Address Governance Challenges Research Articles

Political Attention in a Single-Leading-Party State: A Comparative Study of the Policy Agenda in China, 2003–2019

This article explores the political attention of an authoritarian regime from a comparative perspective. Data from daily meetings of the Chinese Communist Party and the State Council from 2003 to 2019 reveal the punctuated characteristics of China’s macropolitical agenda, which is less intensely punctuated than those in democracies. Further, in the absence of party competition and power balance, the authoritarian party uses the “leading group mechanism” to strengthen its leadership’s agenda since this mechanism helps expand the party’s capacity to address governance challenges. Thus, authoritarian resilience must be considered when using political attention theory to analyze China’s agenda-setting pattern.

4 Migration research and analysis: Growth, reach and recent contributions

4 Migration research and analysis: Growth, reach and recent contributions

Republic of Mozambique

Mozambique’s economic situation had been improving until Tropical Cyclone Idai and Kenneth hit the country in March and April, respectively. Economic growth was recovering gradually and becoming broader based, and inflation reached low single digits. Economic activity is expected to decelerate sharply in 2019 due to the supply shock to productive capacity, but it should rebound to pre-cyclone levels by 2020. In April, the IMF Executive Board approved US$118 million in emergency assistance under the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF). The authorities are committed to macroeconomic stability while fostering inclusive growth and addressing governance challenges.

Assessing Forest Governance in the Countries of the Greater Mekong Subregion

The forest landscapes of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) are changing dramatically, with a multitude of impacts from local to global levels. These changes invariably have their foundations in forest governance. The aim of this paper is to assess perceptions of key stakeholders regarding the state of forest governance in the countries of the GMS. The work is based on a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the perceptions of forest governance in the five GMS countries, involving 762 representatives from government, civil society, news media, and rural communities. The work identified many challenges to good forest governance in the countries in the region, as well as noting reasons for optimism. Generally speaking, there was a feeling that the policies, legislation, and institutional frameworks were supportive, but there are numerous challenges in terms of implementation, enforcement, and compliance. The work also presents a program of activities recommended by the research participants to address governance challenges and opportunities in the GMS countries. These include the development of a forest governance monitoring system, and initiatives that support informed decision-making by forest product consumers in the region as well as the implementation of a capacity development program for non-state actors (e.g., civil society, news media) to ensure they are more able to support the diverse, and often demanding, forest governance initiatives.

Unlocking Central America’s mineral potential: Leveraging transparency to address governance challenges

This paper reviews governance challenges and opportunities in six Central American and Caribbean countries (Belize, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama) as they develop new extractive projects. Despite important differences, governments in these countries share the need to improve their capacity to manage and control growing mining operations and potential revenues. In this paper we argue that mineral extraction faces challenges that go beyond traditional prescriptions to strengthen governance, such as environmental impacts and the cost born by local communities in terms of loss of land, water sources and culture; the right to free, informed and fair consultation; and polarization among the different stakeholders. Yet, we claim that transparency offers a starting point for governments to build trust and to demonstrate that they are prepared to address concerns surrounding mining operations, managing potential mineral windfalls and taking into consideration local community interests.

Public Perceptions of the Role of IT in Resolving Governance Challenges in a Transition State: THe Case of Tanzania

AbstractInternational bodies and donors demand that countries demonstrate how they use IT to ensure effective governance. However, measuring the role of IT in governance remains problematic, particularly in transition economies characterised by poor IT capabilities. This paper measured public perceptions of the role of IT in addressing governance challenges in transition Tanzania. The paper identifies (i) usage of IT for governance and democratic purposes, (ii) governance processes and (iii) external pressures as key interplaying factors influencing effective governance. Adopting the Gestalts (configurational) approach, we argue that IT contributes to effective governance when it is coherent with (ii) and (iii). One hundred and sixty six members of the public were surveyed and cluster analysis was used to determine the degree of coherence. None of the three clusters of (i), (ii) and (iii) that emerged revealed a strong coherent relationship, indicating that IT was not playing a major role in addressing governance challenges in transition Tanzania.

The Political Economy of Road Management Reform: Papua New Guinea's National Road Fund

AbstractPapua New Guinea's (PNG's) road system is in a parlous state after decades of neglect. More than half of the roads in the country require urgent rehabilitation. The PNG Government sought from 2003 to address the problem through the establishment of a Road Fund designed to earmark revenue for road management. Development partners supported these efforts, which were similar to reforms implemented in other parts of the world. This article examines the establishment of an independent road fund and road management agency in PNG. It finds that these reforms have not markedly improved road conditions, and that they have been undermined by a lack of support from political leaders and parts of the civil service. The article's conclusion, that the establishment of a road fund is no panacea against political obstacles to road maintenance funding, is relevant to a broader literature concerning the establishment of independent institutions to address governance challenges.

Evaluating Governance Arrangements and Decision Making for Natural Resource Management Planning: An Empirical Application of the Governance Systems Analysis Framework

ABSTRACTGovernance continues to be a challenge in the management and conservation of natural resources. It is difficult to strategically address governance challenges without understanding the dynamics, capacities, and knowledge application of institutions within such governance systems. This article examines the use of Governance Systems Analysis (GSA) to compare, evaluate, and benchmark governance arrangements for regional natural resource management (NRM) planning. It is applied in two Australian regional NRM case studies in Cape York and the Wet Tropics. Our analysis of governance arrangements for NRM planning in the two regions finds that while they are structurally and functionally similar, they have different capacities for decision making about planning. The article concludes with a discussion of the usefulness and implications of using the GSA as an evaluative framework to analyze governance in regional NRM planning systems.

Seeing the forest and the trees: Facilitating participatory network planning in environmental governance

Governance processes to address environmental change involve many different actors from multiple spatial, temporal and socio-political scales, not all of whom are connected by hierarchy and whose actions cannot always be mandated. In the environmental governance literature, Social Network Analysis (SNA) has been found useful in understanding complex governance arrangements. In this paper we present and reflect on our experience with the Net-Map tool for participatory network mapping. The Net-Map tool was applied in three transdisciplinary case studies for three different purposes: (a) to contribute to an improved understanding of biodiversity knowledge flows in Europe, (b) to explore the interplay between actors with influence on water, agriculture, and energy developments at the Blue Nile in Ethiopia, and (c) to understand the challenges facing stakeholders engaged in conservation and economic development in a Southeast Asian mountain range. The case studies explore how network maps can serve as boundary objects to engage stakeholders of diverse points of view and jointly design strategies to address governance challenges. More specifically they show how network maps are used to gain a better understanding of governance situations, to help stakeholders identify strategies for navigation of the complex networks in which they are embedded and to support transdisciplinary research processes. We close with some reflections on the potential and limitations of the Net-Map tool in facilitating multi-stakeholder processes and disentangling complex governance arrangements.

Addressing governance challenges in the provision of animal health services: A review of the literature and empirical application transaction cost theory

Providing adequate animal health services to smallholder farmers in developing countries has remained a challenge, in spite of various reform efforts during the past decades. The focuses of the past reforms were on market failures to decide what the public sector, the private sector, and the “third sector” (the community-based sector) should do with regard to providing animal health services. However, such frameworks have paid limited attention to the governance challenges inherent in the provision of animal health services. This paper presents a framework for analyzing institutional arrangements for providing animal health services that focus not only on market failures, but also on governance challenges, such as elite capture, and absenteeism of staff. As an analytical basis, Williamson’s discriminating alignment hypothesis is applied to assess the cost-effectiveness of different institutional arrangements for animal health services in view of both market failures and governance challenges. This framework is used to generate testable hypotheses on the appropriateness of different institutional arrangements for providing animal health services, depending on context-specific circumstances. Data from Uganda and Kenya on clinical veterinary services is used to provide an empirical test of these hypotheses and to demonstrate application of Williamson's transaction cost theory to veterinary service delivery. The paper concludes that strong public sector involvement, especially in building and strengthening a synergistic relation-based referral arrangement between paraprofessionals and veterinarians is imperative in improving animal health service delivery in developing countries.

Evaluating sustainability transitions pathways: Bridging analytical approaches to address governance challenges

The paper sets out a proposal for bridging and linking three approaches to the analysis of transitions to sustainable and low-carbon societies: quantitative systems modelling; socio-technical transition analysis; and initiative-based learning. We argue that each of these approaches presents a partial and incomplete picture, which has implications for the quality and usefulness of the insights they can deliver for policy and practice. A framework for bridging these different approaches promises to enrich each of the approaches, while providing the basis for a more robust and complete analysis of sustainable transitions pathways that serves better to address questions and dilemmas faced by decision-makers and practitioners. We elaborate five key challenges for the analysis and governance of transitions pathways, and compare the three approaches in relation to each of these. We suggest an integration strategy based on alignment, bridging, and iteration, arguing that a structured dialogue between practitioners of different approaches is needed. In practical terms, such a dialogue would be organised around three areas of joint knowledge production: defining common analytical or governance problems to be tackled through integration; establishing shared concepts (boundary objects); and establishing operational bridging devices (data and metrics, pathways evaluation and their delivery). Such processes could include experts and societal partners. We draw conclusions about future research perspectives and the role of analysis in transitions governance.

Challenges to responsible forest governance in Ghana and its implications for professional education

As forestry transitions from hierarchical steering by governments to more multi-actor forms of governance, it has become necessary to understand key challenges to improve forest governance and its implications for educating forestry professionals. This paper therefore investigates these challenges and explores capabilities forestry professionals require to overcome them. We employed mixed qualitative and quantitative methods. Data were collected through interviews, focus group discussions and a survey with forestry sector stakeholders. Qualitative data were analysed by clustering related issues into dominant themes and quantitative data by using Mann–Whitney U and Wilcoxon signed rank tests. Key challenges identified relate to political culture, particularly the power position of some elites in forest management and a culture of corruption. Non-compliance and poor enforcement of rules were also highlighted. To overcome these challenges, key capabilities forestry professionals require include leadership, authority and autonomy, alongside the capacity to initiate and manage change. We conclude that to improve forest governance in Ghana, beyond having state-of-the-art technical knowledge, professional education should place more emphasis on developing non-technical capabilities. We recommend an integrated approach to professional education that simultaneously develops knowledge, skills, attitudes and mind-sets necessary for producing graduates who can effectively address governance challenges.

New development: Innovative governance—using the citizen scorecard in China

This article presents an innovative approach to addressing governance challenges in public service delivery in China. It builds on a citizen scorecard survey covering 5,000 households in five cities: Chengdu, Dalian, Shanghai-Pudong, Shenzhen and Xi’an. The survey helped policy-makers reveal weaknesses and enhance policy implementation and public service delivery.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Societal Governance: Lessons from Transparency in the Oil and Gas Sector

This article evaluates the potential of the current Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) agenda for addressing issues related to societal governance. The investigation focuses on the experience of the oil and gas sector, which has been among the leading industry sectors in championing CSR. In particular, the article analyses the issue of revenue transparency, which has been the principal governance challenge addressed by multinational oil and gas companies. The article suggests that (1) tackling governance challenges is crucial to addressing the impact of corporate activities; (2) current CSR and policy initiatives are entirely insufficient in addressing governance challenges and (3) corporate activities may be contributing to governance failures.

Participatory democracy: drawing on C. West Churchman's thinking when making public policy

AbstractThe purpose of the paper is to not to restate or comment on the work of C. West Churchman, but to celebrate his contribution by means of an example of the practical, praxis potential of his work. The celebration is of an ongoing ‘work in progress’ project to address governance challenges by means of applying theory to practice and ‘learning by doing’. Churchman believed in the need for open systems and multiple viewpoints, in order to achieve better social inquiry outcomes. Participatory democracy is based on active, creative participation in policy making, not merely on voting.This case study discusses being a ‘facilitator of facilitators’ who together are in the process of developing an integrated model for governance that is defined and owned by an Indigenous public housing association comprising groups of extended families (on 18 town camps) in Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia.The paper applies Churchman's thinking to participatory approaches to designing creative, systemic public policy. Flinders University and the Indigenous local‐level governance organization (a housing association) in Alice Springs are involved in addressing complex development challenges by working together in a community of practice that has been funded in part by a faculty grant and in part by the Centre of Remote Health, based at Flinders University and Northern Territory University. This systemic approach is based on iterative learning across disciplinary, cultural and organizational boundaries to strive for ‘good’ development and management outcomes. Dialectical thinking techniques are applied by members of a staff action group, called the TUT group, meaning both ‘a tutorial group’ in English and ‘working together’ in Arrernte. The praxis techniques applied include: ‘sweeping in’, ‘unfolding’, being mindful of values (‘religious, aesthetic, moral and political’, the so‐called ‘enemies within’) and their implications for the way we define and address problems. This group forms the community of practice. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.