Masteropgave. / Format: PDF. Bibl.

Master's thesis. / Format: PDF. Bibl.

Dissertation. / Database: Nordic Web Publications. Format: PDF. Bibl.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2002. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 151-166). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Increased international trade has sparked a debate on the need to coordinate dispersedactivities in Global Value Chains, linking production to end consumers. Implementationof standards has in the literature on Global Value Chains been suggested as a wayto coordinate a value chain. We have investigated the value chain of shrimp andprawns production in Bangladesh, in order to analyze if standards placed by the EUhave proven a successful way to coordinate the value chain. The implementation ofstandards has been studied to capture the coordination in the value chain. A singlecase study was conducted with interviews from a sample of actors in direct or closeconnection to the production of shrimp and prawns in Bangladesh. The focus of thestudy has been on the perspectives of the individuals and if and how standards areimplemented successfully in a social context. The attempt has been to bridgeunderstandings of implementation of standards together with knowledge of the complexnature of Global Value Chains. The results show that there are multiple challengesto successful implementation of standards. Hurdles can especially be linked tothe ability to follow standards where lack of human- and financial resources havebeen found. In addition, the will to follow standards can have an impact when traditionalmethods stand in the way and immediate financial incentives are not in place.

The assemblage of competing development programs I call an "NGOscape", effective in Bangladesh's forest spaces, is a window into understanding both local and extra-local imaginings of the future of these spaces. By tracing the close interaction of three of the most prominent forces in operation in Bangladesh's forest NGOscapes: indigeneity, environmentalism, and entrepreneurialism, I discuss how the government and NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) work to increase management and securitization of these forces. Through ethnography and close analysis of the minority Mandi community, and NGOs in the capital city of Dhaka and in rural Modhupur, Tangail, I interpret Modhupur as a vital and telling site for examining the close interdependence of these three themes. Adivasi ("aboriginal") folklorization and representation is deployed by Mandi leaders and NGOs, and provides a space for Mandi internal debates about authenticity, representation, modernity, and the way forward. Neoliberal imaginings centered on transforming Mandi livelihoods into something more appropriately modern are realized on the ground, evidenced by Alternative Income Generation (AIG) programs that push for market integration, and attempt to utilize claims about adivasi indigeneity to advance a security-management paradigm, national stability, and civic responsibility. Young activists and environmentalists based in Dhaka are crucial forces in promoting the broader development and NGO agenda, utilizing the themes of environmental responsibility and progressive conservation programs. Additionally, development agendas are complicated by other factors, such as eco-tourism trends that seek to indoctrinate the Mandi and other rural actors into acceptable and responsible ways of managing environment, while also relying on national pride. These competing forces rely on national pride and social shaming to transform rural Bangladeshis from being somehow "backward" into more desirable, modern subjects. Yet severe distrust within a larger "climate of suspicion," between adivasi leaders, activists, and the state ultimately disrupt the fluidity of development practices at the local level. The result places various actors in precarious positions, left to interpret and be interpreted into development, NGO, and state-based objectives. / text

In rural Bangladesh, the drinking water supply is mostly dependent upon manually operated hand pumped tubewells, installed by the local community. The presence of natural arsenic (As) in groundwater and its wide scale occurrence has drastically reduced the safe water access across the country and put tens of millions of people under health risk. Despite significant progress in understanding the source and distribution of As and its mobilization through sediment-water interactions, there has been limited success in mitigation since the problem was discovered in the country’s water supply in 1993. This study evaluated the viability of other kinds of alternative safe drinking water options and found tubewells are the most suitable due to simplicity and technical suitability, a wide acceptance by society and above all low cost for installation, operation and maintenance. During planning and decision making in the process of tubewell installation, depth of the tubewell is a key parameter as it is related to groundwater quality and cost of installation. The shallow wells (usually &lt; 80m) are mostly at risk of As contamination. One mitigation option are deep wells drilled countrywide to depths of around 250 m. Compared to safe water demand, the number of deep wells is still very low, as the installation cost is beyond affordability of the local community, especially for the poor and disadvantaged section of the society. Using depth-specific piezometers (n=82) installed in 15 locations spread over the 410 km2 area of Matlab (an As-hot spot) in southeastern Bangladesh, groundwater monitoring was done over a 3 year period (pre- and post-monsoon for 2009-2011 period). Measurements were performed for hydrogeological characterization of shallow, intermediate deep and deep aquifer systems to determine the possibility of targeting safe aquifers at different depths as the source of a sustainable drinking water supply. In all monitoring piezometers, As was found consistently within a narrow band of oscillation probably due to seasonal effects. Hydrogeochemically, high-As shallow groundwaters derived from black sands are associated with elevated DOC, HCO3, Fe, NH4-N and PO4-P and with a relatively low concentration of Mn and SO4. Opposite to this, shallow aquifers composed of red and off-white sediments providing As-safe groundwater are associated with low DOC, HCO3, Fe, NH4-N and PO4-P and relatively higher Mn and SO4. Groundwaters sampled from intermediate deep and deep piezometers which were found to be low in As, are characterized by much lower DOC, HCO3, NH4-N and PO4-P compared to the shallow aquifers. Shallow groundwaters are mostly Ca-Mg-HCO3 type and intermediate deep and deep aquifers’ groundwaters are mostly Na-Ca-Mg-Cl-HCO3 to Na-Cl-HCO3 type. A sediment color tool was also developed on the basis of local driller’s color perception of sediments (Black, White, Off-white and Red), As concentration of tubewell waters and respective color of aquifer sediments. A total of 2240 sediment samples were collected at intervals of 1.5 m up to a depth of 100 m from all 15 nest locations. All samples were assigned with a Munsell color and code, which eventually led to identify 60 color varieties. The process continued in order to narrow the color choices to four as perceived and used by the local drillers for identification of the targeted As-safe aquifers. Munsell color codes assigned to these sediments render them distinctive from each other which reduces the risk for misinterpretation of the sediment colors. During the process of color grouping, a participatory approach was considered taking the opinions of local drillers, technicians, and geologists into account. In addition to the monitoring wells installed in the piezometer nests, results from 87 other existing drinking water supply tubewells were also considered for this study. A total of 39 wells installed in red sands at shallow depths producing As-safe water providing strong evidence that red sediments are associated with As-safe water. Average and median values were found to be less than the WHO guideline value of 10 μg/L. Observations for off-white sediments were also quite similar. Targeting off-white sands could be limited due to uncertainty of proper identification of color, specifically when day-light is a factor. Elevated Mn in red and off-white sands is a concern in the safe water issue and emphasizes the necessity of a better understanding of the health impact of Mn. White sediments in shallow aquifers are relatively uncommon and seemed to be less important for well installations. Arsenic concentrations in more than 90% of the shallow wells installed in black sands are high with an average of 239 μg/L from 66 wells installed in black sediments. It is thereby recommended that black sands in shallow aquifers must be avoided. This sediment color tool shows the potential for enhancing the ability of local tubewell drillers for the installation of As-safe shallow drinking water tubewells. Considering the long-term goal of the drinking water safety plan to provide As-safe and low-Mn drinking water supply, this study also pioneered hydrogeological exploration of the intermediate deep aquifer (IDA) through drilling up to a depth of 120 m. Clusters of tubewells installed through site optimization around the monitoring piezometer showed a similar hydrochemical buffer and proved IDA as a potential source for As-safe and low-Mn groundwater. Bangladesh drinking water standard for As (50 µg/L) was exceeded in only 3 wells (1%) and 240 wells (99%) were found to be safe. More than 91% (n=222) of the wells were found to comply with the WHO guideline value of 10 µg/L. For Mn, 89% (n=217) of the wells show the concentration within or below the previous WHO guideline value of 0.4 mg/L, with a mean and median value of 0.18 and 0.07 mg/L respectively. The aquifer explored in the Matlab area shows a clear pattern of low As and low Mn. The availability of similar sand aquifers elsewhere at this depth range could be a new horizon for tapping safe drinking water at about half the cost of deep tubewell installation. All findings made this study a comprehensive approach and strategy for replication towards As mitigation and scaling-up safe water access in other areas of Bangladesh and elsewhere having a similar hydrogeological environment. / <p>QC 20151211</p> / Sida-SASMIT project (Sida Contribution 75000854).

Today, most Muslim-majority countries must contend with two realities: Islamists’ increasing access to political participation on the one hand and domestic and international pressures for women’s rights on the other. This dissertation seeks to identify the conditions necessary for resolving tensions between Islamist demands for political inclusion and secular feminists’ demands for the institutionalization of women’s rights in Muslim-majority countries. Attempts at gender reform have not only been rare, but have also usually excluded either secular feminists or Islamists due to state actors’ inability or unwillingness to resolve conflict between them. In some contexts, however, power holders have initiated inclusive consultative arrangements, mechanisms (commissions, committees, and mediation) that enable both secular feminists and Islamists to participate in gender policy-making processes, in spite of divergent ideological preferences, and thereby generated more broadly supported reforms. This dissertation argues that attempts at conflict resolution between secular feminists and Islamists are more likely to arise in the context of an autonomous state where the power holder needs the support of both groups. Such a state has both the flexibility and willingness to include both Islamists and secular feminists in the policy-making process. In states that do not enjoy autonomy from non-state actors, the state is less likely to have the flexibility to adopt policy-making processes that do not serve the politicized interests of dominant actors. I build this argument by conducting a comparative historical analysis of state development and relations among power holders, secular feminists, and Islamists, as well as drawing on interviews with politicians, bureaucrats, scholars, and activists in Morocco and Bangladesh. In both of these countries, secular feminists and Islamists have had antagonistic relations and ideological differences, but both groups participated in gender policy reform in Morocco, whereas in Bangladesh, multiple attempts at gender policy-making have excluded one group or the other. I then assess the extent to which an argument based on state autonomy and political alliances explains variation in the inclusiveness of gender policy-making processes in four other Muslim-majority countries (Jordan, Malaysia, Turkey, and Pakistan). / Government

The purpose with this study is to find out how the mobile phone and the Village Pay Phone from Grameen Telecom have been implemented into women’s life in rural Bangladesh. It also aims to study how the women have become empowered by this program. The sample constitutes sixteen female owners. A purposeful cluster sampling was used to depict six villages from various parts of Bangladesh. When arriving in the villages a snowball sampling method was used to find female VPP owners. The sampling method was chosen to include a sample of various characteristics. The study has a hermeneutic phenomenological approach, which aims to find out how the women experience the VPP and what meaning the women put in it. To collect empirical data interviews with open questions were used that opened up for conversation and the possibility to understand a range of experiences and nuances of meanings. The findings indicate that the majority of the women handed over the VPP to their husband or a male relative. The reason why is the families’ pressure on them to adjust to Purdah and seclusion, too much domestic work, lack of education, or because of the attitude among men and women both that business is a male domain. The study shows that women mostly gained some prestige. Also, they got a greater self-esteem to meet strangers since the VPP made them meet more people. But it has also brought quarrels and broken some friendships. All women are now more able to call family and relatives when they needed or wanted to and said that they have full access to use the mobile phone for this purpose. Still many are put in a dependency relation to others as they need help to use it. The women, however, are no longer owners of a status symbol because the mobile phone is more available for others today, but they are still known by name. Their homes do no longer attract visitors as it once did during the initiation of the program. There has also been a significant decrease in demand for the VPP that has lessened the income much and some have become even poorer from the VPP and women seldom benefitted personally from the profit. A few of the women mentioned that the family atmosphere had improved but most of them did not say that they had gained influence in the family as a result of the VPP.

Public health professionals strive to understand how viruses are distributed in the environment, the factors that facilitate viral transmission, and the diversity of viral agents capable of infecting humans to characterize disease burdens and design effective disease intervention strategies. The public health discipline of conservation medicine supports this endeavor by encouraging researchers to identify previously unknown etiologic agents in wildlife and analyze the ecologic of basis of disease. Within this framework, this research reports the first examination of the prevalence in Southeast Asia of the orthoreovirus Nelson Bay virus in humans and in the Pteropus bat reservoir of the virus. Contact with Pteropus species bats places humans at risk for Nipah virus transmission, an important emerging infectious disease. This research furthermore explores the environmental determinants of Nelson Bay and Nipah viral prevalence in Pteropus bats and reports the characterization of two novel orthoreoviruses isolated from bat tissues collected in Bangladesh.