Economic Broadband Development through Infrastructure Sharing

Author(s):  
Christos Bouras ◽  
Konstantinos Antonis ◽  
Georgios Diles ◽  
Vasileios Kokkinos ◽  
Leonidas Loukopoulos

Broadband is a public utility with positive effects on competitiveness, employment and growth. Although evidence shows that broadband development is increasing, this increment is not homogeneous between urban and rural areas. The main factor is the high cost for deploying next generation networks in rural areas, and especially the cost linked to civil engineering works. In order to overcome the investment challenges arising in the context of broadband deployment, the European Commission made mandatory the sharing of existing telecommunication and non-telecommunication infrastructures and facilities. This manuscript proposes and presents a novel tool that enables the estimation of the expected savings from exploiting existing infrastructures when deploying a broadband network. This is followed by a number of general principles and recommendations that policy makers and national authorities could embrace to diminish deployment costs and promote broadband deployment.

Author(s):  
NA Moiseeva ◽  
IL Kholstinina ◽  
MF Knyazeva ◽  
TV Mazhaeva ◽  
OL Malykh ◽  
...  

Introduction: Implementation of the Federal Public Health Promotion Project should raise awareness and develop skills of healthy nutrition in children, thus contributing to disease prevention. Our objective was to evaluate the results of pilot nutrition monitoring in school-aged children of the Sverdlovsk Region as part of the Federal Public Health Promotion Project and the National Demography Project. Results: We established that school meals were generally satisfactory: the rations complied with physiological needs of children in terms of their nutritional value, basic nutrients, energy, and distribution of calories by main meals. We noted differences in the cost and nutritional value of meals and the variety of dishes and foodstuffs used between urban and rural areas. As a rule, pupils have one or two school meals a day. Outside of school, their consumption of dairy products and fruit is limited. Conclusions: Our findings may promote the elaboration of municipal programs aimed, inter alia, at changing the amount of sugar and salt used in the manufacture of public catering products, the cost of dishes with a high content of sugar, saturated fats, and salt, and subsidies on healthy nutrition.


2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 166-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ipek Kalemci Tuzun ◽  
Bahar Araz Takay

Purpose This study aims to identify and understand the challenges, motivational factors and future needs of female entrepreneurs in Ankara, Turkey. Design/methodology/approach The study uses the qualitative analysis methodology and uses the qualitative data analysis software, MAXQDA 11. A total of 41 randomly selected female entrepreneurs from the city of Ankara and rural areas of the Ankara region participated in semi-structured in-depth interviews. A total of 284 codes were defined. Findings Results indicate that female entrepreneurs are mostly intrinsically motivated and are driven by the desire to achieve and to become independent. The socially constructed role of women in Turkey is the primary challenge faced by female entrepreneurs in both urban and rural areas. Moreover, the major future needs identified for female entrepreneurs are support from public institutions and access to managerial consultants. Originality/value There are limited number of studies that closely examine the characteristics of female entrepreneurship activity and their challenges/motivations in Turkey. This research contributes to the existing literature through its qualitative nature and by highlighting differences in urban and rural female entrepreneurs. Moreover, the results of this study are useful for policy makers to evaluate the future needs of female entrepreneurs and the programs that will be needed to overcome the challenges facing female entrepreneurs in the entrepreneurial process.


1970 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 126-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
MK Uddin ◽  
MH Sardar ◽  
MZ Hossain ◽  
MM Alam ◽  
MF Bhuya ◽  
...  

Objective: To determine the prevalence of anaemia in children of 6 to 59 months old in Narayanganj, Bangladesh to help policy makers to formulate health and nutrition policies in national level. Methods: In 2009, a representative sample of 767 young children (age ranging from 6 to 59 months) had their haemoglobin concentration measured. The sampling process was in three stages: at first, 5 Upazila hospitals, 1 District hospital and a 200 bedded specialized hospital were randomly selected to represent the whole district and its 5 geographic urban and rural areas. Next, using census lists, 15 census sectors were randomly chosen. Finally, 767 children of 6-59 months were selected. Blood was collected by vein puncture and haemoglobin concentration was measured with a haemoglobin meter. Data were analysed to determine prevalence of anaemia. Results: The prevalence of anemia among the children of 5-59 months old was 40.9% for the district as a whole. Prevalence in the municipal region of Narayanganj was 40.9%. The rural areas had the highest prevalence of 66.9%. Prevalence was almost two times higher in children of 6-23 months in comparison to children of 24-59 months i.e. 61.8% and 31.0% respectively. The mean haemoglobin concentrations in the younger and older age groups were 10.4(±1.5) g/ dl and 11.4(±1.4) g/dl respectively. There is no difference found between the sexes. Conclusion: This is the first assessment of anaemia prevalence among young children in Narayangaj, Bangladesh. As there is very high prevalence of anaemia among the children studied in Fatulla upazila, especially those in the age group 6-23 months, public health interventions are needed here most. Key words: Anaemia; iron deficiency anaemia; haemoglobin; child heath; Bangladesh. DOI: 10.3329/jdmc.v19i2.7084J Dhaka Med Coll. 2010; 19(2) : 126-130


2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 105-112
Author(s):  
Krisztián Kis

The paper reviews the European attempts to designate rural areas, major institutional definitions and the existing practice. The presented rural designations are mostly recommendations, serving statistical purposes, but in neither case constitute as designation for development. Designations for this purpose are under national competence, during which the characteristics of settlement structures, population density, land use and certain socio-economic indicators are taken into account. Whatever approach we take in designating rural areas or defining rural, we need to have relevant information capturing characteristics of rural areas, as well as such geographic units which help to perform rural designation. To this end the European Commission recently introduced a new method, which allows designating urban and rural areas more precisely.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lihua Zhang ◽  
Tingting Zhen ◽  
Qinyou Meng ◽  
Shimin Yang ◽  
Jiaxue Pan ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Although a large number of studies have shown that maternal mortality in rural areas is higher than that in urban areas, few reports discussed about the detailed situation and the behind causes. Here, we summarized the maternal mortality from 1995 to 2018 in Jinan and the reason behind it was deeply discussed. It is expected to reveal the difference and its behind reasons, thus providing a basis for policy makers to develop interventions. Methods: Data about maternal mortality in the selected city from 1995 to 2018 were collected through the local maternal and child health care network. Maternal death age, maternal death delivery location, maternal death location, number of pregnancies, number of deliveries and maternal death causes were analyzed. The composition ratio of above factors were compared in order to indicate the differences between rural areas and urban areas. Results: The study showed that 75.34% of maternal deaths in urban areas occurred in tertiary hospitals, which were 2.13 times higher than that in rural areas(P<0.05). 16.67% of maternal deaths in rural areas delivered in primary hospitals, which were 12.17 times higher than that in urban areas (P<0.05) . The main cause of death in rural areas were attributed to direct obstetrics reasons, which were indirect obstetric reasons for urban areas (P<0.05). There was no difference of maternal deaths in the death age, number of births, and number of pregnancies between rural areas and urban areas.(P>0.05) Conclusion: Policy makers should focus on the construction of medical institutions in rural areas, the improvement of rescue capabilities in rural areas and the convenience of transport in rural areas in order to narrow the gap between rural and urban areas. Key words: Maternal Mortality; Differences between urban and rural areas; China


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 298-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence Mpele Lekhanya

The purpose of this paper is to report on the use of e-commerce an instrument of governing SMEs’ marketing strategy in an emerging economy. The study aimed to assess and critically discuss various factors influencing the use of e-commerce as an instrument of governing SMEs marketing strategy and identify the extent to which SMEs owners/managers perceived e-commerce to be important to their businesses survival and growth. A mixed method approach allowed for qualitative and quantitative techniques in collecting data from targeted respondents, with primary collected from rural areas of an emerging country. The research instrument consisted of closed-ended questionnaires made up of 5-point Likert scale responses were distributed to each respondent. The research findings indicate that most respondents believed that the use of e-commerce is motivated by the cost saving and other financial factors in the form of benefits for the customer. In addition, large number of respondents disagreed that the use of e-Commerce has changed their consumer buying behaviour. The paper’s benefit will be to the owners/managers SMEs as well as policy makers and financial agencies for SMEs.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 296-310
Author(s):  
L. A. Ovchintseva

In developed countries, along with urbanization, the opposite process - ruralization or deurbanization - is becoming increasingly noticeable. Ruralization is not only the movement of townspeople to the countryside, but also the development of villages and the increasing importance of rural areas as a place to live and work. Townspeople make the decision to move by comparing the advantages and disadvantages of living in urban and rural areas, and non-economic motives (the desire to get closer to nature, to find ones roots, to live in silence, without haste, to eat natural products, etc.) play an important role in this decision. Among economic motives, the difference in the cost of urban and rural real estate and of life in general is the most important motive, i.e., families, especially young and large, can improve their living conditions by moving to the countryside. The study, the results of which are presented in the article, aimed at identifying those groups of townspeople that tend to resettlement, their motives, and factors pushing people to leave cities and facilitating/hindering resettlement to rural areas. The research is based on the study of special literature on the topic and on the data of the survey of resettled townspeople and experts in ruralization. Unlike most publications on ruralization, the author focuses on the positive aspects of the resettlement of townspeople to the countryside and insists on the removal of administrative barriers that prevent ruralization, because the resettlement of townspeople to the countryside does not have a negative impact on the city and is compensated by the influx of people from the countryside, who want to get education or a new profession.


2004 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 467-489 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANDREAS ECKERT

This essay discusses British discourses and efforts to regulate social policy in both urban and rural areas in late colonial Tanzania. It focuses mainly on questions of social security and especially on the vague concept of social welfare and development, which after the Second World War became a favoured means of expressing a new imperial commitment to colonial people. The British were very reluctant about implementing international standards of social security in Tanganyika, mainly due to the insight that the cost of providing European-scale benefits could not be borne by the colonial regime in such a poor territory. They were far more enthusiastic in pursuing a policy of social development, embodied in social welfare centres and various other schemes. It is argued that in Tanzania, this policy remained focused on peasantization rather than on proletarianization and was characterized by a disconnection between Colonial Office mandarins in London, attempting to create bourgeois, respectable African middle classes, and colonial officials in Tanganyika, seeking to maintain the political legitimacy of the chiefs and headmen. Most Africans ignored rather than challenged many of these state efforts. However, the nationalist party, the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) under Julius Nyerere believed in these programmes and continued such dirigiste and poorly financed improvement schemes after independence.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 461-481
Author(s):  
Alan de Brauw

Despite the fact that migration out of agriculture has always been a part of the economic development process, policy makers have long feared that migration from rural areas reduces agricultural production. This article reviews the growing microeconomic literature with more credible statistical identification that evaluates the effects of migration on agricultural production and other outcomes among rural households. By and large, migration does not negatively affect agricultural production, as households shift on one of several margins to reduce the lost labor impact. Through migrant remittances, migration can lead to one of several different types of investment. When investment occurs, the type of investment depends upon relative local returns to investments in agriculture, nonagriculture, or human capital. Some innovative recent work also documents the role of migration in catalyzing technical change. Future policy related to rural out-migration should focus on enhancing its positive effects and mitigating any negative ones.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 777 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandros Korkovelos ◽  
Dimitrios Mentis ◽  
Morgan Bazilian ◽  
Mark Howells ◽  
Anwar Saraj ◽  
...  

Roughly two billion people live in areas that regularly suffer from conflict, violence, and instability. Infrastructure development in those areas is very difficult to implement and fund. As an example, electrification systems face major challenges such as ensuring the security of the workforce or reliability of power supply. This paper presents electrification results from an explorative methodology, where the costs and risks of conflict are explicitly considered in a geo-spatial, least cost electrification model. Discount factor and risk premium adjustments are introduced per technology and location in order to examine changes in electrification outlooks in Afghanistan. Findings indicate that the cost optimal electrification mix is very sensitive to the local context; yet, certain patterns emerge. Urban populations create a strong consumer base for grid electricity, in some cases even under higher risk. For peri-urban and rural areas, electrification options are more sensitive to conflict-induced risk variation. In this paper, we identify these inflection points, quantify key decision parameters, and present policy recommendations for universal electrification of Afghanistan by 2030.


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