Die Studie „Restrukturierung nationaler Institutionen: Demokratisierung und Entwicklung in Laos“ untersucht die Auswirkungen von Normensetzung in der internationalen Entwicklungszusammenarbeit, wie „Sustainable Development Goals“ (SDGs), auf Institutionen und Entwicklungspolitik in Laos. Untersucht wird wie die internationalen Entwicklungsnormen die Macht der laotischen Regierung sowie ihre Fähigkeit, Ziele in der Entwicklungspolitik erfolgreich umzusetzen, beeinflussen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen erstens, dass die Umsetzung der SDGs in Laos durch die Zusammenarbeit von internationalen Entwicklungspartnern und der laotischen Regierung in vier verschiedene Dimensionen eingeteilt wird: Wirtschaftliche Entwicklung, ökologische Nachhaltigkeit, soziale Inklusion und „good governance“. Alle haben dazu beigetragen, Institutionen und Entwicklungspolitik in Laos internationalen Standards anzugleichen. Gleichwohl ist es den internationalen Entwicklungspartnern unmöglich, die politische Macht der Partei als Regierung einzuschränken, indem sie die SDGs zur Verbreitung einer eigenen politischen Agenda nutzen. Zweitens: die Partei kann ihre Macht in der Innenpolitik und ihre Kontrolle über die Gesellschaft aufrecht zu erhalten. Diese umfassen Ideologien, die eine Mischung aus marxistisch-leninistischen und nationalistischen Elementen darstellen, die Betonung von Erfolgen in der Entwicklung des Landes sowie die Unterdrückung des revolutionären Potenzials. Dies führt zu einer Konservierung der politischen Struktur, in der sich die Macht der Partei in einer Institution manifestiert. Diese wird durch Parteimitgliedschaft, Regierung, Nationalversammlung und Volksgerichtshof konstituiert - ohne Beteiligung der Bürger. Drittens: trotz der Bemühungen der internationalen Entwicklungszusammenarbeit, die Kapazitäten des Staats im Bereich der Entwicklungspolitik auszubauen, dieser noch Schwierigkeiten in Bezug auf Finanzverwaltung, Personalwesen und institutionelle Leistungsfähigkeit aufweist. / The research titled “Restructuring Domestic Institutions: Democratization and Development in Laos” aims to analyze how international development norms, such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), have shaped Laos’ domestic institutions and development policy. It also aims to investigate the influence of international development norms on Lao state power, as well as its capacity to achieve development goals. The research results show that: First, the development partners support the SDGs in Laos through international development assistance to the Lao government in economic development, environmental sustainability, social inclusion and good governance, all of which have helped shape Lao domestic institutions and development policy to meet international standards. However, the development partners cannot curtail the political power of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (the Party) or the Lao government in manipulating the SDGs to serve a political purpose. Second, the Party is able to maintain its power in domestic politics and control over Lao society. Second, the Party is able to maintain its power in domestic politics and control over Lao society. These include blending Marxist-Leninist and national ideologies, highlighting development achievements and suppressing the revolutionary potential. Therefore, the political structure in Laos retains the Party’s power in an institution overlapping between the Party member, the Lao government, the National Assembly and the People’s Court without the citizen’s participation. Third, even though the development partners seek to enhance the Lao state’s capacity to achieve the development goals, the Lao government has encountered difficulties in financial management, human resources, and institutional capacities.

Im Jahr 2015 wurde die Agenda 2030 erlassen, welche insgesamt 17 Ziele in Form von Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) umfasst. Inhalt dessen stellen menschliche sowie planetare und politische Absichten im Bereich der Nachhaltigkeit dar, an welchen 169 Länder beteiligt sind. Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es, die Vergleichbarkeit und Verfügbarkeit der Indikatoren aus den Sustainable Development Goals zu prüfen. Zur Umsetzung wurden die Länder Deutschland, Brasilien und Norwegen hinsichtlich ihrer Messdaten näher betrachtet. Diesbezüglich ist im Rahmen der Gegenüberstellung eine Auflistung der jeweiligen Fortschritte der einzelnen SDGs erfolgt. Zudem werden die Indikatoren bezüglich ihrer Messbarkeit und Verlässlichkeit auf Basis nationaler Berichte analysiert. Deutlich wurde dadurch, dass ein Vergleich des Fortschritts der Sustainable Development Goals nicht eindeutig möglich ist. / In 2015, the Agenda 2030 was adopted, which comprises a total of 17 goals in the form of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs represent human as well as planetary and political intentions in the field of sustainability, in which 169 countries are involved. The aim of this work is to examine the comparability and availability of indicators from the Sustainable Development Goals. For the implementation, the countries Germany, Brazil and Norway were examined more closely with regard to their measurement data. In this context, a listing of the respective progress of the individual SDGs has been made as part of the comparison. In addition, the indicators are analyzed in terms of their measurability and reliability on the basis of national reports. Evidently, a comparison of the progress of the Sustainable Development Goals is not clearly possible.

A Atenção Primária à Saúde (APS) é vista como condição essencial para o cumprimento dos Objetivos de Desenvolvimento Sustentável (ODS) acordados internacionalmente. Porém, mesmo quando o uso do geoprocessamento tem sido considerado um poderoso aporte para a Saúde Pública, o potencial desta ferramenta não tem sido suficientemente explorado como instrumento de pesquisa e gestão dentro do trabalho diário dos serviços de APS, o que poderia prejudicar o cumprimento das metas destes serviços, quanto dos próprios ODS. Sendo assim, o objetivo deste estudo foi explorar abordagens territoriais na APS e nos ODS, pelo uso do geoprocessamento e pela análise de planos municipais de saúde. A metodologia inclui uma revisão sistemática do uso do geoprocessamento na APS no mundo todo, uma revisão integrativa respeito das técnicas de geoprocessamento utilizadas em APS, e uma revisão da convergência entre agendas municipais de saúde e os ODS, tomado como exemplo os municípios de Santiago do Chile e São Paulo no Brasil. Os resultados mostraram que o uso do geoprocessamento melhora a abordagem territorial da APS, contribuindo para uma gestão mais eficiente dos serviços, influenciando também uma mudança na forma de trabalho das equipes de saúde, que se reflete em benefícios concretos para a comunidade. Contudo, a relação entre a APS e os ODS não foi informada adequadamente dentro dos planos municipais de saúde estudados. Conclui-se que se requer de maior alinhamento dos planos e políticas locais, nacionais e globais de saúde, maior divulgação das ações realizadas pela APS, e maior uso e difusão de tecnologias já disponibilizadas à abordagem territorial e intersetorial destes serviços. / Primary Health Care (PHC) is seen as an essential condition for achieving the internationally agreed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, even when the use of geoprocessing has been considered a powerful contribution to public health, the potential of this tool has not been sufficiently explored as a research and management tool within the daily work of PHC services, which could hinder the achievement of the targets of these services, as well as the SDGs. Thus, the objective of this study was to explore territorial approaches in PHC and SDGs, through the use of geoprocessing and the analysis of municipal health plans. The methodology includes a systematic review of the use of geoprocessing in PHC worldwide, an integrative review of the geoprocessing techniques used in PHC, and a review of the convergence between municipal health agendas and the SDGs, taking as an example the municipalities of Santiago de Chile and São Paulo in Brazil. The results showed that the use of geoprocessing improves the territorial approach of PHC, contributing to more efficient management of services, also influencing a change in the way of work of health teams, which is reflected in concrete benefits for the community. However, the relationship between PHC and SDGs was not adequately informed within the municipal health plans studied. It is concluded that is it required greater alignment of local, national and global health plans and policies, greater dissemination of actions carried out by PHC, and greater use and diffusion of technologies already available for the territorial and intersectoral approach of these services.

Circular economy has emerged as a new economic paradigm to solve problems of natural resource scarcity and environmental pollution by using resources more efficiently and designing products to minimize waste. This study examines the potential of circular economy to enable the achievement of sustainable development and the Sustainable Development Goals in Europe. This thesis, through a qualitative content analysis of four overarching European reports related to circular economy strategies, uses a social-ecological systems perspective to: (a) analyze how the three aspects of sustainable development are addressed in the reports and (b) pointing out at missing elements in the European circular economy project that could hinder the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals. Circular economy is a good start to change habits in terms of recycling, reusing and repairing but it also raises awareness about the link between our level of consumption and production and its impact on the environment. However, the results of this study show that the link between Sustainable Development Goals and circular economy is weak and that the economic aspects are highlighted in all the reports to the detriment of environmental and social aspects. As a consequence, the current application of circular economy in Europe does not provide systemic and structural changes, fails to address the root of the problem and reflects a weak vision of sustainability.

Greenhouse gasses, such as carbon dioxide and methane absorb and emit heat radiation, which contribute to global warming. Human activities such as increased emissions through burning of fossil fuels and deforestation drive this climate threat. International treaties such as the Paris agreement, enables stakeholders to mitigate effects of climate impact and create new sustainable markets. Various carbon offset projects on the voluntary market are an attempt to neutralize climate impact. In this report we identify five main project types for carbon offsets: i) forestry and land use, ii) renewable energy and energy effectivization, iii) transport, iv) waste handling and v) household devices. These project types are evaluated against UNs 17 sustainable development goals. The results show a net positive impact on goal 13, Climate action, for all project types, which is congruent with the focus on carbon offsetting. The results also show that impact varies depending on how the project is deigned. Climate offsetting has enabled multiple stakeholders to contribute to climate change mitigation. Despite many global benefits, carbon offsets have been subject to criticism in cases where the concept is not used as intended. There are currently no clear guidelines as to when focus for companies should shift from internal reduction to external reduction through offsetting. Validation of carbon offsets is another problematic aspect, as there is no one standard for the market to secure the quality of projects.

We created and analyzed a text classification dataset from freely-available web documents from the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals. We then used it to train and compare different multi-label text classifiers with the aim of exploring the alternatives for methods that facilitate the search of information of this type of documents. We explored the effectiveness of deep learning and transfer learning in text classification by fine-tuning different pre-trained language representations — Word2Vec, GloVe, ELMo, ULMFiT and BERT. We also compared these approaches against a baseline of more traditional algorithms without using transfer learning. More specifically, we used multinomial Naive Bayes, logistic regression, k-nearest neighbors and Support Vector Machines. We then analyzed the results of our experiments quantitatively and qualitatively. The best results in terms of micro-averaged F1 scores and AUROC are obtained by BERT. However, it is also interesting that the second best classifier in terms of micro-averaged F1 scores is the Support Vector Machines, closely followed by the logistic regression classifier, which both have the advantage of being less computationally expensive than BERT. The results also show a close relation between our dataset size and the effectiveness of the classifiers.

Social and economic challenges in one part of the world influence budgets, security, health, and well being of populations globally as was the case with the 2014 Ebola outbreak. Deficits in healthcare, education, governance, and the economy in African nations result in financial and social contributions from the diaspora residing in the United States. Many African-born immigrants to Florida came with useful knowledge and experience from their home nations that could be a valuable resource in carrying out effective development initiatives. However, accessing that knowledge is challenging. The purpose of this research was to explore the inclusion of members of the African diaspora community in Florida nonprofit development initiatives. The transnational theory of migration underpinned the following research question: What are barriers to, and opportunities for, including members of the African diaspora in Florida-based NPOs that carry out development programs in Africa? Semistructured interviews were conducted with Florida nonprofit leaders (N= 21) who have development projects in Africa. Manual and computer assisted methods using NVivo 11 were used to develop codes and themes for data analysis. Identified barriers to including African diaspora in NPOs included lack of established networks and organizational awareness as well as limited service areas, service locations, funding, and leadership roles. All respondents expressed interest in engaging with diaspora members and other nonprofit leaders via expat networks. Successful engagement with the African diaspora community could promote positive social change by improving program delivery, communication, and programmatic outcomes for a mutual impact in both African and Florida-based communities.

Today billions of people live without access to basic sanitation facilities, and thousands die every week due to diseases caused by fecal contamination associated with improper sanitation. It has thus become crucial for decision makers to have access to relevant and sufficient data to implement appropriate solutions to these problems. The Global Water Pathogen Project http://www.waterpathogens.org/ is dedicated to providing an up-to-date source of data on pathogen reduction associated with different sanitation technologies that are important if the world is to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to health and sanitation provision. In this research, a subset of the Global Water Pathogen Project (GWPP) data is used to access the reduction of bacteria and viruses across different mechanical and natural sanitation technologies. The order of expected removal for bacteria during wastewater treatment was reported as highest for a membrane bioreactor (4.4 log10), waste stabilization pond (2.3 log10), conventional activated sludge (1.43 log10), anaerobic anoxic oxic activated sludge (1.9 log10), trickling filter (1.16 log10), and upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor (1.2 log10). Furthermore, the order of expected removal for viruses was reported as highest for a membrane bioreactor (3.3 log10), conventional activated sludge (1.84 log10), anaerobic anoxic oxic activated sludge (1.67 log10), waste stabilization pond (1 log10), upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor (0.3 log10) and trickling filter (0.29 log10). It was found that hydraulic retention time (HRT) had a statistically significant relation to the reduction of bacteria in an anaerobic, anoxic oxic treatment system. Similarly, a significant relation was found between the number of waste stabilization ponds in series and the expected reduction of bacteria. HRT was also found to be a significant factor in virus reduction in waste stabilization ponds. Additionally, it was observed that waste stabilization ponds, trickling filters, and UASB reactors could obtain a greater reduction in bacteria (5-7 log10) when combined with additional treatment (e.g., chemical disinfection or use of maturation ponds). Also, mechanized systems, such as activated sludge systems and membrane bioreactors, obtained a greater reduction (2-3 log10) of viruses when compared to a natural system. It was concluded that the selection of the best suitable technology for pathogen reduction depends on environmental, design, and operational factors as well as considering the performance of specific wastewater treatment systems individually as well as when combined with other treatment technologies that may provide added removal of microbial constituents.

Policy coherence is receiving increasing attention due to the interconnectedness, urgency and global character of the challenges that humanity faces today. Policy coherence provides an effective approach to tackle the complex macrochallenges of today since it entails achieving policies from different levels and sectors striving towards the same objectives in a supportive and reinforcing manner, producing an effective and long-lasting response to the challenges. Considering the broad, ambitious and universal Agenda 2030, policy coherence is of greater importance than ever before. This study investigates the policy coherence between Agenda 2030 and the national level looking into the case of Sweden with focus on the environmental dimension of sustainable development by evaluating the coherence between the environmental SDGs and Sweden’s national environmental quality objectives. Coherence between the two policy levels is evaluated using a qualitative data analysis by comparing official policy documents from respective policy agenda and applying the OECD’s (2016) Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development framework to Sweden. The conclusion indicates that the policy agendas fit together in a reasonable way but has the potential to be more coherent. Urgency is seldom addressed, but rather challenges are pointed out as critical and taking action is noted as significant. Both of the policy agendas address the interconnectedness of the challenges, the SDGs in a vague manner pointing out ‘links’ and the national environmental quality objectives in a more detailed manner pointing out more specific examples. The global character of the challenges is addressed in both of the policy agendas, more so in the SDGs than the national environmental quality targets. Incoherence is at times difficult to point out due to the vague terms used in Agenda 2030 compared to Sweden’s national policy. However, the vagueness of Agenda 2030 seems to serve a function whereas the country specific goals go into further detail according to the context. Despite the difficulty, results show that a broader perspective would benefit both policy agendas in addressing the global challenges coherently, since it consequently implies that the concept of policy coherence is applied at a larger scale.

Lack of water access is an issue of global importance. The WHO and UNICEF’s Joint Monitoring Program estimated that in 2015 71% of the world’s population used a safely managed drinking water source and 89% of the world’s population used an improved water source within a 30-minute round trip of home. Madagascar’s national statistics lags far behind these global statistics with 54% of the population using improved water sources, 31% using unimproved water sources, and 16% with no service at all. This research studied water access in Madagascar with self-supply Pitcher Pumps attached on hand-driven tubewells. The term self-supply in this context refers to privately owned and constructed water sources that are not financially subsidized by governments or non-governmental organizations. Self-supply is typically seen in the form of private wells in rural areas of developed countries like the United States or in developing countries in the form of shallow wells or rain water harvesting. Self-supply Pitcher Pumps are common along the coast in Madagascar in areas where the first aquifer is shallow and in sandy soil. They are ubiquitous at the site of this study, the port city of Tamatave. People in Madagascar have benefited from increased access to affordable water because of Pitcher Pumps for decades, however, there are health risks associated with consuming the water due to lead and microbial contamination of the water. This study sought to improve microbial water quality of Malagasy Pitcher Pumps by testing two different types of well head protection: 1) a partially buried short 100-mm diameter PVC pipe collar placed around the rising main, and 2) a 50-cm diameter, circular concrete apron. The study was a mixed design experiment that allowed for between subject comparisons of wells over the same time period and for within subject comparisons of the same well sites with different types of well head protection. Wells were selected for the study that had a high risk of localized pathways of contamination and low risks of aquifer contamination relative to other wells in the area. Membrane filtration was used for microbial water quality measurements and detected a wide spectrum of bacteria grown at 37◦ C. In this study, data from 690 water samples of 44 wells (with and without well protection added) over a 9 months period was analyzed. Weak but statistically significant (p ≤ 0.05) and marginally statistically significant (0.05 < p ≤ 0.10) correlations were found between bacteria concentrations and antecedent rainfall depth for wells with aprons but not for wells with a pipe collar or no protection. No statistically significant relationship was found between bacteria concentrations in wells and type of well head protection. The lack of reduction in bacteria concentrations with well head protection is likely due to the high density of on-site sanitation near the wells and the relatively shallow water table. Generally, study results indicate that there is a wide variation of bacteria concentrations both from the same well across many months and between wells that are near each other. The second observation is consistent with other studies of wells in the area. It appears as if the best solution for improving water quality from Malagasy Pitcher Pumps to a potable level is point-of-use treatment of the water.