The urban solid waste (USW) emanating from the increasing urbanisation calls for concern. Integrating cart pushers into the private sector participation (PSP) may bridge the lacuna in sub-urban planning and PSP truck inefficiencies, especially in developing countries. There is a paucity of studies concerning cart pushers’ role in sub-urban and issues hindering them from achieving Sustainable Development Goals (1 and 11) in developing countries. Thus, the study seeks to appraise cart pushers’ role in Nigeria’s sub- and urban areas, investigate their challenges, and propose measures to improve the achievement of the Goals by integrating them into PSP waste management systems. The researchers utilised a qualitative approach using face-to-face interviews and observation. The study covered seven of Nigeria’s major cities, including Lagos, Kano, and Abuja. Forty semi-structured interviews were conducted. The participants include selected waste managers, NGOs in waste-related matters, cart pushers, legislators, households, environment and housing experts, and solid waste government agencies/regulators. The researchers adopted a thematic approach to analyse the collected data and presented it in a theme pattern. Findings reveal that despite the significance of cart pushers to the three pillars of sustainable development, including stimulating support for potential employment creation and sustainable cities and communities in Nigeria, they face challenges in their daily operation. The study proposed a revised USWM policy, where the informal waste sector should be embraced and recognised with specific rules and regulations. This is germane to improve achieving SDGs 1 and 11. This study holds significant implications for USWM policymakers and other stakeholders in embracing and integrating cart pushers into the formal waste collection process supported by statutory regulations to enhance practice. Also, this concept will increase employment opportunities and improve achieving Goals 1 and 11 in Nigeria.
Over the last few decades, demographic growth combined with poorly controlled urbanization has confronted African cities with a variety of environmental protection challenges. As part of a gradual awareness-raising process, African countries have ratified conventions and adopted a series of laws to protect the environment. Since independence (1960), Gabon has adopted legal instruments to provide a better framework for environmental protection. Despite the existence of well-developed legislation, the Libreville conurbation faces difficulties in waste management. This situation contributes to the degradation of the coastal zone. This study aims to analyse stakeholders’ perceptions of environmental protection regulations in solid waste management practices along the coastline of the Libreville metropolitan area in Gabon. The methodology includes documentary research, field observations, and surveys of 300 study area participants. The results show that the degradation of the coastline is due to a lack of awareness and compliance with the laws governing environmental protection and waste management. As a result, waste disposal practices such as dumping in nature, waterways, illegal dumps, and gutters are commonplace among the population. To achieve sustainable coastal zone management, it is essential to apply regulatory texts and involve stakeholders in improving planning and the quality of the coastal environment.
Access to affordable and quality medicines plays a vital role for achieving Universal Health Coverage and in reducing out-of-pocket expenditures (OOPE) for households especially in developing nations such as India. Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana (PMBJP), a Government of India initiative, aims to make low-cost and quality generic drugs and surgical equipment accessible to all segments of the population through its dedicated store outlets known as Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Kendra (PMBJK). In this study, a pilot survey comprising 20 stores/PMBJKs and 150 citizens was undertaken in the Bengaluru Urban District, India to understand various aspects of the PMBJKs including availability of drugs, stock-outs, accessibility to stores, perception and awareness levels along with challenges faced by store owners and citizens/beneficiaries. Based on the survey results, we capture the availability of drugs for 35 medicines and consumables belonging to 12 therapeutic categories across 20 store outlets. We also provide valuable insights and interdisciplinary recommendations on several facets including adopting technology-based measures for day-to-day functioning of stores, need for in-depth supply chain analysis for ensuring availability of drugs, encouraging prescription of generic medicines, increasing awareness levels in addition to promoting grassroot-level research, surveys and feedback mechanisms. These suggestions are expected to find their utility in policy-making, strengthen the implementation of the PMBJP scheme across Bengaluru and India as well as contribute towards achieving related Sustainable Development Goals.
Smallholder cocoa producers often experience low productivity levels, partly due to their weak collaborative advantage (CA). CA enables businesses to optimize outcomes through effective collaboration within value chains. This paper aims at examining the effect of CA pillars (trust building, resource investment, and decision synchronization) on the productivity. This paper uses primary data of 406 samples from smallholder cocoa producers in Indonesia. The data is analyzed by using CDM (Crepon Duguet Mairesse) model that divides the CA process into three stages: effort, output, and productivity. In the first stage, our model shows that having motivation to collaborate positively affects collaborative effort expenditure to develop a CA. In the second stage, the study finds that the three pillars of CA have to some degree contributes to achieving a better access to finance, superior cocoa seeds, and cocoa processing technology for smallholder cocoa producers. In the third stage, acquiring the outputs of CA leads to productivity improvement. The findings underscore the significance of intangible factors in shaping robust Collaborative Advantage (CA) and influencing productivity. This enriches CA theory, which has traditionally focused primarily on tangible factors.
Aiming at the current problems of poor dynamic reconstruction of UAV aerial remote sensing images and low image clarity, the dynamic reconstruction method of UAV aerial remote sensing images based on compression perception is proposed. Construct a quality reduction model for UAV aerial remote sensing images, obtain image feature information, and further noise reduction preprocessing of UAV aerial remote sensing images to better improve the resolution, spectral and multi-temporal trends of UAV aerial remote sensing images, and effectively solve the problems of resource waste such as large amount of sampled data, long sampling time and large amount of data transmission and storage. Maximize the UAV aerial remote sensing images sampling rate, reduce the complexity of dynamic reconstruction of UAV aerial remote sensing images, and effectively obtain the research requirements of high-quality image reconstruction. The experimental results show that the proposed dynamic reconstruction method of UAV aerial remote sensing images based on compressed sensing is correct and effective, which is better than the current mainstream methods.
With the gradual acceleration of China's adaptation to the global environment, the country's demand for English talents is growing. In recent years, with the continuous innovation of the education system, English education in higher vocational colleges is also undergoing optimization and innovation. Language and literature are closely related. English language and literature education in higher vocational colleges aims to cultivate high-quality talents who can flexibly use English language and literature for communication. It can be seen that teachers in higher vocational colleges need to focus on cultivating students' application ability of English language and literature in the teaching process. By analyzing the current situation of English language and literature teaching in higher vocational colleges, this paper expounds its significance and puts forward corresponding countermeasures, hoping to promote the development and progress of English language and literature education in higher vocational colleges.
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