In October of 1998 the category 5 storm, Hurricane Mitch, struck Nicaragua, leaving in its wake mass destruction and devastation. Numerous aid agencies and social organisations poured funds into the country to assist in emergency disaster relief efforts, and to rebuild the lives of those who lost their homes and livelihoods (damnificados). El Mirador in the city of Matagalpa is one example of the many communities built with aid monies after Hurricane Mitch. This thesis uses qualitative data constructed from in-depth interviews with participants (community members in El Mirador) to understand the level of successful community development that has been achieved, the ability for longer term sustainability as a result of community development strategies, and the areas in which community development has failed. Through an examination of the relationship the community has with the NGO the Communal Movement, the question of long term sustainability becomes important. The most telling indicator (that development practice is unsustainable) is the unproductive coping mechanisms of community members as aid and social organisations withdraw leaving members with ineffective social networks and at times uncooperative behaviour. Added into this is the arrival of new members into the community, and squatters, who have only added to the feelings of segregation already apparent, as a 'them and us' mentality develops. This study provides a detailed case specific analysis of community development through disaster relief efforts. It highlights some of the consistent, broad inefficiencies as well as more location and situation specific difficulties of community development. Moreover, it adds to the growing body of literature researching how disaster relief can become more effective and sustainable in the longer term.

There is a clear relationship between motherhood and space in the sense that motherhood is constituted spatially, taking specific and shifting forms in different spaces and because gendered geographies are made, remade or contested in terms of how women practise motherhood and other social identities in particular spaces. The meanings of motherhood are subject to constant renegotiation when gender identity is lived and constructed in times of hardship, political change or upheaval. Over the last few decades, Nicaragua has experienced dictatorship, insurrection, revolution, Contra war, more than a decade of neoliberal structural adjustment policies and a number of disasters including Hurricane Mitch which hit Nicaragua in October 1998. The social and cultural context in which women mother is a complex one. Family life is unstable and fluid and Nicaragua has large numbers of single mothers. However, a number of institutional actors have attempted to undermine this complexity by trying to fix the meanings of motherhood, family, femininity, masculinity and sexuality in simplified and reified ways. These attempts contribute to the pervasiveness of dominant discourses of motherhood. In many ways, everyday practices of motherhood are at odds with dominant discourses and the goal of this thesis is to broaden understandings of the way motherhood intersects with other cultural processes in particular spaces and of how women negotiate competing facets of multiple identities. Based on qualitative research conducted in Matagalpa with a group of single mothers, this thesis explores a number of arenas in which women negotiate motherhood, including family breakdown, revolution and counterrevolution, structural adjustment and disaster, and demonstrates how everyday practices challenge dominant understandings. Given that individuals participate in a number of discursive practices simultaneously, the intersection of dominant discourses and everyday practices work to create specific geographies of mothering. This means for example that women might adopt more masculine subject positions in relation to work and family while engaging in maternal politics in the political sphere or that male violence towards women can be condemned and single motherhood adopted as a positive form of identity assertion while uneasiness is expressed about the absence of fathers in children’s lives. By contextualising the conditions in which women mother and focusing on how individual women feel about and reflect upon their lives, this study illustrates the multiple dimensions of motherhood which exist within Nicaraguan culture and the contradictions faced by women who mother in sites of intense cultural struggle. This study has important implications for the epistemological transformation that is taking place within feminist geography in particular and within human geography more broadly. Motherhood has the discursive power to shape and define gender identities, but it can also be used to unsettle or destabilise gender and sexuality in material and discursive space.

For decades LGBTQ rights have been approached purely by a legal strategy, in particular advocating for the legalization of same-sex marriage. However, discrimination and violence against the LGBTQ community continues to be a major issue in Latin America because of cultural values such as Catholicism and machismo that uphold a standard of and, in turn, have control over people’s sexuality. Using a human rights approach towards the politics of sexuality, LGBTI activists in Costa Rican and Nicaragua have been successful in transforming public opinion about sexuality and more importantly, sexual diversity. As a result of their egalitarian framework and efforts to educate people about sexual diversity, they have made great advancements toward achieving acceptance and equality for LGBTI people. This study focuses on how Costa Rican and Nicaraguan LGBTI activists have worked around traditional cultural values such as Catholicism and machismo that prevent people from accepting and tolerating LGBTI people. The examples of LGBTI activists in these two countries have important implications for other LGBTI activists and the strategies they use to try to achieve full equality (social and legal) for people whose sexual identity differs from the conventional.

糧食安全援助與非營利組織之研究 / The International Organizations the same as the non-profit organizations are aware of how much this issue matter around the world and the government from the different more vulnerable countries represent in many cases, the principal problem that difficulties the work of the non-profit sector. There is a clear need to build a new system strategy for each bloc according to their characteristics in order to apply the correct plan for ensuring the food access for all the people as equals, but there is no doubt that the income inequality is a social issue that affects every country in the world and that also bring consequences for the food security of the people in countries such as Haiti. This topic was selected for its importance worldwide, in order to analyze the type of work of the non-profit organizations in the food security sector as aid channels in Latin American and the Caribbean regions, and how their partnership with government agencies and international organizations is indispensable for the complementation of the work. And the research finding of the two cases study is about the capacity of sustainability that the farmers of the countries can reach through the aid for food security provided by the non-profit organizations, and on the other hand, the dependency that the aid provided can cause in the donors (in the case of Haiti). The potential that both regions have to improve the food security and develop the agricultural sector, but also explaining the case of the most poor countries in each region (Nicaragua and Haiti), both cases study serve to compare the different activities of the NPO and how their work affect the sustainability and development of the beneficiaries in the field of food security.

This thesis explores a relatively new and arguably innovative United States (US) international development initiative called the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA), which was launched by President Bush in 2004 as his flagship development programme for combating global poverty. Inciting transformational change, both in the delivery of aid and within the recipient countries themselves, lies at the heart of the MCA, which is housed in a new development entity named the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). In-depth semistructured interviews were utilised to facilitate the accumulation of rich and varied data, through which the rhetoric and discourses surrounding the MCA could be' challenged, contested and debated at a variety oflevels. This study critically engages with the MCA to reveal its core motivations and ideological underpinnings, through which we can better understand its origins and potential to deliver sustainable development in the South. In order to do this, specific attention is given to Nicaragua's involvement in the initiative; a country which has played host to a plethora of US foreign policy activities, actions and interventions over the years. An exhaustive exploration of Nicaragua's experience of the MCA is subsequently utilised as a platform for engaging with the core debates and issues surrounding the MCA and development discourse more broadly. In particular, the study's findings critically question the neoliberal model of development being promoted through the MCA and challenge the programme's ability to address the complexities of impoverishment. Part and parcel of this process involves examining the seemingly inseparable marriage between 'democracy' and market liberalisation in development, through which it is argued in this thesis that transnationalliberalism has been extended as the hegemonic ideology of this epoch and a polyarchic system of rule promoted across much of the South.

This PhD thesis explores the migration dynamics between Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Rather than just describing the main characteristics of the contemporary migration relations between the two countries, however, it also evaluates the historical and regional contexts within which they have been produced. This has implied the incorporation of a historicised and multi-scale analytical perspective which has been adopted throughout the research. The research therefore explores both expelling and attracting factors in both the origin (with a particular focus upon rural communities in distinct regions of Nicaragua) and the destination. It has also been important to analyse in some detail the continuities and ruptures of the migration history between the two countries in order to understand the current migration dynamics more profoundly. The research stresses that the Nicaraguan Costa Rican migration dynamic should not be seen as as isolated bilateral relationship but as part of a wider dynamic that involves the whole Central American region and that, in general terms, migration should be seen not as an isolated pattern but as a wider process of social transformation.

Magíster en Gestión y Dirección de Empresas / El presente plan de negocio para un hotel boutique en la ciudad de Granada, Nicaragua fue realizado con el objetivo de poder determinar la viabilidad de realizar este proyecto, para esto se dividió el estudio en algunas áreas relevantes para la ejecución de este. Primeramente realizamos un estudio del entorno (análisis ambiental e industrial), en el que se establecieron una serie de características y ventajas turística para la realización de nuestro proyecto. Identificamos tanto las oportunidades y amenazas del macro entorno, como las fortalezas y debilidades de nuestro proyecto como respuesta a los factores de su ambiente interno. A continuación se realizo un análisis estratégico minucioso de nuestra propuesta de valor para los clientes, identificando una estrategia competitiva y nuestros factores críticos de éxito. Dentro de este análisis logramos denunciar nuestra misión y visión y se plantearon objetivos concretos. Posteriormente se realizó una investigación de mercado para poder establecer las necesidades y expectativas de nuestros clientes potenciales y adicionalmente determinar nuestro mercado objetivo. Una vez identificado nuestro mercado objetivo se procedió a realizar un plan de marketing ó comunicación, que nos brinda información valiosa sobre los atributos de nuestro servicio, el posicionamiento deseado de nuestra marca, los canales de distribución, y el plan de promoción que se ejecutará para el cumplimiento de metas. Se realizó también un plan operativo que nos explica la ubicación e importancia de nuestro hotel en una cadena de suministro de servicios turísticos, en donde el flujo de información es vital para la consecución de clientes metas. Se elaboraron una serie de flujogramas de los diferentes servicios en donde se establecen funciones a seguir por parte de la empresa, accionistas y personal para un bien común y cumplimiento de nuestra estrategia competitiva. Por último, se presenta un plan de implementación de las actividades a seguir desde la constitución legal de la sociedad hasta el comienzo de la operación. Posteriormente se estableció la estructura organizacional de nuestra empresa para la puesta en marcha. Finalmente se presenta un plan financiero, en donde se muestra el plan de inversión necesario para la realización del proyecto y así mismo los flujos de efectivo que se producen para los próximos 10 años. Se presentan dos escenarios probables con sus respectivos estudios económicos y los índices de rentabilidad que dicho flujos generarán, así como el VAN, TIR y período de recuperación.

One of the greatest legacies of the Sandinista Revolution was agrarian reform. Despite the amount of land redistributed, this process happened without any form of legal documentation to support the transfer of property from one owner to the next. The end of the civil war, the peace accords and the transition of power from left to right-wing parties produced conflicting policies that would bring high levels of complexity to the system of land tenure in the country. The case of the state-owned sugar mill, Ingenio Victoria de Julio – El Timal is of one the most emblematic examples of how slow and inefficient Nicaraguan institutions have been in solving land tenure issues in 26 years.

This paper argues that a State can reconstruct it’s own politics in such a way that allows for more reliance on conflict resolving international organizations and institutions and can reduce the need for military force and/or power politics. Accordingly, the complexities of the security dilemma can be reduced or eliminated. I utilize a single case study approach that analyzes the 2010 territorial conflict known as the ‘Isla Calero’ dispute between Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Using both an inductive approach and semistructured interviews, this paper analyzes how the dispute was settled without the use of power politics. It is argued that Costa Rica was able to halt the cycle of the security dilemma through their decision to demilitarize. Moreover, I argue that Costa Rica’s approach is relevant and applicable to other states and could contribute to successful conflict resolution between States without the use of power politics.

The importance of women’s status for child nutrition has recently been recognized. However, pathways through which women’s status can affect their caretaking practices and child nutrition have not been fully determined. The aim of this thesis was to evaluate associations between aspects of women’s status – including exposure to domestic violence and level of autonomy and social support – with their level of stress, feeding practices and child nutritional status in two different cultural settings: Bangladesh and Nicaragua. Data were acquired from population-based studies. For Study I we used data from the Bangladesh 2007 Demographic and Health Survey, and Study II was embedded in the 2009 Health and Demographic Surveillance System conducted in Los Cuatro Santos, rural Nicaragua. Studies III and IV were part of the MINIMat study, conducted in rural Bangladesh. In-person interviews were conducted and validated questionnaires were used in each of the studies. Anthropometric characteristics of the children were recorded based on standardized World Health Organization techniques. In Bangladesh, we found women with lifetime experience of domestic violence to be more likely to report emotional distress during pregnancy, cease exclusive breastfeeding before 6 months and have a stunted child. Further, we found a negative association between experience of domestic violence and duration of excusive breastfeeding to be mitigated with breastfeeding counseling. In Nicaragua, a lower level of maternal autonomy was associated with more appropriate breastfeeding practices such as higher odds of exclusive breastfeeding and longer continuation of breastfeeding. Further, a maternal lower level of social support was associated with better child nutritional status. In conclusion, this investigation showed that different dimensions of women’s status were associated with their feeding practices and child nutritional status and also revealed that the strength and direction of these associations may vary by the child’s age, setting and other contextual factors. These findings suggest that women’s status might have an important public health impact on child health and its role should be considered in programs and policies aiming to improve child health and nutrition.