Assessing the Relationships among Rural Organizations Working Within Decent Life Initiative in Assiut Governorate using the Graph-Theoretic Technique

Abstract

This research aims to: 1) list the organizations or agents working within the decent life initiative in Assiut governorate, and 2) assess the linkages between such organizations using Graph-Theoretic Technique. Data were collected (from villages of Mesara and Sao belonging to Dayrout district, Assiut Governorate) using key informants’ meetings with three key persons from each village to determine the list of organizations working within the Decent Life Initiative. Then 16 Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) were conducted to collect data from the nominated organization during the period from November to December 2023. Graph-Theoretic Technique and Microsoft Excel were used for data analysis and presentation. Results show the existence of 173 linkages out of the supposed 240 linkages and the absence of 67 linkages. The density of linkages among the studied organizations reaches 0.72. It was also found that the components Orphan Sponsorship Association (P), Abna-Masara Association (B), Legitimacy Assembly (G), AL-Rahma Association (U), and Al-Taqwa Association (T) are the dominant components, their effect on other components is much greater than others' influence on it. It could be concluded that it has considerable control over the system. On the contrary, the components of Decent life Initiative (D), The rural local unit (L), Community development association (C), Schools (S), and Heath Unit (H) are subordinate; they found to be the sink of influence since they are influenced by others more than they influences them. This finding is not surprising, because these components as service receivers are the final target of all components within the system. Interestingly, Orman Association (O) and Misr El-Kheir Foundation (M) are highly interactive with the rest of the components and is followed by Resala charity Organization (R). The work nature for the components as large-scale NGOs requires this high interaction with all system’s components to be conducting in the field activities as well as providing their charity services