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Browsing by Subject "developing countries"

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    Examination of the Role of Civil Society in Adopting International Standard Commitments: A Landscape Analysis of MENA Region and Gulf Countries in Comparison with International Best Practices
    (2022-05) Wolff, Colin; Byrd, Matthew; Aly, Noran; Nyima, Tenzin
    This report offers an integrated examination of the role of civil society organizations in influencing governments to adopt international commitments. The study was commissioned by the University of Minnesota and International Republican Institute (IRI) as part of an effort to promote the spread of democratic practices in the MENA and Gulf countries Regions. Under the principles of sustainable development, open government partnerships, climate change, data openness and transparency, public service provision and infrastructure development, the graduate consultants were asked to identify and evaluate the level of adoption and commitments to these international standard commitments, as well as involvement in international partnerships, by countries in both regions compared to best practices of civil society organizations that managed to influence the public policy making process to implement these standards. The results of this evaluative research are intended to be used as the basis for the IRI next strategy to empower CSOs in influencing their governments to adopt the above-mentioned strategy. Based on what we have found, expanding the CSOs’ penetration and power serves as an influential tool that would not only facilitate embedding the international commitments into the national strategy of the region but also practically applying it, or rather, contribute to projectizing it by directing aid to developing countries towards specific projects that follows the international standards commitments. In our landscape analyses we found that the governments of the MENA region have made a number of commitments across all five areas. Though there is a great deal of variation among the nations, we found some noticeable trends; for instance, we found a dearth of governance commitments and little follow-through in any regard to climate change. We were also able to find recurring themes in our case studies.
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    Integration of Emerging Learning Technologies in Secondary Schools : A Burkina Faso Case Study
    (2017-01) Zongo, Romaric
    The purpose of this dissertation was to document the perspectives and attitudes of secondary education teachers and administrators about the perceived benefits and challenges of integrating new Emerging Learning Technologies (ELTs) in the classroom. Education has become one of the biggest challenges in the African nation of Burkina Faso where teachers are routinely confronted with material shortages, lack of curriculum, lack of equipment, and lack of opportunity for self-conducted learning. To overcome these challenges, educators are using Emerging Learning Technologies (ELTs) to help improve the quality of teaching and to increase student access to these learning opportunities. This study examined three core questions that specifically focused is on the ways in which ELTs are perceived as different from previously used technologies in Burkina Faso (i.e., radio and television). 1. What are the perspectives of secondary level educators and administrators regarding the use of ELTs in Burkina Faso? 2. In the local educational contexts of cities and rural areas, how do educators and administrators experience the use of ELTs in education? 3. What are the benefits and challenges of using ELTs for educational purposes in Burkina Faso? Study findings indicated that the pedagogical use of ELTs in secondary education was not contributing to teaching and learning in secondary schools at this time. Analysis of the collected data found that the added value of the use of ELTs in education depended mainly on their daily adaption by students, teachers, and administrative staff. However, the use of ELTs in secondary education in Burkina Faso is infrequent and not widely embraced by school administrators and teachers. Future adoption of ELTs may someday impact educational outcomes but it will take more than top-down political directives to achieve this outcome.