Research report presented to SBL, Unisa, Midrand. / No abstract

M.A. Faculty of Humanties, School of Social Sciences. University of the Witwatersrand, 2011 / INTRODUCTION: Zimbabwe has witnessed a decline in HIV prevalence in the general population estimated to be 27% in 2001, 19% in 2005, 16% in 2007 and 14% in 2009 (Mapingure et al., 2010). Whilst it is a notable decline the rate is still high. Sexual behaviour change has been reported as key to this HIV prevalence decline. Partner reduction has been advocated as an important strategy in HIV prevention. Understanding the socioeconomic and demographic factors influencing the sexual behaviours that are either sustaining the declining, yet still high, prevalence rates is critical to inform interventions. There is growing interest in the association between individual’s socioeconomic status and sexual risk taking behaviour in sub-Saharan Africa. The general objective was to examine the association between wealth and sexual behaviour among men in Zimbabwe. METHOD: Analysis of data from 7175 sexually active aged 15-54 years who participated in the Zimbabwe’s 2005/06 Demographic and Health Survey was done using logistic regression models and have reported odds ratios (OR) with Confidence intervals. In the multiple logistic regressions, two models were used. Model 1 included variables: wealth, age and education whilst in model 2 we controlled for: marital status, type of residence, region of residence and religion because these socio-demographic factors influence male sexual behaviour. The dependent variables included: unprotected sex at last encounter, multiple and concurrent sexual partnerships in last 12 months. RESULTS: When we controlled for potential confounding effects of education, age, marital status, type of residence, region of residence and religion, men in the middle wealth category of the population were less likely to have engaged in unprotected sex in the last encounter with a nonspousal cohabiting partner (OR 0.41, 95% CI 0.22 to 0.76). Wealth was found to be not statistically significantly associated with multiple and concurrent sexual partnerships. CONCLUSION: Wealthy men in Zimbabwe are less likely to engage in unprotected sex. Wealth’s association with multiple and concurrent sexual partnerships was not confirmed in this study. Equitable distribution of wealth and sound economic policies are critical in improving the general welfare of nationals so as to reduce or eliminate some of the factors that cloud the associations between socioeconomic and demographic factors and sexual behaviours of individuals. Policies and programs that recommend deferral of gratification remain critical in order to reduce number of partners.

Thesis advisor: Patrick McQuillan / The challenges facing our communities are complex, interconnected, and urgent (Kania & Kramer, 2011). Recognizing these challenges, policy makers, funders, and practitioners are turning to social partnerships as a promising strategy for community and educational change (Bess, 2015; Henig et al., 2015). Social partnerships involve the joining together of organizations from across sectors of society to tackle social problems (Crane & Seitanidi, 2014). The underlying premise of the Promise Neighborhoods program, one such social partnership, is that providing access to resources, services, and supports in a comprehensive manner will have the greatest effect on educational and community outcomes (U.S. Department of Education, 2018). This study seeks to shed light on the process of initiating and implementing a social partnership. In this study the author employed a two-phased, mixed methods design using social network analysis and interviews with organizational representatives to examine the network structures of communication and collaboration within one Promise Neighborhoods initiative: the Boston Promise Initiative. The sample for the social network analysis consisted of 33 individuals from 27 partner organizations. Further, follow-up interviews with 11 individuals were held to understand how network structures and processes might impact educational and community change. Findings from the social network analysis and qualitative interviews reveal networks of communication and collaboration rooted in a deep history of place-based change efforts, facilitating access to network resources and social capital among partner organizations. The findings highlight the importance of recognizing both challenges and opportunities of partnering with schools. Further, the findings highlight the importance of a lead organization’s ability to attend to both technical processes, such as facilitating communication among partners, and cultural processes, such as negotiating organizational identity. Taken together, the findings from this study point to the complex nature of cross-sector collaboration and identify structural factors and network processes that may impact the success of the efforts. By better understanding the structure and processes inherent in social partnerships, organizations can be better supported as they develop and implement cross-sector initiatives aimed at making meaningful change in their communities. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

Thesis (M.M. (Finance & Investment))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Graduate School of Business Administration, 2013. / The lack of a framework for selecting appropriate funding mechanisms results in costly and inefficient financing of public infrastructure projects in South Africa. The purpose of this research was to determine the nature, the utilisation and the appropriateness of various public infrastructure financing mechanisms. Twenty major public infrastructure projects were used to conduct the exploratory study of public infrastructure financing practices in South Africa. Although the research found that South African financing practices were similar to practices in developed economies, it was also found that the capacity of public institutions to manage infrastructure projects needed strengthening. The research further found that markets for other mechanisms had to be developed further to provide more financing options. Finally, a conceptual framework that provides a consistent and systematic process in selecting appropriate and efficient public infrastructure financing decisions was proposed.

Arising from drastically different world views, misconceptions between foreign NGOs working in Mali and local Malians often lead to actions that perpetuate unjust power dynamics and/or do more harm than good. In order to better align NGO sustainable development efforts in ways that are beneficial to the populations they serve, it is crucial to listen to perspectives that are typically marginalized in our current global system. This thesis explores synergizing NGO-Malian artist partnerships in innovative, mutually understandable, and mutually beneficial ways to increase NGO project effectiveness and efficiency. This case study features twelve interviews with Malian dancers and musicians residing in Bamako, Mali. The intersections between this data and current academic sources indicate suggested 1) processes to cultivate understanding and mindfully work to shift unjust power dynamics; and 2) projects (themes, partnerships with existing opportunities, and innovations) that demonstrate promising, new potential to improve development efforts. / 2014-12-16

Thesis advisor: Robert J. Starratt / Parent involvement is critical to student success. Many schools across the nation are making a concerted effort to establish relationships between teachers and parents. There are a myriad of barriers that prevent those relationships from occurring. The challenge is even greater in urban schools. This qualitative case study examines the impact of volunteer teacher perceptions and attitudes on establishing relationships with urban parents at an all girls' middle school in the inner city. The study specifically investigated the beliefs of volunteer teachers before and after their participation in the study. The study will also examine whether teachers considered parents as an in integral part in supporting their children's learning as a result of their participation in the study. Five volunteer teachers, a master teacher and the parent coordinator participated in the study over the course of a year and a half. The data from this study showed that despite cultural and socio-economic differences, volunteer teacher can work with urban parents. The findings indicate volunteer teachers do value parental involvement. Teachers believe with continued professional development, they can establish authentic relationships with parents. Teachers in the study reported that parents want the best for their children. Teachers indicated that their relationships with parents are critical to student success. The findings of this study will provide implications for educational practice, policy, future research and researchers' leadership. Limitations to the study include a small sample size, the duration of the study and the role of researcher as Head of School. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Administration.

This study proposes a framework for measuring and explaining partnership formation and resilience. The motivation for this study is that we currently do not understand the precise mechanism by which partnerships form or how they stay together in the face of change. The framework draws on a design view of systems to argue that partnerships manage change through boundary spanning practices that operate on multiple levels of social reality. The literature suggests that there are many different types of boundary spanning practices. Some types foster social-technical innovations called "boundary objects" while others facilitate the progressive standardization of those practices through the comparison and selection of boundary objects by social actors who are themselves transformed by their adoption of these objects. The framework proposes a way to measure partnership capacity and social learning that corresponds to the orders of boundary spanning practices. It furthermore proposes three hypotheses, one concerned with partnership formation and two concerned with resilience. The first hypothesis states that partnerships form through a convergence of boundary spanning practices and a community of practice. Convergence depends on a host of factors, including the capacity of innovators and early adopters to leverage their early successes to build additional capital to further promote and eventually institutionalize their boundary spanning practices. The second hypothesis predicts that partnerships that demonstrate a pattern of alignment practices integrating operational and strategic concerns will tend to oscillate within a defined range of partnership functions or "states" (restricted resilience). The third hypothesis predicts that partnerships that inculcate a learning culture of institutional design practices will tend to persist under a theoretically limitless range of environmental demands (general resilience). To assess the framework, four case studies of water resource management partnerships in the Columbia River Basin were carried out. Data collection centered on interviews with boundary spanners, field trips, and secondary data. The results partially confirmed the first hypothesis, while evaluations of the resilience hypotheses were inconclusive. However, boundary spanning practices were catalogued according to the various types of partnership processes to demonstrate how the methodology can be used for cross-case comparisons and theory-building.

This research study is about partnership working in the human services using community mental health as a context. The purpose of this type of research has relevance today as governments at all levels in Australia are adopting partnerships as social policy tools to address social problems. The rationale for these policies appears to be based on recognition that large social problems require holistic responses through the working together of multiple agencies. However despite the volumes of material about the programmatic means for enacting partnerships I found little which attended to the micro practices of partnership. The lack of guidelines on how to engage in partnership becomes problematic as partnerships in social service contexts have complexities and can be difficult to enact. Moreover actors may feel undermined when it is taken for granted that they have the necessary knowledge and skills to enact partnerships. A case study is conducted on how partnerships are enacted within Bethany Outreach Services, a pseudonym used to represent a psychosocial support service in the Perth metropolitan area. Semi-structured in-depth interviews are conducted with seven participants engaged in a partnership within community mental health. The literature is analysed for its contribution to the critical question of how to “do” partnership. Case examples are utilised to contextualise key principles of partnership. Key elements of theoretical perspectives are applied as a way to better understand how partnerships might work better. Narratives from the literature and the experiences of people as seen through this case study are examined to arrive at some key elements of partnership. Despite their complexities partnerships provide an opportunity for actors to engage their humanity and build relationships based on human qualities such as respect, communication and the sharing of resources. These qualities build social capital, which can be developed in new partnership contexts to address new problem domains. It is through these qualities that partnerships might give meaning to the 'Human' in Human Services.

This investigation examined the impact on student achievement of teachers who participated in a professional development program using industry partnerships. One treatment and one non-treatment school in a large urban school district served as the sites for this inquiry with teacher participation in a professional development program and the achievement data of their science students being collected during the 2001-2002 school period. The impact of a teacher professional development program with industry partnerships such as Education for the Energy Industry (EEI) on student achievement in science was determined. National and state standardized tests were analyzed using extant data obtained from administering the fourth through the eighth grade Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) test and the eighth grade Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) test. The differential influence of a professional development program for teachers on the achievement of students of diversity was determined by the TAAS scores and ITBS scores, which were partitioned by treatment condition and student ethnicity. Findings from this quantitative investigation suggest enhanced student achievement in science if teachers participated in a professional development program involving industry partnerships.

In recent years we have witnessed an increase in the number of two unrelated phenomena in Canada collaborative partnerships and First Nations casino development. This thesis focuses on the integration of these two phenomena by examining the gaming partnership that the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN) and the Province of Saskatchewan established in 1995. The thesis explores the factors that produced the partnership, the issues of negotiations that influenced the partnership arrangement, and the general nature of the partnerships framework from 1995 to 2002. In analyzing these aspects of the partnership, the thesis will address its fundamental question what is the precise nature of the regulatory framework and its implications for the gaming partnership in Saskatchewan? This study reveals that there were deficiencies in the nature of the partnerships framework, particularly with respect to the accountability provisions of the partnering arrangement. Those deficiencies created an accountability crisis in the year 2000, which caused problems both for and between the partners. Eventually, however, the partners decided to move forward in a relatively positive and constructive manner towards a sustainable and successful partnering arrangement.