Suchergebnisse

The mountainous hinterland in rural Nepal lacks a fundamental social infrastructure. For example, the lack of electricity causes water provision difficulties, especially in mountainous areas where villagers, especially women and children, often spend a considerable amount of time just conveying water to their homes. To overcome this challenge, a subsidy policy for the installation of a solar-photovoltaic water pumping system (SWPS) has recently been implemented nationwide in Nepal. The Nepali government's tight financial constraints require that the installation process is both economically and technologically sound. However, the institutional design of the current subsidization policy is price-distortionary and potentially induces the installation of inefficient systems. By collecting original field data from 38 wards in all seven regions of Nepal, this paper measures the SWPS's technical efficiencies and then identifies relevant economic policies that will enhance the performance of the SWPS. Our results show, inter alia, that a higher dependency on financial support from the government is associated with excessive investment in the SWPS.

Redistributing some public institutions to rural areas and developing secondary cities to support the capital city of Rwanda, Kigali, constitutes governmental policies. This paper identifies the opportunities and challenges of redistributing the University of Rwanda College of Education(UR-CE) to Rukara. The study used a mixed method involving 61 students randomly selected from UR-CE and 69 residents from around the UR-CE. Using a t-test, there was a highly statistically significant difference (p<.001) between students and residents, with residents benefiting most from UR-CE. A statistically significant difference (p<.05 at 95% confidence interval) also appeared for gender, which showed that male students preferred to study in a rural area. The opportunities and challenges brought by UR-CE to residents were found to be different from those brought to students. For instance, job opportunities are found by residents near the university, and concentration on studies is an opportunity gained by most students. However, hygiene, water and sanitation were considered the top challenges faced by students, while the rising cost of food and accommodation were claimed by residents of Rukara.