scholarly journals Outcomes-based performance management through measuring indicators: Collaborative governance for local economic development (LED) in South African municipalities

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Richard Douglas Kamara

Undoubtedly, there is a lag in the scholarships on performance outcomes of collaboration aimed at improving the system management and responsiveness to socio-economic issues in local government. Whilst most scholarships on collaborative governance in LED focuses on what we do (processes), some others research addresses the outputs in terms of the goods and services produced from the activities as well as the social outcomes. Very little discourse on collaboration addresses collaborative outcomes in LED. Put simply, we are acquainted with what collaborative actors do, but we know very little about the impact of collaboration on the system management and responsiveness to socio-economic issues within municipalities. Now the question is how do we know what to measure? The dearth in scholarship on how to assess collaborative outcomes in LED provide an impetus to present this paper as it helps to address the knowledge gap on LED and collaboration. The paper aims to present some innovative indicators which can be used to assess, monitor and review collaborative performance in LED, with special focus on the processes and outcomes of the collaboration. Using secondary sources, the paper argues the desirability and constraints of assessing performance outcomes in collaborative governance of development pathways in local municipalities. Moreover, the paper presents some criteria for selecting effective indicators used in measuring outcomes performance of collaboration. A synopsis of major determinants of effective outcomes in collaboration for LED is presented in the paper. Finally, the paper presents proposed innovative quantitative and qualitative indicators which can be used to assess, monitor and review collaborative performance in LED in local municipalities.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6755
Author(s):  
Tomasz Laskowicz

The recently adopted maritime spatial plan for Polish sea waters promotes offshore wind farm (OWF) development. The study’s identification of the local municipalities affected by offshore development was based on the plan’s provisions. Through the analysis of the plan and literature findings, both positive and negative impacts of future OWF development were identified and examined. Such an analysis seems to be a precondition for the more active engagement of local stakeholders in the debate on the ways in which to best utilize the new opportunities created by the plan and cope with the threats resulting from maritime spatial planning (MSP). The key impacts recognized by the local business stakeholders have been related to landscape pollution and fishing limitations. Stakeholders less frequently have noticed positive impacts of MSP such as development of a new form of tourism. Up to this point, small municipalities have not undertaken sufficient action, and there is a lack of communication between developers, marine planners and coastal communities. Planners have not assessed the impact of their plan on local economic development. The proposed remedies cover standard actions related to communication, education and dialogue, but in addition to that, a consolidated action of local municipalities on how to capitalize on OWF development has been proposed. The first step proposed is preparation of a joint strategy by coastal municipalities addressing this issue.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuliia Peniak ◽  
◽  
Nataliia Horokhovatska ◽  

The main purpose of any enterprise in the market economy is to obtain high financial results. One of the main conditions for the effective functioning of the enterprise is ability to generate profit in the amount that will create the financial basis for further development and expansion of the enterprise, comply with social and material needs, ensure competitiveness in the market of goods and services. The need for accounting and analytical management of financial results stems from needs of owners, the state and employees in information that will enable them to identify patterns and trends in financial results, identify and assess the main factors influencing the process of their creation, distribution and usage, identify reserves and thus increase the level of profitability. Despite the significant scientific contribution in the field of research of financial results of the enterprises, the issue of improvement aims to the accounting and analytical maintenance of management of financial results of the enterprise remains actual. That is why the purpose of the study is to substantiate the theoretical and practical aspects and develop approaches to improving the mechanism of formation of accounting and analytical support for the management of financial results of the enterprise. Accounting and analytical management of financial results of the enterprise is a set of interconnected elements of production and management system, activities carried out by the subject of management, creation of a certain structure, as well as collection, accumulation, storage and analysis of information necessary for effective operation of the enterprise. The main components of the study of accounting and analytical support of financial performance management are the formation of methods of analysis, control and forecasting of financial results, which requires specification of the components of the analytical and controlled process within the organizational and information model. Namely, the formation of reliable information about the financial condition of the enterprise, the analysis of economic indicators of the enterprise is of great importance in the system of general evaluation of business entities. Their research makes it possible to assess the dynamics of the structure of income and expenses, to determine the impact of factors on the company's profit from various activities, as well as to find reserves to increase the net profit of enterprises. Thus, the improvement of accounting and analytical support of enterprise management is based on the use of modern forms, methods and principles that place new demands on the formation of unbiased, complete, timely, clear and useful accounting and analytical information about the enterprise and its financial results.


2003 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 67-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard K. Fleischman ◽  
R. Penny Marquette

The impact of World War II on cost accountancy in the U.S. may be viewed as a double-edged sword. Its most positive effect was engendering greater cost awareness, particularly among companies that served as military contractors and, thus, had to make full representation to contracting agencies for reimbursement. On the negative side, the dislocations of war, especially shortages in the factors of production and capacity constraints, meant that such “scientific management” techniques as existed (standard costing, time-study, specific detailing of task routines) fell by the wayside. This paper utilizes the archive of the Sperry Corporation, a leading governmental contractor, to chart the firm's accounting during World War II. It is concluded that any techniques that had developed from Taylorite principles were suspended, while methods similar to contemporary performance management, such as subcontracting, emphasis on the design phase of products, and substantial expenditure on research and development, flourished.


2020 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-41
Author(s):  
Dominik Maltritz ◽  
Sebastian Wüste

AbstractWe search for drivers of fiscal deficits in Europe using a data panel containing annual data of 27 EU countries in the years 1991–2012. Our special focus is on the influence of fiscal rules as well as on fiscal councils, i. e. institutions that may help to reduce deficits and enforce fiscal rules by advising governments. We distinguish between internal fiscal rules and external rules that result from EMU membership. In addition, we consider the impact of “creative accounting”, i. e. measures that help to circumvent fiscal rules, which we approximate by so called stock-flow-adjustments. We especially analyze the interactive influence of the mentioned variables on the budget balance.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 3873
Author(s):  
Milena Vainieri ◽  
Francesca Ferrè ◽  
Stefania Manetti

Combining insights from collaborative governance, performance management, and health technology assessment (HTA) literature, this study develops an integrated framework to systematically measure and monitor the performance of HTA network programmes. This framework is validated throughout an action research carried out in the Italian HTA network programme for medical devices. We found that when building up collaborative performance management systems, some elements such as the participation in the design and the use of context specific performance assessment framework, facilitate their acceptance by managers and policy makers especially in high professionalized and sector-specific organizations because it reflects their distinctive language and culture. The hybrid framework may help health authorities and policymakers to understand the HTA network, monitor its performance, and ensure network sustainability over time.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  

Abstract   Childhood obesity has grown to become one of the most dramatic features of the global obesity epidemic, with long-term consequences. The spread of obesity has been fueled by changes in social norms and living environments that have shaped individual behaviours making them conducive to excessive and imbalanced nutrition, sedentary lifestyles, and ultimately obesity and associated diseases. The STOP project will aim to generate scientifically sound, novel and policy-relevant evidence on the factors that have contributed to the spread of childhood obesity in European countries and on the effects of alternative technological and organisational solutions and policy options available to address the problem. STOP will translate the evidence gathered and generated into indicators and measurements, policy briefs and toolkits and multi-stakeholder frameworks. A special focus of STOP is understanding the stakeholders' networks and drivers of stakeholders' action. STOP will establish new ways for policy-relevant evidence to be generated, made available and used in the design and implementation of effective and sustainable solutions for childhood obesity at the EU, national and local levels. Each of the policy work packages will: Produce evidence syntheses and impact simulations for different policy approaches;Assess selected policy approaches and actions in children cohorts and other relevant settings;Devise policy toolkits and policy guidance to support the adoption and implementation of specific actions by relevant actors;Establish a country-based European accountability and monitoring framework in each policy area. The workshop aims to: Showcase the impact of different policy options evaluated throughout the STOP project;Increase participants' understanding and awareness of the opportunities and challenges associated with the implementation of selected policies;Increase awareness of public health professionals of the importance of overcoming siloes in identifying and implementing public health policies;Increase the understanding of multi-stakeholder engagement. The discussion will explore the role of stakeholders across different policy areas. We will explore the different definitions of “stakeholders” and “multi-stakeholders” engagement. This will also be an opportunity to explore some of the benefits, risks and challenges around stakeholder engagement, and explore what are the different types of stakeholders involved in these policies as well as their roles. The workshop will offer an opportunity to: Inform participants about existing physical activity, regulatory and fiscal policies to address childhood obesity;Inform participants about new, innovative EU-level projects that aim to address childhood obesity;Outline preliminary findings of the STOP project with regards to the effectiveness of the evaluated policies;Identify some of the gaps and limitations of existing policies and discuss some of the steps to ensure successful policy implementation. Key messages Present new evidence on what policy approaches work in addressing key determinants of childhood obesity. Showcase findings on the attitudes of different stakeholders towards obesity policies, and debate the benefits, risks and challenges of multi-stakeholder engagement.


Author(s):  
Éva Leiter ◽  
Tamás Emri ◽  
Klaudia Pákozdi ◽  
László Hornok ◽  
István Pócsi

Abstract Regulation of signal transduction pathways is crucial for the maintenance of cellular homeostasis and organismal development in fungi. Transcription factors are key elements of this regulatory network. The basic-region leucine zipper (bZIP) domain of the bZIP-type transcription factors is responsible for DNA binding while their leucine zipper structural motifs are suitable for dimerization with each other facilitiating the formation of homodimeric or heterodimeric bZIP proteins. This review highlights recent knowledge on the function of fungal orthologs of the Schizosaccharomyces pombe Atf1, Aspergillus nidulans AtfA, and Fusarium verticillioides FvAtfA, bZIP-type transcription factors with a special focus on pathogenic species. We demonstrate that fungal Atf1-AtfA-FvAtfA orthologs play an important role in vegetative growth, sexual and asexual development, stress response, secondary metabolite production, and virulence both in human pathogens, including Aspergillus fumigatus, Mucor circinelloides, Penicillium marneffei, and Cryptococcus neoformans and plant pathogens, like Fusarium ssp., Magnaporthe oryzae, Claviceps purpurea, Botrytis cinerea, and Verticillium dahliae. Key points • Atf1 orthologs play crucial role in the growth and development of fungi. • Atf1 orthologs orchestrate environmental stress response of fungi. • Secondary metabolite production and virulence are coordinated by Atf1 orthologs.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 3580
Author(s):  
Cristina Val-Peón ◽  
Juan I. Santisteban ◽  
José A. López-Sáez ◽  
Gerd-Christian Weniger ◽  
Klaus Reicherter

The SW coast of the Iberian Peninsula experiences a lack of palaeoenvironmental and archaeological data. With the aim to fill this gap, we contribute with a new palynological and geochemical dataset obtained from a sediment core drilled in the continental shelf of the Algarve coast. Archaeological data have been correlated with our multi-proxy dataset to understand how human groups adapted to environmental changes during the Early-Mid Holocene, with special focus on the Mesolithic to Neolithic transition. Vegetation trends indicate warm conditions at the onset of the Holocene followed by increased moisture and forest development ca. 10–7 ka BP, after which woodlands are progressively replaced by heaths. Peaks of aridity were identified at 8.2 and 7. 5 ka BP. Compositional, textural, redox state, and weathering of source area geochemical proxies indicates abrupt palaeoceanographic modifications and gradual terrestrial changes at 8.2 ka BP, while the 7.5 ka BP event mirrors a decrease in land moisture availability. Mesolithic sites are mainly composed of seasonal camps with direct access to the coast for the exploitation of local resources. This pattern extends into the Early Neolithic, when these sites coexist with seasonal and permanent occupations located in inland areas near rivers. Changes in settlement patterns and dietary habits may be influenced by changes in coastal environments caused by the sea-level rise and the impact of the 8.2 and 7.5 ka BP climate events.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (11) ◽  
pp. 5843
Author(s):  
Chloé Turpin ◽  
Aurélie Catan ◽  
Olivier Meilhac ◽  
Emmanuel Bourdon ◽  
François Canonne-Hergaux ◽  
...  

The development and progression of atherosclerosis (ATH) involves lipid accumulation, oxidative stress and both vascular and blood cell dysfunction. Erythrocytes, the main circulating cells in the body, exert determinant roles in the gas transport between tissues. Erythrocytes have long been considered as simple bystanders in cardiovascular diseases, including ATH. This review highlights recent knowledge concerning the role of erythrocytes being more than just passive gas carriers, as potent contributors to atherosclerotic plaque progression. Erythrocyte physiology and ATH pathology is first described. Then, a specific chapter delineates the numerous links between erythrocytes and atherogenesis. In particular, we discuss the impact of extravasated erythrocytes in plaque iron homeostasis with potential pathological consequences. Hyperglycaemia is recognised as a significant aggravating contributor to the development of ATH. Then, a special focus is made on glycoxidative modifications of erythrocytes and their role in ATH. This chapter includes recent data proposing glycoxidised erythrocytes as putative contributors to enhanced atherothrombosis in diabetic patients.


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