Does Policy Coherence Make National Implementation of Global Sustainability Agendas More Successful?

This paper examines contextual conditions for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) policy implementation in Zimbabwe. As an emerging global sustainability challenge, AMR constitutes risks for human, animal and environmental health as well as the long-term viability of livestock and farming with implications for communities’ economic stability and food security. The study uses participatory research workshops as a data generation method, engaging with interdisciplinary groups of students and lecturers at two universities in Zimbabwe. Utilising a combination of One Health approaches and theories of policy integration and coherence as our analytical framework, we outline the concept of agile policies, adapting policy content to contextual conditions. Results illustrate the interplay between social, economic and institutional contexts for AMR policy implementation and how especially economic pressures and social tensions represent obstacles to contextually relevant implementation. Limited resources and infrastructural support as part of monitoring and enforcement efforts related to antimicrobial use pose further challenges. This paper calls for AMR policy to be aligned with economic, agricultural and educational policies. Through such policy coherence and integration, One Health cross-sector collaborations could be developed, resulting in more policies while lessening the compliance costs for communities in implementing AMR policy in their practices.

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes Throughout this article I use EU to represent the European Union and the organisation, pre-Maastricht Treaty, officially referred to as the European Community. European Commission, The European Community's Development Policy: Statement by the Council and the Commission, Brussels: European Commission, 2000. European Parliament, Council, Commission, ‘The European Consensus on Development', Official Journal of the European Union, 24 February 2006, C46, pp 1–19. A Mold, ‘Between a rock and a hard place—whither EU development policy?’, in Mold (ed), EU Development Policy in a Changing World: Challenges for the 21st Century, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2007, p 241. S Dearden, ‘Introduction: European Union development aid policy—the challenge of implementation’, Journal of International Development, 20(2), 2008, p 191. P Holden, In Search of Structural Power: EU Aid Policy as a Global Political Instrument, Farnham: Ashgate, 2009, p 13. M van Reisen, ‘The enlarged European Union and the developing world: what future?’, in Mold, EU Development Policy in a Changing World, p 59. van Reisen, ‘The enlarged European Union’, p 33. European Commission, Green Paper on Relations between the European Union and the ACP Countries on the Eve of the 21st Century: Challenges and Options for a New Partnership, COM (1996) 570, 1996, p iv. van Reisen, ‘The enlarged European Union’, p 42. C Freres, ‘Challenges of forging a partnership between the European Union and Latin America’, in Mold, EU Development Policy in a Changing World, p 157. van Reisen, ‘The enlarged European Union’, p 60. A Mold & S Page, ‘The evolution of EU development policy—enlargement and a changing world’, in Mold, EU Development Policy in a Changing World, pp 17–18. M Holland, ‘The EU and the global development agenda’, in M Carbone (ed), Policy Coherence and EU Development Policy, London: Routledge, 2009, p 26. G Faber & J Orbie, ‘EPAs between the EU and Africa: beyond free trade?’, in Faber & Orbie (eds), Beyond Market Access for Economic Development: EU–Africa Relations in Transition, London: Routledge, 2009, p 7. Mold & Page, ‘The evolution of EU development policy’, p 12. A Mold, ‘To reciprocate or not to reciprocate? Is that the question? A CGE simulation of the Euro-Mediterranean agreements’, in Mold, EU Development Policy in a Changing World, p 133. O Elgström, ‘From Cotonou to EPA light: a troubled negotiating process’, in Faber & Orbie, Beyond Market Access for Economic Development, p 33. European Parliament, Council, Commission, ‘The European Consensus on Development', p 7. R Youngs, ‘Fusing security and development: just another Euro-platitude?’, in Carbone, Policy Coherence and EU Development Policy, p 107. GR Olsen, ‘The missing link: EPAs, security and development interventions in Africa’, in Faber & Orbie, Beyond Market Access for Economic Development, p 343. R Pace, ‘Clash of civilisations or intercultural dialogue? Challenges for EU Mediterranean policies’, in Mold, EU Development Policy in a Changing World, p 89. A Flint, Trade, Poverty and the Environment: The EU, Cotonou and the African–Caribbean–Pacific Bloc, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008, p 18. S Hurt, ‘Co-operation and coercion? The Cotonou Agreement between the European Union and EPA states and the end of the Lomé Convention’, Third World Quarterly, 24(1), 2003, p 174. Holden, In Search of Structural Power, p 148. C Freres, ‘Challenges of forging a partnership between the EU and Latin America’, p 159. Holden, In Search of Structural Power, p 156. van Reisen, ‘The enlarged European Union’, p 51. Holden, In Search of Structural Power, p 33. Mold & Page, ‘The evolution of EU development policy’, p 19. van Reisen, ‘The enlarged European Union’, p 60. A Flint, Trade, Poverty and the Environment, p 82. Ibid, p 106. A Matthews, ‘The European Union's Common Agricultural Policy and developing countries: the struggle for coherence’, in Carbone, Policy Coherence and EU Development Policy, p 75. S Lavenex & R Kunz, ‘The migration–development nexus in EU external relations’, in Carbone, Policy Coherence and EU Development Policy, p 120. European Commission, Migration and Development: Some Concrete Orientations, Communication to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, COM (2005) 390, 2005. Lavenex & Kunz, ‘The migration–development nexus in EU external relations’, pp 127–128. G Crawford, ‘The EU and democracy promotion in Africa: high on rhetoric, low on delivery?’, in Mold, EU Development Policy in a Changing World, pp 183–189. Holden, In Search of Structural Power, p 142. van Reisen, ‘The enlarged European Union’, pp 52–56. Holden, In Search of Structural Power, p 41. Holden, In Search of Structural Power. M Carbone ‘Mission impossible: the European Union and policy coherence for development’, in Carbone, Policy Coherence and EU Development Policy, p 18.

Motivation Evidence for disaster resilience and policy coherence is limited in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region, yet it is key for member states to make informed decisions, optimize resources, and improve the effectiveness of disaster resilience and policy coherence efforts. This evidence, if available and used, has the potential to ensure that disaster resilience policies across different sectors and levels of government work together effectively to achieve desired outcomes, thereby reducing unintended negative consequences of policy decisions. Purpose The article provides contextual insights and empirical evidence on the state and implementation of policy coherence for disaster resilience at the regional level in SADC. It answers three key research questions related to the existence of case studies, the relevance of disaster resilience policy coherence, and how SADC region policies embrace disaster resilience policy coherence. Approach and methods The study used a mixed‐methods design combining qualitative and quantitative approaches. It applied the convergent parallel mixed‐methods design. Both primary and secondary data were collected through a survey questionnaire and key informant interviews. An embedded multiple‐case exploratory approach was used to develop case studies on disaster resilience policy coherence, drawing on selected policy frameworks and practices. Findings The findings reveal that while the concept of policy coherence is widely acknowledged and often embedded in regional and national strategies, the practical realization of this ideal is constrained by political, institutional, technical, and contextual challenges. Policy implications Embracing policy coherence is essential for harmonizing diverse disaster resilience and development frameworks, enabling better preparedness for complex and overlapping challenges. This can be achieved through strengthening political commitment through clear and coordinated policy direction. A key enabling factor is diversifying sources of finance, including public and private, which is essential to increase investment and ensure sustainable funding for SADC's disaster resilience efforts.

Despite its relatively short history, policy coherence for development (PCD) has become a major theme on the global development agenda, notably in connection with the post-2015 development agenda. There is an emerging literature on PCD, which, however, has not yet examined PCD as an element of transformative development, or changes in power relations and structures that sustain poverty and inequality. This introduction proposes a normative approach to PCD, informing the articles in this special issue. The approach calls for the examination of institutional and ideational power structures with the aim to contribute to PCD as an element of transformative development. The introduction is structured along the following themes: What is policy coherence, which policy coherence, and how to theorise policy coherence. Finally, a short history of PCD will be given.

Fiscal competition between governments to attract investment can take the form of business tax rebates, productivity-enhancing public infrastructure, tax holidays, accelerated depreciation allowances or loss carry-forward for income tax purposes. This paper surveys the recent theoretical and empirical economic literature and deals with three issues. First, it examines if the theoretical literature on fiscal competition and bidding races contribute to a better understanding of these phenomena in developing countries. Second, it examines whether FDI inflows in developing countries are sensitive to fiscal incentives and if there is empirical evidence of strategic behavior by developing country governments in order to attract FDI. Finally, it reviews the literature's conclusions about fiscal competition among local governments in developing countries.

This paper investigates the effects of administrative reform in the Commission on policy implementation and outcomes through a study of EU Cohesion policy auditing. It argues that the growth in audit has taken a distinctively compliance-oriented form, in contrast with the performance audit model adopted in other countries that have embraced administrative modernization agendas. Further, the link between organizational efficiency and governance effectiveness postulated by other studies of Commission administrative reform is challenged, as the underlying audit and control problem in Cohesion policy – the high error rate – remain unresolved. Lastly, the proliferation in Cohesion policy auditing is presented as a classic example of unintended consequences: originally intended to improve policy performance and accountability, it has in fact undermined the strategic performance of the policy and is even threatening its sustainability.

Multi-level networks for sustainability solutions: the case of the International Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the role of social capital in a microfinance contract.Design/methodology/approach– Systematic review of the theoretical and empirical literature on the role of social capital in microfinance.Findings– The theoretical literature has shown using models of peer selection, peer monitoring and peer pressure that group lending with joint liability overcomes both the informational and enforcement failures present in credit markets for poor. However findings from the empirical literature conclude that social capital should not be taken as a single concept but should be considered in light of its different aspects which may be having different effects on the performance. For example, the trust between the borrowers, cultural and social homogeneity has been found to have more significant affect on repayment performance in contrast to the incentives due to peer pressure. The groups formed by family members and relatives are consistently been reported to have weakening influence on repayment.Practical implications– For a same program the effect of social capital on performance can be different for different geographies and different classification of subjects and thus should be studied before initiating a microfinance program in any social setting.Social implications– The borrowers should be encouraged to form groups with others who are more trustworthy and not with those they are just having an acquaintance with. The borrowers should be encouraged to come to aid of those who are victims of negative externalities. The positive experiences will lead to reciprocity of actions in future. The borrowers should be discouraged to form groups with family members and relatives.Originality/value– It analyzes both theoretical and empirical literature by disentangling different aspects of social capital within groups and their effects on group performance.

Humanity is increasingly operating outside safe planetary boundaries, giving rise to interlinked sustainability challenges in climate, biodiversity, food security, and inequality. There is growing recognition among sustainability scientists that current efforts targeting these challenges fail to address their root causes and that understanding systems holistically is urgently needed to enable effective sustainability transformations. Arctic Indigenous food systems exemplify the interconnectedness of these challenges, as they disrupt both social and ecological aspects of these highly interlinked systems and lead to high rates of food insecurity for the communities that depend on them as a result. While historically, Indigenous knowledge was often marginalized in research, recent transdisciplinary research efforts emphasize equitable knowledge co-creation and the integration of plural knowledge systems to address these complex sustainability issues. Being focused on relationships and interconnectivity in systems, complex systems science aligns closely with Indigenous worldviews and offers valuable tools for navigating transformative change. St. Paul Island is one of the five Pribilof Islands located between the United States of America and Russia and north of the Aleutian Islands in the Bering Sea. The Aleut Community of St. Paul Island depends on a mixed food system that combines traditional subsistence practices and food sharing with the Aleut Community Store and online food orders. The Indigenous community faces several complex sustainability challenges in their food system, leading to high levels of food insecurity for them. The overarching aim of the research presented in this thesis is to leverage a sustainability transformation in the Arctic Indigenous food system on St. Paul Island in Alaska, USA. To reach this aim, this thesis explores transdisciplinary research and complexity science approaches as tools to support transformative change in social-ecological systems.

Cohesion policy is one of the longest-standing features of the European construction; its roots have been traced as far back as the Treaty of Rome. Over time, it has become one of the most politically salient and sizable policies of the European Union, absorbing approximately one-third of the EU budget. Given its principles and “shared management” approach, it mobilizes many different actors at multiple territorial scales, and by promoting “territorial cooperation” it has encouraged public authorities to work together, thus overcoming national borders. Furthermore, cohesion policy is commonly considered the most significant expression of solidarity between member states and the most tangible way in which EU citizens “experience” the European Union. While retaining its overarching mission of supporting lagging regions and encouraging the harmonious development of the Union, cohesion policy has steadily evolved and adapted in response to new internal and external challenges, such as those generated by subsequent rounds of enlargement, globalization, and shifting political preferences regarding what the EU should be about. Just as the policy has evolved over time in terms of its shape and priorities, so have the theoretical understandings of economic development that underpin its logic, the nature of intergovernmental relations, and the geographical and administrative space(s) within which the EU polity operates. For example, whereas overcoming the physical barriers to economic development were the initial targets in the 1960s and 1970s, and redesigning manufacturing clusters were those of the 1980s and 1990s, fostering advanced knowledge and technological progress became the focus of cohesion policy in the new century. At the same time, cohesion policy also inspired or even became a testing ground for new theories, such as multilevel governance, Europeanization, or smart specialization. Given its redistributive nature, debates have proliferated around its impact, added value, and administrative cost, as well as the institutional characteristics that it requires to function. These deliberations have, in turn, informed the policy in its periodic transformations. Political factors have also played a key role in shaping the evolution of the policy. Each reform has been closely linked to the debates on the European budget, where the net positions of member states have tended to dominate the agenda. An outcome of this process has been the progressive alignment with wider strategic goals beyond cohesion and convergence and the strengthening of linkages with the European Semester. However, some argue that policymakers have failed to properly consider the perverse effects of austerity on regional disparities. These unresolved tensions are particularly significant in a context denoted by a rise of populist and nativist movements, increasing social discontent, and strengthening Euroskepticism. As highlighted by research on its communication, cohesion policy may well be the answer for winning back the hearts and minds of European citizens. Whether and how this may be achieved will likely be the focus of research in the years ahead.

SummaryMotivationThe article aims to bring together research on policy coherence for development (PCD) with normative theorizing and normative analysis.PurposeThe article presents a case study of normative coherence for development between the three policy areas of the European Union (EU): development, migration, and foreign policy. It shows that normative analysis can be fruitfully applied to answer the question of how coherently normative arguments are used over time and between different policy areas.Methods and approachThe article offers a comparative study of policy coherence between the three EU policies. Methodologically, it compares the normative logics used in the relevant EU policy documents.FindingsThe study finds that coherence between the three EU policies has increased since the European “migration crisis” in 2015–2016, but not necessarily sustainably: development policy has become an instrument of migration policy, and both are increasingly coherent with foreign and security policies. Along with these policy changes, the normative logics of argumentation for each policy area have become more uniform, both over time and between the policies. Furthermore, the normative principle of PCD has been replaced with a technical understanding of coherence.Policy implicationsThe findings support the hypothesis that for rules‐based (regional) co‐operation, such as the EU, it matters how the policies are argued. As a focal actor on the global development and migration agendas, EU policies have implications far beyond its borders.

PurposeNatural resources in contemporary times are mostly managed by a collaborative governance approach which hinges on complex institutional designs (rules, norms and strategies). Many studies have been designed and carried out to assess collaborative governance, and the various institutional designs underpinning them. The purpose of this paper is to unpack the methodological gaps in natural resource governance research (with emphasis on co-management) and to conceptualise the appropriateness of Transdisciplinary (TD) research approach.Design/methodology/approachThe paper adopts a critical stage review of relevant theoretical and empirical literature on natural resource governance. It discusses the complexities inherent in natural resource governance and juxtaposes these with the inherent weaknesses in methodologies employed by existing studies on the concept. The authors make a case for a TD research methodology that links scientists, practitioners and society in a joint problem design and solution process.FindingsThe authors register a “fuzziness” of the collaborative governance phenomenon but observe a methodological gap in existing studies on the concept. This paper discusses the complexities inherent. The paper describes TD as a “tailor-made approach” to solving complex societal issues and makes a case for its adoption in natural resource governance studies.Research limitations/implicationsThis standalone paper is largely conceptual and not linked to any primary data; this notwithstanding, it synthesizes from both empirical and theoretical literature which would help shape future research endeavours in natural resource governance context.Practical implicationsWith TD study oriented towards an epistemologically flexible approach, perspectives from different social and academic actors are integrated in this expanding field of research to address societal problems.Originality/valueThe paper provides a conceptual framework designating how actors interact in the TD research process as well as a “four-phase” approach in carrying out a TD research.

This study analyses and investigates the impact of crude oil price volatility on unemployment in South Africa. This is done by firstly surveying theoretical and empirical literature on the crude oil price-unemployment relationship before relating it to South Africa. Secondly, crude oil and unemployment trends with their causes are overviewed. The study employs a Johansen co-integration technique based on VAR to model unemployment against crude oil prices, real effective exchange rate, real interest rates and real gross domestic product. Using quarterly data for the period 1990-2010, econometric results show that crude oil prices are positively related to unemployment in the long run while the opposite is true in the short run. Parameter estimates and variables are statistically significant; hence there are also policy recommendations which are related to both empirical and theoretical literature. Lastly, impulse response functions show that unemployment returns to equilibrium in the long run when crude oil price changes whereas real interest rates followed by crude oil prices explain most of unemployment changes than other variables in the long run. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n2p407

While education accountability systems emphasize teacher quality as a prerequisite for student learning, education administrators have struggled to staff low-performing schools with effective teachers. Fueled in part by the federal Teacher Incentive Fund, compensation reforms have gained center stage status among strategies aimed at improving human capital in schools. This article presents findings from a formative evaluation of the initial year of implementation of the Financial Incentive Rewards for Supervisors and Teachers (FIRST) program in the Prince George’s County Public School System. Our review of the relevant theoretical and empirical literature on financial incentive systems in public school systems identified four sets of implementation challenges: securing and maintaining stakeholder support; developing and implementing accurate and credible measures of educator performance; developing the district and site capacity required to implement and sustain the initiative; and aligning the reform with human resource goals, school improvement initiatives, and features of the work environment. Our field research on the formulation, implementation, and initial impact of the FIRST initiative demonstrates that even when an educator incentive initiative reflects “lessons learned” from the empirical and theoretical literature, challenges that undermine the initiative’s potential to realize its major goals persist. We argue that this case extends our understanding of the key challenges identified in the literature and we highlight implications for policy and research.

Conflicts are a ubiquitous part of our life. One of the main reasons behind the initiation and escalation of conflict is the identity, or the sense of self, of the engaged parties. It is hence not surprising that there is a consistent area of academic literature that focuses on identity, conflict, and their interaction. This area models conflicts as contests and focuses on the theoretical, experimental, and empirical literature from economics, political science, and psychology. The theoretical literature investigates the behavioral aspects—such as preference and beliefs—to explain the reasons for and the effects of identity on human behavior. The theoretical literature also analyzes issues such as identity-dependent externality, endogenous choice of joining a group, and so on. The applied literature consists of laboratory and field experiments as well as empirical studies from the field. The experimental studies find that the salience of an identity can increase conflict in a field setting. Laboratory experiments show that whereas real identity indeed increases conflict, a mere classification does not do so. It is also observed that priming a majority–minority identity affects the conflict behavior of the majority, but not of the minority. Further investigations explain these results in terms of parochial altruism. The empirical literature in this area focuses on the various measures of identity, identity distribution, and other economic variables on conflict behavior. Religious polarization can explain conflict behavior better than linguistic differences. Moreover, polarization is a more significant determinants of conflict when the winners of the conflict enjoy a public good reward; but fractionalization is a better determinant when the winners enjoy a private good reward. As a whole, this area of literature is still emerging, and the theoretical literature can be extended to various avenues such as sabotage, affirmative action, intra-group conflict, and endogenous group formation. For empirical and experimental research, exploring new conflict resolution mechanisms, endogeneity between identity and conflict, and evaluating biological mechanisms for identity-related conflict will be of interest.