A prominent idea in the decentralisation and development literature is that decentralisation leads to deeper and stronger community participation. This thesis seeks to examine this argument by investigating the practice of community participation in the Indonesian decentralisation context, focusing on parental participation through access to and control over school financial resources. Drawing on a case study in Depok city, the practice of parental involvement has been explored by identifying the characteristics and the extent of parents’ participation in school management. School Committees (SCs), as a mechanism of community involvement provided by the decentralised education policy, were also examined in this research to develop an understanding of parental representation in school management. The study found that the characteristics and the extent of parents’ participation in school management have changed and decreased significantly as a result of a new Free School Programme (FSP) introduced by the government in 2009 which freed parents from school operational cost. Prior to FSP, parents actively participated in terms of supplying resources and involvement in school meetings, had some access to financial information, and had limited engagement with school budgeting through representation in SCs. However, the new absence of financial contribution by parents has affected parental participation by transforming it into a weaker form of participation where parents act as mere beneficiaries. The study also revealed that in the Indonesian context, the SCs, as institutional channels for community involvement in education provided by the education decentralisation policy, are not effective in terms of representing and engaging parents in school management. Based on the evidence above, this thesis concluded that in the context of the Indonesian education system, decentralisation has not necessarily enhanced community participation. In this respect, decentralisation is not the only possible answer for achieving a meaningful and empowering parental participation in education. Furthermore, other contextual factors surrounding participation also have to be taken into account. While FSP brings the benefit of allowing students to access education freely, the absence of parental financial contribution has been proved to impact parental participation in a way that is contradictory to one of the purposes of decentralisation policy, which is to engage the community in educational management.

A prominent idea in the decentralisation and development literature is that decentralisation leads to deeper and stronger community participation. This thesis seeks to examine this argument by investigating the practice of community participation in the Indonesian decentralisation context, focusing on parental participation through access to and control over school financial resources. Drawing on a case study in Depok city, the practice of parental involvement has been explored by identifying the characteristics and the extent of parents’ participation in school management. School Committees (SCs), as a mechanism of community involvement provided by the decentralised education policy, were also examined in this research to develop an understanding of parental representation in school management. The study found that the characteristics and the extent of parents’ participation in school management have changed and decreased significantly as a result of a new Free School Programme (FSP) introduced by the government in 2009 which freed parents from school operational cost. Prior to FSP, parents actively participated in terms of supplying resources and involvement in school meetings, had some access to financial information, and had limited engagement with school budgeting through representation in SCs. However, the new absence of financial contribution by parents has affected parental participation by transforming it into a weaker form of participation where parents act as mere beneficiaries. The study also revealed that in the Indonesian context, the SCs, as institutional channels for community involvement in education provided by the education decentralisation policy, are not effective in terms of representing and engaging parents in school management. Based on the evidence above, this thesis concluded that in the context of the Indonesian education system, decentralisation has not necessarily enhanced community participation. In this respect, decentralisation is not the only possible answer for achieving a meaningful and empowering parental participation in education. Furthermore, other contextual factors surrounding participation also have to be taken into account. While FSP brings the benefit of allowing students to access education freely, the absence of parental financial contribution has been proved to impact parental participation in a way that is contradictory to one of the purposes of decentralisation policy, which is to engage the community in educational management.

Les régions émergent comme des acteurs de plus en plus importants dans la gouvernance territoriale de la culture. Ce travail entend reconstruire l'évolution de leur rôle par l'examen des processus de décentralisation et de modernisation qui ont eu lieu à partir des années '70 dans deux états européens, la France et l'Italie, et qui ont eu un impact conséquent sur l’émergence de l'intervention régionale dans le domaine culturel. La région est ici appréhendée à la fois comme échelle et comme institution en action, en combinant des approches et des disciplines différentes. Reposant sur une analyse comparative de Rhône-Alpes et du Piémont, concernant notamment les acteurs majeurs et les enjeux de leur coopération ainsi que les dynamiques de gouvernance de la culture à l'échelle régionale, ce travail permet également de dégager le déploiement d'une policy capacity comme spécificité de l'intervention de ces deux régions. / Regions have been emerging as important actors in the territorial governance of culture. This research is an attempt to retrace their role through the analysis of the decentralisation and modernization processes occured in two European countries, France and Italy, after the 70s, which deeply affected the regional intervention in the cultural sector. Region is thus considered both as a scale and as an institution, through a combination of different approaches and disciplines. With a comparative analysis of Rhone-Alpes and Piedmont as regards to the main actors and dynamics of governance of culture at regional level, the research points out the emergence of a policy capacity as a specificity of these two regions.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate and examine governance structures and practices and service delivery to provide comprehensive understanding of governance and service delivery situation at sub-national levels in Namibia. Public service agencies are presumed to lack good governance practices which adversely affect service delivery. It was argued that good governance practices improve public service performance and ultimately enhances service delivery. Furthermore, the study noted that the delivery of basic services such as potable water, health, education, electricity and proper road communication can augment the living standard of the people. Various public service reforms undertaken by the Government of Republic of Namibia since independence in 1990 explain government’s resolve to good governance and improved service delivery. Consequently, workable relationship between government and citizens is needed to realise national development plans and Vision 2030. The study used the Oshana Region case study in order to determine whether governance practices have bearing on service delivery at sub-national levels in Namibia. Qualitative research approach was utilised and qualitative data were collected in addition to rigorous literature review and analysis. Scientifically, gathered information suggested that good governance practices are certainly fundamental to service delivery and subsequently improve people’s living standard particularly those residing in rural areas. The study found that the Namibian government exercised good governance practices and provided basic services to citizens. Nonetheless, inappropriate governance practices by some public institutions delay service delivery. The study concluded that while poor governance and ineffective service delivery are considerable challenges faced by public service, they are not insurmountable. The thesis acknowledged a significant progress made by creating governance structures at sub-national levels to provide and accelerate the delivery of essential services to citizens in Namibia. Notwithstanding the above, more still need to be done to improve the socio-economic welfare of Namibian people. Therefore, the research recommended that the Government of Republic of Namibia ought to provide sufficient resources and promote public participation to address the needs and aspirations of the citizens particularly the previously marginalised people in rural areas. Moreover, sub-national governance structures should be strengthened and essential government functions and services be devolved. / Public Administration and Management / D. (Public Administration)

Sweden is a main extractor of natural resources, leading the exploitation of forestry in Europe. Forestry counts for ten percent of exported goods from Sweden and has the most significant trade balance of all industrial categories. Forestry is a branch that has remained traditional for a long time and has not actually been the focus for research in this field. Internal control is implemented in all Swedish companies to protect company assets and minimise risk. The aim of International business strategies is mainly to achieve success on the international market. Through a qualitative single case study, with empirical data extracted from interviews and observations, conclusions were drawn. The interaction between the two terms internal control and international business strategy are investigated, and results show that they do indeed relate to each other. Another finding was that the sampled forestry company, SCA centralised administrative functions to improve Internal control had affected their International business strategy positively and their international subsidiaries could focus on remaining main tasks. In conclusion, the forestry benefit from having centralised administrative functions to improve efficiency and decentralise departments such as sales to drive revenue abroad.

Magister Scientiae (Integrated Water Resource Management) / The questions posed in this study address the different processes that were involved in the decision-making and establishment of the water management organisations, the extent of public participation, as well as features of evident governance in implementing the policies. A critical analysis of the role of stakeholders and the various influences they may have in water management will also be examined. The methodology follows a historical study approach. A thorough document review will be done of the policies and related materials around BMCs, where events will be constructed from the findings. Interviews will be conducted for verification purposes, to verify the desktop findings and to assimilate any conflicts of opinion that might have not been documented. / South Africa

Magister Educationis - MEd

Depuis plusieurs années en France et en Europe, le législateur encourage le rapprochement desecteurs d’action publique dans le cadre des politiques d’activation des chômeurs, visant ainsi àmettre en place une approche plus globale et décloisonnée des problématiques d’insertionprofessionnelle. On cherche dans ce travail à analyser les logiques d’action que sous-tendent ceschangements à travers l’étude de leur mise en oeuvre par les acteurs institutionnels locaux et lesagents de terrain en charge de l’accompagnement des demandeurs d’emploi.Trois niveaux d’action publique sont donc analysés : un niveau macro, celui du contexte danslequel se développe l’intersectorialité des politiques de l’emploi en France et en Europe, un niveauméso qui donne à voir la manière dont les acteurs mettent en oeuvre ces politiques sur lesterritoires et enfin un niveau micro qui s’intéresse au travail des agents de terrain.Alors que les rares recherches sur l’intersectorialité ont principalement porté sur le lien entre lesecteur de l’emploi et le secteur de l’action sociale, ce travail s’intéresse plus particulièrement aulien entre le secteur de l’emploi et celui de l’immigration. Ce cas d’intersectorialité permet de faireressortir les variables impactant le rapprochement sectoriel. / Over the past years, the linkage between policy fields has been promoted in France and in Europe,following the development of activation policies, aiming at a more comprehensive anddecompartmentalized approach of professionnal inclusion issues. This work analyses the practisesthat underlie these changes by studying how they are implemented by local institutionnal actorsand street level bureaucrats working with the unemployed.Three level of public action are analysed : a macro level that informs us about the context in whichemployment policies’ cross-sectoriality is developped in France and in Europe, a meso level whichenlightens the way actors implement these policies at the local level, and last, a micro level whichanalyses street level buraucrats’ work.While the few studies on cross-sectoriality focused on the link between the employment and thesocial policy fields, this work will look into the link between the employment and the immigrationpolicy fields. This case of cross-sectoriality will enable us to shed light on the variables that impactsectorial linkages.

In 1991, one year after the Namibian independence, the Ministry of Education and Culture was organised in six departments and six regional directorates. The regional directorates were established as early as in 1991. The establishment of the regional directorates was the first step towards decentralisation of education management, which took a form of de-concentration. During the late 1990s, the regional directorates were subdivided into thirteen regional education directorates to be in compliance with the central government policy of decentralising functions from the head offices of various ministries to the regional administrations in the thirteen regions. During 2000, the Namibian Ministry of Education introduced cluster-based school management as a decentralisation reform, granting authority and responsibility for managing school supervision and in-service training for school managers and teachers to clusters, to be implemented in all the thirteen education regions. Cluster–based school management reform has been adopted as a strategy for improving school supervision and teaching in Namibia. However, there is little empirical evidence on the effects of school clustering on the quality of teaching in Namibia. This study examined the implementation of cluster-based school management reform in the Namibian primary schools. The specific focus of the study was to assess: (1) the implementation of cluster-based school management reform in the Namibian primary schools; and (2) the relationship between cluster-based school management reform and improving teaching at classroom level. The data for this study were collected through: (1) survey research in thirty-seven primary schools in five regions: Caprivi; Erongo; Hardap; Karas and Kunene, and (2), case studies, based on interviews; focused group discussions; informal conversations; observations; and document analyses in the three primary school clusters in two of the five education regions. The study’s main findings are that the implementation of cluster-based school management reform has been constrained by resource scarcity and reluctance to share resources; potential threat to the authority of school inspectors and school principals; and incongruence between the ideologies existed prior to the introduction of the reform and the democratic ideology. The other main finding from this study is that there is insufficient evidence to show that the teaching methods of teachers who have received support from the school management reform are notably different from those who have not. This study demonstrates a number of obvious missing links between cluster-based school management and improving teaching, because the reform lacks: (1) clarity, guidelines and resources to support and monitor teaching in schools and at classroom level; (2) clarity on the roles and responsibilities of key implementers in improving teachers’ teaching practices; (3) capability to transform school traditions and culture into a culture which transforms teaching in schools; and (4) clarity on how teacher involvement can be utilised to improve teaching in schools. This study concludes that there is no evidence from this study that cluster-based school management reform relates to improving teaching. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Education Management and Policy Studies / unrestricted

Temporary zone is open-source design studio. This diploma thesis is concerned with origin of the project and its theoretic background. Theoretic part of the thesis defines the term „open-source design“ and tries to explain motivations behind creation of Temporary zone.