This research examines participatory planning processes in rural Egypt, which was deemed successful by the local people. The purpose is to identify elements that caused these projects to be perceived successful. Using the normative participatory planning theory that is usually used in the West as a theoretical context, the research examined three successful development efforts in rural Egypt. Projects' publications and planning documents were reviewed to build a context for interviews. The projects' planners were interviewed for descriptions of their initial designs for the participatory planning processes employed. An opportunistic sampling technique was used to identify local participants who were interviewed for descriptions of their experiences in the planning processes. The analysis suggests that the participatory planning processes implemented had the same stages as the normative planning process in the West. The thick description of the processes by the interviewees revealed subtle elements within the processes that governed the participants' evaluation. Bedouin interviewees viewed consensus as the only valid mode of final agreement in indigenous peoples' decision-making processes. Bedouin participants were found to consider perceptions of time, and choice of space and language used in planning sessions to be extremely important, significantly impacting their evaluation of the process in which they took part. Long sessions that took place locally and were formatted in a traditional Bedouin manner were perceived more successful. Bedouin dialect and Bedouin hospitality employed during sessions also increased the perceived success of planning sessions. Such subtle Bedouin interpretation of elements of social environment guided their perceptions of the success or failure of the planning processes. Government planning agencies and planners should integrate the indigenous peoples' traditional decision-making processes in their designs for participatory planning processes, when planning development projects. Also indigenous people should take responsibility to present their cultural methods to individuals and agencies involved in planning such development projects in their locale. This can lead to a change in the planning culture to engage in more organic, grassroots' processes. Community-based, organic-design processes will significantly increase the likelihood of achieving the full potential of a plan in the short and long term. / Ph. D.

No description available.

No / The ‘Modified UNIDO Approach’ to economic analysis of projects is described. It was used in Tanzania when no national parameters were available for shadow pricing. The main features are: the choice of a domestic price numeraire; the use of cost breakdowns rather than composite conversion factors, and their application on a year-by-year basis rather than to present values; the treatment of the shadow exchange rate as an unknown and the presentation of results as a matrix of NPV values relating to different combinations of parameters; and calculation of the domestic resource cost of foreign exchange to rank the efficiency of projects in earning or saving foreign exchange.

This dissertation concerns economies with public projects. Public projects are a special case of public goods which size is not necessarily measured by units and which are either built at some fixed cost or not built at all. Our theoretical studies of public projects are based on personalized prices for access to the public project rather than personalized prices for the units consumed of public goods as in the literature on Lindahl equilibrium. Furthermore, the private provision of public projects is experimentally investigated with a double oral auction market for assets that are required in order to produce public projects. The first paper (Chapter 2), "Economies with Multiple Public Projects" (joint work with Robert P. Gilles), discusses an economy with multiple public projects each separately produced by a distinct provider operating under a different cost function. In an economy with the non-Euclidean representation of multiple public projects space we show that the two welfare theorems hold for valuation equilibria in which a public project is financed through a (non-linear) system of taxes or subsidies, called a valuation system, and that the core allocations are equivalent to the set of valuation equilibria with a nonnegative valuation system. Furthermore, if a Euclidean space is used to describe the public projects specified to the standard case of public goods, every Pareto efficient allocation is supported as an affine valuation equilibrium which is characterized with a price per unit of public good and a lump sum tax or subsidy. The second paper (Chapter 3), "Market Provision of Public Projects: Some Experimental Results" (joint work with Sheryl B. Ball), presents experimental evidence on the provision of a public project which is produced by a coalition of economic agents in the population. A double oral auction asset market is employed as the trading institution for assets that are required in order to produce the public project. The experimental environments differ by rules about who can produce the project, information about the benefits to the other agents of the project, and parameters which include the symmetry and size of individual valuations of the assets and the magnitude of social benefits from the project. We find that individually rational client outcomes which are identified by a theoretical analysis based on Chapter 2, are more likely in some environments than others, and suggest that these findings may have implications for the usefulness of this mechanism for public project provision. The third paper (Chapter 4), "Economies with Costly Trade Links," is an application of the model of economies with public projects to the case of an economy with endogenous formation of costly trade links between industries in different sectors of the economy. The trade links reduce transaction costs, but inevitably incur set-up costs. We prove that the two welfare theorems hold for trade equilibria in which each trade link is separately financed with budget neutrality as well as profit maximization. Furthermore, we introduce an industry-wise efficiency concept which requires that no industry can insure itself a better outcome for the industry itself by changing the industry's trade structure, and show that Pareto efficiency strictly implies industry-wide efficiency. The fourth paper (Chapter 5), "Efficiency and Egalitarian-Equivalence in Economies with a Public Project" (joint work with Robert P. Gilles), is an application of the model of economies with public projects to the equity concept of egalitarian-equivalence. An allocation is egalitarian-equivalent if there exists a fixed commodity bundle (the same for each agent) that is considered by each agent to be indifferent to the bundle that he/she actually gets in the allocation under consideration. A public project is also produced by a coalition of economic agents as in Chapter 3. We prove that there exist efficient egalitarian-equivalent allocations, which are not equivalent to the set of valuation equilibria and also may not be in the core. / Ph. D.

We live in a world where most people are inundated with information on a global scale. The world has become smaller and more homogenous, whereas the social composition has become more and more complex, and extremely hierarchical. In such a society, the only way for one to define oneself could be to expand himself/herself beyond all social frames. Through close and dynamic interaction with the outer world, and coexistence with heterogeneous elements around us, we are able to define intrinsic factors within us, within our society. This process challenges openness and full understanding of the world beyond oneself. Only through this process, we might be able to establish a "global culture." Every action we take has some kind of impact on this world. Like the river flows into the bay, it seems that social values on our life and culture are constantly in a state of change. It is very important for me to read this changing flow of social consciousness to understand our world and allow it to inform architecture. Architecture is a great tool for me to expand myself toward society, and people. It allows me to become infinite in a timeless journey in human life searching for the truth. / Master of Architecture

Approaches to projects and development have undergone considerable change in the last decade with significant policy shifts on governance, gender, poverty eradication, and environmental issues. Most recently this has led to the adoption and promotion of the sustainable livelihood (SL) approach. The adoption of the SL approach presents challenges to development interventions including: the future of projects and programmes, and sector wide approaches (SWAPs) and direct budgetary support. This paper `A Review of Approaches to Development Interventions in Tanzania: From Projects to Livelihood Approaches¿ is the third in the series of the project working papers. This is the output of a literature review and semi-structured interviewing in Tanzania. / Department for International Development

Approaches to projects and development have undergone considerable change in the last decade with significant policy shifts on governance, gender, poverty eradication, and environmental issues. Most recently this has led to the adoption and promotion of the sustainable livelihood (SL) approach. The adoption of the SL approach presents challenges to development interventions including: the future of projects and programmes, and sector wide approaches (SWAPs) and direct budgetary support. This paper `Review of development interventions and livelihood approaches in Uganda¿ is the fourth in the series of the project working papers. This is the output of a literature review and series of interviews on development interventions in Uganda. / Department for International Development

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2003. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The fundamental purpose of this study is to establish the extent to which theory and practice relate in the context of community participation. The point of departure is to understand what participation entails and the methodologies available to the development practitioner. As illustrated by the case study, there is a meaningful relationship between theory and the practicing of Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA), which is the methodology of choice for the project. Although the PRA techniques were utilized in gathering data for the project, many of the key decisions were made independently of the community. This brings to light the controversy between technical expertise on the one hand and to what extent the community should be included in any decisions made at this technical level, especially since they may only end up rubber-stamping the professional's opinions anyway. The question arises whether or not the whole concept of empowerment is simply a utopian concept. This is by no means an easy question to answer. However, the case study does illustrate that participation can be harnessed to achieve a successful project. It is important to note that even in difficult circumstances where 'dependency' has taken root, there exists hope that the people can actively participate in the project. It also reinforces the urgency of the need to actively encourage social change that will inspire people towards participation. This has been viewed for too long by the local people as the domain of the educated only. It is therefore important that development agencies create awareness of participation since it cuts across all their projects. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doel van hierdie studie is om vas te stel tot watter mate teorie en praktyk met mekaar verband hou binne die konteks van gemeenskapsdeelname in die bestuur van gemeenskapsprojekte. Die vertrekpunt van die studie is die verstaan van wat deelname behels, en watter metodologieë beskikbaar is vir ontwikkelingspraktisyns. Soos deur die gevallestudie geïllustreer, is daar 'n verband tussen die teorie en die praktiese gebruik van "Participatory Rural Appraisal" (PRA), die tegniek wat deur die spesifieke projek gebruik word. Alhoewel die PRA tegniek aangewend is, word baie van die belangrike besluite onafhanklik van die gemeenskap gemaak. Dit plaas 'n fokus op die kontroversiële posisie wat bestaan tussen tegniese insette aan die een kant en die mate waartoe gemeenskappe op hierdie tegniese vlak aan besluite moet deelneem, veral aangesien hierdie tipe deelname slegs op die roetine-goedkeuring van professionele sienswyses mag uitloop. Dit vra die pertinente vraag of deelname nie slegs 'n utopiese konsep is nie. Hierdie is nie 'n maklike vraag om te antwoord nie, maar, die gevallestudieondersoek ondersteun wel die idee dat deelname ingespan kan word om positiewe resultate vir 'n projek te verseker. Dit is belangrik om daarop te let dat selfs waar 'n sindroom van afhanklikheid ontwikkel het, die hoop bestaan om gemeenskappe aktief in projekte te laat deelneem. Hierdie beklemtoon die belangrikheid daarvan om sosiale verandering aan te moedig ten einde 'n positiewe ingesteldheid teenoor deelname te inspireer. Vir te lank reeds sien plaaslike gemeenskappe hierdie as die terrein slegs van opgeleide persone. Dit is dus belangrik dat ontwikkelingsagente aandag skenk daaraan om gemeenskappe te sensiteer rakende deelname, aangesien dit die suksesvolle uitvoering van al hulle projekte raak.

<p>The traditional view of project management is beingchallenged by the globalization of markets, mergers ofinternational companies, and the integration of managerial andbusi-ness processes in global corporations. The development ofInformation Technology and the rapid growth of the Internet hascreated an opportunity to utilize global resources, resultingin new and unique problems within project management researchthat need to be addressed.</p><p>This thesis focuses on problems in project managementexperienced by global system suppliers trying to adapt theirbusinesses to the rapid changes of customers needs. Itespe-cially focuses on geographically dispersed organizationsconsisting of several organizations in different countries,with disparate history and corporate culture, developing anddeliver-ing complex systems under the company's name.</p><p>In order to identify potential problems faced by globalmulti-organizational companies, especially system supplierswith large research and development (R&D) budgets, aframe-work is suggested. This framework divides the problemsinto three categories: geographi-cal, organizational andcultural. The problems identified in the case studies are thenclassi-fied to these categories. Finally, a description of howthe identified problems can be man-aged is provided when themost important success factors identified in the studies arepresented.</p><p> </p> / QC 20100512

Presently, owners are interested in evaluating the feasibility of investing in the construction of new building projects based on cost and time constraints. They need to therefore have an idea about the project construction costs, the time required to finish construction of a project in its conceptual phase, and about the implementation of feasibility study. Because due to associated risks, construction cost estimates and schedules are vital to any project. The research’s objective is to develop a methodology that can be used to create an integrated computer model that helps owners and designers generate construction cost estimates, and derive the baseline schedule for any proposed building project at its feasibility stage. All the relevant data used within the model is collected from the literature and is stored in comprehensive databases designed for this purpose. The data is based on 2011 RSMeans publications and consist of around 4,000 previously constructed projects. The model is developed in a Microsoft environment using Microsoft Excel 2007 and Microsoft Project 2007. This model uses deterministic and stochastic approaches to execute all necessary calculations for the conceptual cost estimate and baseline schedule. A deterministic approach relies on realistic data while a stochastic one relies on incorporating the uncertainty and risk available in calculating the cost and duration of any construction building project. The model is user friendly, flexible and executes all the necessary calculations quickly. The successful development of the model would help owners and investors identify the cost and baseline schedule of proposed projects at the early stages of the project life, so that they have an idea of the budget required for construction and the time needed to recover their investment.