http://www.innovations.harvard.edu This section has content related to economic and community development. Main subject areas include agriculture and food supply, arts and recreation, business incentives, civic engagement, community revitalization, cultural preservation, employment and labor supply, energy supply and distribution, entrepreneurship, housing, and poverty alleviation. en-us Copyright 2009, Government Innovators Network Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:14:00 -0500 Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:14:00 -0500 info@innovations.harvard.edu http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/showdoc.html?id=102101 The Frontiers of Innovation conference was held at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), March 31–April 2, 2008, and hosted participants from more than 50 countries. The conference highlighted how governments can be more effective at solving problems and improving the lives of their citizens through innovation. The conference—designed by HKS faculty for senior managers, elected officials ... http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/showdoc.html?id=5049 Community development organizations must be increasingly cognizant of and responsive to their changing neighborhoods. Major demographic factors related to the growth and influx of recent immigrants to the United States are having a notable impact on many communities. Through a review of current research and interviews with leading experts and practitioners of community development organizations ... http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/showdoc.html?id=5050 This paper explores the use of public schools as tools for community and economic development. As major place-based infrastructure and an integral part of the community fabric, public schools can have a profound impact on the social, economic, and physical character of a neighborhood. Addressing public schools, therefore, is a good point of entry for community-based developers to place their work ... http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/showdoc.html?id=4969 Innovation: Applying Knowledge in Development underscores the critical importance of knowledge and innovation for development in every country. Responding to challenges in areas such as economic productivity, agriculture, education, gender inequity, health, water, sanitation, environment, and participation in the global economy will require increased use of scientific and technical knowledge. Technological ... http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/showdoc.html?id=2984 A strong business sector can promote growth, attract new investments, reduce crime, and enhance the physical structure and value of residential and commercial buildings. As the housing community becomes increasingly aware of the role that commerce can play in combating distress in our inner cities, more and more practitioners are looking for ways to bring life to decaying commercial centers. ... http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/showdoc.html?id=2626 Access to broadband is widely recognized as a prerequisite for a community's economic welfare and the delivery of government services. However, no systematic data document the nature and status of municipal broadband initiatives, the comparative effectiveness of alternative policies for promoting broadband access, or their implications for local economic development, private provisioning of infrastructure ... http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/showdoc.html?id=2976 In November 2003, the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University convened a two-day symposium: Building Assets, Building Credit. The symposium placed a spotlight on access to financial services as a gateway to homeownership and focused on the roles of savings, transaction accounts, short-term credit providers, and credit scores in impeding or facilitating asset accumulation for low ... http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/showdoc.html?id=128951 Participation is an integrated part of development. By mobilizing public participation, development can win support and clarify its goal. As for social groups, especially disadvantaged groups, they influence the process of development and share its fruits through participating. How to mobilize and sustain public participation has always been an important issue for development. In addition to institutional ... http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/showdoc.html?id=4885 The concepts of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate citizenship have been part of the business lexicon and the focus of academic study for many years. Over the past decade, however, they have grown to encompass a more complex, multi-dimensional and global set of issues, with strategic implications for both business leaders and policy makers. As a result of multiple factors ( political ... http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/showdoc.html?id=5048 Although previous studies have focused on areas of concentrated poverty, no studies have focused before on the areas where moderate-income working households predominate. The first step in studying working communities is to define them. Working communities are defined as census tracts in which median household incomes fall between 60 and 100 percent of the area median income of those tracts' ... http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/showdoc.html?id=128961 The Millennium Development Goals have become a universal framework for development and a means for developing countries and their development partners to work together in pursuit of a common vision. The challenge of achieving the Millennium Development Goals in all regions of the developing countries by 2015 is a daunting one. Unfortunately, many of these countries are behind the MDG targets. Success ... http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/showdoc.html?id=5051 This paper examines social entrepreneurship from a community-development perspective. The target audience is community-development nonprofit organizations. The paper begins by contextualizing social entrepreneurship in community development and creating an analytical framework in which to think about efforts of organizations to integrate entrepreneurial and businesslike thinking. The paper presents ... http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/showdoc.html?id=3204 By focusing on three periods of the low-income housing movement, this article examines how visionary idealism has led to disillusionment with housing programs. In the future, supporters of good low-income housing should present housing programs not as panaceas for deep-rooted social problems, but rather as important elements in social welfare policy. Advocates of housing should fight for programs ... http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/showdoc.html?id=4887 Between 34 and 46 million people worldwide are now living with AIDS, with approximately 4.2 to 5.8 million new infections in 2003. While Sub-Saharan Africa is home to roughly two-thirds of these infections, the epidemic is growing quickly in other parts of the world, including three of the world's largest countries: Russia, China and India. Public health experts, economists, and demographers ... http://www.innovations.harvard.edu/showdoc.html?id=2701 Tribal gaming in Oklahoma is a growing industry with a range of positive social and economic impacts. This report ons delve more deeply into tribal gaming policy and its effect on both the state of Oklahoma and Indian nations in Oklahoma. Section II answers the question: Why tribal government gaming? Section II shows why modern Indian self-determination policy has been successful and why tribal ...