Government-sponsored Projects Research Articles

The Role of Project Health Check Reports in Identifying Indicative Factors of a Troubled Project

Government-sponsored projects in Iraq significantly improve the economic situation and provide services but face high rates of troubling blocks. This work aims to identify indicative factors of the Troubled Project using periodic health check reports based on a literature review and interviews with Iraqi experts. As a result, a questionnaire was prepared that included four sections. The first is personal information; the second section is information about knowing the level of institutions’ implementation of project management through prepared documents. The third section is about indicative factors for the project's trouble, including 25 workers; the fourth section is about the questions in the periodic reports to check the project's health. Findings show that the following factors affect the troubled projects: inaccurate initial budget and schedule estimates; poor project scope description; poor team communication; poor planning and definition of the project; lack of a risk management plan and disregarding risk indicators; high rate of rework, and ineffective documentation of project plans with a high relative importance index that ranges from 0.91 to 0.81. Thus, the institutions' activation of the project examination reports with the proposed questions with a relative importance index ranging from 0.88 to 0.77 helps identify the main factors for the troubled projects.

Agricultural Supply-Side Structural Reform and Path Optimization: Evidence from China.

The agricultural sector's supply-side reform is fundamental to ensuring food security and social stability. This paper uses a comprehensive analysis method to reflect on China's agricultural reform from 1970 to 2020. We observe that China's agriculture made significant progress before 2020 due to preferential policies and demographic dividends. This production-oriented mode has led to the co-existence of overstocking, the rapid growth of imports, and ecological degradation. A follow-up survey acknowledged that rural complex is a comprehensive social network with substantial radiant effect involving government-sponsored projects, sector-specific programs, corporate and societal assistance. The sustainable development of the rural complex lies in industrial planning, system restructuring, and institutional arrangement. Therefore, this article anchors its system structure under the ESG principle and green development philosophy. It diversifies the agro-economy to advance digitalization and de-carbonization of the rural economy.

The Mediating Role of Benefit Management for Sustaining the Performance of Infrastructure Projects

Benefit management is a valuable approach, promoted and supported by strategic management for maximizing organizational benefits. It has also been recognized as a means of improving project performance, though more research is needed to understand how it works. This research adds to the contemporary literature on public sector project management by studying the links between project governance, benefit management, and project performance from a developing country perspective. This study provides insights for project professionals who are working in government organizations for optimizing the benefits of investment. The study provides a reference to formulate strategies for managing and governing the performance of government-funded projects in developing countries like Pakistan. The research uses a positivist approach and quantitative design. The quantitative technique is employed to address all the aspects of the study. The structural equation modeling revealed that benefit management acted as a mediating factor in the relationship between project governance dimensions and public sector project performance. This study highlights the importance of incorporating a comprehensive benefit management approach to streamline the benefit management process by aligning projects with the organizational strategy for sustaining project performance. These findings stress the need for a comprehensive benefit management approach in improving the project performance of government-sponsored projects. The study attempts to improve the understanding of project professionals about the role and significance of benefit management, which will be helpful to get organizational support for the employees who are striving to improve the project performance in Pakistan.

De Nueva España a México: El universo musical mexicano entre centenarios (1517–1917), edited by Javier Marín-López

Book Review| April 01 2022 De Nueva España a México: El universo musical mexicano entre centenarios (1517–1917), edited by Javier Marín-López De Nueva España a México: El universo musical mexicano entre centenarios (1517–1917), edited by JavierMarín-López. Seville: Universidad Internacional de Andalucía, 2020. 742 pp. Alejandro García Sudo, Alejandro García Sudo ALEJANDRO GARCÍA SUDO has an MA in Musicology from the University of Western Ontario, and completed doctoral coursework at UCLA under Fulbright–García Robles sponsorship. As an independent scholar, he is working on projects that assess the transnational dimensions of musical performance, the weight of pan-American discourses in intellectual circles, and the role of Latin American music in government-sponsored projects of the interwar period. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Elisabeth Le Guin Elisabeth Le Guin ELISABETH LE GUIN is Professor of Musicology at UCLA, and Host and Program Director for Si yo fuera una canción, a bilingual podcast exploring the lives of ordinary people in Santa Ana, California, through conversations about the songs they love. Her academic research has journeyed from Italy to Spain to Mexico, asking questions about the historiography of embodied performance along the way. She has received several awards from the American Musicological Society as well as a Guggenheim Fellowship. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Journal of the American Musicological Society (2022) 75 (1): 167–180. https://doi.org/10.1525/jams.2022.75.1.167 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Alejandro García Sudo, Elisabeth Le Guin; De Nueva España a México: El universo musical mexicano entre centenarios (1517–1917), edited by Javier Marín-López. Journal of the American Musicological Society 1 April 2022; 75 (1): 167–180. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/jams.2022.75.1.167 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentJournal of the American Musicological Society Search Borrowing its title from an international congress organized in 2017 in the city of Baeza, Spain, De Nueva España a México: El universo musical mexicano entre centenarios (1517–1917) came to light in 2020 during a flurry of activities commemorating the five hundredth anniversary of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec capital (1521), the bicentennial of Mexico’s independence from Spain (1821), and the centennial of the Mexican revolution (1910–17). The ambitious chronological framing of the title, which is more than a little factitious, results in a hefty volume (available gratis online as a PDF)1 that brings together texts of different lengths and calibers, as conference proceedings often do. The difference between a conference and a book is key. In the former, the horizon is crowded with trial balloons; the title or organizing principle serves as an invitation to launch them; and the format abounds in opportunities for comparison, feedback, dialogue,... You do not currently have access to this content.

Community engagement in development projects: government versus private funded projects in Ghana

Purpose The abandonment of governmental development projects either after completion or midway completion at the taxpayer’s expense in Ghana could be attributed to lack of effective community engagement (CE). Thus, this study aims to assess CE in development projects by comparing government-sponsored projects to private-sponsored projects. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative approach was adopted where a multiple case study design was used as a research strategy. Data was collected from selected districts in the Central Region of Ghana by using a semi-structured interview guide and analyzed using the thematic and comparative analysis techniques. Findings The results reveal that CE in government-funded projects was low, while CE in projects funded by private organizations was high. Three levels of engagement (consultation, participation in decision-making and consent) were also identified. Furthermore, the roles of public participation, including knowledge sharing, collective sense of ownership, among others, were ascertained. Finally, resources constraints, competing interests, lack of information flow, public attitudes toward change and central government/political interference are challenges of CE in development projects. Originality/value This study has provided an empirical basis for government and other development agents to draft a policy on CE to serve as a guide, spell out the role of CE, mitigate the challenges of CE and ensure strict compliance to the three levels of engagement.

Twentieth century vascular plant taxonomy in Portugal

We discuss the development of, and trends in, vascular plant taxonomy in Portugal during the 20th century, with emphasis on the institutions and taxonomists that were instrumental in advancing and facilitating this branch of scientific botanical endeavour. We show that the bulk of the nomenclatural novelties published by Portuguese botanists for elements of the vascular flora of the country, and beyond, were produced by a small group of 69 taxonomists who were mostly based at institutions in one of three Portuguese cities: Coimbra, Lisboa (Lisbon) and Porto. In all three instances the individuals were associated with local herbaria that were managed by universities, while in Lisboa other government-sponsored projects and institutions additionally played a pivotal role in the production of complete or partial Floras for Portugal and its former colonies. These individuals are comprehensively tabulated and biographical information is provided for all of them. With 440 names published, Rosette Mercedes Saraiva Batarda Fernandes (1916–2005), who worked at the University of Coimbra, was the most prolific taxonomist in terms of publishing new names. She was the sole author of more than half of these names. Biographies are provided for the ten most prolific Portuguese authors of vascular plant names.Citation: Figueiredo E., Silva V., Coutinho A. & Smith G. F. 2018: Twentieth century vascular plant taxonomy in Portugal. – Willdenowia 48: 303–330. doi: https://doi.org/10.3372/wi.48.48209Version of record first published online on 24 August 2018 ahead of inclusion in August 2018 issue.

Terrorism discourses, public and secret

ABSTRACTThis article provides a historical account of the American-supported ‘counterinsurgency’ campaign in Guatemala in the 1960s. The analysis of a selection of now-declassified secret documents and of a number of public testimonies given by representatives of the executive branch before the US Congress reveals the existence of two very different discourses on ‘counterinsurgency’ and ‘terrorism’. A focus on the profound differences between these public and secret discourses, it is argued, allows for a powerful critique of government-sponsored projects that, from Camelot in 1965 to the Human Terrain System programme launched in the mid-2000s, have attempted to harness the expertise of social scientists in the service of often extraordinarily brutal US ‘counterinsurgency’ campaigns.

Innovation in China’s information and communications technology industry

Purpose – This paper aims to identify the sources of innovation in the current business environment of China. With the set target of transforming China into an innovative society by 2020, the Chinese government has taken dramatic measures to foster the nation’s innovation capability. Whether this Chinese model of promoting innovation has been successful and can be sustainable are controversial issues which need to be analyzed from an academic perspective. In recent years, there have been successful cases of innovation driven by grassroots entrepreneurs, especially in the information and communications technology (ICT) industry. Therefore, it is time to analyze their success factors from the perspectives of both corporate strategy and government policy. Design/methodology/approach – The methodology used in this research is a comparative case analysis, and several high-profile cases in China’s ICT industry have been selected for this comparative study. Information used in the analysis comes from publicly available sources such as business school case studies and industry and news media reports. The authors have been following the evolution of China’s ICT industry for more than a decade; insights from their prior research and knowledge gained through industry contacts are also used in the analysis. Findings – Generally speaking, the types of innovation in China’s ICT industry can be categorized into a top-down or a bottom-up approach. For the top-down approach of innovation driven by the government, the authors analyzed the case of the Chinese government’s effort to build an industry value chain through fostering the Chinese indigenous third-generation mobile communications standard time division–synchronous code division multiple access. In comparison, the authors use several success cases, including the ecosystem built around the highly successful XiaoMi mobile phone and Tencent’s mobile portal WeChat, as it showcases of the bottom-up approach of innovation driven by grassroots entrepreneurship. The comparison of these two approaches suggests that massive government-sponsored projects are unlikely to generate genuine innovation in the highly competitive and dynamic ICT sector. The government’s role should be to foster entrepreneurship and to create a fair business environment. Originality/value – This research uses the method of comparative case studies to identify the source of innovation in a highly dynamic and uncertain business environment. Findings of this study shed light on the government policy toward innovation in the ICT industry and on the business firms’ strategy on innovation.

Thought Exercises on Accountability and Performance Measures at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI): An Invited Commentary for Circulation Research

Recently, popular magazines and newspapers broadcast skeptical headlines, such as, “Desperately Seeking Cures”1; “A Decade Later, Genetic Map Yields Few Cures”2; “Faltering Cancer Trials”3; and “Grant System Leads Cancer Researchers to Play It Safe.”4 Some patients, physicians, advocacy groups, journalists, scholars, and policymakers openly wonder about the value of billions of dollars in government-supported research. During the past 10 years, the NIH budget has doubled, yet cardiovascular disease, while decreasing in incidence and severity, is still the leading cause of death and cancer incidence and death rates have declined little. Along with “Where Are the Cures?” critics ask “Who Is Accountable?”5 There is a rapidly growing body of scholarship on the metrics of science, methods by which scientists, scientific organizations, policymakers, and funding agencies can gauge the value and impact of their work and investments.6 To assess the impact of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the White House Executive Office are engaged in an ambitious “STAR METRICS” project.7 Metrics often focus on publications and citations (“bibliometrics”) but also consider commercial products and quantitative impacts on practice or intellectual thought. Although scientists are typically eager to publish their work and see it cited, many worry about seeing their value to society, employers, and funders graded by black-box numbers.8 Some professional groups have harshly criticized bibliometrics, noting their inherent flaws and the risk that the act of measuring science will damage innovation, which is at the heart of the scientific enterprise.9 At NHLBI, we increasingly recognize that we need to be held accountable for our performance, which means that it is incumbent on us to assess the performance of the scientists and projects we choose to support. …

The Main Street Economic Recovery Proposal: Will it Bring Us out of Recession?

This is a policy paper on the stimulus plan as of December 2008. Fear of a deep recession has led policy makers to propose an unprecedented stimulus package to save the economy, a sort of Main Street economic recovery package that would rely heavily on government-sponsored infrastructure projects to create jobs and stimulate economic activity. The problem is real. The unemployment rate is 6.7 percent and rising: 10.3 million American workers are unemployed, and 2.7 million jobs were lost in the last year alone. If history is any guide, however, the bailout the government proposes won't work. Instead, policy makers should focus on the fundamentals of economic behavior and the incentives faced by individuals, governments, and entrepreneurs. Reducing taxes, insisting on fiscal prudence on the federal level, and encouraging it on the state and local level by cutting, rather than increasing, public spending would do far more to help the economy than any of the proposals currently being discussed in Washington.

The Achievements and Challenges of Silicon Photonics

A brief overview of silicon photonics is given here in order to provide a context for invited and contributed papers in this special issue. Recent progress on silicon-based photonic components, photonic integrated circuits, and optoelectronic integrated circuits is surveyed. Present and potential applications are identified along with the scientific and engineering challenges that must be met in order to actualize applications. Some on-going government-sponsored projects in silicon optoelectronics are also described.

A review of mangrove rehabilitation in the Philippines: successes, failures and future prospects

From half a million hectares at the turn of the century, Philippine mangroves have declined to only 120,000 ha while fish/shrimp culture ponds have increased to 232,000 ha. Mangrove replanting programs have thus been popular, from community initiatives (1930s–1950s) to government-sponsored projects (1970s) to large-scale international development assistance programs (1980s to present). Planting costs escalated from less than US$100 to over $500/ha, with half of the latter amount allocated to administration, supervision and project management. Despite heavy funds for massive rehabilitation of mangrove forests over the last two decades, the long-term survival rates of mangroves are generally low at 10–20%. Poor survival can be mainly traced to two factors: inappropriate species and site selection. The favored but unsuitable Rhizophora are planted in sandy substrates of exposed coastlines instead of the natural colonizers Avicennia and Sonneratia. More significantly, planting sites are generally in the lower intertidal to subtidal zones where mangroves do not thrive rather than the optimal middle to upper intertidal levels, for a simple reason. Such ideal sites have long been converted to brackishwater fishponds whereas the former are open access areas with no ownership problems. The issue of pond ownership may be complex and difficult, but such should not outweigh ecological requirements: mangroves should be planted where fishponds are, not on seagrass beds and tidal flats where they never existed. This paper reviews eight mangrove initiatives in the Philippines and evaluates the biophysical and institutional factors behind success or failure. The authors recommend specific protocols (among them pushing for a 4:1 mangrove to pond ratio recommended for a healthy ecosystem) and wider policy directions to make mangrove rehabilitation in the country more effective.

ENHANCEMENT AND SUPPRESSION OF MALARIA IN THE AMAZON

ENHANCEMENT AND SUPPRESSION OF MALARIA IN THE AMAZON

Understanding ISO 14001 adoption and implementation in China

This paper investigates the status of the ISO 14001 Environmental Management System (EMS) standard in China and analyses key factors influencing its adoption by Chinese enterprises. It applies lessons learnt from studying the implementation of China's mandatory environmental regulations to assess the potential for using this voluntary standard to promote improved environmental performance. Our findings indicate that the number of certified enterprises is growing exponentially and that factors influencing adoption include international trade, transnational corporate policy, government-sponsored environmental projects, the potential for regulatory, economic, and environmental benefits, and the interest of top company management. Evaluation of case studies demonstrates that while the reported benefits of ISO 14001 adoption are often substantial, benefits are often qualitative and more normalised, while quantitative information is needed to conduct analysis that can be generalised within and across industrial sectors. Finally, we synthesise information presented in the body of the paper and make recommendations on steps that can be taken to maximise the efficacy of future ISO 14001 certifications.

The Meltdown of the Indonesian Economy: Causes, Responses and Lessons

I. Causes of the Economic Crisis Since late 1997, Indonesia has been suffering from two interrelated crises: a political crisis and an economic crisis. The politically weak and technically incompetent governments of President Soeharto and President B.J. Habibie could not take bold, but sometimes unpopular, economic measures that were required for short-run stabilization and long-run growth. The present economic crisis consists of a banking crisis and an external debt crisis. Both external and internal factors caused the economic crisis. The external factors include: (a) regional recession, currency misalignment, and contagion effects; (b) the abnormal weather phenomena that has seriously affected food output and agriculture incomes in the rural sector, and (c) negative shock to the terms of trade. (Until recently, the price of oil was $10 per barrel, the lowest price in the past twelve years.) The internal factors include a fragile financial sector, excessive monetary growth, rapid accumulation of external debt by the private sector, and reduced quality of investment. Slow response and policy mistakes in the reform process magnified the already difficult problems. The strong economic fundamentals (low inflation rate, high economic growth and respectable growth of non-oil exports) that the authorities were so fond of boasting about before the crises were actually artificial. The low inflation rate was brought about by large subsidies to state-vended products. The high rate of economic growth (over 6 per cent per annum) was mainly generated in non-traded sectors of the economy (such as land-based industry, physical infrastructure, and the financial system). Most of the growth of non-oil exports during the 1990s came from sectors that relied least on domestic inputs and were associated with foreign firms. In contrast, exports from sectors that were domestically owned and which relied on domestic inputs, fared poorly. II. Structure of External Debt The external debt problem in Indonesia is centred on private sector debt, not public debt (see Table 1). In the period prior to the crisis, the authorities had kept the formal in surplus between 0.5 to 1 per cent of GDP. The consolidated of the public sector, however, may actually have been in deficit because of the large budget (popularly known as non-budget) expenditures of the public sector. The extra items include financial transactions of state-owned enterprises, and contingency liabilities of government-sponsored projects owned by the politically-connected private sector or by the powerful State Minister (later President) B.J. Habibie. TABLE 1 Indonesia: External Debt Outstanding, 1989-99 1989 1990 External Debt Outstanding (US$ millions) 51,974.7 62,320.6 Public Sector 39,576.9 45,100.2 Private Sector 12,397.8 17,720.4 The Structure of Private Sector External Debt (%) By Debtors 1. Banks 6.4 14.8 - State-owned Banks 3.4 6.4 - Private Banks 3.0 8.4 2. Non-bank 93.6 85.2 - State-owned Enterprise 26.0 17.6 - Foreign Investment Enterprise 26.4 26.4 - Domestic Investment Enterprise 23.0 23.0 - Financing Institution 3.9 3.9 - Others 14.4 14.4 By Maturity - Short term 6.9 6.9 - Long term 93.1 93.1 Memo items: 1. Share of Government Debt to Total Debt (%) 76.1 71.8 2. Share of Private Debt to Total Debt (%) 23. …

Peasant Irrigation Development and Food Production in Ethiopia

This paper examines the development and constraints of small-scale irrigation in Ethiopia, and its role in food production, particularly since the 1984/85 famine. Although irrigated agriculture in Ethiopia probably predates the Axum empire, it is still unimportant in the densely populated highlands. The government-sponsored small-scale irrigation programme, although resulting in increased production in some producer cooperatives, has been plagued by civil war, the villagization and resettlement programmes, insecure land tenure, absence of adequate water-use legislation and, above all, lack of peasant interest in government-sponsored projects. A crop census by the Ministry of Agriculture in 1986/87 showed that the crops most commonly grown under irrigation in 1020 peasant associations and producer cooperatives were vegetables, the staples maize, potatoes and barley; fruits; the cash crops coffee and chat (Catha edulis); and sugar cane. Marked local and regional variations in cropping patterns were associated with market forces and prevailing agricultural systems. In order for significantly more Ethiopian peasants to use irrigation and to increase food production, it is imperative that peasants themselves play a central role in its development and operation, that greater land tenure security be achieved, that appropriate community-based irrigation organizations and government support structures be developed and a comprehensive water-use law is

Nuclear Fuels and the Electric Power Industry

To put these matters in perspective, it may be helpful to begin with some general observations. About 20% of all primary energy now used in the United States goes into the generation of electric power. By 1980, this share may increase to 30% and by the year 2000 to 40% of an increasing energy base. This is a logical development from the fact that electricity is the most versatile form of energy at our command. In 1963, the per capita production of electric energy was 5400 kilowatthours per year. Studies made by the Edison Electric Institute suggest that by the year 2000 a considerably larger population may be using electric energy at the rate of 20,000 kilowatthours per capita per year. Nuclear power is a fast growing sector of this rapidly expanding industry. It is expected that at least 10% of U. S. capacity will be nuclear by 1980. Some 127 investor-owned tax-paying electric companies are participating in 25 atomic projects involving company expenditures of one billion dollars, with a total ultimate generating capacity of 3.2 million kilowatts. In addition, there are seven government-sponsored projects to develop a capacity of 1.4 million kilowatts. At present 13 nuclear stations are in operation in the United States, with a total capacity of about one million kilowatts. It is heartening to compare the situation today with predictions made only a short time ago. In November 1962, in a report to President Kennedy, the Atomic Energy Commission predicted that by 1970 a 600,000 kilowatt water reactor might achieve a power cost of 5.3 mills per kilowatthour. Recently, Jersey Central Power and Light Company announced plans to build a 620,000 kilowatt plant by 1967 with a calculated lifetime generating cost of less than 4 mills per kilowatthour. Thus the time scale has been moved ahead significantly. In the appendix to the report to President Kennedy, the AEC predicted that by the year 2000 about 45% of our total electric generating capacity will be nuclear and that these facilities will generate 50% of the total kilowatthours produced. In view of recent events, even this projection may be a little on the conservative side. Nuclear power fits well into current industry trends. There is a continuing development of regional electric power pools, which permit a group of operating systems to take advantage of the economies made possible by the installation of large generating units. It is in such sizes that nuclear stations show economy in unit cost outpacing conventional thermal stations, where the economy of large size is less pronounced for very large steam generators. In 1957, the largest thermal unit on order in the United States was 500,000 kilowatts, and almost 60% of capacity on order was in unit sizes of 200,000 kilowatts or less. In 1964, about 50% of new capacity on order is in the size range of 400,000 to a million kilowatts and only 18% of the capacity is in the size of 200,000 kilowatts or less.

Locating unclassified government-sponsored research reports

Many physicists will recall Dwight Gray's article on unpublished research reports which appeared in Physics Today (June 1957, p. 18). This article showed that for the technical reports that contained publishable data, all such information is published within two to three years for only half of these reports. There are probably more reports today than when this study was completed. It therefore becomes a matter of increasing importance to obtain these reports promptly and, if possible, prior to publication in a journal. The problem is one which is particularly acute for those scientists who are not working on such government-sponsored projects and, hence, find it more difficult to obtain published government research reports, even if these reports are unclassified.