The importance of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) as a prerequisite for national development has been emphasized in recent years by developing countries and by donor agencies. Research findings point to the benefits children, as well as nations, derive from ECCE provision. For children, these benefits include school readiness; and for nations, benefits address the reduction of social inequality, possibilities for increased tax revenue through eventual improved employment prospects, and development of societal values. In 1990 at Jomtien in Thailand, 155 nations of the world agreed on a joint plan of action to fulfill six Education For All goals. The first goal required nations to work towards the expansion and improvement of comprehensive ECCE by the year 2015. The responsibility of poor countries was to make necessary budget allocations and policy commitments; rich countries were to provide both intellectual and financial support. Whilst some progress has been made, many developing countries especially in Sub-Saharan Africa are still at risk of not achieving EFA by 2015. Uganda is one country where there are difficulties in attaining EFA and ECCE in particular. This has been exacerbated by the prevailing economic, social, geographical, and cultural differences, as well as general beliefs about ECCE. This study investigates the present quality and accessibility in ECCE provision in Uganda. It explores the extent to which Uganda has expanded and improved ECCE and raises the key question as to why even with international donor support and government commitment to institutional changes, ECCE is an area of education still riven with problems. The study uses participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and photography in six selected schools in three Districts. Research findings reveal that the majority of children are not accessing ECCE provision, while many of those that do are being educated in environments not conducive to their learning and development. Findings show that there are a number of factors both internal and external to Uganda that impact upon efforts to fulfil the commitment made at Jomtien in 1990. This research concludes that first and foremost, there should be a national, ‘Ugandan’ approach to and policies about ECCE. Rather than being led by international pressure and policies, approaches to improving quality and accessibility in ECCE provision should be refocused away from ‘top-heavy’, ‘lop-sided’ approaches to a more pre-school-level focused approach. This will help in establishing and addressing culturally relevant and economically achievable quality targets. Secondly, there is need for public awareness of the importance of ECCE. This will not only give rise to increased community participation in the establishment of community-based ECCE centres, but also the involvement of stakeholders in the identification and implementation of solutions to the problems facing ECCE. And finally, rather than looking to the West for funding, Uganda should develop in-country funding strategies from both public and private sources. This will help to remove the negative impact of ‘modalities’, these often being required by external donor funding. In-country funding sources will as a result give Uganda room to ‘manoeuvre’ when planning for ECCE.

This thesis examines what it is that enables postgraduate student teachers to promote the recently introduced curriculum innovation, dialogic talk, in primary classrooms. Drawing on literature relating to the way talk has been enacted in English classrooms for the last thirty five years, it suggests that patterns of verbal interaction have continued to prove resistant to change, despite policy imperatives and university courses. Adopting a collaborative action research approach, data were collected in three cycles over three years to investigate the perceptions of three successive cohorts of postgraduate students of the role of talk in learning, and the place of the teacher in developing it. Using a sociocultural lens, students’ conceptual and pedagogic understanding of dialogic talk, and their ability to promote it, is examined in depth through nine case studies, as are the factors which the participants themselves identify as enabling or inhibiting engagement with innovation. It is suggested that the lack of a commonly agreed definition, and of readily available theoretical guidance, has reduced dialogic talk to just another label. As such, it can play no significant part in developing practice beyond rapid question-and-answer routines of ‘interactive teaching’ and the potentially reductive IRF (Initiation, Response, Feedback) script recorded by researchers (Mroz et al, 2000; Myhill, 2006) before, and after the inception of the National Literacy Strategy (1998a). Turning to the role of the university, it questions the place of the ‘demonstration lesson’ and whole cohort lectures, urging that significant changes need to be made to the role of the teaching practice tutor, and the nature of ‘partnership’ between schools and university departments. Finally, it speculates that without a significant change in the way university departments examine, and address, the values, attitudes and memories of talk that student teachers bring with them from their own primary classrooms, there will continue to be replication of practice.

Out of a total of 2,976 double tax agreements (DTAs), some 60% are signed between a developing and a developed economy. As DTAs shift taxing rights from capital importing to capital exporting countries, the prior would incur a loss. We demonstrate in a theoretical model that in a deal one country does not trump the other, but that the deal must be mutually beneficial. In the case of an asymmetric DTA, this requires compensation from the capital exporting country to the capital importing country. We provide empirical evidence that such compensation is indeed paid, for instance in the form of bilateral official development assistance, which increases on average by six million US$ in the year of the signature of a DTA. / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

Customers’ satisfaction is a decisive factor in the development process of business which has also an effective impact on contributing a country's GDP. Private banks have been emerged over the time in developing countries where customers’ satisfaction is the driven force of banking industry investigated in Bangladesh. In this study a conventional American Customer Satisfaction Index model has been used over Bangladesh to compare overall performance of banking industry. Customers’ satisfaction in Bangladesh has been measured from the different angle of customers’ perception based on their portfolio. This research has been designed on a quantitative approach followed by survey research method. Questionnaire was administered to collect data through objective list as well as physical interaction with the respondents from different locations in the capital city of Bangladesh named Dhaka. Collected data had been analyzed applying Partial Latent Square (PLS) software program. The study outcomes showed that the perceived quality is the main determinant factor on customer satisfaction towards banks in Bangladesh. It also revealed that significant relationship exists between customers’ satisfaction and customers’ loyalty. The revised model in 2016 represents the benchmark scores of customers’ satisfaction in Bangladesh lagged behind consecutively 18 and 13 scores than that of USA and Taiwan. Considering the study results, we summed the quality of service leads to satisfied customers in turns towards customers loyalty. Banks also can get competitive advantage by evaluating all classes of customers equally through providing superior services to them.

INTRODUCCIÓN. Los leucocitos fecales son utilizados para identificar diarrea invasiva y decidir el uso de antibióticos. Se conoce poco sobre su utilidad en hospitales de países en desarrollo con procesos de laboratorio eficientes. Buscamos evaluar el rendimiento diagnóstico de la prueba en menores de 5 años con diarrea aguda. MATERIAL Y MÉTODOS. Estudio retrospectivo de registros clínicos y de laboratorio en el Hospital de Emergencias Pediátricas, Lima, Perú. Se evaluó los casos a los que se había solicitado sistemática e independientemente leucocitos fecales y coprocultivo. Se calculó sensibilidad, especificidad, valores predictivos, cocientes de probabilidad (CP) y la curva de características operativas del receptor (ROC). RESULTADOS. De 1,804 muestras fecales, 901 (49,9%) fueron positivos para uno o más enteropatógenos bacterianos. La sensibilidad (S), especificidad (E), y el CP positivo variaron para los diferentes umbrales: más de 5 leucocitos por campo (S: 93.2%, E: 21.9%, CP: 1.9), más de 20 (S: 88.4%, E: 34.8%, CP: 1.35), más de 50 (S: 74.9%, E: 56.7%, CP: 1.73), y más de 100 (S: 60.7%, E: 71.9%, CP: 2.17). El área bajo la curva ROC fue 0.69 (IC 95%: 0.67-0.72). CONCLUSIONES. El rendimiento de la prueba es sub-óptimo y continuar su uso rutinario en la práctica clínica no parece justificado, pues promueve el abuso de antibióticos y por otro lado aumenta el riesgo de pasar por alto pacientes con diarrea invasiva. Se necesita estudiar el rendimiento diagnóstico de datos epidemiológicos y clínicos combinados con leucocitos fecales o lactoferrina fecal, para identificar una aproximación más eficiente. / INTRODUCTION. Fecal leukocytes are widely used to identify invasive diarrhea and to make then the decision of prescribing or not antibiotics. This test has been hardly assessed in small hospitals of developing countries with efficient laboratory processes. We aimed to assess the diagnostic performance of different thresholds of fecal leukocytes in children under-five with acute diarrhea. MATERIAL AND METHODS. Retrospective study of clinical and laboratory records in the Pediatric Emergency Hospital, Lima, Peru. All cases with a stool culture and fecal leukocytes independently and systematically performed were studied. Sensitivity, specificity, predictive values, likelihood ratios (LR), and receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves were calculated. RESULTS. Out of 1,804 stool samples assessed, 901 (49,9%) were positive for one or more bacterial entheropathogens. Sensitivity (Sn), specificity (Sp), and positive LR varied for different thresholds: more than 5 (S: 93.2%, Sp: 21.9%, LR+:), more than 20 (Sn: %, Sp: %, +LR: ), more than 50 (Sn: 74.9%, Sp: 56.7%, +LR: 1.73), and more than 100 fecal leukocytes per high power field (Sn: 60.7%, Sp: 71.9%, LR+: 2.17). The general area under the ROC curve was 0.69 (CI 95%: 0.67-0.72).

L’objectif de cette thèse est d’analyser l’apport des énergies renouvelables à la transitionénergétique dans les pays en développement (PED). L’apport des énergies renouvelables à latransition énergétique dans les pays en développement se justifie à deux niveaux. Dans unpremier temps il vise à étudier les conditions, moyens et conséquences de la modification desstructures de production énergétique existantes basées sur les technologies fossiles vers cellesintégrant les technologies propres qui sont plus respectueuses de la qualité de l’environnement.Dans un second temps, l’analyse de la transition énergétique propose une architectureinstitutionnelle, technologique, sociologique, réglementaire et managériale favorisant laconvergence vers un système socio-technique soutenable à travers la diffusion et l’adoption destechnologies renouvelables. Partant des approches existantes, l’idée fondatrice de cette thèse estd’insister sur la nécessité d’une mise en place d’une approche mixte de transition énergétiquedans les pays en développement en combinant une approche décentralisée (permettant de prendreen compte les caractéristiques spatiales des zones rurales enclavées) et centralisées (permettantd’insérer les PED dans un paradigme énergétique soutenable). A partir de cette orientation, nous!6proposons une approche interdisciplinaire empiriquement basée sur l’Afrique du Sud et leSénégal afin d’analyser l’apport des énergies renouvelables à la transition énergétique. Les outilsméthodologiques ont combiné la modélisation du type bottom-up et les techniques d’optimisationà travers les algorithmes de programmation linéaire. / The objective of this doctorate thesis is to investigate the contribution of renewable technologiesto energy transition in developing nations. In the theoretical framework such a contribution couldbe justified in two points. First, it analyses conditions, means and consequences of a modificationof a fuel-based energy production scheme to a new structure based on a more sustainableorientedpathway. Second, the analysis of energy transition provides institutional, technological,sociological and managerial frameworks strengthening the convergence toward a sustainableoriented energy paradigm through a diffusion and adoption of renewable technologies. From theexisting approaches, the core of this thesis is to assume a requirement to consider a mixedapproach of energy transition in developing nations through a combination of both decentralizedand centralized options. The decentralized energy transition approach allows an insertion ofspatial and geographical characteristics of remote locations in developing nations while thecentralized approach strengthens an inclusion of developing nations in a sustainable energyparadigm. From this orientation, we propose an interdisciplinary methodology, empirically basedon South Africa and Senegal in order to investigate the possible contribution of renewabletechnologies to energy transition. To investigate these questions, we combine a bottom-up energymodeling approach with optimization techniques through a linear programming algorithm.

Workers in labour-intensive industries in developing countries have been described as the ‘hidden hands’ in the making of valuable goods in global production networks (GPNs). The process of improving the rights and entitlements of workers in GPNs have been referred to as ’social upgrading’. However, literature on social upgrading has tended to overlook the role of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and there is still little scientific understanding of how small businesses in developing countries can engage in social upgrading. The aim of this thesis is to enhance the understanding of how SMEs in developing countries can improve working conditions and labour rights. Through a qualitative case study, this study goes beyond statements of leading Fair Trade brands to provide insights based on voices of both workers and owner-managers in a small garment factory in Nepal. This study brings forward observations where SMEs, shaped by their characteristics, are enabled to evade responsibilities concerning working conditions and labour rights.

In the last decade, there has been an exponential rise in mobile phones in both developed and developed countries. In light of that, this paper investigates whether the expansion of such mobile networks leads to increased entrepreneurial activity. By conducting panel regressions, I find the degree to which various stages of entrepreneurial activity is affected by increased mobile phone subscription rates. I use data from 80 countries from 2007 to 2015 and parse out the different effects between developing and developed countries, and between males and females. I find that larger mobile networks encourage entrepreneurship, particularly in the early stages, with a larger benefit experienced by developed countries compared to developing countries. In addition, more females than males engage in early-stage entrepreneurship due to increased mobile phone subscription rates in developing countries. However, an opposite trend is observed in developed countries. Finally, I also consider potential implications on economic development as a result of such increased business formation.

When information technology is incorporated into the operations of financial critical infrastructure, it brings with it a range of cyber risks, and mitigating them requires that firms and regulators develop capabilities to foster protection. The sophistication of cyber threats to the financial sector has been growing rapidly. Developed nations have worked hard to improve their knowledge of these threats and establish strategies to respond accordingly. However, in developing nations, both the understanding of the risks posed by cyber threats and the ability to address those risks have been slower to evolve. Developing the needed cybersecurity capabilities in developing countries encounter challenges that need to be identified and addressed. In order to begin to do that, this thesis reports on three studies conducted in the context of Ecuador. The first study identifies and assesses incident experiences, challenges, barriers, and desired actions reported by financial security managers with the objective of identifying strategies to enhance incident response capabilities. The second study begins with the security incidents reported by the Ecuadorian financial stakeholders during the first study and assesses the potential effectiveness of the government policy that is intended to address IT risk in the financial sector. The third study explores the challenges that universities face in order to provide cybersecurity instruction to protect critical infrastructure and explores potential strategies to advance cybersecurity education at the university level. In support of this work we collected data from national practitioners involved in responding to security incidents and in developing cybersecurity skills. Sixty-one in-depth, semi-structured interviews across five cities were conducted (95% in person, the rest by telephone) with respondents who had good knowledge in the subjects. Respondents come mainly from: the financial sector (CISOs, risk and IT managers, security chiefs, security officers, authorities); telecommunications sector, especially ISPs (managers, directors, engineers, authorities); and academia (deans, directors, professors). We transcribed all the interviews, coded them and conducted qualitative text analysis. This research finds that (1) the financial sector is already facing risks driven by outsiders and insiders that lead to fraud and operational errors and failures. The main barriers to improving protection are small team size, network visibility, inadequate internal coordination, technology updating, lack of training, and lack of awareness. The sector has little community support to respond to incidents, and the national legal framework has not supported appropriate prosecution of cyber criminals; (2) the national IT risk management policy has reasonably covered most countermeasures related to reported security incidents. There are however, several areas of gap, one of the most important is network security, which can enable sophisticated malware attacks; (3) today the level of cybersecurity education is mostly elementary in Ecuador. Academic interviewees at only four of the thirteen universities studied expressed confidence that they can provide students with reasonable preparation. Ecuador needs to design a national cybersecurity plan that prioritizes protection for critical infrastructure and should support strategies that allow the country to enhance cybersecurity capabilities. Properly designed these initiatives should allow the nation to develop a core structure to confront current and emergent cyber challenges in the financial sector and other critical national operations, and build the human resources necessary to continue that effort.

I analyze the correlation between a nation leader’s foreign education experience and their nation’s GDP growth and economic freedom in African, Asian, and South American countries. There is a statistically significant correlation between a leader’s foreign education and the country’s GDP growth rate, especially in Africa. Data also shows that a leader’s foreign education is positively correlated with his country’s economic freedom. Despite the fact that the regressions can only demonstrate correlation as opposed to causation relationships among variables, further analysis of the results concludes that a leader’s education and the country’s development are reciprocal. The findings of this paper shine light on future policy directions for developing countries.