This thesis aims at investigating the importance of effective implementation of health safety and hygiene legislations and practices in Health Care delivery systems. A new System Based Approach for Strategic Implementation of Occupational Health & Safety Practices is proposed in this thesis. The underlying principle of the approach is based on involvement and inputs from staff and management rather than by pre-specified requirements and objectives. Furthermore, the development process is a closed loop process that provides a mechanism for continuously evaluating system performance and monitoring activities that have considerable impact on health and safety practices. A case study was conducted in the medical laboratories of five major hospitals in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. Data were collected through questionnaires, staff interviews, and reviewing laboratory safety reports compiled over a three years period. The main conclusions from this study are: 1. The proposed approach has proven to be useful in analyzing existing health and safety systems. The methodology and tools proved to be instrumental in defining inefficiencies and determining the status of the Health & Safety policies & practices in the selected medical laboratories. 2. Effective implementation of the proposed approach has shown improvements in productivity, operational cost, service quality, staff and management satisfaction. 3. The case study has demonstrated that a developing country such the UAE, with no previously existing Health & Safety legislation and little risk prevention culture, can rapidly and effectively introduce effective industry specific H&S by adopting an integrated systems based approach. 4. UAE has highly advanced and economically developing base, there is a general willingness at senior level within the UAE to achieve high levels of competence and standards in all industrial sectors. 5. CAP is a system based management tool which has been implemented globally, but only limited in the gulf region; CAP has been implemented by the author and colleges within Zayed Military Hospital between 2003-2007.

Thesis (MDF (Development Finance))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The main aim of this study, firstly, is to evaluate the financial performance of the Development Bank of Namibia (DBN) over the period of 2003 to 2007. Secondly, the study aims to compare financial performance of the Development Bank of Namibia with the Development Bank of Southern Africa during the same period. In recent years, there has been a number of criticisms raised against the Development Bank of Namibia. These have been noted by the political appointment of the top management in the bank who has no experience in monitoring of the funds and development projects (World Bank, 2003). In addition, the bank has been criticized for poor performance, in terms of very low returns due to poor procurement performance and weak performance of project management units (African Development Bank, 2005). The bank has also been seen undermining people's human rights through funded projects which were only given to those people who are politically connected or comrades (The Namibian, 2002). Two financial statements of the Development Bank of Namibia, namely the Income Statement and Balance Sheet of the period of 2003 to 2007, are used to evaluate the financial performance of the bank. Trend analysis, monitoring and evaluation reports, financial ratios and statistical tools are employed to conduct this study. Trend analysis, financial ratios and statistical tools indicated that there was no evidence to infer that the Development Bank of Namibia did perform poorly during 2003 to 2007. However, monitoring and evaluation reports indicated that there was inefficiency in terms of bank operations.

<p>The research reported here is a meta-evaluative case study of project evaluation in the context of Official Development Cooperation (ODC) in the education sector in Tanzania, where the particular focus is on capturing the relative values attached to evaluation by various stakeholder groups.</p><p>Perspectives from the constructivist paradigm are adopted, implying relativist ontology, subjectivist epistemology, and naturalistic interpretive methodology. Based on these perspectives, a review is provided of development theories and evaluation theories, including the actor-oriented approach to development, participatory monitoring & evaluation, utilization-focused evaluation, and responsive-constructivist evaluation. An exploratory qualitative case study strategy is taken, combining several complementary methods e.g. in-depth interviews, questionnaires, document analysis, and observations.</p><p>Evaluation is considered as an applied social research, implying a managerial and political purpose. It is a reflective interactive process, where the relevance, effectiveness and impact of an intervention in pursuit of certain objectives are assessed, adding value in order to construct knowledge for the enhancement of decision-making. In order to facilitate understanding of the cases under study, their structural contexts are investigated: 1) ODC evaluation systems and strategies (international/ macro context); and 2) ODC in the education sector in Tanzania (national/meso context). Each case (at local/micro level) is located within these contexts and analyzed applying a meta-evaluative framework.</p><p>Integrating the perspectives of the stakeholders, the study demonstrates the strengths of, and constraints on, each case, factors which are to some extent determined by their respective time-frames. A number of significant discrepancies between theory and practice in ODC evaluation are reported. Findings indicate the significance of constructing consensus values that are based on a synthesis of multiple stakeholders’ values and perspectives complementing each others. The study also find that evaluation ought to be used as a powerful tool in which the values, needs and aspirations of various stakeholder groups can be reflected, especially those of local communities, who are now too often powerless in ODC projects in the education sector.</p>

The advent of democracy in 1994 prompted the South African government to provide public goods to the entire population as opposed to providing services along racial lines, as was the case during the apartheid era. Consequently, government expenditure increased considerably. However, continuous service delivery protests in recent years indicate that government has not been operating optimally. The Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation and National Treasury introduced Organisational Performance Management (OPM) to improve service delivery. Government also adopted internal auditing as a mechanism to improve OPM because of internal auditing’s mandate, role and body of knowledge. This study explored the implementation of OPM as a management tool to assist national departments in effectively delivering goods and services to the public economically and efficiently. The study also explored the adoption of internal auditing by national departments as a mechanism to improve OPM. The study followed a sequential mixed methods approach. The chief audit executives of eighteen national departments participated in the quantitative phase. Interviews were held with employees from four national departments as well as two monitoring departments. Departmental officials included five deputy directors-general, three chief directors, four directors, one deputy director and one senior internal auditor. Seven focus group discussions were held with twenty-two internal auditors from the four departments. Sixty-four documents were analysed. The study found that national departments have implemented systems of OPM and the reporting of quarterly performance information but are at different levels of maturity. However, governance and reporting fatigue and a reluctance to implement effective consequence management for poor performance may be undermining optimal performance. National departments may be also preparing strategic plans, annual performance plans and annual reports simply for compliance rather than for optimal performance. The study also found that internal auditors may not have a thorough understanding of the department’s performance environment and consequently undertake limited assessments of OPM, focusing mainly on quarterly performance information (PI) and documentation rather than on organisational strategy. However, management’s expectations from internal auditing go beyond assessing the quarterly PI and require advice and guidance on strategic imperatives. The appropriate skills, knowledge and training of internal auditors therefore require review. Management expects assurance of sustainable future performance of the department. Internal auditing currently stands positioned to make an evolutionary transformation into becoming the most important strategic partner to management. However, under-theorisation and a restricted internal auditing approach inhibit its natural evolution. / College of Accounting Sciences / D. Phil. (Accounting Sciences)

Participatory monitoring of ecological and socioeconomic effects of harvesting and trading natural resources is advocated as a promoter of natural resource conservation and local communitiy empowerment. Nevertheless, the strategys success depends upon peoples willingness and availability to participate. Yet little is known about the factors that drive local communities to volunteer in participatory monitoring, particularly in relation to small-scale communities living in remote locations. This thesis investigated whether a number of candidate factors were able to predict peoples participation in monitoring. To do so, we conducted a study in a forest community of the Brazilian Amazon that harvested and traded Carapa guianensis (andiroba), a non-timber forest product (NTFP). Two methods of data gathering were employed: (i) an interview-based survey of 166 adults ( 18 y.o.; 51 households) to estimate peoples self-stated intention to participate and the drivers of their participation, and (ii) experimentally-implemented monitoring tasks of the effects of harvesting and trading C. guianensis to measure peoples actual participation. Results are presented in three chapters. In Chapter 1, we evaluated whether economic benefits received from the NTFP trade or, alternatively peoples cooperativeness, were more important in predicting peoples participation. Results indicated that both variables raised peoples intention and actual levels of participation in monitoring, but cooperativeness was a stronger and better predictor across monitoring tasks. In Chapter 2, we investigated the psychology of engaging in monitoring, departing from the theoretical framework of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) for understanding whether the variables in the model were appropriate to predict the willingness to volunteer in monitoring tasks. We found that the TPB model, in general, was able to predict peoples intention to volunteer in monitoring tasks. Specifically, one of the attitude indicators (attitude pleasure) explained the intention to engage in all monitoring tasks assessed. Subjective norms were also important to predict the intention to collect data on natural resource populations and to interview community inhabitants, whereas perceived behavioral control predicted the intention to collect data on natural resources and to deal with data management and storage. Finally, in Chapter 3 we hypothesized that the awareness of ecological and socioeconomic impacts of NTFP harvest and trade should explain peoples participation in monitoring. Results indicated that both factors were important, particularly regarding to peoples actual participation, although factors such as gender, age and schooling were occasionally stronger predictors. Nevertheless, there is evidence that combining monitoring of ecological and socioeconomic factors will boost the practices success. The study conclusions contribute to lessons aimed at stimulating participation in monitoring. Among those, we highlight the importance of strategies to increase levels of cooperativeness among people, spreading information about the possible negative effects of natural resource harvest and trade, and granting financial compensations equivalent to the opportunity costs of participation. / O monitoramento participativo dos efeitos ecológicos e socioeconômicos da coleta e do comércio de recursos naturais é uma estratégia considerada promotora tanto da conservação ambiental, quanto do empoderamento das comunidades locais. O sucesso da estratégia, todavia, depende, sobretudo, da disponibilidade e disposição dos indivíduos em participarem. Apesar disso, sabe-se pouco sobre os fatores que determinam a participação voluntária no monitoramento, especialmente em comunidades de pequena escala habitantes de áreas remotas. Sendo assim, esta tese teve por objetivo investigar o efeito de determinantes da participação no monitoramento. Para tal, foi estudada uma comunidade da Amazônia brasileira que coleta e comercializa Carapa guianensis (andiroba), um produto florestal não madeireiro (PFNM). Dois métodos de coleta de dados foram utilizados: (i) survey por meio de entrevistas a 166 adultos ( 18 anos; 51 unidades domésticas) para estimar a intenção de participar e os determinantes da participação, e (ii) implementação de monitoramento experimental dos efeitos da coleta e do comércio de C. guianensis para quantificar a participação real no monitoramento. Os resultados são apresentados em três capítulos. No Capítulo 1, avaliamos se os benefícios econômicos obtidos com o comércio de PFNM ou, alternativamente, o comportamento cooperativo são determinantes mais importantes da participação. Os resultados indicaram que as duas variáveis aumentam a intenção e a participação real no monitoramento. Porém, o comportamento cooperativo foi um indicador mais forte da participação entre as diferentes atividades de monitoramento avaliadas. No Capítulo 2, investigamos os fatores psicológicos que afetam a participação, utilizando como base a Teoria do comportamento planejado (TCP) e avaliando o efeito das variáveis deste modelo sobre a probabilidade da participação voluntária no monitoramento. Os resultados indicaram que, em geral, o modelo da TCP é adequado para prever a intenção de participar em diferentes etapas do monitoramento avaliadas. Em particular, um dos indicadores de atitude (prazer) é capaz de explicar a participação nas quatro etapas de monitoramento. Normas subjetivas também foram importantes preditores da intenção de participar da coleta de dados da população de andiroba e entrevistar outros moradores da comunidade. Já o controle comportamental percebido previu a intenção de participar da coleta de dados sobre a população do recurso natural e a entrada e armazenamento de dados. No Capítulo 3, partimos da hipótese de que a percepção dos impactos ecológicos e socioeconômicos da coleta e do comércio de PFNM pode explicar a participação no monitoramento. Os resultados indicaram que a percepção dos dois tipos de impactos é importante, sobretudo para a participação real. Porém, outros fatores como gênero, idade e escolaridade são determinantes mais fortes da participação em algumas atividades. Ademais, encontramos evidências de que aliar o monitoramento de impactos ecológicos e socioeconômicos aumenta o sucesso da prática. As conclusões do estudo contribuem com lições práticas para aumentar a participação no monitoramento. Destacamos, dentre elas, a importância de estratégias para aumentar a cooperação entre os comunitários, a disseminação de informações sobre os possíveis impactos negativos da coleta e do comércio de recursos naturais, e o fornecimento de compensações financeiras equivalentes ao custo de oportunidade de participação

<p>This study seeks to assess the level of women&rsquo / s participation and involvement in the promotion of effective governance during the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) implementation exercise in 2007, which was endorsed by the APRM Western Cape Province. The interest of the study arises from the concept of &lsquo / good governance&rsquo / and how the implementation of such a concept is carried out in the rendering of public services, specifically the role of women in rendering public service in the Western Cape Province, South Africa.</p>

The research reported here is a meta-evaluative case study of project evaluation in the context of Official Development Cooperation (ODC) in the education sector in Tanzania, where the particular focus is on capturing the relative values attached to evaluation by various stakeholder groups. Perspectives from the constructivist paradigm are adopted, implying relativist ontology, subjectivist epistemology, and naturalistic interpretive methodology. Based on these perspectives, a review is provided of development theories and evaluation theories, including the actor-oriented approach to development, participatory monitoring &amp; evaluation, utilization-focused evaluation, and responsive-constructivist evaluation. An exploratory qualitative case study strategy is taken, combining several complementary methods e.g. in-depth interviews, questionnaires, document analysis, and observations. Evaluation is considered as an applied social research, implying a managerial and political purpose. It is a reflective interactive process, where the relevance, effectiveness and impact of an intervention in pursuit of certain objectives are assessed, adding value in order to construct knowledge for the enhancement of decision-making. In order to facilitate understanding of the cases under study, their structural contexts are investigated: 1) ODC evaluation systems and strategies (international/ macro context); and 2) ODC in the education sector in Tanzania (national/meso context). Each case (at local/micro level) is located within these contexts and analyzed applying a meta-evaluative framework. Integrating the perspectives of the stakeholders, the study demonstrates the strengths of, and constraints on, each case, factors which are to some extent determined by their respective time-frames. A number of significant discrepancies between theory and practice in ODC evaluation are reported. Findings indicate the significance of constructing consensus values that are based on a synthesis of multiple stakeholders’ values and perspectives complementing each others. The study also find that evaluation ought to be used as a powerful tool in which the values, needs and aspirations of various stakeholder groups can be reflected, especially those of local communities, who are now too often powerless in ODC projects in the education sector.

<p>This study seeks to assess the level of women&rsquo / s participation and involvement in the promotion of effective governance during the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) implementation exercise in 2007, which was endorsed by the APRM Western Cape Province. The interest of the study arises from the concept of &lsquo / good governance&rsquo / and how the implementation of such a concept is carried out in the rendering of public services, specifically the role of women in rendering public service in the Western Cape Province, South Africa.</p>

This study focused on policy agenda-setting models for school sport and physical education in South Africa. The primary objective was to assess and propose options for improved agenda-setting by focussing on the use of agenda-setting models and by applying it to physical education and school sport and the policy agenda of the national government. The study has shown that pertinent school sport and physical education policy issues, as supported by key role-players and principal actors, were initially not placed on the formal policy agenda of government during the research investigation period (2005-2009). However, during 2010 and 2011 the issue of school sport and physical education received prominent attention by authorities and these developments were subsequently included in the study. The study aimed at contributing to existing policy agenda-setting models and by recommending changes to the Generic Process Model.The study also made a contribution by informing various role-players and stakeholders in education and school sport on the opportunities in policy agenda-setting. The study showed that policy agenda-setting is a vital step in the Generic Policy Process Model. Policy agendasetting in South Africa is critical, as it is important to place new and emerging policy issues on the policy agenda and as a participative public policy process is relatively new in this young democracy. The reader should not confuse the study as one dealing with school sport and physical education primarily, but rather as a research investigation dealing with policy agenda-setting models as applied to school sport and physical education.The secondary objectives of the study included the development of a historical perspective on trends and tendencies in education and sport in South Africa. A second objective was to provide theoretical perspectives on public policy and specifically on policy agenda-setting. From these theoretical perspectives, the Generic Policy Process Model was selected to use as a model that provided guidance on the overall policy process normally followed in South Africa. The Issue Attention Cycle and Principal Actor Models on Agenda-Setting were selected to apply to the case study to specifically ascertain important factors related to policy agenda-setting such as the identification of key role players as well as key policy issues. The Generic Policy Process Model provided for both a comprehensive set of phases as well as specific requirements and key issues to be addressed during each phase of the policy process.In terms of findings the study found that a number of specific agenda-setting elements or phases needed to be added to the Generic Policy Process Model, which includes a problem stage, triggers, initiator, issue creation and actors or policy stakeholders.The Principal Actor Model to agenda-setting was selected for application to the case as different actors have different levels of success at each policy stage. In the South African experience it is important to look at who sets the policy agenda and why, who can initiate agenda-setting and the role played by these principal actors in the agenda-setting process.Issue emergence often places policy issues on the policy agenda. The public is initially involved in issues, but in the long term public interest declines. The government realizes the significant costs involved in placing policy issues back on the agenda. This leads to a decline in issue attention by policy-makers and the public. The Issue Attention Cycle Model of agenda setting was used to analyse this phenomenon in South African Education policy.The study provides a case assessment of the South African experience. From the research findings, a set of conclusions and recommendations were developed for improved policy agenda-setting models and implications for school sport and physical education, as well as tools to place it on the national policy agenda were identified. The research findings suggest that pertinent school sport and physical education policy issues, as supported by key roleplayers,stakeholders and principal actors were not placed on the formal policy agenda of the government as a vital step in the policy process between 2005 and 2009. Ever since, principal policy actors, civil society NGOs, and government officials placed sufficient pressure on the Minister of Basic Education to place Physical Education on the agenda. Subsequently,Minister Angie Motshega has placed physical education in the school Curriculum under the subject Life Orientation and Lifeskills. It has become evident from the research that agendasetting is both necessary to, and a complex phase in, the policy-making process.This study has shown that major policy issues such as physical education and school sport were neglected during the period 2005 and 2009 despite reformed and advanced policy cycles in government. It has also shown that the role of policy agenda-setting in the overall policymaking process was revisited by government in the subsequent period 2010/2011 and placed on the policy agenda. Specific lessons of experience emanated from this process.The study recommends that the triggers of the agenda-setting phases be added to the Generic Policy Process Model, which should include the problem stage, triggers, initiators, issue creation, actors and policy stakeholders. Principal actors in the agenda-setting model in South Africa want the issue of physical education and school sport to be part of the school curriculum, and therefore be placed back on the policy agenda by the Government on its institutional agenda. Furthermore, the study showed that actors wanted it to be compulsory in all phases of the school (Foundation, Intermediate, Senior, GET, FET) and that it should have the same legal status as other subjects.The important findings include that: Comprehensive policy process models such as that of Dunn, Wissink and the Generic Process model may need to be reviewed to incorporate more fully the policy-agenda setting stages of the overall process; Current policy agenda setting models in use are relevant and valuable in identifying key role players as well as key issues and considerations regarding the policy process; Institutional arrangements to strengthen the role of NGOs and lower level institutions,such as schools to participate in policy agenda setting are important; and the study has shown that a number of key factors have been identified that had a key influence on policy agenda-setting in the case of physical education and school sport in South Africa. These included the influence of changing political leadership, the competency of policy capacities in government, the profile of issues in the media etc. The key findings of the study have shown that further potential exists to improve monitoring and evaluation and policy analysis.The study made a set of recommendations to principal actors such as the Minister of Education, Minister of Sport and Recreation, non-governmental organisations, interest groups,department officials and pressure groups. A set of research topics was also identified for future research. / Philosophiae Doctor - PhD

[pt] A disciplina de marketing vem passando por grandes mudanças, tanto no âmbito acadêmico, quanto na prática das empresas e organizações em geral. Essas mudanças vêm ocorrendo mais especificamente na área de marketing de relacionamento, cujo enfoque é a construção de relações e laços entre a organização, seus clientes e demais partes interessadas, na busca da melhoria desta interação, segundo uma visão de longo prazo, na qual há benefícios mútuos. O objetivo geral da dissertação é propor um modelo de monitoramento e avaliação (MA) de programas de marketing de relacionamento implementados por empresas de serviços, com o auxílio de métodos multicritério de apoio à decisão. A pesquisa pode ser considerada aplicada, descritiva e metodológica. Quanto aos meios de investigação, a metodologia compreendeu pesquisa bibliográfica e documental; construção de um quadro lógico de programas de marketing de relacionamento para a posterior proposição de indicadores candidatos e respectivas métricas; emprego de um método híbrido de apoio à decisão – método analítico hierárquico (AHP) para definição dos pesos dos critérios classificatórios e o método TOPSIS para seleção e hierarquização dos indicadores propostos; e desenvolvimento de um estudo empírico realizado no âmbito do Programa Cliente Light Tem Mais , iniciativa de marketing de relacionamento da empresa Light SESA, visando demonstrar a aplicabilidade do modelo. Destacam-se como resultados um novo modelo de monitoramento e avaliação de programas de marketing de relacionamento no setor de serviços; a ferramenta de seleção e classificação de indicadores; e um conjunto consistente de indicadores de MA, visando à melhoria contínua de programas de marketing de relacionamento de empresas de serviços. / [en] The discipline of marketing has undergone great changes, both in the academic field and in the practice of companies and organizations in general. From the perspective of a long-term vision in which relationships and strong ties between the organization and its clients and other stakeholders lead to mutual benefits, these changes have been occurring more specifically in the area of relationship marketing. This dissertation aims to propose a model for monitoring and evaluating (ME) programs of relationship marketing carried out by service companies, with the support of multiple criteria decision-making methods. The research can be considered applied, descriptive and methodological. The methodology encompasses bibliographical and documentary research; design of a logical framework to propose candidate indicators and metrics for monitoring and evaluating relationship marketing programs; and application of a hybrid decision support method - hierarchical analytical method (AHP), for defining the weights of the classification criteria, and the TOPSIS method for selecting and ranking the candidate indicators. Aiming to demonstrate the applicability of this ME model in the context of a service company, an empirical study focusing on the Program Cliente Light Tem Mais – a relationship marketing initiative of Light SESA – was carried out during the applied phase of this research. As main results of this research, we can highlight a monitoring and evaluation model designed for relationship marketing programs in the service sector; the tool for selecting and ranking ME indicators and respective metrics; and a consistent set of ME indicators, aiming at the continuous improvement of relationship marketing programs of companies in the service sector.