Minister Of Planning Research Articles

Application of game theory and new institutional economics in establishing a National Voluntary Organisation for Professional Evaluation in Nigeria

Background: In Nigeria, there is a plethora of evaluators found in the over 90 universities, specialised educational institutions and private research organisations. However, there is limited or no opportunity for networking among the evaluators from similar and different programmatic specialisations. After applying the determinant framework to assess the evaluation capacity development situation in Nigeria, we agree on the importance of supporting the establishment of a National Voluntary Organisation for Professional Evaluation (VOPE).Objectives: Several leaders in evaluation were competing recently for occupying the national space reserved for a National VOPE. The main objective was to encourage partnership.Methods: We used a powerful theoretical framework provided by game theory and new institutional economics. We analysed the situation and identified the challenge they are facing as a Nash Equilibrium-of-a-Game View of Institutions: each player knows the equilibrium strategies of the other players and no player has anything to gain by changing only his or her own strategy. This explains why Nigerian evaluation leaders were not able to cooperate for the last two decades.Results and conclusion: To break this barrier, we proposed a new deal to the leaders that had the advantages of reshaping the ‘rules of the game’. We proposed a federation of associations, akin to a coalition in game theory. The result was that all leaders came together under this umbrella organisation, to celebrate the evaluation year in 2015 and committed under the Abuja Declaration on Evaluation to register and establish an association, with an elected board, a written constitution and election bylaws. The association is governed by a Board of Trustees, which is chaired by the former Minister of Planning. Elections are planned for the end of 2017.

The Evolution of Women's Political Participation in Various Public Offices in Jordan

The study aimed at identifying the evolution of political participation of Jordanian women by monitoring their effective participation during the past decades in the State's legislative and executive authorities. It also aimed at tracing milestones taken towards women's quota law and motives that urge women to run for elections and factors that affect their winning. The study concluded that Jordan worked to include women's issues within the priorities for action and development. Jordanian women made great strides towards their appropriate roles in political life. Women were appointed deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Planning and International Cooperation, Minister of Culture, Minister of Social Development and others, but women were not entrusted with sovereign ministries. The percentage of women's representation in the House of Representatives developed rapidly, rising from (1.3%) in (1993) with one woman deputy to (12.0%) in (2013) after the amendment of the electoral law. The number of women Senators increased to nine in the council formed in (2013) which is an indication of the political leadership desire to support women's political participation. A progress has been made; nevertheless women's representation in the Parliament is still under the world average (22%). Women got satisfactory results in the (2013) municipal elections by winning (29%) of the seats. The total number of women judges in (2012) was (250) judges. The study pointed out factors that helped women gain seats in the House of Representatives such as: (Women's quota), tribal support, woman's strong personality and previous experiences.

Cuba ed. by Ted A. Henken, Miriam Celaya, and Dimas Castellanos (review)

Reviewed by: Cuba ed. by Ted A. Henken, Miriam Celaya, and Dimas Castellanos Jennifer Lambe (bio) Ted A. Henken, Miriam Celaya, and Dimas Castellanos, eds. Cuba. Latin America in Focus. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO/Greenwood, 2013. 596 pp. Nearly eight years ago, Fidel Castro temporarily relinquished his position at the helm of the Cuban state, and power was thereafter assumed by his younger brother, Raúl. Fidel’s withdrawal from government was formalized in 2008, and the following six years have witnessed a period of halting but unmistakable change, perhaps unparalleled in the decades following the 1959 Cuban Revolution. Cuba, the second entry in ABC-CLIO’s Latin America in Focus series, aims to explain this monumental shift in light of Cuba’s past and present and, according to its editors, to take advantage of it, “challenging traditional limits on critical expression and creating more space for independent analysis” (xv). The volume represents a collective reimagining of Ted Henken’s 2008 Cuba: A Global Studies Handbook, also published by ABC-CLIO. The Global Studies Handbook and its successor series Latin America in Focus seek to offer a basic orientation to Latin American countries for the nonspecialist reader. Chronologically, the 2013 edition picks up where Henken’s earlier volume left off: the transfer of power from Fidel to Raúl and the era of change thereby inaugurated. Here, he is also joined by coeditors Miriam Celaya and Dimas Castellanos, as well as more than fifteen contributors, most of them based in Cuba. The list of authors includes many individuals affiliated with the Cuban blogosphere that has sprung up in recent years and to which Henken has dedicated several academic studies elsewhere. He argues that the chosen contributors are uniquely positioned to reveal the “hidden face of Cuba,” obscured by the “official story” on one hand and the “often ill-informed one coming from abroad” on the other (xv). Like the first volume in the Latin America in Focus series, which takes up the Venezuelan case in light of the chavismo phenomenon, this book aims to put Cuba’s contemporary reality in dialogue with its historical context, especially the period following the 1959 revolution. It is organized around seven chapters: “Geography,” “History,” “Politics and Government,” “Economy,” “Society,” “Culture,” and “Contemporary Issues.” The latter three chapters [End Page 231] contain subsections tackling religion and thought; education; migration and diaspora; language and literature; popular culture, customs, and traditions; and more. Other subsections, present in the original 2008 edition, are missed here, including a sustained analysis of health care or the military. The book also contains seventy-six “vignettes” on topics such as the Platt Amendment, “El Temba,” and Hialeah, as well as a glossary, a compendium of facts and figures, a list of country-related organizations, and an annotated bibliography. Many of the chapters take the reader up to and periodically revisit the context of present-day Cuba. An early chapter on the economy does this in a way that will be particularly comprehensible to those without significant background in the study of Cuba. Nevertheless, the volume’s approach, while appropriate for a nonspecialist audience, creates some narrative imbalances. On a most basic level, it lends itself to a degree of repetitiveness, and one wonders whether the material might not have been better served by a more integrated historical treatment (to give one example, the ten-million-ton sugar harvest of 1970 is referenced at least three times before it is fully explained on page 152). Meanwhile, Marino Murillo, the influential economics czar (minister of planning and economy from 2009 to 2011, vice president of the Council of Ministers and, as of September 2014, once again minister of the economy), receives only a mention, despite the many pages devoted to changes initiated under Raúl Castro. On a deeper level, however, this narrative orientation to the present also produces some curious oversights. Indeed, one often wishes that the analytical space afforded to the raulista moment had been extended to the post-1959 period in a more uniform way. For example, Carlos Franqui, a key participant in the struggle to topple Fulgencio Batista and a founding father of the revolutionary press, appears nowhere in...

To what extent ‘an entirely new approach to how planning is done’? Tracing planning system reform in New South Wales

Prior to the 2011 New South Wales (NSW) state election the Liberal-National Coalition campaigned strongly on planning system reform, mobilising inefficiencies in the system and concerns over corruption as central election platforms. A new planning system and legislation were the ultimate objectives. The NSW Government has engaged in an ambitious reform process that has seen the release of a Green Paper, a White Paper and draft legislation. On releasing the White Paper, the premier claimed that the reforms would ‘return more powers to local councils’, promote ‘genuine consultation [and] provide certainty’. The intent of the planning reforms was to simplify the law and have a greater strategic focus supporting economic growth. In this paper, we explore the reform process, focussing on its underlying objectives and, in some cases, the tensions between them. Despite the Minister for Planning's claim that the government ‘is delivering an entirely new approach to how planning is done’, by focusing on a few key elements, we question the extent to which the reforms are as innovative as claimed and assess the barriers to implementation. We conclude that, as presented in the Planning Bill, the reforms are not revolutionary but rather represent an evolutionary change in planning law and policy.

Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development in South Asia (The Quaid-i-Azam Lecture)

Honourable Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reform, his excellency Mr Ahsan Iqbal, the President, Pakistan Society of Development Economists, discussants, Dr Ashfaque Hasan Khan and Dr Rehana Siddiqui, Dr Durr-e-Nayab, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, let me say at the outset that it is a great privilege for me to be here and to be given this opportunity to deliver the Quaid-i-Azam Lecture. I regard this as a signal honour and I feel particularly privileged coming from India being able to speak in honour of the Quaid-i-Azam, the founder of this country. I want to express my gratitude for this particular privilege which I have been given. I also want to acknowledge the very warm sentiments expressed by his Excellency the Minister. I certainly believe that in this day and age we have to look forward, we have to look at the future and I think we have to erase some of the problems, demolish some of the barriers and the hindrances that have prevented South Asian cooperation in the past. So Sir, your words in that context are certainly appreciated and I would say that we have to put them into effect by ushering in a new future for this region. I want to mention that when I had the privilege of accepting the Nobel peace prize on behalf of Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007 along with Mr Al Gore, in my acceptance speech I used a Sanskrit phrase which is Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam and that means the universe is one family. Now if the universe is one family, may I submit that, we particularly in Pakistan and India are really the core of that family. I believe the future lies in our ability to develop a model of economic growth and development that serves as an example for the rest of the world. Let me at the very outset say that we have been somewhat negligent and perhaps short sighted in emulating what has been established as a form of development in other parts of the world and I will say a little more about this as I move on. Let me start by referring to the definition of sustainable development which essentially comes out of the work of the Brundtland Commission that was completed in 1987 and it’s a very simple definition. It defines sustainable development as that form of development which allows the current generation to meet their own needs without compromising on the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. So, therefore, it essentially takes into account the issue of intergenerational equity. Whatever we do today should not be selfishly oriented by which we might meet more than our needs today

Energy Security and Economic Sustainability: The Way Forward (The Presidential Address)

Honourable Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms and Chancellor PIDE, Past Presidents and Distinguished Members of the Society, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, It is my pleasure to welcome you all to the 29th Annual General Meeting and Conference of the Pakistan Society of Development Economists. On behalf of the members of the PSDE, I would like to thank you, Honourable Prof. Ahsan Iqbal for having spared your precious time to open this important meeting. I would also like to especially thank our members and guests who have come from different parts of the country and from different continents to participate in the Conference. We are extremely pleased to see here today many young students— Pakistan’s future economists and business leaders—who I am sure are enthusiastic to learn from the many leading specialists attending this Conference on the critical issue of ‘Energy’ that we in Pakistan face today. Let me join Dr Durr-e-Nayab in especially welcoming Dr Ilhan Ozturk, Professor at the Çağ Üniversitesi in Turkey who will be delivering the The Mahbub Ul Haq Memorial Lecture. Dr Prof. Zhaoguang Hu, Vice-President and Chief Energy Specialist at the State Grid Energy Research Institute in Beijing who will deliver Gustav Ranis Lecture. Professor Mohan Munasinghe, Chairman of the Munasinghe Institute of Development, Sri Lanka who will be delivering The Allama Iqbal Lecture and Dr Rajendra K. Pachauri, Chief Executive of the Energy and Resources Institute, New Dehli who will deliver The Quaid-i-Azam Lecture this year

East Melbourne Group Inc v Minister for Planning and Another

East Melbourne Group Inc v Minister for Planning and Another

A Changing Climate of Litigation

Frustrated by perceived federal reticence to act on the growing scientific evidence of climate change, state governments and environmentalists are increasingly turning their attention to the courts. Broad consensus has developed about the reality and seriousness of global warming, but neither the Bush administration nor Congress has yet responded with meaningful action. The result is a situation that is ripe for litigation. Plaintiffs have emerged, suing corporations on the grounds that their greenhouse gas emissions are causing undue harm and suing governments for failing to regulate the corporations. In addition, industry has responded with countersuits of its own.

East Melbourne Group Inc v Minister for Planning and Another

East Melbourne Group Inc v Minister for Planning and Another

Constructing a database of development applications considered by public health units in New South Wales

In NSW a formal assessment is required prior to any significant development (such as a residential development or new industry) to ensure it complies with relevant planning controls and to confirm it is environmentally and socially sustainable. The level of assessment required is dictated by state, regional and local planning legislation, which also outlines who is responsible for assessing and granting consent to the development, be it the local council or the NSW Minister for Planning. The NSW Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (EP&A Act) provides the legislative framework to assess the environmental impact of development proposals. This article describes a survey of public health units in NSW that informed the development of a database designed to support environmental risk assessment.

Paterson's curse: the attempt to revive metropolitan planning in Melbourne: a response to Paul Mees

I have asked for this opportunity to respond to the Practice Review article by Dr Mees in the September 2003 edition of Urban Policy and Research, as the article contains a number of errors of fact. These are addressed below:Thwaites... was personally committed to planning, but had limited time (one afternoon a week in fact) for the job, due to the much heavier workload in the health portfolio. He addressed this by appointing Professor Lyndsay Neilson Secretary of the Department of Infrastructure...Minister Thwaites did spend an afternoon each week clearing and signing statutory documents and key correspondence, but this was a very small part of his work as Minister for Planning. Both Minister Thwaites and Minister Delahunty, the present Minister for Planning, committed significant time to the development of Melbourne 2030, as did Minister Batchelor with respect to the transport aspects of the Strategy.

HISHAM M. NAZER, Power of a Third Kind: The Western Attempt to Colonize the Global Village (Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1999). Pp. 176.

Hisham Nazer, chairman of the Nazer Group of Saudi Arabia, former minister of planning, former minister of petroleum, and chairman of Saudi Aramco, has written a powerful and provocative book. In this highly original tour de force, Nazer analyzes the deleterious effects of the technological globalization of information on the cultural integrity of Third World nations and sets forth a strategy of resistance for the developing world. The work is directed at intellectuals in these countries, whom he challenges to “not just exist in this world; [but to] create our own world.” Rejecting the narrow definition of culture as “object-focused” acts and artifacts, he argues that culture should be understood as “the collective and dynamically active perspectives of living individuals.”

Planning and Investment Minister Tran Xuan Gia on foreign investment and the Vietnamese business environment

Executive Overview The Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) is one of 23 government ministries and ministerial-level offices in Vietnam. MPI was established by a government resolution on October 21. 1995. This resulted in the merger of the old State Planning Committee, which handled national economic planning, domestic investment, and foreign donor financial assistance, and the State Committee for Cooperation and Investment, which handled foreign investment. MPI is responsible for setting strategy, plans, and decisions to develop the economy; for establishing draft economic laws and policies; for helping the government manage and administer the economy in order to preserve stability and macrolevel balances. MPI also manages official development assistance, foreign direct investment, and domestic investment for the state. Tran Xuan Gia became Vietnam's minister of planning and investment in November 1996. Prior to that, he served as vice-minister for one year. From 1989 to 1992, he was vice-chairman a...

Population Targets

In August, 1993 Victoria's Minister for Planning, Robert Maclellan, announced major changes for Victoria's planning system in a statement entitled, ‘Planning a Better Future for Victorians: New Directions for Development and Economic Growth’. Included in this statement was the announcement that the Minister would ask each municipality to produce a concise strategic statement on its future development, linked to an agreed population target. These targets would generally be set as:

KING and Others v MINISTER FOR PLANNING AND HOUSING

KING and Others v MINISTER FOR PLANNING AND HOUSING

Visit by the President of the Republic of Senegal

Mr. Abdou Diouf, President of the Republic of Senegal and current Chairman of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), and Mrs. Abdou Diouf, Honorary President of the Senegalese Red Cross, visited the ICRC on 18 June 1986.Mr. Diouf was received by Mr. Alexandre Hay, President of the ICRC, members of the Committee and Directorate and heads of the main services of the institution. Cheikh Hamidou Kane, Minister of Planning and Co-operation, Mr. Andre Sonko, Minister of Public Offices, Work and Employment, Mrs. Mantoulaye Guene, Minister of Social Development, and Mr. Alioune Sene, Ambassador to Switzerland and Permanent Representative of Senegal to the Office of the United Nations at Geneva, accompanied Mr. Diouf during his visit.