Sustainable Empowerment Research Articles

Modeling Social Inclusion Systems

Research on sustainability science has been concerned with pointing the way towards a sustainable society. On a global scale, sustainability is seen as depending on three systems: the global system, the human system and the social system. In the social system, the need to address issues of social sustainability, including literacy, education, malnutrition, child mortality, and gender empowerment, as well as its connections with human and global sustainability, has given rise to the eight Millennium Development Goals, which break down into twenty one quantifiable targets that are measured by sixty indicators. Therefore, it is clear that the problems and issues associated with the achievement of these goals are very complex to be addressed by a single discipline and that community informatics (CI) may have an important role to play in interdisciplinary efforts to address these goals. Against this backdrop, one of the first challenges is to put the notion of a social inclusion system (a system to promote social sustainability) in more precise terms. In this direction, the purpose of this paper is to discuss and present an initial ontology to describe social inclusion systems. While ontological development in sustainability science has emphasized a problem-solution approach, we believe that the issues of social inclusion will be more naturally addressed by a situation-transformation approach, which is the focus of our ontology.

Model Pemberdayaan Usaha Mikro Dan Pengaruhnya Terhadap Kemandirian Usaha

Yogyakarta is a city and the capital of Yogyakarta Special Region in Java, Indonesia. It is renowned as a center of tourism, education and culture. Yogyakarta is one of the foremost cultural centers of Java. This region is located at the foot of the active merapi vulcano. Yogyakarta is often called the main gateway to the Central Java as where it is geographically located. It stretches from Mount Merapi to the Indian Ocean. This province is one of the most densely populated areas of Indonesia. Yogyakarta is popular tourist destination in indonesia after Bali. These have attracted large number of visitors from across Indonesia and abroad to the city. This status makes Yogyakarta is one of the most heterogeneus cities in Indonesia. In edition, Yogyakarta has attracted large number of people to reside in this city for business. One of these comers is small entrepreneurs with their market munchies enterprise (specially a traditional snack trader). This business is one of famous business in Yogyakarta, we will find rows of pavement vendors selling market munchies. The students and tourists are their main target customers. Market munchies enterprise is part of small and medium enterprises SMEs as livelihood activities. SMEs has an important role in economic growth of Indonesia. Therefore, it is very important to develop and strengthen the micro enterprise empowerment. Micro enterprise empowerment is one of strategy to reduce the poverty rate in Indonesia. Major challenger in implement this program are that micro entrepreneurs are conventional and have satisfied with their revenue. It is very important to develop a comprehensive and sustainable micro enterprise empowerment which consist of strengthen the quality of human resources, maximize the government’s roles, empower the enterprise capital and strengthen the partnership and autonomous. Micro enterprise autonomy will contribute to the economic and investment climate. This will lead to establish an accountable enterprise both for the micro enterprise and customers which at the end will strengthen the development of the micro enterprise in Yogyakarta.Keyword: micro entreprise, human resources, government roles, capital, partnership and autonomous.

EXPLOITATION OR EMPOWERMENT? ADOLESCENT FEMALE DOMESTIC WORKERS IN UGANDA

Women’s participation in public employment spaces has emerged with new modes of domestic gender hierarchies, especially in the Global South. A new direction in child labor, especially in the domestic sphere, negatively affects female children. Drawing from a larger study that examined the experiences of employers and employees in domestic spaces, this article examines experiences of live-in adolescent female domestic workers, commonly referred to as “house girls”, in Kampala, Uganda. Data were collected using qualitative methods that included individual interviews and life stories. Study findings reveal competing narratives pointing to both empowerment and exploitation of house girls. Using a feminist intersectional approach, I focus on gender, age, and location to trace the opportunities, challenges, and agency of the house girls. Using the household as the basic unit of analysis, I foreground the voices of house girls as they tell their lived experiences and survival strategies. My central argument is that domestic workers make a crucial contribution to the effective participation of women working outside the home. I conclude that sustainable empowerment of workers, both domestic and outside the home, hinges upon changes and transformations at the household level.

The HOSHIN KANRI TREE. Cross-plant Lean Shopfloor Management

Shopfloor Management (SM) empowerment methodologies have traditionally focused on two aspects: goal achievement following rigid structures, such as SQDCME, or evolutional aspects of empowerment factors away from strategic goal achievement. Furthermore, SM Methodologies have been organized almost solely around the hierarchical structure of the organization, failing systematically to cope with the challenges that Industry 4.0 is facing. The latter include the growing complexity of value-stream networks, sustainable empowerment of the workforce (Learning Factory), an autonomous and intelligent process management (Smart Factory), the need to cope with the increasing complexity of value-stream networks (VSN) and the leadership paradigm shift to strategic alignment. This paper presents a novel Lean SM Method (LSM) called “HOSHIN KANRI Tree” (HKT), which is based on standardization of the communication patterns among process owners (POs) by PDCA. The standardization of communication patterns by HKT technology should bring enormous benefits in value stream (VS) performance, speed of standardization and learning rates to the Industry 4.0 generation of organizations. These potential advantages of HKT are being tested at present in worldwide research.

Market Linkage for Sustainable Empowerment of Women Entrepreneurs

Women empowerment has been an area of thrust by the Government as well as non-Government agencies for a long time. Given its importance, it is not surprising that these agencies are exploring new avenues to achieve this. Conditions of women in general and particularly rural women require special attention. In rural areas, women are comparatively more at a disadvantage because of societal constraints. Economic freedom is one of the important ways to empower them; it has a multiplier effect and improves conditions in other spheres of life. Entrepreneurship is one of the sustainable ways to do so. Entrepreneurship and empowerment approach overlap in the sense that both concepts believe in taking initiatives by the beneficiaries themselves to come out of the disadvantageous position. So, promoting entrepreneurship among women would be a great tool to empower them. Among the entrepreneurial requirement, market linkage has been an important factor for its success. It has helped entrepreneurs to remain in the business. In India also, lack of market linkage has forced many producers to leave their occupation. Agriculture continues to play an important role in most non-industrial economies, and India is no exception. Any activity related with it would improve the condition of the poor in general and women in particular because a major chunk of rural women are engaged in it.In this paper, we discuss about a cooperative namely “Sankalp Streewadi Aoudhogik Utpadak Sahakari Ltd” comprising of 70 women entrepreneurs from different Self Help Groups of Haveli and Daund block of Pune district. Issues like institutional help provided by others, governance structure of the cooperative have been discussed.

Community - Based Tourism Development Model in the District of Pangandaran

This research studies the process of community development activities in the tourism sector after the tsunami in Pangandaran. The majority of people in Pangandaran are helpless in tourism development activities, as part of the activities of the community, after the tsunami that occurred in 2006. This situation encourages the United Nations World Tourism Organization in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Indonesia to implement community-based tourism development program in 2007. This research uses a qualitative approach. Method of data collection is conducted through in-depth interviews, field observations, and documentation study. Then, the collected data is used to perform triangulation process, verification, and interpretation with the elaboration of relevant theories. The results show that five aspects of the development of community-based tourism in Pangandaran through Enabling, Empowering, Protecting, Supporting, and Fostering are not optimal in the aspect of Fostering. This is due to the absence of a strong commitment to community development and intrinsic functions that should be implementing in an integrated manner, remains partial. In this research, it is found out that the empowerment and self-reliance are also determining by the controlling process to maintain the sustainability of empowerment and self-reliance of the community in the future. The result of this research is that development of community-based tourism in Pangandaran should use one more aspect, controlling to make sure the process is continuous.

Hospitality education: sustainable empowerment opportunities for Nigerian women

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to explore sustainable tourism initiatives, particularly by identifying the extent to which hospitality education has empowered Nigerian female graduates in their professional and economic circumstances. Design/methodology/approach – The scope is limited to graduates from an all-female institution offering tertiary-level programmes in hospitality, using the survey method. Findings – The paper shows significant relationships between level of educational attainment, type of employment engaged in, and the range of income of hospitality graduates. Research limitations/implications – A limitation to this study is the relatively small size of the sample (300) and subsequent number of respondents (80). Practical implications – The implications follow through from the potential strategies identified in the study that may be adopted by the tourism industry for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the principles of the UN Global Compact particularly in the promotion of sustainable initiatives for women through hospitality education. Originality/value – Gender and empowerment in tourism has been researched extensively from a commercial standpoint. However, this paper address the gap in the literature as it relates to specialised hospitality education as a contributory factor in the empowerment of women.

Market Linkage for Sustainable Empowerment of Women Entrepreneurs (A Case Study ofSankalpWomen's Industrial Co-operative Promoted by BAIF, Pune)

Women empowerment has been an area of thrust by the Government as well as non-Government agencies for a long time. Given its importance, it is not surprising that these agencies are exploring new avenues to achieve this. Conditions of women in general and particularly rural women require special attention. In rural areas, women are comparatively more at a disadvantage because of societal constraints. Economic freedom is one of the important ways to empower them; it has a multiplier effect and improves conditions in other spheres of life. Entrepreneurship is one of the sustainable ways to do so. Entrepreneurship and empowerment approach overlap in the sense that both concepts believe in taking initiatives by the beneficiaries themselves to come out of the disadvantageous position. So, promoting entrepreneurship among women would be a great tool to empower them. Among the entrepreneurial requirement, market linkage has been an important factor for its success. It has helped entrepreneurs to remain in the business. In India also, lack of market linkage has forced many producers to leave their occupation. Agriculture continues to play an important role in most non-industrial economies, and India is no exception. Any activity related with it would improve the condition of the poor in general and women in particular because a major chunk of rural women are engaged in it. This paper is about a cooperative namely “Sankalp Streewadi Aoudhogik Utpadak Sahakari Sanstha Ltd” comprising of 70 women entrepreneurs from different Self Help Groups of Haveli and Daund blocks of Pune district. Issues like institutional help provided by others, governance structure of the cooperative have been discussed.

The Influence of Leadership Empowerment Behavior on Organizational Performance

Employee empowerment is an expression frequently used in today's executive circles and it has gained importance in the management policies and practices. The purpose of this study is to determine the conditions under which leaders of organization lend hand in empowerment implementation and sustain its level as per the cultural context of that particular organization and then its overall impact on organizational performance. Data is collected from a sample of 300 middle managers through structured questionnaire and interviews. Results indicate positively significant relationship of employee empowerment sustainability to supervisory support, capable authorities, trust, task clarity, responsibility, co-operative relationships, teamwork, and motivation. Global weighted indices are obtained through the application of Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP). Results show that the potential or the well-managed factors in sport industry include authorities' competence, professional attitude, and the concern for the development of their employees. Whereas the potential factors for textile sector are competence, trustworthiness, and abilities of higher authorities. The potential factors for automobiles industry are depicted by competence, hard work of higher authorities, and trustworthiness on their departmental managers. In Pakistan, however, mostly authorities work with directive management instead of providing their employees with added control and discretion over task, rewards and empowerment training. Originality of this study uses multidimensional AHP technique to prioritize factors that influence the leadership empowerment behavior on organizational performance in different business settings within the context of Pakistan.

Different prevalence of metabolic control and chronic complication rate according to the time of referral to a diabetes care unit in the elderly

The time of diagnosis is crucial for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in terms of disease severity and chronic complications, as initial glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) predicts 5-year cardiovascular mortality. The Italian health-care system relies on about 650 diabetes care units (DCU) interfacing with a large number of general practitioners (GPs). It may thus reach the goal of preventing complications easier than others by adopting a more comprehensive multifactorial approach. To assess whether the interval between diagnosis and referral to the DCU might influence the course of the disease in terms of HbA1c, associated cardiovascular risk factors, drug utilisation, and chronic complications in the elderly, the electronic records of 313 elderly T2DM patients (74.6±4.9years) followed by their GPs until referral to our DCU were retrospectively analysed for the above-mentioned parameters and divided into an early referral (ER) group (diagnosed within 12months, n=111) and a late referral (LR) group (diagnosed >12months before, n=202). A further set of 200 patients routinely taken care by our DCU, matched with the LR group for age, gender, and disease duration, was classified as "long-standing follow-up" (LSF) and compared to the others to rule out any confounding effects of long-standing disease per seon the clinical outcomes investigated in our study. About 35% of T2DM patients referred to our DCU within 12months of diagnosis; the rest did so some 5years after diagnosis. LR patients displayed worse HbA1c levels (10.8 vs. 7.7%, p<0.01), used more drugs, and had more than twice as high complication rates as their ER counterparts. Almost all risk factors and complications were lower in the LSF (0.001<p<0.05) and ER groups than in the LR group. In both the ER and the LSF groups, we observed a lower burden of diabetes than in the LR group. This rules out the possibility that disease duration might play a major role per se in the burden of the disease in the elderly as opposed to the thoughtful patient care attitude exhibited by the DCU. A better and more efficient organisation has to be developed, including a strong interaction among GPs, diabetes specialists, and elderly people with T2DM allowing the latter to take charge of their own disease management through a sustained empowerment policy.

Sustainable Empowerment Models for Rural Pastoral Communities in Kenya

This paper presents a model sustainable empowerment system for rural communities in developing countries to improve the socioeconomic situation and provide education to support knowledge warriors. This model acts as a bridge between the needs of communities and the operations of International NPO/NGO. To justify the model, participatory field studies were conducted at a local non-profit organization in Kenya. My research revealed the following: 1) In successful projects, the efficiency of limited local resources, such as people and goods, is maximized. 2) The process of community training or awareness is the most influential key in maintaining a sustainable empowerment system.

The hospitality of Nepali tea houses: redefining the boundaries of empowerment

The paper reports on research which shows that in an environment where women traditionally represent the marginalised population, the female tea house owners/managers display higher levels of economic, social and psychological empowerment. It illustrates how commercial hospitality has catalysed social change in Nepal through empowering women. This phenomenon has driven the emancipation of women in patriarchal Nepal where involvement in the hospitality industry has improved the livelihoods of women. Working in tea houses has the potential to facilitate sustainable empowerment for future generations, providing them with education, choice, control and opportunities. The findings showed that the potential empowerment of future generations may not derive from, but may be enabled by, involvement in the commercial hospitality sector. However, their sustainable empowerment is also dependent on the removal of a number of barriers which currently limit the empowerment of women. Involvement in the commercial hospitality sector can act as a vehicle for the sustainable empowerment for women, although it has been noted that to ensure long-term sustainable empowerment, every empowerment dimension must be adequately represented.

Sustaining the Occupy Movement

Sustaining the Occupy Movement

Innovative business cases in the South Africa table grape and wine industries: developing the concept of empowerment entrepreneurship

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on an innovative initiative taken spontaneously by producers in the supply chain of the table grapes and wine industry to empower employees. Empowerment is a fundamental force for change in doing business in South Africa and its societies, especially in the lives of previously disadvantaged people (PDI). The majority of the PDI employed in the agriculture industry have been marginalised with regards to business opportunities and proper education for decades by the political system of the country prior to 1994. By examining the innovative business models used by the producer in the empowerment process we gain a broader comprehension of how sustainable empowerment of employees in a supply chain can successfully be integrated into the business strategy used by the producers. The business models have undergone several innovative changes over time to find the 'ultimate' business model for creating empowerment in South Africa.

Is consent for research genuinely informed? Using decision aid tools to obtain informed consent in the global south

Gaining informed consent among marginalized groups that include decisionally incapacitated individuals and those outside of the researcher's own geo-social and ethnic background still challenges many researchers. We suggest that there is a need for consideration of a different approach to research ethics in international settings. Based on extensive field work in West Africa on medical knowledge transfers and patient–healer relationships, this paper will discuss the challenges posed in obtaining informed individual consent in international settings. It is argued that while being on the whole convincing, the top-down approach of the proposed solutions, which clearly dominates the participative approach, fails in building sustainable capacity, decision-making competency, and empowerment in the communities in which the research is conducted. Using appropriate decision aids can help resolve these issues.

Commercial hospitality

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to illustrate how commercial hospitality has catalysed sustainable social change in Nepal through empowering women. Utilising a new framework, developed by combining existing theories, empowerment of women tea house owners/managers is assessed.Design/methodology/approachWithin a critical feminist paradigm, primary research consisting of interviews and participant observation was undertaken over a three‐month period in the central region of Nepal.FindingsInvolvement in the hospitality industry improved the livelihoods of the women tea house owners/managers, it also has the potential to facilitate sustainable empowerment for future generations, providing them with education, choice, control and opportunities.Research limitations/implicationsAlthough steps are taken to limit rhetorical issues, language barriers could have influenced the findings of the interviews. To fully investigate the potential for hospitality to act as a vehicle for the sustainable empowerment of women, it is suggested that this study be replicated again in another region or that a detailed ethnographic study be carried out.Practical implicationsThe paper demonstrates how the commercial hospitality industry can be a force for good; women working in the industry are agents of change, actively improving their levels of empowerment in their immediate environment. The commercial hospitality industry has pioneered the empowerment of women and this could lay the foundation for the further emancipation of women.Originality/valueTo date, there has been limited research into the relationship between involvement in the commercial hospitality sector and the empowerment of women; this paper begins to fill this gap by investigating a tourist region of Nepal.

Healthcare Epidemiology: Past and Future

Healthcare epidemiology is a robust and adaptable profession with the noble mission of protecting patients and their healthcare providers from infectious diseases and other threats. Change is the constant that links the successes of our field in each decade of our history. Although it is not possible to predict what specific challenges the next decade will bring, the themes of the Sixth Decennial International Conference in 2020 are likely to reflect the most prominent drivers of change that are affecting our profession, including globalization, sustainability, and consumer empowerment.

Link or Breach? The Role of Trust in Developing Social Capital within a Family Literacy Project

This article examines survey and focus group transcripts of a well-established early years literacy project in Scotland in light of contextual information about changing local authority policy in order to look at the gains in social capital identified by participants and the extent to which these indicate lasting durable change that will reap later benefits for both individuals and the community in which they are situated. Contextual information provides the basis to examine the interlinking dynamics and resources of a network of volunteer and statutory organisations that support the project and raises questions about how its benefits will be sustained should that network be seriously undermined by the changing policies of local and national government authorities. In analysing the issues at stake in sustained empowerment, a comparison is made with Bagley's work in a contrasting early years project in England. The article questions the appropriation of the metaphor of capital to the dynamics of social relations, particularly when issues of trust are at stake. Trust, it is argued, is of particular importance in decisions about how linking capital can be said to be reinvested. By looking at layers of data the conclusions that might be reached relying on statistical measures alone are problematised.

Is Capacity Building Important in Policy Development for Sustainability? A Case Study Using Action Plans for Sustainable Marine Protected Areas in Belize

We undertook a capacity-building exercise around marine protected areas (MPAs) that involved both local nongovernmental organization (NGO) community workers and a government fisheries officer, so that community engagement could be directly interfaced with fisheries operations and policy. Targeting a government worker is a relatively new approach. Our methodology used a modified nominal group technique and Delphi technique to develop personal action plans to facilitate the future of sustainable MPAs in the MesoAmerican Barrier Reef system. The involvement of a fisheries officer resulted in direct transfer of information from the communities to the government department. The personal action plans involve improvements to organization and management, education, support, and policy development. In addition, three NGOs, TASTE (Toledo Association for Sustainable Tourism and Empowerment), TIDE (Toledo Institute for Development and Environment), and Friends of Nature, have been incorporated into a single self-governing organization that spans four MPAs in southern Belize. This is a significant advance, allowing areas that were subject to illegal fishing to be monitored and policed.

Policy Priorities In Rural Women Empowerment Sustainability, Poverty And Food Security In Nigeria

The indispensable role of women in agricultural, rural and economic development has roused attention in recent times. At least one-third the word’s rural households are headed by women whose productive and reproductive responsibilities provide for the entire family, community and informal and formal economies. The female gender can not be sidelined while discussing issues of poverty and food security. In like manner, equitability can not be divorced from sustainability as it is one major issue in sustainability. History has revealed that Nigerian women are not always allowed by men to exert themselves fully. Some encumbrances are placed on the road to development of the feminine gender by the society. Such inequities are structural institutions that represent patriarchal and hegemonic interests. Changes have to occur in order to address the socially embedded inequities experienced by women through the various empowerment strategies introduced by past and present Nigerian governments. There is a need to formulate and implement agricultural policies and programmes the priorities of which should include easy access of women to extension services, ICTs, credit and land among others.