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This thesis explores how Danish aid policies have been implemented to support poverty alleviation through participatory approaches in bilateral aid. I have chosen to look at bilateral aid, in particular Danish bilateral development assistance to India during a specific period: the mid-1980s to mid-1990s. The reasons for this are threefold: firstly, I was posted to the Danish Embassy in New Delhi during that time and had direct and detailed experience of the projects I have used as my case studies. Secondly, the period represents a time when the Danish aid agency, Danida, posted advisers who could potentially influence the participatory approaches used in the projects. Finally, although aid policies have changed over the years, many of the principles guiding the policies, and in particular the mechanisms driving the delivery of aid, remain the same – bilateral (and multilateral) aid is delivered through bureaucracies with the purpose of improving conditions for people in recipient countries. The thesis looks at the purpose and character of the ideal bureaucracy, as perceived by Max Weber, as a benchmark for the development and variations in Danish and Indian bureaucracies during the decade in question. I show that differences between the bureaucracies are influenced by the differences in the history and cultural traditions of Denmark and India. This influences the relationship in the implementation of bilateral development aid in this period, as in any other. I consider the functions of the bureaucracy with respect to policy, planning, and implementation of development aid, and how these functions differ in Denmark and India. Participation is at the centre of this thesis; therefore the thesis looks at the history of participation and the aspiration to participate in development aid. I have chosen to work with two main interpretations of participation: empowering participation and instrumental participation. I find that the Danish aid policy leans toward empowering participation, while in practice instrumental participation is used in the implementation of the aid. Despite a vast literature on participation, I find that participation as a concept is ambiguous. In considering the relationship between participation and bureaucracy, I find that it is not an easy one. I show that there are fundamental and paradigmatic incompatibilities if participation is meant to empower the groups targeted for aid. The theories of bureaucracy and participation are tested against the actual progress of four Danish-supported water and sanitation projects in four different Indian states. While describing events in the projects as they unfolded, I bear in mind a number of questions relating to interpretation of policies and variations in the same; how the Danish and Indian bureaucracies influenced and controlled the implementation of aid; relationships with local power structures; and finally, about the accomplishments of the projects. The questions are further analysed and answered in the concluding chapter of the thesis.

<p>This project started when LIC Audio AB wanted help with development of a hearing aid for public rooms. The problem is that a lot of people suffer from some sort of hearing impairment. In places with a lot of people and background noise the problem becomes bigger and the sound seems to flow together. </p><p>During the project we found the solution for the problem in the shape of a headphone. The headphone receives a signal from a preinstalled hearing loop. The hearing loop exists in most public rooms and after the receiver got the signal an amplifier increases the sound to wished strength by the user. The headphone is easy to use and only got one regulator to control both sound level and on/off. To ease the usage we developed a charging stand and a charging list to hang the headphones after usage. When doing this you can ensure to always have power left in the headphones. </p><p> The project resulted in a working prototype of the headphones showing the thought of the project. We have also made models of the charging stand and charging list.</p>

As a result of political antagonism across the Taiwan Strait, Taiwan has engaged in ¡§pragmatic diplomacy¡¨ since the end of 1980s in an attempt to reenter the international community and to establish more substantial official relations with foreign countries. As developing country, Taiwan has been donors of foreign aid with strong diplomatic incentives attached. Under the guideline of Taiwan¡¦s foreign policy goals, we have consistently chosen aid recipients that meet our diplomatic needs. In the 1990s, however, under the guidance of pragmatic diplomacy, Taiwan has made a concerted effort to reenter the international community and focused instead on improving state-to state relations. Official diplomacy and NGO activities may be "different approaches to the same ends," as the old Chinese saying goes, but they are fundamentally different. By mixing NGO functions with "track one" diplomacy, Taiwan has placed itself in an even worse position given the current international situation. NGO activities, however, are exchanges between civilians, not governments. In such unfavorable political antagonism across the Taiwan Strait circumstances, enabling Taiwan's NGOs -- with the help of official diplomacy -- to give full play to their functions overseas while building long-standing partnerships with foreign nations and people, should definitely be considered one of Taiwan's mid-to long-term strategic goals.

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This project started when LIC Audio AB wanted help with development of a hearing aid for public rooms. The problem is that a lot of people suffer from some sort of hearing impairment. In places with a lot of people and background noise the problem becomes bigger and the sound seems to flow together. During the project we found the solution for the problem in the shape of a headphone. The headphone receives a signal from a preinstalled hearing loop. The hearing loop exists in most public rooms and after the receiver got the signal an amplifier increases the sound to wished strength by the user. The headphone is easy to use and only got one regulator to control both sound level and on/off. To ease the usage we developed a charging stand and a charging list to hang the headphones after usage. When doing this you can ensure to always have power left in the headphones. The project resulted in a working prototype of the headphones showing the thought of the project. We have also made models of the charging stand and charging list.

We present the Attentive Hearing Aid, a system that uses eye input to amplify the audio of tagged sound sources in the environment. A multidisciplinary project, we use the latest technology to take advantage of the social phenomenon of turn-taking in human-human communication, and apply this in a new kind of assistive hearing device. Using hearing-impaired participants, we evaluated the use of eye input for switching between sound sources on a screen in terms of switch time and the recall of audiovisual material. We compared eye input to a control condition and two manual selection techniques: using a remote to point at the target on the screen, and using buttons to select the target. Results show that in terms of switch time, Eyes were 73% faster than Pointing and 58% faster than Buttons. In terms of recall, Eyes performed 80% better than Control, 54% better than Buttons, and 37% better than Pointing. In a post-evaluation user experience survey, participants rated Eyes highest in “easiest”, “most natural”, and “best overall” categories. We present the implications of this work as a new type of assistive hearing device, and also discuss how this system could benefit non-hearing-impaired individuals. / Thesis (Master, Computing) -- Queen's University, 2007-09-26 13:46:25.789

International develoment non-government organisations (INGOs)are a recognised component of Aotearoa New Zealand society. In 2012 CID advised the Government that INGOs are the key conduit for many thousands of New Zealanders that donated over $114 million in 2011 in support of international development and disaster relief. Since the 1970s the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and TRade (MFAT) has managed the allocation of a proportion of Government Overseas Development Assistance to subsidise the money raised from the public by the INGOs. The impact of INGO involvement in development projects and programmes has received considerable academic scrutiny; however little attention has been paid to the understanding and operation of partnership within international activities . This thesis focuses on the partnership practices of New Zealand INGOs.

The thesis uses Bangladesh as a model to test a "dependence paradigm". It posits that the sudden influx of resources that foreign aid brings does not necessarily lead to the social development and equitable economic growth which might have been expected because micro-economic forces tend to predominate over conventional macro-economic development theory. Instead it results in increasing inequity. The government and upper classes divert the largest proportion of the resources being provided and use them for reasons other than that for which they were meant. More inequitable distribution of income in turn justifies the continued need for foreign aid. The aid provided, justified by poverty, becomes a necessary part of the government's resources, discouraging domestic resource mobilisation and self-reliance. The dimensions of poverty and the nature and evidence of the country's dependence are reviewed. As the amount of aid "appropriated" increases, the government is increasingly dependent on its continuation and more constrained by the conditions attached to it by the donors. The paper then goes on to explain that foreign aid donors tolerate this diversion of aid resources because they measure the results of aid in terms of quantity, not quality. Nor are they prepared to provide adequate means by which to plan, administer, monitor and evaluate the use to which aid is put. The quality of aid is not an issue that serves either their domestic needs or foreign policy objectives. The successes in Bangladesh are shown to be attributable either to market forces or to foreign aid which does not lend itself to diversion by the upper classes. Some comparisons show that the phenomenon of a "resource windfall" leading to "appropriation" by the upper classes exists in other countries and is not unique to Bangladesh. The study concludes that unless appropriate aid is provided with sound ad-ministration, which uses, to the fullest, available expertise in the country, then increasing inequity and dependence are bound to result.

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