title: The value of statistical life and cost-benefit evaluations of landmine clearance in Cambodia

authors: Cameron, Michael Patrick

subjects: benefit-cost analysis

abstract: Development agencies spend approximately US$400 million per year on landmine clearance. Yet many cost-benefit evaluations suggest that landmine clearance is socially wasteful because costs appear to far outweigh social benefits. This paper presents new estimates of the benefits of clearing landmines based on a contingent valuation survey in two provinces in rural Cambodia where we asked respondents questions that elicit their tradeoffs between money and the risk of death from landmine accidents. The estimated Value of a Statistical Life (VSL) is US$0.4 million. In contrast, most previous studies of landmine clearance use foregone income or average GDP per capita, which has a lifetime value of only US$2,000 in Cambodia. Humanitarian landmine clearance emerges as a more attractive rural development policy when appropriate estimates of the VSL are used.

text: The value of statistical life and cost-benefit evaluations of landmine clearance in Cambodia Development agencies spend approximately US$400 million per year on landmine clearance. Yet many cost-benefit evaluations suggest that landmine clearance is socially wasteful because costs appear to far outweigh social benefits. This paper presents new estimates of the benefits of clearing landmines based on a contingent valuation survey in two provinces in rural Cambodia where we asked respondents questions that elicit their tradeoffs between money and the risk of death from landmine accidents. The estimated Value of a Statistical Life (VSL) is US$0.4 million. In contrast, most previous studies of landmine clearance use foregone income or average GDP per capita, which has a lifetime value of only US$2,000 in Cambodia. Humanitarian landmine clearance emerges as a more attractive rural development policy when appropriate estimates of the VSL are used.

year: 2008-03

title: Utilising risk analysis to predict post-earthquake functionality of critical healthcare facilities

authors: Boston, Megan

abstract: Hospitals, particularly emergency departments, are vital to a community’s resilience and earthquake recovery by providing emergent and ongoing critical care. Building standards and codes have higher structural requirements for hospital structures to help ensure continued functionality; nevertheless, hospitals are often damaged, evacuated or closed following design-level earthquakes. While post-earthquake hospital functionality has been the focus of recent research, it remains challenging to predict hospital functionality in a relevant and meaningful manner. Existing methods to quantify functionality are based on patient wait time, bed count, or available services. This work focuses on improving existing hospital functionality frameworks to predict various levels of hospital functionality using a combination of fault and event trees to provide a probabilistic prediction of different levels of functionality based on available services and bed counts for hospital emergency departments and whole hospitals. Fault and event trees were created using published data on hospital damage, evacuations, and operations following earthquakes and combined with international guidelines on hospital requirements and local hospital emergency procedures. The fault and event trees relate physical damage, staff shortages, and equipment failures to various hospital and emergency room functionality levels. Event trees provide a sequence of events (availability of critical staff, structural damage, and non-structural damage) leading to various levels of hospital functionality (full, partial, or not functional). Each event has an associated probability of occurring determined by a developed fault tree specific to that event failure. The methodology was validated using an additional hospital dataset to hindcast the functionality of the hospital facility. The hindcasted results match the published functionality data, indicating that this method provides a way to predict levels of functionality, which can indicate what types of services and space will be available for treatment following an earthquake.

text: Utilising risk analysis to predict post-earthquake functionality of critical healthcare facilities Hospitals, particularly emergency departments, are vital to a community’s resilience and earthquake recovery by providing emergent and ongoing critical care. Building standards and codes have higher structural requirements for hospital structures to help ensure continued functionality; nevertheless, hospitals are often damaged, evacuated or closed following design-level earthquakes. While post-earthquake hospital functionality has been the focus of recent research, it remains challenging to predict hospital functionality in a relevant and meaningful manner. Existing methods to quantify functionality are based on patient wait time, bed count, or available services. This work focuses on improving existing hospital functionality frameworks to predict various levels of hospital functionality using a combination of fault and event trees to provide a probabilistic prediction of different levels of functionality based on available services and bed counts for hospital emergency departments and whole hospitals. Fault and event trees were created using published data on hospital damage, evacuations, and operations following earthquakes and combined with international guidelines on hospital requirements and local hospital emergency procedures. The fault and event trees relate physical damage, staff shortages, and equipment failures to various hospital and emergency room functionality levels. Event trees provide a sequence of events (availability of critical staff, structural damage, and non-structural damage) leading to various levels of hospital functionality (full, partial, or not functional). Each event has an associated probability of occurring determined by a developed fault tree specific to that event failure. The methodology was validated using an additional hospital dataset to hindcast the functionality of the hospital facility. The hindcasted results match the published functionality data, indicating that this method provides a way to predict levels of functionality, which can indicate what types of services and space will be available for treatment following an earthquake.

year: 2024

title: The Te Kotahitanga Observation Tool: Development, use, reliability and validity.

authors: Berryman, Mere

subjects: chool reform

abstract: Te Kotahitanga is a New Zealand school reform project aimed at improving the pedagogical contexts in mainstream classrooms in which the indigenous Māori students have traditionally been marginalised. It does this by assisting teachers to implement an Effective Teaching Profile. Part of this process uses an observation tool to monitor the degree to which participating teachers are incorporating the interactions and relationships described in the Effective Teaching Profile into their day-to-day teaching. Given the central importance of these tasks, the Te Kotahitanga team undertook to test the observation tool for measurement reliability and validity. In order to undertake this study, the team conducted synchronous observations amongst trainers (the Professional Development Coordinator and Regional Coordinators) to ascertain their level of consistency when using the tool. The team then conducted synchronous observations between trainers and 38 in-school facilitators in the 12 schools involved in Phase 3 of the project. In total 41 teachers were observed and over 200 Māori students were involved in these observations. This study suggests that the tool can produce consistent and reliable results when observers have been effectively trained.

text: The Te Kotahitanga Observation Tool: Development, use, reliability and validity. Te Kotahitanga is a New Zealand school reform project aimed at improving the pedagogical contexts in mainstream classrooms in which the indigenous Māori students have traditionally been marginalised. It does this by assisting teachers to implement an Effective Teaching Profile. Part of this process uses an observation tool to monitor the degree to which participating teachers are incorporating the interactions and relationships described in the Effective Teaching Profile into their day-to-day teaching. Given the central importance of these tasks, the Te Kotahitanga team undertook to test the observation tool for measurement reliability and validity. In order to undertake this study, the team conducted synchronous observations amongst trainers (the Professional Development Coordinator and Regional Coordinators) to ascertain their level of consistency when using the tool. The team then conducted synchronous observations between trainers and 38 in-school facilitators in the 12 schools involved in Phase 3 of the project. In total 41 teachers were observed and over 200 Māori students were involved in these observations. This study suggests that the tool can produce consistent and reliable results when observers have been effectively trained.

year: 2011