Management not models: adaptability,responsiveness, and a few lessons from football

Despite a swathe of critiques of logframes and other blueprint approaches to development over the last 30 years, most aid infrastructure continues to concentrate on the design and subsequent implementation of closed models. This article does not propose an alternative to blueprints, but challenges the inflexibility of their implementation, which is inadequate given the complex nature of social change. It proposes a supplementary management and learning approach which enables implementers to be dynamic, adaptive, and responsive to problems and opportunities. Emphasising the role of donors, the paper presents a case study of one donor-led programme in Bangladesh doing just this.     

Multinational-firm responses to an Asian-crisis comeback: evidence from European transnationals

Abstract

Despite many predictions to the contrary, the Republic of Korea (ROK) is currently one of the countries with most pro-American attitudes. We investigate what is behind the extraordinary resilience in US popular standing in an allegedly least likely setting. Using survey data from 2002 and 2007 and a novel methodology, Classification and Regression Tree models, we test whether US standing is: (1) a matter of interests, i.e. a reward that the USA receives because it either provides security or international public goods; or (2) whether it is a matter of image, i.e. the recognition that the USA is a role model to emulate. We find that across a large number of predictors, the Korean public mostly liked the USA because they liked American ways of doing business, which gives support to the image hypothesis. Security interests played a secondary role in shaping US standing, while the provision of international public goods had no impact in the popular assessment of the USA in the ROK.     

公安档案的收集策略

公安档案的收集是公安档案管理的起点,因此,我们必须运用灵活多变的收集方法,对公安档案的收集工作实施切实有效的质量管控措施,研究收集的薄弱环节和空白点,从而提升公安档案收集的质量和水平。     

金融监管治理框架与指标衡量

金融监管机构作为金融中介的领导性机构,在监管金融中介有效运行、提高金融稳定性方面具有重要的作用。监管机构的健全是金融机构稳定高效运行的前提。我国正处于经济转轨时期,金融体系的稳健性对我国的发展尤为重要。监管治理要有一定的独立性,实行问责制,要有透明度。还要借鉴国际上监管治理的先进评估方法。     

影响快速处置交通事故现场的主要原因及其解决办法

道路交通安全与畅通是道路交通管理的核心。我们着重通过研究当前快速处理交通事故现场存在的问题，提出了快速处理交通事故现场保障机制的创新构想。     

Evaluating international social-change networks: a conceptual framework for a participatory approach

International networks for social change are growing in number and influence. While they need to be able to assess the extent to which they achieve their purpose and determine ways in which to be more effective, conventional evaluation methods are not designed for such complex organisational forms, or for the diverse kinds of activity to which they are characteristically dedicated. Building on an earlier version of their paper, the authors present a set of principles and participatory approaches that are more appropriate to the task of evaluating such networks.     

Results-based management: friend or foe?

Results-based management (RBM) is well entrenched as a management tool for international development practice. Yet after a decade of its use, many development practitioners view RBM in a negative light, considering it to be a donor requirement that diverts time, energy, and resources away from actually doing development work. This article provides some broad reflections on RBM from a distinctive vantage point: the perspective of the project (or programme) evaluator. The article reflects on challenges associated with RBM and draws from these reflections a number of suggested strategies to improve its use. It concludes that development practitioners need to be more aggressive in implementing RBM.     

Capacity building: who builds whose capacity?

This article focuses on the role that development NGOs play in capacity building, arguing that many conventional NGO practices are ultimately about retaining power, rather than empowering their partners. This leads to tunnel vision and to upward rather than downward or horizontal accountability, based on the assumption that the transfer of resources is a one-way process. At worst, this undermines rather than strengthens the capacities of the organisations that NGOs are attempting to assist. Sharing responsibilities and risks, mutual accountability, and committing to the long term rather than to short-term projects are more likely to create partnerships that can withstand vicissitudes and contribute to lasting change.     

拓宽培训思路提高培训质量的探讨

本文就如何提高培训质量进行了探讨,从拓宽培训思路和改变培训方式入手,提出培训项目的设计要贴近实际需求,通过由求全变求实、由备讲变备学、由灌注变互动和由知识变行为四种方式改变施教方式,积极研究工作方法,确实解决实际问题,从而提升幼儿教师培训质量。     

Testing the power of arguments in referendums: A Bradley–Terry approach

How can we determine which arguments in a referendum are most persuasive? We show that the Bradley–Terry model has several features that make it well-suited to this task, and thus preferable to other, more conventional approaches. Using a survey experiment conducted during an electoral reform referendum in Ontario, Canada in October 2007, we demonstrate how unstructured and structured Bradley–Terry models can be straightforwardly fitted and interpreted. In doing so, we gain insight into the factors which determine support for electoral reform. We identify a status quo bias and find that power varies with mention of fairness, local control over candidate selection, and the role of political parties. We conclude by discussing the limits, extensions and further applications of such models in electoral studies and political science more broadly.