The pivotal role of Higher Education (HE) for the progression of developing countries is widely acknowledged. Higher Education contributes to, among other important aspects, the generation of human capital for later incorporation into important sectors such as healthcare, agriculture, new technologies, or tourism. Important international donor agencies already acknowledge this fact, particularly within the past decade. Since the beginning of the new millennium, Higher Education has acquired a prominent position on their agendas, and a notable increase in funding has been observed. In this framework, Capacity Building (CB) interventions have one of the preferred actions by donors since the eighties, due to the influence of the Human Capital Theory (and Endogenous Growth Models) in the development assistance domain. These interventions, in the field of Higher Education in developing countries, might adopt different approaches: individual (via scholarships to students), organizational (via consortia or networks between universities, targeting Higher Education institutions), and societal (via projects targeting some aspects of the Higher Education systems). Despite the fact that HE CB interventions in developing countries are becoming more popular little research and monitoring has been done to understand the impact of these multiple types of interventions neither by academics, donors or policymakers. By considering these gaps, the aim of this research was to propose an evaluation and monitoring framework for specific HE CB interventions that will allow to explore the human capital benefits of these types of interventions. The study approaches this aim from different angles: by strengthening the links between key concepts form different fields, providing a better understanding of the types of HE CB interventions and proposing methods to measure the impact which are, in turn, empirically tested during the research. The study adopts different methodologies according to the research aims. A combination of mixed qualitative and quantitative methods was chosen to analyse two selected case studies. The first was a HE CB programme for Latin American Deans chosen to observe its impacts for the participating individuals. Based on this case study, a new methodological tool was proposed to assess individual HE CB interventions at mid and long-term. The second case study involved a sample of worldwide HE CB programme practitioners engaged through the participatory methodology of a Delphi survey to observe their perceptions about the impact of different programmes at multiple levels: individual, organisational and societal. Through this multiple approach, the study makes a number of contributions. First, it adds to the literature combining both the Economics of Education and CB by contributing to the academic debate from the theory and specially providing new empirical evidences. Second, the study proposes new forms of measuring the impact some of which are empirically tested and validated though the positive results of this study, while others will need to be further developed and tested in future research. In summary, through all the different case studies selected, the research has contributed to provide better evidence of the impact and benefits of HE CB interventions to inspire more efficient programmes and better evidence-based policies that could contribute to the development of these countries.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) account for 92% of all Ghana firms, providing 60% of citizens' employment and contributing about 70% of Ghana's income from gross domestic products. Within the first 5 years of operation, 40% of new businesses fail. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies used by Ghanaian SME manufacturing leaders in the fruit industry to sustain business for longer than 5 years of operation. The conceptual framework for this study was open systems theory and complexity theory. The population for this study was 5 Ghanaian SME manufacturing business leaders in the fruit industry who maintained their businesses longer than 5 years of operation. The data sources were semistructured face-to-face interviews, interview notes, and the organizations' manuals for standard operations. Data collected were transcribed, member checked, analytically coded, and analyzed using Yin's 5-stage method of qualitative data analysis. Four themes emerged: training and capacity building, the need for good equipment and good packaging, the availability of working capital, and the need for target marketing. The implications of this study for positive social change include lowering high unemployment, alleviating poverty, supporting community development, and enhancing economic growth in the country.

Thesis (Ph.D. (Social Work))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

Thesis (Ph.D. (Social Work))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

<p>This study explores the assessment practices of adult educators in Mamelodi Adult Learning Centers using a qualitative methodology. The study recognizes that assessment is an important activity within the education and training enterprise since it can be used to improve the quality of teaching as well as improve and support the learning process. The study sets out to investigate how Mamelodi adult educators conceptualize assessment / the skills levels of these educators / the nature of support and training these educators received to enhance their assessment practices / the different assessment methods employed by the adult educators to assess learners / and the educational validity and efficacy of these practices.</p>

The aim of this thesis was to describe and analyse principals´ views of collaboration forms, staff development and leadership, as critical internal capacities for school improvement, in five more successful and four less successful Swedish secondary schools, and compare the qualitative similarities and/or differences in the principals´ views at the level of schools. A successful school is understood to be a school where pupils accomplish both the academic objectives and the social/civic objectives in the National Curriculum. The empirical materials used were collected through semi-structured interviews with the principals and deputy principals, and through general school observations in the nine schools. The perspective of principals´ views was used as the unit for analysis, in order to reflect the principals´ way of thinking about the internal capacities, as principals´ views were expected to be an important indication of how principals act and interact with teachers in their specific context. To create such a model for analysis meant creating views, generated from empirical text, that deepened the understanding of the meaning of collaboration forms, staff development, and leadership, as critical internal capacities for school improvement. These views were then interpreted with the help of two theoretical concepts; structure and culture. The creation of the model made it possible to analyse and describe the school observations and the principals´ views of the three critical internal capacities, in the same usage. The question of what is decided helped to describe and understand the structure in a school, which in educational sociology is understood as the division of labour. The question of how the decisions are realised helped to describe and understand the culture in a school, the distribution of work. By using the theoretical concepts of structure and culture it was possible to unfold the power relations and the modes of control in the schools, regarding the three internal capacities for school improvement. One part of the result was the constructed view types for collaboration forms, staff development and leadership. It was possible to construct three qualitatively different view types: A principal distributed and team-based/involving view type, a principal distributed and teacher-based/traditional view type, and a politically distributed and principal-based view type. The last view type only appears in relation to staff development. When connecting the principals´ views of the three internal capacities in the different schools to the different view types, the results show that the ´team-based` view type dominates in all of the more successful schools, as well as in one of the less successful schools. In two of the less successful schools the ´team-based´ view type has become a vision for the principals to strive for in relation to the experienced reality of the ´teacher-based´ view type. The remaining less successful school is dominated by the ´teacher-based´ view type. Principals´ views of external collaboration forms, the connections with the world outside the school-house, are interesting, as all schools no matter the level of success, are ´teacher-based´.

Background: The importance of tackling economic, social and health-related inequities is increasingly accepted as a core concern for the post-Millennium Development Goal framework. However, there is a global dearth of high-quality, policy-relevant and actionable data on inequities within populations, which means that development solutions seldom focus on the people who need them most. INTREC (INDEPTH Training and Research Centres of Excellence) was established with this concern in mind. It aims to provide training for researchers from the INDEPTH network on associations between health inequities, the social determinants of health (SDH), and health outcomes, and on presenting their findings in a usable form to policy makers. Objective: As part of a baseline situation analysis for INTREC, this paper assesses the current status of SDH training in three of the African INTREC countries - Ghana, Tanzania, and South Africa - as well as the gaps, barriers, and opportunities for training. Methods: SDH-related courses from the three countries were identified through personal knowledge of the researchers, supplemented by snowballing and online searches. Interviews were also conducted with, among others, academics engaged in SDH and public health training in order to provide context and complementary material. Information regarding access to the Internet, as a possible INTREC teaching medium, was gathered in each country through online searches. Results: SDH-relevant training is available, but 1) the number of places available for students is limited; 2) the training tends to be public-health-oriented rather than inclusive of the broader, multi-sectoral issues associated with SDH; and 3) insufficient funding places limitations on both students and on the training institutions themselves, thereby affecting participation and quality. We also identified rapidly expanding Internet connectivity in all three countries, which opens up opportunities for e-learning on SDH, though the current quality of the Internet services remains mixed. Conclusions: SDH training is currently in short supply, and there is a clear role for INTREC to contribute to the training of a critical mass of African researchers on the topic. This work will be accomplished most effectively by building on pre-existing networks, institutions, and methods.

This thesis tries to analyze the role of civil society within the process of democratization in Turkey with special reference to the impact of civil society policies of the EU on the internal operating styles of civil society organizations in Turkey. In this respect, a critical evaluation of the said issue was tried to be put forward in the sense that the extensive discussions on the concept of civil society were examined and gathered with the observations and empirical evidence gained on the subject in order to reach an answer on the very nature of civil society-democracy relationship. In doing this, the purpose was to uncover the reasons behind the recent popularization of the concept as an indispensable precondition of democracy and to question whether certain circumstances exist under which the term may rather harm than enable the process of democratization. Within this framework, the consideration of the civil society policies of the EU implemented in Turkey was seen as all the more necessary because of the fact that the process of Turkey&rsquo / s EU membership has major implications for not only the process of democratization in Turkey, but also on the development of civil society as a significant part of this process. In accordance with the purpose of the study, in order to understand the extent of democratic capacity of civil society organizations in Turkey and the impact of the EU in that sense, a field research was conducted in Ankara, Turkey with the participation of 46 CSOs active mostly in the fields of women, children, disabled, human rights and environment. Through the field research, the main purpose was to understand the dynamics of the internal operating styles of those organizations, their views concerning the relations between CSOs as well as between the CSOs and the state on the one hand, to measure the extent to which their participation to civil society programs of the EU influence their intra-organizational structures on the other. According to the results of the field research, over the experience of 46 participant organizations, an analysis of the extent to which the EU-implemented civil society programs serve for the building of democratic capacity of civil society organizations in Turkey was tried to be made.

<p>Previously, studies in the intersection of power and development have predominantly concentrated on power as domination; how powerful actors can force recipient countries into embracing specific policies due to economical asymmetries. Yet, with the introduction of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP) approach to development employed by the Bretton Woods Institutions (BWI), conditions on certain policies have decreased and it is said that the approach allows for country ownership as development strategies are written by the countries themselves. As a critical response, the conception of power is broadened here through the separate employment of governmentality theory and neo-Gramscian International Relations theory. They share among them a theoretical premise which allows for an understanding of power that extends beyond domination to the realm of discursive practices which, it is argued, allows for influence despite the notions of ownership and without power as domination.</p><p>The object of this thesis is to suggest how the discourses of the PRSP regime can influence subjects whom they addressed. The two theories have different assumptions here. More specifically, the neo-Gramscian theory argue that discursive practice may render ideological issues as common sense why they can come to be embraced by subjects, whereas the governmentality theory assume that discourses can, perhaps without conscious recognition, reshape the very identities of subjects. The theories differences are retained and bracketed when a discourse analysis of the PRSP regime is conducted which concludes that the BWIs require that suitable skills are embraced by subjects appropriate for a good governed market economy. These skills are located to basic capacities in calculating, accounting and social capital accumulation. Thereafter a practical example of discursive practice in a capacity building mission is reviewed to explicate how these skills are actualized through training modules enabling influence towards preferred standards of the BWIs without power as domination. The two theories are brought in for a discussion on how these discursive practices may be understood according to their respective premises, but also to discuss the usefulness of these theories for studies of this kind.</p><p>It is argued, among other conclusions, that the neo-Gramscian understanding of power as operating on the conscious level can fruitfully be coupled with the proposition of governmentality that powers also work on an unconscious level for understanding practises of capacity building. As concerning the weaknesses of the theories it is put forth that the neo- Gramscian theory suffers from an assumption of class identity presented as a “brute fact” before the realm of the political, whereas the governmentality theory suffers from an exclusive focus on discourse and leaves behind how different actor constellations may seek to appropriate discourses. To remedy these weaknesses, the thesis concludes with an argument that a combination of these theories can provide a lucrative foundation for further studies.</p>

<p>This study explores the assessment practices of adult educators in Mamelodi Adult Learning Centers using a qualitative methodology. The study recognizes that assessment is an important activity within the education and training enterprise since it can be used to improve the quality of teaching as well as improve and support the learning process. The study sets out to investigate how Mamelodi adult educators conceptualize assessment / the skills levels of these educators / the nature of support and training these educators received to enhance their assessment practices / the different assessment methods employed by the adult educators to assess learners / and the educational validity and efficacy of these practices.</p>