Level Of Stakeholder Involvement Research Articles

A Framework for Enhancing Adoption of Mobile-based Surveillance for Crop Pest and Disease Management by Farmers in Kenya

Crop pests and diseases are ranked as some of the world’s leading threats to agricultural productivity. Though different digital solutions have been developed in the last decade to monitor and control biosecurity threats, their adoption in developing nations remain sluggish. The need to improve adoption of digital solutions prompted a review on the applicability of emerging digital solutions in large-scale surveillance of crop pest and diseases in developing nations. The study presents findings on key requirements for achieving digitized large-scale pest surveillance, fitness for purpose of common autonomous biosecurity surveillance technologies, and prospects of smartphones as alternative surveillance solution. Firstly, the research identified appropriateness of the solution, availability of supporting infrastructure and level of stakeholder involvement in solution formulation as some of the key determinants of digital solution adoption. Secondly, though most common autonomous biosecurity surveillance technologies are promising, their adoption in developing nations are limited by operational cost, legal requirements, required skillset, and operational environment among others. Thirdly, recent advancements in smartphones and wide spread ownership among farmers provide a unique opportunity for advancing Mobile Crowd-Sensing solutions in achieving large-scale pest surveillance. Lastly, we recommend designing an incentive mechanism to motivate farmers’ participation in MCS based surveillance solution.

Stakeholder Involvement and Performance of Projects at the Kenya Revenue Authority

Kenya Revenue authority just like any other organization has projects that need implementation and performance. The Agency has invested in many projects to ease the process of revenue collection. Nonetheless concerns had been raised concerning implementation of several projects by Kenya Revenue Authority. Therefore, this study sought to determine the effect of stakeholder involvement in project planning on performance of projects at the Kenya revenue authority. A multiple linear regression model was used to show the relationship between stakeholder involvement in project planning and the performance of projects at the Kenya Revenue Authority. The entire data analysis process was aided by the use of the statistical package for social sciences. All inferences were made at 0.05 level of significance. The study also established that the performance of projects at the Kenya Revenue Authority was positively and significantly affected by the level of stakeholder involvement in planning in the authority. The study concluded that the involvement of stakeholders at the Kenya Revenue Authority was inevitable in the authority since it influenced the performance of the authority’s projects. Given that the authority had embraced stakeholder involvement in its projects to a large extent, the study recommended that it was crucial for authority to sustain current efforts aimed at promoting stakeholder involvement across all its projects. The study recommended that the authority should review and enhance its stakeholder involvement framework or strategy so as to ensure that collective responsibility in planning was deeply entrenched in its culture. The study further recommended that the involvement of the authority’s stakeholders in its projects should be balanced across all the project phases.

Linking model design and application for transdisciplinary approaches in social-ecological systems

As global environmental change continues to accelerate and intensify, science and society are turning to transdisciplinary approaches to facilitate transitions to sustainability. Modeling is increasingly used as a technological tool to improve our understanding of social-ecological systems (SES), encourage collaboration and learning, and facilitate decision-making. This study improves our understanding of how SES models are designed and applied to address the rising challenges of global environmental change, using mountains as a representative system. We analyzed 74 peer-reviewed papers describing dynamic models of mountain SES, evaluating them according to characteristics such as the model purpose, data and model type, level of stakeholder involvement, and spatial extent/resolution. Slightly more than half the models in our analysis were participatory, yet only 21.6% of papers demonstrated any direct outreach to decision makers. We found that SES models tend to under-represent social datasets, with ethnographic data rarely incorporated. Modeling efforts in conditions of higher stakeholder diversity tend to have higher rates of decision support compared to situations where stakeholder diversity is absent or not addressed. We discuss our results through the lens of appropriate technology, drawing on the concepts of boundary objects and scalar devices from Science and Technology Studies. We propose four guiding principles to facilitate the development of SES models as appropriate technology for transdisciplinary applications: (1) increase diversity of stakeholders in SES model design and application for improved collaboration; (2) balance power dynamics among stakeholders by incorporating diverse knowledge and data types; (3) promote flexibility in model design; and (4) bridge gaps in decision support, learning, and communication. Creating SES models that are appropriate technology for transdisciplinary applications will require advanced planning, increased funding for and attention to the role of diverse data and knowledge, and stronger partnerships across disciplinary divides. Highly contextualized participatory modeling that embraces diversity in both data and actors appears poised to make strong contributions to the world’s most pressing environmental challenges.

The impact of active stakeholder involvement on recruitment, retention and engagement of schools, children and their families in the cluster randomised controlled trial of the Healthy Lifestyles Programme (HeLP): a school-based intervention to prevent obesity

BackgroundRecruitment and retention of participants is crucial for statistical power and internal and external validity and participant engagement is essential for behaviour change. However, many school-based interventions focus on programme content rather than the building of supportive relationships with all participants and tend to employ specific standalone strategies, such as incentives, to improve retention. We believe that actively involving stakeholders in both intervention and trial design improves recruitment and retention and increases the chances of creating an effective intervention.MethodsThe Healthy Lifestyles Programme, HeLP (an obesity prevention programme for children 9–10 years old) was developed using intervention mapping and involved extensive stakeholder involvement in both the design of the trial and the intervention to ensure that: (i) delivery methods were suitably engaging, (ii) deliverers had the necessary skills and qualities to build relationships and (iii) the intervention dovetailed with the National Curriculum. HeLP was a year-long intervention consisting of 4 multi-component phases using a range of delivery methods. We recruited 1324 children from 32 schools from the South West of England to a cluster-randomised controlled trial to determine the effectiveness of HeLP in preventing obesity. The primary outcome was change in body mass index standard deviation score (BMI SDS) at 24 months post randomisation. Secondary outcomes included additional anthropometric and behavioural (physical activity and diet) measures at 18 and 24 months.ResultsAnthropometric and behavioural measures were taken in 99%, 96% and 94% of children at baseline, 18 and 24 months, respectively, with no differential follow up between the control and intervention groups at each time point. All children participated in the programme and 92% of children and 77% of parents across the socio-economic spectrum were considered to have actively engaged with HeLP.ConclusionsWe attribute our excellent retention and engagement results to the high level of stakeholder involvement in both trial and intervention design, the building of relationships using appropriate personnel and creative delivery methods that are accessible to children and their families across the social spectrum.Trial registrationInternational Standard Randomised Controlled Trials Register, ISRCTN15811706. Registered on 1 May 2012.

Understanding animal health communication networks among smallholder livestock producers in Australia using stakeholder analysis

Smallholder livestock producers are a diverse population with wide ranging motivations for keeping livestock. The biosecurity risk posed by smallholders has been the subject of much conjecture, with comparisons often made between the level of animal health and biosecurity knowledge of smallholders, versus that of commercial livestock producers. This research aimed to gain a better understanding of current knowledge of smallholder production in Australia, particularly in relation to biosecurity and emergency animal disease, and to investigate the relationships that exist between smallholders and the organisations and individuals from which they seek information, assistance and support. Engagement with stakeholders is an important component of an effective biosecurity communication strategy as the dissemination of biosecurity related information from a single source cannot be expected to satisfy the needs of such a broad ranging population. A qualitative study involving a review of literature, semi-structured interviews with government and non-government stakeholders and the development of smallholder and stakeholder influence and interest grids was undertaken. This paper forms part of a broader mixed methods research project among smallholders.Results from the stakeholder analysis showed variation in the parameters used to define smallholders and in the level of stakeholder involvement. Smallholders identified breeding consultants, other producers, private veterinarians and family, friends and colleagues as having a significant to high level of interest and potential to influence their practices. Government agencies were perceived to only have some level of interest but significant influence. Industry stakeholders and rural suppliers were positioned in the quadrant reflecting perceived low levels of interest and influence. The interest and influence grid developed from stakeholder’s perspectives demonstrate a clustering around the mid points for both interest and influence, with the exception of those from industry who described low levels of interest and influence. Commonwealth and State government stakeholders reported a higher level of interest than influence. Veterinarians, both government and private, reported some to significant levels of interest and influence. In contrast to the results from the smallholder grid, rural suppliers reported relatively high levels of both interest and influence. The current study demonstrates that to maximise the effectiveness of biosecurity communication, there is a need for government and industry organisations to further engage with all stakeholders involved with smallholders.

Divesting on Time: How Decision-Making Processes Influence Divestiture Outcomes

Existing research on corporate divestitures focuses on the antecedents and outcomes of divestiture events. The impact of the divestiture decision-making process is still largely under-investigated. This paper uses an in-depth qualitative research approach based on multiple case studies to analyze how the process by which divestiture decisions are made influences their outcome. The findings indicate that the context and configuration of process parameters such as analytical comprehensiveness, formalization, and level of stakeholder involvement can explain differences in divestiture outcomes. One key result is that the impact of these process parameters differs considerably between the informal and formal decision-making phases.

The utility of stakeholder involvement in the evaluation of community-based health promotion programmes

Community-based health promotion programmes (CBHPPs) deal with cross cutting issues (social, economic, environmental) and utilise issue-based, population-based and setting-based approaches in programme planning, implementation and evaluation with the aim of empowering individuals and communities to gain control over the determinants of health. This multifaceted nature of CBHPPs has resulted in a number of questions particularly regarding the level of stakeholder involvement in evaluating such programmes. Evaluation is seen as one of the ways to provide evidence to inform health promotion decision-making and practice. Community programme implementers and lay people have lamented that evaluations are often imposed on them without recognition for the uniqueness of their community, its programmes, resources and skills. The aim of this paper is to critically examine the utility of stakeholder involvement in the evaluation of CBHPPs. We first explore the nature of CBHPPs and the methods of gathering evidence via evaluation. This is followed by a critical examination of the value of stakeholder involvement in evaluating CBHPPs. The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion is used to conceptualise the paper with specific examples of stakeholder involvement in evaluation of CBHPPs used to support our arguments. The paper concludes that stakeholder involvement in evaluation of CBHPPs is of importance considering the empowerment and participation values of health promotion. As evaluation is done with people and not on people, stakeholder involvement should be central to the evaluation of CBHPPs rather than adopting an approach whereby the researcher is completely detached from the programme stakeholders particularly the community.

Analysis Community’s Coping Strategies and Local Risk Governance Framework in Relation to Landslide

Analysis of people perception and analysis of the coping strategy to landslides are the two elements that are es-sential to determine the level of preparedness of communities to landslides. To know the preparedness of government and other stakeholders in facing landslide, the analysis risk governance framework was required. A survey using questionnaires with random sampling was applied to assess the level of people perception and people coping strategy related to landslide. Analysis of risk governance frame work was done at the district and sub-district level. ἀe study found that people perception related with landslide dominated by high and moderate level. Age and education are two factors that inḀuence the people’s perception to landslide. Local people applied four types coping strategy, which are: economic, structural, social and cultural coping strategy. Totally, 51.6% respondents have high level, 33.3% have moderate level and only 15.1% respondents that have low level of coping strategy. ἀe factors that inḀuence the level of coping strategy are education, income and building type. Analysis of risk governance framework is limited to the three components including stakeholder involvement, risk management and risk communication. Based on the data analysis, the level of stakeholder involvement at the district scope was categorized on the moderate till high and the level of stakeholder involvement at sub-district level was categorized on the high level. Generally, the risk management of Karanganyar was categorized on the moderate level and high level and the risk management in Tawangmangu was categorized on the moderate level. ἀere are some elements must be improved on the risk governance framework, those are data management, the pattern of relationships among stakeholders, increased participation of NGOs, constructed and updated landslide risk map, enhancement of microᴀnance role in helping the com-munity when disaster strikes and dissemination of information about the landslide to the local community.

Resolving coastal conflicts using marine spatial planning

We applied marine spatial planning (MSP) to manage conflicts in a multi-use coastal area of Kenya. MSP involves several steps which were supported by using geographical information systems (GISs), multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) and optimization. GIS was used in identifying overlapping coastal uses and mapping conflict hotspots. MCDA was used to incorporate the preferences of user groups and managers into a formal decision analysis procedure. Optimization was applied in generating optimal allocation alternatives to competing uses. Through this analysis three important objectives that build a foundation for future planning of Kenya's coastal waters were achieved: 1) engaging competing stakeholders; 2) illustrating how MSP can be adapted to aid decision-making in multi-use coastal regions; and 3) developing a draft coastal use allocation plan. The successful application of MSP to resolve conflicts in coastal regions depends on the level of stakeholder involvement, data availability and the existing knowledge base.

George Town, Penang as a World Heritage Site: The Stakeholders’ Perceptions

Abstract The designation of George Town, Penang, along with Malacca, as a UNESCO World Heritage Site (WHS) on July 7, 2008 was a boast achievement, particularly for Penangites and Malaysian generally. The status has elevated Penang to international status in terms of cultural heritage tourism and expected to draw more tourists to the area. The impacts of tourism to the local community are inevitable. Questions inevitably arise, particularly on whether the locals are aware of the listing and whether they care about this important listing. This paper examines the perceptions of George Town stakeholders on the WHS status of George Town. The study surveyed 196 respondents who reside and operate businesses in the core zone of George Town. The findings reveal that majority of the respondents are aware of George Town's status and think that such status would have a positive impact on local businesses, on the conservation and restoration of heritage buildings, and on the general well-being of George Town residents. Many agree that the restoration and conservation of heritage buildings are important in sustaining George Town's heritage status. Nevertheless, half of the respondents perceive that tourist activities could threaten the heritage values of George Town. Meanwhile, the level of stakeholder involvement in tourism planning and development is rather low. Only half of them are satisfied with the present management of heritage and tourism in George Town. This paper provides recommendations to assist the Penang State Government in the monitoring, maintenance, management, protection, and conservation of George Town to remain the status of World Heritage Site.

Societal marketing: integration of European experiences into business practices in Belarus

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyse whether the concept of societal marketing being practised in developed countries can be directly applied to countries in transition, such as Belarus, and what adjustments would be beneficial to achieve this. The paper takes a comprehensive view of the complex linkages between the implementation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) principles by examining elements of societal marketing in the European Union (EU) countries and in Belarus.Design/methodology/approachData are provided by the web sites of European best practice companies and data from the Global Compact that identifies socially‐responsible companies in the EU and Belarus. The results for Belarus are combined with the insights from capacity building activities on societal marketing organised by the Local Network Global Compact (LNGC) Belarus, for private and public enterprises.FindingsThe research presents two groups of companies in Belarus: Start‐up companies see their CSR activities as philanthropic actions; and On‐the‐way companies integrate elements of societal marketing such as vision and stakeholder management into their practices. The European societal marketing experience can act as a mechanism for further integrating CSR principles into business practices in Belarus. This depends on the aptitude of the companies for social innovation, the level of stakeholder involvement and the governmental support for CSR policy creation.Research limitations/implicationsThe scope of the research should be broadened out to other industries and tested with a larger sample, including small‐and medium‐sized firms. It is also necessary to analyse other key drivers of the CSR in Belarus, which can impact on further use of societal marketing components.Practical implicationsThis research has implications for practitioners, specifically the groups of stakeholders involved in CSR programmes in Belarus. The results suggest how stakeholders can apply societal marketing and differentiate themselves from competitors in the EU and in Belarus.Originality/valueThe paper proposes a framework on societal marketing that considers the factors that influence CSR development and provides recommendations for businesses operating in Belarus on how to achieve a competitive advantage in a country in transition.

Public attitudes and risk perception toward land application of biosolids within the south-eastern United States

A descriptive-correlational study of biosolids recycling was conducted in the south-eastern United States to assess current knowledge, attitudes and risk perceptions of participants in two communities that land apply biosolids as part of their waste management programs. One community, Amelia County VA, has been outspoken against biosolids recycling in the past, whereas the second community, Knoxville, TN region, has voiced few concerns about biosolids recycling. Additionally, gender differences within the entire study population were assessed. A 45-question telephone survey, utilizing a 4-point Likert scale, was developed and administered to 311 randomly selected adults in the two regions. Commonalities identified during the study revealed key risk perceptions by the public regarding biosolids regulations, treatment, and application. Given current perceptions and knowledge, respondents felt that the benefits derived from biosolids recycling do not offset the perceived health and safety risks. However, as distance between application and personal property increased, a decrease in opposition of biosolids reuse became evident for all respondents. Survey participants were dissatisfied with the level of stakeholder involvement in research and decision-making processes concerning biosolids. The outspoken Amelia County residents perceived greater health risks due to inadequate treatment of biosolids and odorous emissions during the application process than the less engaged Knox Metro respondents. Significant gender differences were observed with sampled females perceiving greater risks to health and safety from biosolids recycling than males. There was also indication that decisions and risks were not sufficiently communicated to the public, leading to respondents being inadequately informed about biosolids land application in both communities. Community-specific outreach programs must address these public risk perceptions and the differences in perception caused by gender and issue awareness to assist solid waste managers in developing and implementing successful biosolids land application systems that are acceptable to the public.

Quality and Consistency of Guidelines for the Management of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury in the Emergency Department

The objective was to provide an overview of the recommendations and quality of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) for the emergency management of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), with a view to informing best practice and improving the consistency of recommendations. Electronic searches of health databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, The Cochrane Library, PsycINFO), CPG clearinghouse websites, CPG developer websites, and Internet search engines up to January 2010 were conducted. CPGs were included if 1) they were published in English and freely accessible, 2) their scope included the management of mTBI in the emergency department (ED), 3) the date of last search was within the past 10 years (2000 onward), 4) systematic methods were used to search for evidence, and 5) there was an explicit link between the recommendations and the supporting evidence. Four authors independently assessed the quality of the included CPGs using the Appraisal of Guidelines, Research and Evaluation (AGREE) Instrument. The authors extracted and categorized recommendations according to initial clinical assessment, imaging, management, observation, discharge planning, and patient information and follow-up. The search identified 18 potential CPGs, of which six met the inclusion criteria. The included CPGs varied in scope, target population, size, and guideline development processes. Four CPGs were assessed as "strongly recommended." The majority of CPGs did not provide information about the level of stakeholder involvement (mean AGREE standardized domain score = 57%, range = 25% to 81%), nor did they address the organizational/cost implications of applying the recommendations or provide criteria for monitoring and review of recommendations in practice (mean AGREE standardized domain score = 46.6%, range = 19% to 94%). Recommendations were mostly consistent in terms of the use of the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score (adult and pediatric) to assess the level of consciousness, initial assessment criteria, the use of computed tomography (CT) scanning as imaging investigation of choice, and the provision of patient information. The CPGs defined mTBI in a variety of ways and described different rules to determine the need for CT scanning and therefore used different criteria to identify high-risk patients. Higher-quality CPGs for mTBI are consistent in their recommendations about assessment, imaging, and provision of patient information. There is not, however, an agreed definition of mTBI, and the quality of future CPGs could be improved with better reporting of stakeholder involvement, procedures for updating, and greater consideration of the applicability of the recommendations (cost implications, monitoring procedures). Nevertheless, guideline developers may benefit from adapting existing CPGs to their local context rather than investing in developing CPGs de novo.

Perceptions of stakeholder engagement – just what is it really?

There is a wealth of literature available that discusses the theory of stakeholder management and engagement, and even lively debates about partnerships, but what does this all mean to the people who will be delivering it in the future, in particular, the students in higher education today. This paper is a meta-analysis which utilises material gathered through the use of class-based activities (debates, exercises and games) from undergraduate cohorts over a three-year period. The activities were designed to extract and collate student perceptions of stakeholder involvement. The research found that involving stakeholders was a complex activity with no easy solution and no single answer, and came to the realisation that what may be highly appropriate on one site was not easily transferable elsewhere. Whilst identifying the negative attributes of stakeholder management was an easy task, thinking through how to apply stakeholder engagement in a real life situation, especially when considering the sustainability agenda, was much more difficult. The majority felt that the current level of stakeholder involvement adopted at development sites was in reality inadequate (and found to be less 'engaging' than publicity material may suggest) and that more should be done to encourage partnerships and higher levels of engagement.

Broad-basing 'green' stock market indices: a concept note

Sustainability ('green') stock market indices are intended to focus attention on environmental credentials, to reward superior performance and to help channel investments. Such indices often incorporate clean energy, waste, water and waste water treatment, recycling and other 'pure play enviro' companies. This paper contends that in keeping with the philosophy of Green Economics, which advocates an expansive view of humankind's interaction with the environment, true environmental performance ('greenness') is indexed by the eco-sensitivity of mainstream businesses, by the level of stakeholder involvement and by the extent of information readily made available to society. Effective enforcement of environmental regulation requires contributions from all stakeholders concerned. With voluntary participation from businesses not readily forthcoming, and given the price-sensitivity of consumers, investors, through the incentive structures they face, could contribute to better enforcement of regulatory standards. Broad-basing the green index could be interpreted as recognising and rewarding the superior environmental performance of mainstream businesses and/or ensuring adequate representation in emerging markets, where a large number of 'pure play enviro' related instruments are unlikely to be listed.

Handling Sediments in Dutch River Management: The Planning Stage of the Maaswerken River Widening Project

Goals, Scope and Background. Faced with higher peak discharges in the foreseeable future, the Dutch government has decided to increase the discharge capacities of the Dutch Rhine and Meuse rivers. Instead of raising the dikes, river widening measures are to be undertaken, in and along the riverbed. Such measures include surface level lowering along the rivers, channel deepening, the addition of high-discharge channels and the removal of hydraulic obstacles. To cover or reduce the costs of river widening, a coupling with aggregates (sand and/or gravel) extraction has been considered. Although the rationale of this concept is basically sound, it has met with considerable resistance, especially along the southernmost stretch of the Dutch Meuse River, in the Maaswerken project area. Main Features. The Dutch river widening projects are quite unique in size and occurrence, and the number of publicly documented case histories available for the planning of such works is inevitably few. We review the planning and decision-making process for the Maaswerken project, which is in a more advanced stage than that of the corresponding project for the Rhine. Sediment handling and aggregates extraction are focused on, which are key issues to this case. Analysis and Discussion. In the study area, there is a conflict of interests between the extractive industry and the local communities. The industry faces a policy of phasing out mineral extraction; river widening presents the last significant prospects in the area. The general public, however, has come to resent mineral extraction because of its historical impacts. Aiming at a manageable process, the Maaswerken project management kept most stakeholders in a basically reactive position: the general public was kept informed and enabled to submit formal reactions to draft planning decisions. Aggregate extraction plans and extraction volumes were only discussed with the industry. Despite not being represented, the public influenced this negotiation process by expressing dissatisfaction with interim outcomes through the media and political channels. Plans had to be reconsidered, and this closed process turned out to be only seemingly efficient. Conclusions and Recommendations. The level of public concern regarding the Maaswerken project suggests that the overall level of stakeholder involvement may have been insufficient, even though it complied with pertinent environmental and planning legislation. A participation deficit seems to have mainly occurred when defining the project's preconditions: a predefined, controversial role for the extractive industry was implicit in self-financed river widening. As planning and decision making in large projects such as the Maaswerken are prone to be affected by a negative public opinion, it is recommended that social feasibility is assessed and addressed at the very outset. © 2006 ecomed publishers (Verlagsgruppe Huthig Jehle Rehm GmbH).