Country Director Research Articles

Building capacity and promoting health through online volunteering

Purpose Significant changes to in-person volunteering were necessary during the COVID-19 pandemic. Health Volunteers Overseas (HVO) responded to the pandemic by developing an online education platform and pivoting to online volunteering. This qualitative study explores the dynamics of online volunteering and provides visibility to this novel trend in the training of health professionals in resource-scarce countries. Methodology/approach Barriers and facilitators, actual and potential outcomes, and recommendations for online volunteering were addressed through a comparative case study approach focusing on three HVO global projects: physical therapy in Rwanda and Ghana, oral health in Nepal, and anesthesiology—a multi-country collaboration between Bhutan, Cambodia, and Laos. Findings A total of 15 participants, including project directors, host country representatives, and teaching volunteers, were interviewed online. Three themes emerged through the online interviews with HVO volunteers, project directors, and host country directors: Creating Space, the Future is Hybrid, and Geographical Expansion. Research implications Online volunteering provides a new opportunity for volunteers to expand their networks, learn new skills, and meet the needs of the host country participants. There is also an opportunity to expand projects beyond national boundaries, but logistical, cultural, and linguistic challenges must be considered. Practical implications Online volunteering is a feasible approach for building teaching and research capacity globally, and volunteer agencies should consider a hybrid model combining online volunteering with in-person volunteering. Originality Online volunteering provides support to meet the needs of both volunteers and in-country program participants. Limitations This study focused on the volunteer, project director, and host coordinator experience and not on the learner. More research is needed to investigate how online and in-person dynamics coalesce.

Race Matters: The Long Walk to Decolonizing Development NGOs

Development NGOs have long been under scrutiny for their colonial legacy. Decision-making structures are predominantly white or European. There is little racial equity analysis of staff, programs, and campaigns. Poverty and development are understood as happening “there” in low-income countries. This article analyzes the UK-born NGO ActionAid and its steps toward decolonization. In the 2000s, country directors and international board members diversified beyond British nationals to give more decision-making power to African, Asian, and Latin-American countries. Other advances, yet recent, include an antiracism audit and the start of a large racial equity program. International campaigns are often critical toward the UK’s role in low-income countries or include UK domestic aspects requiring “development” (poverty, climate justice …). The paper shares practical measures to the sometimes-theoretical debate on decolonization and development. It suggests that this process is not in contradiction—but rather promotes—the mandate of addressing poverty where it is most severe worldwide.

Enabling environment and challenges for UN joint programming to strengthen nutrition: A multi-country survey in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Senegal.

The United Nations plays an important role in supporting governments to implement nutrition policies and accelerate progress. The development of a common UN nutrition agenda and joint programming are two crucial aspects to improve complementarities and synergies to maximize the nutritional impact. The objective was to identify the success factors and challenges during the planning process of the UN common nutrition agenda in three different contexts. This is a qualitative study, conducted in Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal between 2016 and 2018. The data was collected using an orientation kit developed by the UN Network which includes an inventory of UN nutrition actions, individual interviews, and consensus workshops. A total of 32 nutrition focal points from UN agencies participated in the study. In all countries, UN nutrition interventions were concentrated in areas with the highest number of stunted. Most of these actions were aligned with the priorities of nutrition policies and were complementary. Governance actions were mainly oriented towards sector governance. Key success of joint nutrition programming by UN includes commitment of country director and technicians, functional UN Network, participation of field-level stakeholders and strengthening of information between UN agencies. Certain prerequisites such as the existence of nutrition policy, stakeholder and action mapping, inventory of UN nutrition actions, situation analysis contributed to the formulation of a common nutrition agenda at country level. Among the challenges, we note effective implementation of joint programs to strengthen complementarity; diversity of beneficiary targeting strategies between sectors; low mobilization of resources; lack of coordination intra and inter agencies; understaffing; strengthening partnership and multisectoral accountability; ownership of the common nutrition agenda by all agencies. The development of common nutrition agenda and joint programs would maximize the nutritional impact in the country level.

Passion or profession: the training of theatre directors in South Africa

This article explores director training in the context of contemporary South Africa. Through individual interviews with ten South African theatre directors, we explore their origins and inspirations towards becoming a director. The selected directors differ in their ways of working and their personal backgrounds, providing a diverse spectrum of profiles that highlight the different skills required by theatre directors. Together, these interviews reflect the reality of the theatre industry in South Africa, which is somewhat haphazard and fragmented. The interviews explore how most of the selected directors, working across the spectrum of formal, well-funded theatre and under-resourced, community-based theatre, have fallen into directing as a default position, rather than receiving specific directing training during their studies. In most cases, this has been born out of a necessity to create their own work as actors, or to produce their own scripts as writers. This practice reflects how South African theatre directors are often driven by their own passion rather than by the professional training provided for directors in other countries. Based on these experiences, and the needs within the theatre industry in South Africa, the article concludes with suggestions for curriculum reform for theatre directors in the context of the South.

Bank diversification and ESG activities: A global perspective

The present study uses data from 1385 banks in 89 countries from 2009 to 2020 to analyze whether the banks’ environmental, social, and governance (ESG) activities around the world affect their diversification. We use a two-step system dynamic generalized method of moments technique and find that the relationship between ESG activity and bank diversification is nonlinear. Environmental and social factors negatively impact bank diversification, whereas governance has a positive impact. Bank diversification is affected by ESG overall and individual ESG dimensions more in developed countries. In high-income countries, banks generate more scope for diversification through environmental disclosures. The social activities of the executive management and the board of directors in high-income countries are intended more to satisfy their own needs than those of their banks. Governance disclosure increases income and asset diversification more for banks in high- and upper-middle-income countries. Capitalization, management quality, and liquidity are the channels through which ESG affects bank diversification. We argue that policy makers and regulators need to design and implement tailor-made frameworks and incentivize banks to embrace sustainable finance best practices. The adoption of these practices and the financing of socially responsible projects would drive interest by various stakeholders and thereby attract higher investor interest and bank valuation.

Research on the Compensation Incentive System of Independent Directors in Chinese Listed Companies

The independent director system is one of the important components of modern corporate governance. The huge liability of independent directors in the Kangmei Pharmaceutical case in 2021 has once again become a hot topic of discussion. In the exploration of the causes of the failure of the independent director system, the motivation of independent directors to perform their duties and their incentives are also worth considering. Based on the relevant theories of independent director incentives, this paper conducts a comparative analysis of the incentive models of independent directors in China and other countries and concludes that the legislative level of incentives for independent directors in China is relatively low, and the remuneration forms, standards, and payment subjects are unreasonable and lack implementation. In addition, the establishment of independent directors’ associations and the gradual construction of independent directors’ reputation incentives were proposed.

Global Pakistan: Pakistan’s Role in the International System

Globalization is a complex and multi-dimensional phenomenon. The advancement in the means of communication and technology has played the role of a catalyst in intensifying international economic, social and political integration thus accelerating the process of globalization. Pakistan, a member of the global community, competes economically and on cultural, geo-political and diplomatic fronts. Jochen Hippler and Vaqar Ahmed’s book, Global Pakistan: Pakistan’s Role in the International System, explores Pakistan’s role in the international system and the challenges posed to it due to globalization. The book comprises eleven chapters including an introduction by Jochen Hippler, former Country Director Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), Pakistan. The book in a broader context addresses three themes: (i) political, cultural, religious and geo-strategic impact of globalization on Pakistan; (ii) changing global geo-political landscape; and (iii) integration of state economy with the global economy.

A Review on a Milk Quality Detection and Analysis

The milk is the important nutrition for mortal being. The good quality milk should be free from the pollutants. Milk is substantially vended by original merchandisers as well as by super requests. still, in original areas to increase the volume of milk certain pollutants are added which may affect the nutritive quality of milk. Milk contamination is a social problem. The problem of contamination is faced by both Indian and foreign countries. Application of thinned milk causes severe health problems and a great concern to the food assiduity. The Country milk directors and consumers facing problem to find the quality of milk, accept the show of price and consumption. So, it's necessary to insure the quality of milk by measuring the vital parameters present in the milk and the pollutants that are added to the milk. Then we're measuring the different parameters of milk similar as pH, turbidity, conductivity, odor, temperature using detectors. Also, with the help of IOT( Internet of effects) process the milk assiduity should be suitable to shoot the real time reading information of milk to the government so that it helps to overcome the illegal effects similar as milk quality during the product of milk packet. This proposed system is enforced using At mega328 microcontroller. All the detectors arecombined to form compact and flexible system which dissect and classify the quality of milk into different grades and eventually affair displayed on TV screen. Problem faced in small journals and by the individualities can be averted by detecting the quality of milk, and help from causing the dangerous conditions by detecting the contamination of milk. husbandry is an important part of India and the dairy business is an overall benefit to India's business or frugality. Farmers force milk to dairy products and admit payments grounded on the chastity of the milk. As it's known, the world is moving presto now that people with further luxurious cultures are responding to trends and requirements. thus, there's a need to ameliorate the agrarian life of India. In milk, colorful factors are calculated, similar as fat, pH, and the asked rate of fat mass. The system calculates these parameters and the microcontroller reads the data and sends to android phone. The Blynk app installed on the phone can be used to perform billing computations and calculate the diurnal payments. This technology offers a clever mobile operation that help in determining the quantum of fat in milk. Both Arduino boards and microcontrollers may use the detector. The fashion for relating fat in milk samples is veritably affordable. The sector offers fair rates to growers and gives governments with real- time dairy value andproportions through the Internet of effects(IoT) procedure.

Extensiveness of the Entrepreneurship Education Skills Project on Enhancing Youth Employment among Secondary School Students in Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania

The evaluation of the implementation of entrepreneurship incubator skills project on enhancing youth employment among 8 secondary school in Kilimanjaro region, Tanzania. The study was guided by the Kirkpatrick Training Evaluation Model by Donald Kirkpatrick (1959). This study adopted an ex post facto design with quantitative approach. The targeted population involved 480 students, 40 alumnae, six coordinating teachers, six heads of schools, one regional coordinator and one country director of the project. The sample of this study included 96 students, 8 alumnae, 6 coordinating teachers, 6 heads of schools, 1 regional coordinator, and 1 country director of the project. Simple random sampling, stratified random sampling, and census sampling techniques were used to sample the respondents. Research instruments included questionnaires, observation schedules, and document analysis schedules. Ethical issues relating to this study were considered accordingly. Validity for quantitative instruments was ensured by involving three (3) research experts from MWECAU. Reliability for quantitative instruments ensured by using the Cronbach’s Alpha technique. The researcher used descriptive statistics for data analysis in frequencies, percentages, and mean scores. The findings revealed that knowledge of entrepreneurship skills among youth is crucial and is highly needed by the extreme majority of the students since additional knowledge enables youth to avoid mismatches between theory and practice. The study concluded that Asante Africa Foundation’s entrepreneurship skills training has a positive impact on students’ critical thinking and self-confidence. The project was effective in providing students with cognitive skills, including critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity, which are essential for success in the modern workplace. Governments and educational institutions should incorporate entrepreneurship education into their curricula to equip students with employability skills and improve job readiness among youth. Entrepreneurship education programs should involve real-life situations and be designed to enhance transferable skills that can be applied in various employment types.

ESG and performance in public health-care companies: the role of disclosure and director liability

PurposeThe seepage of companies' capital accommodated by weak country-level institutions is inconducive to building sustainable businesses. Companies' performance on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues is still a challenging question. This study aims to test the predictability of ESG on the performance of the health-care industry from a global perspective, while accounting for the country disclosure and director liability indices and performing robustness tests.Design/methodology/approachThis study relies on panel data of 912 companies operating in 38 different countries for 2012–2020. This study controls for firm-level variables (leverage, size and loss), macroeconomic variables (COVID, gross domestic product and inflation) and institutional variables.FindingsFindings indicate that countries with different levels of disclosure exhibit different patterns. Distinctly, the environmental pillar has a concave impact on return on assets, and the role of the disclosure index greatly manifests with the environmental pillar.Practical implicationsThis study ponders the impact of country disclosure on sustainability practices from a global health-care perspective.Originality/valueThis paper is original, as it addresses the relationship between ESG performance and financial performance while accounting for the impact of institutional factors such as the business disclosure and director liability indices.

Fighting Zero Hunger Amidst The Pandemic

One of the goals of the International Human Rights Movement Philippines is to help the Pastoral Care for Children at St. Anthony of Padua Parish, Subic, Zambales, Philippines in sustaining and fighting zero hunger because the majority of the residents of Matain, Subic, Zambales was greatly affected by the global pandemic, some of them lost their jobs and others lost their business income. The Project was conducted last February 27, 2022 in celebration of the Birthday of the Founding Chairman of IHRM, Dr. Rana Basharat, and the Ambassador at Large / Country Director of the IHRM Philippines in sponsoring the Feeding Program in support to the United Nations SDG 2 Zero Hunger, the said event was also participated by the Honorable Mayor Jonathan John Khonghun, Mayor of Subic, Zambales, Philippines The Researchers would like to cite that there is a need to address the issues on malnourishment and hunger in collaboration with the Government in attaining the Sustainability and Development.

Revolutionising the Reproductive World (Vol. 26, No. 03n04, Full Issue)

For the months of March and April 2022, APBN looks at how we can improve and support women's reproductive health. In Features, we have Dr Samuel Prien and Dr Linsay Penrose from Texas Tech University Health Sciences on how we may select the best embryos that will provide the best chances for pregnancy; Dr Alok Javali and Dr Nicolas Rivron from IMBA-Institute of Molecular Biology in Vienna, Austria on how blastoids can be used as a drug discovery tool to improve IVF procedures; and Michelle Tan Min Shuen on reproductive genetic technology. In Columns, Sumir Bhatia, President, Asia Pacific, Lenovo Infrastructure Solutions Group talks about the future of genome sequencing and Justin Loh, Country Director for Singapore, Veritas Technologies tells us how we may protect patient data from data breaches. In Spotlights, we recap the highlights from the Future of Healthcare Week, discussing the path forward in a post-COVID world.

Global Survey of Demand-Side Factors and Incentives that Influence Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) Promulgation.

We aimed to identify and describe demand-side factors that have been used to support ATLS global promulgation, as well as current gaps in demand-side incentives. We performed a cross-sectional survey about demand-side factors that influence the uptake and promulgation of ATLS and other trauma-related CME courses. The survey was sent to each of the four global ATLS region chiefs and 80 ATLS country directors. Responses were described and qualitative data were analyzed using a content analysis framework. Representatives from 30 countries and each region chief responded to the survey (40% response rate). Twenty of 30 country directors (66%) reported that there were some form of ATLS verification requirements. ATLS completion, not current verification, was often the benchmark. Individual healthcare systems were the most common agency to require ATLS verification (37% of countries) followed by medical/surgical accreditation boards (33%), governments (23%), training programs (27%), and professional societies (17%). Multiple credentialing frameworks were reported including making ATLS verification a requirement for: emergency unit or trauma center designation (40%), contract renewal or promotion (37%); professional licensing (37%); training program graduation (37%); and increases in remuneration (3%). Unique demand-side incentives were reported including expansion of ATLS to non-physician cadre credentialing and use of subsidies. ATLS region chiefs and country directors reported a variety of demand-side incentives that may facilitate the promulgation of ATLS. Actionable steps include: (i) shift incentivization from ATLS course completion to maintenance of verification; (ii) develop an incentive toolkit of best practices to support implementation; and (iii) engage leadership stakeholders to use demand-side incentives to improve the training and capabilities of the providers they oversee to care for the injured.

Of Marabouts, Acrobats, and Auteurs: Framing the Global-Popular in Moumen Smihi's World Cinema

Of Marabouts, Acrobats, and Auteurs:Framing the Global-Popular in Moumen Smihi's World Cinema Peter Limbrick (bio) One of the critical commonplaces in the study of Arab cinemas is the idea that we can distinguish between Egyptian cinema, a dominant popular and industrial cinema akin to Hollywood, and smaller national or regional cinemas (Palestinian, Tunisian, Algerian, Moroccan), which are typically discussed as auteur or art cinemas. While historically defensible, in that Egypt preceded these others in having its own studios and industry, such an assessment nonetheless tends to foreclose on the possibilities for those films inhabiting the "non-Egyptian" model to ever be accorded the status of popular cinema. Moreover, where local distribution and exhibition for North African films has been historically partial or nonexistent (due to commercial decisions that have historically favored Egyptian, Indian, and Euro-American productions), it has been difficult for many directors in countries like Morocco to avoid the charge that their films—which are often more visible in European festivals than at home—are made for other markets or audiences. Whether in sympathy with the idea of distinctive local or national cinemas and resistance to cultural hegemony or in suspicion of the politics of international funding and coproduction, many critical treatments of non-Egyptian Arab films make of the popular an evaluative term that signifies local authenticity and a resistance toward European art cinema tendencies and that privileges commercial success over experimentation. This essay takes a more expansive approach to the idea of the popular in an Arab cinematic context. Using the work of Moroccan filmmaker Moumen Smihi as an example, I will show how the history of Maghribi cinema forces us to rethink notions of the popular in a global frame. Smihi's films construct a dialogue between vernacular, local, and popular elements in Morocco and the Maghrib and elements [End Page 60] of the wider culture of the Arab world. More than that, however, his films construct a global-popular that is also in dialogue with European, Asian, and American cultural forms—both cinematic and literary. While treating Smihi's cinema as a global modernist form within the history of world cinema, I show here that the assumed characteristics and preoccupations of art cinema can mask a surprisingly thoroughgoing and transformative engagement with the popular. Addressing Smihi's development of a global-popular is thus instructive not only for elucidating his films' deep emplacement within the local but for thinking about wider discourses of art cinema, global modernist forms, and cinematic histories. 1 In deploying the term "world cinema" in its very title, and below, this essay does not suggest some kind of flattened terrain where everything circulates either in relation to Hollywood or in a multicultural sameness. In keeping with the cautionary perspectives on nomenclature developed in this issue's introduction, I here deploy the term "world" in productive tension with the term "global" in order to suggest the world-making, generative possibilities that the global-popular can unleash. I mean to recognize not only the "irreducible contradictions" invoked by the editors with respect to global cinematic practices but also the sense that the "flexible geographies" (Nagib, 35) created by Smihi's cinema can reconfigure the relations that so far separate "the Arab world" from "the West" or that structure Maghribi production along axes assumed to follow those established by colonialism. By forging connections across different and more unpredictable paths, Smihi's films engage and exploit the global in service of what I've elsewhere termed a new kind of Nahda, a renewed Arab renaissance (Limbrick 2020). It's for that reason especially—to hold on to the possibilities for reconfigured relations within and between Arab and non-Arab worlds as engaged by a cinema of the global-popular—that I use the term "world cinema" here. With its purchase on the transformative power of cinema's imaginaries, it offers not only the space for critique of what is but also a gesture to what might still be, a doubled perspective that is particularly helpful in assessing Smihi's work. Born and raised in Tangier, Moumen Smihi began a degree in literature in Rabat before winning a scholarship to study filmmaking...

The 7+ Habits of Highly Effective Medical Directors.

Medical Directors in the pharmaceutical industry are responsible for fulfilling multiple roles, including scientific expert, conscience keeper and people leader, as well as being the external face of the organisation. The capabilities described in the book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People® are not just the integral qualities of a successful leader, they are important capabilities that are critical to becoming an impactful medical leader too. As scientific, functional and enterprise leaders, country and cluster Medical Directors must possess these seven qualities. Each of the seven habits can be adapted and utilised to shape the specific areas that Medical Directors are responsible for: intuitive creativity, patient centricity, prioritisation, enterprise leadership, communication and behavioural change, building a team, partnering and scientific and technological leadership. To excel in their function, current and future Medical Directors need to sharpen their existing skills and build specific capabilities. Energy management in physical, mental, emotional and spiritual domains is the way forward.

Boards of directors in BRIC countries: A review of empirical studies

The paper is aimed to analyse the most recent and relevant research on boards of directors in BRIC. Existent reviews on the board of directors do not focus on BRIC and do not consider the specifics of their corporate governance model. Therefore, the current review fills this gap by analysing 111 research papers from Scopus/Web of Science published between 2015 and 2020. Firstly, we provide a content analysis of abstracts to find the most frequent research topics and compare them to the developed countries’ studies. Secondly, based on the content analysis findings, we provide a qualitative analysis of three research directions: board composition, social capital, and board functioning, divided further into ten smaller research topics. Thirdly, we compare the research output with the developed countries’ studies and the statistics provided by the Spencer Stuart Board Indexes to analyse whether they are coherent. The results confirm the topicality of board research in BRIC and overlapping topics between the BRIC and the more developed countries. As a result, we formulate a research agenda for further studies on boards in BRIC.

A mediation analysis: Board of directors’ composition, R&D investment, and international firm performance

The comprehension and the explanation of the research and development (R&D) investment behaviour are done within the framework of a reflection on corporate governance. This investment does not contribute to creating value only if it is framed by governance mechanisms which role is to keep organizational, agency, or transaction costs as low as possible. In this context, we try to determine whether an integrating model exists; one that measures the simultaneous effect of the characteristics of the board of directors on R&D and the firm performance in an international context. Our model seeks to identify whether the dominance of inside directors and the dual structure influence the level of R&D investment, the mediating variable, and hence the firm performance. Our empirical study was carried out on a total sample of 509 firms divided between 165 American firms, 173 Japanese firms, and 171 French firms over the period 2014 to 2019. The findings of the mediation analysis according to the approach of Preacher and Hayes (2004, 2008) show the significant role of mediation by R&D investment between, on the one hand, the dominance of inside directors and duality, and on the other hand, the firm performance. Differences in the configuration of board of directors (BD) in different countries thus lead to different attitudes to the fulfillment of the control task and the R&D investment decision, value creator

Remarks by Mark Ward

I am a former lawyer and retired American diplomat and currently country director of a large humanitarian organization working in Afghanistan. As I explained during the panel, the International Medical Corps is faced with the challenges of delivering humanitarian assistance in the middle of a twenty-year armed conflict. We must stay true to humanitarian principles, like neutrality, but avoid donor governments’ concerns that we not engage too much with their enemy, the Taliban.

Information, power, and location: World Bank staff decentralization and aid project success

AbstractUsing data on World Bank staff identity and field placement, this article examines the relationship between staff presence in recipient countries and aid project performance. I find that merely placing World Bank staff in developing countries has little effect on the success of development projects. Greater field decision rights are, however, associated with differential project performance. In the most fragile states, the presence of senior personnel (World Bank Country Directors) is associated with greater project success after the “Strategic Compact” increased Country Directors' power. However—consistent with a bargaining model in which greater World Bank authority is in tension with recipient country direction of projects—as countries become less fragile, the net effect of the presence of Country Directors becomes negative. The impact of World Bank staff decentralization is mixed and appears to be driven primarily by the power of senior personnel in the field, not the ability of field staff to gather local information.

Independent director compensation, corruption, and monitoring

AbstractWe find that independent directors in more corrupt countries receive greater pay. This relation could reflect outside directors in corrupt countries expropriating firm value, or it could reflect higher compensation for the additional effort required to lessen the negative effects of corruption. Acquirer acquisition announcement returns are lower in more corrupt countries, and this relation is mitigated by higher director pay. Higher director pay is also associated with greater sensitivity of CEO turnover to firm performance and moderates the negative effects of country‐level corruption on firm value. This evidence is consistent with higher director pay in corrupt countries incentivizing effort.