Technical Capacity Research Articles

Toward sustainability? Contributions of the Guatemalan Sugarcane Agro‐Industry to the Sustainable Development Goals on water and energy

AbstractSustainability is a global mandate and has set agendas for regions, nations, sectors, and corporations. Because of the globalized nature of the economy, the pursuit of sustainability in one place has implications for others. The aim of this paper is to describe how a sector—the Guatemalan Sugarcane Agro‐industry (GSAI)—can make progress toward sustainability and contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals of the country in which it operates. The methodology used was a case study description, based largely on data reported by the GSAI. The main findings of the study show that the contributions of the industry to water and sanitation in its area of operations have been important, but limited, due to several factors that include issues such as: lack of political will, lack of technical capacity, financing, and appropriate legislation. On the other hand, the contributions of the GSAI to energy have been remarkable for the Guatemalan energy matrix, highlighting that cogeneration from sugarcane bagasse represents up to 30% of the electricity demand in the country during the 6‐month harvest season. Building on social corporate responsibility theory, the actions related to the goals on water and energy are explained. What was found is that the contributions of a sector, though important, are possibly not outstanding at the national scale, and that the conditions of the country limit the reach or pace of progress of the sector. An exception is the contributions toward sustainable energy and associated emissions, which are noteworthy. The interplay of actors at different scales needs to be understood if globally we are to achieve the goals. This understanding is key to put in place policies and enabling conditions for sectors to make progress faster, helping their country advance as well as contributing to sustainability of buyers in other countries or regions.

Contributor biographies

Contributor biographies

Detailed mapping of technical capacities and economics potential of offshore wind energy: A case study in South-eastern Australia

Australia has significant offshore wind resources that can support ever-increasing power demand and hence provide a long-term contribution to the net-zero target by 2050. Although some offshore wind farm projects are proposed in Australia, the industry is not mature enough to justify the benefits and display economic opportunities. More specifically, the techno-economic analysis of offshore wind energy has not been systematically mapped in Australia. Therefore, the investigation of the spatial variation of technical feasibility and economic potential of offshore wind is vital to identify the potential regions and to develop strategies for future offshore wind farm developments in Australia. This paper presents detailed mappings of the techno-economic potential of offshore wind energy in Victoria-Tasmania’s exclusive economic zone. Offshore wind energy resources are assessed in the paper in terms of energy availability and variability and the feasibility of various offshore wind technologies is investigated, including turbines, foundation types and transmission topologies. In addition, the high-fidelity life-cycle cost models and two innovative evaluation matrices are developed to assess the economic potential of offshore energy farms in South-eastern Australia. The impact of local power system regulation costs and future carbon prices on the viability of offshore wind is also investigated in this paper. It is concluded that the detailed mapping approach and analysis in the paper can provide a systematic tool for industry partners, investors and policymakers at the pre-planning stage of developing offshore renewable energy systems.

The effect of virtual reality experience quality on destination visit intention and virtual reality travel intention

研究目的本研究通过应用技术接受模型, 探讨虚拟现实体验质量对目的地参访意愿和虚拟现实旅游意愿的影响。旨在识别这些变量之间存在的关系, 并解释这些关系的因果链接。研究方法本研究从198名参与虚拟三维目的地体验后填写的问卷中获得定量数据并通过PLS-SEM方法进行分析。研究发现虚拟现实体验的质量影响用户的感知和意愿。虚拟现实旅游意愿仅受感知风险的影响。感知易用性影响感知有用性。意愿受态度影响, 但感知有用性不影响虚拟现实旅游。研究局限性/意义本研究的主要局限性与提供的体验质量有关, 该质量受到虚拟现实眼镜技术能力的限制。虚拟现实可以作为一种新的经济提供方式进行开发。通过将感知风险变量添加到技术接受模型中, 可以增加模型的解释力。本研究为旅游业的发展提供了新的视角、见解和建议, 并解释了虚拟现实提供的真实目的地体。研究创新为了研究的目的, 本研究设计了一个虚拟的三维目的地, 包含多个目的地类型。该目的地有自己的布景和故事情节。本研究通过分析真实和虚拟参访意愿的领域, 将体验经济、风险感知和技术接受模型领域相结合, 为文献做出了贡献。

Design and application of a special underwater cutting device for the decommissioning of the first HWRR reactor in China

The Heavy Water Research Reactor (HWRR) labeled 101 is the first nuclear reactor in China and the first large scale research reactor to be decommissioned in China. In the first phase of decommissioning, all spent fuel assemblies need to be removed from the spent fuel storage pool and transported to the spent fuel reprocessing plant through the RY-I transport container. The spent fuel storage pool can undergo further comprehensive cleaning and refurbishment. The HWRR reactor has operated for about fifty years, various experiment projects and several large scale upgrades were undertaken during its operation, the types and forms of spent fuel assemblies are relatively complex. Due to the deformation of the corrugated plates of some spent fuel assemblies, these spent fuel assemblies cannot be removed from the external process tubes according to the normal operation. Therefore, this paper designed a special device for the underwater cutting of the process tubes based on the structure of the process tube and spent fuel assembly, which successfully completed the underwater cutting of process tubes and the retrieval of twenty spent fuel assemblies, so all the spent fuel assemblies in spent fuel storage pool of HWRR reactor are taken out and shipped out. This device and technology provide technical reference for the underwater cutting of highly radioactive metal pipelines in other research reactors and nuclear power plants, and it can also improve the technical system and capacity for the decommissioning of the nuclear facilities in China.

Policy analysis on municipal solid waste management in Dhaka South City Corporation, Bangladesh: A qualitative study

Background: Inadequate and improper municipal solid waste (MSW) management is one of the significant reasons behind the environmental deterioration in Bangladesh. The projected daily waste generation for 2025 in Dhaka City is 47,665 tons, half of which remains uncollected despite door-to-door community-based waste collection. There are few studies on MSW management in Bangladesh, most focusing on household-level waste management, measurement of the amount of MSW, etc., but none applied a political economy lens to examine the policy issues related to MSW management. This study aimed to explore the context, actors, and processes regarding MSW management of policies in Dhaka City, Bangladesh, applying the policy-triangle-framework. Methods: This study adopted an exploratory qualitative approach, and document reviews and key informant interviews were conducted from September 2016 to January 2017. Results: We found that the issue of MSW slowly entered the policy documents starting with the Sixth-Five Year Plan (2011-2015), with some earlier sporadic policy initiatives. Due to its being a relatively new concept, stakeholders still lack the expertise to tackle the issue leading to donor dependence. MSW management demands multi-stakeholder involvement, which, in turn, depends on multi-ministerial and -departmental coordination, which is chronically deficient. MSW policies, like most other social policies, demand citizen involvement, without which both policy formulation processes and their proper implementation are compromised. Conclusion: In order to overcome these policy challenges, the technical and financial capacity of the stakeholders for MSW management should be enhanced, high-level multi-ministerial coordination needs to be strengthened, and citizen empowerment and engagement must be ensured at every step of the MSW policy cycle.

Socio-ecologies of Plastic Bottle Waste (PBW) and the Development of Ecoprenuerial Initiatives in Contemporary Nigerian Society

The study analyze the mechanisms that lead to the creation, accumulation, and exchange of plastic bottle waste, as well as its monetary value, industrial recycling, and home use in contemporary Nigerian societies. We conducted a descriptive and explanatory study with 86 ecopreneurs who have worked in the plastic waste sector for at least five years. We used both qualitative and descriptive statistics to arrive at our conclusions. Seventy-four percent of respondents from various demographics collected at least one hundred pieces of used plastic per day, ninety-five percent stated that the economic and social potentials of plastic waste are expanding, and ninety-eight percent stated that PBW commerce encourages innovation and garbage recycling. The vast majority of PBW traders (87.1%) do not see their age to be a barrier, and it is equally available to both sexes (93.5%) and all generations (90%). The study indicated that businesses formed from discarded plastic bottles benefited global social, economic, and environmental conditions. Additional field research is required in developing countries such as Nigeria to establish technical and vocational capacities for dealing with plastic bottles and other plastic debris.

Ghana and the global climate crisis: Rethinking the legal approach for climate change regulation of corporations in Ghana

Ghana continuously suffers from the impact of the climate change crisis despite its minimal global carbon contributions. Although Ghana has instituted some climate change policies and general environmental regulations, it has not yet promulgated a Climate Change Act to aid the regulation of climate change mitigation, especially of corporations that are the major emitters of global greenhouse gas emissions. This article examines the climate change regulation of corporations in Ghana and its effectiveness in addressing climate change challenges. It assesses the country's international climate change profile and the role of corporations in contributing to its carbon emissions, evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of Ghana's general environmental regulation and discusses alternative regulatory frameworks such as judicial, market and surrogate regulation for managing climate change impacts in the absence of statutory climate change regulation. Further, this article looks beyond the presence of a statutory climate change regulation and examines the potential structuring of climate change regulation in Ghana. The article argues that the traditional command and control regulatory system will be unsuitable for effective regulation of the climate change participation of corporations in Ghana, and instead proposes the adoption of the Dilute Interventionism approach supported by a Veto Firewall system for this purpose. The article argues that these concepts present a practical and effective approach to regulating corporations’ involvement in climate change mitigation in Ghana. However, the successful implementation of this approach will require political will, corporate compliance, and technical capacity. This article provides policymakers, stakeholders and interested parties in Ghana and beyond with useful insights to address climate change challenges.

Sustainable Leachate Treatment Plant System at Landfill Site: A Multicriteria Analysis Approach

Leachate generated from Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) landfill may cause various negative impacts, therefore it should be treated properly in a Leachate Treatment Plant (LTP). The paper aims to select a more sustainable LTP system in Indonesia by applying Analytic Network Process (ANP) as multicriteria analysis approach. 5 alternative LTP systems were analyzed using 5 criteria namely economic, environmental, social, technical, and institutional capacity with a total of 25 sub-criteria. Total 36 respondents from municipality staffs, academics, professionals, and LTP operators were interviewed by adopting pair wise comparison. The results from Driving Dependence Power Analysis (DDPA) showed that sub-criteria for operating costs (E2), maintenance costs (E3), processing effectiveness (T1) and monitoring needs (T3) have the highest dependence power value. Sub-criteria of the operational cost (E2) and the availability of regulations (K2) have the highest driving power value. Main considerations for selecting LTP system at a final disposal site by respondents were economic criteria (weight 0.3219) and water protection sub-criteria (L2, weight 0.17). Top priority of the technology chosen by respondents were Alternative#1 consist of Anaerobic, Facultative and Maturation ponds and Biofilter.

Flexible Institution Building in the International Anti-corruption Regime: Proposing a Transnational Asset Recovery Mechanism

AbstractAsset recovery is a fundamental principle of anti-corruption law, without which the financial damage from corruption cannot be repaired. Yet recovering assets is notoriously difficult and time-consuming, and the United Nations Convention Against Corruption provides little technical or institutional support to facilitate such returns. To remedy this, we propose the creation of a transnational asset recovery mechanism that could provide myriad services to states upon request, including gathering and publishing information, providing technical assistance and capacity building, helping to conclude agreements on asset return, and monitoring returned funds. Theoretically, we introduce the concepts of customizability and selectability to explain why a flexible transnational asset recovery mechanism has advantages over more formal international institutions, such as an international anti-corruption court. These benefits include lower financial and political costs, enhanced adaptability, and a greater likelihood of enhancing interstate cooperation regarding asset returns.

Barriers to climate change and health research in India: a qualitative study

ObjectivesAlmost a quarter of the global burden of disease and mortalities is attributable to environmental causes, the magnitude of which is projected to increase in the near future. However, in...

Will the Nile River Turn into a Lake? The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance (GERD) Dam Case-Study

Abstract Today, many scholars agree that changes in water availability triggered by population growth, economic development and climate change impact will increase competition between water users, making conflict more likely, especially in those countries that lack the financial, technical and governance capacities to address water-related challenge and/or in river basin riparian states that share common water resources. As early as 2012, the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), analysing the water issue at a regional and global level, concluded that, while water-related state-on-state conflict is unlikely to occur during the next ten years, the problem is projected to get worse in the near future. Starting from the historical reconstruction and the geopolitical repercussions of the water dispute in the Nile River Basin and focusing on the case of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), this article aims to analyse the political, socio-economic and environmental changes that are affecting upstream countries and to detect how these new dynamics are challenging both the balance of power and the ongoing cooperation process in the region.

Duration of Support and Financial Health of Business Support Structures in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, and Ghana: A Micro-Econometric Analysis

ABSTRACT Access to finance is perceived as one of the major problems facing businesses in Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as the structures that support them in their development. This paper aims to measure the probability that a support structure with given characteristics, specific services to entrepreneurs and some technical capacities will face large-scale financial problems. We estimate a multinomial logistic model using a pool of disaggregated data collected by the Nkafu Policy Institute in a survey of 80 business support structures in Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Ghana in 2021. Our results show that the financial health of a business support structure is not fundamentally dependent on the duration of support, but rather on other factors related to the quality of services offered to entrepreneurs.

CYBER SECURITY AND DATA PRIVACY LAW IN PAKISTAN: PROTECTING INFORMATION AND PRIVACY IN THE DIGITAL AGE

The importance of cybersecurity and data privacy cannot be overstated in today's digital age. As Pakistan continues to advance its digital infrastructure and reliance on technology, the need for robust cyber security and data privacy measures has become increasingly urgent. The country has seen a surge in cyber attacks and data breaches in recent years, highlighting the need for a comprehensive legal framework to protect peoples' and organizations' sensitive information. This research paper endeavors to furnish a thorough and up-to-date examination of the existing state of cybersecurity measures and data privacy concerns in Pakistan, with a focus on the challenges and limitations that need to be addressed in order to enhance the country's cyber resilience and protect its citizens' personal information. It will examine the existing legal framework, including the Pakistan Computer Emergency Response Team (Pak-CERT) Act, 2017, the PECA Act, 2016, the Data Protection Act, 2018, and the Cybercrime Act, 2019. The paper will also analyze the various regulations and guidelines related to cybersecurity and data privacy, such as the National Cybersecurity Policy, 2018, and the Data Protection Regulations, 2018. CERT rules 2023 gives a legislative framework to deal with cyber-attacks and vulnerabilities that come up from time to time at the national, industry, and organizational levels. It sets up a working structure for technical support, operational equipment, and capacity building services. The paper will also identify and discuss the challenges and limitations of the current legal framework, including inadequate legal provisions, lack of awareness and enforcement, limited found capacity of law enforcement agencies, and insufficient coordination between government agencies. Furthermore, the paper will provide recommendations for improving the legal framework, such as strengthening legal provisions, increasing awareness and enforcement, building strength for law enforcement agencies, and enhancing coordination between government agencies. The study will employ a qualitative research approach, using a combination of literature review, legal analysis, and expert opinions. The data collection methods will include a review of relevant laws, regulations, and guidelines, as well as interviews with experts in the field of cybersecurity and data privacy. The research paper's conclusions will further the current discussion on cyber security and data privacy in Pakistan., and provide valuable insights for policymakers, regulators, and stakeholders. The paper will also serve as a resource for individuals, businesses, and organizations seeking to understand the lawful framework for cyber security and data privacy in Pakistan. Ultimately, the paper aims to provide a comprehensive knowledge of the present state of cybersecurity and data privacy law in Pakistan and to offer recommendations for improvement, with the goal of enhancing the country's cyber security and data privacy posture.

Assessment of Project Delivery Criteria Used In Evaluating Construction Contractors

Contractor selection is a process which involves examining, investigating, screening and determining if a contractor has the technical, professional and financial capacity and capability to handle a project to be accepted to formally tender for construction work. This process is carried out prior to the award of contract, characterized by many factors such as experience on similar projects, financial capacity, skill and knowledge of contractor, managerial ability and track- record. This research assesses the project delivery criteria in evaluating a construction contractor, with specific application to construction projects in Jos. Feedback received from these professionals were analyzed with the aid of SPSS 22.0. The project delivery criteria were analyzed and the results indicated that the major criteria in evaluating contractor include final stability, reputation and experience. The identified criteria were therefore recommended as factor of contractor selection strategy that affect project delivery. Furthermore, this research will help decision makers and others involved in construction to be more aware of and have a better understanding of the selection procedure for contractors in the construction industry. The understanding of this criteria will help decision makers to make more efficacious decisions and to adopt both short- and long-term policies for contractor.

FOREIGN ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES OF UKRAINE IN THE SPHERE OF ARMS AND MILITARY EQUIPMENT

In the conditions of a full-scale war, increasing the efficiency of foreign economic activity, the effectiveness of the institutional infrastructure and the implementation of permanent state control over production, export/import operations in the field of weapons and military equipment has become extremely relevant. The purpose of the research is to generalize the regulatory framework, identify the features of the institutional infrastructure and critically analyze the practice of foreign economic activity in the field of armaments and military equipment, justify proposals for its improvement. The methodology of the research consisted of systematic, comparative and economic analysis. It was determined that the effectiveness of Ukraine's foreign economic activity in the field of armaments and military equipment is affected by such factors as the complexity and tension of the geopolitical situation, military aggression, imperfect regulation, lack of financial resources for the purchase of weapons in foreign countries in the conditions of restrictions on the international market and complex domestic economic situation, lack of technological capabilities for the production of complex systems and modernization of existing military equipment to quickly cover own defense needs and further export, and other factors.
 The analysis of regulatory and legal regulation and institutional infrastructure revealed the beginning of their significant transformation in terms of increasing transparency, accountability and economic efficiency of the foreign economic activity of armaments and military equipment. The assessment of the export potential of Ukraine in the field of armaments and military equipment revealed the ineffectiveness of the functioning of special exporters of the State Concern “Ukroboronprom” in connection with the use of “gray” schemes and the expediency of expanding the exporters of military equipment at the expense of attracting private enterprises. The post-war implementation of the Defense and Security Strengthening Program of Ukraine with the involvement of foreign investors should not only revive the export of domestic armaments and military equipment, but also “cleanse” the defense sphere of unscrupulous and inefficient participants. The dynamics of the obligations of the countries of the world and Ukraine's acquisition of weapons and military equipment are quite powerful, but they are not without certain problems regarding the unpreparedness of technical and technological capacities, the imperfection of the military-industrial complex of Europe in logistics and the production of significant volumes of weapons in a short period of time, bureaucratic obstacles and the impossibility rapid coordination and compliance with the requirements of legislation at the interstate level regarding pricing, taxation, etc. Directions were identified and proposals for improving the mechanism of foreign economic activity in the field of armaments and military equipment were formulated.

Connecting the Dots: Aligning human capacity through networks toward a globally interoperable Digital Extended Specimen (DES) infrastructure

Thanks to substantial support for biodiversity data mobilization in recent decades, billions of occurrence records are openly available, documenting life on Earth and enabling timely research, awareness raising, and policy-making. Initiatives across local to global scales have been separately funded to serve different, yet often overlapping audiences of data users, and have developed a variety of platforms and infrastructures to meet the needs of these audiences. The independent progress of biodiversity data providers has led to innovations as well as challenges for the community at large as we move towards connecting and linking a diversity of information from disparate sources as Digital Extended Specimens (DES). Recognizing a need for deeper and more frequent opportunities for communication and collaboration across the globe, an ad-hoc group of representatives of various international, national, and regional organizations have been meeting virtually since 2020 to provide a forum for updates, announcements, and shared progress. This group is provisionally named International Partners for the Digital Extended Specimen (IPDES), and is guided by these four concepts: Biodiversity, Connection, Knowledge and Agency. Participants in IPDES include representatives of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), Integrated Digitized Biocollections (iDigBio), American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS), Biodiversity Collections Network (BCoN), Natural Science Collections Alliance (NSCA), Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo), Atlas of Living Australia (ALA), Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG), Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC), National Specimen Information Infrastructure of China (NSII), and South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), as well as individuals involved with biodiversity informatics initiatives, natural science collections, museums, herbaria, and universities. Our global partners group strives to increase representation from around the globe as we aim to enable research that contributes to novel discoveries and addresses the societal challenges leading to the biodiversity crisis. Our overarching mission is to expand on the community-driven successes to connect biodiversity data and knowledge through coordination of a globally integrated network of stakeholders to enable an extensible technical and social infrastructure of data, tools, and working practices in support of our vision. The main work of our group thus far includes publishing a paper on the Digital Extended Specimen (Hardisty et al. 2022), organizing and hosting an array of activities at conferences, and asynchronous online work and forum-based exchanges. We aim to advance discussion on topics of broad interest to our community such as social and technical capacity building, broadening participation, expanding social and data networks, improving data models and building a backbone for the DES, and identifying international funding solutions. This presentation will highlight some of these activities and detail progress towards a roadmap for the development of the human network and technical infrastructure necessary to support the DES. It provides an opportunity for feedback from and engagement by stakeholder communities such as TDWG and other initiatives with a focus on data standards and biodiversity informatics, as we solidify our plans for the future in support of integrated and interconnected biodiversity data and credit for those doing the work.

Enacting the blue economy in the Western Indian Ocean: A ‘collaborative blue economy governmentality’

The blue economy represents a new development paradigm, being promoted through multilateral institutions. I examine its emerging nature in the context of the Western Indian Ocean region of Africa. I situate the blue economy within the global sustainable development discourse and argue that it represents a form of global governmentality. I note its utopian nature and argue that discourses of utopian thought and risk act to ‘responsibilise’ States to collaborate in regional sea management in pursuit of human and environmental security goals – which I call a ‘collaborative blue economy governmentality’. I draw attention to multiple sites of resistance (‘counter conducts’) to this governmentality. These counter conducts are diverse, encompassing community resistance to development priorities, insufficient technical capacities and resources, and the material character of ocean and coastal ecosystems. I therefore characterise the blue economy as an immature governmentality, necessitating State and multilateral intervention to put in place or strengthen the governmental capacities needed to enact it. I conclude that the BE governmentality is largely of a neoliberal character, but with hints of an emergent post-neoliberal regime.

Prospective appraisal of a formative nuclear and radiation physics at Nairobi

We provide a prospective appraisal of the evolution of the graduate nuclear and radiation physics program at the University of Nairobi underscoring its unique growth in the framework of relevant knowledge networks and a nascent nuclear power program. Due to the distinctive characteristics of the nuclear fuel cycle, there arose in Kenya especially nuclear security educational requirements for a proliferation-free nuclear power program as well as the need for provision of a broad spectrum of technical capacities to plan, regulate, and safely handle a nuclear power infrastructure. We detail how the graduate program centres on our newly established research line in nuclear forensics. Learning from this experience we propose, as a result, moving into nuclear photonics enabled by accelerators so as to play more key roles in accelerating capacity building embracing both nuclear and laser physics.

Nuclear fission technology in Africa: Assessing challenges and opportunities for future development

Nuclear fission technology offers a potential solution for meeting Africa's increasing energy demands while also supporting economic development and regional cooperation. However, significant challenges such as financing and investment barriers, technical capacity gaps, and public concerns about safety and security persist. This article explores the key opportunities and challenges for nuclear fission technology in Africa, examining current and planned nuclear power projects and analyzing their successes, challenges, and lessons learned. We also discuss strategies for advancing nuclear power programs in African countries, including policy and regulatory reforms, investment and financing mechanisms, human resource development, capacity building, and public engagement and education. The need for further research into the potential environmental, health, and socio-economic impacts of nuclear power plants in African countries is emphasized, as well as the development of innovative and sustainable nuclear technologies tailored to African contexts. Ultimately, achieving sustainable and safe deployment of nuclear fission technology in Africa will require a comprehensive and collaborative approach, with partnerships and collaborations playing a critical role.