The point of departure in this study was to find a logical structure to answer the research question. In order to do this, the central concept adequate was defined, clarified and linked to the research question while on the same score, concepts related to it were also defined and clarified. The objectives of the study and the conceptual instruments were combined and thereafter linked to HIV/AIDS as a real life phenomenon. The literature reviewed assisted in accessing sources relevant to the topic, in setting the theoretical framework for the study and selecting appropriate tools to measure and evaluate the adequacy of governmental health and welfare interventions. The theoretical framework of the study is informed by the idea that the Government has obligations in terms of a social contract with society. On this basis, a conceptual instrument was built, bearing in mind section 2 of the 1996 Constitution. The evaluation criteria used involves collection and sifting through information and data while on the same score, making judgements about the validity of information obtained and deriving inferences from such information. / Public Administration and Management / M. Admin. (Public Administration)

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / O objetivo principal desta dissertação é analisar os impactos da abertura comercial vista no Brasil no início da década de 1990 entre 1990 a 1996 na margem de lucro das indústrias de transformação passando por três padrões monetários diferentes (cruzeiro, cruzeiro real e real). A especificação e metodologia adotadas no trabalho são as de Goldar e Aggawal (2004), que fazem uma análise de dados em painel para efeitos fixos e randômicos para as indústrias de transformação indianas como um todo e, posteriormente, aplicando os mesmos testes separando os vinte e oito setores da indústria brasileira de transformação em setores de bens de capital e intermediários no primeiro grupo e bens de capital no segundo. Este trabalho ainda inclui esta metodologia aplicando, além das duas já citadas, o teste de mínimos quadrados ordinários (MQO) para permitir uma melhor análise com três testes diferentes antes e depois de separar os setores por meio de variáveis explicativas como barreiras à importação, concentração industrial, participação salarial, produtividade do trabalho, representatividade setorial e variação na taxa de crescimento da produção do setor entre os anos. Conclui-se que o aumento observado na margem de lucro foi impactado significativamente pelas variáveis expostas acima e estes resultados são importantes para que possamos auferir de que forma impactaram positivamente ou contribuíram negativamente na margem de lucro auferida pela indústria brasileira de transformação entre 1990 e 1996.

Le droit des aides d’Etat est un domaine singulier du droit de l’Union européenne (UE). Sonobjectif le rend même unique au monde et pourtant il demeure en partie méconnu et seseffets sous-estimés. La crise économique et financière débutée en 2007 l’a remis sur ledevant de la scène. Dans ce contexte, un outil s’est révélé comme central dans la gestiondes évènements : la conditionnalité. Longtemps ignorée, cette technique, présente depuisles origines en droit des aides d’Etat, s’avère être d’une influence insoupçonnée sur lemécanisme de contrôle des soutiens étatiques. D’une part, elle autorise la Commission àexiger des modifications substantielles, tant du projet d’aide que des bénéficiaires, afin d’enautoriser la mise en oeuvre. D’autre part, la conditionnalité permet à la Commissiond’avancer un agenda politique, de manière indirecte, au service de l’approfondissement del’UE. Son incidence ne se limite pas seulement à la question de la compatibilité desfinancements publics. Elle s’exprime également dans le cadre du suivi des décisionsconditionnelles, et des éventuels recours juridictionnels. De nouvelles techniques basées surla conditionnalité ont fait leur apparition à tous les stades de l’examen des aides. Plusencore, elle joue un rôle considérable, en amont, dans le processus de création du droit desaides d’Etat et de sa soft law. Compte tenu de sa portée, cette étude s’est attachée àmesurer l’ampleur de ce phénomène, à définir ses concepts, à identifier ses formes et àévaluer ses conséquences. Il en résulte que la conditionnalité est à l’origine d’une nouvelleapproche du droit des aides d’Etat. / State aid law is a unique area of European Union (EU) law. Its objective makes it evenunique in the world and yet it remains partly unknown and its effects underestimated. Theeconomic and financial crisis, which began in 2007, has brought it back to the forefront. Inthis context, a tool has proved to be central in the management of events: conditionality. Thistechnique, which has long been ignored, has always had an unsuspected influence on themechanism of control over state support. On the one hand, it authorizes the Commission torequire substantial changes, both in the aid project and for the beneficiaries, in order toauthorize its implementation. On the other hand, conditionality allows the Commission to putforward a political agenda, indirectly, to service the deepening of the EU. Its impact is notlimited to the question of the compatibility of public funding. It is also expressed in the contextof the monitoring of conditional decisions, and possible judicial review. New techniquesbased on conditionality have emerged at all stages state aid control. Moreover, it plays aconsiderable role, upstream, in the process of creating state aid law and its soft law. Givenits scope, this study focused on measuring the extent of this phenomenon, defining itsconcepts, identifying its forms and evaluating its consequences. As a result, conditionality isat the origin of a new approach to state aid law.

Aufgrund des gesellschaftlichen Wandels, globaler klimatischer und marktlicher Veränderungen sowie zunehmender Ressourcenknappheit sind landwirtschaftliche Betriebe immer mehr gefordert, ihre Produktionsverfahren anzupassen. Doch sind solche Innovationen häufig komplex und weisen einen systemischen Charakter auf. KMU sind häufig nicht in der Lage, diese oft mit höherem Risiko behafteten Innovationen voranzutreiben oder zu übernehmen. Zur Förderung ihrer Diffusion ist es notwendig, die äußeren und inneren Rahmenbedingungen der Innovationsumgebung zu kennen. Am Fallbeispiel der Innovationsprozesse zur Überwindung der Nachbauproblematik im Apfelanbau werden potenzielle Einflussfaktoren auf die Adoption neuer Maßnahmen mithilfe des sektoralen Innovationssystemansatzes nach Malerba und einem erweiterten Technology Acceptance Model erfasst. Hierbei wurde deutlich, dass trotz der günstigen natürlichen Rahmenbedingungen in der Untersuchungsregion, Faktoren wie sinkende Erzeugerpreise, Lohnsteigerungen, Wettbewerbsdruck, Klimawandel, die abnehmende Verfügbarkeit jungfräulicher Flächen sowie steigende Anforderungen des LEH und der Gesellschaft einen wirtschaftlichen Anbau zunehmend erschweren. Vor allem aber für Baumschulen sind die Folgen der Bodenmüdigkeit aufgrund des hohen Produktionswertes pro Hektar Kulturfläche besonders schwerwiegend. Maßnahmen, die bisher gegen Bodenermüdung ergriffen wurden, sind wenig effektiv, oder unwirtschaftlich. Die Analyse der Akzeptanzbefragung potenzieller Adopter zum Einsatz von Mikroorganismen gegen Bodenmüdigkeit ergab, dass die Nützlichkeit des Verfahrens positiv wahrgenommen wird und sich dies in einer hohen Übernahmeabsicht widerspiegelt. Eine Strukturgleichungsanalyse des in dieser Studie entwickelten Akzeptanzmodells mittels SmartPLS mit einem Bestimmtheitsmaß von 68% verdeutlichen, dass nicht vorrangig ökonomische Faktoren, sondern in erster Linie die Kompatibilität der Maßnahme, Einfluss auf eine potenzielle Übernahme ausüben würde. / Due to social change, global climatic and market changes as well as increasing scarcity of resources, agricultural enterprises are increasingly required to adapt their production processes. However, innovations often have a systemic character. SMEs are often not in a position to promote or adopt these innovations, which are often associated with higher risks. In order to promote their diffusion, it is, therefore, advantageous to know the external and internal framework conditions of the environment for innovation. Using the case study of innovation processes to overcome the problem of apple replant disease, potential influencing factors on the adoption of new measures are identified on the basis of the Sectoral Innovation System Approach according to Malerba and an extended Technology Acceptance Model. It became clear that, despite the favourable natural conditions in the study region, factors such as falling producer prices, wage increases, competitive pressure, climate change, the decreasing availability of virgin land and the increasing demands of food retailers and society are making commercial cultivation increasingly challenging. However, the consequences of soil fatigue are particularly severe for tree nurseries due to the high production value per hectare of cultivated land. Measures that have so far been taken to combat soil fatigue are ineffective or uneconomical. The analysis of the acceptance survey of potential adopters of microorganisms against soil fatigue showed that the usefulness of the method is perceived positively and that this is reflected in a high intention to adopt it. A structural equation analysis of the acceptance model developed in this study using SmartPLS and a coefficient of determination of 68% make it clear that not primarily economic factors, but primarily the compatibility of the measure, would influence a potential adoption.

This interdisciplinary thesis studies the diverse multi-stakeholder networks that are constitutive of contemporary water governance. It examines collaborative governance networks from a relational perspective in two case study watersheds in Tanzania and Ethiopia. Collaborative and networked governance approaches are increasingly promoted to address complex water challenges, but relatively little is known about how the everyday collaborative relationships (i.e. collaboration practices) among the multiple actors involved in the development, management and use of water, shape contemporary water governance processes. In this thesis, I advance, based on intensive fieldwork data collection, a conceptual and methodological framework for studying collaboration networks pertaining to watershed management. I examine local collaborative governance networks in two watersheds, in Ethiopia and Tanzania, from a relational perspective, using complementary qualitative and quantitative social network research methods. The thesis explores the opportunities and limitations of such collaborative governance networks in their concrete functioning, thereby contributing to a more context-sensitive, and nuanced, understanding of the role of governance networks and collaborative governance approaches in the management of water and related resources.

The diploma thesis deals with the use of marketing strategies as tools of civil sector organizations to promote public interests. The first part of the thesis serves to clarify the theory of organized civil sector, marketing strategies of civil sector organizations and the legislative process in the Czech Republic, including clarification of the concept of public interest. The second part of the thesis consists of qualitative empirical research, which aims to describe the whole form of the selected campaign created to promote public interest in the form of legislative change while understanding how campaigners evaluate the campaign and how they perceive cooperation between civil society organizations and marketing agencies for the implementation of the campaign. The chosen research method is a case study of the successful marketing campaign of the czech civic sector organization Svoboda zvířat, which contributed to the promotion of the public interest. By using data analysis and semi-structured interviews the case study acquaints the reader with the key circumstances of the selected campaign, its proposed marketing strategy including its explanation, with the campaign implementation process including the context of the legislative process of the public interest, with evaluation of the campaign from...

The main contribution of my thesis is the analysis of substantial empirical material that I have collected from Community trade union actors. My analysis focuses on the institutional strategies of the sectoral European trade union federations and their implications for the Europeanisation of wages policy. I have demonstrated that the development of European coordination processes of national collective bargaining, particularly at sectoral level, has contributed to reviving the concept of collective bargaining and professional relations in the European Area, which until then had been covered in the literature by the social dialogue. I have identified three obstacles to collective negociations at a European level: the “depoliticised” wage in the economic partnership, employers identified as the “lobby partner” in the sectoral social dialogue, and the difficulties encountered in the Europeanisation of trade unions. L’apport majeur de notre thèse est l’analyse d’un matériel empirique conséquent que nous avons collecté auprès des acteurs syndicaux communautaires. Notre analyse se concentre sur les stratégies institutionnelles des fédérations syndicales sectorielles européennes et sur leurs implications en matière d’européanisation de la politique salariale. Nous avons démontré que le développement des processus de coordination européenne des négociations collectives nationales, en particulier au niveau sectoriel, peut contribuer à renouveler la conception de la négociation collective et des relations professionnelles dans l’espace européen jusqu’alors appréhendée dans la littérature par le dialogue social. Nous avons identifié trois obstacles à la négociation collective européenne : le salaire « dépolitisé » dans le partenariat économique, le patronat devenu « partenaire-lobby » dans le dialogue social sectoriel, et la difficile européanisation syndicale.

Southern Africa generally has an arid climate and many hydrologists are predicting an increase in water scarcity over time. This research seeks to understand the implications of this in socio-political terms. The study is cross-disciplinary, examining how policy interventions can be used to solve the problem caused by the interaction between hydrology and demography. The conclusion is that water scarcity is not the actual problem, but is perceived as the problem by policy-makers. Instead, water scarcity is the manifestation of the problem, with root causes being a combination of climate change, population growth and misallocation of water within the economy due to a desire for national self-sufficiency in agriculture. The solution lies in the trade of products with a high water content, also known as 'virtual water'. Research on this specific issue is called for by the White Paper on Water Policy for South Africa. / Political Sciences / M.A. (International Politics)

Southern Africa generally has an arid climate and many hydrologists are predicting an increase in water scarcity over time. This research seeks to understand the implications of this in socio-political terms. The study is cross-disciplinary, examining how policy interventions can be used to solve the problem caused by the interaction between hydrology and demography. The conclusion is that water scarcity is not the actual problem, but is perceived as the problem by policy-makers. Instead, water scarcity is the manifestation of the problem, with root causes being a combination of climate change, population growth and misallocation of water within the economy due to a desire for national self-sufficiency in agriculture. The solution lies in the trade of products with a high water content, also known as 'virtual water'. Research on this specific issue is called for by the White Paper on Water Policy for South Africa. / Political Sciences / M.A. (International Politics)

Early childhood development is one of the critical services to support the development of young children from conception to age six. Children raised in vulnerable inner cities, with limited access to quality, well-resourced ECD services, are at risk of perpetuating cycles of disadvantage and exclusion. Even though ECD centres exist in abundance in the inner city of Durban, eThekwini Municipality, KwaZulu-Natal, managers of ECD centres face challenges such as meeting rigorous registration norms and standards, a lack of finances, resources, trained staff and socio-economic factors which affect the wellbeing of children. Using a qualitative approach, this study communicates the role played by the Inner City ECD Forum in the learning experiences of seven ECD managers through their participation in inter-sectoral stakeholder interventions and capacity building trainings. It further outlines the benefits of networking and collective support. Based on the findings, recommendations for practice, policy and further research are made. / School of Social Sciences / M.A. (Social Work)