Innovation is a process of problem solving. In its broadest sense, innovation means doing things in new ways. When conditions change and routines no longer work, humans experiment and learn. In a narrower sense, innovation means developing new ideas into new products or processes. Whether the...

I explore patterns in regard to community based Research and Development in the Water Supply and Sanitation sector. I set a bibliometric analysis, covering the 1998-2008 period, by means of applying a framework based on three factors: productivity, collaboration, and research topics, which are...

Regionalism is being explored by a wide variety of community players who include representatives from the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors (Dodge 1996, 1). Intermunicipal agreements, county service expansion, new region-wide special purpose governments, and multi-sector coalitions of...

Many water distribution systems in South Africa are deteriorating due to many years ofneglect resulting in a serious maintenance backlog. Recent government legislation hasintroduced free basic water to all South Africans up to a limit of 6 Kl/month per propertywhich in turn causes certain...

Following the growth, employment and redistribution(GEAR) programme in June 1996, South Africa saw anacceleration in the privatisation of service delivery. Thispaper reports on a study of two longer-termpublic–private partnerships (PPPs) in the water andsanitation sector undertaken in...

The rural water sector of Ghana has since 1993 implemented a policy of increased privatesector partnerships in the sector. The policy has resulted in private sector driven supply chainsin rural water supply. This paper takes a look at these private sector driven supply chains andperceptions of...

Most of the billions of people without drinking water or sanitation are very poor. While private-sector companies are becoming increasingly involved with infrastructure provision in developing countries, their contracts for water and sanitation services tend to forget the social aspects of...

The Sphere standards have been devised to ensure that people affected by disasters will receive anadequate level of assistance; these standards are used across the world and apply both to natural andcomplex emergencies. The latter tend to be lasting events that often create a displacement of...

We model EU countries? bank ratings using financial variables and allowing for intercept and slope heterogeneity. We find that country-specific factors (in the form of heterogeneous intercepts) are a crucial determinant of ratings. Whilst ?new? EU countries typically have lower ratings than...