The purpose of this study is three-fold. The first is to provide the reader with a review of the literature concerning the topic of regional political integration. The second purpose is to provide an operational definition of regional political integration which can be useful in the testing of hypotheses. Regional political integration is defined in terms of the regional decision-making process. Various levels of regional political integration are defined, operationalized, and identified. The levels from lowest to highest are as follows: regional promotion, regional information exchange, regional policy coordination, regional monitor, and regional authoritative decision-making. The third purpose of the study is to analyze the factors which are hypothesized to be correlated with and responsible for the changing levels of regional political integration.

Information Communication Technologies are increasingly used in organisations’ market expansion strategies. These Information communication technologies provide organisations with opportunities such as ease of communication and movement of resources, making the entry into new markets a faster and less resource heavy process. When expanding throughout the African continent, the challenge presented in using this approach is that many African markets have underdeveloped information communication technology infrastructure. In considering this barrier, the extent to which information communication technology enables market expansion throughout the African continent is the topic which has been fully analysed and discussed. An exploratory research design and a qualitative method have been used in this study. The subjects of the data collection were three key individuals selected from a large South African retailer. These three individuals job roles spanned across the marketing and IT departments and were influential in the organisation’s expansion efforts throughout Africa. The findings of this study show that the levels of information communication technology infrastructure vary vastly from country to country on the African continent, noting South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Zambia and Botswana as the more advanced nations with the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda lagging in development. The findings also show that for retailers, the retail focused technology available in South Africa is not yet available in other African nations which causes challenges in offering the same value to consumers across the board. However, the finding show that the development of cloud-based systems has assisted in the widespread use of technologies without the need of heavy investments into physical locations.

This study demonstrated a technique for fabricating simple, low-cost Paper Microbial fuel cells (PMFC’s) in the model of a previous study to, for the first time, produce voltage from wastewater effluent. The PMFC’s were created by stacking and gluing the main components of an MFC together: reservoir layer; anode; cation exchange membrane (CEM); air cathode. A wax printer was used to create the hydrophobic borders of the PMFC’s on filter paper, and graphite paint was applied to the paper to create the anode. The CEM’s considered were filter paper, wax, and Nafion, with Nafion being the most efficient. Finally, the air cathode was made using carbon veil, and leads (or resistors) were placed in both anode and cathode layers for voltage measurement. Confirming previous studies’ results, the PMFC’s had a rapid startup time and sustained voltage for at least 10 minutes. The study also found that: Nafion was the best CEM; painting one side of the anode had the highest voltage; higher surface area increased voltage; increased time from sampling decreased voltage. Thus, this study proved that the small, low-cost PMFC devices described in previous studies can produce a voltage using primary effluent, and showed that the surface area of the PMFC could be optimized to increase voltage.

This thesis examines the role of primary health care delivery in rural India but specifically focuses on aspects from Karnataka state. It broadly reflects on the differences that exist between urban and rural populations' access to healthcare. The concept of primary health care appears to have lost its lustre at present, it was once enthusiastically promoted in the late 1970s and 1980s but as chronic problems appeared to affect the smooth delivery of healthcare and nowadays major global bodies like the WHO and IMF have relegated primary health concept to a lower level. However in countries like India, which adopted this concept although its implementation has been riddled with complex ongoing problems, there are not sufficient grounds to abandon it completely. These problems are mainly due to the slow implementation, which has left a vast rural population with little or no access to healthcare. Primary health care strongly promotes equity of access hence is vital in many developing nations. Recruiting highly skilled personnel to work in rural health centres has been an ongoing problem, which hinders the effective delivery of healthcare. A policy followed by Karnataka state tries to rectify this problem by offering postgraduate positions to junior doctors who are willing to work in rural areas. The efficacy of this policy is closely examined from two perspectives. Those who consume healthcare in rural areas are given an opportunity to voice their concerns and also the doctors who work there represent the views of the providers of healthcare. This study was conducted in Bidar district, which lies in the north of Karnataka. Bidar is identified comparatively as a less developed district that has many problems associated with poverty and poor health status. In the process of conducting research a variety of interesting aspects have been highlighted. My hope is that relevant authorities identify with the problems and take measures that could benefit many people's lives. Interestingly it transpires from the views expressed by the rural population that they have a good grasp of what they think they will need to access a better form of healthcare from the existing system. However it appears that there is almost a universal fatalistic acceptance of them being helpless and voiceless about making any to change by their suggestions nor did most of them have a hope of influencing future prospects. The studies also indicated that where there is a better level of provision there the people tend to access healthcare from authentic sources as opposed to unregistered and unqualified personnel. The doctors suggested that the policy is very useful provide certain intrinsic changes are made. On the one hand they did accept that their cost benefit and academic value of this policy is great. On the other hand they suggested the hurdles put in the course of achieving the postgraduate position are arduous and often vague sets of guidelines are imposed, making it very hard to make a straightforward transition from working in rural areas to getting a postgraduate position of choice. The doctors working on temporary contracts appeared to suffer genuine discrimination especially due to number of years they spent trying to get permanent position, years which were not counted towards their ambition of further education. Where it appears there is very little difference in the roles and responsibility between permanent and temporary contract doctors the question of why it does not occur to the authorities to redress this issue is discussed.

The purpose of this dissertation is to study the planning and budgeting processes in Jordan to determine whether the findings of Caiden and Wildavsky about those processes in other poor countries generally are applicable to Jordan. An attempt is made to answer the research questions by comparing data from national plans, budgets, and expenditures during a fifteen-year period (1970-1984). In Jordan, as in other developing nations, the role of planning and budgeting is highly significant to the success of the country's hopes for development. This research tries to evaluate the role of planning and budgeting as policy instruments in the process of development in Jordan. The second focus of the dissertation concerns the possibilities and problems of assessing the impact of governmental policies on development. Specifically, an assessment is made to determine the impact of governmental expenditures on development as evidenced in Jordan s gross national product during the last fifteen years. The following questions are addressed in order to examine the impact of government action on economic development. First, what are the impact and significance of government expenditures, as a combined measure, on the gross national product in Jordan? Second, which governmental expenditure areas provide the greatest contribution to an increase in the Jordanian GNP? Data for Jordan are compared with Caiden and Wildavsky's assumptions about planning and budgeting in poor countries, and conclusions are drawn about how planning and budgeting have influenced economic and social development in Jordan.

There is an overall consensus that the poor governance and corruption plaguing many developing nations are main inhibitors to progress. These inhibitors also lead to the overwhelming feelings of desperation, apathy, and determinism. International development assistance programs utilizing capacity building have been created to deal with sustainable development issues in the developing world. Often these programs are fragmented and address results, not the causes, of problems. This study assesses how existing community development approaches could be aided through a strategic sustainable development perspective. A majority of the research involved creation of a holistic innovative community development approach, which encourages transformational change and effective leadership, and comparison of that to an existing community development approach. Strengths and limitations were observed through this comparison and generic recommendations were created to support current approaches. The study found that existing development assistance strategies are effective at building capacity and helping communities, but encompassing a more holistic perspective could align planning and decision-making with socio-ecological sustainability and thereby support mid- and long-term progress.

Dans le cadre du protocole de Kyoto, la France s’est engagée à diviser par quatre ses émissions de gaz à effet de serre (GES) de 1990 à l'horizon 2050. Le Mexique a pour objectif d’atteindre une réduction de 50% en 2050 par rapport à l’année 2000. En vue du poids croissant du secteur des transport dans les villes d’environ 1 million d’habitants dans le total des émissions de CO2, nous souhaitons vérifier dans quelles mesures les expériences observées dans le Nord (plafonnement de la mobilité, diffusion de nouvelles technologies sur les véhicules) peuvent se répéter dans le Sud. Nous nous sommes pour cela appuyé sur des études de cas en France (Paris et Lille) et au Mexique (Juarez et Puebla). Le premier objectif de cette thèse a été d’identifier les déterminants de la mobilité urbaine. Le deuxième objectif a été d’appliquer le modèle âge-cohorte pour la prévision de la demande de transport, afin de prendre en compte l’évolution de la structure de la population (vieillissement) et les changements de comportement. Finalement, nous avons développé des diagnostics des émissions de GES. En France, nous avons observé des tendances vers une réduction des émissions de GES due à la baisse de la mobilité et aux nouvelles technologies, mais qui est encore loin d'être suffisante pour atteindre les objectifs fixés. Les études de cas du Mexique montrent l’incapacité à inverser la tendance à l'augmentation des émissions de GES ; par conséquent les objectifs de réduction seront difficilement atteints. Le cas du Mexique peut nous donner un aperçu des tendances dans les pays émergents, qui sont très loin d'atteindre un développement durable et resteront face à un grand défi dans le futur. / In the context of the Kyoto Protocol, France has set Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emission reduction targets of 75% below 1990 levels by 2050. More recently, Mexico has set the objective to achieve a 50% reduction by 2050 with respect to the base year 2000. Since the transport sector in urban areas with approximately 1 million inhabitants accounts for most CO2 emissions and will continue to increase its share, we wanted to determine to what extent the experiences observed in cities from developed countries (peak travel, dissemination of new vehicle technologies) may be repeated in urban areas from developing nations. For this purpose, we focus on case studies in France (Paris and Lille) and Mexico (Juarez and Puebla). The first objective of this thesis was to identify the determinants of mobility on each urban region. The second objective was to apply the age-cohort model for the development of long-term travel demand forecasts in order to take into account changes in the population structure (ageing) and in travel behaviour. The last objective was to develop GHG emissions assessments from observed travel demand. The decline in mobility and the dissemination of new vehicle technologies in France led to a reduction in GHG emissions. However, these changes are not sufficient to achieve the GHG reduction targets. The case studies in Mexico show the inability to reverse the trend towards the increase of GHG emissions; therefore the reduction targets will be hardly achieved. The case of Mexico give us an overview of trends in emerging countries, which are very far from achieving sustainable development and will face a major challenge in the coming decades.

Magister Legum - LLM / In this thesis, the study examines the factors that are believed to be instrumental in this trade imbalance between the European Union and the developing world in the agricultural sector. The study focuses on the main reason for the existence of this imbalance which is the continued use of export subsidies by the European Union. The discussion attempts to highlight the inadequacies which exist in the current trade relationship between the European Union and developing nations , in particular South Africa with regard to agricultural produce. / South Africa

現今年代，已不在是只有最富有和已開發國家才有舉辦豪華大型活動的權力，體育大型活動也不在是純粹的體育競賽了。由於舉辦比賽及活動可產生數十億美元的經濟效應，南半球的發展中國家及熱切的想申辦此類大型活動。但舉辦一場大型活動實際又會對當地社區、城市，甚至一個社會帶來什麼樣的影響呢？特別是當舉辦國是較貧困和資源不足的發展中國家，有時，發展中國家的社會保障自卑感造成了與已開發國家結果截然不同的結果，在某些情況下這樣的挑戰是普遍的，不管如何這樣的情況在發展中國家更常發生，也往往導致災難性的後果。本文試圖了解，在社會和經濟層面，在特定國家體育大型活動的舉辦對於特定社會群體的影響。本文希望發展中國家未來在招標與申請舉辦大型活動時，能對於現實有更好的了解，並能設置更合理的預期，此外也能對伴隨而來不可避免的人口問題有一定的準備。 / Gone are the days when the hosting of lavish mega-events is exclusive to the wealthiest and most developed nations. Gone too are the days when sporting mega-events were purely sporting spectacles. With tournaments and events generating billions of dollars, developing nations in the global south have, with increasing enthusiasm, bid to host such events. But how does a mega-event actually affect a community, a city, a society? What happens when that community is particularly impoverished and in an under-resourced developing nation? At times, the social security inferiority of developing nations produces results starkly different results to those of the developed world and in other situations the challenges are universal but are exacerbated in the developing world, often with dire consequences. This dissertation seeks to understand how, on social and economic levels, the hosting of sporting mega-events manifests itself to particular groups in society, in particular kinds of nations. This is done with the hope that developing nations bidding and hosting in the future may better appreciate the reality and therefore not only set more realistic expectations but also better prepare to guard against and remedy the inevitable consequences on some sectors of the population.

Thesis (Master of Military Studies)-Marine Corps Command and Staff College, 2008. / Title from title page of PDF document (viewed on: Feb 2, 2010). Includes bibliographical references.