The opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the OECD, the Development Centre or their member countries. * Policy Insights No. 19 is derived from the forthcoming study of the same name www.oecd.org/dev/publications/chindaf The Rise of China and IndiaWhat's in it for Africa? *
We present an integrated proteomics platform designed for performing differential analyses. Since reproducible results are essential for comparative studies, we explain how we improved reproducibility at every step of our laboratory processes, e.g. by taking advantage of the powerful laboratory information management system we developed. The differential capacity of our platform is validated by detecting known markers in a real sample and by a spiking experiment. We introduce an innovative two-dimensional (2-D) plot for displaying identification results combined with chromatographic data. This 2-D plot is very convenient for detecting differential proteins. We also adapt standard multivariate statistical techniques to show that peptide identification scores can be used for reliable and sensitive differential studies. The interest of the protein separation approach we generally apply is justified by numerous statistics, complemented by a comparison with a simple shotgun analysis performed on a small volume sample. By introducing an automatic integration step after mass spectrometry data identification, we are able to search numerous databases systematically, including the human genome and expressed sequence tags. Finally, we explain how rigorous data processing can be combined with the work of human experts to set high quality standards, and hence obtain reliable (false positive < 0.35%) and nonredundant protein identifications.
Decentralisation has been advocated by donors and development agencies as an instrument to ensure broader participation of citizens as well as to improve local governance leading to poverty reduction from the bottom up. On the basis of a comprehensive review of nine case studies documented in the literature, this study questions this assumption. According to our findings, a clear link between decentralisation and a reduction in poverty cannot be established. Two important policy lessons emerge from this study. First, in an environment where the central state barely fulfils basic functions and is not interested in giving power and resources to local tiers of government, decentralisation should not be a priority for donors as it could be rather counter-productive. Second, in countries that fulfil basic prerequisites, decentralisation could be a powerful tool for poverty reduction.La décentralisation a été mise en avant par les partenaires au développement comme un instrument permettant d'assurer la participation des citoyens à la définition des politiques publiques ainsi que l'amélioration de la gouvernance locale, débouchant ainsi sur une approche participative de la réduction de la pauvreté. Sur la base d'une revue systématique de neuf études de cas de référence sur le sujet, cet article remet en cause cette hypothèse. Nous concluons en effet qu'il est impossible d'établir un lien clair entre décentralisation et réduction de la pauvreté. Dès lors, ce travail aboutit à deux recommandations importantes. Tout d'abord, dans un contexte où l'É tat central parvient à
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