This report assesses the opportunities for improving the performance of the government health sector in Kosovo through better management and improved information for managers. Specifically, it ...concerns the kinds of information used by managers in the health system, and indications of demand for additional data and performance measures. Overall, we try to assess the need for new investments in information technology in the health system as a means for improving health system performance. The health system in Kosovo is a government system of six regional hospitals, several smaller facilities; all supported by a large tertiary university hospital and associated specialists in Prishtina, and a set of municipally-managed primary health centers (and their subordinate health houses and ambulances throughout the countryside). Written referrals are required for secondary and tertiary care. Essential drugs are free in the clinics, if available. The government operates and finances this system in a traditional line budget way by paying salaries directly from the Ministry of Economics and Finance (MOF), and setting strict budget limits for facility managers for goods and services and capital. Municipalities receive a capitation grant from the MOF to help to finance the clinics. Modest co payments are collected for ambulatory care. There is essentially no private insurance. Health behaviors are poor, particularly relating to reproductive health, where maternal and birth outcomes are very poor. Most telling about the service quality of the government health system, the use of the private sector and nearby out-of-country providers is growing, and may now exceed 50 percent of ambulatory care used by citizens. The report summarizes the data collection activities (section two), the framework for analysis (section three), the findings from the study (section four), recommendations (section five). Annexes contain data gathering forms and protocols referenced in the text.
The decline of tropical forests Steinlin, H. (Freiburg Univ. (Germany))
Zeitschrift für ausländische Landwirtschaft,
(1994), Letnik:
33, Številka:
2
Journal Article
The present situation and the outlook for the future of the tropical forests are discussed in the light of the FAO tropical forest resource assessment of 1990. Tropical forest decline is today mainly ...caused by logging for the export of timber and forest products, the use of wood as a source of energy and the demand for land for other than forestry use.
Ground Water in North America Thomas, Harold E.; Leopold, Luna B.
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
1964-Mar-06, Letnik:
143, Številka:
3610
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The authors discuss the hydrology of ground water and indicate aspects on which research is required to ensure effective management of ground-water resources, including natural and artificial ...recharge, flow through unsaturated media, the mechanics of aquifers, and hydrogeochemistry.
The paper considers the analytical difficulties economists face in determining the socially optimum levels of output of public goods associated with farmed areas. This includes the problem of ...deciding the policy effort which should be devoted to discouraging practices which reduce the output of such goods, and which diminish the conservation stock of hedgerows, biodiversity, and desired physical features in the countryside.
Consideration of these issues is conducted in relation to land use conservation policies in the UK ; there is a brief description of some of these. The basic theory of optimal taxation and subsidisation is briefly presented, and is used to emphasise that the cost of agricultural conservation subsidies in the UK is inflated by the pattern of property rights which has been established. The problem of identifying the optimal scale of policy expenditure on rural conservation is restricted by the limitations of available methods of valuing non-use value. A brief consideration of this is presented, before reviewing the comparative cost of alternative conservation instruments in the UK.
As a tradeable asset the land market does provide members of society with the opportunity to buy the use-rights in land and to devote the land for conservation purposes. Although this option is used to a limited extent, the paper argues that market forces cannot be relied upon to produce society's optimal level of public good outputs from agricultural land.
Le choix d'un niveau optimal de préservation des terres : la portée de l'analyse économique
Cet article rend compte des difficultés qu'ont les économistes à déterminer, de façon analytique, le niveau optimal de fourniture de biens publics par l'agriculture. Cela suppose de fixer les mesures que doivent prendre les pouvoirs publics pour restreindre les pratiques agricoles qui dévalorisent ces biens, diminuent le nombre de haies, réduisent la diversité des espèces et altèrent les caractères spécifiques du paysage.
Cette étude s'appuie sur les manifestations d'une volonté politique en faveur de la protection du patrimoine naturel du Royaume-Uni. Certaines de ces actions sont brièvement décrites. On fait une présentation rapide de la théorie de la taxation optimale et de la subvention optimale ; l'auteur en profite pour souligner que le coût des subventions en faveur du maintien de l'agriculture se trouve majoré au Royaume-Uni par l'état des droits de propriété. Évaluer au plus près le montant optimal des dépenses publiques en matière de protection du patrimoine rural est un exercice qui se heurte aux limites des méthodes de calcul des valeurs de non-usage. L'auteur y fait référence avant de proposer une comparaison du coût des différentes méthodes de préservation utilisées au Royaume-Uni.
S'agissant d'un bien négociable, le marché foncier offre en l'occurence au public la possibilité d'acquérir des droits d'usage sur des terres qui sont consacrées alors à des fins de protection. Bien que cette solution trouve peu d'adeptes, l'auteur soutient que l'on ne peut s'en remettre aux seules lois du marché pour que l'agriculture produise un niveau de biens publics qui soit socialement optimal.
Colman David R. Determining optimal levels of conservation land use : the limitations of economic analysis. In: Cahiers d'Economie et sociologie rurales, N°30, 1er trimestre 1994. pp. 5-21.
In the article, the problem of assessment of economic efficiency of not economic systems on the example of development of assessment technique of military and economic efficiency of military ...automotive vehicles use is considered. The author’s system of indicators for assessment of the separate economic resources and level of the solution of target tasks which are uses which by means of a method of the analysis of hierarchies “is curtailed” in an integrated indicator of militaryeconomic efficiency is offered.
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