Nonprofit Board Balance and Perceived Performance

Based on prior literature, this article offers a reconciliation of the core roles of nonprofit boards and aligns these role‐sets with organizational theories. A survey instrument was developed and validated to measure each of four role‐sets (monitoring, supporting, partnering, and representing) to assess whether emphasis on specific roles affects board members’ perception of performance. Our study of nonprofit boards in a midsized midwestern city found that balance across the role‐sets was associated with effective organizational performance. Furthermore, when board members describe any of the four role‐sets as deficient, they perceive the organization as less effective. The results of the study provide practitioners with a validated survey tool that provides nonprofit boards with a method to identify which roles their board emphasizes.     

The Individual Deprivation Measure: measuring poverty as if gender and inequality matter

As inequality deepens globally and within countries it is vital that we know how poverty shapes, constrains, and often destroys the lives of women and men. We know from decades of research that poverty is experienced differently by women and men, yet existing mainstream measures of poverty have been blind to gender. This article focuses on the Individual Deprivation Measure (IDM), a multi-dimensional measure of poverty and inequality designed to illuminate rather than obscure gender differences. Developed over the past five years by an inter-disciplinary research team based at the Australian National University, the IDM is grounded in research with women and men across 18 sites in six countries. Unlike most mainstream measures of poverty, the IDM takes the individual, rather than the household, as the unit of analysis. As a result, the IDM is able to capture gendered differences in the ways poverty is experienced, and also differences according to other markers of identity or social status, such as age, ethnicity, or geographic location.     

International nurse migration from India and the Philippines: the challenge of meeting the sustainable development goals in training,orderly migration and healthcare worker retention

ABSTRACT

This paper examines nurse migration from India and the Philippines through the lens of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) 4.3 (access to training), 10.7 (orderly and responsible migration) and 3.c (retention of health workers). The international migration of health workers has increasingly featured on the agenda of global health agencies. Ameliorating the negative impact of international nurse emigration from low-income nations has been addressed by several western governments with the adoption of ethical recruitment guidelines, one element of an orderly migration framework. One of the challenges in creating such guidelines is to understand how the emigration of trained nurses influences health education and clinical training systems within nurse exporting nations such as India and the Philippines, and how these relate to various SDGs. This paper maps the connections between India’s and the Philippines’ increasing role in the provision of nurses for international markets and the SDGs related to training and migration governance and the retention of health workers. The paper calls for greater attention to the global structuring of migrant mobility in order to assess national abilities to meet SDG goals in these areas.     

Middle East and North African Information Resources: Western Libraries Navigating the Montage

The spotlight for this edition of “The Balance Point” is on publishing and collection development issues in the Middle East and North African (MENA) region of the world. While reflecting upon recent events in the Middle East and Europe, the column editor began to wonder what impact current issues have on publishing, collection development, scholarly communication, and discoverability of resources from the MENA region, as well as the impact these issues have on the collection development activities of Western academic research libraries. Blair Kuntz, the Near and Middle Eastern studies librarian at the University of Toronto Library, was asked to coauthor the column and to share his insights regarding the region with readers. The authors discuss the myriad issues and the mosaic of collection development issues for the MENA region.     

“The One-Box Challenge: Providing a Federated Search That Benefits the Research Process” Revisited

A doctoral student approached the column editor and suggested that an update on a “The Balance Point” column entitled “The One-Box Challenge: Providing a Federated Search That Benefits the Research Process” (2006) would be of interest and useful to readers, and the editor agreed. Contributors to the original column were asked to reflect upon their experiences with federated searching, including successes and failures over the past 10 years, and to provide insights into future challenges and issues. This edition of “The Balance Point” focuses on the ongoing challenges, lessons learned, possible future directions, and issues involved in providing one-box searching to library patrons.     

Signs of resilience in sexually abused adolescent girls in the foster care system

In a sample of 99 sexually abused adolescent girls in the foster care system (64% in congregate living situations and 36% in family/foster care homes), nearly half were psychologically functioning well despite having experienced moderate-to-severe emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. It was hypothesized that these girls with resilient trajectories would differ from the currently symptomatic girls on several protective factors: education, future orientation, family support, peer influence, and religion. The results revealed that the girls with resilient trajectories were significantly more certain of their educational plans and optimistic about their future and had more positive peer influences.     

After the wave-the Centrelink Social Work response offshore

Communities worldwide were affected by the tsunamis that struck a dozen Indian Ocean nations on 26 December 2004. More than 300,000 people were killed or left missing as a result of the tragedy. The Australian Government played a key role in the disaster response overseas and in Australia. As part of a whole-of-government response to the crisis, eight Centrelink Social Workers were deployed to tsunami-affected areas for two weeks after the initial disaster to provide personal support to Australian victims and their families. This paper presents the service delivery framework adopted offshore and delineates the role undertaken by the social workers. Drawing on their practice experience, the paper examines some of the challenges, dilemmas, learnings and implications for future service delivery.