Financial Constraint

To estimate the prevalence of self medication with antibiotics and antimalarials in Khartoum State, Sudan and evaluate factors associated with self medication. A pre-tested questionnaire was used to collect data from a sample of 600 households, (1750 adult persons), selected from three cities in Khartoum State, Sudan, using a multistage stratified clustered sampling. One thousand two hundred and ninety three (73.9%) of the study population had used antibiotics or antimalarials without a prescription within one month prior to the study. Eight hundred and forty one (48.1%) of the respondents agreed that they have used antibiotics, 43.4% used antimalarials, while 17.5% used both. Self medication with either antibiotics/ antimalarials was found to be significantly associated with age, income, gender and level of education. Overall, self medication with any antibiotics or antimalarials was least common among the > or = 60 years compared to youngest age group (OR: 0.07; 0.04 -0.11) and...

The need for increased individual mobility has resulted in a significant and continuous increase of road traffic density. More and more, the roads are getting congested. Modern Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) are offering methods to avoid these congestions. However, this requires a dense surveillance system of sensors that is very costly. Thus, due to financial constraints, not all roads are

The spread of knowledge sources available in various formats and financial constraints has made it difficult for libraries to satisfy their users’ needs. However, the problems of information explosion, ever changing users’ needs, shrinking library budgets and currency devaluations can be overcome, to some extent, through resource sharing. Library professionals need to explore options to extend users’ access to information sources by forming partnerships with other local libraries having similar collections.These collaborative arrangements enable patrons to access resources otherwise out of their reach. This requires each participating institution to contribute in the network of their extended libraries’ family and do not operate in isolation. It is widely acknowledged that no library, no matter how large and well-funded it is, can be self-sufficient in meeting its users’ demands. Hence, libraries in Pakistan need to develop cooperative plans to meet the challenges posed by rapid growth and diversity of knowledge sources, increased users’ demands and expectations, decreased budgets, hiking prices of books, journals and databases are the major reasons for cooperation amongst libraries. This paper intends to suggest some possible ways for libraries in Lahore to get the benefits of RS.

In this paper, the strategic financing choices of small businesses are examined through the lens of the business life cycle. The growth of small and medium-sized firms, i.e., those most vulnerable to information and incentive problems, is often constrained by the lack of access to external finances. Understanding the financial determinants of small and medium-sized firms at different stages of the business life cycle allows managers and policy-making institutions to correctly support firm growth. Here we argue that the controversy in the empirical literature on the determinants of financial decisionmaking is based on a failure to take into account the different degrees of information opacity, and, consequently, firms’ characteristics and needs at specific stages of their life cycles. The explanatory power of financing theories based on informational opacity is therefore highlighted and tested in this study. The results of an inductive approach based on cluster analysis showed that, ...

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is an important legislative and scientific tool that may assist and improve the quality assistance for the decision-making process in sustainable development. Here, a comparison of EIAs from three cases of hydropower projects in Pakistan, Norway and Sweden is reported. A huge difference concerning the incorporation of environmental considerations into the decisionmaking process between developed and developing countries is observed. The EIA system of Pakistan appears to be less efficient in the application and review process. In addition, the appraisal of issues, the decision-making process and evaluation through post-monitoring is not as well performed in Pakistan as in cases of hydroelectric power plants in Sweden and Norway. The key reason for this shortcoming is misconceptions about the EIA process, which initially receives intense attention but becomes weakened by the time of implementation. This implies that there is a need to adopt simplified and flexible EIA techniques suitable for the infrastructure and resources of a specific country, taking into account institutional, technical and financial constraints. Improvements are required in public participation, awareness, as well as in environmental control and data system sectors in Pakistan, besides simply enacting legislation to achieve the goals of the EIA system.

This study identifies the major methods used by farmers to adapt to climate change in the Nile Basin of Ethiopia, the factors that affect their choice of method, and the barriers to adaptation. The methods identified include use of different crop varieties, tree planting, soil conservation, early and late planting, and irrigation. Results from the discrete choice model employed indicate that the level of education, gender, age, and wealth of the head of household; access to extension and credit; information on climate, social capital, agroecological settings, and temperature all influence farmers’ choices. The main barriers include lack of information on adaptation methods and financial constraints.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the determinants of public health expenditure in developing countries. This is done through an econometric analysis of panel data for 61 countries. A special interest is devoted to the role of external financial constraints, on corruption and on two aspects of the socio-politic situation : socio-politic unrest and ethnic structure. By highlighting

In this paper, the strategic financing choices of small businesses are examined through the lens of the business life cycle. The growth of small and medium-sized firms, ie, those most vulnerable to information and incentive problems, is often constrained by the lack of access to ...

This paper examines the degree to which cash flow availability influences firm investment in six OECD countries. In particular, we are interested in the extent to which the reliance on internal funds is affected by firm size, since there is general agreement that smaller firms have less access to external capital markets and, thus, should be more affected by the availability of internal funds. Earlier work has concluded that the documented positive relationship between cash flow and investment is evidence of the existence of financial constraints. We first examine all firms, regardless of size, in each country, and we find that the amount of corporate investment is affected by internal resources in all six countries; that is, internal financing affects firm investment. We then repeat the analysis segmenting the sample using three measures of firm size. Contrary to our a priori expectations, we find that the cash flow-investment sensitivity is generally highest in the large firm size group and smallest in the small firm size group. We deduce that the explanations for these findings are grounded in managerial agency considerations, and in the greater flexibility enjoyed by large firms in timing their investments. Thus, we conclude that the degree of sensitivity of a firm's investments to its cash flows cannot be interpreted as an accurate measure of its access to capital markets (as do Kaplan, S., Zingales, L., 1997. The Quarterly Journal of Economics 169–215), since small firms are known to have less access to external markets.

This paper examines agricultural cooperative organizational models from an ownership rights perspective. Building upon property rights and incomplete contracts theories of the firm, the paper adopts a definition of ownership rights comprising both residual claim and control rights. We argue that alternative cooperative organizational models differ in the way ownership rights are defined and assigned to the economic agents tied

Continuing population and consumption growth demand more food in the developing world, where most of the farmers are resource-poor smallholders and face multifaceted challenges to meet increasing food demand for their families and livestock from good as well as marginal/saline lands. This can be attributed to water scarcity, poor understanding of the problem, lack of access to new technology, financial constraints, and diminished soil and water quality. Owing to this menace, many farmers have set aside marginal lands and abandoned agriculture on these lands. Producing more food from the same area of land while reducing the environmental impact requires sustainable intensification. Rather than wringing their hands in despair over these problems, the scientists of the Dubai-based International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) are turning adversity into advantage by providing technical support to poor farmers through the National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) of respective partner countries in improving soil quality and by providing alternative agricultural production systems to farmers for better agricultural services, which lead to improvements of their livelihoods and food security. These practices include initial soil and water resources assessment for better understanding of resource quality to develop site-specific management plans (site preparation, use of soil amendments, leaching excess salts, salinity mapping and monitoring, nutrient management, and other cultural practices), and provision of production system that fit these conditions. The initial plan helps farmers to take necessary actions to improve and maintain soil health during the course of crop growth and to assure that soil quality is not degraded and the environment is conserved. In this chapter ICBA work and approach has been comprehensively described with examples of projects implemented around the world in IDB member countries.