Many countries in West Africa, including Liberia, remain trapped in extreme poverty and dysfunctional social services amid continued increase in foreign aid. This study examines complexities influencing decisions of government donors in determining the kind of development assistance needed in Liberia and nation states in West Africa. This research explains the ways in which aid perpetuates poverty instead of alleviating it using interdisciplinary research approaches. Although aid is critical to Liberia’s development agenda, aid implementation faces numerous challenges because of extant poverty and rampant corruption. Part of the problem in Liberia is not solely the failure of aid to meet its goals. I conclude that poverty persists despite billions of dollars in aid because of corruption, human rights abuses, and inequalities, not the concept of aid. Democracy is effective when economic development allows citizens to have power within their own nation and government is accountable to its citizens.

The purpose of this bachelor's thesis in social work has been to examine whether society's perception of poverty and poor people has changed over the more than 160 years have passed since the first national Poor regulation was enacted in Sweden. With a social constructionist approach and inspired by the critical discourse analysis we have conducted two studies to find answers to what differences and similarities between the concepts of scanty care (1847) and standards of living (2002). A study based on previous research was conducted to examine how society's perception of poverty has changed and designed in a historical perspective. We also conducted a textual analysis of relevant legal texts and legislative history to show how these texts reflect the society's official view of poverty based interventions targeted to poor people. The two sub-studies show that the concepts at different times in history has been crucial for the community support poor people were entitled to. Our overall conclusion is that despite today's advanced social policy there are many obvious similarities between the concepts of scanty care and standards of living. For example, there are similarities in the conjecture-driven individuals for warranted to support and which counterclaims society put on the individuals who are in need of society's ultimate financial safety net.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-08T16:55:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 TiagoSocioambiental.pdf: 19920273 bytes, checksum: afc1034c1889b7a2d804e969af1d0c12 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-02-13 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The research problem presented in this dissertation rises from the promise made by the government of Angola which is to build, in the period of 2008 to 2012, one million habitation units at national level. This is a national project, announced during the parliamentary elections of 2008, a scene of destruction 26 years of civil war from 1976 to 2002. Such project has, among other objectives, to transform Angola into a prosperous country, where hunger and poverty has to be eradicated, by having an efficient administration and a strong, democratic and modern State, giving the Angolan people the highest standards of living and social welfare. The objective of this study was to describe the implementation of the Project Habitação um Desafio para Todos in the suburbs Zango I and II, located in Luanda, capital of Angola, from the perspective of individuals who were benefited by it. The methodology used in this research was based on a qualitative research which is supported by semistructured interviews, whose target audience were twenty-three people, including fourteen residents of the suburbs Zango I and II, and three residents of the old housing project in the Colonial District Congolese/Luanda. Five people of this project were also interviewed, including the general director of the NGO Action for Rural Development and Environment ANDRA. In addition, participative observations were made, as well as official documents were used from programs and projects of the Angolan government, including sources of national and international civil organizations. Among the main results, it is highlighted that the government decreased the target of one million homes to 350,091. The suburbs Zango I, II and III have recently ten thousand social habitation units and about 160,000 residents from the peripheral suburbs of the city, but there is still a lack of portable water and hospital, mainly. It was also observed that the part of the displaced population in the city centre is still accommodated in temporary shelters made of zinc sheets, in poor conditions, while they wait for the possession of their habitation units. Among the conclusions, it was observed that the way of planning and decisions extremely centralized in the top of the central government have contributed to the disorganization in the process of monitoring the quality of the work, as well as in the goal accomplishments, taking into account that if such scenery remains, the suburbs Zango I and II will be in the eminence of growing slums / O problema de pesquisa desta dissertação parte da promessa feita pelo governo de Angola em construir, no período dos anos 2008 a 2012, um milhão de habitações em nível nacional. Trata-se de um projeto de âmbito nacional, lançado no período da realização das eleições legislativas de 2008, em um cenário de destruição de 26 anos de guerra civil, de 1976 a 2002. Tal projeto visa, dentre outros objetivos, à transformação de Angola num país próspero, em que seja erradicada a fome e a miséria, com uma administração eficiente e um Estado forte, democrático e moderno, proporcionando ao povo angolano os mais altos padrões de vida e de bem estar social. O objetivo deste estudo foi descrever a implantação do projeto Habitação um desafio para todos , nos bairros Zango I e II, localizados na província de Luanda, capital da República de Angola, a partir da perspectiva dos sujeitos beneficiados pelo mesmo. A metodologia utilizada foi baseada na pesquisa qualitativa, com o apoio entrevistas semiestruturadas, cujo público alvo foi 23 atores, dos quais, quatorze moradores dos bairros Zango I e II, três moradores do antigo projeto habitacional colonial no bairro Congolenses/Luanda. Foram também entrevistados cinco responsáveis ligados ao projeto habitação um desafio para todos, e o Diretor Geral da ONG-Ação para o Desenvolvimento Rural e Ambiente ADRA. Por outro lado, ocorreram observações participativas, além de terem sido utilizados documentos oficiais de programas e projetos do governo angolano, bem como fontes de informação de organizações civis nacionais e internacionais. Entre os principais resultados, destaca-se que o governo diminuiu a meta de um milhão de habitações para 350.091. Os bairros Zangos I, II E III contam, atualmente, com dez mil habitações sociais e cerca de 160.000 moradores provenientes dos bairros periféricos da cidade, mas ainda há carência de água potável e hospitais principalmente. Verificou-se, também, que parte da população desalojada do centro da cidade ainda se encontra alojada em abrigos provisórios feitos de tendas e chapas de zinco, em condições carentes, enquanto aguardam pela posse da habitação. Entre as principais conclusões, constatou-se que, o planejamento e decisões extremamente centralizadas no topo do governo central têm contribuído nas falhas e desorganização no processo de fiscalização da qualidade das obras e no cumprimento das metas, acreditando que se tal cenário permanecer, Zangos estarão na eminência de favelização

The aim of master thesis is finding answers to the question, if inhabitants of western Europe are happier than inhabitants of eastern Europe. I want to compare standards of living in these regions based on the indexes of living standards. Further I want find out, if the happiness is measurable. Europe during the economic crisis has shown that GDP of countries slowed down, but is this economic indicator showing happiness of nations? Does it present satisfaction and well-being of the population? Can we identify some relation or dependence between GDP and happiness of the population? What are the indicators that are able to answer this question? A substantial part of my work will be comparison of the individual indexes of living standards and I will specify, what means standard of living and what are the components. In the practical part I want to compare reality in different areas of human life, which is related to the standard of living and to compare these data between the nations in western Europe and eastern Europe.

In the academic field the informal economy is vaguely represented and most of the research is focused on developing countries with many socio-economic issues. The informal economy in the developed world, mainly the European Union and the United States of America, has a minor share in the world's informal economy, as such it is not commonly discussed among academics. Some countries around the world are actively trying to battle this sector to minimalize it and thus minimalize its impact on the state economy and on the individual communities. To implement more effective policies it is important to know which factors are most conducive to the prevalence of the informal economy. Finding those factors became the aim of this paper. Owing to the fact that there is a lack of research conducted in the developed countries about the informal economy the main focus of the thesis is the geographical area of San Diego County, predominantly for its diverse demographics. The factors are identified and analyzed in detail in chapter 4. In "Discussion" the factors are evaluated to reveal the most conducive ones. It has been determined that the most conducive factors are "burdensome regulation" and "individual preferences". Additionally factors that influence the informal economy in San Diego County are "low...