DILG Negros Occidental Contact Tracer Information Management System

COVID-19 pandemic reshapes the use of technology and innovation in an organization. Organizations are adopting and utilizing technologies in their day-to-day operations. Information Systems offer a wide range of solutions in terms of data management and interconnecting people with the use of a system. Its use was proven to enhance and improve the productivity of an organization in this pandemic. These promising results led the researcher to develop the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Negros Occidental Contact Tracer Information Management System (CTIMS). The CTIMS is a web application that enables DILG Negros Occidental Personnel to manage and facilitate all DILG Hired-Contact Tracers (CT) in the Province of Negros Occidental. The automated system made the data collection easy and error-free, streamlined reporting, and eliminated the time-consuming process of consolidating the Accomplishment Reports (ARs) from the Field and Provincial Offices. The document tracker feature replaced the manual entry in the logbook. It also improved the received and released document reporting. It improved the processes of the CT Task team compared to the manual operations and is expected to increase the productivity, effectivity, and efficiency of DILG Negros Occidental.

HATE CRIMES AGAINST BLACK LESBIAN SOUTH AFRICANS: WHERE RACE, SEXUAL ORIENTATION AND GENDER COLLIDE (PART I)

This article, which is the first of a two-part submission, examines the phenomenon of gender-based violence against black lesbian South Africans. The course and incidence of gender-based violence against black lesbians are tracked from both media articles and academic contributions. The various forms of criminal conduct which characterize the phenomenon (including “corrective rape” and murder) are also examined. The article concludes with a limited causal explanation for what has emerged as a serious social problem in present-day South Africa necessitating government intervention in the form of a recently announced Task Team.

Strengthening the competencies of policy makers for better use of data in public policy design1

Statistical literacy is one of the main areas of work of the Global Network of Institutions for Statistical Training (GIST) established in 2017. While the scope of statistical literacy initiatives will range greatly from those intended for school children and teachers to those aimed at media representatives or general public, one of the areas where a dedicated Task Team of the GIST set out to undertake a more detailed analysis was related to the core data competencies for policy makers. The adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals by UN member States has led to a growing awareness around the importance of timely, robust, quality and disaggregated data for informing public policies and decisions and providing a solid evidence to address a number of complex policy issues related to ensuring more equitable policy outcomes and more coherence decision-making across different dimensions of sustainable development and different levels of governance from global to national and local. This article presents the results of a survey conducted by the GIST Task Team on Statistical Literacy back in 2018 with the participation of policy makers from various UN Member States, reviews core data competencies for policy makers, presents the free, self-paced e-learning course developed by UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), UN Statistics Division and UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) with support from the Swiss Government and using UNITAR’s Quality Assurance Framework, and discusses the ongoing work of the GIST on the inventory of statistical literacy initiatives as a new product developed by the dedicated Task Team.

Temporary and permanent aspects of project organizing – operation and maintenance of road infrastructure

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the interdependencies between temporary and permanent aspects of project organizing and how they affect the management of public infrastructure operation and maintenance (O&M) activities.Design/methodology/approachThe paper applies a case study approach and uses Lundin and Söderholm's (1995) framework of the temporary organization (with the themes of time, task, team and transition) to distinguish between temporary and permanent aspects of organizing two infrastructure O&M projects.FindingsThis paper adds to the literature on temporary organizations by recognizing a mixture of temporary and permanent aspects of project organizing in an empirical project-level example. In line with previous research, the themes of time, task, team and transition were shown to be interdependent. Furthermore, the paper broadens the theory of temporary organizations by presenting a project organization with significant permanent aspects.Practical implicationsProject managers of public sector projects need to be aware of the possible mixture of temporary and permanent aspects of project organizing. Management of projects that are found to have a mixture of temporary and permanent aspects should combine the perspectives and management practices of both temporary and permanent organizing. Not acknowledging permanent aspects could lead to management that is not adapted to the prerequisites of project organizing in this context.Originality/valueThe findings further develop the literature on temporary organizations by recognizing that there is not only a mixture of temporary and permanent aspects between the temporary organization and its permanent environment but there is also a mixture of temporary and permanent aspects of organizing within project organizations.

Why Does Aid Not Target the Poorest?

Foreign-aid projects typically have local effects, so they need to be placed close to the poor if they are to reduce poverty. I show that, conditional on local population levels, World Bank (WB) project aid targets richer parts of countries. This relationship holds over time and across world regions. I test five donor-side explanations for pro-rich targeting using a pre-registered conjoint experiment on WB Task Team Leaders (TTLs). TTLs perceive aid-receiving governments as most interested in targeting aid politically and controlling implementation. They also believe that aid works better in poorer or more remote areas, but that implementation in these areas is uniquely difficult. These results speak to debates in distributive politics, international bargaining over aid, and principal-agent issues in international organizations. The results also suggest that tweaks to WB incentive structures to make ease of project implementation less important may encourage aid to flow to poorer parts of countries.

European High Frequency Radar network governance

This report describes the governance of the European HF radar network including: the landscape of the Ocean observation networks and infrastructures, the role and links between operators of observational systems and stakeholders, the role and activities of the EuroGOOS HF radar Task Team in building a sound community strategy, the roadmap of the community with current achievements and future work lines.

Vaccinations and Vaccinators’ Tracking System in Island Settlements: CHAD 2017-2018

Introduction: Chad is a country within the Lake Chad sub region, currently at risk for poliovirus infection. The Lake Chad Task Team on polio eradication in this sub region made significant efforts to reduce the risk of polio transmission in Chad by tacking immunization teams in the Island Settlement using a Geographic Information System (GIS) technology. This article demonstrates the application of GIS technology to track vaccination teams to monitor immunization coverage in the Island settlements, reduce the number of missed settlements, to provide evidence for vaccination implementation and accountability and improve team performance. Methods: In each district where tracking was conducted, global positioning system–enabled Android phones were given to each team on a daily basis and were used to record team tracks. These tracks were uploaded to a dashboard to show the level of coverage and identify areas missed by the teams. Results: In 2018, tracking covered 30 immunization days, in six rounds. Approximately average of 1173 Island settlements were tracked and covered in each of the six rounds. A total of 806,999 persons aged 0-10 years were immunized, out of which 4273 were zero dose cases at the point of their immunization. Tracking activities were conducted. There was an improvement in the geographic coverage of settlements and an overall reduction in the number of missed settlements. Conclusions: The tracking of vaccination teams and Island settlements ensured useful information for planning and implementation of polio campaigns and enabled supervisors to evaluate performance of vaccination teams

First Report of the WMO COVID-19 Task Team on Meteorological and Air Quality (MAQ) factors affecting the COVID-19 pandemic.

<div> <div> <div> <div> <div> <div> <div> <div> <div> <div>The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Research Board has set up an interdisciplinary and international Task Team to respond to the challenge of providing timely decision support and relevant knowledge on Meteorological and Air Quality (MAQ) factors affecting the SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 pandemic. The Task Team aims to provide decision makers and the public with a rapid summary of the state of knowledge regarding potential MAQ influences on SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19; to offer general technical guidance for researchers and service providers who wish to consider MAQ data in their analyses, estimates, predictions and projections of COVID-19 risks. The work of the task  motivated both by the global relevance of the subject and by the staggering number of papers and pre-prints currently available, which emphasizes the need for careful review and communication of the state of the science. This first  report presents a summary of key findings of the review to date, as informed by peer reviewed literature.</div> <p> </p> <div>A key finding is that the underlying mechanisms that drive seasonality of respiratory viral infections are not yet well understood. To date, COVID-19 transmission dynamics appear to have been controlled primarily by government interventions rather than meteorological factors. Respiratory viral infections frequently exhibit some form of seasonality, particularly in temperate climates and some evidence from laboratory studies of SARS-CoV-2, suggests that the virus survives longer under cold, dry, and low ultraviolet radiation conditions. There is also evidence that chronic and short-term exposure to air pollution exacerbates symptoms and increases mortality rates for some respiratory diseases and this is consistent with early studies of COVID-19 mortality rates. However, there is no direct, peer reviewed evidence of pollution impacts on the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 at this time. Process-based modeling studies anticipate that COVID-19 transmission may become seasonal over time, suggesting Meteorology and Air Quality (MAQ) factors may support monitoring and forecasting of COVID-19 in the coming months and years.</div> <p> </p> <div>Additional research quantifying links between MAQ factors and COVID-19 is needed.</div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div>

Top-down Atmospheric Inventories of CO2 and CH4 to Support the Global Stocktakes

<p>Parties to the Paris Agreement agreed to report GHG emissions and removals to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which will evaluate progress toward the NDCs through Global Stocktakes (GSTs) conducted at five-year intervals, the first of which is scheduled in 2023. National emission reports are based on “bottom-up” inventories of emissions or removals, derived from statistics such as the number tons of coal or barrels of oil delivered to the commercial, residential, industrial or transportation sectors or the number of acres of forest converted to agriculture. These methods can provide accurate estimates for fossil fuel emissions, but are somewhat less reliable for tracking changes in emissions from agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU) or rapid changes in emissions due to disturbance events, such as hurricanes, drought, wildfires, or climate change.</p><p>CO<sub>2</sub> and CH<sub>4</sub>  emissions and removals can also be estimated using high resolution, time-resolved measurements of their concentrations in the atmosphere. These data are analyzed with atmospheric inverse models to derive the flux distribution needed to match the observed atmospheric concentrations in the presence of the winds. These top-down atmospheric inventories complement bottom-up inventories by providing an integrated constraint on emissions from all sources and removals by all sinks. They are less source specific than bottom-up inventories, but are ideal for tracking rapid changes in large emitters or changes in emissions or uptake by forests, crops or the ocean associated with human activities, severe weather or climate change.</p><p>The GHG Task Team of the Joint CEOS/CGMS Working Group on Climate has embarked on an ambitious effort to use available ground-based and space based atmospheric measurements of CO<sub>2</sub> and CH<sub>4</sub> to develop a pilot, top-down atmospheric inventory to support the 2023 GST. CO<sub>2</sub> estimates derived from Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) data will be combined with surface CO<sub>2</sub> measurements from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Global Atmospheric Watch (GAW) and its partners to construct a CO<sub>2</sub> inventory. CH<sub>4</sub> estimates derived from Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite (GOSAT) and the Copernicus Sentinel 5 Precursor (S5P) data will be combined with ground based GHG data to construct a CH<sub>4</sub> inventory. These inventories will be compared with results from a parallel effort within CEOS to produce space-based bottom-up inventories for emissions and removals by AFOLU to provide more source specific constraints on emissions and removals.</p><p>With the current measurement and modeling capabilities, these pilot inventories may not improve the results delivered by developed nations, where high-quality bottom-up inventories have been produced for decades. They should have greater value in the developing world, where countries have much less experience and resources for developing inventories and/or a much larger fraction of their emissions come from AFOLU. They are also expected to yield much greater insight into the evolution of the natural carbon cycle as it responds to human activities, extreme weather and climate change. The pilot products prepared for the 2023 Global Stocktake will provide the basis for iterative improvements in the products and their delivery to users for future GSTs.</p>