Volume 1, Issue 1 (2015)

Welcome to our inaugural issue of the Interdisciplinary Journal of Best Practices in Global Development (IJBPGD). We are grateful to so many professionals for the progress made over the past couple of years towards making this dream a reality. We especially would like to thank Dr. Sharon Pittman, our executive editor and Dr. Mioara Diaconu, our associate editor, for the impetus behind this project and for their steady guidance throughout the development phase. We would also like to thank Brittni Bryan, our managing editor, for her consistent efforts and commitment that have brought us to the launch of our first issue. Additionally we would like to thank the rest of our editorial team: Laura Racovita-Szilagyi and Clarise Nixon; our editorial board: Dr. Héctor Luis Díaz, George Kimani, and Dr. Sarone Ole Sena; and our first issue’s featured reviewers: Dr. Ann-Marie Jones and Dr. Candida Madrigal for their support during this process.

The goal of IJBPGD is to disseminate the knowledge and experience gained by researchers, educators, practitioners, and students who are currently combating the wide range of issues affecting our global community. As such, this issue highlights seven initial articles featuring some exciting research and projects in global community development from multiple continents. There are several co-author teams who have worked cross-culturally to explore some best practices in rural development. Three of our featured articles share great insights about the impact of pioneering transformational projects in Tanzania.

In this issue the readers are also able to make a literary trans-Atlantic crossing to explore an interesting study about the views of non-governmental organizations and socio-economic growth within four Latin American countries. Additionally they will be exposed to two articles detailing current best practices in the field of international social work as they relate to development and conflict driven forced migration. Finally, this issue shares an insightful book review detailing the innovative models found in the volume Open Development: Networked Innovations in International Development.

We are going to be using a convenient topical framework for our e-journal. Furthermore, issues will be published incrementally so as to provide our readers with the most current research in the field. For ease of citation, our incremental format will always be one volume and issue per year. For example, our first issue can be cited as Volume 1, Issue 1.

Please enjoy this first edition of our e-journal and keep the feedback coming! We are eager to make each of the upcoming volumes even more informative and filled with best practices and applied research! Remember that we are always looking to disseminate exciting new scholarly articles from researchers, field experts, and students in the hope of providing a foundation that will improve our shared community development impacts!

Please visit our website and keep checking in with us! (http://knowledge.e.southern.edu/ijbpgd/)

Sharon Pittman, Ph.D, MSW, Executive Editor