Analysis Community Competence Development in Improving Live through Small and Medium Enterprise Investment in the Pandemic Era in East Timor

Community competence development in improving life through investing in small and medium enterprises is one of the beneficial alternatives for groups and individuals for the welfare of the superior local community's wellbeing. The purpose of this study is to determine the basic provisions of the small and medium business investment group in the local area, related to hard and soft competence, which are used as criteria for giving, receiving, and solving problems. The method used in this study used a thematic descriptive qualitative analysis approach; the sampling method was taken by six people representing 28 people, including the core structure for semi-structured interviews. The technique used is a non-probability sample by exploring sources of information using purposive sampling and snowball sampling. From the results, it was found that the educational background was sufficient and still had shortcomings in hard and soft competencies, including creativity and technical skills. So, there are several suggestions, namely (1) to take additional training on creativity and technical skills to increase in-depth understanding, (2) for other studies that are interested in deepening research in that location. In terms of investment development, it can compete in national and international markets. These results also provide input for the investment group to learn hard and soft competencies and specifically creative abilities and technical skills to find learning resources that ensure development is related to investment in the digital era.

The European Commission as a Policy Entrepreneur under the European Semester

This article discusses the impact that the reforms of the European Union’s economic governance since 2011 have had on the European Commission’s role as a policy entrepreneur. Particular attention is paid to mechanisms that are applied by the Commission to extend its scope beyond its given formal competences to shape national reform agendas. The research interest is based on the assumption that the Commission is a ‘competence-maximising rational actor’ (Pollack, 1997), whose primary organisational goals are to expand the scope of Community competence and increase the Commission’s own standing within the policy process. Accordingly, this research contributes to the scholarly debate by identifying mechanisms applied by the Commission under the European Semester to shape European and national reform agendas in areas of sovereign policymaking competences of the member states.

Survei Ketahanan Petani Sekitar Kawasan Industri Pengolahan Nikel di Sulawesi Tenggara

Exploration of mineral resources can encourage economic development and threaten the environment, health, ecosystem, and social comfort of the surrounding community. Therefore, through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities or other activities, industrial companies can balance negative impacts and strengthen sustainable development that can improve the resilience and welfare of the surrounding community. Therefore, this research aims to assess the community's resilience in supporting the sustainability of agricultural development. The research will be conducted in Morosi Subdistrict, Konawe Regency. The concept of community resilience and the theory of sustainability of growth became the basis of this study. This research was started by conducting literature studies in various reputable books and journals to determine community resilience dimensions. Finally, set 5 dimensions measuring community resilience and six indicators measure the sustainability of agricultural development. A total of 24 items are used to measure community resilience and six instruments to measure the sustainability of agricultural development. This research was conducted from October to December 2020. The study involved 295 respondents distributed to family heads in 10 villages adjacent to Nickel Industry activities. Descriptive Statistical Analysis is used to explain the level of resilience of the community. This study found that farmers' resilience was built due to the operation of the nickel industry at the research site, such as economic dimensions, social capital, environment, community competence, information, and communication. The dimensions of social capital, community competence, knowledge, and communication are considered high. In comparison, the economic and environmental aspects are relatively moderate. This dimension is expected to be one of the guidelines for the government in taking a policy of building farmers community' resilience for the sustainability of agricultural development, especially farmers around the Nickel mining industry.

Biodiversity loss underlies the dilution effect of biodiversity

The dilution effect predicts increasing biodiversity to reduce the risk of infection, but the generality of this effect remains unresolved. Because biodiversity loss generates predictable changes in host community competence, we hypothesized that biodiversity loss might drive the dilution effect. We tested this hypothesis by reanalyzing four previously published meta-analyses that came to contradictory conclusions regarding generality of the dilution effect. In the context of biodiversity loss, our analyses revealed a unifying pattern: dilution effects were inconsistently observed for natural biodiversity gradients, but were commonly observed for biodiversity gradients generated by disturbances causing losses of native biodiversity. Incorporating biodiversity loss into tests of generality of the dilution effect further indicated that scale-dependency may strengthen the dilution effect only when biodiversity gradients are driven by biodiversity loss. Together, these results help to resolve one of the most contentious issues in disease ecology: the generality of the dilution effect.

Exposure Complexity and Community Capacity to Manage Wildfire Risk: A Coupled Biophysical and Social Analysis of 60 Communities in the Western United States

Coordinated approaches to wildfire risk mitigation strategies that cross-ownership and management boundaries are found in many policies and programs worldwide. The “all lands” approach of the United States (US) National Cohesive Strategy, for example, attempts to address the mismatches between biophysical risk and the social potential to address risks by improving multijurisdictional coordination and collaboration. Local capacity to coordinate wildfire risk mitigation, therefore, may be an important influence on whether risk reduction planning makes success stories out of at-risk communities, or turns what would appear a manageable problem into a disaster waiting to happen. We analyzed the relationship between predicted housing exposure to wildfire and local self-assessment of community competence to mitigate wildfire risks in 60 communities in the western US. Results generally demonstrate that (1) the number of sources of wildfire risk influences local housing exposure to wildfire, and (2) perceived community-competence is associated with predicted exposure to wildfire. We suggest that investments in ongoing updates to community risk planning and efforts to build multi-jurisdictional risk management networks may help to leverage existing capacity, especially in moderate capacity communities. The analysis improves the social-ecological understanding of wildfire risks and highlights potential causal linkages between community capacity and wildfire exposure.