Some lessons and reflections on implementing, evaluating, and sustaining community initiatives

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Boothroyd ◽  
A. Paine-Andrews ◽  
M. Ransom ◽  
J. Fisher ◽  
A. Mason ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Community Initiatives

Building capacity for participatory evaluation within community initiatives

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Fawcett ◽  
R. Boothroyd ◽  
J. Schultz ◽  
V. Francisco ◽  
V. Carson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Participatory Evaluation ◽  
Building Capacity ◽  
Community Initiatives

Articulating a strategic approach to face complexity in design projects

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Luca SIMEONE ◽  
David DRABBLE ◽  
Giorgia IACOPINI ◽  
Kirsten VAN DAM ◽  
Nicola MORELLI ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Complexity Theory ◽  
Wicked Problems ◽  
Theory Of Change ◽  
Strategic Action ◽  
Community Initiatives ◽  
Uncertain Environment ◽  
Strategic Approach ◽  
Design Projects

In today’s world of global wicked problems, constraints and imperatives imposed by an external and uncertain environment render strategic action a quite complex endeavour. Since the 1990s, within community initiatives and philanthropic projects, the construct of Theory of Change has been used to address such complexity. Theory of Change can be defined as the systematic and cumulative study of the links between the activities, outcomes, and context of an intervention. The area of focus for this paper is to explore whether Theory of Change can support more strategic approaches in design. In particular, the paper examines how Theory of Change was applied to DESIGNSCAPES - a project oriented, among other things, toward offering a supporting service for all those city actors interested in using design to develop urban innovation initiatives that tackle complex issues of broad concern.

scholarly journals Saving Up for a Rainy Day? Savings Groups and Resilience to Flooding in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Urban Forum ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Panman ◽  
Ian Madison ◽  
Nyambiri Nanai Kimacha ◽  
Jean-Benoît Falisse
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Banking Sector ◽  
Urban Climate ◽  
Dar Es Salaam ◽  
Group Model ◽  
Flood Events ◽  
Community Initiatives ◽  
Qualitative Evidence ◽  
Flexible Form

AbstractThis paper explores the role of savings groups in resilience to urban climate-related disasters. Savings groups are a rapidly growing phenomenon in Africa. They are decentralized, non-institutional groups that provide millions of people excluded from the formal banking sector with a trusted, accessible, and relatively simple source of microfinance. Yet there is little work on the impacts of savings groups on resilience to disasters. In this paper, we use a combination of quantitative and qualitative evidence from Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) to shed new light on the role that savings groups play in helping households cope with climate-related shocks. Drawing on new data, we show that approximately one-quarter of households have at least one member in a group, and that these households recover from flood events faster than those who do not. We further argue that the structure of savings groups allows for considerable group oversight, reducing the high costs of monitoring and sanctioning that often undermine cooperative engagement in urban areas. This makes the savings group model a uniquely flexible form of financing that is well adapted to helping households cope with shocks such as repeated flooding. In addition to this, we posit that they may provide a foundation for community initiatives focusing on preventative action.

scholarly journals Energy Communities Design Optimization in the Italian Framework

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 5218
Author(s):  
Matteo Zatti ◽  
Matteo Moncecchi ◽  
Marco Gabba ◽  
Alberto Chiesa ◽  
Filippo Bovera ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Member State ◽  
Heat Pump ◽  
Energy Efficient ◽  
Optimization Problem ◽  
Community Initiatives ◽  
Operation Optimization ◽  
Energy Community ◽  
Energy Assets ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
Italian Legislation

Energy communities (EC) are expected to have a pivotal role to reach European decarbonization targets. One of the key aspects is the regulatory framework adopted by each Member State to properly manage such new customers’ aggregation. The paper firstly provides an updated overview of the EC regulation, focusing on the current Italian legislation. Next, a novel methodology for the design and management of energy community initiatives is proposed. The procedure firstly solves a design and operation optimization problem to calculate the best size of energy assets (boiler, heat pump, photovoltaic, thermal storage) to be installed. Second, a Shapley value-based approach is exploited to distribute a part of the community’s incomes to members, based on their contribution to the overall welfare. Results demonstrate that the adopted methodology is effective in ensuring a proper cash flow for the community, while pushing its members towards energy efficient behaviors.

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