Search results for: poverty and inequality

Authors: Raihan Zahirah Mauludy Ridwan, Frisca Devi Choirina

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Indonesia with its former presidents has enhanced the bilateral cooperation also multilateral cooperation in terms of economy but the result was not significant towards eradicating poverty, unemployment, income inequality, and economic growth. To eradicate these problems, President Joko Widodo through his several points of Nawacita wants to boost Indonesia’s economic relationship and cooperation which manifested in “Economic Diplomacy” as one of Indonesia’s foreign policy priority and he pitches it in international forums. The economic diplomacy does not only attracts prospective countries but also attracts the foreign businessman and investors. The economic diplomacy includes four sectors which are vital for economic growth, one of them is investment. This paper would like to answer how economic diplomacy can have significant impact towards social welfare, equity and economic growth especially in Indonesia. The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of economic diplomacy and its impact toward Indonesia’s welfare, equity, and economic growth. This paper uses the theory of economic diplomacy to link the current international political economic sphere and the impact of economic diplomacy for Indonesia through case study method. The paper affirms that economic diplomacy in investment sector does have significant impact, especially in the development of infrastructures, foreign direct investment in several sectors, and food security.

Keywords: economic diplomacy, economic growth, equity, Indonesia, Joko Widodo, social welfare

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Authors: Mahitab A. A. Mahmoud

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Despite the international community’s galvanized efforts to achieve gender equality, the Arab world still lags behind for their sustained suppression of diversity and freedoms. In Egypt, homosexuals are defamed and hunted not only by authorities but also by politicized religious institutions and media platforms. The resultant state-sponsored homophobia is reflected in media. This paper offers a critical discourse analysis of the representation of LGBTQs in Egypt’s local news articles and movies in an attempt to investigate the underlying ideology. The results reveal a clichéd portrayal of homosexuals as a social parasite that requires cleansing by the government. LGBTQs are depicted as an outcome of debauchery, unhappy marriage, sexual deviancy, deficiency of masculinity/femininity, absence of the mother and/or father figure(s), abject poverty, excessive wealth, psychiatric disorder, debased instincts, childhood sexual molestation, immorality, deviation from religion, chaos, treason, conspiracy against the regime, to name only a few. This image, which is imposed and sustained by the state, exposes homosexuals to a violation of their human rights by both the police and the society, endangers their lives, breeds intolerance, social inequality and violence, prevents healthy coexistence; and deprives them of living a normal life.

Keywords: critical discourse analysis, gender studies, homophobia, homosexuality, ideology, media studies

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Authors: Nasser Karami

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Piracy in the North West of Indian Ocean and the Red Sea has become a global crisis in recent years. Pirates of this area are often very poor people from the Horn of Africa and the western coast of the Red Sea. Climatic and geographical evidence suggests that poverty and destruction of social structures in the region have directly relation to prolonged-drought. Indeed, after the seventies (more than 40 years ago) due to the long-term drought in the region, all political, economic and social structures had declined. Spread of terrorism, violent extremism and of course piracy, are main effects of climate change and drought of this regression. It is disturbing to say the climatic documents say that because of global climate change, severe drought will continue in this region. This mean that the dangers worse than piracy threatens the future of this area. Forty-year data that has assessed in this study indicate that there is direct relationship between spread of drought and piracy in the Red Sea.

Keywords: climate, poverty, climate change, drought, piracy in red sea

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Authors: Dianne Lyneth Alavado

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At the turn of the millennium, development paradigms in the international scene revolved around one goal: elimination of global poverty without comprising human rights. One measure which achieved high endorsement and visibility in the world of work is the Decent Work Agenda (DWA) championed by the United Nation’s (UN) specialized agency for work, the International Labour Organization (ILO). The DWA has been thoroughly promoted and recommended as an ingredient of development planning and a poverty reduction strategy, particularly in developing countries such as the Philippines. The global imperative of economic growth is measurable not only in the numbers raked in by countries in terms of expanding economy but also by the development and realization of the full capacities of their people. Decent work (DW), as an outcome and not just a development approach, promises poverty eradication by means of providing both quantity and quality work that is accompanied by rights, representation, and protection. As a party to these international pacts, the Philippines is expected to heed the call towards a world free from poverty through well-endorsed measures such as the DWA with the aid of multilateral and donor organizations such as the ILO. This study aims to assess the capacity and readiness of the Philippines to achieve the goals of the DWA. This is a qualitative research using the sociological and juridical lens in the desk analysis of existing Philippine laws, policies, and programs vis-à-vis decent work indicators set forth by the ILO. Interview with experts on the Philippine labor situation is conducted for further validation. The paper identifies gaps within the Philippine legal system and its collection of laws, acts, presidential decrees, department orders and other policy instruments aimed towards achieving the goals of the DWA. Among the major findings of this paper are: the predisposition of Philippine labor laws towards the formal sector; the need for alternative solutions for the informal sector veering away from the usual dole-outs and livelihood projects; the needs for evaluation of policies and programs that are usually self-evaluated; the minimal reach of the labour inspectorate which ensures decent work; and the lack of substantial penalty for non-compliance with labor laws. The paper concludes with policy implications and recommendations towards addressing the potholes on the road to Decent Work.

Keywords: decent work agenda, labor laws, millennium development goals, poverty eradication, sustainable development goal

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Authors: Charles Rutikanga

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As part of the effort to reconstruct Rwanda and foster a shared national identity after the 1994 genocide against Tutsi, the government of Rwanda has drawn on aspects of indigenous culture and traditional practices. One of these traditional practices and cultural values is Ubudehe, which has been re-introduced after it has been gradually lost since colonial times. It is a form of collective action at the village level, which is inclusive, covering men, women, and the most marginalized community members. The philosophy behind Ubudehe is to increase the level of participation and institutional problem-solving capacity at the local level by citizens and local government. Since the early 2000s, the government re-introduced Ubudehe as a neo-traditional cultural institution in order to support the implementation of the country’s poverty reduction and development programs. An empirical study on indigenous and innovative models of social work practice was conducted under the framework of the ‘Professional Social Work in East Africa’ (PROSOWO II) project. Field data were collected on traditional/indigenous approaches, including Ubudehe, from different categories of informants through focus group discussions (FGDs) and personal interviews. The research showed that professional social workers play a significant role in the whole Ubudehe process. While there have been some challenges in the administration and implementation, overall it has contributed to poverty reduction in a post-genocide Rwanda.

Keywords: development, indigenous approach, social work, Ubudehe

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Authors: Nazima Ellahi, Danish Ramzan

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There is a growing trend among development economists regarding the importance of financial sector for economic development and growth activities. The development thus introduced, helps to promote welfare effects and poverty alleviation. This study is an attempt to find the nature of link between Islamic banking financing and development of output growth for Pakistan. Time series data set has been utilized for a time period ranging from 1990 to 2010. Following the Phillip Perron (PP) and Augmented Dicky Fuller (ADF) test of unit root this study applied Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) method of estimation and found encouraging results in favor of promoting the Islamic banking practices in Pakistan.

Keywords: Islamic finance, poverty alleviation, economic growth, finance, commerce

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Authors: Isabelle Gobatto

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Based on an anthropological approach, this paper explores the medical profession and the construction of medical practices by considering the multiform articulations between structural poverty and the production of care from a low-resource francophone West African country, Burkina Faso. This country is considered in its exemplary dimension of culturally differentiated countries of the African continent that share the same situation of structural poverty. The objective is to expose the effects of structural poverty on the ways of constructing professional knowledge and thinking about the sense of the medical profession. If doctors are trained to have the same capacities in South and West countries, which are to treat and save lives whatever the cultural contexts of the practice of medicine, the ways of investing their role and of dealing with this context of action fracture the homogenization of the medical profession. In the line of anthropology of biomedicine, this paper outlines the complex effects of structural poverty on health care, care relations, and the moral economy of doctors. The materials analyzed are based on an ethnography including two temporalities located thirty years apart (1990-1994 and 2020-2021), based on long-term observations of care practices conducted in healthcare institutions, interviews coupled with the life histories of physicians. The findings reveal that disabilities faced by doctors to deliver care are interpreted as policy gaps, but they are also considered by physicians as constitutive of the social and cultural characteristics of patients, making their capacities and incapacities in terms of accompanying caregivers in the production of care. These perceptions have effects on know-how, structured around the need to act even when diagnoses are not made so as not to see patients desert health structures if the costs of care are too high for them. But these interpretations of highly individualizing dimensions of these difficulties place part of the blame on patients for the difficulties in using learned knowledge and delivering effective care. These situations challenge the ethics of caregivers but also of ethnologists. Firstly because the interpretations of disabilities prevent caregivers from considering vulnerabilities of care as constituting a common condition shared with their patients in these health systems, affecting them in an identical way although in different places in the production of care. Correlatively, these results underline that these professional conceptions prevent the emergence of a figure of victim, which could be shared between patients and caregivers who, together, undergo working and care conditions at the limit of the acceptable. This dimension directly involves politics. Secondly, structural poverty and its effects on care challenge the ethics of the anthropologist who observes caregivers producing, without intent to arm, experiences of care marked by an ordinary violence, by not giving them the care they need. It is worth asking how anthropologists could get doctors to think in this light in west-African societies.

Keywords: Africa, care, ethics, poverty

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Authors: Khairil Ahmad, Jenny Gryzelius, Mohd Helmi Mohd Sobri

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With the waning support for centrist ‘third-way’ politics across the Western world, there has been an increase in political parties and individual candidates relying on populist political discourse and rhetoric in order to capitalize on the sense of frustration apparent within the electorate. What is of note is the divergence in the discourses employed. On the one hand, there is a polarization between a growing wave of populist right-wing parties and politicians, employing a mixture of economic populism with divisive nationalistic ideals such as restricted immigration, for example, the UK’s UKIP and Donald Trump in the US. On the other hand, there are resurgent, often grassroots-led, left-wing movements and politicians, such as Podemos in Spain and Jeremy Corbyn in the UK, focusing on anti-austerity measures and inclusive policies. In general, the concept of populism is often ascribed in a pejorative way. This is despite the success of populist left-wing governments across Latin America in recent times, especially in terms of reducing poverty. Nonetheless, recently, scholars such as Ernesto Laclau have tried to rethink populism as a social scientific concept which is essential in helping us make sense of contemporary political articulations. Using Laclau’s framework, this paper seeks to analyze poverty reduction policies in different iterations in the context of the tenures of three Prime Ministers of Malaysia. The first is Abdul Razak Hussein’s New Economic Policy, which focused on uplifting the economic position of Malaysia’s majority Malay population. The second is Mahathir Mohamad’s state-led neo-liberalization of the Malaysian economy, which focused on the creation of a core group of crony elites in order to spearhead economic development. The third is current Prime Minister Najib Razak’s targeted poverty eradication strategy through a focused program which directly provides benefits to recipients such as through direct cash transfers. The paper employs a discursive approach to trace elements of populism in these cases and highlight instances of how their strategies are articulated in ways that seek to appeal towards particular visions of national unity.

Keywords: discourse analysis, Malaysia, populism, poverty eradication

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Authors: Abdelkader Guendouz, Fatima Zohra Adel

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Even if both the economic and the human development are an axial pillar in its global policy, Algerian government seems to be more and more engaged in the international context aiming to reach of the so called millennium development goals, and this since its beginning. By looking closely at the Algerian economic policy, it is easy to mention the existence of several programs in which both economic and social realisations including among others, poverty reduction, enhancement of education level and conditions, woman statute and gender equity amelioration targets. The efforts of Algerian government in the field of these targets had been acheminated through three main plans, which are: -PSRE (Plan de Soutien à la Relance Economique), for the period of 2001 to 2004, initiated with about 7 billion US dollar, had been focused on three objectives, namely, poverty reduction, job creation and regional equilibrium with rural areas revitalization. -PCSC (le Programme complémentaire de soutien à la croissance économique), for the period of 2005 to 2009, with a starting funding of 114 billion US dollar. This program aims to develop public services and supporting public investments, especially in which concerns social infrastructures. Now, and at the end of the maturity of the MDGs agenda, an important question is to be asked: what are the main realizations regarding these MDGs? In order to answer this question, the present paper tries to examine the Algerian economic policy (but also the social one) by considering the MDGs challenges, for the period from 2000 to 2010, but also until 2015. This examination is focused on three main targets, namely poverty, education, and health. Firstly, statistical assessment for the Algerian economic and social situation shows that almost all MDGs had been reached during the period of 2000 to 2009 and it continues to maintain and improve them. This observation can be endorsed by invoking some achievements. Starting by the reduction of poverty, the proportion of population living with less than 1 US dollar per a day passed from 8.0 % in 2000 to 0.5 % in 2009, and 0.3 % in 2015. For education sphere, the enrolment ratio of six-year child, which is the most significant index for school attendance, is about 98 % for 2009 against 93 % in 1999, and only 43 % in 1966. Concluding with health care and relevant services; the Algerian government has accomplished big steps in providing easy access to this sector for the population. Moreover, the percentage of assisted accouchement had been raised from 91.2 % in 2000 to 97.2 % in 2009.

Keywords: Algerian economic policy, MDGs, poverty, education, health

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Authors: N. Chayaopas, W. Assawinchaichote

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In order to maximize energy capturing from wind energy, controlling the doubly fed induction generator to have optimal power from the wind, generator speed and output electrical power control in wind energy system have a great importance due to the nonlinear behavior of wind velocities. In this paper purposes the design of a control scheme is developed for power control of wind energy system via H∞ fuzzy integral controller. Firstly, the nonlinear system is represented in term of a TS fuzzy control design via linear matrix inequality approach to find the optimal controller to have an H∞ performance are derived. The proposed control method extract the maximum energy from the wind and overcome the nonlinearity and disturbances problems of wind energy system which give good tracking performance and high efficiency power output of the DFIG.

Keywords: doubly fed induction generator, H-infinity fuzzy integral control, linear matrix inequality, wind energy system

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Authors: Elif N. Coban

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With the political instability that has prevailed in Lebanon since October 2019, followed by a global pandemic and a deepening concurrent economic crisis after the Beirut Port explosion on August 4, 2020, Syrian refugees in Lebanon have struggled to survive what the World Bank has described as one of the worst economic crises in decades. This study aims to assess the vulnerability of Syrian refugee women. It will present a comparative analysis of refugee and Lebanese households using data from Lebanon’s Labour Force and Household Conditions Survey (LFHLCS) and from VASyr surveys, which are comprehensive annual surveys conducted jointly by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). The study adopts an intersectionality-based method, which deals with gender and marginalized communities from many different perspectives, to put forward a gender-oriented approach. Examining the distribution of socioeconomic status among Syrian and Lebanese households might help to understand the disproportionate burdens borne by women. In this context, multidimensional poverty (MP) helps depict fragile communities’ socioeconomic status and allows a fuller grasp the multiple aspects of deprivation. Finally, this understanding may pave the way to more inclusive policy for decision-makers and practitioners working on refugee issues.

Keywords: multidimensional poverty, gender studies, intersectionality, Syrian refugees, Lebanon

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Authors: P.-W. Tsai, C.-Y. Chen, C.-W. Chen

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In this paper, the stability analysis of a GA-Based adaptive fuzzy sliding model controller for a nonlinear system is discussed. First, a nonlinear plant is well-approximated and described with a reference model and a fuzzy model, both involving FLC rules. Then, FLC rules and the consequent parameter are decided on via an Evolved Bat Algorithm (EBA). After this, we guarantee a new tracking performance inequality for the control system. The tracking problem is characterized to solve an eigenvalue problem (EVP). Next, an adaptive fuzzy sliding model controller (AFSMC) is proposed to stabilize the system so as to achieve good control performance. Lyapunov’s direct method can be used to ensure the stability of the nonlinear system. It is shown that the stability analysis can reduce nonlinear systems into a linear matrix inequality (LMI) problem. Finally, a numerical simulation is provided to demonstrate the control methodology.

Keywords: adaptive fuzzy sliding mode control, Lyapunov direct method, swarm intelligence, evolved bat algorithm

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Authors: Maulana Ayoub Ali

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“Both Socialist as well as the capitalist in the economic systems have proven their failure to ensure economic justice that serves to benefit all in the society, both the rich and the poor. In particular, capitalism is currently causing a terrifying scenario by making the rich richer and the poor poorer” . In this paper, the author looks at the level of exploitation which is taking place to small and middle entrepreneurs (SME’s), government and private employees as well as large investors in East African countries who depends on interest-based loans which undermines their lives every day due to heavy monthly returns. Numbers of families have been evicted from their family premises and SME’s properties have been attached in the courts due to failure to return their loans timely. In fact, there are a lot of issues which have taken place on the ground which badly affected number of families socially and most importantly economically due to engagement in interest-based loans offered by commercial banks in East Africa. This paper looks on the alternative ways of eliminating interest-based loans to better lives of devastated Africans who are almost “dying” of heavy debts generated through higher interest loans. Reaching to that particular root the author has visited various literatures in a bid to deeply investigate and find out the best alternative mode of enabling African SME’s, businessmen and employees to benefit from the interest-free loans. The question is whether interest-free loans can be a long term solution towards poverty alleviation in East Africa generally and Tanzania in particular.

Keywords: interest-free loans, SME’s, financial institutions, poverty, east Africa

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Authors: K. Lekshmi

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Land becomes a predominant constituent of transitional justice paradigm subsequent to the apartheid inspired land grabs and conflict induced forceful evictions in South Africa effecting land encroachment, expropriation, and alienation. In this pretext, post-Apartheid regime initiated land reconciliation measures which presume to overcome the politically appropriated historical injustices in conjunction with reconstructing transitional justice. As land grabs became one of the quintessential repercussions followed by ethnic cleansing in South Africa, it is prominent to study how land reconciliation becomes necessary in imparting transitional justice to the victims. The study also looks into the nature of developmental pattern after re- territorialization process in a post-conflict country like South Africa and, tries to look how re-territorialization process construed the functional distribution of income vis-a-vis income inequality in particular. Further the paper attempts to study how far land distribution and equal access as part of the land reconciliation process juxtaposed the principle of restitution. Research methodology applied is empirical followed by analytical research.

Keywords: development, land reconciliation, transitional justice, income inequality and displacement, re-territorialization

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Authors: Khodijah Ismail, Elfindri

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Tourism development have many environmental, economically and sociocultural benefits. Small islands have a lot of potential for marine tourism development. But, stereotype gender issues still dominate the social and cultural life of rural communities that have an impact on the gap in benefits of local development. The purpose of this study is to found development strategy concept of marine tourism in small islands gender-based. This study found in the marine tourism development of small islands not involved women, from planning to monitor marine tourism development in small islands. It's affects to the low of socio-economic of women in the coastal village and small islands. This condition is not advantage for sustainable development of marine tourism in small islands. Therefore, strengthening of livelihood assets by gender based through the marine tourism development in small islands is very important to attention, that women can contributed to household welfare, bargaining positioned in social culture was better and increase broad access to local government development policies. To realize it requires the full support of the government and relevant stakeholders through gender empowerment and strengthening of accessibility, connectivity, regulation, and design institution.

Keywords: gender inequality, marine tourism, development, tourism management

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Authors: Bassey Igri Okon, Gloria Mayen Umukoro

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The United Nations faces the formidable challenge of ensuring sustainable food provision for the world's burgeoning population, as outlined in Sustainable Development Goals 1 and 2. Predominantly, underdeveloped nations bear the brunt of hunger and poverty, lacking sustainable means of self-sustenance. A critical factor contributing to this dire situation is the underperformance of their agricultural sectors, ostensibly necessitating intervention from developed nations. This paper posits that the provision of Agricultural Aid has become a modern instrument of colonization. It unveils how developed countries, under the pretext of aid, perpetuate a neo-colonial dominance over underdeveloped nations. It is argued that unless these nations revert to indigenous farming methodologies and implement effective governance to enable sustainable agriculture, they are likely to remain entrapped in a relentless cycle of hunger, poverty, and economic subservience.

Keywords: aid autonomy, self-sufficiency, rethinking, neocolonialism, underdeveloped, indigenous farming

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Authors: Mohammad Farid

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In this paper, we introduce and study an explicit iterative method based on hybrid extragradient method to approximate a common solution of generalized mixed equilibrium problem and fixed point problem for a nonexpansive semigroup in Hilbert space. Further, we prove that the sequence generated by the proposed iterative scheme converge strongly to the common solution of generalized mixed equilibrium problem and fixed point problem for a nonexpansive semigroup. This common solution is the unique solution of a variational inequality problem and is the optimality condition for a minimization problem. The results presented in this paper are the supplement, extension and generalization of the previously known results in this area.

Keywords: generalized mixed equilibrium problem, fixed-point problem, nonexpansive semigroup, variational inequality problem, iterative algorithms, hybrid extragradient method

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Authors: A. Preetha Priyadharshini, S. B. M. Priya

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In this paper, we consider the MU-MISO downlink scenario, under imperfect channel state information (CSI). The main issue in imperfect CSI is to keep the probability of each user achievable outage rate below the given threshold level. Such a rate outage constraints present significant and analytical challenges. There are many probabilistic methods are used to minimize the transmit optimization problem under imperfect CSI. Here, decomposition based large deviation inequality and Bernstein type inequality convex restriction methods are used to perform the optimization problem under imperfect CSI. These methods are used for achieving improved output quality and lower complexity. They provide a safe tractable approximation of the original rate outage constraints. Based on these method implementations, performance has been evaluated in the terms of feasible rate and average transmission power. The simulation results are shown that all the two methods offer significantly improved outage quality and lower computational complexity.

Keywords: imperfect channel state information, outage probability, multiuser- multi input single output, channel state information

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Authors: Gaston Bacquet

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In light of existing social and structural violence in Chilean higher education which has resulted in instances of inequality, exclusion and discrimination, this research study attempted to provide trainee teachers in Chile with non-violent tools to deal with the tensions arising from these issues. Through a participatory action research design framed within a series of non-violent, non-Western perspectives, this study provided co-participants with opportunities to discuss current problems affecting HE in Chile stemming from the aforementioned violence, to think about strategies to address these and the challenges they might encounter. The study, which involved two different groups of trainee teachers from Chilean universities, consisted of two iterations of the action research cycle (planning – acting – observing – reflecting) carried out over two 3-months periods. Findings reveal instances of forced cultural assimilation, bullying, and direct and structural violence as key issues to address, and a strong individualistic mindset trumping collective well-being as the main challenge to bring non-violent strategies into their classrooms.

Keywords: non-violence education, contemplative pedagogy, participatory action research, dialogical education

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Authors: Giorgia Zotti

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This research comprehensively investigates the multifaceted interplay determining school performance, individual backgrounds, and regional disparities within the landscape of Italian secondary education. Leveraging data gleaned from the INVALSI 2021-2022 database, the analysis meticulously scrutinizes two fundamental distributions of educational achievements: the standardized Invalsi test scores and official grades in Italian and Mathematics, focusing specifically on final-year secondary school students in Italy. Applying a comprehensive methodology, the study initially employs Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to assess school performances. This methodology involves constructing a production function encompassing inputs (hours spent at school) and outputs (Invalsi scores in Italian and Mathematics, along with official grades in Italian and Math). The DEA approach is applied in both of its versions: traditional and conditional. The latter incorporates environmental variables such as school type, size, demographics, technological resources, and socio-economic indicators. Additionally, the analysis delves into regional disparities by leveraging the Theil Index, providing insights into disparities within and between regions. Moreover, in the frame of the inequality of opportunity theory, the study quantifies the inequality of opportunity in students' educational achievements. The methodology applied is the Parametric Approach in the ex-ante version, considering diverse circumstances like parental education and occupation, gender, school region, birthplace, and language spoken at home. Consequently, a Shapley decomposition is applied to understand how much each circumstance affects the outcomes. The outcomes of this comprehensive investigation unveil pivotal determinants of school performance, notably highlighting the influence of school type (Liceo) and socioeconomic status. The research unveils regional disparities, elucidating instances where specific schools outperform others in official grades compared to Invalsi scores, shedding light on the intricate nature of regional educational inequalities. Furthermore, it emphasizes a heightened inequality of opportunity within the distribution of Invalsi test scores in contrast to official grades, underscoring pronounced disparities at the student level. This analysis provides insights for policymakers, educators, and stakeholders, fostering a nuanced understanding of the complexities within Italian secondary education.

Keywords: inequality, education, efficiency, DEA approach

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Authors: Shabeer Khan

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The main objective of Islamic Finance is to promote social justice thorough financial inclusion and redistribution of economic resources between rich and poor. The approach of Islamic finance is more comprehensive in nature and covers both formal and informal sectors of the economy, first, through reducing the gap between both sectors, and second by using specific Islamic values to reallocate the wealth between formal and informal sectors. Applying Generalized Method of Movements (GMM) to the annual data spanning from 1995-2015 for 141 countries, this study explores the determinants of informal business sector in Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries and then compares with Non-OIC countries. Economic freedom and institutions variables as well as economic growth and money supply are found to reduce informal business sector in both OIC and Non-OIC nations while government expenditure are found to increase informal business sector in both group of nations. Informal Business sector remain the same in both types of countries but still the majority Muslim population in OIC economies create main difference between both groups of nations and justify the potential role of Islamic Finance in informal business sector in OIC nations. The study suggests that institutions quality should be improved and entrepreneurs’ friendly business environment must be provided. This study refines the main features of informal business sector and discuss their implications on policy designing and implementation, particularly in the context of Islamic finance fight against poverty, inequality and improving living standards of informal sector participants in OIC countries.

Keywords: Islamic finance, informal Business Sector, Generalized Method of Movements (GMM) and OIC

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Authors: Festus Adedoyin, Nana Mbeah Otoo, Sofia Meacham

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Hypertension is one of the main health issues in Ghana, where prevalence is higher in rural than in urban areas. This is due to the challenges rural areas have in accessing technology and healthcare services for hypertension control. This study's goal is to create a digital healthcare solution to alleviate this inequality. Through an analysis of current technology and problems, using the ring onion methodology, the study determined the needs for the intervention and evaluated healthcare disparities. An online application with teleconsultation capabilities, reminder mechanisms, and clinical decision support is part of the suggested solution. In outlying areas, mobile clinics in containers with the required equipment will be established. Heuristic evaluation and think-aloud sessions were used to assess the prototype's usability and navigational problems. This study highlights the need to develop digital health interventions to help manage hypertension in rural locations and decrease healthcare disparities. To develop and improve digital healthcare solutions for rural areas worldwide and in Ghana, this study might be used as a tool for future research.

Keywords: digital health, health inequalities, hypertension management, rural areas

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Authors: Inyene Nathaniel Nkanta

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The present economic situation in Nigeria, with an increase in inflation rate due to the fall of crude oil prices and post covid-19 crisis, has increased the level of poverty and suffering in Nigeria, particularly the women. Against that backdrop, this research project is initiated to explore ways to empower women through entrepreneurship education and training to ameliorate the poverty level amongst women in Nigeria. A qualitative approach to data collection will be applied in this study and to test the assertions of this research project empirically, this research adopts a case study research method as this will enable me to obtain and probe ways women can be empowered through semi-structured interviews and focus groups. The result of this research project will provide an original perspective on human capital development, most importantly, the need for entrepreneurial education and entrepreneurial literature and practice.

Keywords: women, Nigeria, entrepreneurship education, Economic development, human capital

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Authors: Enojo Kennie Enojo

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The paper focuses on the contradictions of economic growth and development in Nigeria with specific reference to the plethora issues and challenges associated with the sordid situation. The broad objective is to investigate the major causes of agitation for restructuring the entire political spectrum that promote and guarantee economic growth and development with empirical intellectual standpoint. The specific aim is to surgically examine the organic linkage between weaker institutions, lack of vibrant civil society, poor governance and the agitation for restructuring. The paper adopts the secondary source of data collection as its methodological strategy. Our findings reveals that most urban and rural dwellers where goods and services are either extracted, produced, or manufactured lack infrastructural facilities, preventing economic growth and development, which has been the consequence of poverty, inequality and unemployment. There is equally the issue of disconnection of the political class from the electorate, this is evident in lack of political power base not located in the society but rather with either the elites or godfathers this and many factors are responsible for flawed electoral system from 1999 to 2023 general elections. These egregious factors and others have resulted in the subscription of religion and ethnicity thereby the devaluation of national norms, identities and values. We adopt the combination of structural-functional approach, relative deprivation; rising expectation, frustration and aggression model to enable us critically interrogate these contradictions as subterfuge with both the centrifugal and centripetal forces constantly in fatality. We recommend among others that, there should be development across the federating units without prejudice.

Keywords: restructuring, infrastructure, economic development, governance

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Authors: Mojeed A. Oladele

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The original zoning system in Louisville promoted social segregation among groups and remained a tool for social exclusion that strengthened preexisting inequalities. The current residential zoning system in Louisville is predominantly single-family residential housing. Of the 75% of total land allocated for residential purposes, 55% comprises single-family housing, constituting one form of development and ruminant problems of social segregation within the city. The zoning reform initiative birthed the spatial improvement and development of additional middle housing as a more generic and inclusive housing form. The paper investigates the basis of zoning reform relative to the interconnectedness amongst the discursive objects of analysis and the extensiveness as a strategic tool of structural adjustment. Qualitative methodological assessment generated by collective planning professionals reflects the effectiveness of the new zoning design in strengthening the socio-spatial interactions within the city. The zoning reform is currently at the early stage of implementation and requires more professional/public inputs and constant iterative processes for a more promising urban planning outcome.

Keywords: zoning reform, viability, urban inequality, housing affordability, Louisville

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Authors: Munqeth Othman Agha

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The historical formation of urban centres in the eastern Arab world was shaped by rapid urbanization and sudden transformation from the age of the pre-industrial to a post-industrial economy, coupled with uneven development, informal urban expansion, and constant surges in unemployment and poverty rates. The city was stratified accordingly as overlapping layers of division and inequality that have been built on top of each other, creating complex horizontal and vertical divisions based on economic, social, political, and ethno-sectarian basis. This has been further exacerbated during the neoliberal era, which transferred the city into a sort of dual city that is inhabited by heterogeneous and often antagonistic social groups. Economic deprivation combined with a growing sense of marginalization and inequality across the city planted the seeds of political instability, outbreaking in 2011. Unlike other popular uprisings that occupy central squares, as in Egypt and Tunisia, the Syrian uprising in 2011 took place mainly within inner streets and neighborhood squares, mobilizing primarily on more or less upon the lines of stratification. This has emphasized the role of micro-urban and social settings in shaping mobilization and resistance tactics, which necessitates us to understand the way the city was stratified and place it at the center of the city-conflict nexus analysis. This research aims to understand to what extent pre-conflict urban stratification lines played a role in determining the different trajectories of three cities’ neighborhoods (Homs, Dara’a and Deir-ez-Zor). The main argument of the paper is that the way the Syrian city has been stratified creates various social groups within the city who have enjoyed different levels of accessibility to life chances, material resources and social statuses. This determines their relationship with other social groups in the city and, more importantly, their relationship with the state. The advent of a political opportunity will be depicted differently across the city’s different social groups according to their perceived interests and threats, which consequently leads to either political mobilization or demobilization. Several factors, including the type of social structures, built environment, and state response, determine the ability of social actors to transfer the repertoire of contention to collective action or transfer from social actors to political actors. The research uses urban stratification lines as the basis for understanding the different patterns of political upheavals in urban areas while explaining why neighborhoods with different social and urban environment settings had different abilities and capacities to mobilize, resist state repression and then descend into a military conflict. It particularly traces the transformation from social groups to social actors and political actors by applying the Explaining-outcome Process-Tracing method to depict the causal mechanisms that led to including or excluding different neighborhoods from each stage of the uprising, namely mobilization (M1), response (M2), and control (M3).

Keywords: urban stratification, syrian conflict, social movement, process tracing, divided city

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Authors: R. S. Sheu, H. Usman, M. S. Lawal

Abstract:

Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy model based control of a load frequency deviation in a single machine with limit nonlinearity on power coefficient is presented in the paper. Two T-S fuzzy rules with only rotor angle variable as input in the premise part, and linear state space models in the consequent part involving characteristic matrices determined from limits set on the power coefficient constant are formulated, state feedback control gains for closed loop control was determined from the formulated Linear Matrix Inequality (LMI) with eigenvalue optimization scheme for asymptotic and exponential stability (speed of esponse). Numerical evaluation of the closed loop object was carried out in Matlab. Simulation results generated of both the open and closed loop system showed the effectiveness of the control scheme in maintaining load frequency stability.

Keywords: T-S fuzzy model, state feedback control, linear matrix inequality (LMI), frequency deviation control

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Authors: Sofiane Bououden, Ilyes Boulkaibet

Abstract:

In this paper, a robust model predictive controller (RMPC) for uncertain nonlinear system under actuator saturation is designed to control a DC-DC buck converter in PV pumping application, where this system is subject to actuator saturation and parameter uncertainties. The considered nonlinear system contains a linear constant part perturbed by an additive state-dependent nonlinear term. Based on the saturating actuator property, an appropriate linear feedback control law is constructed and used to minimize an infinite horizon cost function within the framework of linear matrix inequalities. The proposed approach has successfully provided a solution to the optimization problem that can stabilize the nonlinear plants. Furthermore, sufficient conditions for the existence of the proposed controller guarantee the robust stability of the system in the presence of polytypic uncertainties. In addition, the simulation results have demonstrated the efficiency of the proposed control scheme.

Keywords: PV pumping system, DC-DC buck converter, robust model predictive controller, nonlinear system, actuator saturation, linear matrix inequality

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Authors: Parul Sinha

Abstract:

Electronic commerce facilitates increased choice and information on goods or services for consumers but at the same time it compounds the inequality of bargaining power many consumers face when contracting with sellers. Due to the ‘inequality of bargaining power’ experienced by consumers when contracting by electronic means with business sellers in different jurisdictions, it may be difficult to determine where either the consumer is domiciled or the place where the seller is situated or conducts its business. The question arises in such situation that if one party wants to sue the other, then where can one sue? Which court has jurisdiction to try international conflicts arising from electronic contracts concluded through the internet? Will the same rules applicable to conventional contracts apply? Or should other considerations be taken into account? In all these situations the degree of consumer protection in electronic contracts comes into picture. In the light of the above, the paper discusses the jurisdiction and choice of law rules applied in EU and United States. Further, the paper considers the current uncertainty plaguing questions of jurisdiction in India. Therefore, the jurisdiction and choice of law rules for electronic contracts must be applied consistently and provide an automatic, harmonised rule in favour of the consumer’s jurisdiction and law. Lastly, the paper suggests the need for a uniform law in order to achieve effective juridical protection.

Keywords: electronic commerce, electronic contracts, jurisdiction, consumer protection

Procedia PDF Downloads 215

Authors: Michele Romanello

Abstract:

COVID-19 has spread rapidly in Brazil since March 2020, making the country one of the most affected in the world by the pandemic. From an economic point of view, Brazil came from a pre-pandemic period characterized by low or negative growth, with a resulting increase in the number of unemployed and informal workers. This paper considers lockdown implementation in the situation of the large presence of informality in the economy. The objective of the paper is to analyze how the country has tried to help workers affected by economic crisis after the implementation of measures against COVID-19 and whether the emergency assistance from the government has been adequate to contain the increase of informal workers and unemployed. The methodology used in this paper is survival analysis. Through this methodology, the formality – informality, and informality – unemployment transitions are analyzed. This analysis draws data from the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (Continuous PNAD) and from the National Household Sample Survey COVID-19 (PNAD COVID-19) covering the period of January 2020 – July 2020. The results indicate that emergency aid has been not sufficient to reduce the transitions of workers from formal to informal jobs and from informal jobs to unemployment. Emergency aid has been not sufficient considering the previous situation of the country, with levels of poverty and inequality very high. In the next months, another fundamental determinant of the income trajectory in the context of the COVID-19 crisis will be the continuity of the emergency aid, especially considering the fiscal adjustment policy pursued by the government. Therefore, the current negative portrait may be even worse in the coming months.

Keywords: Brazil, COVID-19, informality, survival analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 86