest importance to all categories of NCP (2/3 of respondents for material, 3/4 for non-material, and 4/5 for regulating NCP). The most commonly mentioned benefits of NCP referred to subsistence or livelihood and quality of life (40% of total mentions). Environmental degradation problems were the most cited (38% of total mentions). Almost all respondents stated that they had a positive opinion about the protected areas of the municipality, despite underusing them. This study is relevant because it analyses, for the first time, the perceptions of NCP among residents of rural communities in the Eastern Amazon, an essential aspect for decision-and public policy-making.

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