Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-05T20:04:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 10 / Nenhuma / Esta pesquisa apresenta os resultados de um estudo de caso sobre a política de descentralização para o nível local, implantada em Santa Rosa, RS, Brasil, no período de 1993 a 2003. O estudo descreve a política de gestão e atenção à saúde usando análise de dados documentais e quantitativos (secundários), complementado por entrevistas semi- estruturadas. Os resultados apontam a importância da participação da comunidade na construção do sistema de saúde, e ainda, destacam o papel central da política de recursos humanos para o Sistema Único de Saúde - SUS / This article presents the results of a case study of the health system descentralization to the local level implanted in Santa Rosa, Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil, in the period of 1993 - 2003. The study describes the policy of management and health attention using documentary data, quantitative information (secondary data), complemented by interviews. The results point out the importance of the community participation in the construction of the health system and also, drawing the central role, human resources strategy plays in the public health system – SUS

Devolution of power, responsibilities, and resources from central to local governments has been the foundation of decentralization reforms in developing countries like Ethiopia. The most recent decentralization reforms in Ethiopia began in the early 2000s at the woreda (district) level, focusing on strengthening local governments as institutions of democratic governance and efficient service delivery. Until now, decentralization in Ethiopia has attracted very little research; this study aims to fill that knowledge gap. The extent of decentralization is examined from a holistic framework, including the three dimensions of decentralization (political, fiscal and administrative), while its impacts are explored by focusing on access, equity, efficiency and quality indicators of education service delivery. Using a qualitative case study approach, this research consists of semi-structured interviews of key informants in government and educational administration, field observations, and review of relevant documents. Four local governments and twelve schools within two regional states of Ethiopia were selected as the sample frame. This dissertation argues that the implementation of woreda decentralization reforms in Ethiopia has proven problematic, as the official establishment of devolution operates within centralized structures and practices. Regional governments have established political, administrative and fiscal decentralization, as evidenced by the existence of legal authority and mechanisms of accountability, expanded functions, and significant allocation of unconditional grants transferred to woredas. Despite much progress, the further deepening of decentralization reforms has been hampered by centralizing practices, including the dominant roles of the ruling party, weak administrative capacity at the local government and school levels, and limited resource base of local governments. The link between decentralization reforms and improved local service delivery has been inconclusive. This study suggests that the impact of decentralization on primary education has been mixed. While decentralization reforms may have facilitated the impressive expansion of access to primary education, quality indicators such as dropout rates and student learning assessments have shown little to no improvements. This study lays the groundwork for continued research into the vital link between decentralization and basic service delivery in Ethiopia and beyond.

Wong, Chun Hung Eliphas. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 74-78). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.i / Acknowledgement --- p.v / Thesis/Assessement Committee --- p.vi / List of Figures --- p.xi / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Literature Review --- p.13 / Chapter 1.2 --- K-Convexity --- p.16 / Chapter 1.2.1 --- "The (s, S)policy and cardinal optimality equation form" --- p.17 / Chapter 2 --- Inventory Problem --- p.25 / Chapter 2.1 --- Two-channel Inventory Model --- p.26 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- Model Formulation --- p.27 / Chapter 2.2 --- The total expected cost and constraints --- p.34 / Chapter 2.3 --- The optimality equation --- p.37 / Chapter 3 --- The two phase optimal policy --- p.40 / Chapter 3.1 --- Deviation of two phase optimal policy --- p.41 / Chapter 3.1.1 --- "First phase optimization - The (s, S, s') policy" --- p.42 / Chapter 3.1.2 --- Second phase optimization --- p.46 / Chapter 3.2 --- More about the optimal policy --- p.60 / Chapter 4 --- Further discussion and conclusion --- p.64 / Chapter 4.1 --- Multi-period problem --- p.65 / Chapter 4.1.1 --- Model formulation --- p.65 / Chapter 4.1.2 --- The challenges in extending the optimal policy --- p.67 / Chapter 4.2 --- Conclusion --- p.69 / Bibliography --- p.74

This study examined the impact of fiscal decentralization on quality financial reporting at the local government level in Ghana. The study is important because it provides development partners with the assurance that Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) funds are used for their intended purposes. The study was based on the theory of local public expenditures, which posits that fiscal decentralization may enhance local capacities for service delivery. The key research question examined the extent to which fiscal decentralization has influenced quality financial reporting at the local level. The research design was quantitative, randomly sampling stakeholders in the local government structures including traditional rulers, assembly members, principal spending officers, budget officers, auditors, and accountants (n = 65). Descriptive plots, Pearson chi-square, and multiple regression analysis were used to examine the relationship between the dependent variable of quality financial reporting and the independent variables of expenditure responsibilities, taxation powers, intergovernmental fiscal transfers, and borrowing powers. The results of the analysis revealed taxation powers to be the most significant contributor to quality financial reporting. Quality financial reporting improved internally-generated resources, reduced audit queries, and served as a basis for granting funds to MMDAs. The study recommends that MMDAs be given taxation powers to enable local assemblies to generate more revenue so as to minimize the need for the transfer of funds from development partners and central government. The significant social change implication of this study lies in giving MMDAs control of service delivery at the local level.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of fiscal decentralization on the efficiency of social security in China since the realization of social security was promoted and some relevant policies were implemented in 21 century. This study uses China’s provincial-level data of 31 regions from 2000 to 2009 and uses two inputs and three outputs to calculate the efficiency scores as the dependent variables. The inputs are the proportions of expenditures for social security and employment effort to total public expenditures and the proportions of hygiene, social security, and social welfare employed people to total employed people. The outputs are the coverage rate of urban basic pension insurance, the coverage rate of unemployment insurance, and the coverage rate of urban basic medical care insurance. Then, this study establishes four specifications of the Tobit model. Other factors, gross regional product per capita (PGRP), the degree of openness (OPEN), the scale of provincial government (SOG), the quadratic term of the former (SOGSQ), area dummy variables, and time dummy variables, are added into the Tobit model. The primary finding of this study is that fiscal decentralization has a positively non-monotonic influence on the efficiency of social security. This contributes positively to the efficiency of provincial government’s social security, but this positive influence does not always exist.

In addition to successful economic reforms, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) is also in the process of implementing reforms in the areas of civil society, decentralisation and grassroots democracy, within what is generally considered a strong state environment. Relevant research argues that uninhibited democracy, decentralisation and civil society are important elements in achieving what has been popularly termed community 'participation' by development practitioners. This process was particularly assisted by the release of the grassroots democracy decree of 1998 and its subsequent update in 2003 that set out the details of what Vietnam required from the village and commune levels as part of the reform process. Interestingly, it is also these two levels that form the dividing line between government and community in Vietnam. Although there have been several studies investigating the strengths and weaknesses of the implementation of the grassroots democracy decree and other related policies, village-based planning and development programs, which are a development approach piloted by several non-government organisations (NGOs) and donors to address these issues, have not been comprehensively evaluated. These programs, which are generally long-term, area-based, holistic and integrated, have frequently been observed to deliver many of the relevant elements within the larger notions of democracy, decentralisation, civil society and participation. The research explores the effectiveness of village-based planning and development approaches within the Vietnamese context using both quality and quantity criteria to assess elements of program effectiveness, focussing primarily on community level perspectives. Four projects of a selected international non-government organisation (INGO), were used as a detailed case study utilising a combination of qualitative focus groups and interviews, complimented by two quantitative household interviews. These community opinions were triangulated against the opinion of other key stakeholders including government, bilateral and multilateral aid donors, as well as Vietnamese and International NGOs involved in such approaches. The research highlights that with careful attention, village-based planning and development approaches do have the ability to more effectively allow the community to be put back into the 'centre of development' in Vietnam, rather than being passive recipients or marginalised by the development process. A set of seven key elements that contribute to more effective village-based planning and development approaches in Vietnam has been outlined in this thesis. It is hoped that these key elements might be further utilised by donor, NGO and government agencies to support the appropriate replication and up-scaling of the approaches to enable development needs and poverty to be more effectively reduced in Vietnam However, the approaches are not without their challenges, in particular in terms of achieving integrated planning from village to national level, being flexible enough for the variety of ethnic minority and geographical areas, effectively involving a broad and appropriate range of individuals and organised civil society groups and, perhaps most importantly, taking the approaches beyond the current few pilot programs to a national scale that forms a more integral part of the government's overall poverty reduction strategy.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Georgia State University, 2007. / Title from file title page. Sally Wallace, committee chair; James R. Alm, Jorge L. Martinez-Vazquez, Ragan Petrie, Yongsheng Xu, Stephen D. Younger, committee members. Electronic text (186 p. : ill., col. map)) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed Dec. 11, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 131-144).

<p>In this thesis the authors strive to investigate the risk management phenomena in the banking sector by conducting a longitudinal comparative study in two different banks i.e. Handelsbanken and Swedbank. In a broader perspective to understand the phenomena the authors depart from theoretical framework that recognizes the social and cultural elements of risk. However, to be more specific the thesis narrows down its analysis to three main variables that come under the realm of this discussion which are; how banks organizing for risk, how they measure it and the role of IT and human judgment. This study contributes to the banking sector by providing a road map of how successful banks manage risk. It highlights that the risk question should be addressed strategically and deemed to be a continuous phenomenon.</p>

Under the influence of orientation towards European integration, Georgia has introduced a variety of new laws with the apparent aim to decentralize legislative and executive powers. This paper shows that the Georgian efforts of decentralization remain superficial, mainly because they are not backed by additional fiscal competences at the municipality level. Following an initial description of the pre-reform situation as of 2006 and based upon a detailed account of the structural changes since 2007, the author gives insight into the conflicts which arise from the lack of institutional congruency. Neither the extraordinary status of the capital Tbilisi nor the seeming autonomy of the Rebublic of Adjara are likely to sway the renegade territories of Abchasia and Ossetia towards a reintegration under Georgian centralized rule as it continues to exist today. Likewise, the success of the proposed and discussed fiscal equalization scheme depends on whether the President and his ruling party are willing to delegate powers to the subodinate jurisdictions.

In this thesis the authors strive to investigate the risk management phenomena in the banking sector by conducting a longitudinal comparative study in two different banks i.e. Handelsbanken and Swedbank. In a broader perspective to understand the phenomena the authors depart from theoretical framework that recognizes the social and cultural elements of risk. However, to be more specific the thesis narrows down its analysis to three main variables that come under the realm of this discussion which are; how banks organizing for risk, how they measure it and the role of IT and human judgment. This study contributes to the banking sector by providing a road map of how successful banks manage risk. It highlights that the risk question should be addressed strategically and deemed to be a continuous phenomenon.