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Microfinance has been developed as alternative solution for global poverty alleviation effort in the last 30 years. Microfinance institution (MFI) has unique characteristic wherein they face double bottom line objectives of outreach to the poor and financial sustainability. This study proposes a two-stage analysis to measure Islamic Microfinance institutions (IMFIs) performance by comparing them to conventional MFIs. First, we develop a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) framework to measure MFIs' efficiency in its double bottom line objectives, i.e. in terms of social and financial efficiency. In the second stage nonparametric tests are used to compare the performance and identify factors that contribute to the efficiency of IMFIs and MFIs.

Although many papers describe the evolution of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), most adopt a subjective approach. This paper examines the pattern of development of the AHP research field using social network analysis and scientometrics, and identifies its intellectual structure. The objectives are: (i) to trace the pattern of development of AHP research; (ii) to identify the patterns of collaboration among authors; (iii) to identify the most important papers underpinning the development of AHP; and (iv) to discover recent areas of interest. We analyse two types of networks: social networks, that is, co-authorship networks, and cognitive mapping or the network of disciplines affected by AHP. Our analyses are based on 8441 papers published between 1979 and 2017, retrieved from the ISI Web of Science database. To provide a longitudinal perspective on the pattern of evolution of AHP, we analyse these two types of networks during the three

Data Envelopment Analysis has been widely used to analyze the efficiency of health sector in developed countries, since 1978, while in Africa, only a few studies have attempted to apply DEA in the health organizations. In this paper we measure technical efficiency of public health centers in Kenya. Our finding suggests that 44% of public health centers are inefficient. Therefore, the objectives of this study are: to determine the degree of technical efficiency of individual primary health care facilities in Kenya; to recommend the performance targets for inefficient facilities; to estimate the magnitudes of excess inputs; and to recommend what should be done with those excess inputs. The authors believe that this kind of studies should be undertaken in the other countries in the World Health Organization (WHO) African Region with a view to empowering Ministries of Health to play their stewardship role more effectively.

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