Syphilis in pregnancy and congenital syphilis (CS) remain major public health challenges in Latin America despite long-standing elimination initiatives. CS incidence continues to rise, although diagnosis and treatment are available, reflecting persistent programmatic gaps. A systematic assessment of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) can help refine strategies and accelerate progress toward the elimination of mother-to-child transmission (EMTCT) of syphilis. We performed a qualitative SWOT analysis of public health policies addressing syphilis in pregnancy and CS in Latin American countries. Data sources included Pan-American Health Organization databases, global monitoring databases, national data, peer-reviewed literature, and programmatic reports. Evidence was synthesized using a standardized matrix to classify internal and external factors affecting syphilis control. Regional strengths include political commitment, national guidelines aligned with Pan-American Health Organization/World Health Organization recommendations, high antenatal care coverage, use of rapid and HIV/syphilis tests, and established surveillance systems. Key weaknesses include late antenatal care initiation, gaps in timely testing and treatment, regulatory barriers to point-of-care testing and penicillin administration, benzathine penicillin shortages, data quality limitations, fragmented governance and care, and weak partner management. Opportunities include strengthening the EMTCT agenda via program integration, digital health expansion, regional collaboration, and innovative diagnostic strategies. Threats include rising syphilis incidence, competing public health emergencies, political and economic instability, poverty, exclusion and stigma, and loss-to-follow-up during and after pregnancy due to population mobility. Despite political commitment, Latin America remains far from achieving EMTCT of syphilis. Strengthening integrated services, supply chains, data systems, and partner management is needed to improve outcomes.

Child survival is a critical indicator for a nation's health and its progress is important in attaining the Sustainable Development Goals. Understanding the regional and country-specific dynamic and interplay of various determinants of under-five child mortality is vital for the African continent, which remains one of the most vulnerable regions for child mortality globally. This study investigates the association of economic, health-related, social and demographic, environmental, and infrastructure-related factors with under-five child mortality. It integrates generalisable regional associations using a standard fixed-effects panel model and examines illustrative country-specific associations of the selected determinants through multiple linear regression, based on a balanced panel dataset of 45 countries over a 22-year period. Fixed-effect analysis reveals that the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) immunisation and total fertility rate (TFR) are robust regional determinants of under-five mortality across specifications. While health expenditure, sanitation services, and malaria incidence show significant associations in the baseline model, these findings are sensitive to the inclusion of year fixed effects, suggesting they are influenced by broader temporal trends or common regional shocks rather than serving as stable independent factors within the study period. Regional analysis, which controls for unobserved country-specific heterogeneity over an extended period and is complemented by country-specific analysis, facilitates the formulation of policy implications at both national and international levels. Recommended policy measures include increasing immunisation coverage, implementing malaria control programmes, strengthening community health infrastructure, enhancing girls' education, promoting widespread access to modern family planning, and improving sanitation services. These strategies are expected to contribute to the progress toward Sustainable Development Goal 3.2 in the African region.

Institutional infrastructure for social innovation: The case of Mexico

Artificial intelligence in critical synthesis of public health responses to violence: A novel application to UK violence prevention policy.

Social inequality is one of the main challenges in development in Indonesia, reflected not only in differences in income levels but also in unequal access to economic resources, education, health, and opportunities for social mobility. In an effort to address this problem, the government has developed various social protection policies, one of which is through social assistance programs aimed at supporting poor and vulnerable groups. This study aims to analyze the effectiveness of social assistance policies in reducing social inequality in Indonesia from a public policy analysis perspective. This study uses a qualitative approach with a library research method sourced from academic books, scientific journal articles, government policy reports, and various official documents relevant to social assistance policies in Indonesia. Data analysis techniques are carried out descriptively and analytically by examining the relationship between policy design, program implementation, and their impact on reducing social inequality. The results show that social assistance policies have an important contribution in strengthening the economic resilience of the poor, maintaining minimum household consumption levels, and increasing access to basic needs. However, the effectiveness of these policies is still influenced by various factors, such as the accuracy of beneficiary targeting, institutional capacity in program implementation, the quality of governance, and the integration of policies with community economic empowerment programs. Therefore, strengthening socioeconomic data systems, improving institutional coordination, utilizing information technology, and implementing evidence-based policy approaches are crucial steps to increase the effectiveness of social assistance policies as instruments for reducing social inequality in Indonesia.

Women empowerment became a fresh debatable subject once again in the context of recent attempts to pass the women reservation bill in the Lok Sabha in India in April 2026. Empowering women through education is crucial for inclusive and sustainable development, especially in relation to Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG-5), which centers on gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. This research examines the latest government initiatives in India aimed at improving women's empowerment, particularly in educational achievement. Using a descriptive-analytical research approach, this study relies on secondary data from sources such as UDISE+, government reports, and international datasets. The analysis employs a capability-based framework to evaluate how policy measures convert into real educational opportunities and results for women. The findings show that while India has made significant progress in increasing girls' access to education, as evidenced by high enrollment at the primary and elementary levels, serious challenges persist regarding retention, progression to secondary education, and completion rates. Structural barriers, including socio-cultural attitudes, financial difficulties, digital divides, and institutional gaps, continue to hinder the effective translation of educational access into true empowerment. The research also highlights regional disparities and intersectional inequalities that intensify these challenges. The paper concludes that achieving SDG-5 in India requires a shift from policies focused merely on access to strategies that boost capabilities, prioritising retention, digital inclusion, and socio-cultural change. It recommends introducing targeted, context-sensitive policies and improving monitoring systems to ensure that educational progress leads to lasting empowerment. Women's Educational Empowerment, Sustainable Development Goal 5, Gender Inequality in Education, Public Policy Analysis.

This article aims to analyze the evolution of public policies for basic and secondary education in Colombia (2007–2023) and their effects on local governance, social cohesion, and the indicators of coverage, retention, dropout, and graduation. A qualitative methodology is applied through documentary analysis of official sources, development plans, public policies, and academic literature. The study examines decentralization dynamics, territorial management of educational services, and the impact of policies on key education system indicators. The findings show improvements in coverage and retention in certain regions, but also persistent inequalities linked to municipal certification levels, urban–rural segmentation, and lack of coordination between government levels. Gaps in the implementation of retention policies, weak monitoring tools, and institutional fragmentation are identified. The discussion leads to reform proposals, including early warning systems, unified data platforms, performance- and equity-based funding models, and intersectoral territorial governance strategies. The article concludes that achieving equitable and quality education requires normative reform, the strengthening of local social capital, and sustained, results-oriented investment.

Climate change is one of the greatest socio-environmental challenges of the 21st century, with significant impacts on ecological, economic and social systems. In this context, education has established itself as a fundamental tool to promote cultural, social and political changes oriented towards sustainability. This article analyzes the role of education as an instrument of transformation in the face of climate change in Mexico, considering its evolution from the international arena to its implementation in the national education system. The research was developed with a qualitative methodology based on documentary analysis, bibliographic review and analysis of public policies related to environmental education and education for sustainable development. International instruments such as the 2030 Agenda, the Paris Agreement and UNESCO recommendations were examined, as well as national regulatory frameworks such as the General Law on Climate Change and the General Law on Education. The results show that Mexico has made progress in incorporating climate education into its institutional and curricular framework; however, challenges remain related to the effective mainstreaming of environmental education, teacher training, and social participation. The results were compared with previous research findings, highlighting the need to strengthen interdisciplinary and community-based approaches to climate education. Finally, it is concluded that education is a strategic instrument to build an informed, resilient climate citizenship committed to adaptation and mitigation to climate change, being essential to strengthen educational policies, scientific research and social participation to face the country's environmental challenges.

ABSTRACT This study applies text mining to South Korean news data to identify weak signals related to elderly drivers and analyze their policy implications. A total of 2264 news articles published between January 2024 and March 2025 were collected, and keyword-based weak signals were identified. Word network analysis interpreted relationships between weak signals and co-occurring terms. The results revealed five signal categories—acceleration/brake/activation, free, black box, sidewalk, and system—corresponding to driving errors, incentive-based policies, accident documentation, pedestrian safety, and administrative structures. The findings highlight the need for technical measures to prevent pedal misapplication, mobility-related support for those ceasing to drive, recording devices for accident analysis, protection infrastructure against sidewalk intrusion, and conditional licensing and integrated management systems for elderly drivers. Recognizing elderly driver-related accidents as a structural risk, this study provides insights for traffic safety and criminal justice policy using a weak signal detection approach grounded in public discourse.

Private wealth, as well as its distribution and intergenerational transmission have become much-debated issues. However, existing evidence remains fragmented, context-dependent, and sometimes contested. This data descriptor introduces the Graduate Center (GC) Wealth Project data warehouse, a collection of databases covering multiple countries and time periods, designed to address these challenges. The data warehouse consolidates most existing evidence on private wealth and undertakes a significant data harmonization effort. We supplement each data point with extensive metadata on methodology. The data warehouse features an extensive collection of information on the household wealth levels and balance sheets, along with distributional statistics from a wide range of sources. Moreover, it draws together data on wealth transfer tax revenues, and tax features such as rates, exemption thresholds, and tax schedules. The broad range of data sources in the warehouse allows users to assess the degree of heterogeneity of estimates, and how methodological choices affect measurement outcomes. The new data series and policy indicators also allow extending quantitative analysis of wealth and public policy.

The expiration of the phased implementation of mandatory halal certification on 17 October 2024 marked a transition from a facilitative to an enforcement-oriented policy phase, creating significant implementation pressures for local governments and micro and small enterprises facing legal, market, and administrative risks. While previous studies have examined halal certification from normative legal and governance perspectives, limited research integrates empirical public policy analysis with a maqasid al-syarī’ah framework to evaluate local government interventions during this post-transition period. Using a qualitative policy analysis approach, this study identifies six local intervention strategies: structured multi-stakeholder coordination; optimization of the self-declare assistance scheme; targeted digital literacy and social media outreach; affirmative programs for remote villages; development of a regional Halal Hub ecosystem; and preventive regulatory socialization for the 2026 mandatory phase. Empirically, 4,053 halal certificates were issued by January 2026, 3,933 through the self-declare scheme, with over 90% of assisted MSMEs completing registration on time. These results indicate that proactive facilitation and adaptive local governance significantly reduced non-compliance risks during the transition. From a maqasid al-syarī’ah perspective, the interventions operationalize multidimensional protection: religion (hifz al-dīn), life (hifz al-nafs), wealth (hifz al-māl), intellect (hifz al-’aql), and lineage (hifz al-nasl). Conceptually, this study proposes a maqasid-based evaluation model linking Islamic normative principles with measurable governance indicators. Theoretically and practically, it positions maqasid as an applied analytical framework and provides evidence-based guidance for adaptive and sustainability-oriented halal governance.

This editorial introduces Volume 2, Issue 1 of the International Journal of Health & Business Analytics and situates the issue within a broader scholarly conversation on resilience, systems thinking, and evidence-based adaptation in health and allied sectors. The articles in this issue span laboratory diagnostics, infectious disease surveillance, microbial contamination, parasitology, health workforce well-being, community-based primary healthcare, digital health acceptability, medical education, licensure outcomes, universal health coverage, labor productivity, child mortality, tuberculosis, and the economic effects of geopolitical instability on health-related equities. Taken together, these contributions demonstrate that contemporary health research cannot be confined to clinical or biomedical inquiry alone. Health outcomes are increasingly shaped by institutional capacity, analytics, technological readiness, public trust, workforce conditions, environmental pressures, and macroeconomic disturbances. This issue therefore advances a view of health and business analytics as an integrated intellectual space in which laboratory evidence, epidemiologic trends, organizational realities, and economic signals must be interpreted together. The editorial argues that the issue’s central contribution lies in showing how resilience is built not only through treatment and prevention, but also through diagnostics, community systems, workforce sustainability, educational adaptation, and strategic analytic thinking. The issue affirms the journal’s interdisciplinary identity and underscores the value of crossing traditional boundaries between public health, laboratory science, management, education, and policy analysis.

Social contact data underpin research across public health, social and behavioral sciences, and network analysis, as interpersonal interactions shape population dynamics and societal outcomes. In South Korea, previous social contact surveys have been limited by small samples and restricted accessibility, often necessitating reliance on synthetic data from international studies. To address this gap, we conducted a large-scale national contact survey during winter 2023-24. A total of 2,415 individuals were recruited across age groups and regions, resulting in a final sample of 1,987 participants. The survey captured daily close contact behaviors during weekdays, weekends, school vacations, and holidays, along with demographic and contextual details. This study emphasizes transparency by documenting the entire process-from survey design to rigorous data cleaning and validation. The dataset provides comprehensive evidence on post-pandemic contact patterns in South Korea and supports applications in infectious disease modeling, public health policy analysis, and social network research. By sharing the methodology and dataset, we aim to establish a reproducible framework for future social contact surveys in South Korea and beyond.

In Burkina Faso, access to healthcare has long been a challenge, particularly for the mostvulnerable populations. Since 2008, the country has taken significant steps by launching theUniversal Health Insurance Scheme (RAMU), an initiative aimed at expanding healthcoverage. This article explores the factors that led to the emergence of this program. Drawingon public policy analysis tools and a field survey, this study was based on interviewsconducted with key stakeholders from public administration, civil society, and partnerinstitutions who were directly involved in the process. Primary data were supplemented withsecondary data from documentary analysis. The results indicated that the universal healthinsurance scheme emerged from a widely shared observation : the need to better protectpopulations against health risks within the context of social inequality and economic insecurity. This program also reflects Burkina's commitment to the global movementtoward universal health coverage and strengthening of social protection systems.

The expansion of digital technologies has reshaped the exercise of fundamental rights, prompting growing scholarly and regulatory attention to the notion of digital human rights. As digital platforms increasingly structure communication, access to information, and social participation, existing legal categories face conceptual and practical strain. While some accounts portray digital rights as a straightforward extension of classical human rights, others emphasize their transformative impact on constitutional principles, enforcement mechanisms, and the distribution of power between public authorities and private actors. This paper situates digital rights within contemporary academic debates and emerging regulatory frameworks in order to clarify their normative scope and conceptual boundaries. It advances the argument that digital rights cannot be adequately understood through purely legal or purely technological lenses. Instead, they emerge at the intersection of constitutional law, digital governance, and public policy, where regulatory instruments, institutional design, and educational strategies jointly shape the conditions for rights protection. The analysis highlights the constitutional paradox of digital platforms, which exercise functions traditionally associated with public authority while remaining only partially subject to democratic accountability and judicial oversight. Drawing on European constitutional principles, supranational regulation, and policy initiatives, the study demonstrates how current legal frameworks seek to respond to private digital power while revealing their structural limits in data-driven and algorithmic environments. At the same time, scholarship on Media and Information Literacy is mobilized to show how citizens’ informational capacities function as a normative complement to legal safeguards, enabling individuals to exercise their rights meaningfully rather than merely formally. By integrating legal doctrine, public policy analysis, and MIL, this article contributes a coherent analytical framework for understanding digital rights as a hybrid normative construct. It concludes that the effective protection of digital rights depends not only on legal guarantees and regulatory enforcement, but also on policy choices that strengthen individual and collective capacities within the digital public sphere.

The local market of Santander de Quilichao, located in the Cauca Department of Colombia, represents a complex social, economic, and cultural space shaped by multiple public policies related to urban management and local development. This study examines the marketplace as a site where tensions emerge between institutional modernization initiatives and the preservation of traditional, community-based dynamics characteristic of popular markets. The research aims to assess how public policies related to urban renewal and land-use planning have influenced the market’s physical layout, functional organization, symbolic meaning, commercial practices, spatial appropriation, and the sustainability of local entrepreneurship. Methodologically, the study employs a qualitative approach, combining participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and photographic documentation with an analysis of development plans and territorial planning instruments. Findings reveal that, despite institutional efforts toward modernization-primarily focused on infrastructure and sanitary improvements-significant gaps remain in the design and implementation of comprehensive public policies capable of aligning economic development with the protection of the market’s social and cultural identity. As an original contribution, this research provides field-based empirical evidence from a marketplace in a non-capital intermediate municipality, a context rarely explored in the literature on public policy and traditional markets. Its novelty lies in the integrated analysis of local public policies, popular entrepreneurship, and sustainability, grounded in the lived experiences of market vendors. The results offer valuable insights for designing territorial public policies that promote the sustainable and inclusive transformation of local markets while preserving their social and cultural significance. Keywords: Public policy; local entrepreneurship; market vendors; traditional markets; cultural heritage.

This study aims to map and analyze the development of scientific literature on public sector accounting through a bibliometric approach. Using data extracted from the Scopus database and analyzed with VOSviewer, this research explores keyword co-occurrence, temporal evolution of research themes, density patterns, and collaboration networks among authors, institutions, and countries. The results indicate that public sector accounting research is strongly rooted in themes of accountability, transparency, new public management, and financial governance, which form the core intellectual structure of the field. Over time, however, the literature has expanded toward interdisciplinary topics such as sustainable development, climate change, public policy, and socio-economic analysis, reflecting a broader shift toward sustainability-oriented governance. Collaboration analysis reveals that scholarly production is dominated by European and North American institutions, although contributions from emerging economies are increasing, signaling a more globalized research landscape. Overall, the findings highlight the evolution of public sector accounting from a traditional administrative focus to a strategic framework supporting environmental accountability, policy evaluation, and public value creation. This study contributes by providing a comprehensive overview of research trends and identifying future directions, particularly the integration of sustainability and digital transformation within public sector accounting practices.

This paper analyses the effectiveness of the international legal framework in mitigating the combined risks of orbital collision and cyber interference, and assesses how a global Space Traffic Management (STM) regime could enhance stability and security in outer space. Using Yin’s single-case study design, the global space governance regime is examined through Bowen’s qualitative document analysis of treaties, policies, and twelve scholarly studies, interpreted via Dunn’s public-policy analysis framework. The findings show that existing instruments establish broad norms of responsibility and liability but lack operational authority, cyber-resilient procedures, and enforceable “rules of the road.” Fragmented institutions and divergent national strategies perpetuate legal ambiguity and impede coordinated manoeuvre decisions. Cyber dependencies in orbital systems further magnify risks of misinterpretation and escalation. The study argues that an integrated STM regime—combining binding collision-avoidance authority, mandatory cyber-security standards, and interoperable data architectures—would materially reduce uncertainty and strengthen collective security. Policy recommendations include establishing a supranational coordination centre, codifying minimum separation and priority rules, and linking participation to verifiable cyber compliance. The proposed framework operationalises due regard through authority, assurance, and accountability, transforming space governance from permissive norms to enforceable safety mechanisms. By fusing legal, institutional, and technological dimensions, the research provides a practical pathway toward a secure and predictable orbital environment.

The rural digital divide remains a persistent challenge for territorial development and social inclusion, particularly in Amazonian contexts where geographical, institutional, and sociocultural conditions limit the effectiveness of public policies on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). In this context, this study analyzes the state of ICT public policies implemented between 2009 and 2016 in rural parishes of the province of Pastaza, Ecuador, and their impact on the rural digital divide. The research adopts a qualitative approach with a descriptive–analytical design, incorporating a methodological triangulation strategy based on documentary analysis of public policies, review of secondary statistical data, and semi-structured interviews with key local stakeholders. The results show that the analyzed policies achieved partial improvements in connectivity access and technological infrastructure; however, they exhibited significant limitations in terms of productive ICT use, digital skills development, and territorial relevance. Furthermore, the persistence of second- and third-level digital divides related to limited use and low technological appropriation was identified. The study concludes that reducing the rural digital divide in Amazonian territories requires comprehensive public policies that integrate connectivity, service quality, digital training, territorial relevance, and impact evaluation mechanisms to achieve sustainable digital inclusion and territorial development.

The presentation is divided into two parts. In the first part, I discuss the general trajectory of public policy studies, explaining that it is an interdisciplinary field composed of research and analysis of public policies that make recommendations for improving their impact, effectiveness, and efficiency. I also explain the context in which this field became established in Brazil after the country's redemocratization and the evolution of public policy evaluation methodologies since then. In the second part, I analyze the process of institutionalization of this field of study at NEPP/UNICAMP, highlighting our merits and the favorable circumstances that contributed to institutional maturity. I also point out the main challenges facing new advances in this field today.