Technical Missions Research Articles

LESSONS FROM THE MARSHALL PLAN FOR UKRAINE’S POST-WAR RECOVERY

This article presents a comprehensive discourse analysis of the Marshall Plan’s administration, shedding light on a facet of history that has often been overlooked in favor of discussions on aid effectiveness and outcomes. Central to our inquiry is the hypothesis that the institutionalization of U.S. foreign aid, initiated with the Marshall Plan, played a critical role in its success and laid the foundation for future aid initiatives. By focusing on the administrative strategies and decision-making processes, the study offers novel insights into how these elements contributed to the Plan’s effectiveness and the overall evolution of U.S. foreign aid policy. The analysis draws on a variety of primary sources, including historical documents, speeches, and policy papers, to provide a detailed picture of the Plan’s implementation. In doing so, we unveil the complex dynamics and challenges of post-war recovery efforts and the strategic decisions that shaped them. The findings reveal the intricacies of the Marshall Plan’s administration and provide valuable lessons for contemporary policy discourse, particularly in the context of Ukraine’s ongoing recovery and its significance to Kyiv’s international partners. This study contributes to the existing body of literature by offering a nuanced understanding of the Marshall Plan’s legacy and its enduring impact on international development and foreign aid. It serves as a vital resource for policymakers, scholars, and practitioners engaged in shaping effective and sustainable foreign aid programs in the modern era. This study also examines the evolution of U.S. foreign aid from the mid-19th century technical missions to the modern era, highlighting key changes in aid administration and objectives. By tracing this evolution, it contextualizes the Marshall Plan within the broader narrative of U.S. international development policy. The role of the Truman administration in shaping the plan and its broader foreign policy implications, including containment of communism and promotion of democracy, are critically analyzed. This article thus fills a gap in the literature by offering a comprehensive view of the Marshall Plan’s administration and its lasting influence on U.S. foreign aid policy.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on blood transfusion systems: International review and the Moroccan blood transfusion system experience

Introduction: Transfusion systems worldwide have had to face many challenges against the emergence or the re-emergence of numerous infectious diseases. Some of those viruses have posed significant impacts on blood transfusion activities. Several scientific and transfusion experts consider the current COVID-19 pandemic to present a potential risk of reducing and compromising the supply of blood products. Blood establishments had to activate their emergency plans and to propose appropriate response measures. Method: It is an international review where we used key terms search strategy to identify necessary information about: (i) the impact of some previous emergent viruses on the availability and the safety of blood products and (ii) the impact of the current COVID-19 pandemic on the blood transfusion activities worldwide. Additionally, we presented the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Moroccan transfusion system activities and the measures established by the Moroccan National Centre of Blood Transfusion and Hematology (MNCBTH) to ensure management of this health crisis on the availability and the safety of blood products in Morocco. Results: Viruses like Zika, Influenza A (H1N1), Chikungunya, SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and Ebola have been of great concern in terms of virulence, modes of transmission, and impact on blood transfusion activities. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the availability of blood products in blood establishments worldwide. In Morocco, the COVID-19 pandemic affected blood collections and caused a significant decrease in the number of blood donors nationally. Data provided from all regional blood transfusion centers and blood banks in Morocco show that the total number of blood donations made in 2020 was 297,841 blood donations nationally compared to 334,510 blood donations made in 2019, with a decrease of 36,669 blood donations. The number of LBP produced in 2020 was 455,805 units compared to 695,974 units produced in 2019, which corresponds to a reduction of 57,654 units. The number of Labile Blood Products (LBP) delivered in 2020 is 455,805 units against 451,736 delivered in 2019, with an increase of 4069 units. The pandemic impacted other activities of the blood transfusion system in Morocco like continuing education programs, meeting activities, technical missions, and the Moroccan plasma removal for the fractionation. Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on blood transfusion activities worldwide. The MNCBTH has expressed continued adaptability to ensure proper management of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the availability and safety of blood products in Morocco.

Guidance Note For Developing Government Local Currency Bond Markets

This guidance note was prepared by International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Group staff under a project undertaken with the support of grants from the Financial Sector Reform and Strengthening Initiative, (FIRST).The aim of the project was to deliver a report that provides emerging market and developing economies with guidance and a roadmap in developing their local currency bond markets (LCBMs). This note will also inform technical assistance missions in advising authorities on the formulation of policies to deepen LCBMs.

The power struggle over education in developing countries: The case of the UNESCO-World Bank Co-operative program, 1964-1989

This paper examines the relationship between the World Bank and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) between the 1960s and the 1980s. It focuses on the Co-operative Program (CP) between the two organizations, which was established in 1964 and lasted officially until 1989. In the context of the Co-operative Program, the Education Financing Division (EFD) was established, a joint unit located in UNESCO, with the purpose of carrying out technical missions to assist governments in the identification and preparation of educational projects and the formulation of funding requests to the World Bank. Drawing on archival research and interviews with former UNESCO and World Bank officials, the paper traces the history of the Co-operative Program, which was characterized by intense power struggles exacerbated by Cold War tensions. During the 25 years of the duration of the Co-operative Program, the World Bank developed into the most influential policy shaper for education in developing countries, while the influence of UNESCO, created in the post-World War II order as the United Nations’ designated organization for education, declined. Using Bourdieu’s concept of fields and DiMaggio and Powell’s concept of isomorphism as analytical lenses, the World Bank’s expansion to a development agency will be explained by its greater autonomy as a field, endowed with more capital based on the rationalization of education and isomorphic processes of professionalization of the “field of power” of educational planning. To the detriment of UNESCO, the World Bank became the powerhouse of a global governance structure that was built with support from the United States government and furthered by the rise of economics.

Overview on radiation and tissue banking in Latin America.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) played an important role in the establishment of new tissue banks and the improvement of already existing ones in Latin America. The Agency strongly supported, through regional, interregional and national technical cooperation projects, providing equipment, expert missions and training for the production and application of human tissues for transplantation. From 1999 to 2005 five regional courses were given in Buenos Aires under the modality of 1-year distance learning training courses and 1-week face to face courses. The courses were organized by the IAEA, through the National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA) and the Faculty of Medicine of Buenos Aires University as Post Graduate Specialization Course. In 2005 the Latin American countries joined with Spain and Portugal, and created the Ibero American Network Council of Donation and Transplant (Red Consejo Iberoamericano de Donación y Trasplantes-RCIDT). The objective of this network is to cooperate among twenty-one Ibero American countries in organizational and legislative aspects, training of professionals, and ethical and social issues related to the donation and transplantation of organs, tissues and cells. The members of this Network work actively to harmonize the regulations and the control of donation and transplantation of human organs, tissues and cells. At present, in Latin America, more than 220 facilities of tissues banks are operating and tissue allografts are being produced by single and multi-tissue banks. The efforts made by the governments and professionals from the region allow the tissue banks to operate under quality systems and introduce new technologies.

Marketing Turístico e Cooperação Técnica Internacional em Turismo da Cidade de Natal (Rio Grande do Norte, Brasil) na Argentina

Studies on international cooperation in tourism is implicit in a great deal of research, but specific studies about the segment of technical cooperation in tourism are still incipient or limited in many countries, including Brazil. The aim of this paper is to analyze the actions of marketing and technical cooperation by the tourist destination Natal and Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, for the Argentinian market. The theoretical basis consists of an approach of tourism marketing and some conceptual aspects of international technical cooperation in tourism. The research is descriptive exploratory and qualitative. The study context is the city of Natal and RN. The methodological procedure consisted of content analysis of interviews with managers of organizations representing Natal tourism. It was found that Natal (RN) tourism managers perform effective and productive actions of tourism marketing through travel (technical missions), courses, seminars, workshops, participation in fairs and conferences and provide access to courseware to the tourist demand market of Argentina. These actions include various forms of international technical cooperation in tourism. It is important, however, to intensify international technical cooperation in tourism in order to make tourism marketing strategies more effective and productive.

Two Decades of Election Observation by the African Union: A Review

Between 1989 and 2013, the African Union (AU) observed 423 elections in Africa. However, these election observation missions were inconsistent at best in terms of approach, methodology, framework and status. The first, which was in Namibia in 1989, was deployed within the framework of the United Nations (UN) statute in terms of which the UN invited the AU. The subsequent election observation missions have to date been deployed either as diplomatic or mediation missions or a combination of diplomatic and independent technical missions. This article shows that the election observation journey of the AU has passed through several stages and regimes. While we recognise the challenges, we also point towards improvement, and identify the missing links that the AU needs to complete to become a truly independent actor in its election observation missions.

Common errors in multidrug-resistant tuberculosis management

Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), defined as being resistant to at least rifampicin and isoniazid, has an increasing burden and threatens TB control. Diagnosis is limited and usually delayed while treatment is long lasting, toxic and poorly effective. MDR-TB management in scarce-resource settings is demanding however it is feasible and extremely necessary. In these settings, cure rates do not usually exceed 60–70% and MDR-TB management is novel for many TB programs. In this challenging scenario, both clinical and programmatic errors are likely to occur. The majority of these errors may be prevented or alleviated with appropriate and timely training in addition to uninterrupted procurement of high-quality drugs, updated national guidelines and laws and an overall improvement in management capacities. While new tools for diagnosis and shorter and less toxic treatment are not available in developing countries, MDR-TB management will remain complex in scarce resource settings. Focusing special attention on the common errors in diagnosis, regimen design and especially treatment delivery may benefit patients and programs with current outdated tools. The present article is a compilation of typical errors repeatedly observed by the authors in a wide range of countries during technical assistant missions and trainings.

Informing policy and programme decisions for scaling up the PMTCT and paediatric HIV response through joint technical missions

In 2005, due to slow global progress in the scale-up of prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) and paediatric HIV programmes, the Inter-agency Task Team (IATT) on the Prevention of HIV infection among Pregnant Women, Mothers, and their Children initiated joint technical missions (JTMs) to countries of high HIV disease burden. The JTMs were intended to galvanize country actions for a more comprehensive response to PMTCT and paediatric HIV by bringing national and global stakeholders together to review national policies and programmes and develop country-specific recommendations for accelerating scale-up. Between 2005 and 2010, the IATT conducted JTMs in 18 low- and middle-income countries. In 2007, to assess the role played by the missions, a review in the first eight countries (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, India, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zambia) that hosted JTMs was undertaken. Country progress was assessed through desk review and key informant interviews. For each country, documents reviewed included JTM reports, baseline data for PMTCT and paediatric HIV care and treatment, and 2004 to 2007 trend data on key PMTCT and paediatric HIV indicators. Drawing upon the findings, this paper posits that JTMs contributed to national scale-up of PMTCT and paediatric HIV programmes through strengthening governance and co-ordination mechanisms for the programmes, promoting enabling policy environments, and supporting the development of national scale-up plans, which have been critical for leveraging additional financial resources for scale-up. Although the impact of the JTMs could be enhanced through greater follow-up and continued targeted assistance in technical areas such as infant and young child feeding, community-based programming and supply chain management, findings indicate that the JTMs are a useful mechanism for informing policy and programme decisions necessary for scaling up PMTCT and paediatric HIV responses. Moreover, by bringing stakeholders together around unified action plans, the JTMs created a platform for common action-a key tenet of the 'Three Ones' principles for effective HIV/AIDS responses.

Science, Technology and ICCROM

According to the statutes of the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property, approved by the General Conference of UNESCO, the scientific role of the Centre was to ‘[c]o‐ordinate, stimulate or institute research in [the preservation and restoration of cultural property] by means, in particular, of commissions to bodies or experts, international meetings, publications and exchanges of specialists’. In fact, under the impulse of its first Directors, the technical staff of the Centre developed a tendency towards direct action rather than coordination, regardless of budget limitations that could be overcome thanks to the support of UNESCO and several bodies in the Italian Government (central institutes and local superintendents’ offices). Some of the training programmes, technical and rescue missions, and research activities that were evolved over a span of about twenty‐five years (1960–85) are briefly illustrated.

Transfer of Taiwanese ideas and technology to The Gambia, West Africa: a viable approach to rural development?

The development of Taiwan's agricultural sector contributed significantly to the country's transformation from virtual poverty after World War II to a modern industrial nation. Success resulted from the use of appropriate technologies, developed through an exceptionally close working relationship between government, research and development institutions, extension services and farmers in Taiwan. As part of their overseas development aid programme, the Republic of China on Taiwan has established Technical Missions in those developing countries where it receives political recognition. Among these is The Gambia, West Africa, where one focus of Taiwan's current Technical Mission is the development of women's market gardens. Although the gardens have proved successful, there is doubt as to whether their achievements will be sustained once Taiwan's Technical Mission in The Gambia has ended. Field research in Taiwan and in The Gambia, based largely on participatory techniques, has revealed that the low‐tech methods introduced from Taiwan are appropriate for the Gambian environment. However, much depends on whether women participating in the schemes can commit sufficient time and energy to the gardens, as at present this is a limiting factor. The potential of the gardens may also be constrained by a lack of appropriate institutional infrastructure, particularly the scope for profitable disposal of garden produce. A major conclusion of the article is that successful transfer of appropriate technology to The Gambia is likely to be impeded by poorly developed coordination between groups that proved to be key ‘players’ in the development of agriculture in Taiwan: government, research and development institutions, extension services and producers.

Ernest De Caranza

Abstract Ernest de Caranza came from Thiais, a small town 12 km south of Paris. His official position during his stay in the Ottoman capital is not clear, but it is quite possible that he was involved in technical missions because he was an industrial engineer by profession. Before 1855 he took photographs in various parts of the Ottoman Empire, at Mount Athos (Greece), Kustendje (Romania), Varna (Bulgaria), the Dardanelles, and Constantinople.1 According to the surviving prints that are signed and dated, we know that he took photographs of Constantinople in two series, first in 1852 and then in the winter of 1854. After 1855 Caranza became a permanent resident of Paris and we know that he was employed in a factory where gas for lighting was produced from wood by means of dry distillation.2

INTEGRATED ACCESS TO INFORMATION SYSTEMS

The French Scientific and Technical Center for Building (CSTB) is involved in a very large number of programs, covering a wide range of scopes in the area of building, including technical, legal, social, and economic topics. The actions carried out encompass scientific research or technical missions, engineering, writing regulations, or state-of-the-art documents, such as unified codes of practice or assessment of the social impact of new technologies, and the need to facilitate access to this huge amount of data has become a considerable challenge. Information in such a case is a very generic term covering a vague understanding in that it can include basic data representing a primary corpus or, at the other end of the scale, sophisticated services offered by experts able to solve complex problems. Customers for such information have very different needs but agree on the necessity to facilitate access to the relevant data and to various high-value services accounted for by computer systems. As the semantic level of the services differs considerably, the need became apparent to merge different tools within an integrated software environment to satisfy the previous objective. The main components to be assembled are retrieval systems to locate the relevant data, object-oriented databases to offer a reusable storage model, hypertext and hyperobject systems to browse the content of hypermedia entities, and multifunctional expert systems to provide sophisticated computer systems with an adaptable entry and behavior.

A longitudinal study of communication in research: Technical and managerial influences

A number of variables were examined with respect to technical communication patterns in a research and development laboratory in the authors' initial investigation. Observed changes in technical assignment and administrative control were noted in three of the groups studied. Generally, the immediate response of a group of engineers to administrative change was to retain the communication patterns prior to the change. Changed technical missions resulted in less communication for a change group than for stable groups. Project teams depended upon links with the functional groups to which the engineers were previously assigned. A second study, eighteen months later, provides important data regarding the effects of change on technical communication patterns. The time lapse was sufficient for the administrative change groups to restructure their technical information patterns into self-contained entities.

International Civil Aviation Organization

The eleventh session of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Assembly met in Montreal from May 20 to June 2, 1958. Represented at the meeting were 52 contracting states; two non-contracting states (the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia) sent observers, as did the UN, the International Labor Organization, and the International Air Transport Association. After statements by various delegations, the President of the ICAO Council reviewed the activities of the organization since the last Assembly meeting in 1956. He stated that the intervening period had been one of great activity in ICAO centering around preparations in all fields for the advent of turbine-powered aircraft. A specially created Jet Operations Requirements Panel had studied the requirements of the new long-range jet aircraft, and a Special Implementation Panel had been created by the Council. A preliminary study of the economic implications of long-range aircraft had been prepared by the Air Transport Committee and was being submitted to the Council. He stressed that while special attention was being given to the coming operations of jet aircraft, this emphasis should not cause the organization to disregard the continuous growth of aviation during 1956 and 1957. The technical assistance activity of ICAO had continued, during the period under review, to give important support to implementation through the assignment of experts and technicians and the training of students in countries where there were technical assistance missions, as also by granting fellowships and scholarships for study abroad.

World Meteorological Organization

Reviewing the year's activities, the annual report of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) for 1957 stated that WMO technical assistance to underdeveloped countries had reached a new high in number of national weather services aided and number of experts sent to the countries. WMO provided experts or granted fellowships to 26 countries or territories during the year, under the UN Expanded Program of Technical Assistance, and sent instruments and equipment used in weather reporting and forecasting in connection with technical assistance missions to Afghanistan, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Iceland, Nicaragua, Sudan, and Uruguay. During this period 24 fellowships were awarded for advanced training of personnel in weather forecasting, tropical meteorology, hurricane forecasting, maritime meteorology, and aerology.

Prelude to Point Four: American Technical Missions Overseas, 1838–1938

Journal Article Prelude to Point Four: American Technical Missions Overseas, 1838–1938 Get access Prelude to Point Four: American Technical Missions Overseas, 1838–1938. By Merle Curti and Kendall Burr. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1954. xi + 284 pp. Index. 9½″ ×6¼″ $5. Susan Strange Susan Strange Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Affairs, Volume 31, Issue 3, July 1955, Page 404, https://doi.org/10.2307/2607393 Published: 01 July 1955

Prelude to Point Four: American Technical Missions Overseas, 1838-1938

Prelude to Point Four: American Technical Missions Overseas, 1838-1938

Prelude to Point Four: American Technical Missions Overseas, 1838-1938

Prelude to Point Four: American Technical Missions Overseas, 1838-1938

Prelude to Point Four: American Technical Missions Overseas, 1838–1938. By Merle Curti and Kendall Birr. (Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press. 1954. Pp. xi, 284. $5.00.)

Prelude to Point Four: American Technical Missions Overseas, 1838–1938. By Merle Curti and Kendall Birr. (Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press. 1954. Pp. xi, 284. $5.00.)