Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration Commons^™

Performance Audit Of Nevada’S Child Welfare System Final Report For The Legislative Counsel Bureau Audit Division Pursuant To A.B. 629, Nevada Institute For Children’S Research And Policy, Unlv School Of Social Work, Unlv Boyd School Of Law

Nevada Institute for Children's Research and Policy Reports

Assembly Bill 629 of the 2007 Nevada Legislature mandated that a performance audit of Nevada’s child welfare agencies be conducted. This legislation was passed in response to documented concerns regarding the appropriate provision of services by the agencies, including inconsistent data and multiple safety issues. The UNLV Research Team comprised of staff from the Nevada Institute for Children’s Research and Policy, the School of Social Work and the William S. Boyd School of Law was hired by the state to conduct the audit. The purpose of the findings and recommendations of this audit are to assist in improving the Nevada …

Evaluation Of Mine Risk Education In The Kingdom Of Cambodia, Cambodian Mine Action And Victim Assistance Authority

Global CWD Repository

Mine Risk Education (MRE) has been implemented in Cambodia since 1993 with the aim of encouraging people to adopt mine/UXO risk avoidance behaviours to prevent mine/UXO injures. Mine Risk Education is coordinated by the MRE Unit of the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority (CMAA) and implemented through both government and non-government service providers. Key service providers are the Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC), Cambodian Red Cross (CRC), CARE, The HALO Trust, Handicap International Belguim (HIB), Mines Advisory Group (MAG), Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MoEYS), National Police, Spirit of Soccer (SOS) and World Vision Cambodia. Initial activities …

Ddasaccident674, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The primary cause of this accident is listed as a Field Control Inadequacy because the investigators determined that poor command and control was a cause. The secondary cause is listed as Other because there is too little detail in the summary to be able to assess what occurred.

Ddasaccident784, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The BOI team believes this detonation may have occurred as a result of the deminer having leant forward from a safe point and thrown a marking stone down onto the ground. His aim may have been off and he may have inadvertently thrown the stone onto a mine that had not previously been found in the lane. The mine has detonated, propelling the marking stone and other stones back at him with the marking stone striking him in the chest and the remaining stones having caused the injuries around the forehead and eyes. Unfortunately these injuries have resulted in his …

Ddasaccident656, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

It is unusual for a severe foot injury to occur during excavation. The Victim must have been standing or squatting and, despite mention of a “trowel”, he may have been using the ubiquitous “pick”. The Inadequate equipment listed under Notes refers to the use of inappropriate tools, as identified by the investigators. If he was using a trowel, it is likely that he did not pinpoint the detector signal correctly and so began excavating on top of the mine, as has been reported with several other accidents in this theatre at this time.

Ddasaccident652, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The primary cause of this accident is listed as a Field Control Inadequacy because the investigators determined that the supervisor allowed the machine to work in bad weather and did not correct the driver’s error. The secondary cause is listed as Victim Inattention because it seems that the driver did not intend to reverse out of the cleared area. There may have been inadequate area marking in place.

Ddasaccident651, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

It is the conclusion of the investigation team that the carelessness of involved team leader cased the accident. As he intentionally picked up the device and tampered it without taking precautionary measures in to consideration

Performance Evaluation Test Of The Nemesis M3, Institute For Defense Analysis, U.S. Humanitarian Demining Research And Development, Office Of The Assistant Secretary Of Defense Special Operations And Low-Intensity Conflict

Global CWD Repository

In its continuing program to provide a complete size-range of area-preparation systems to the world’s humanitarian demining community, the United States Humanitarian Demining Research and Development Program, located at Ft. Belvoir, Virginia, developed a lightweight area-preparation system around the ASV Inc. SR-80 rubber-tracked crawler with a family of attachments. The system, assembled by Applied Research Associates, Inc., and named the Nemesis, is intended to cut and mulch up to Category 3 (difficult, up to 10 cm diameter trees) vegetation and to remove cutting debris. Attachments used during this evaluation test were the Bradco, Inc., Mini-Mag Mulcher Model XL 165-6; the …

Ddasaccident810, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The explosion happened during the placing of a 1.5 metre marking stick. The detonation occurred at a distance of 7.5 metres behind of the deminer. The mine explosion occurred due to the deminer not paying attention or not identifying the sound of the detector before hammering the marking stick onto the trip-wire of a POMZ-2M.

The Untold Story Of Welfare Fraud, Richelle S. Swan, Linda L. Shaw, Sharon Cullity, Joni Halpern, Juliana Humphrey, Wendy M. Limbert, Mary Roche

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The experiences of women who have been charged with welfare fraud in the years following the passage of the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act cast a shadow over the claim that welfare reform has been an unequivocal success. This article addresses this under-explored issue by considering the face of welfare fraud in San Diego, California after the change to federal welfare law. After a brief discussion of the socio-historical context of welfare fraud prosecution and a summary of the scholarly findings related to welfare fraud post-PRWORA, the aiticle details a new "poverty knowledge" about welfare fraud drawn …

Tracking The Transition From Welfare To Work, Cynthia Needles Fletcher, Mary Winter, An-Ti Shih

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

One of the primary goals of the 1996 federal welfare reform legislation was to reduce dependency on cash transfers and to promote self-sufficiency through employment in the paid labor force. This paper draws upon a qualitative study of 18 Iowa welfare recipients and tracks changes that occur over a three-year, post-reform period. Thick descriptions highlight the internal family dynamics of the choices made over time. The purposes of the study are twofold:first, to document changes in family composition, employment, housing, and program participation, and second, to report how recipients experience such changes. Findings reveal that the 11 families who left …

Nothing "Colonial" About It: Service Delivery And Accountability, Todd Landman

Human Rights & Human Welfare

At one level, there is little in “The New Colonialists” with which I disagree. The necessary state capacity in developing societies for basic service delivery is in many cases absent, significantly weak, or has been corrupted in ways that produce tremendous inequality of access and disproportionate social outcomes that are related to race, ethnicity, poverty, gender, and other categories of social identity. It is true that in the presence of weak state institutions, widespread corruption, and underdeveloped infrastructure, a large number of national and international non-governmental agencies and organizations have sought to redress such imbalances through their work in providing …

September Roundtable: Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

"The New Colonialists" by Michael A. Cohen, Maria Figueroa Küpçü, and Parag Khanna. Foreign Policy. July/August 2008.

Saving Lives: A First Step Toward Freedom Not Dependence, William F. Felice

Human Rights & Human Welfare

During the nineteenth century, European powers extended and deepened their brutal domination of the so-called “uncivilized” (sic) nations and peoples around the world. These efforts were named “colonialist” and were based on the uprooting of indigenous peoples, the export and pillage of natural resources, cultural displacement, direct political control, and economic exploitation and the creation of dependency by the Europeans. While the European states gained colossal economic benefits from these arrangements, the colonized peoples were left with failed states and bad governments. Advocates of these colonialist policies often justified these actions on the basis of a deep-felt ideological belief in …

Cosmopolitanism And Rationalizing Tendencies, James Pattison

Human Rights & Human Welfare

When phone-in talk shows, the press, and undergraduates debate the case for cosmopolitan accounts of global distributive justice, there are a number of standard rationalizations given for why we don’t have a duty to help. These include: “we have duties only to our fellow countrymen”; “poverty is caused by corrupt leaders, so not our fault, and therefore not our responsibility“; and “humanitarian aid is counter-productive.” Unlike the other two sorts of rationalization, the latter claim does not necessarily deny the moral cosmopolitanism premise that we have extensive duties to relieve the suffering of those beyond our borders. Rather, it follows …

In With The Old, Out With The New, Brent J. Steele

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Michael Cohen, Maria Figueroa Küpçü and Parag Khanna make some compelling arguments about the inherent drawbacks regarding the role diverse networks of NGOs play in keeping at-risk populations alive throughout the world. We are informed that these groups are “the new colonialists,” agencies much like the old European empires. These new colonialists are apparently enforcing a cycle of dependency which prevents the development of state structures, structures that apparently sustain these populations more effectively. The problem with this thesis is that the authors do not seem to entertain the possibility that the nation-state is itself an (old) colonial construct, and …

Ddasaccident704, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

It is the conclusion of the investigation team that the carelessness of involved deminer, use of wrong tool for excavation and poor supervision caused the accident happened.

Ddasaccident697, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

It is the conclusion of investigation team that the carelessness of involved ATL, deviation from AMAS and [Demining group]’s SOP and use of dark visor during disarming operation on the fuse are the contributing factors to this accident. Additionally the rule of supervision is vital in preventing such accidents.

Ddasaccident577, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

Initial reports state that [the Victim] was working in his lane when a he initiated an unknown item. The size of the blast would indicate a partial or fuse assembly. A few seconds later, a larger explosion was heard, where [Name removed] had moved from his lane to assist [The victim]. [The second accident occurred when the rescuer] moved using the shortest possible route, through uncleared area. [See DDAS Accident 578 for details of the rescuer.]

Ddasaccident688, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

It is the conclusion of the investigation team that the carelessness of involved deminer, poor command and control and deviation from SOPs caused the accident happened.

Ddasaccident780, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

On 22 August 2008 while de-miner [the Victim] was working in his clearance lane from up downward direction. He used scraper as a standard tool for excavation, but the area was hard and bushy. The de-miner hit the mine directly on its top during excavation and caused the explosion. However the deminer had worn his PPE but has got some injuries on his finger and arm of his right hand.

Ddasaccident665, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

On 17 August 2010 [the Victim] the deminer was working in his clearance lane excavating a detected signal, his excavation tool touched a mine and caused it to explode. According to the investigation report the signal was not pinpointed correctly and the deminer has used his bayonet directly on the top of anti-personnel mine, so the accident happened. Unfortunately the victim deminer was not fully dressed with PPE, so he got severe injuries on his eyes, whole face and finger of his left hand.

Ddasaccident616, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The primary cause of this accident is listed as a Field Control inadequacy because the investigators found that there was poor supervision at the time of the accident. The secondary cause is listed as Other because there is not enough detail in the summary to determine what the deminer was doing, and what tool he was using.

Ddasaccident615, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

It is the conclusion of the investigation team that the carelessness of involved deminer, poor supervision and denying of mechanical asset by government authority are the main factors for the accident happened. The rule of supervision is vital in such a difficult task and can prevent the accidents.

Ddasaccident611, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

It is the conclusion of the investigation team that the involved deminer did not properly find the centre of the signal because of extra soil accumulated there, and thus started excavation directly from the top of the signal by force, which caused the accident happened.

Assessment Of The Mine Action Centre For Afghanistan, Ted Paterson, Faiz Paktian, William Fryer

Global CWD Repository

The main purposes of this report are to (i) advise CIDA/ATF on what it should expect from the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) in terms of reporting on development results, and (ii) assess feasible timelines and approaches for the transfer of UN responsibilities for mine action in Afghanistan to national organs, capable of addressing the country's future problems stemming from explosives contamination. The specific objectives of the assessment relate to: 1. Donor coordination, particularly as this relates to the UNMAS/MACA exit strategy and the emergence of national ownership; 2. Nationalisation, particularly with respect to the transition to full national ownership; …

Toward A New Mine Action Strategy For Cambodia, Ted Paterson, Mao Vanna, Chan Rotha

Global CWD Repository

This report presents the findings, conclusions, and recommendations from a study on the need for a new national mine action strategy for Cambodia. The study entailed a document review; the preparation and distribution of a stakeholder questionnaire and the analysis of responses; and interviews with representatives from a number of mine action and disability assistance organisations, government ministries, etc.

Ddasaccident768, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

It is the conclusion of the investigation team that the mine was not missed from the clearance team but had been brought by someone and put there. One of the local residents named [Name removed] narrated that, he had placed a mine under a small stone, but has not been found there. The crater made by exploded mine was less than 5cm which shows that as it was put on the ground [surface].

Performance Evaluation Test Of The Orbit Screen Model 68a And The Komplet Model 48-25 Rock Crusher, Ida, U.S. Humanitarian Demining Research And Development, Office Of The Assistant Secretary Of Defense Special Operations And Low-Intensity Conflict

Global CWD Repository

At the request of the Demining Center of Ecuador, the U.S. Humanitarian Demining Research and Development Program at Ft. Belvoir, VA., undertook a performance evaluation of the Orbit Screen Model 68A and the Model 48-25 Rock Crusher, two pieces of equipment that could be used to remove antipersonnel land mines from riverbank minefields along the border of Ecuador and Peru. Although these devices could conceivably be used in tandem as a system, this evaluation focused on the performance potential of each unit to operate as a stand-alone system. A test was also conducted to see how long it would take …

Ddasaccident685, Hd-Aid

Global CWD Repository

The primary cause of this accident is listed as a Field Control Inadequacy because the Victim was working with his visor raised and using a pick and his error was not corrected. The secondary cause is listed as a Management Control Inadequacy because the demining group’s management is responsible for ensuring that field supervisors prevent deminers from breaching approved SOPs.