Win-win Approach Research Articles

Economic Relations between Pakistan and India: Impressions from the Past and Prospects for Future

Pakistan and India have failed to establish substantial and sustained economic relations between them. Despite being neighbours, they couldn't enjoy a good volume of bilateral trade in multiple sectors. This study traces the history of bilateral trade between Pakistan and India. While identifying patterns of trade between them, the study attempts to identify barriers in bilateral trade between them like trade regimes, non-tariff barriers and other discriminatory measures. The study also makes an attempt to address the question concerning how the impediments in bilateral trade can be removed to enhance bilateral trade and economic connections. On the basis of interviews of Key Informants (KIs), this study explores the potential of bilateral trade between Pakistan and India and finds possible sectors where bilateral trade can be augmented. Lastly, this study finds possible sectors where Pakistan and India can initiate joint ventures to seek win-win approach in bilateral economic relations.

A novel machine-learning based on the global search techniques using vectorized data for damage detection in structures

With recent ground-breaking advances, machine learning (ML) has been applied widely in numerous fields in this day and age. However, because of the application of backpropagation algorithms based on gradient descent (GD) techniques, the network of ML may be trapped in local minima, especially if its starting point is not on the same side of the global best or the network contains too many local minima. This drawback may reduce the accuracy and effectiveness of ML. To transcend these limitations of ML, numerous researchers have employed algorithms based on global search techniques to eliminate initial local minima of the network by looking for a beneficial starting point. Nevertheless, those solutions are only valid under certain circumstances when the network only contains a few local minima and they are distributed on the same side. With complex problems such as structural health monitoring (SHM), the network always exists of different error surfaces with numerous widely distributed local minima. The approach of the selection of a good starting position for the network may no longer be useful. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel machine-learning based on an evolutionary algorithm, namely Cuckoo search (CS) to solve the local minimum problem of ML in the most radical way. CS algorithm based on the global search technique is employed to work parallel with ML during the process of training the network. This win-win approach has both advantages of GD techniques (fast convergence) and stochastic search techniques (avoiding being trapped in local minima). The core idea of the proposed method is recapped as follows: (1) ML using the GD technique is first applied to speed up convergence; (2) if the network gets stuck in local minima, CS with global search capability is applied to assist particles in escaping from local minima; (3) the GD technique is applied again to increase the convergence speed. Steps 2 and 3 are repeated until the target is achieved. Additionally, to handle the large amount of data used to train the network, we also apply a vectorization technique for the data of the objective function, which significantly reduces the computational cost. This is another contribution of this work. To assess the performance of the proposed approach, both numerical and experimental models with different damage scenarios are considered. The results showed that the proposed approach completely outperforms CS, ML, and other hybrid ML in terms of accuracy and considerably reduces calculational costs compared to CS.

Regional Planning for Rodna as a Tourist Destination

This paper continues previous researches dedicated to highlighting the importance of planning from a managerial point of view and to discussing the regional dimension of planning, to which it adds up the current topic, that of rural tourism planning – features, particularities, approaches, multi-functionality of land use, collaboration and partnerships, negative planning, green economy, and case-studies. Bearing the theory in mind, a radiography of Rodna commune was briefly made, taking into consideration the following aspects: economy, locals, tourist flows, accommodation, tourists’ profile, food services, accessibility and transportation, travel agents, attractions and heritage, types of tourism, IT & C, sustainability, and traditions. The reason for the description of the commune is to properly understand the context and the particularities of the analyzed destination. Further, the steps of regional planning are revealed, and each of them is separately discussed and analyzed, from both a theoretical and a practical point of view. The outcome is a strategy the community can adopt, with a vision, three directions, and several SMART objectives. This strategy is reflected in a document that aims to engage each stakeholder in the process, as well as to establish in a clear, comprehensive way the common framework. Also, there are several proposals for every community and destination that understands the importance of planning and its implications: collaboration, win-win approach, partnerships, the involvement of the community, sustainability in every dimension, and so on.

The Role Indigenous Institutions in Resolving Land Related Conflicts: A Case Study of Two Kebeles in Fogera Woreda , North-West Ethiopia

This study sought to study the role of traditional conflict resolution in the context of mediation council among two kebeles of Fogera District. The study also attempted to explore the procedures mediators used during the resolutions. In order to realize these objectives, the study employed qualitatively designed research methods. Observation and case study were employed to generate data used for the analysis. The findings of the study showed that the traditional council of conflict resolutions has played a vital role in dispute resolution. Members of the mediation council exerted their effort to control the course of the mediations which had direct impact on the final decision to be made. Indeed, the cases showed that the council members mostly advocated win-win approach to the problem sustainably. The study, therefore, suggests some areas of research to be undertaken in the future. Keywords: Conflict, Claimant, Defendant, Resolution, Mediation and Mediator. DOI: 10.7176/IAGS/83-01 Publication date: June 30 th 2020

A Comparison of Growth, Structure and Diversity of Mixed Species and Monoculture Reforestation Systems in the Philippines

ABSTRACT Forests in the Philippines, and many other developing countries in the tropics, have been extensively cleared over recent decades. There have been increasing efforts to reforest these cleared lands to achieve both socio-economic and environmental objectives. To date, planted forests have been dominated by monocultures. There has however been increasing calls to use mixtures of species, although there is limited evidence to support mixed-species plantations being a better or win-win approach to reforestation. To address this, we compared the tree growth, forest structure, and tree species diversity performance of monoculture and mixed-species tree plantations across 168 sites (251 survey plots) on Leyte Island, the Philippines. Our results indicate that mixtures of fast-growing exotics species had better growth performance compared to monocultures of fast-growing exotics species, and also better tree species diversity performance at both the plot and landscape scale. Our results suggest that mixtures of exotic or native species can provide benefits over monoculture plantations. Mixtures of productive exotic species are most suited to situations where the production function of the forest is most important, while mixtures of native species are most suited to situations where the biodiversity function of the forest is most important.

La conservación neoliberal: otra cara de la economía verde. Estudio de caso en el Corredor Ecológico Llanganates Sangay, Ecuador

A partir del estudio de caso en el Corredor Ecológico Llanganates Sangay, se elabora una caracterización del proceso de compra de tierras para la creación de áreas protegidas privadas en el marco del modelo de la conservación neoliberal y de la conservación estricta. El argumento de este estudio es que la conservación neoliberal, al contrario de su discurso ganar-ganar, genera procesos de despojo, desplazamiento y exclusión de poblaciones locales, en beneficio de grandes empresas. Los procesos de despojo no ocurren necesariamente mediante formas tradicionales violentas, sino a través de mecanismos cada vez más sofisticados como la compra de tierras. En este contexto, aunque la conservación neoliberal se presenta como un mecanismo para solucionar las problemáticas ambientales actuales y alcanzar el desarrollo sostenible, en realidad puede ser usada para la expansión de la economía verde.

Curricular Engagement with Reference to Vygotski’s Thoughts

Education helps to learner’s personal, social and academic development. Society is the community that provides positive environment to school where learner learns. It is universal expectation from learner that they should become active and make interaction with society. Nowadays, students are becoming active, creative and collaborative. But how learner learns is a valuable dimension of learner’s social development. Where learner is unable to learn individually, in that case there is need of peers, adults and assisted media that can promote and help in learning joyfully. Vygotski's thoughts are related to learner’s social development. His ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development) is a valuable contribution in education. He considers learner’s language, culture, intellectual level, peers, media and adult affects on learner’s development. Curricular Engagement is one of the Teaching-Learning approach that involves in learner’s social development. It is interactions between school, learner, society, teacher and media. Interaction builds knowledge, creates healthy relationship, leads to win-win approach and provides cultural environment. The similarities of Vygotski’s theory and Curricular Engagement both are emphasizes on interaction with peer, teacher, media and adult. In this conceptual paper researchers have explained how Vygotskian thoughts support to curricular engagement with multicultural, multilingual context.

Quantifying the direct network effect for online platforms supporting industrial symbiosis: an agent-based simulation study

This paper explores the direct network effect for online platforms supporting industrial symbiosis (IS), which is a recommended strategy to support the transition towards the circular economy. Through IS, companies can use wastes produced by other companies as inputs to production processes. Online platforms supporting companies in operating IS relationships can play a critical role in developing the IS practice.In this paper, an agent-based model is designed to simulate the emergence of IS relationships among companies located in a given geographical area. Companies can establish relationships traditionally (relying on face-to-face contacts) or by using a platform. Several scenarios, defined by different platform usage rates, are simulated. Results show that there is a minimum platform usage rate allowing companies to benefit from using the platform. If the platform usage rate is lower than this threshold, the platform does not contribute to generate further benefits for companies. When the platform usage rate is higher than the threshold, the individual benefits for users are higher the greater the number of other companies using the platform. Based on these results, implications on how to ensure a win-win approach for companies and platform owners can be provided, as well as implications for policymakers.

International Trade in the Age of Turbulent Uncertainty, Globalization, Regionalization and Pandemic

In the coming years, large-scale changes are inevitable in the development of international trade, caused to a large extent by the conflict between the USA and China, the degradation of the WTO, and most importantly, the development of integration processes in various regionsand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global problems of economic development in general. This paper analyzes the modern aspects of the international trade policy system in the context of the active development of integration processes in various regions, assesses the role of the WTO and some ways to improve its activities in accordance with modern challenges.Economic studies identified the weaknesses in the basic anti-dumping provisions of the WTO that could contribute to abusea long time ago, and instead suggested relying on the principles and criteria of anticompetitive struggle. The details of such criticisms require the improvement of the legal approaches and analytical methods of the WTO as an institution for regulating international trade.This paper outlines some of the main directions and problems of the transformation of the WTO in the context of comparing the approaches to them. Despite the fact that world leaders have begun discussions on reforming the WTO, complete unanimity has not yet been observed. It is still unclear, even according to the WTO, what these discussions will lead to, which areas of trade promise the greatest prospects in the future, and which will require reorganization.However, the systematic view of the authors shows that the burden of these problems was very unbalanced. The main idea of this study is that the global regulation of international trade and the influence of turbulent currents of uncertainties at the national level can be improved with a higher degree of sustainable win-win approaches to reforming the WTO and regional spaces of trade relations. This means that the draft of the future international trade order, especially if it is based on a network of related regional and interregional trade agreements, can become increasingly practical for the effectiveness of trade relations and public confidence regarding the idea of openness and globalization.

Mega FTA as a Signal Against Trade Protectionism Focused on the EU and Japan FTA

The research questions of the paper are whether the EU Japan FTA can be a win-win approach or win-lose approach? Moreover what are reasons for the two parties to complete the FTA and which industrial sectors can be mostly profited in both parties? Last, but not least how to estimate impacts on the global economy? The hypotheses are FTA can reduce trade protectionism, and the former can generate more economic benefits to the participating countries than latter in the long term based on the trade dynamic group. The research methodology is to use cross sectional analysis based on statistic data and information collection as well as trade policy analysis. Additionally, critical analysis of literature and inference analysis are employed. The conclusion of the research is that the EU Japan FTA can generate about 0.76 percent GDP growth to the EU and about 0.29 percent GDP growth to Japan additionally per year next ten years long. Furthermore, it also creates new employment in both parties. Although the EU Japan FTA can create some looser particularly in East Asian economies such as South Korea, China, and Taiwan, their total amount is estimated as very low. In the global economy, the EU Japan FTA can generate much larger gains than lost. As a result, it is not only a win-win approach for the EU and Japan, but also for the whole global economy if it enters into force.

Economic Relations between Pakistan and India: Impressions from the Past and Prospects for Future

Pakistan and India have failed to establish substantial and sustained economic relations between them. Despite being neighbours, they couldn't enjoy a good volume of bilateral trade in multiple sectors. This study traces the history of bilateral trade between Pakistan and India. While identifying patterns of trade between them, the study attempts to identify barriers in bilateral trade between them like trade regimes, non-tariff barriers and other discriminatory measures. The study also makes an attempt to address the question concerning how the impediments in bilateral trade can be removed to enhance bilateral trade and economic connections. On the basis of interviews of Key Informants (KIs), this study explores the potential of bilateral trade between Pakistan and India and finds possible sectors where bilateral trade can be augmented. Lastly, this study finds possible sectors where Pakistan and India can initiate joint ventures to seek win-win approach in bilateral economic relations.

Strategic Autonomy and EU-NATO Cooperation: A Win-Win Approach

La politique de sécurité et de défense commune (PSDC) de l’UE a été lancée dans les années 1990 en tant que quête pour une « autonomie ». Quinze années d’efforts n’ont pas permis d’atteindre cet objectif. La cohérence des États membres de l’UE dans leurs relations sécuritaires avec les États-Unis a toujours été affectée par les divergences entre les objectifs du Royaume-Uni et de la France. Mais à mesure que les dirigeants européens relancent la PSDC post-Brexit, que la « Stratégie globale européenne » de 2016 redécouvre les vertus de « l’autonomie stratégique » et que le monde tournoie avec un président américain qui semble remettre en cause les fondements de l’Alliance atlantique, il est temps de repenser radicalement les relations entre l’UE et l’OTAN. Cet article soutient qu’à plus long terme, c’est par le renforcement des relations UE-OTAN que l’autonomie stratégique de l’UE deviendra possible et qu’un lien transatlantique plus fort verra le jour. Une proposition gagnant-gagnant.

Taking the high road: The politics of win-win approaches

Abstract Background Policy is rarely a direct reflection of public opinion. Party systems and patterns of political competition shape the way issues are presented in politics and the incentive politicians have to act on them. Despite the alleged pro-elderly bias of many political institutions in European countries, and the potential for some types of spending on the elderly to provide broader social benefits, policymakers often do not introduce the most effective policies for supporting healthy ageing. Methods Political manifestos and voting patterns will be examined in order to determine how/if public opinions are translating into changes in government that want to tear down the welfare state and blame it on ageing. Results Although it is true that public spending (e.g. pensions, health) on the elderly remains more extensive and insulated from cuts than other forms of spending, second, in many (not all) countries policies that would help the elderly age in a healthy way are to introduced. These latter policies, which include spending on the poorest elderly, ensuring access to high quality home care and other services, and investing in declining regions where elderly people are often disproportionately likely to live, often are limited. Conclusions Where cross-class/cross-generational coalitions come together to address gender inequities (among the elderly and working age), and develop public services, high road models are possible. Where conflict is framed largely inter-generationally, the well-being of pensioners may be preserved in the short-run, but less investment in the long-run infrastructure of healthy ageing emerges. To make these arguments, the paper shows descriptive patterns of policy developments from the 1980s to today, combined with a brief case study of the UK.

Esperanto as an Auxiliary Language and a Possible Solution to the BRICS Language Dilemma: A Case Study

Research demonstrates that there are over 6,000 languages in the world and countries believe that their national interest should come first, and in this case the national language(s) must be prioritized. However, it became imperative for people, let alone countries, to use a language they can understand for trade (economy) and socio-political or cultural relations. This raised a number of problems including the fact that colonial masters’ language was upheld to the detriment of their once “slaves” language which they called a dialect. With the advent of democracy and improvement in international bilateral and multilateral relations, linguistic rights were recognized as part and parcel of other human rights, and subsequently, a win-win approach became reasonably what countries would expect in international co-operation. Today the reality is that English serves as a lingua franca in trade and co-operation but this is to some extent abusive to people’s democratic and linguistic rights. The study is predominantly qualitative although a survey is also used to balance the findings. Further research is recommended in the future especially on the same or similar topics in any other BRICS country.

An Analysis of Operational Efficiencies in the Waste-to-Energy (WTE) Plants of Kaohsiung Municipality (Taiwan)

As the second-largest city in Taiwan, the Kaohsiung municipality has faced serious environmental loadings in recent decades. Among them, waste management is a key issue because of large amount of urban and industrial waste produced daily. In this regard, waste-to-energy (WTE) systems adopting the best available control technology for air pollution is a win-win approach because it also generates electricity to mitigate the dependence on imported fossil fuels and the greenhouse gas emissions incidentally. In this work, the updated status of municipal solid waste (MSW) and WTE plants in Kaohsiung were analyzed to get the crux based on the official database. Using the operational data on the WTE plants over recent years (2003–2018), the analysis of operational efficiencies for the four WTE plants in Kaohsiung was addressed in the paper. It showed that their operational efficiencies, ranging from 0.287 to 0.568 kW-h/kg, indicated an approximate “bathtub curve” pattern. In addition, analyzing the project for revamping the Gangshan WTE plant showed a significant progress in operational efficiencies with a significant increase from 0.506 kW-h/kg in 2016 to 0.587 kW-h/kg in 2018. Finally, some recommendations on technological measures and regulatory incentives for upgrading the operational efficiencies of existing WTE plants were addressed in the work.

Comparing the community dependence on natural resources in Nyungwe National Park and the contribution of revenue sharing through integrated conservation and development projects

Rwanda Development Board (RDB) has recently established a tourism Revenue Sharing Scheme (RSS) to create a win-win approach in protected areas for effective biodiversity conservation and management. Through this scheme, around 1 billion Rwandan francs wereinvested to support around 152 Community Based Conservation Projects (CBCs), and integrated conservation and development projects (ICDPs). This paper assessed the contribution of CDCs projects around Nyungwe National Park (NNP) by evaluating their efficiency and effectiveness, and their socioeconomic impact to the local community development. Secondary data about the revenue sharing projects and the amount of money allocated to each project were collected from RDB office. Primary data were collected through the interview and focus group discussions. To verify the findings from RDB, interview and focus group discussion (FGD) were used. Interview was done with 500 households of local people around Nyungwe National Park and with community conservation wardens, while threats to NNP were verified by the consultation of reports from ranger based monitoring officers. The results showed that the value of resources collected by people from the park is higher than the revenue sharing support offered by RDB as (31.3 %) of respondents mentioned that exotic tree species were stolen and sold as poles where one pole was sold at around 6,800 Rwandan francs and 38.6 % of respondents proven that mining gave the much income. and consequently the revenue sharing scheme did not significantly reduce threats to biodiversity and its impact around NNP.A small percentage of people are happy because they were supported but a big number becomes unhappier and threaten the Park due to the gap in creating a win-win situation in biodiversity conservation. We recommend the revision of the whole revenue sharing scheme, taking into account the cost of livelihoods of community surrounding the park.Keywords: Efficiency, Effectiveness, Integrated Conservation, Development Projects, Revenue Sharing Scheme

OC 8526 THE RWANDA CLINICAL RESEARCH NETWORK (RWANDA-CRN): A MODEL FOR MIXED SOUTH-SOUTH AND NORTH-SOUTH COLLABORATIONS FOR CLINICAL RESEARCH CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT

BackgroundPoor countries carry 90% of the global burden of disease, with access to only 10% of globally available health research funding and technical capacity. Fragile south–south collaborations hinder effective use of limited resources, career opportunities and funding to retain the insufficiently available quality scientists. The Rwanda Health System established a clinical research network involving academia, non-governmental organisations and private sector to accelerate generation of talented scientists, create enabling environment and incentives to retain scientists by establishing a local funding model.MethodsBased on a baseline assessment, potential clinical trial units were mapped and developed through adoption of a Clinical trial management training model from European Universities. The Rwandan law on Public Private Partnership was leveraged to attract and engage local and international private players in a win-win approach. So far, countries such as Kenya and Sweden were engaged in the roadmap.ResultsFrom 2014 to date, a total of 285 scientists are trained on various clinical research components: Good Clinical Practice (28%), Research Grant writing (14%), systematic review and meta-analysis (9%) and scientific communication (8.7%). Ten Clinical Research Units and one centre for evidence-based healthcare were established. So far 13 health investigator-initiated projects in malaria, metabolic disorders and maternal health were funded through the local funding model. A process to empower six malaria sentinel sites into fully functioning clinical research sites is underway.ConclusionThe creation of strong networks of excellence for’clinical research among southern academic, research institutions and pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical industry is a promising strategic approach to promote sustainable clinical research capacity. The government vision is that beyond national boundaries, resource sharing and involvement of private players are key factors to mitigate the high burden of disease, nationally and regionally.

Repositioning traditional birth attendants to provide improved maternal healthcare services in rural Ghana.

Following the World Health Organization's recommendation for developing countries to discontinue the use of Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) in rural areas, the government of Ghana banned TBAs from offering maternal health care services. Since this ban, community-level conflicts have intensified between TBAs, (who still see themselves as legitimate culturally mandated traditional midwives) and nurses. In this articles, we propose a partnership model for a sustainable resolution of these conflicts. This article emanates from the apparent ideological discontent between people from mainstream medical practice who advocate for the complete elimination of TBAs in the maternal health service space and individuals who argue for the inclusion of TBAs in the health sector given the shortage of skilled birth attendants and continued patronage of their services by rural women even in context where nurses are available. In the context of the longstanding manpower deficit in the health sector in Ghana, improving maternal healthcare in rural communities will require harnessing all locally available human resources. This cannot be achieved by "throwing out" a critical group of actors who have been involved in health-care provision for many decades. We propose a win-win approach that involve retraining of TBAs, partnership with health practitioners, and task shifting.

Towards a Mechanistic-Driven Precision Medicine Approach for Tinnitus.

In this position review, we propose to establish a path for replacing the empirical classification of tinnitus with a taxonomy from precision medicine. The goal of a classification system is to understand the inherent heterogeneity of individuals experiencing and suffering from tinnitus and to identify what differentiates potential subgroups. Identification of different patient subgroups with distinct audiological, psychophysical, and neurophysiological characteristics will facilitate the management of patients with tinnitus as well as the design and execution of drug development and clinical trials, which, for the most part, have not yielded conclusive results. An alternative outcome of a precision medicine approach in tinnitus would be that additional mechanistic phenotyping might not lead to the identification of distinct drivers in each individual, but instead, it might reveal that each individual may display a quantitative blend of causal factors. Therefore, a precision medicine approach towards identifying these causal factors might not lead to subtyping these patients but may instead highlight causal pathways that can be manipulated for therapeutic gain. These two outcomes are not mutually exclusive, and no matter what the final outcome is, a mechanistic-driven precision medicine approach is a win-win approach for advancing tinnitus research and treatment. Although there are several controversies and inconsistencies in the tinnitus field, which will not be discussed here, we will give a few examples, as to how the field can move forward by exploring the major neurophysiological tinnitus models, mostly by taking advantage of the common features supported by all of the models. Our position stems from the central concept that, as a field, we can and must do more to bring studies of mechanisms into the realm of neuroscience.

The Impact of Global Economic Integration on Africa in the 21st Century

Has global economic integration in the 21 st century raised the hope of Africa beyond the traditional approach of providing aid to help her end poverty? Are there remarkable differences in the approaches of some regional economic blocs like BRICS, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and multilateral groups such as IMF, World Bank etc. towards Africa? What has been and should be the basis of bilateral or even, multilateral development relationships between these groups and Africa? To answer the questions, the study explores the philosophy behind the donor-recipient and equal partners’ approaches to development. It juxtaposes the depredatory effects of the socio-political and economic conditionality that the West has inflicted on Africa (ranging from integrated rural development in the 1970s, to policy reform in the 1980s, to governance in the 1990s, and respect for human rights in the 2000 (especially the gay rights movement and so on) and alternative models. The paper observes that the burden of foreign aid, loan agreement, economic and technical cooperation agreement, debt sustainability, etc. have deepened Africa’s vulnerability rather than brighten its prospects in a global market. By hinging its argument on the assumption that any global economic integration that imposes political and economic conditionality in exchange for aid is anti-development, this paper further submits that African countries should be free to negotiate their own pathway out of poverty as equal partners in development. Only by comparing and exchanging views, rather than tutorials, the more useful engagement between Africa and the rest of the world could become possible. It concludes that mutually–beneficial relations between Africa and economic cooperation blocs will become possible, but only if African governments can take hold of these opportunities in ways that will benefit their people. Africa governments should focus on win-win approach that is not about aid but business.