In many countries poverty is widespread, and so is also corruption. Foreign aid is given to countries in need to combat poverty, but unfortunately corruption has a restraining effect on the effectiveness of aid. The aim of this thesis is to examine how Sida, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, handles the issue of aid and corruption in the Babati District, Tanzania, where a field study were made, and what methods there are to handle this issue. The method used for this study is qualitative interviews in Tanzania and Sweden, and a literature study of previous research. The results indicate that corruption is a problem in the Babati District and that Sida is well aware of the existence of corruption in recipient countries, and the problems connected to it. Sida has prepared anti-corruption documents and regulations to use during cooperation with developing countries, and the agency is partly giving aid that reduces corruption and builds democracy. Previous research shows that there are additional methods to utilize that increases the effectiveness of aid, than Sida is currently using. One method that is well-founded is to withdraw all financial aid to countries with widespread corruption, and only focus on non-financial aid to decrease money flows and to build functioning public institutions. When corruption is eliminated, financial aid will be more effective and private investors will be attracted, and thus poverty reduction will increase.

While there are all of these programs and organizations currently operating in Guatemala, it is clear that they are not functioning as they should for Guatemala’s indigenous population. This is clear from the lack of improvement in any of the economic markers noted above, such as poverty, health and education. Furthermore, these same programs are functioning for Guatemala’s ladino population, which has seen an improvement in their living conditions. The difference in the results between these two groups naturally raises the question of why this type of program is significantly less effective for Guatemala’s indigenous population than it is for its ladino population. Why are these programs not reaching this portion of Guatemala’s population? Additionally, there are some programs that are beginning to see some initial success on a local level, such as Qachuu Aloom, a garden project in Rabinal, Guatemala. Why might this project be succeeding, when other similar projects are not?

This dissertation addresses three important questions surrounding the politics of foreign aid, namely what leads to its provisions by donor countries, and what are some of its consequences on those receiving it. Using arguments rooted in political economy models and large-N statistics, this dissertation provides three core findings: (i) Foreign aid can be driven by heterogenous motives in the donor country. (ii) This heterogeneity determines whether a donor lives up to the promises over foreign aid that it makes. (iii) Inflows of foreign aid tend to restrain the government’s propensity to engage in killings.

The project has been performed in a close collaboration with Hörsam who works in the field of hearing technology. In a first meeting with the company, the Project group was showed a few existing storage boxes for hearing aids. The company thought they were unnecessarily large with plenty of unused space and wanted a new, smarter solution to be developed. The project began with user studies in which audiologists, maintenance technicians, future users and others were interviewed. The purpose was to obtain their views on today's storage boxes and to find out how well the users maintained their hearing aids. It proved to be a large lack of knowledge regarding the management of hearing aids within the users. As a result, new ways to clean their hearing aids were found. The group decided, therefore, to include extra batteries and cleaning articles in the storage box. It would give the user a sense of security, knowing they have everything they need in one place. If earwax or moisture gets stuck in the sound channels to the hearing aid, the sound will disappear completely or partially. It is similarly, if the batteries run out. Hearing aid batteries last only about two weeks after activation and they are very small and difficult to handle for people with stiff joints. In the current situation, there are a variety of cleaning articles with different designs. Each hearing aid manufacturers have basically their own kit. Despite this, it is the same tools that are recommended by all. This is a brush, a loop, a cloth, a long needle and an air blower. In some cases the use of a rod with a magnet helps to facilitate replacement of batteries. The batteries are magnetic and therefore easily stuck on the rod, which help the user to handle the batteries. After several suggestions of solutions the result became a storage box that the group has chose to call Skötsam. It has a soft and handy shape that offers the user a good grip. Skötsam is fitted for both those who only have one hearing aid and for those who have one to each ear. In the battery compartment there is space for at least two extra batteries, depending on its size. The different cleaning articles are located in a smart and clever way, while all functions are easy to use. In a comparison with today's storage boxes Skötsam have seven new features. It has been tested by future users with successful results. Even audiologists and technicians and others who have tried Skötsam are very satisfied with the result. All the requests and demands set out during the project have been met.

MindMe is an aid for people with cognitive memory impairments. The aid is completely new and has been developed within this bachelor thesis, no product of this nature could be found on the market before. The idea came from Niclas Jarhäll, CEO of Mutual Benefits. Mutual Benefits were also partners in the project. The project was carried out by us in cooperation with Bachelor of Science in Innovation Engineering students Malin Albertsson and Victoria Hedman at Halmstad university. The aid consists of a mobile phone and a number of tags. The goal was for the mobile phone and tag to set of their alarms when they get a certain distance apart. It is the technical part of the project that will be discussed in this paper and it was divided in two parts, prototype development and software for the mobile phone. The project resulted in a prototype and an application for the mobile phone. The prototype and mobile phone set of their alarms when they come to far apart. The user has the option to change settings in the mobile phone application that affects both phone and tag and to add/remove tags. Both application and tag meet the requirements set in the technical specification.

In order to increase the independence in everyday life of the elderly population, we have developed a lifting aid for loading in the private car trunk. Independence from outside assistance affects self-esteem in a positive direction and can help increase the quality of life for a large group of individuals. As people age and experience changes in performance, it is important that aids and support is available, particularly to reduce the experience of aging and it’s increasing physical limitations. The aim was to develop a function prototype characterized by simplicity, which facilitates loading of the private car trunk. The project was conducted at the request of Autoadapt AB, which is one of the leading actors in car adaptations for individuals with disablilities. A function prototype of the product Easy Load has been produced through dynamic product development and its various tools. In an attempt to meet the requirements of simplicity and ease of use, concepts such as universal design and usability affected the project. In order to find a user need that could form the basis of the project, proceedings began with a pre-study that included observations and group interviews of members in a pensioner club in Halmstad. The Product development work continued with several brainstorming sessions with participants from a number of the university's engineering programs. Ideas from the sessions, together with the results from the benchmarking, formed the basis for final product design and function. A key requirement was that the product could be fitted in sedan car models with easy grips and without any permanent fixings. Construction of the prototype was made mostly in the University’s mechanical workshop, using both self-constructed and sourced components. Stress and installation testing and risk analysis pursuant to FMEA highlighted deficiencies that the project group sought to adjust. In cases where this did not happen, the project group made concrete improvement proposals to simplify further development. This project shows that lifting aids products without permanent fixings are possible to develop for use in sedan car models. Specific product criteria have been met through a designed function prototype for loading in the private car trunk.

Automated products, especially automated decision aids, have the potential to improve the lives of older adults by supporting their daily needs. Although automation seems promising in this arena, there is evidence that humans, in general, tend to have difficulty optimizing their behavior with a decision aid, and older adults even more so. In a human-automation collaborative system, the ability to balance costs involved in relying on the automation and those involved in verifying the automation is essential for optimal performance and error minimization. Thus, this study was conducted to better understand the processes associated with balancing these costs and also to examine age differences in these processes. Cost of reliance on automation was evaluated using an object counting task. Participants were required to indicate the number of circles on a display, with support coming from a computer estimate decision aid. They were instructed to rely on the aid if they believed its answer or verify the aid by manually counting the circles on the screen if they did not believe the aid to be correct. Manipulations in this task were the cost of a wrong answer, either -5, -10, -25, or -50 points and the cost of verification, either high or low. It was expected that participants would develop a general pattern of appropriate reliance across the cost conditions, but would not change their reliance behavior enough to reach optimality. Older adults were expected to rely on the decision aid to a lesser extent than younger adults in all conditions, yet rate the automation as being more reliable. It was found that older and younger adults did not show large differences in reliance, although older adults tend to be more resistant to changing their reliance due to costs than younger adults. Both age groups significantly underutilized the computer estimate, yet overestimated its reliability. The results are important because it may be necessary to design automated devices and training programs differently for older adults than for younger adults, to direct them towards an optimal strategy of reliance.

The construction industry is known for its high accident rate which leads to numerous fatalities every year. Currently, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires injury/illness recording forms to be completed only for injuries requiring medical treatment and fatalities. The assertion of this paper is that underlying problems can be best determined through the causes of first-aid injuries that have the potential to prevent serious injuries in the future. Therefore, by classifying and recording first-aid cases on project sites, the common trend type of injury can be followed and appropriate measures can be taken to eliminate hazards. The main objective of this research is to establish a comprehensive standardized database to record first-aid injury cases, injuries requiring medical treatment and fatalities all in one. The recording format described in this research will facilitate the analysis of the data in a more effective manner which can subsequently be used to develop pre-emptive measures to eliminate common causes for construction injuries. In order, to create the Form, 900 sets of injury data were obtained from an industrial construction firm and analyzed. These data provided a good indication of the classification system adopted by industries today. The proposed Injury and Illness Database/Form (I

The problem of poverty in LDCs has been the continuing concern to the world. International organizations and other countries provide aid to LDCs for poverty reduction. Since the WTO Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong, aid for trade (A4T) became an issue of more importance. This paper is an empirical study on the nature of A4T as a public good. According to Wang (2010), the donor countries will provide more A4T as long as larger is the size of the economy, but the provision of the bilateral A4T will be insufficient to the social optimal level due to the spillover effect.. This paper will apply actual data to test the theory, using the hypothesis that, other things being equal, the lower is a partner¡¦s trade concentration; the lower is A4T received. We analyze the 22 OECD DAC members¡¦ bilateral A4T behavior from 2002 to 2007 using OECD Creditor-Reporting-System (CRS) data. Further, we also study how different types of A4T are determined. The main results of this study are:(1) Recipients¡¦ trade concentration is one determinant of the A4T received. (2) Trade concentration affects different types of A4T differently.

Thesis (M.A.)--West Virginia University, 2002. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vi, 56 p. Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 40-43).