Buildings have significant and complex impacts both in their construction and in their use. Green building rating systems have been developed and promoted in more economically-advanced countries to offer guidelines to reduce negative impacts and to promote sustainable practices of building construction and operations. The green building rating system called Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), established in 1995 by the U.S. Green Building Council, is increasingly accepted as a meaningful measure for sustainability in building design and construction in the U.S. The Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) rating system in the U.K. and the Green Star rating system in Australia serve similar roles in their respective areas. How applicable are these green building rating systems to countries with different building cultures, climates and economic parameters? The research is based on my work as an architect and participant observer using case study analysis of several buildings that I have designed in Madagascar and Tanzania. The research indicates that several important aspects particular to the developing country contexts of Madagascar and Tanzania — such as labor and security - are not addressed by existing green building rating systems that have been developed in the context of more economically-advanced countries. Such rating systems typically give prominence to aspects such as mechanical systems and indoor air quality that are of limited relevance to the contexts of Madagascar and Tanzania. The results have implications for the development of green building rating systems that address the particular contexts of developing countries. By taking into account parameters such as those found in Madagascar and Tanzania and similar developing countries, the benefits of using an accepted measure of sustainability can be more effectively extended to the developing country sector. / Ph. D.

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Less Developed Countries (LDC's) now have a total of about 2.8 billion people, or approximately 70 percent of the total world population. World populations and current energy consumption are such that is all the world's countries came up to the U.S. per capita energy use, the world's consumption would multiply by a factor of seven. For the LDC's, energy development will be an increasingly important issue. Hydropower technology is on the shelf, and available now, of proven feasibility both technically and economically, and presents a sound and rational energy solution from the environmental viewpoint. It is a technology which could be useful to the Less Developed Countries for the long term, irrespective of the shift from abundant low-cost fossil fuel options or the development of more exotic alternate energy technologies. With its continuing replenishment and nondepleting characteristics, it remains one of the most attractive sources of energy. The nature of water resources includes a distributive element which makes it ideal for rural development. The apparent shift in development policy, from the traditional "top-down" industrialization approach to the "bottoms-up" reach the village approach, requires decentralized applications of energy resources attainable through development of hydropower in many regions of the world. Distributed Small Scale Hydropower (SSH) systems offer excellent opportunities to augment energy supplies to many rural areas. Also, in a modest way the development of a community infrastructure, training of operating and maintenance personnel, and initiation of small scale agribusiness enterprises may be undertaken. Each of these activities could result in relatively major contributions to the improvement of quality of life. SSH sites are found in abundancy in most mountainous regions and offer sensible possibilities for decentralized applications in LDC's.

No / The role of an effective regulatory regime in promoting economic growth and development has generated considerable interest among researchers and practitioners in recent years. In particular, building effective regulatory structures in developing countries is not simply an issue of the technical design of the most appropriate regulatory instruments, it is also concerned with the quality of supporting regulatory institutions and capacity. This paper explores the role of state regulation using an econometric model of the impact of regulation on growth. The results based on two different techniques of estimation suggest a strong causal link between regulatory quality and economic performance.

No / There is no doubt that increasing amounts of funding are needed to provide a full package of HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and mitigation interventions to Africa. However, even the existing funding flows are posing considerable challenges at a national level. In the quest for rapid results, donors have too often chosen to alleviate the lack of local capacity by bringing in foreign technical assistance or building parallel systems for delivering commodities such as drugs that may not be sustainable over the long term once external assistance stops. Even when such interventions may be relevant, they do not address the biggest challenge, namely how to build up the capacity and the systems needed for large-scale implementation of the AIDS response. This article argues that to attain the needed efficacy in HIV/AIDS mitigation programmes, further sustainable increase in external financing is certainly required (particularly for treatment programmes), but even more important is the need to implement them.

Yes / Financial access is gradually being recognised as an important input to economic development. Using World Bank (2007) database, this study measures the extent of financial access in developed and developing countries. Further, it develops a new Socio-Economic Development Index, which incorporates financial access. It then compares socio-economic development of various countries as shown by Human Development Index (HDI) alone and by the new index incorporating financial access. The results of the study show that Spain ranks highest in terms of financial access followed by Belgium, Malta and South Korea. In addition, the ranking of countries in terms of HDI changes if financial access is taken into account

Information and Communications Technology play prominent roles in all aspects of human life today. School curricula is continually being revised to take advantage of the opportunities that ICTs offer to improve teaching and learning. Using the tool development type of design and development research, this study translates the UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers (UNESCO ICT-CFT) into an online survey that is capable of detecting if computer labs of teacher training colleges in developing countries have the capability to be used to train teachers to exhibit the UNESCO ICT competencies. By employing design and development techniques of expert review and field tests, an online tool was developed that was able to provide feedback on the capability of selected computer labs to be used as centers for training teachers on the UNESCO ICT-CFT. This report provides a detailed account of the tool development process, including expert review and field tests. / Ph. D. / Information and Communications Technology play important roles in all aspects of human life today. School curricula is continually being revised to take advantage of the opportunities that Information and Communications Technology offer to improve teaching and learning. This study translates the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s Competency Framework for Teachers (UNESCO ICT-CFT) into an online survey that is capable of detecting if computer labs of teacher training colleges in developing countries have the capability to be used to train teachers to exhibit the UNESCO ICT-CFT. By employing techniques of expert review and field tests, an online tool was developed that was able to provide feedback on the capability of selected computer labs to be used as centers for training teachers on the UNESCO ICT-CFT. This report provides a detailed account of the tool development process, including expert review and field tests.