No description available.

Note:

Thesis (MDF)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This research report is a case study of a rural agricultural cooperative bank, the People’s National Cooperative Bank (NPCB). The NPCB has its foundations in the early 1900s and today operates 37 branches across the island of Jamaica. Notwithstanding its history, the NPCB has continued to suffer from issues related to overall profitability and therefore has undergone various transformations and amalgamations of branches over the years. This study involves a comparative analysis of branch performance based on branch-specific financial data. Best and worst practice banks are identified along with their key characteristics in order to pinpoint areas of operations that may benefit from improvement. It is suggested that the variance in the level of efficiency with which resources are employed and incomes earned are factors which affect the level of performance of individual branches. The findings of the research indicate large variations in branch expenses, incomes and lending rates and suggest the need for further examination of branches on a case-by-case basis in order to better facilitate improvements in their respective levels of efficiency.

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1982. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 112). / The opportunities for utilizing Jamaica/s rich supply of renewable energy resources as a base for stead, environmentally sound rural development is tremendous. This thesis explores as way of tapping this potential. Jamaica's current plans for both energy and rural community development are reviewed and general suggestions offered as to how the necessary integration of the two plans can be achieved for short and long term energy conscious planning and program implementation. The focus of the proposal is on the development of Rural Community Development Centers that would be designed to build a renewable energy infrastructural base for the specific communities and generally respond to the energy, educational and productive needs as they change over time. / by Michael Onaje Jackson. / M.Arch.

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1980. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Bibliography: leaves 77-81. / by Deborah Kay Jordan. / M.C.P.

The following thesis addresses the need for low income housing in Jamaica with the purpose of evaluating the existing circumstances that influence the growth or decline of the low income housing industry. The focus is on identifying solutions that fuel growth. Research on the current state of low income housing in Jamaica and the programs that have been established to aid in the development of such housing, was carried out in the United States and in Jamaica. Questionnaires were developed and sent to individuals within the construction industry, targeting those who participate on low income housing projects. The results were collected, analyzed, described, and were used to extrapolate the research results. From this conclusions were drawn and recommendations made. Although Jamaica is considered a developing nation, in some advancement the island operates on a first world level. However, challenged by economic development, providing low income housing is limited by the resources available and the effectiveness of the programs implemented. This research attempts to create an overview of Jamaicas low income housing industry.

No description available.

Particular aspects of contemporary Jamaican culture are revealed as they have been experienced. and perceived by one of its members. Selected events in the life history of a rural Jamaican male are presented and analyzed in terms of his explanations for them and behavioral responses to them. These events also serve as exemplifications or indicators of specific socio-cultural dynamics in Jamaica today. An emphasis is put on economic, ideological, and familial factors generally found in contemporary Jamaica that influenced the perception, attitudes, and behaviors of the subject.

No description available.

Rural citizens in developing countries are becoming the focal point of social, economic and political development efforts. These people traditionally have been left out of the developmental process. National leaders have now realized that the citizens of rural areas have the potential to contribute significantly to developmental efforts of their nations. One important part of most developing nations' strategies for social and economic development is education. The principal form of education has been that of formal education, the trappings of which were borrowed from the nations' former colonial masters. The education systems increasingly have been seen as working against national development objectives, particularly in rural areas. Educational planners and policymakers have found an alternative in non-formal education, whereby rural people theoretically obtain the skills, knowledge, and attitudes necessary to initiate their own development projects. However, developing nations lack the human, financial, and material resources needed to concurrently offer both formal and non-formal education programs. Outside funding sources have been sought pursuant to United States foreign policy. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has given impetus to experiments in non-formal education in some 60 countries of Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. The purpose of this dissertation is to examine relationships between education and rural community development, particularly as these relationships have been reported in underdeveloped nations. The methods of inquiry involved: 1. a substantive analysis and synthesis of the development literature, and 2. a detailed case study of non-formal education and rural development in Jamaica. The dissertation develops a thesis, namely that three general relationships may be observed between education and rural development. They are: 1. Formal education is intended to raise rural children to literacy and productivity in the development of their native areas. Instead, it tends to raise students' expectations towards employment in urban centers, thus bleeding rural areas of trained skills. Formal education has become an entrenched system both as a monopoly of central government bureaucracy, and as the one road recognized by rural adults as leading to a better life. There is a conflict between expectation and delivery, complicated by lack of realistic means for appraisal and change. 2. Alternatively, certain forms of non-formal education may hold promise for improving the quality of living in the rural areas of developing nations; however, the conditions necessary for a definitive test of non-formal education in rural community development are not likely to be developed under the sponsorship of the education establishment of the developing nations, even when such test is stimulated and heavily supported by outside agencies such as the United States Agency for International Development. 3. Moreover, the idiosyncratic policies, organization, and funding practices of USAID, the principal source of financial aid for development projects among developing nations, themselves influence the design and outcome of development projects in ways that mitigate against successful development. Clearly, this poses a dilemma for those governments that seek to develop their rural areas. Traditional institutions and programs have been used to improve conditions in rural areas. Yet these very institutions and programs may be part of the development problems. International development literature is replete with theoretical and promising new programs that cannot be fairly tested. There is no indication that national governments could or would assimilate these programs into standard practice, moreover, the status quo is supported by rural populations. / Ed. D.