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Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Thesis (M. P. A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

<p>UN is a non-governmental organization which should promote gender equality within the organization. It is an organization which is based on human rights and claims that in order to solve the problem of poverty, famine and development we need to promote women’s status. In Sweden there is a strong tradition of gender balanced representation at the governmental level and this perspective raise the question if there is a spill-over effect to the civil society as in the case of a non-governmental organization. This makes it interesting to look at if a non-governmental organization which is not under state control work for gender equality within their own organization. What does the gender equality pattern look like in a sphere that is not controlled by the government? Does it work by itself? The main purpose of this thesis is therefore to examine opinions about the gender balance within the Swedish UN-movement.</p><p> In order to understand and analyse the gender equality context within UN, interwievs with chairmens for each UN-district in Sweden was conducted and it was found that there was no active promotion of this issue within the organization. Instead, the survey showed that the promotion of gender equality issues was directed towards other societys. To a certain extent it was also shown that women’s understanding of UN as a gender equal organization was less prominent than men’s understanding. This thesis concluded therefore that gender equality does not work by itself in the civil sphere. Instead, it seems as if work for gender balance needs directive and control from the government in order to function. </p><p>Key words: Gender equality, FN, feminism, politics of presence, non-governmental organizations.</p>

Variable plutôt ignorée au niveau de la littérature portant sur l’analyse du parti au gouvernement, les élites exécutives, leurs trajectoires politiques et leurs expériences de socialisation peuvent constituer une explication alternative pour l’articulation de l’activité des exécutifs. Par le biais d’une étude de cas, portant sur les élites politiques en Roumanie postcommuniste, la recherche procède à une interrogation concernant l’impact des acteurs individuels sur la formulation des politiques publiques et la coordination de l’activité gouvernementale. De la sorte, menée d’une manière constructiviste, la recherche suscite la délimitation d’une série de réponses à la question : Comment les trajectoires politiques des ministres et des secrétaires d’Etat influent-elles sur la prise de décision gouvernementale en Roumanie postcommuniste ? L’influence des élites gouvernementales est analysée sur deux grands axes de recherche : (1) une dimension qui vise les relations qui se forgent entre les acteurs au niveau organisationnel –institutionnel et (2) une dimension qui porte sur le contenu même des politiques entamées. D’une manière compréhensive, intégrant plusieurs approches centrées sur les élites, le cadre analytique imbrique les effets estimés au niveau du parti et les effets établis au niveau du fonctionnement des exécutifs. Les conclusions de la thèse soulignent l’importance du profil des acteurs gouvernementaux dans la coordination de l’activité des exécutifs durant la période 1989-2007. L’expérience politique des acteurs, tout comme leur position dans le parti sont des facteurs essentiels dans la définition des degrés d’autonomie décisionnelle et des marges de liberté dont les gouvernants disposent dans la création des politiques. L’étude met en exergue le fait que cette caractéristique décrivant l'existence d'un impact direct des acteurs individuels sur le caractère collégial, consensuel ou conflictuel de l’activité du cabinet, tout comme leur influence sur la réalisation du programme gouvernemental ne constituent pas une idiosyncrasie de la transition démocratique, mais un modèle de comportement consolidé dans le cas des exécutifs roumains.

UN is a non-governmental organization which should promote gender equality within the organization. It is an organization which is based on human rights and claims that in order to solve the problem of poverty, famine and development we need to promote women’s status. In Sweden there is a strong tradition of gender balanced representation at the governmental level and this perspective raise the question if there is a spill-over effect to the civil society as in the case of a non-governmental organization. This makes it interesting to look at if a non-governmental organization which is not under state control work for gender equality within their own organization. What does the gender equality pattern look like in a sphere that is not controlled by the government? Does it work by itself? The main purpose of this thesis is therefore to examine opinions about the gender balance within the Swedish UN-movement. In order to understand and analyse the gender equality context within UN, interwievs with chairmens for each UN-district in Sweden was conducted and it was found that there was no active promotion of this issue within the organization. Instead, the survey showed that the promotion of gender equality issues was directed towards other societys. To a certain extent it was also shown that women’s understanding of UN as a gender equal organization was less prominent than men’s understanding. This thesis concluded therefore that gender equality does not work by itself in the civil sphere. Instead, it seems as if work for gender balance needs directive and control from the government in order to function. Key words: Gender equality, FN, feminism, politics of presence, non-governmental organizations.

Collaboration between international NGOs (INGOs) and governmental organizations (GOs) have contributed significantly to the goals of poverty alleviation and agricultural development in developing countries. Much of the literatures on NGO-GO partnerships have explored theoretically or empirically what motivate and hinder cross-sector collaboration. But not many have studied cross-sector collaboration from both analytical and descriptive perspectives. This study filled in this gap by drawing from previous studies a conceptual framework through which contexts, incentives, and barriers that influence INGO-GO partnerships were described and explained. The researcher adopted a qualitative case-study method with emergent design. Personal interviews were conducted with 20 key informants, including eight Vietnamese staff from one INGO and 12 government officials from six GOs who partnered with the INGO. All participating organizations were institutions serving agricultural and rural development in the south of Vietnam. The data were collected in 2010 and analyzed using the software package ATLAS.ti. The results showed four categories that interact to form a framework of a dynamic continuum of partnership development. The four categories included conditioning factors, incentives, barriers, and feedback loop. The categories held the following themes: 1) socio-political contexts and organizational natures for conditioning factors, 2) shared missions, resource mobilization, capacity building, and networking for incentives, 3) ideological conflicts, structural constraints, and operational hurdles for barriers, and 4) reflections and recommendations for feedback loop. The study contributed a theoretical- and empirical-based perspective on INGO-GO partnerships in post-reform countries. It provided a framework that comprehensively describes and explains partnership dynamics. The study also shared knowledge of the intricacies of INGO-GO partnerships in rural Vietnam. For institutions serving agricultural and rural development, the study could assist in strategic management to minimize constraints and maximize opportunities in collaborative environments.

Background Social Media is a communication tool employed nowadays not only by multinational or middle-size and small companies, but also by non-profit organizations and governmental institutions. Today, more than 60% of the Swedish municipalities are participating on Social Media platforms with the purpose of engaging with the citizens. Online Engagement is not radically different from traditional Engagement, just as Citizen Engagement has close similarities with Customer Engagement. All of the Engagement facets are comparatively discussed in the current research paper, and four Dimensions, each including several factors that might differentiate Engaged and Unengaged users are described and used in the empirical study, in order to fulfill the purpose of the research. Purpose This research paper investigates the factors that differentiate the users from different stages of engagment on public institution’s social media profiles. Method The factors differentiating users from different stages of Engagement were identified by using relevant theories and previous research, and by conducting a quantitative study on Trafikverket, Swedish Transport Administration, Facebook profile followers. Conclusion Five factors were tested throughout the statistical data analysis. Three of them were found to be signifcantly different for users that are engaged within the profile and users that are not engaged. These factors are Usefulness, Privacy &amp; Security and Communicaion &amp; Relationship. Based on the findings and literature review, several suggestions for engaging with citizens, were proposed.

This essay discusses in a comparative way the Swedish and Norwegian legal system, mainly laws that contain adoption regulations. It also compares the administrative work that the government in both countries practices in relation to the individual person. In this essay, focus lies on the legal rights of the child in the adoption process and how well the government and its service meet the requirements from abroad.This essay has shown that the government has many rules and regulations that regulate their work and that all the sub processes are designed to ensure the child’s best in the adoption in both Sweden and Norway. Despite some differences in the investigation process, the work is very much alike. The differences in the investigation that leads to an approval has shown that the government in Norway is not as controlling in comparison to the Swedish government. This could lead to the child’s rights being neglected to a certain extent.

Abstract As an island state, Taiwan has developed a delicately close relationship with the resources in the ocean around her. The Pescadores, or commonly known as Penghu, is an archipelago located in the middle of the Taiwan Strait to the southwest of the Taiwan Proper. The waters here are crystal clear with every element there should be to form the best fishing grounds. For example, there are endless intertidal zones rich in crustaceans and sea snails and clams for baby fish of all kinds to feed on, and the coral forests in deeper waters offer perfect shelters for schools and schools of adult fish. However, in recent years, due to over-fishing, the oceanic environment has been rapidly and severely damaged, resources decayed. To retain diversity and vitality for oceanic resources and to make fishing here a permanently maintainable business, establishing oceanic nature preserves is a necessary, urgent thing to do. Nevertheless, restrictions and limitations that would come along with the establishment of nature preserves could very probably cause conflicts in between the fishermen, local public, experts in this field, as well as the local government. The Goal of this research is to derive effective and efficient principles of conflict management. By applying the conflict management mechanism the author offers to the rules of oceanic nature preserves, we should hope that the preserves in Penghu will set an example for the others to come in Taiwan. This research is basically a qualitative study. The¡§structured interview method¡¨ is employed to standardize questions for interviewees to answer or choose to answer. By providing interviewees with the framework of whole idea and asking them to answer similar questions, we can explore deeper into the core of the research. The interviewees include executives of Penghu County Chinwan Marine Protected Area, other officials concerned, experts that care much about Penghu¡¦s oceanic environment, nature protection group members, representatives of the two nearby villages, and the villagers. Besides that, this research also covers some depth study as to the uniqueness and variety of the coral communities in this region. This research has revealed that all people interviewed consider the establishment of the preserve site very important and essential to the preservation of both fishery resources and biological diversity. Out of the seventeen interviewees, thirteen (that is, nearly 80% of the people involved) do not think that the preserve site will do any harm to their interests, while the others do. The biggest conflicts are that the local people in the fishing business are worried about their careers being threatened, that local people have not felt well respected and participated in this public matter, and that there is quite some misunderstanding as to the policy regarding the preserve site. However, the villagers do wish to work this out through such ways of communication as holding hearings, villagers¡¦ meetings, or carrying our surveys. According to the press, this case, being a pre-conflict environmental policy issue in nature, has been experiencing quite some resistance. However, this research reveals that the negative powers are not so strong as reported; the desired balance can be reached when all factors involved have been properly taken into account. For example, by developing eco-tourism, local people can turn their fishing careers into scuba diving coaching, boat rental, or the like to retain their economical competitiveness. Besides, the government can help assemble a community development committee and a patrol squad for the villagers to spontaneously join in. This way, the government and local people can develop a partnership toward mutual profits instead of suffering from conflicts.