Biodiversity decline has continued at a rapid pace in New Zealand in the past 15 years (OECD 2007), in spite of specific provisions for biodiversity conservation under the Resource Management Act 1991 (Froude 1997, Bellingham 2004). This thesis has examined problems with biodiversity conservation implementation in district plans, that arise from planners not making full use of the available factual base for district planning, a lack of monitoring in New Zealand’s RMA planning, and failures by ecologists and planners to properly understand and communicate information for effective district planning. A critique of the policy and plan framework for biodiversity conservation in the Auckland Region and case studies in Rodney District and Waitakere City show there are strong provisions for biodiversity conservation in these plans that support the implementation of biodiversity conservation through district planning. There was a moderate to high level of internal compatibility in the planning framework, apart from a policy conflict between urban growth and infrastructure development versus the protection of natural values and amenity. Although the biodiversity factual base available for the Rodney District and Waitakere City district plans for district planning was sound, but it wasn’t often used to provide appropriate or sufficient information for district planning. This was hampered by the poor state of the environment monitoring, and no process for monitoring the effects that resource consents and permitted activities were having on biodiversity condition. This was exemplified by the discovery that the Rodney District Plan’s incentive-based regime for biodiversity conservation had failed to arrest the loss of 2.5% per annum of indigenous forest cover from 1977-1998. This went undetected through a lack of plan monitoring. In Waitakere City, district plan rules led to the indigenous vegetation cover on private land increasing by 0.5% per annum during the same period, and this was undetected by the council also. District planning will continue to fail to achieve biodiversity conservation unless changes significant occur in planning practice, policy development and plan implementation.

Biodiversity decline has continued at a rapid pace in New Zealand in the past 15 years (OECD 2007), in spite of specific provisions for biodiversity conservation under the Resource Management Act 1991 (Froude 1997, Bellingham 2004). This thesis has examined problems with biodiversity conservation implementation in district plans, that arise from planners not making full use of the available factual base for district planning, a lack of monitoring in New Zealand’s RMA planning, and failures by ecologists and planners to properly understand and communicate information for effective district planning. A critique of the policy and plan framework for biodiversity conservation in the Auckland Region and case studies in Rodney District and Waitakere City show there are strong provisions for biodiversity conservation in these plans that support the implementation of biodiversity conservation through district planning. There was a moderate to high level of internal compatibility in the planning framework, apart from a policy conflict between urban growth and infrastructure development versus the protection of natural values and amenity. Although the biodiversity factual base available for the Rodney District and Waitakere City district plans for district planning was sound, but it wasn’t often used to provide appropriate or sufficient information for district planning. This was hampered by the poor state of the environment monitoring, and no process for monitoring the effects that resource consents and permitted activities were having on biodiversity condition. This was exemplified by the discovery that the Rodney District Plan’s incentive-based regime for biodiversity conservation had failed to arrest the loss of 2.5% per annum of indigenous forest cover from 1977-1998. This went undetected through a lack of plan monitoring. In Waitakere City, district plan rules led to the indigenous vegetation cover on private land increasing by 0.5% per annum during the same period, and this was undetected by the council also. District planning will continue to fail to achieve biodiversity conservation unless changes significant occur in planning practice, policy development and plan implementation.

This thesis examines the ability of the European Union (EU) to impact on the Palestinian people and their institutions. Before using the formal concept of actorness to examine the extent of this impact, it presents a model of actorness that synthesises aspects of Bretherton and Vogler’s and Sjösjedt’s models. It uses the components of this model as a series of lenses through which to focus on and examine various facets of the EU’s influence. The analysis deals with diplomacy, aid, and the effects of the unexpected Hamas victory in the 2006 Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) elections. The thesis finds that the EU’s early lack of diplomatic direction improved for a period but was limited by its consistent inability to have an effect if it ignored the US. In the field of aid, the EU has been a more successful actor. However, the EU’s best efforts in these spheres have been undone by two EU blunders. First, it classified Hamas as a terrorist organisation and subsequently felt unable to provide aid to a Hamas-run government. Second it joined the Quartet in the hope of increasing its own diplomatic clout, but found that it had given the US the opportunity to erode its ability to act as an independent financial agent.

This thesis examines the ability of the European Union (EU) to impact on the Palestinian people and their institutions. Before using the formal concept of actorness to examine the extent of this impact, it presents a model of actorness that synthesises aspects of Bretherton and Vogler’s and Sjösjedt’s models. It uses the components of this model as a series of lenses through which to focus on and examine various facets of the EU’s influence. The analysis deals with diplomacy, aid, and the effects of the unexpected Hamas victory in the 2006 Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) elections. The thesis finds that the EU’s early lack of diplomatic direction improved for a period but was limited by its consistent inability to have an effect if it ignored the US. In the field of aid, the EU has been a more successful actor. However, the EU’s best efforts in these spheres have been undone by two EU blunders. First, it classified Hamas as a terrorist organisation and subsequently felt unable to provide aid to a Hamas-run government. Second it joined the Quartet in the hope of increasing its own diplomatic clout, but found that it had given the US the opportunity to erode its ability to act as an independent financial agent.

Concern regarding corporate governance is a new phenomenon in Indonesia. It became apparent in the business community when the economic crisis hit the country in 1997. Due to its recent recognition, it appears that very little is known about corporate governance in Indonesia and there has been no academic study conducted on corporate governance in the Indonesian Stateowned Enterprises (ISOEs) despite the fact that their performance is closely linked to the development of the country. The main objectives of this study are two-fold: first is to examine corporate governance systems and the roles of the Boards of ISOEs; and second is to assess the effectiveness of government initiatives in improving corporate governance practices in ISOEs. This study employed both qualitative and quantitative methods. The quantitative analysis was derived from numerical data obtained from government reports and other public documents. The qualitative analysis was based on the results of in-depth interviews with key individuals and other sources such as public opinions published in the mass media. Several key findings were obtained from the results of this study. Firstly, the study found that using agency theory to explain the relationships between the agents and the principals was more problematic in ISOEs than those in private enterprises. This is because an ISOE is a loose coalition of various agents with no real owner. Consequently. agency theory, if it is used to redefine the relationships among parties in ISOEs. should be approached at two different levels. At the micro level the agency theory examines the agent-principal relationships among the ISOE management, the Boards and the government-the corporate governance tripod. At the macro level it examines the agent-principal relationships between the corporate governance tripod and the ISOEs stakeholders (the public, labour unions, politicians in the People's Representative Assembly and others). Secondly, the results of this study confirm the results of previous studies which found that Boards in SOEs were largely ineffective. To enhance Boards' effectiveness, this study suggests that as a quasi-owner the government needs to reduce its intervention in ISOEs' operations and empower the Boards by establishing employee representation on the Board. In addition, Board training and assessment should be a mandatory in the ISOEs. Thirdly, this study found that the initiatives on corporate governance carried out by the Indonesian government had been ineffective due to the lack of incentives, lack of commitment and consistency, lack of understanding of corporate governance and unclear programmes. Here, the key factor required to enhance effectiveness is strong-willed commitment of the government and ISOE management. Lastly, other factors such as culture, public governance and law enforcement have a great influence in the process of attaining good corporate governance practices. Therefore, there should be joint efforts among parties in the public sector to ensure that good corporate governance is achieved in conjunction with the attainment of good public governance.

This study began with the premise that looking at leadership in a different setting might generate new understanding of how leadership works. Only four women mayors had held office in New Zealand before the 1980s but when their numbers grew over the next two decades, there were signs of a difference in their approach to leadership. Although the amount of scholarly work published on leadership is vast, the body of academic literature on local government leadership is slender. The possibility of finding new knowledge about leadership by studying women mayors made them an intriguing area to research. The research sought answers to two questions: how do women mayors perceive exemplary mayoral leadership and explain their own leadership practice; and how do women mayors' views of leadership compare with leadership theory? The information gathered to assist in answering the research questions included: interviews with three mayoral candidates in the 1998 elections, interviews with 18 of the 19 female mayors in office during the 1998-2001 term, and a case study of Jill White, mayor of Palmerston North from 1998-2001. The case study comprised a series of interviews with Jill White during the three year term, a selection of newspaper stories about the mayor and council gathered during 1998-2001 and interviews with four key informants about Jill White's leadership after she lost the election in 2001. The findings of the research were that the research participants saw leadership as a process that took place working with the community to achieve mutually desired leadership goals. Leadership was not generated by a single person's abilities, nor was it automatically linked to a position such as being mayor, although being mayor gave a lot of opportunities to participate in and encourage leadership. Four areas participants considered to be requirements of exemplary mayoral leadership were: being at the centre of webs of people rather than at the top of a hierarchy having less concern for ego than for working towards change being committed to making a difference in the community and/or the council being prepared to sacrifice their own interests for the good of the community Comparing participants' views of leadership with leadership theory showed that their descriptions and examples of leadership were closely related to transforming leadership (Burns, 1979), whereas transactional leadership in the sense of acting in your own self-interest or trading favours with others, met with strong disapproval. The heroic paradigm of leadership that has been prevalent in the literature, with its focus on the leader, was absent from the participants' accounts. Their achievements came from working with others and they saw the ability to involve others in the leadership process as the strength of their leadership. The implication of these findings is that the focus in much of the literature on individual attributes of people in leadership positions, as if they had to 'do' all the leadership themselves, is misplaced. Being concerned to make a difference with and through others is at the core of leadership.

The main purpose of this thesis is to explore the complexities involved in engendering local governance and to identify strategies to encourage gender equitable partnerships between stakeholders in local governance in Third World countries. Local governance refers to the dynamic yet complicated process of interaction between state and non-state actors involved in local level development processes. Considering the invisibility of women in local governance, this study focuses heavily on women's agency, that is, the way women redefine and reconstruct identities and interactions in engendering local governance despite the given constraints. The central argument in this thesis is that engendering local governance requires transformation of structures and processes of governing at the local level so that they recognise and are responsive to differences between men and women in their values and responsibilities. Relevant institutions should then integrate these differences in policies and in managing development at the local level. Fieldwork in North Sumatra, Indonesia highlighted how the interlocking of public and private patriarchy complicates the engendering of local governance. Both within and beyond the household there are constraints put on women that impede their participation in local governance. Analysis of case studies of perwiridan (Moslem women's religious grouping), SPI (Serikat Perempuan Independen/ Union of Independent Women) and women working in local government found that relationships at the household level significantly influence gender relations in local governance. Reproduction of images of 'good' and 'bad' women is one of the most effective instruments to subordinate and control women in North Sumatra, meaning that it is not easy for women to formulate and defend their personal interests. Women often experience severe threats of physical, psychological and verbal violence when they attempt to influence formal decision making at the local level. Based on a further case study of the implementation of decentralisation, this study also found that decentralisation does not automatically bring local government closer to women due to the interweaving of structural, cultural, and financial barriers local government faces in implementing gender mainstreaming policies in North Sumatra. The intertwining of gendered structures of local government and gendered construction of the community contribute to the marginality of women in service delivery and in public decision making at the local level. This study rejects the assumption that women are passive recipients in local governance since they contribute significantly in fulfilling household and community needs and interests. Through knowledge and understanding to construction of power at the local level, women creatively produce and use alternative strategies which are based on their sexuality and traditional gender roles in challenging and transforming gender inequity at the local level and in improving the quality of everyday life. By raising women's self esteem, confidence and solidarity in reconstructing gendered relations at the household and community levels, women's grassroots organisations open up alternative arenas for political expression for women which is crucial for the realisation of good local governance.

Republic Act No. 9173, or the Philippine Nursing Act of 2002 enunciates a bevy of incentives under its Health Human Resource Production, Utilization and Development provisions, intended to stem the rising tide of Filipino nurses leaving the country to work overseas. Under Sections 30 to 34 of the Nursing Act, these incentives include the following: (1) upgrading the minimum base salary of nurses from salary grade 10 to 15; (2) establishing a nurse specialty program in government hospitals to upgrade the nurses’ skills whereby recipients of the program are required to work in government hospitals for two years; and (3) the provision of other benefits such as scholarship grants, free medical care, etc. These provisions are the government’s policy response to mitigate the impact of nurses’ migration and retain an adequate supply of skilled Filipino nurses in the country: This research is a qualitative study that seeks to assess the health human resource development provisions and their implementation and aims to help improve them. This study examines the responsiveness of the provisions to the needs of nurses, and identifies the deficiencies of the provisions by looking into the working conditions of nurses in two Philippine government hospitals. It also examines the processes and the factors affecting the implementation of the provisions. This study employed a combination of four data collection methods: (1) focus group interviews of nurses working in two Philippine government hospitals, (2) key informant interviews of officials of government agencies and private organizations tasked to implement the health human resource development provisions, (3) document analyses, and (4) researcher’s field notes/journal. The researcher conducted five focus group interviews with a total of 15 nurse participants and 12 key informant interviews. The nurses are working under conditions of low salaries and heavy workload, that is characterized by low nurse-to-patient ratios in the National and LGU Hospitals. The problems of inadequate nurse staffing, large number iii of patients and inadequate supplies in the two government hospitals are identified as causes for the heavy workload of nurses. The nurses want a salary increase that is commensurate to their heavy workload, their professional qualifications and long years of service. For the nurses, a salary increase signifies the government’s recognition of their dedication, hard work, and commitment to provide health care to Filipinos despite working under dire circumstances. The nurse specialty training program in areas such as oncology, nephrology, critical care, etc. has not been implemented because of the limited capacities of government hospitals to provide this kind of training and the lack of regulatory framework for the practice of nurse specialists in the Philippines. The other benefits have not been implemented as well. The provisions of the Nursing Act are deficient because they do not address the causes of the heavy workload of nurses. To improve the work conditions of nurses, the Philippine government needs to prioritize to the long neglected health sector by increasing the budgetary allocation in order to create more nurse positions in government hospitals, to provide adequate supplies and equipment for government hospitals and to improve the facilities for nurses.

Republic Act No. 9173, or the Philippine Nursing Act of 2002 enunciates a bevy of incentives under its Health Human Resource Production, Utilization and Development provisions, intended to stem the rising tide of Filipino nurses leaving the country to work overseas. Under Sections 30 to 34 of the Nursing Act, these incentives include the following: (1) upgrading the minimum base salary of nurses from salary grade 10 to 15; (2) establishing a nurse specialty program in government hospitals to upgrade the nurses’ skills whereby recipients of the program are required to work in government hospitals for two years; and (3) the provision of other benefits such as scholarship grants, free medical care, etc. These provisions are the government’s policy response to mitigate the impact of nurses’ migration and retain an adequate supply of skilled Filipino nurses in the country: This research is a qualitative study that seeks to assess the health human resource development provisions and their implementation and aims to help improve them. This study examines the responsiveness of the provisions to the needs of nurses, and identifies the deficiencies of the provisions by looking into the working conditions of nurses in two Philippine government hospitals. It also examines the processes and the factors affecting the implementation of the provisions. This study employed a combination of four data collection methods: (1) focus group interviews of nurses working in two Philippine government hospitals, (2) key informant interviews of officials of government agencies and private organizations tasked to implement the health human resource development provisions, (3) document analyses, and (4) researcher’s field notes/journal. The researcher conducted five focus group interviews with a total of 15 nurse participants and 12 key informant interviews. The nurses are working under conditions of low salaries and heavy workload, that is characterized by low nurse-to-patient ratios in the National and LGU Hospitals. The problems of inadequate nurse staffing, large number iii of patients and inadequate supplies in the two government hospitals are identified as causes for the heavy workload of nurses. The nurses want a salary increase that is commensurate to their heavy workload, their professional qualifications and long years of service. For the nurses, a salary increase signifies the government’s recognition of their dedication, hard work, and commitment to provide health care to Filipinos despite working under dire circumstances. The nurse specialty training program in areas such as oncology, nephrology, critical care, etc. has not been implemented because of the limited capacities of government hospitals to provide this kind of training and the lack of regulatory framework for the practice of nurse specialists in the Philippines. The other benefits have not been implemented as well. The provisions of the Nursing Act are deficient because they do not address the causes of the heavy workload of nurses. To improve the work conditions of nurses, the Philippine government needs to prioritize to the long neglected health sector by increasing the budgetary allocation in order to create more nurse positions in government hospitals, to provide adequate supplies and equipment for government hospitals and to improve the facilities for nurses.

Biodiversity decline has continued at a rapid pace in New Zealand in the past 15 years (OECD 2007), in spite of specific provisions for biodiversity conservation under the Resource Management Act 1991 (Froude 1997, Bellingham 2004). This thesis has examined problems with biodiversity conservation implementation in district plans, that arise from planners not making full use of the available factual base for district planning, a lack of monitoring in New Zealand’s RMA planning, and failures by ecologists and planners to properly understand and communicate information for effective district planning. A critique of the policy and plan framework for biodiversity conservation in the Auckland Region and case studies in Rodney District and Waitakere City show there are strong provisions for biodiversity conservation in these plans that support the implementation of biodiversity conservation through district planning. There was a moderate to high level of internal compatibility in the planning framework, apart from a policy conflict between urban growth and infrastructure development versus the protection of natural values and amenity. Although the biodiversity factual base available for the Rodney District and Waitakere City district plans for district planning was sound, but it wasn’t often used to provide appropriate or sufficient information for district planning. This was hampered by the poor state of the environment monitoring, and no process for monitoring the effects that resource consents and permitted activities were having on biodiversity condition. This was exemplified by the discovery that the Rodney District Plan’s incentive-based regime for biodiversity conservation had failed to arrest the loss of 2.5% per annum of indigenous forest cover from 1977-1998. This went undetected through a lack of plan monitoring. In Waitakere City, district plan rules led to the indigenous vegetation cover on private land increasing by 0.5% per annum during the same period, and this was undetected by the council also. District planning will continue to fail to achieve biodiversity conservation unless changes significant occur in planning practice, policy development and plan implementation.