Government Agenda Research Articles

Emergent regional collaborative governance in rural local food systems development

ABSTRACT This research analyzes the emergent collaborative governance of local food systems (LFS) development in a six-county region of Michigan’s Western Upper Peninsula, a post-industrial mining region with a long history of local food provisioning. We contribute to scholarship on rural food systems by framing LFS development as a social good, benefiting placemaking and long-term economic development. We use a community-based research case study and policy analysis to identify policy-related gaps, including LFS’ low legitimacy, goal divergence among different jurisdictions, and lack of regional leadership. LFS development may present ways for rural communities to foster placemaking and economic development; however, we find that LFS are less visible and not always on the policy agenda of local governments. In this study, collaborations among grassroots actors and organizations outside of local government are leading LFS development. We conclude that collaborative governance may have a better chance to succeed when LFS have a clear public identity and legitimacy as a social good, partners reach goal consensus, and appropriate leaderships are formed.

4.A. Workshop: Lessons from the response to COVID-19 to inform strengthening of Essential Public Health Functions

Abstract Internationally, the COVID-19 pandemic has increased disease burden and mortality, impacted mental health and wellbeing and delayed diagnosis and treatment of non-COVID care. It has been argued that, had sufficient funding of Public Health, including pandemic preparedness, been in place historically, many shortcomings of the pandemic response could have been mitigated. Thus, strengthening Public Health systems is on the agenda of governments internationally. Areas of specific interest are, emergency preparedness, international cooperation and solidarity, promoting vaccination uptake, health equity and community engagement, health literacy and misinformation (particularly online), planning for future workforce requirements and harnessing digitalization in health to address communicable and non-communicable disease threats. The Essential Public Health Functions (EPHFs) provide a comprehensive, cost effective and operational approach to strengthening Public Health and are recognized by the WHO as key to building health system resilience. In a recent report, the WHO has proposed an approach to operationalizing the EPHFs, identifying key enablers that can be applied within specific country contexts. This workshop will describe the national and international research undertaken by the Irish Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) and the WHO at the request of the Department of Health to inform reform of the delivery model of Public Health in Ireland. HIQA and WHO will present the evidence base in terms of the value of EPHFs for health system strengthening, the findings of research to describe changes in Public Health structures and lessons learned in Ireland and across 12 countries during the COVID-19 pandemic, a description of the current state of delivery of the EPHFs within Ireland, and the results of a consultation survey distributed by the Department of Health in Ireland, investigating the experiences of organisations involved in the delivery of Public Health in light of the pandemic. The presenters will allow ample time for audience engagement and discussion with the expert panel to enable shared learning and to discuss the applicability of these findings to the reform and strengthening of the delivery of the EPHFs. The workshop objectives are to: • Describe the current evidence base in terms of the value of EPHFs for health system strengthening and the key enablers to support their application at country level. • Describe the recent changes and lessons learned regarding the delivery of the EPHFs during the COVID-19 pandemic in 12 countries. • Describe the delivery of the EPHFs in the Irish system in light of experience with COVID-19 and with awareness of current and future health system stressors. • Describe Public Health organisations’ experiences of delivering the EPHFs in Ireland in light of the pandemic. • Provide insights into how the delivery of the EPHFs could be reformed and strengthened for the future. Key messages • Lessons from the Public Health response to COVID-19, internationally and in Ireland will be discussed. • The workshop will provide a space to share ideas on reform and strengthening EPHF delivery.

An Examination of the Nigerian Gas Law and Policy: Facilitating Domestic Gas

The Federal Government of Nigeria based on its sizable gas reserves, identified the need for accelerated development of the gas industry as a focal strategy for achieving the national aspiration of aggressive GDP growth. Endowed with energy resources, Nigeria has about 188tcf of proven reserves. Active power plants are mainly gas-fired, but they face feedstock shortages, as a result of a dearth of infrastructure investment. Nigeria’s gas industry is still in its infant stage unlike the UK and US. Oil and gas companies have historically flared natural gas into the environment mainly because it was considered an oil by-product and not an economic product. The development of a domestic market today is the top of the government's agenda. The Federal Government recently approved the Nigerian National Gas Policy 2017. The goal as highlighted in the policy is the commercialization of gas to boost the economy, electricity undoubtedly being central to economic growth. This paper discusses, gas pricing, unbundling and open access and the Domestic Gas Obligation. The purpose of this study is to highlight various areas of improvement and provide an analysis of existing laws and policy. Results suggest that market liberalization and increase in private sector involvement are the two strengths agreed upon. In addition, the participants concur on the importance of increasing share of LNG in the total natural gas supply.

A Research Agenda for Regional and Local Government, Edited by Mark Callanan and John Loughlin

<i>A Research Agenda for Regional and Local Government</i>, Edited by Mark Callanan and John Loughlin

Purpose-Built Parliament Buildings and the Institutionalisation of Parliament in Lesotho and Malawi

AbstractLargely inspired by western donor good governance agenda, the current African parliaments literature has overlooked the significance of new parliament buildings that have been constructed by China and tends to place a premium on appraising the performance of parliaments and parliamentarians in executing their legislative, representation, oversight and constituency support. While understanding how parliaments perform is important and necessary, it does not sufficiently address all the ways in which these parliaments are establishing themselves as sustainable political institutions. By disregarding the new parliament buildings, the literature potentially undermines prospects of a wider understanding of the development of African parliamentary institutions. This article leverages the Chinese government donated parliament buildings in Lesotho and Malawi to make a theoretical and comparative case for the utility of discussing the concept of African legislative institutionalisation through and in juxtaposition to, the parliamentary built environment. I find that although there are stylistic and operational differences, the new parliament buildings in Lesotho and Malawi have provided a bespoke parliamentary built environment, enabled the expansion of a cohort of public officials working on legislative business and facilitated the procedural activities of the institution.

Global Financial Governance and Progressive Feminist Agendas

Feminists and other progressives have long argued that global macroeconomic governance is deeply deficient. The deficiencies have been revealed and amplified by the COVID-19 crisis. The need to radically reconstruct the global economic governance architecture is therefore pressing. Albert Hirschman’s conception of “possibilism” is particularly relevant for navigating these challenges. In the spirit of Hirschmanian possibilism, I make a case for what I refer to as “enabling global financial governance.” I use this term to refer to reforms of global financial governance that could provide a supporting environment for feminist and other progressive plans for sustainability and social justice. I advance the provocative claim that feminists and other social justice advocates should embrace what I term “permissive multilateralisms” rather than “harmonized multilateralism.” I also highlight a number of directions for global financial governance reform that could provide policy space for progressive initiatives, including those advanced by feminists. I offer this paper as a small way of honoring my friend, Eugenia Correa, whose intellectual legacy and commitment to engaged scholarship has influenced me profoundly.

Corporate governance in generating companies of the Russian electric power industry in the context of ESG agenda

To address the issues of investment appeal in the Russian electric power industry, this study analyzes the dynamics of corporate governance, including permanent redistribution of property and compliance with the Russian Corporate Governance Code, in wholesale and territorial-generating companies. The increasing concentration of property in the hands of the state and its implications for investors are also noted. This study reveals the violations of essential principles, and the substantial differences in corporate governance practices, in the best- and worst-performing companies. Additional standards for better corporate governance practices to benefit the investors in the context of the current Environmental, Social, and corporate Governance (ESG) agenda are proposed. This study provides a new insight at the development of corporate governance in Russian power generating companies through property redistribution and compliance with corporate governance principles.

Cultural Diplomacy and Nation Branding in Modern Competitive International Environment

This study has as its main objective to highlight the importance of the existence of a structured cultural policy by modern states and the importance of having a structured policy in order to improve their international image. In recent decades, despite the fact that international relations continue to focus on issues of balancing military and economic power, they have been forced to simultaneously appreciate the importance of cultural and religious factors, which have acquired a transnational dimension that transcends the territorial boundaries of nation-states. Throughout history, culture has been used by organized societies to present themselves, to assert their power, but also to understand others. Culture has always been present on the foreign policy agenda of governments and has been active in defining relations between states since the two World Wars of the 20th century. At the same time, states became intensely concerned with the strategy of managing their national identity and shaping their image. This study attempts to highlight the role of the cultural element in state diplomacy and the role of cultural diplomacy in promoting mutual understanding between nations. Also, the aim of this study is to highlight the efforts of states to reshape their image abroad in order to access development and to have a stable and competitive position in the international environment. In this context, an analysis of the place of culture in the context of state diplomacy and the evolution of cultural diplomacy is presented. What are the specific characteristics of this new diplomatic discipline and what are its objectives? It also presents an analysis of the theory surrounding the formation of the "image of the country" and presents the elements that determine it and are ultimately a necessary condition for stimulating the country's competitiveness at the international level.

Fiscal autonomy of subnational governments and equity in healthcare resource allocation: Evidence from China.

ObjectivesPromoting equity in healthcare resource allocation (EHRA) has become a critical political agenda of governments at all levels since the ambitious Universal Health Coverage was launched in China in 2009, while the role of an important institutional variable—fiscal autonomy of subnational governments—is often overlooked. The present study was designed to determine the effect of FASG on EHRA and its potential mechanism of action and heterogeneity characteristics to provide empirical support for the research field expansion and relative policies making of EHRA.MethodsFrom the start, we utilized the Theil index and the entropy method to calculate the EHRA index of 22 provinces (2011–2020) based on the medical resource data of 287 prefecture-level cities. Furthermore, we used the two-way fixed effects model (FE) to identify and analyze the impact of FASG on EHRA and then used three robustness test strategies and two-stage least squares (2SLS) regression to verify the reliability of the conclusions and deal with potential endogeneity problems, respectively. At last, we extend the baseline regression model and obtain the two-way FE threshold model for conducting heterogeneity analysis, which makes us verify whether the baseline model has nonlinear characteristics.ResultsThe static value and the trend of interannual changes in the EHRA values in different provinces are both very different. The regression results of the two-way FE model show that FASG has a significant positive impact on EHRA, and the corresponding estimated coefficient is – 0.0849 (P < 0.01). Moreover, this promotion effect can be reflected through two channels: enhancing the intensity of government health expenditure (IGHE) and optimizing the allocation of human resources for health (AHRH). At last, under the different economic and demographic constraints, the impact of FASG on EHRA has nonlinear characteristics, i.e., after crossing a specific threshold of per capita DGP (PGDP) and population density (PD), the promotion effect is reduced until it is not statistically significant, while after crossing a particular threshold of dependency ratio (DR), the promotion effect is further strengthened and still statistically significant.ConclusionsFASG plays an essential role in promoting EHRA, which shows that subnational governments need to attach great importance to the construction of fiscal capability in the allocation of health care resources, effectively improve the equity of medical and health fiscal expenditures, and promote the sustainable improvement of the level of EHRA.

Indonesian Government’s Motive and Literary Taste: A Perspective on the Translation Funding Program (TFP)

The translation Funding Program (TFP) was initiated concerning the Indonesian government agenda to be the guest of honor at the Frankfurt Book Fair (FBF) 2015. As a result, it produced many Indonesian-English literary translations, particularly the two from Yogyakarta. By applying the Bourdieusian approach to cultural production, this study is arranged to unravel the government’s motive and literary taste behind the execution of that program, especially through the production of two literary works, “Pilgrimage in the Land of Java” and “Jatisaba.” This study is directed to figure out the importance of Indonesian-English translation for Indonesian literature and the criteria of literary works to be involved in such a government program. Therefore, the government’s motive and literary taste behind the TFP can be elaborated further. There are two primary techniques for the data collection in this research; 1. Digital library research is utilized to access relevant information about TFP, and 2. Interview the writers to get information about their experience participating in TFP. All collected data are synchronized in the analysis to explain the binding knot among the literary translation production, TFP, and FBF. As a result,the study reveals that there were some motives behind the production of literary translation through the TFP. Those motives were also related to the literary taste influenced by international demand.

Governance in the public sector: emphasis on better management, transparency and society participation

The objective of this theoretical article is to present and discuss the evolution of the adoption of the New Public Governance (NPG) agenda, with a view to improving management, transparency, accountability, society participation, integrity and the quality of public services. The theoretical approach is based on administration, institutional and agency theories. Based on the literature and reports, The discussion on the adoption of the new public governance (NGP) agenda proves to be original and relevant for understanding the changes taking place in public administration. The results of the discussions show that the evolution of governance agenda in the public sector has a direct relationship with the pressures and demands of society for improved management, transparency, accountability, greater participation by society, and the quality of public services. It was also evident the need for governments to prioritize in the country's political agenda the adherence of the policy to the governance strategy in the public sector. The findings of the study show that the New Public Governance (NGP) proves to be promising in meeting the demands for public policies and services, in a more democratic and transparent way, at a lower cost. These changes are impacting the functioning of government and public administration, which opens the opportunity for the emergence of new ideas in the field of public administration theories and governance strategy in the public sector.

Políticas educacionales y verticalización de la Educación Profesional y Tecnológica en Brasil (siglos XX y XXI)

Considering that more than a hundred years has passed since the offer to Professional Education and Technology (TVET) on a national level, in Brazil, the article seeks to comprehend the trajectory of the current Federal Network of Professional, Scientific and Technological Education in the 20th and 21st century, with emphasis on the historical contexts that demanded changes in public policies and allowed the verticalization in courses offers on those institutions. It is a bibliographical and documental investigation, since publications in work and education field of research were used, as also a consultation and analysis of the TVET law were made. It was observed that the many changes that happened in the TVET offer in more than a century of existence was bound to the political agenda of the Brazilian government, and the interests of the job market. A verticalization in the Network a century ago used to complete only the primary and basic education and, today, it focuses on the offer of several levels, including stricto sensu postgraduate level. However, the network fights internally and externally for a professional education beyond the capital demands.

Transforming Internal Audit: how to become a Sustainability Business Partner

The Internal Audit (IA) profession has always adapted to the needs of organisations, stakeholders, regulators and wider society. The current environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) agenda provides the need and pivotal moment for IA to adapt, broaden and grow the function, and subsequently support the organisation. The immediate task for IA will be to help organisations and their management live up to their sustainability promise within an overall ESG context, whilst avoiding exaggeration of achievements within their stories told. To ascertain this position as an IA function, investment in knowledge and experience is required, alongside intrinsic motivation of IAs to contribute to a more sustainable organisation and society. To continuously meet the organisation’s future needs, IA should start their sustainability journey by incorporating sustainability in their daily practice. In this article three integrated pillars and practical advice are shared that can help IA functions in fulfilling their sustainability position.

Explaining the Adoption of Care Policies in Costa Rica and Uruguay: A Multiple Streams Approach

AbstractThis article aims to reveal how Costa Rica and Uruguay succeeded in adopting integrated care policies. By adapting the classic “multiple streams approach,” I analyze the processes leading to the adoption of two care policies in Costa Rica and Uruguay. The findings suggest that the key to understanding the adoption of care policies lies within the interplay between agents and contexts in different streams. Problems can be constructed as a top-down process by a women’s agency or as a bottom-up process from a feminist organization. Solutions can be designed in close-knit policy networks of technocrats/bureaucrats or in open policy networks of bureaucrats and civil society organizations. Care policies become prominent items on government agendas in the presence of programmatic political parties and high electoral competition settings that prioritize the issue to attract voters or consolidate support. The alignment of problems, solutions, and politics identify different pathways that lead to the adoption of care policies.

How islamic finance is resilient during the pandemic

During the pandemic, Islamic fnance showed good resilience and contributed to the country’s economy. However, few studies are trying to discover the underlying factors of Indonesia’s Islamic fnance resilience and the appropriate measures to achieve sustainability in Indonesia’s Islamic fnance. Therefore, the purpose is to fnd the underlying factors of Islamic fnance’s resilience in Indonesia during the pandemic and discover what makes Islamic fnance in Indonesia sustainable. After analyzing the data using Straus’ grounded theory coding, the fndings indicate that the flexible structure of Islamic fnance becomes the main factor contributing to the resilience and sustainability of Islamic fnance in Indonesia during the pandemic. Other factors such as a variety of “akad” and government agenda also contribute to its resilience and sustainability during the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, Indonesia’s government and Islamic fnancial institutions must develop quality human capital and adapt to technological changes. Lastly, it is hoped that this study could contribute to the development of Islamic fnance in Indonesia.

Contrasts between Political Appeal and Good Governance Trajectories

This is a longitudinal case study that applies pattern-matching analytical techniques to explain the highly contextualized phenomena of the ‘Velvet Revolution’ and to establish dominant themes and comparative patterns that have influenced the policy and governance agenda of Armenia since May 2018. The research sets out with questions on the message embedded within the ‘Velvet Revolution’ and the extent to which it corresponds to the policy objectives and expressed outcomes that the government aims to accomplish. It then investigates the policy priorities and governance agenda that Pashinyan proposed to achieve during his tenure as prime minister of Armenia, weighed against the message he transmitted as activist, politician and protest leader, and the consequent deportment he assumed in order to build and sustain public appeal and trust. This article presents findings from the analysis of collected data pertaining to the period May 2018 through August 2019.

Policy and media forces that shape the creation of Chinese state-owned enterprise policies

In this exploratory research, we examine the effect of policy and media indicators on the creation of Chinese state-owned enterprise policies. Using a VAR model, we show that Ministry of Finance policy and People’s Daily mention of small enterprises can explain, to some extent, the incidence of state-owned enterprise policies. We verify that non-government forces are less important in determining Chinese SOE policy incidence, as has been suspected by foreign observers, and that policy is indeed made through government agenda setting or consensus building. We also provide evidence to validate the theory of Leutert (2021), that SOE policy occurs in a feedback loop (it is self-reinforcing). These explanations of Chinese policy making can be applied to other government departments to further explain policy incidence.

Executive‐parliamentary relations in Canada: Moving forward from the pandemic

enThis link goes to a English sectionfrThis link goes to a French section

Doing more among institutional boundaries: Platform‐enabled government in China

AbstractThe concept of Government as a Platform (GaaP) has recently encountered setbacks in practice worldwide. While existing literature on inter‐governmental collaboration has emphasized organizational restructuring and data sharing, this study argues that a pragmatic way to improve administrative efficiency in the absence of formal institutional change is to adopt an alternative model to GaaP: platform‐enabled government. Enabled by innovations of the middle‐tier platform, this new model of platform governance integrates the functions of distributed systems of multiple departments into a sequential workflow without the requirement of institutional reform or sharing proprietary data. To demonstrate how this model facilitates information flow across institutional boundaries and improves collaborative governance, we analyze horizontal, vertical, and public‐private collaboration using a diverse case study design. We examine administrative review, law enforcement, and contact tracing during the pandemic in the context of China. Our findings suggest accommodating institutional boundaries is a practical and effective approach to advance the digital government agenda in decentralized contexts.

Opini Warganet mengenai Moderasi Beragama dalam Percakapan Twitter

The purpose of the study was to describe the opinions of influencers in netizen conversations on Twitter regarding religious moderation. The research uses public opinion, agenda setting models, and the spiral of silence to analyze opinions and topics discussed by Mega influencers, Macro influencers, Micro influencers, and Nano influencers. This study uses a qualitative approach with a descriptive content analysis method. Research data obtained using NVivo with the keyword religious moderation. Research results: Most of the public opinion of influencers on twitter are positive. In the account of the nano-influencer, 11 accounts have a negative tone, and 1 account has a neutral tone regarding religious moderation. This study concludes that religious moderation is a government agenda that is socialized through the Ministry of Religion of the Republic of Indonesia and all its staff. The parties who have different opinions, only a small part express their disapproval of the religious moderation program through Twitter.