A Review of Global COVID-19 Response Frameworks for Education

BackgroundThe 2014 outbreak of the Ebola virus disease highlighted the importance of overhauling and transforming healthcare systems in West Africa to improve the ability of individual countries to deal with infectious diseases. As part of this effort, in November 2016 the West African Health Organization (WAHO) began the process of institutionalizing the One Health (OH) approach to health security across the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The lack of clear metrics and evaluation frameworks to measure the progress of OH implementation in West Africa has been reported as a challenge. Therefore, this study sought to assess and explore whether the existing metrics of global health security frameworks can measure the successful implementation of OH activities, evaluate the progress made since 2016, and identify key areas for improvement in the region.MethodThe study employed predetermined keywords to select indicators from the International Health Regulations (IHR) Monitoring Frameworks, specifically the State Party Self-Assessment Annual Report (SPAR) and Joint External Evaluation (JEE), deemed relevant to the OH approach. In addition, the COVID-19 performance index scores (severity and recovery) for June 2022 were extracted from the Global COVID-19 Index (GCI). The GCI Recovery Index evaluated the major recovery parameters reported daily to indicate how a country performed on the path to recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic compared to other countries. National documents were also analyzed using categorical variables to assess the performance status of OH platforms across implementing countries. A quantitative analysis of these indicators was conducted and supplemented with qualitative data gathered through interviews with key stakeholders. Between March and April 2022, we conducted 18 key informant interviews with purposively selected representatives from regional governmental agencies and international multilateral agencies, including ECOWAS member states. Interviews were conducted online, transcribed, and analysed following the tenets of thematic analysis.ResultsOur quantitative analysis revealed no significant association between the implementation status of OH activities and any of the selected indicators from SPAR and JEE. The descriptive analysis of the JEE scores at the country level revealed that countries with existing OH platforms scored relatively higher on the selected JEE indicators than other countries in the pre-implementation stage. OH implementation status did not significantly affect COVID-19 recovery and severity indices. The qualitative findings with relevant stakeholders revealed noteworthy challenges related to insufficient human capacity, inadequate coordination, and a lack of government funding for the sustainability of OH initiatives. Nonetheless, countries in the ECOWAS region are making progress toward the integration of OH into their health security systems.ConclusionStandardized metrics were used to assess the implementation and efficacy of OH systems in the ECOWAS region. Current indicators for monitoring global health security frameworks lack specificity and fail to comprehensively capture essential OH components, particularly at the sub-national level. To ensure consistency and effectiveness across countries, OH implementation metrics that align with global frameworks such as IHR should be developed.

My chapter addresses the question: to what extent did global CSR frameworks shape national-level business-led CSR organizations? I find that national CSR associations were already successfully consolidated in several countries in the 1970s and 1980s and were relatively autonomous from global CSR frameworks that struggled to be institutionalized during the same time period.From a political economy perspective, it is not surprising that corporations would engage more with domestic business-led CSR organizations than alternative global frameworks over which they have less control. However, I also find that the establishment of national CSR associations is strongly correlated with country memberships in international non-governmental organizations. This suggests an important global-domestic dynamic whereby global nongovernmental linkages may have first encouraged the growth of national CSR associations before pushing CSR concerns up to the level of global CSR frameworks. This paper this chapter highlights the importance of both world society and political economy perspectives for understanding CSR in a globalizing world.

The aim of this study was to explore preservice teachers’ perceptions of the notion of teacher competence, under the potential influence of national and/or global teacher competence frameworks. By selecting participants from one country that had a national teacher competence framework (France) and a country that did not (Greece), we conducted a case study as part of our collaboration within the CIVIS University network. Thinking with Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, capital and field, our research questions were: (a) What are preservice teachers’ perceptions on the concept of teacher competence? and (b) How do these perceptions relate to national and/or global notions? Bringing a thematic and a Bourdieusian analysis together, the themes produced were: (a) perceptions as a dialectic between habitus, capital and field, (b) perceptions as the projection of (inter)national norms. Preservice teachers (re)produced habitus and capital based on the opportunities they were given at a national or European level and the way they projected themselves as professionals within a shifting teaching field. This has significant implications for the design of teacher education programmes, suggesting that teacher competence needs to be conceptualised around understandings that can leverage teachers’ ability to unpack and negotiate established (inter)national norms.

BackgroundThe lack of an international standard for assessing and communicating health app quality and the lack of consensus about what makes a high-quality health app negatively affect the uptake of such apps. At the request of the European Commission, the international Standard Development Organizations (SDOs), European Committee for Standardization, International Organization for Standardization, and International Electrotechnical Commission have joined forces to develop a technical specification (TS) for assessing the quality and reliability of health and wellness apps.ObjectiveThis study aimed to create a useful, globally applicable, trustworthy, and usable framework to assess health app quality.MethodsA 2-round Delphi technique with 83 experts from 6 continents (predominantly Europe) participating in one (n=42, 51%) or both (n=41, 49%) rounds was used to achieve consensus on a framework for assessing health app quality. Aims included identifying the maximum 100 requirement questions for the uptake of apps that do or do not qualify as medical devices. The draft assessment framework was built on 26 existing frameworks, the principles of stringent legislation, and input from 20 core experts. A follow-up survey with 28 respondents informed a scoring mechanism for the questions. After subsequent alignment with related standards, the quality assessment framework was tested and fine-tuned with manufacturers of 11 COVID-19 symptom apps. National mirror committees from the 52 countries that participated in the SDO technical committees were invited to comment on 4 working drafts and subsequently vote on the TS.ResultsThe final quality assessment framework includes 81 questions, 67 (83%) of which impact the scores of 4 overarching quality aspects. After testing with people with low health literacy, these aspects were phrased as “Healthy and safe,” “Easy to use,” “Secure data,” and “Robust build.” The scoring mechanism enables communication of the quality assessment results in a health app quality score and label, alongside a detailed report. Unstructured interviews with stakeholders revealed that evidence and third-party assessment are needed for health app uptake. The manufacturers considered the time needed to complete the assessment and gather evidence (2-4 days) acceptable. Publication of CEN-ISO/TS 82304-2:2021 Health software – Part 2: Health and wellness apps – Quality and reliability was approved in May 2021 in a nearly unanimous vote by 34 national SDOs, including 6 of the 10 most populous countries worldwide.ConclusionsA useful and usable international standard for health app quality assessment was developed. Its quality, approval rate, and early use provide proof of its potential to become the trusted, commonly used global framework. The framework will help manufacturers enhance and efficiently demonstrate the quality of health apps, consumers, and health care professionals to make informed decisions on health apps. It will also help insurers to make reimbursement decisions on health apps.

Education is an indispensable social component and a powerful tool to develop a peaceful and sustainable society. Global policy frameworks are coupled with national policy frameworks to facilitate strategic use of education to promote sustainability. Sweden is one of the countries that has actively aligned with the global framework and has been successful in introducing Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) into formal education through its inclusion in the curricula and through new approaches toward learning and teaching. This article is based on document analysis attempting to review ESD policy implementation and to highlight Sweden’s contribution to the global framework of ESD. It provides a comprehensive review of ESD discourse and its international policy framework, followed by an analysis of evolution of environmental education then ESD in Sweden. Three initiatives at the primary school level that promote ESD are presented as distinctive examples from Sweden demonstrating instrumental use of education toward sustainable development of the society while assessing the challenges and future prospects. As the United Nations Decade for Sustainable Development and Millennium Development Goals comes to an end in November 2014 and 2015, respectively, it is imperative that the concept of is revisited and good practices in the realm of ESD are identified and shared. Research of this nature locates effective practices of ESD and broadens our understanding of how ESD is implemented and adopted hybridizing with local socio-cultural tradition.

2020 was an eventful year for the whole world, as a public health and economic crisis raged, bringing to the fore the perennial challenge of how to craft and use Intellectual Property (IP) institutions, law, policies and practices, collectively ‘IP frameworks’ to add to efforts to achieve sustainable development, and to consider recovery paths for economies. This coincided with intensified efforts to boost intra-African trade and enhance regional integration through the Agreement on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which has been ratified at the fastest rate, to date, of any African Union (AU) instrument. The US entered into negotiations for a bilateral FTA with Kenya, which, if successful, would be the first in Southern Africa and the first since the coming into force of the AfCFTA Agreement. This book engages with this challenge in its six chapters. The introductory Chapter One includes a brief overview of the AU, its member states, its institutions and legal norms to emphasise both the context and the diversity of the continent. It introduces and links STI and IP within a knowledge governance context as the analytical lens through which the book’s further discussions are framed. The international and African development agendas are also explained and distinguished from each other to foreground the following chapters. Chapter Two considers the global IP framework with an account of minimum standards in international agreements. Chapter Three turns to the African continent and provides a commentary on national and regional IP frameworks, as contrasted with the global framework. It considers plurilateral and bilateral agreements including the possibilities and significance of the US-Kenya FTA. It reprises the IP instruments of the regional IP organisations and the Regional Economic Communities. Chapter Four considers STI and sustainable development, paying specific attention to the creation of an enabling environment for STI and also to how STI policies interface with IP. Chapter Five reiterates the trade and sustainable development context of IP as the foundation to a consideration of examples of how openness is being leveraged to meet current developmental challenges through STI on the continent. It spotlights some entries at the COVID-19 Innovation Challenge held during the Africa Innovation and Investment Forum 2020 together with the continent’s commitment to Open Science. Against the background of the preceding chapters, Chapter Six discusses the continental IP institutional reform and policy rejuvenation that would come from the operationalisation of PAIPO and the conclusion of the AfCFTA IP Protocol. It concludes with some policy legislative implications for IP and STI at continental level, that ought to be borne in mind as states calibrate their IP frameworks.

ObjectivesTimely detection of infectious disease outbreaks is essential to limit health, social, and economic impacts, yet diagnostic and surveillance gaps persist across Africa. This review applies the 7-1-7 global target framework—detect within 7 days, notify within 1, and respond within 7—to assess strategies for strengthening early detection capacities across African countries.MethodsWe conducted a review of peer-reviewed literature, institutional reports, and field evidence published without time span limitations. Key themes were organized around five strategic pillars: diagnostic preparedness, surveillance, workforce development, community engagement, and governance.ResultsIdentified bottlenecks include limited diagnostic networks capacity, fragmented surveillance systems, workforce shortages, and underinvestment in digital infrastructure. Promising solutions include diagnostic network optimization, deployment of point-of-care molecular tools, integration of event- and indicator-based surveillance through interoperable platforms, and AI-enabled early warning systems. Field examples from Uganda, Senegal, and Nigeria demonstrate improved timeliness where coordinated investments and multisectoral collaboration have been implemented.ConclusionMeeting the 7-1-7 detection target requires integrated, country-owned strategies that align diagnostics, surveillance, workforce, and governance within resilient national health security frameworks, underpinned by sustained domestic investment.

In 2017, WHO and global partners launched ‘The Network for Improving Quality of Care for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health’ (QCN) seeking to reduce in-facility maternal and newborn deaths and stillbirth by 50% in health facilities by 2022. We explored how the QCN theory of change guided what actually happened over 2018–2022 in order to understand what worked well, what did not, and to ultimately describe the consequences of QCN activities. We applied theory of change analysis criteria to investigate how well-defined, plausible, coherent and measurable the results were, how well-defined, coherent, justifiable, realistic, sustainable and measurable the assumptions were, and how independent and sufficient the causal links were. We found that the QCN theory of change was not used in the same way across implementing countries. While the theory stipulated Leadership, Action, Learning and Accountability as the principle to guide network activity implementation other principles and varying quality improvement methods have also been used; key conditions were missing at service integration and process levels in the global theory of change for the network. Conditions such as lack of physical resources were frequently reported to be preventing adequate care, or harm patient satisfaction. Key partners and implementers were not introduced to the network theory of change early enough for them to raise critical questions about their roles and the need for, and nature of, quality of care interventions. Whilst the theory of change was created at the outset of QCN it is not clear how much it guided actual activities or any monitoring and evaluation as things progressed. Enabling countries to develop their theory of change, perhaps guided by the global framework, could improve stakeholder engagement, allow local evaluation of assumptions and addressing of challenges, and better target QCN work toward achieving its goals.

In 2017, WHO and global partners launched 'The Network for Improving Quality of Care for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health' (QCN) seeking to reduce in-facility maternal and newborn deaths and stillbirth by 50% in health facilities by 2022. We explored how the QCN theory of change guided what actually happened over 2018-2022 in order to understand what worked well, what did not, and to ultimately describe the consequences of QCN activities. We applied theory of change analysis criteria to investigate how well-defined, plausible, coherent and measurable the results were, how well-defined, coherent, justifiable, realistic, sustainable and measurable the assumptions were, and how independent and sufficient the causal links were. We found that the QCN theory of change was not used in the same way across implementing countries. While the theory stipulated Leadership, Action, Learning and Accountability as the principle to guide network activity implementation other principles and varying quality improvement methods have also been used; key conditions were missing at service integration and process levels in the global theory of change for the network. Conditions such as lack of physical resources were frequently reported to be preventing adequate care, or harm patient satisfaction. Key partners and implementers were not introduced to the network theory of change early enough for them to raise critical questions about their roles and the need for, and nature of, quality of care interventions. Whilst the theory of change was created at the outset of QCN it is not clear how much it guided actual activities or any monitoring and evaluation as things progressed. Enabling countries to develop their theory of change, perhaps guided by the global framework, could improve stakeholder engagement, allow local evaluation of assumptions and addressing of challenges, and better target QCN work toward achieving its goals.

Indicators keep progress honest: A call to track both the quantity and quality of protected areas

This chapter considers how Lebanese national and Syrian refugee teachers working in Lebanon understand their academic, emotional, and social obligations towards the refugee children in their classrooms. Drawing on the CCS approach, this analysis involves a vertical comparison between obligations laid out for teachers of refugees within global refugee education frameworks and teachers’ prioritization of these obligations. It also engaged in a horizontal comparison between the experiences of national and refugee teachers working with refugee students. Global frameworks outline a challenging set of obligations for teachers of refugees, but they offer no consideration of the difficulties teachers may face in efforts to meet the needs of their students. Moreover, academic, emotional, and social obligations carry equal importance within these frameworks, yet teachers often decide which ones to attempt to meet, given their skills, priorities, and comfort levels in these areas. Personal background, professional experiences, and relevant local circumstances were found to be important factors influencing how teachers of refugees understood and executed their ascribed obligations within the classroom, factors not reflected in global frameworks. The chapter concludes with a consideration of how the CCS approach enables a multi-dimensional analysis of teachers working with refugee youth.

Post-2020 aspirations for biodiversity

We start by introducing the idea of echo chambers. Echo chambers are social and epistemic structures in which opinions, leanings, or beliefs about certain topics are amplified and reinforced due to repeated interactions within a closed system; that is, within a system that has a rather homogeneous sample of sources or people, which all share the same attitudes towards the topics in question. Echo chambers are a particularly dangerous phenomena because they prevent the critical assessment of sources and contents, thus leading the people living within them to deliberately ignore or exclude opposing views. In the second part of this paper, we argue that the reason for the appearance of echo chambers lies in the adoption of what we call ‘epistemic vices’. We examine which vices might be responsible for their emergence, and in doing so, we focus on a specific one; ‘epistemic violence’. In assessing and evaluating the role of this epistemic vice, we note that it can be triggered by epistemic contexts characterized by high stakes that may turn ordinary intellectual virtues (such as skepticism) into vices (such as denialism). In the third part of this contribution, we suggest a way to deal with echo chambers. The solution focuses on advocating a responsibilist pedagogy of virtues and vices that -we claim- might be capable of preventing their emergence.

Biological samples—such as tissues, blood and cells—are an increasingly important tool for research into human diseases and their genetic and physiological causes. To ease their storage and access, many of these samples are now stored in biobanks. The number of human biological samples in such collections amounted to several hundred million in 1999 in the USA alone—about one sample per US citizen (Eiseman, 2000; Azarow et al , 2003)—and is increasing rapidly. Three‐quarters of the clinical trials that drug companies submit to the US Food and Drug Administration (Rockville, MD, USA) for approval now include a provision for sampling and storing human tissue for future genetic analysis (Abbott, 2003). At the same time, there is a boom of population biobanks, as more and more countries establish new sample collections (Kaiser, 2002). Among the best known are: the Icelandic Health Sector Database; the Estonian Genome Project; the UK Biobank; the CARTaGENE Project in Quebec, Canada; the Banco Nacional de ADN in Spain; the International HapMap Project; and several US biobanks, such as the National Children's Study, the Marshfield Clinic's Personalized Medicine Research Project and the National Health and Nutrition Examinations Surveys. ![][1] This boom of biobanks has spawned a ‘boomlet’ of regulations and guidelines, which has created controversies, particularly about the importance and definition of informed consent. The consent of participants is usually required before biobank samples can be used in research, but the nature of this consent, and how it is obtained, vary widely. Many European guidelines take the view that general consent is acceptable to use samples for future, as yet unspecified, research projects; US and Canadian policy follows a more rigorous standard of consent. Until 2004, both Europe and the USA considered coded and linked anonymized samples—in which a code links the sample to its donor—as identifiable and therefore … [1]: /embed/graphic-1.gif

Introduction: Currently, there is no official national competency framework for pharmacy education or early career development programs in Lebanon. In 2017, the Order of Pharmacists of Lebanon attempted to fill that gap by developing and validating a framework using the FIP Global Competency Framework version 1 among others. Methods: Since this framework has not been implemented by the Lebanese educational bodies, it was deemed necessary to adapt it further, adding innovative aspects according to the recently published FIP Global Competency Framework version 2. This study identified recommendations to ways of improving pharmacy education. Results: There are missing barriers, which pose major challenges to the implementation of early career training in pharmacy schools in Lebanon. The implementation of these recommendations would produce practice-ready pharmacists with homogeneous competencies. Conclusion: A critical analysis of the contextual factors affecting the success of early-career training would help set expected outcomes to ensure best fit for society.