Going Local: The Value of Research on Local Government Policies and Programs

BackgroundWith their close connection to community and increasing preventive health remit, local governments are well positioned to implement policies and programs to address health inequities. Nevertheless, there is a lack of evidence of equity-focused policy action in this sector. We aimed to understand how local government representatives approach equity in the development and implementation of health and wellbeing policies and programs, and to identify potential enablers for strengthening an equity focus.MethodsWe conducted semi-structured interviews (June 2022-January 2023) with 29 health directorate representatives from 21 local governments in Victoria, Australia. Representatives were recruited from urban, regional and rural local government areas, with varying levels of socioeconomic position. Data was analysed inductively using Braun and Clarke’s reflexive thematic analysis, informed by social determinants of health theory and a public policy decision making framework.ResultsLocal governments approach health equity in different ways including focusing on priority populations, disadvantaged geographic areas, or by targeting the upstream determinants of health, such as housing and employment. Enabling factors for more equity-oriented local government policy action included those internal to local governments: (i) having a clear conceptualisation of equity, (ii) fostering a strong equity-centric culture, and (iii) developing organisational-wide competency in health equity. External factors related to key stakeholder groups that support and/or influence local governments included: (iv) strong support from community, (v) state government leadership and legislation, and (vi) supportive local partners, networks and NGO’s.ConclusionsLocal governments have a responsibility to implement policies and programs that improve health and reduce health inequities. Local government’s capacity to leverage resources, structures, processes and relationships, internally and across sectors and community, will be key to strengthening equity-oriented local government health policies and programs.

This study examines the implementation of administrative law in local government policy through an empirical qualitative approach assisted by NVivo software. Administrative law serves as a fundamental framework for guiding public administration, ensuring accountability, transparency, and legal certainty, particularly in decentralized governance contexts. Despite comprehensive regulatory arrangements, local governments often face challenges in translating administrative law principles into effective policy implementation. This research aims to explore how administrative law is interpreted and applied by public officials in real policy settings. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews, field observations, and document analysis involving local government officials, legal officers, policy implementers, and community representatives. The qualitative data were analyzed using NVivo through open, axial, and selective coding processes to identify recurring patterns and key themes. The findings reveal that while administrative law principles are formally acknowledged, their implementation is frequently hindered by institutional limitations, discretionary practices, and weak oversight mechanisms. The study provides empirical insights into administrative law practices and offers policy-relevant recommendations for strengthening governance and administrative accountability at the local government level.

Changing food systems is one of the most promising and impactful ways to address nutrition and health, climate change and environmental degradation. The International Network for Food and Obesity/NCDs Research Monitoring and Action Support (INFORMAS) developed the Healthy Food Environment Policy Index (Food-EPI) to measure the extent of implementation of healthy food environment policies by governments compared to international best practice. The Food-EPI provides a mechanism to assess government policies and infrastructure support to create healthy food environments. The Food-EPI tool covers seven food policy areas, including composition, labelling, promotion, prices, provision, retail and trade, and six measures of infrastructure, including leadership, governance, funding, monitoring, platforms and health-in-all-policies. The Food-EPI process includes the drafting of a comprehensive evidence document on the implementation of policies, verified by government stakeholders and the assessment of those policies, as well as identification of priority policy actions by an expert panel at the national level. The tool and process were pilot tested and implemented in New Zealand in 2014 and then again in 2017 and 2020. Since 2014, about 50 countries have implemented Food-EPI at the national level, including more than 10 European countries. There is increasing demand for a similar monitoring tool and process which can be used at the municipal/city government level to assess government actions addressing food systems for both public and planetary health. Local governments can often make more rapid progress than national governments, but on the other hand may not have jurisdiction in all critical policy areas. INFORMAS recently developed a new Food Systems Policy Index, based on a compilation of international recommendations for good practice government policies to address food systems and a scoping review on the potential effectiveness of the recommended good practice policies and interventions to improve nutrition and environmental sustainability outcomes. The new index covers policies addressing food supply chains and food environments, and is being implemented in a range of West and East African and European countries and cities. The purpose of the workshop is to discuss the role and potential of local level government (cities and municipalities) policies in addressing food systems to improve both public and planetary. The workshop will have several key presentations, some with a more global perspective and some with a very practical local perspective. Together with the panelists and the audience, the key opportunities and challenges will be discussed for European cities and municipalities to address food systems, as well as the role of monitoring and benchmarking policy implementation to increase local actions on food systems. Key messages • Monitoring and benchmarking the policy implementation to address food systems to improve public and planetary health by governments is key to increase accountability for action. • A better understanding on the role and potential of local government policies in addressing food systems can be beneficial to accelerate and innovate policy implementation.

Environmental issues are interesting subjects that are related to the earth’s sustainability. While Garbage is basically an obstacle, it also has the potential to prevent environmental damage and increase the community's economy if it is well managed. This research aims to analyze local government policies in waste management based on the value of ecological justice to achieve natural preservation. The research method used is qualitative with primary data from interviews and observations supported by laws and regulations related to waste management. The research was conducted in Kuningan Regency and Ciamis Regency. The results showed that the Ciamis local government policy in waste management was equipped with local regulations, government officials, infrastructure, community participation, and program innovation, namely waste sorting, waste bank, maggot, and garbage alms. The conclusion is that local government policies, especially in Kuningan, still need improvement related to optimizing the role of the local government in institutional and funding of waste management and increasing public education regarding waste management. Good waste management can create environmental sustainability and community welfare.

This study evaluates the importance and impacts of renewable energy sources in local government policies. The risk of depletion of fossil fuels, climate change and the need for environmental sustainability have accelerated the orientation of local governments towards renewable energy in the world. Local governments have various responsibilities such as increasing energy efficiency, reducing carbon footprint and raising public awareness on green and renewable energy sources by taking a leading role in energy transformation processes. In this article, local policies for renewable energy are analysed in terms of various legal regulations, financial incentives, community participation and technological developments. In addition, the integration of renewable energy at the local level is discussed with different examples from around the world and the contributions of these policies on sustainable development are discussed. The purpose of this study, explores the critical role that local governments play in promoting and implementing renewable energy initiatives. It highlights how local policies can significantly influence the adoption of renewable energy technologies, improve energy efficiency and contribute to sustainable development goals. The paper discusses various strategies used by local governments, such as incentives for renewable energy projects, zoning regulations that favour clean energy infrastructure, and community engagement efforts to raise awareness about the benefits of renewable energy. In addition, it addresses the challenges faced by local governments, including funding limitations, regulatory barriers, and the need for intergovernmental co-operation. In the study, qualitative method was used, document analysis and literature review were conducted. Overall, the paper emphasises that effective local government policies are necessary to promote the transition to renewable energy sources and achieve long-term environmental and economic benefits for communities. Furthermore, this study reveals that local governments have a strategic position in the energy transition.

Despite considerable research and discussion regarding children and young people’s rights and citizenship, the participation of young children in community decision-making is still limited. In this exploratory research, a case study is reported on how ideas about young children as active citizens are interpreted within one local government context. Data were collected and analysed from nine local government staff who completed an online survey. The survey focused on issues with respect to: services and programmes for young children; inclusion of young children in local government policies and plans; how local government defines active citizenship; how children could participate as active citizens; and an open-ended question regarding the avenues and possibilities for young children to express their opinions and be involved in local government decision-making. The findings suggested that while older children and adolescents may be involved in consultation processes, this local government did not have effective mechanisms for enabling young children to readily participate in their communities as active citizens. The conclusions offer some ideas about the possibilities for change. In particular, greater collaboration between local government and early childhood education programmes is important if young children are to be equipped and involved in the local government decisions affecting them.

General Background: Early marriage remains a persistent social problem in Indonesia, contributing to educational discontinuity, psychological vulnerability, health risks, and weakened family resilience. Specific Background: In Situbondo Regency, despite stricter legal frameworks and the implementation of multiple preventive programs by the local government, marriage dispensation cases remain relatively high, indicating implementation challenges. Knowledge Gap: Previous studies have largely focused on the causes and impacts of early marriage, while limited attention has been given to in-depth analysis of how local government policies and programs are implemented and what factors shape their effectiveness. Aims: This study aims to analyze the implementation of early marriage prevention policies and programs by the Situbondo Regency Government and to identify supporting and inhibiting factors influencing their outcomes. Results: Using a qualitative empirical approach, the findings show that programs such as PERAK CINTA, BRUS, BINWIN, premarital health checks, psychological counseling, and cross-sector coordination have been implemented with clear objectives and structured mechanisms, yet their effectiveness is constrained by limited resources, uneven communication, strong cultural norms favoring early and unregistered marriages, and low community awareness. Novelty: This study integrates policy implementation analysis with local socio-cultural dynamics using the Van Meter and Van Horn framework in the context of early marriage prevention. Implications: Strengthening budget allocation, community education, and cross-sector synergy is essential to enhance the effectiveness and sustainability of early marriage prevention policies at the local level. Highlights: Policy Execution: Early marriage prevention policies are implemented through structured, cross-sector programs with clear operational mechanisms. Implementation Barriers: Cultural norms, limited resources, and low community awareness significantly constrain policy effectiveness. Strategic Implication: Strengthening community engagement and inter-agency coordination is crucial for sustainable prevention outcomes. Keywords: Early Marriage, Policy Implementation, Local Government, Prevention Programs

BackgroundLocal governments have a critical role to play in addressing health inequities. Health equity impact assessments are recommended to help governments apply an equity lens to the development and implementation of policies and programs. Despite evidence of equity-positive benefits of such tools, adoption remains limited, prompting calls for evaluations to assess their impact and identify factors that will promote uptake across various contexts.MethodsWe conducted a mixed method study to evaluate the impact of an equity impact assessment (EIA) tool and process on policies and organisational capacity in a local government in Victoria, Australia, and identify factors that influenced this impact. We analysed 33 documents related to 18 EIAs, and conducted surveys (n = 40) and in-depth interviews (n = 17) with staff involved in EIAs.ResultsAlmost all (17 of 18) EIAs resulted in equity-positive changes to policies and programs, most frequently addressing individual-level factors, such as making community communications and consultations more accessible to under-represented or under-served groups. Structural-level recommendations from one EIA, such as increasing diversity in decision-making panels, were found to impact both the current policy and a broad range of future, related projects and services. Improvements in equity-centric organisational culture and capacity (including staff awareness, skills and confidence) and increased engagement with under-represented communities were also reported. Factors perceived to influence the impact of EIA’s related to organisational commitment and capacity to prioritise equity, process-level factors related to the type and timing of EIAs, and extent of implementation support.ConclusionOur study supports wider uptake of health equity impact assessments in local government policies and programs. Legislation, leadership and resources from upper-tiers of government can help increase the adoption of equity tools to reduce disparities in population health.

The centralised policy of Indonesian local government governance in waste management by applying strict laws and regulations has led to failure. This is evidenced by the increasing trend in landfill waste from year to year. There is a need for improvements and changes to local government policies in governance through the involvement of the private sector and the community. The purpose of this study is to explore the changes in the early stages of two collaboration initiatives: one relying on the traditional collaboration model centred on local government, and the other using a collaboration model involving both the private sector and the community in the city of Pekanbaru. A case study approach employing qualitative methods is used to elucidate changes in local government governance policies in sustainable waste management. Data were collected through interviews, document reviews, and websites content analysis. Data analysis was conducted to examine the roles of the local government, private sector, and community as well as content analysis to establish connections between forms of collaborative governance. The findings propose a conceptual model and suggest a novel role for local governments as facilitators of alliances and coordinators of cooperation. platforms.

The lack of public attention to community food systems is nowhere more apparent than in local and regional government policy and planning in the United States. More than 30,000 local governments in the United States are charged with ensuring provision of infrastructure and services to make communities livable. Yet given the neoliberal context within the United States, food has largely been absent from local government planning and policy agenda. Fortunately, public efforts to plan for stronger food systems —or food systems planning or community and regional food systems planning—are emerging. Drawing on experiences of local and regional governments in the United States, the chapter describes the extent to which local, regional, and metropolitan (LRM) governments are planning for stronger community food systems . Although a growing number of LRM are engaged in planning for community food systems , the engagement remains limited. Against a bleak national landscape, the chapter traces the trajectory of a planning process in the Buffalo Niagara metropolitan region that is beginning to address food systems through local government planning and policy. The chapter concludes with cautionary notes about the use of local and regional government planning in strengthening communities’ food systems .

In order to improve the effectiveness of English acquisition, it is necessary to discuss it in conjunction with local governance policies. Local governments should conduct an analysis of English acquisition from the aspects of policies, systems, and social participation. This paper puts forward three hypotheses: local policies and systems can improve the effectiveness of English learning, which are related. Public attention can promote the improvement of English acquisition effect and play a supervisory role; Laws and regulations can ensure the foundation of basic conditions for English acquisition and promote the improvement of school infrastructure. The results show that local policies and institutions are the conditions for improving English acquisition methods, social attention is the condition for verification, and school infrastructure is the key condition. Social issues, local policies and institutions all play an indirect role in promoting English language acquisition, while infrastructure plays a direct role. Therefore, local governments should improve English acquisition policies and systems, promote the introduction of English acquisition laws and regulations, and guide the public to supervise.

The policies formulated and promulgated by the state provide institutional guarantee for the development of national fitness in China. After the policy is promulgated, it needs to go through complex stages of evaluation and feedback in order to achieve the goal of the policy. In these stages, the policy stage is the key to the transformation of the national fitness policy from the text to practice. However, for a long time, the local government of our country once focused on the policy-making and ignored the policy which also led to the of the national fitness policy in some places is not optimistic, choose to implement, flexible implementation, resist the implementation and so on, which eventually made it difficult to realize the public sports interests carried by the national fitness. In fact, the phenomenon of the national fitness policy block also reflects that the local government's policy still needs to be improved. Executive power, as the vitality of government administration, is the main responsibility of local government. Its strength reflects the effect of government serving local people, affects the overall situation of local economic, social and cultural development, and the practical interests of local people. Therefore, a detailed and comprehensive analysis of the of the local government's national fitness policy and the construction of the corresponding evaluation system of the of the national fitness policy are of great significance to effectively supervise the of the national fitness policy, improve the efficiency and effect of the national fitness policy, and realize the construction of a healthy city, It will be of great practical significance to realize the healthy development goal of national fitness.

The policies formulated and promulgated by the state provide institutional guarantee for the development of national fitness in China. After the policy is promulgated, it needs to go through complex stages of implementation, evaluation and feedback in order to achieve the goal of the policy. In these stages, the policy implementation stage is the key to the transformation of the national fitness policy from the text to practice. However, for a long time, the local government of our country once focused on the policy-making and ignored the policy implementation, which also led to the implementation of the national fitness policy in some places is not optimistic, "choose to implement", "flexible implementation", "resist the implementation" and so on, which eventually made it difficult to realize the public sports interests carried by the national fitness. In fact, the phenomenon of the national fitness policy implementation block also reflects that the local government's policy implementation still needs to be improved. Executive power, as the vitality of government administration, is the main responsibility of local government. Its strength reflects the effect of government serving local people, affects the overall situation of local economic, social and cultural development, and the practical interests of local people. Therefore, a detailed and comprehensive analysis of the implementation of the local government's national fitness policy and the construction of the corresponding evaluation system of the implementation of the national fitness policy are of great significance to effectively supervise the implementation of the national fitness policy, improve the efficiency and effect of the national fitness policy, and realize the construction of a healthy city, It will be of great practical significance to realize the healthy development goal of national fitness.

In the current polarized political climate, citizens frequently face conflicting directives from their local and federal government officials. For instance, on April 16th, 2020, The White House launched the "Opening up America Again" (OuAA) campaign while many U.S. counties had stay-at-home orders. We created a panel data set of U.S. counties to study the impact of U.S. counties' stay-at-home orders on community mobility before and after The White House's campaign to reopen the country. Our results suggest that before the OuAA campaign, stay-at-home orders substantially decreased the time spent in retail and recreation businesses. However, after the launch of the OuAA campaign, the time spent at retail and recreational businesses in a typical conservative county increased significantly more than in liberal counties (23% increase in a typical conservative county vs. 9% increase in a typical liberal county). We also found that in conservative counties with stay-at-home orders, time spent at retail and recreational businesses increased less than in those without stay-at-home orders. These findings illuminate that when federal and local government policies are at odds, residents decide which policies to adhere to based on the alignment between their political ideology and the government body. Our findings highlight the substantial importance of each government body in forming citizens' behaviors, offering practical implications for policy makers during natural disasters.

Local Governments all over the world are not only political entities of governance but regarded as decentralized institutions with well-defined areas of powers and fiscal responsibilities to be performed. In Nigeria since 1976 Reform, Local Governments have well defined areas of constitutional powers and fiscal responsibilities. The major challenge faced by the Local Governments in Nigeria was the gap between the concept of Local Government as envisaged in the Nigerian Constitution and the practice of government at the grassroots. The paper therefore, seeks to examine the role and involvement of local government in the local economic development planning and sustainable rural economic development. The methodology employed was the use of desktop analysis for the four major dimensions of local government strategic planning. These dimension assessed are: The state support for local government planning; the level strategic planning been carried out by local governments; Annual and project plans for local government projects and programs; and service planning implementation of the local government. Our analyses have shown that most of the measurement indicators for local government strategic planning have scored low in all the dimensions. It was recommended that long/short term strategic planning is a fundamental tool for giving local Governments and communities a sense of control over their own development. Local economic development planning should be carefully thought by the state during the Local Government policy making process and determine the level of planning it expects from local government.