Foreign Donors Essays - Economic Development, Microfinance, Poverty

Foreign Donors 1 Economic Growth in Pakistan Pakistan's economic growth has been insufficient to reduce poverty and underemployment. The private sector remains relatively uncompetitive, and the agriculture and energy sectors -- two areas that are critical to the country's future development -- rely on outdated technologies. Since 2003, USAID's $70 million Economic Growth Program has increased incomes and employment in Pakistan by giving entrepreneurs the tools they need to strengthen their businesses and enter new markets. The program focuses on expanding access to credit, improving the competitiveness of Pakistani small and medium enterprises (SMEs), improving agricultural practices, and catalyzing development in energy. 2 Expanding Financial Services Lacking access to credit, many small-scale Pakistani entrepreneurs are unable to achieve their full potential in the marketplace. Families and communities therefore miss out on the income that could be generated from these enterprises. USAID works with Khushhali Bank (KB) to provide micro-credit to populations in Balochistan, Sindh and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).The program has disbursed 356,361 loans totaling more than $63 million. In 2007, USAID completed its Enterprise Development Facility program with the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF). The program catered to the needs of entrepreneurs who have outgrown traditional microfinance institutions but cannot access commercial banks. USAID's Widening Harmonized Access to Microfinance (WHAM) program helped fill in the "missing middle" between microfinance and commercial financing by encouraging lending to un-banked enterprises with loans ranging from $500 to $30,000. It provided consultancy, training and technology to commercial banks and microfinance institutions to establish products and business lines to meet the needs of micro, small and medium enterprises. The program facilitated more than 51,000 loans during its three-year operation. WHAM also worked closely with the Pakistan Microfinance Network (PMN), a trade association that has become the reference point for research and coordination on microfinance in Pakistan. The program helped PMN with various communications work including the widely circulated quarterly MicroWATCH bulletin. WHAM also produced research reports providing guiding analyses to the industry including: "Microfinance Performance in Pakistan 1999-2005: Growth but a Structural Flaw Persists"; "The Dynamics of Microfinance Expansion in Lahore"; and "Mobilizing Savings from the Urban Poor in Pakistan." The program helped the National Bank of Pakistan, Standard Chartered Bank, First Microfinance Bank, Tameer Microfinance Bank, Asasah and the Kashf Foundation disburse loans totalling more than $57 million. Of these, 2,757 loans were made to female entrepreneurs. More than 700 lenders have been trained in various business skills, and 48 trainings have been conducted for loan officers, risk managers and product managers. ADB's gender and development activities range from preparing country briefing papers on women, supporting governments to improve the economic and social status of women through loan projects, to working with other development partners such as NGOs. Under the Policy on Gender and Development, ADB makes a commitment to design and support a larger number of projects that address gender equality and improvements in the economic and social status of women. Since the adoption of the Policy, many ADB loan projects across a range of sectors have been developed to provide direct benefits to women. Some projects are designed to specifically target women and correct gender imbalances in education, health care or microfinance. Others have followed the path of mainstreaming gender by ensuring that design features promote and facilitate women's access to, and benefits from the project. To pilot-test new and diverse approaches to promote gender-inclusive development, a grant financing facility, or Regional Technical Assistance - RETA 5889: Gender and Development Initiatives, was developed and approved in 2000. Funds were allocated under the Project to specifically finance small-scale initiatives of women's NGOs that have the potential for scaling up or replication in ADB-financed loan and TA projects. 1 Projects in Pakistan

Principles and Functions of Management

Principles and Functions of Management Out line:This essay will look at the Principles and Functions of Management. Which mentions there is a difference between what a manager should do and what they actually do? According to many writers observation. Subsequently, I will comment by usage of my own knowledge of management theories and concepts. Further more, it is based on an experience and press stuffs. Due to main discussions, my assessment can be divided into following paragraph:I.IntroductionIn this order I will define:-What is a manager?-Why do we need the management?-Theories management: X and Y-Levels of managementII. PresentationIn this case I am going to explain:- What a management should do?-What they actually do?-How come there are the differences?-How does it influence on organizational values?II.Conclusion-Summaries the main points-Add solution and recommendationIII.IntroductionLong time ago, there was a concept of manager in every social class. Because people are always looking forward an individual, who can lead organization in a right way.The Whole TheoryThus, managers are people responsible for the process of planning, organizing, leading and controlling the efforts of organization members and of using all organizational resources to achieve stated organizational goals.The organizations tend to approach its objectives. Because of this, they desire there is a productive work. In term of this, we need to bring people together. It leads to combine experiences, knowledge, and efficiency resources. It is likely to achieve more than by people working on their own. Furthermore, the managers can make a planning to express goals in term of profit, market share in order to achieve these objectives the organizations require to have right people having responsibility, to make planning in the right time. The staff are required to performance the tasks given by the managers. Due to Pearce and Robinson statement that manager is: The process of optimizing human, material, and financial contribution s...

Organizational Plan Implementation I Research Paper

Organizational Plan Implementation I - Research Paper Example The Need for Electronic Medical Records in Psychiatric Hospital Setting The term Electronic Medical Records (EMR) refers to clinical and managerial utilities of technologies, which include electronic prescribing, billing, computerized physician order entry (CPOE), reporting, record keeping as well as documentation. Psychiatric hospitals are characterized by bulk data records and the kind of patients who are likely to complain on the quality of services given by nurses. EMR implementation will enhance proper, essential, and up to date record keeping for amicable resolution of any controversies or ligations and ensure quality services in psychiatric hospitals. Nurses play a major role in psychiatric hospitals and are required to keep records used by other colleagues such as physicians in making decisions regarding mental patients. Implementing Electronic Medical Record keeping procedure to substitute paper-based medical records will give medical care givers including nurses more time t o focus on caregiving (Sharfstein, Dickerson, & Oldham, 2009). By implementing EMR, it will be easy for nurses to notice and correct any inefficiency. Additionally, EMR will allow installation of other programs such as automatic communication, which helps in improving the quality of services in psychiatric hospitals where patients require frequent attention from nurses (Sharfstein, Dickerson, & Oldham, 2009). Implementing EMR in psychiatric hospitals will enable cooperation between different departments thus enhance making of decisions regarding patients since electronically saved data will be easily and simultaneously accessed by different departments (Luo, 2006). Proper use of EMR will promote early identification and apposite treatment of potentially violent psychiatric patient behaviors. In the long run EMR will protect individual nurses and other care providers from allegations of bad record-keeping. Additionally, EMR keeping is easy and will ensure that professional and legal welfare of nurses are not undermined by lack or incomplete records (Luo, 2006). Organizational and Individual Barriers to Implementation of EMR There are significant challenges that would affect the implementation of EMR in psychiatric hospitals. One of the major challenges would be finances. Implementation of EMR requires a lot of money to buy the EMR systems and training. Psychiatric hospitals are characterized by financial limitations since the services offered cannot yield sufficient funds to implement and maintain such a program. To resolve this I would advise the hospitals to seek financial assistance from donors in addition to seeking government funding. Another challenge concerns patient’s privacy since EMR would lead to possible access of patient’s information by other parties who may use it for selfish or harmful motives. Most psychiatric hospitals are still lacking technological clarity regarding disclosure of patient health information to secondary sources. This problem will not be too rampant since the HIPPA act clearly explains on disclosure of private health information. Additionally, I will encourage hospital management to offer training regarding prevention of PHI to wrong parties (Luo, 2006). An additional challenge is that psychiatric hospitals possess a lot of bulk paper records thus it would be difficult and burdensome to convert such records to electronic records. To ease the work, the conversion

Autoethnography Essay on Tattoo's Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Autoethnography on Tattoo's - Essay Example It was like having your own art studio with you all the time! It was the coolest thing for me. Finally, the much awaited day came. I was all grown-up and â€Å"licensed† to have a tattoo of my own. While I was on vacation in Las Vegas, I went to Hart and Huntington Ink, a tattoo art studio in Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. I had two tattoos made, one in each forearm. One forearm has the word â€Å"strength† written on it and on the other forearm, â€Å"honor† was written. I realized on that day that having a tattoo means having to undergo pain. It was painful! But that is the price one pays if he wants to be â€Å"artistic†. When I came back from my vacation I felt I was now a â€Å"real man† with real tattoos. But my parents thought otherwise. They were surprised to see the tattoos and got really mad at me. They said that I look so dirty and that people will mistake me as being an ex-convict, a drug addict and a gang member. They also warned me not to go anywhere near my grandparents else they suffer a heart attack. My younger brother thought it was so cool and told me he could not wait to get his own. When I went to visit my girlfriend that evening, she admired it. She said that I looked manlier now and that she was more attracted to me more than ever. She wished though that the next time I get one, I will have her name written on my chest. The following day at school, my teachers saw my tattoo and asked me if I just joined a gang. My friends however thought that it was very nice. So here I am all proud at having a tattoo yet I get different reactions from people closest to me. I was confronted with the problem of being stereotyped as a either a criminal or a macho man just because I have a tattoo. After graduation on my trip to Fruitland Idaho, I had another tattoo done on my arm sleeve at Angels Ink, a tattoo studio. This time I was more daring and had an angel, the Virgin Mary, a cross and a sparrow design. This tattoo hurt the most. I don’t know why but it may be because the person doing it was not really careful and he does not seem to mind whether I was suffering excruciating pain. All he wants is to get the tattoo done right away so he can attend to his other customers. Seeing these new tattoos, my parents were more outrageous this time. They said that it would be impossible for me to land a job if I have a tattoo. They said that companies do not accept men with tattoos because they have the impression that people with tattoos are violent and irresponsible. I was shocked at the very harsh words hurled to me by my parents just because of a tattoo. I thought, what harm can a tattoo do to a company’s profitability? The week after my family had a family reunion since it was the 85th birthday of my grandmother. I wore a T-shirt which flaunted all my tattoos. My parents wanted me to put a jacket on so that my other relatives would not see my tattoos. But when we arrived at my grandparentsâ €™ house, I had to remove my jacket because it was so warm. And lo and behold, my grandparents, aunties and uncles were stunned to see my â€Å"artwork†. My grandmother reprimanded my parents for allowing me to have tattoos. She said that it was a disgusting site and that it was bad for the reputation of the family. My auntie asked me since when did I become a hippie. But of course, my teenaged cousins marveled at them. They asked questions on whether it was painful, where I got it and how did I choose the designs. There was indeed a myriad of reactions for my tattoos. Instead of my grandmother

Death Penalty Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 2

Death Penalty - Essay Example It shall discuss the different legal and academic papers which support this position and shall focus on the following issues surrounding the imposition of capital punishment: whether or not its administration is affected by race and whether or not it actually deters the commission of crimes. These concerns are crucial in determining the appropriate application of capital punishment and would help this student arrive at a logical conclusion to this paper. In Supreme Court of Louisiana No. 98-KA-1078 v. Allen Snyder (1998), Louisiana Supreme Court Justice J. Johnson entered his dissenting opinion to the court’s decision by firmly stating that he would â€Å"have more confidence in the fair-mindedness of this jury and the jury’s pronouncement of the death sentence, had the state not used its peremptory challenges to exclude every African American juror, resulting in an all white jury for this black defendant†. His statement provides one of the crucial reasons why the death penalty should be abolished in all fifty US states. There have been various instances of cases involving discriminatory juries. Such instances include the â€Å"Texas shuffle†, where African American jurors were not allowed to be part of the jury in death penalty cases (Miller-El v. Cockrell, 2003). District attorneys have a belief that black jurors often have doubts about a defendant’s liability for killing and that they also belie ve that such defendants are remorseful of their crimes regardless of their seemingly uncaring behavior. On the other hand, white jurors see these defendants as dangerous. And black jurors feel that the white jurors do not actually comprehend the environment where the black defendant comes from (Amnesty International, 2009). In a paper by Loury (2001) he assessed the trend in the felony division jury trials in Cook County Circuit Court between January 1 and June 30,

A Post Rock Analysis Media Essay

A Post Rock Analysis Media Essay In the year of 1994 highly acclaimed music critic Simon Reynolds was embraced for fabricating the term Post-Rock in the popular modern music magazine The Wire. He defined the term post rock as using rock instrumentation for non-rock purposes and using guitars and facilitators of timbre and textures rather than riffs and power chords. From this moment onwards the genre began to expand with the immersion of various Post Rock artists slightly differing in style. In the remainder of this essay, I aim to explain what the complex genre of Post Rock is, how it began, how it developed and most importantly, what sets it aside from traditional rock and roll. With the emergence of countless pop artists at the start of the 1990s such as Rick Astley and Mariah Carey many journalists and critics alike labelled the 90s as the death of rock and roll. However the introduction of Post Rock seemed re-invent rock music in a totally different form. Post rock was something totally different and was seen as a breath of fresh air to the music industry. Everyone knows that numerous groups of musicians struggle to find a suitable vocalist, and this was one of the main reasons for the beginning of post rock. Post rock is largely instrumental with any included vocals normally being sample and effect based. In this genre freedom is basically unlimited; this is why many post rock acts sound very different in style. For instance Don Caballero and Tortoise who were seen as founders of the post rock movement bare very little similarities. The main idea behind post rock was to totally ignore traditional musical structures and concentrate on throwing various creative ideas to produce a piece rather than a track. Due to the total dis-regard of verses and choruss, the motif of each piece will normally build up over the duration, normally reaching a climatic stage at the end. Post rock artists admittedly took a lot of influence from the velvet underground and their implementation of the musical technique; dronology. Dronology is the use of repeated sounds or notes. Post rock uses an extensive range of instruments, stretching from traditional rock and roll instruments, to brass to a diverse sweep of electronic instruments and samples. Post-Rock is probably dependent on the effects that are implemented on nearly every instrument, basically making a guitar sound nothing like a guitar. Post Rock has changed throughout its current 20 year timeline, as its believed we have endured 3 waves of post rock material. However, from the very beginning of the post-rock movement nearly all artists follow The DIY conception. This means that artists will have not contracts or sponsorship from famous and corporate labels. A majority of their work is produced and distributed by the band themselves with the help of other post rock bands. The belief of the DIY conception is that if music becomes accessible to expensive labels the artists will be stripped of their creativity and freedom. During the lifespan of the post-rock genre we have been spiked with 3 waves. The first wave of this genre included acts such as Slint, Tortoise and Talk Talk. These artists are seen as being architects of the genre that gave post rock the foundations to grow further. However, not entirely post rock; this was the start of the genre. The Album entitled Spiderland by Slint is seen as many as the birth of post rock. Released in 1991 this album contained various features that were unheard of in traditional rock music. Such as, no singing vocals, all vocals being spoken similar to a narrator building up a story as the song continued. Drummers working with totally irregular time signatures and basing all their beats and fills on the snare and tom drums, totally abandoning the use of cymbals. Guitarists creating tones rather than riffs, and also implementing of the technique howling feedback. Many bands took influence from this album, including post rock mainstays, Mogwai. Another essential post rock release was à gà ¦tis byrjun in 1999 by Icelandic band Sigur Ros. This album help shaped the genre as it showed listeners that post rock could branch off into other genres, as this album was seen as being ambient post rock. Sigur Ros produced this effect with various musical techniques. The main technique they used was playing guitars and bass guitars with a bow rather than plucking on strumming. This technique helped produce a very atmospheric effect which added to the overall ambient sound. The band continued the idea of minimal vocals when they produced theyre own gibberish language entitled Volenska. This is an Icelandinc take on the old jazz technique that was dubbed scat singing. Sigur Ros are seen as being definers in the second wave of post rock. Soon after à gà ¦tis byrjun came the release of Lift Yr. Skinny Fists like antennas to heaven by Canadian artists Godspeed You! Black Emperor. This album as seen by many fans and critics alike as the most definitive post rock release to date. This album combines various musical concepts such as chamber music, minimalism, drone and of course crescendos. As well as covering a lot of concepts, it also covers many genres such as rock, ambience, jazz and classical. Following Post-Rock trends the album has no tracks as such, but 4 pieces which last a total of one hour and twenty minutes, these pieces are named movements. Also, as before, no vocals except one movement which uses sampled inserts. The start of the 3rd wave of Post Rock was started with the album Mirrored By Battles. The bands consists of Ex-Members from other post rock groups such as Don Caballero, who helped pioneer the genre. Mirrored started to using a lot of math rock as well as post rock in this album, it is also described by many as having a weird alien sound. Along with Mogwai, Battles were one of the first to start doing this. Battles re-invented post rock to some extent with new techniques such as the introduction of beatboxing. However they also continued other post rock trends such as effect driven vocals which sound like gibberish. Scottish band Mogwai have cemented themselves as principal artists within post rock genre due to the release of 6 well received studio albums. Mogwai have been vital in the development of the genre as they have influenced bands as far a field as China as Chinese post rock Wang Wen claim to be influenced by them. American rapper/singer/songwriter Jared Evans also claims to be influenced by the Scottish post rock mainstays. Although Mogwai are in theory a post rock band, they branch off into other genres such as math rock, shoegazing, art rock and even metal. This showed us that post rock could take various paths and this helped development the genre as it heightened up and coming bands ideas. The bands influences mainly come from punk. Bands such as Fugazi, Sonic Youth and the MC5 are said to be among the bands main influences, and of course like many other bands of this genre, they were influenced by Slint. Their tracks are normally long instrumental pieces focusing on guitar and mel odic basslines with heavy breakdowns with metal properties. Due to metal properties the band has, they have a heavy usage of effects, with distortion and overdrive taking centre stage. Mogwai were another band the follow the DIY conception rule within the post rock genre by having their first album signed by independent record label Chemikal Underground in Glasgow, Scotland in 1997. Lyrics are a real comfort to some people. I guess they like to sing along and when they cant do that with us they get a bit upset. This line by Stuart Braithwaite, the guitarist of Mogwai. The line does a good job of explaining the acquired taste of Mogwai and Post-Rock in general. This is why Post-Rock was stuck in the underground bracket for sometime. Another band who has had great critical acclaim within the genre is Godspeed You! Black Emperor. The band from Canada influenced by Tortoise and Slint have released 5 albums since 1994. Even tough the band has 9 solid members; they have had as many as 20 members on the stage at once. The band use various techniques and concepts such as drone, minimalism, chamber music, music concrete and sampling. Also the band totally dis-regards any vocals except sampled inserts. As said before, the band have undertaken many changes, covering genres such as post rock, experimental rock, ambient, jazz and traditional rock. Once again the band follows the DIY conception as they produce theyre albums through a small independent record label in Montreal, Quebec. Perhaps the most important articles regarding the genre was the description of the band Bark Psychosis where the term was first properly coined. Simon Reynolds described Post Rock as using rock instrumentation for non rock purposes using guitars as facilitators of timbre and textures rather than riffs and power chords. Simon further expanded on the term stating that perhaps the really provocative area for future development liesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ in cyborg rock; not the wholehearted embrace of technos methodology but some kind of interface between real time, hand on playing and the use of digital effects and enhancement. This description helped drive the genre forward as other artists started being labelled Post-Rock and listeners started understanding what the music was. It describes the balance of electronic effects to hands on traditionally rock instruments. Even today, some original post rock albums from the early 90s are still receiving sparkling reviews. From a review in 2010 from music website Sputnik Music, Spiderland by Slint is said as being classic and received a 5/5 rating. The journalist continued to explain You can ask me to explain why I love it, or why it works, or the situational context in which it was created. Just dont ask me how they did it. Please, just listen. This shows that original Post-Rock artists will continue to have a positive affect on those who are listening to it from the first time, and who dont quite understand it yet. There are various sources online which help with the understanding of the complex genre. Such as www.postrocking.org which is a post rock radio streaming website, which lets up and coming artists submit their tracks. It also contains a popular forum where fans can share their views. Also killwhat.com which is French fanzine company which cover and cater for post rock fans. One main entity of post rock bands is that to grab media attention, they usually have strange band or album names. For Example Godpseed You! Black Emperor and their album Lift Yr Skinny Fists like Antennas to Heaven. Other examples of this are bands such as ILiKETRAiNS Meanwhile Back in Communist Russiaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.. and I Love You But Ive Chosen Darkness. The list is endless. The strange and abnormal band names partially tie in with the unique and somewhat strange sounding music they produce. I have included 3 Audio files with the essay. The first track being Nosferatu Man. This shows what the birth of post rock was like and how it was essential. It also shows how vocals were in a narrator style and how the time signatures were irregular and ever changing, as the song switches from 5/4 to 6/4 to 4/4. The track also gives a decent idea of the howling guitar sound used by the band. The next track is Christmas Steps by Mogwai. This track pinpoints and shows the soothing melodic side of post rock and also the steady build up to the more aggressive and distorted crescendos. This giving a good insight to what the development and definition of post rock sounds like and how even genres such as heavy metal can have an influence. It also considered a post rock piece as it lasts 10 minutes. The last track is Atlas by Battles. This shows the current state of post rock and how it differs. It lets us hear how effects are implemented more to create an Alien Sound Also how post rock can branch into other genres and while still keeping traditionally ideas such as gibberish vocals, build up sequences, crescendos, tom based drumming and longer track times at seven minutes long. Battles are a good example of keeping traditional ideas but bringing new ideas to the table. Overall, Post Rock is a creative genre which gives artists unlimited freedom. Pioneered by Slint, Defined by Mogwai and evolved by Battles, it seems that its a really complex genre thats tough understand, but it definitely is genre you have to appreciate due to the creativity it requires and its uniqueness. Post rock is still evolving and new artists are still peddling out year after year with many bands producing new styles and techniques. However the roots of Post rock constructed by Slint and Tortoise are still evidently rooted within the music.

Jasmine Essay -- essays papers

Jasmine Bharati Mukherjee was born on July 27, 1940 in Calcutta, India. (Pradhan ) She was born into a wealthy family, which assisted her in her dream of becoming a writer. She lived in India, Europe, the United States, and Canada. Migrating to these countries that are so different from her place of birth enabled her to write very powerful novels on immigrant experiences. Mukherjee’s novels focus on exploring the migration and the feeling of alienation that is experienced by these immigrants. (Pradhan) Her works have explored such themes as isolation, sexism, discrimination, the mistreatment of Indian women, and exploring identities. In Bharati Mukherjee’s novel Jasmine, the character shows some similarities to the author, but there are many differences. Both were born in India, but Jasmine was not born into wealth. Jasmine does not have the same resources as Bharati, so it is harder for her to leave her home and to migrate to the United States. One of the similarities between Jasmine and the author is their drive to go after what they want and to not stop until they get it. Bharati’s drive is to become a writer, and Jasmine’s is to go to the United States. Another similarity is their struggle to find their identity when they migrate to the United States. This is one of the major themes in Jasmine. One important aspect about the novel Jasmine is that it is not written in chronological order. The novel is written as though the main character is remembering events out of sequence. The author employed this method of writing quite efficiently. It was not entirely confusing and it set a mood of anticipation of what is to come. The novel starts out when Jasmine is a young girl in India. She is consulting an astrol... ...arries his child. This is evidence that she is steering further away from her Indian values. Someone may say that Jasmine is about a victim struggling in America or that it is about an immigrant who has assimilated herself into becoming an American. I think it is a little bit of both. I think that the main theme of this novel is exploring identities. Jasmine’s struggle in America and her immigrant experience force her to explore within herself and to discover what she is capable of doing in life. Jasmine has many stages in her life. Even her name changes throughout the novel, becoming more American, which corresponded to the stages in her life. Jasmine went through a metamorphoses in this novel in which she had to suffer many terrible and some wonderful events in order to become the person that she is at the end of the novel when she leaves Bud to be with Taylor.