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- Abu Hatab, Assem, et al.
(författare)
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In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic : Perceived risks, management strategies and emerging opportunities for small and medium agri-food enterprises in a developing country
- 2023
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Ingår i: International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction. - 2212-4209.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Covid-19 pandemic has posed unprecedented challenges to small and medium agri-food enterprises (SMAEs) in developing countries. However, research investigating what risks Covid-19 posed to these firms, how they responded, and what business opportunities emerged to SMAEs from the pandemic remains scanty. Drawing on a sample of 166 specialist SMAEs in Egypt, this study addressed these entwined questions by using multiple indicators and multiple causes (MIMIC) and mediation analysis. Our results point out that the Covid-19 pandemic exposed Egyptian SMAEs to complex and multidimensional risks, and caused profound effects on both upstream and downstream stages of their supply chains. In general, Egyptian SMAEs adopted a ‘wait-and-see’ approach to cope with such Covid-19 risks and impacts, which was attributed to their lack of sufficient financial resources to develop risk management strategies and formalize structures to deal with unexpected events. Interestingly, the results showed that several business opportunities emerged from pandemic; but SMAEs' resource disadvantages constrained their capacity to seize and exploit these opportunities. Moreover, we found that mitigation strategies adopted by SMAEs present a mediating factor between perceived Covid-19 risks and perceived business opportunities. Overall, our findings call for a paradigm shift in relation to enterprise risk management in developing countries' SMAEs toward more holistic frameworks to enhance their preparedness to future shocks, make mature operational and strategic management decisions, and exploit strategic opportunities.
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- Robling, Helena, et al.
(författare)
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Measuring sustainability at farm level : A critical view on data and indicators
- 2023
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Ingår i: Environmental and Sustainability Indicators. - 2665-9727. ; 18
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Measuring sustainability at farm level is a priority for both research and policy and requires sustainability indicators to track progress. Indicators make the sustainability concept more concrete and guide farm level decisions, playing a decisive role in determining food system impacts on societies and the environment. Data availability is often a limiting factor when choosing indicators, but not enough attention is paid to the role of data in indicator construction and assessment results. This paper assessed the critical role of data in indicator construction and the potential limitations that current data availability imposes on farm-level sustainability assessments, using the example of dairy farms in Sweden. To do so we used a five-step approach consisting of a literature review, an inventory of data sources, an expert consultation, a matching and gap analysis, and a critical assessment. We found that 20 indicators categorized under 12 out of 20 sustainability themes had measurement issues due to missing scope, temporary data, or additional data requirements. At least some indicators were measurable within all themes in the social and economic dimensions while all indicators for pesticides, non-renewable energy, and soil quality in the environmental dimension had measurement issues. In the critical assessment, we argue that for some indicators, there are trade-offs between data availability and issues of comprehensibility and analytical validity. Furthermore, we found that no single data source could be used to measure all themes; which means that merging of different data sets is needed for a broader on-farm sustainability assessment. Our findings are relevant for the discussion on sustainability indicators and will inform future programs aimed at collecting sustainability data at farm level, which should consider the broad data needs identified and the potential to merge data to enable holistic sustainability assessments.
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- Forss, Kim
(författare)
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Planning and evaluation in aid organizations
- 1985
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The success (or failure) of aid programmes in developing countries is difficult to measure in terms of results. In fact international cooperation in development programmes seems to have reached few of its objectives. World recessions and wildly fluctuating commodity prices have hit many developing countries hard, while an ecological doomsday looms in the background. What went wrong with development cooperation through aid? What can be done better? What should the objectives of development programmes be? These questions imply that we need to study not only the impact of development projects but also initiation, implementation and evaluation processes for aid programmes. Aid organizations need to emphasize the efficiency of these processes if development programmes are to succed. This dissertation deals with structures and processes in aid organizations. It shows how planning and evaluation work in practice in a comparative study of two organizations, the United Nations Development Programme (UNPD) and the Swedish International Development Authority (SIDA). Several examples of industrial development projects in Tanzania are used some successful, some failures, with others somewhere in between. The aim is to learn from this experience whether successful or not and to delineate the potential for more effective development cooperation.
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