Central Ministries Research Articles

Gordon Stephenson and the ‘galaxy of talent’: planning for post-war reconstruction in Britain 1942-1947

This paper examines the work of Gordon Stephenson between January 1942 and December 1947 when he worked for the British central planning ministry. Using public and his own personal archives, it shows how, as part of a small, very talented team, he played a key role in developing a new expertise of planning to address the great challenges of the post-war years. The paper discusses his work formulating new planning standards for residential and commercial densities, daylighting and community development. He also played a significant role in Patrick Abercrombie's Greater London Plan team and led the small group that subsequently planned what became the first New Town at Stevenage. The paper shows that, at this time, Stephenson saw the planner as a rational, technical expert rather than as a consciously political actor.

Education Attainment in Public Administration Around the World: Evidence from a New Dataset

The paper provides a detailed description of a novel dataset on education attainment in public administrations covering the period 1981-2011 for 178 countries. The dataset uses information extracted from CVs for over 130,000 mid to senior level officials from mainly central banks and ministries of economy and finance. Our main finding is that there is little heterogeneity across regions when considering a non quality-adjusted measure of education attainment in public administrations. Adjusting our measure for quality, using a country wide academic ranking, reveals important cross-regional heterogeneity differing from that of standard measures of education attainment for the general population. The dataset also allows us to uncover important patterns in public administrations' education attainment along gender and seniority across regions. We further use the dataset to explore a few applications which provide some evidence of (i) the importance of salary incentives in attracting highly educated staff and (ii) a positive association between education attainment in public administrations and government effectiveness (e.g. higher tax revenue mobilization, limiting corruption, better public finance management and private market support).

A tool for assessing management capacity at the decentralized level in a fragile state

Fragile states need assessment of decentralized management capabilities, not just of the central level, to design capacity-building efforts focused on improving management. Improving the management capacity of health departments at the provincial or district level is just as critical as strengthening the central ministry in fragile states if a health system that effectively addresses the real health needs of the population is to be formed. This paper describes a management capacity assessment tool developed for use in fragile states. It uses a framework that describes six critical management areas: oversight and coordination; human resources; resource management; health financing; community involvement; and health information management. These core areas of health system management are assessed with regard to capacity in three core management functions: the capacity to plan, to implement, and to monitor and evaluate. The tool was applied to assess the management capacity of six counties in Liberia. The results helped differentiate the level of capacity of the different counties and clarify the actions required to strengthen the health system in the periphery. The assessment also allowed the prioritizing of county health offices with regard to the level of capacity building required to improve management. The tool also identified successes that can inform the design of future health programs in other county health offices. The tool can be applied to other challenging country situations to assess management capacity, which will help focus technical assistance to the health sector in fragile states.

북한산 둘레길 이용객 만족도에 관한 연구

Since Jeju Ollegil opened in September 2007 and attracted the sensation of popularity throughout the country, the interest in `Walking Trails` has increased, and the central ministries and the local governments composite and assign various `Walking Trails`. Walking trails are not tours on which people go to see one spot and move to another spot by vehicle, but a long linear journey that leads people to see, to feel and to experience a region`s landscape and culture while walking on the trail. `Walking Trails` are efficient routes to discover and to use a former way and to link the various ecological regions` histories and cultural resources, so it is most important to select a route. Although the routes were selected by considering the various planning factors and giving each route a specified theme, some problems like the inconvenience of visitors caused by lack of facilities have occurred. After designation and construction of the trails, they were not properly evaluated by visitors. Therefore, it is the purpose of this study to suggest a better way to construct the trails by surveying visitor satisfaction and by analyzing the impact of planning a route on visitor satisfaction at Bukhansan Dulegil which was completed. For this study, with a questionnaire based on the literature review to identify the important planning factors for selecting a route, a survey was conducted on visitor satisfaction for each section and their intention to revisit and to recommend that trail. Based on the characteristics of each section that was identified in the field research, the trails were classified into five types and satisfaction of each type and each type was analyzed. In addition, analyzing the impact of planning factors on satisfaction, the impact of satisfaction on revisiting and recommending and visitors` perception of the theme, further improvement for better construction of the trail was presented. Satisfaction of sectors with strong natural elements was higher; `walking comfort` was the highest planning factor affecting satisfaction. In addition, satisfaction was surveyed to have high influence on revisiting and recommending.

An integrated approach for optimal rail transit corridor identification and scheduling using geographical information system

In this work an integrated approach has been proposed to identify and schedule a rail transit corridor in a city which has a potential demand for a new rail based mass transit system besides the street transit system and existing rail-based system (if any). The motivation for the present study comes from the present Indian context where, because of recent initiatives of Central Urban Development Ministry, many Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) and transit agencies need to master plan new rail based systems in an optimum way and at the same time attempting to integrate them with other existing public transport (PT) modes. While aligning the new rail transit system, the primary focus of the integrated approach is to optimize the origin–destination (O–D) travel time of the user and at the same time attempting to minimize the operators’ cost. The proposed rail corridor identification model consists of three stages: public transport demand forecasting, creation of corridor link set, and optimization of rail corridor using Geographical Information System (GIS). The objective function for train scheduling model is fixed as minimization of sum of operating cost of trains (operator cost) and total waiting time cost of passengers boarding the train (user costs) subject to load factor and waiting time constraints. The dwell time of train at stations, which is usually considered constant, has been taken as a variable which depends on the actual number of passengers boarding and alighting the train. The model is applied on Thane municipal corporation (TMC) area, a major urban center of the Mumbai metropolitan region (MMR), India. The maximum peak hour ridership obtained on the identified corridor was found to be ideal for recommending light-rail transit system (LRT). The successful application of the model shows the capability of proposed model for a typical Indian city, which has potential demand for a new rail system.

Towards a truly universal Indian health system

Most are likely to agree that the accompanying call for action 1 Reddy KS Patel V Jha P Paul VK Shiva Kumar AK Dandona L for The Lancet India Group for Universal HealthcareTowards achievement of universal health care in India by 2020: a call to action. Lancet. 2011; (published online Jan 12.)https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(10)61960-5 Summary Full Text Full Text PDF Scopus (229) Google Scholar towards achieving universal health care in India by 2020 (hereafter referred to as the call) is timely and overdue. However, we disagree with the call in two crucial areas. Towards achievement of universal health care in India by 2020: a call to actionTo sustain the positive economic trajectory that India has had during the past decade, and to honour the fundamental right of all citizens to adequate health care, the health of all Indian people has to be given the highest priority in public policy. We propose the creation of the Integrated National Health System in India through provision of universal health insurance, establishment of autonomous organisations to enable accountable and evidence-based good-quality health-care practices and development of appropriately trained human resources, the restructuring of health governance to make it coordinated and decentralised, and legislation of health entitlement for all Indian people. Full-Text PDF Continuing challenge of infectious diseases in IndiaIn India, the range and burden of infectious diseases are enormous. The administrative responsibilities of the health system are shared between the central (federal) and state governments. Control of diseases and outbreaks is the responsibility of the central Ministry of Health, which lacks a formal public health department for this purpose. Tuberculosis, malaria, filariasis, visceral leishmaniasis, leprosy, HIV infection, and childhood cluster of vaccine-preventable diseases are given priority for control through centrally managed vertical programmes. Full-Text PDF Reproductive health, and child health and nutrition in India: meeting the challengeIndia, with a population of more than 1 billion people, has many challenges in improving the health and nutrition of its citizens. Steady declines have been noted in fertility, maternal, infant and child mortalities, and the prevalence of severe manifestations of nutritional deficiencies, but the pace has been slow and falls short of national and Millennium Development Goal targets. The likely explanations include social inequities, disparities in health systems between and within states, and consequences of urbanisation and demographic transition. Full-Text PDF Chronic diseases and injuries in IndiaChronic diseases (eg, cardiovascular diseases, mental health disorders, diabetes, and cancer) and injuries are the leading causes of death and disability in India, and we project pronounced increases in their contribution to the burden of disease during the next 25 years. Most chronic diseases are equally prevalent in poor and rural populations and often occur together. Although a wide range of cost-effective primary and secondary prevention strategies are available, their coverage is generally low, especially in poor and rural populations. Full-Text PDF Health care and equity in IndiaIn India, despite improvements in access to health care, inequalities are related to socioeconomic status, geography, and gender, and are compounded by high out-of-pocket expenditures, with more than three-quarters of the increasing financial burden of health care being met by households. Health-care expenditures exacerbate poverty, with about 39 million additional people falling into poverty every year as a result of such expenditures. We identify key challenges for the achievement of equity in service provision, and equity in financing and financial risk protection in India. Full-Text PDF Human resources for health in IndiaIndia has a severe shortage of human resources for health. It has a shortage of qualified health workers and the workforce is concentrated in urban areas. Bringing qualified health workers to rural, remote, and underserved areas is very challenging. Many Indians, especially those living in rural areas, receive care from unqualified providers. The migration of qualified allopathic doctors and nurses is substantial and further strains the system. Nurses do not have much authority or say within the health system, and the resources to train them are still inadequate. Full-Text PDF Financing health care for all: challenges and opportunitiesIndia's health financing system is a cause of and an exacerbating factor in the challenges of health inequity, inadequate availability and reach, unequal access, and poor-quality and costly health-care services. Low per person spending on health and insufficient public expenditure result in one of the highest proportions of private out-of-pocket expenses in the world. Citizens receive low value for money in the public and the private sectors. Financial protection against medical expenditures is far from universal with only 10% of the population having medical insurance. Full-Text PDF Department of ErrorSengupta A, Prasad V. Towards a truly universal Indian health system. Lancet 2011; 377: 702–03—The print version of this Comment (Feb 26) contained the wrong DOI. The correct DOI is 10.1016/S0140-6736(10)62043-0. The online version of the Comment is correct. Full-Text PDF

公共財としての庭園の保全および利活用に対するパブリックコメントの現状

Recently, the public comment, one of the opportunities for citizens to participate in administration, is conducted not only in central government ministries and agencies, but also in local governments in Japan. In this study, we investigated actual conditions of public comments-aided citizen participation in conservation and practical use of gardens as public properties. We searched the case of public comments which were provided more than one opinion about conservation and practical use of gardens through internet. As results, we picked out 11 cases of public comment and 36 provided comments. Examining their methods, the comments, and replies from implementing administration agencies, we found some tendencies among them as described below. The offering information and prepared means for providing comments were not enough to promote citizen participation. The comments about conservation of gardens were more than their practical use. Although various subjects of the public comments were implemented, some administration agencies seamed not so positive in implementation of them. We considered that it was desired to increase public comment procedures through ensuring more fairness and transparency, to promote garden management system depended on citizen participation.

Cutaneous adverse drug reaction to heparins with hypereosinophilia and high IgE level

Contact DermatitisVolume 64, Issue 1 p. 61-62 Cutaneous adverse drug reaction to heparins with hypereosinophilia and high IgE level Krzysztof Klos, Corresponding Author Krzysztof Klos Department of Infectious Diseases and Allergology, Central Clinical Hospital Ministry of National Defence, Military Medical Institute, 04-141 Warsaw, PolandKrzysztof Klos, MD, Department of Infectious Diseases and Allergology, Central Clinical Hospital Ministry of National Defence, Military Medical Institute, ul. Szaserow 128, 04-141 Warszawa, Poland. Tel/fax: +48 22 810 29 09.e-mail: [email protected]Search for more papers by this authorRadoslaw Spiewak, Radoslaw Spiewak Department of Experimental Dermatology and Cosmetology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Jagiellonian University Medical College, 30-688 Krakow, PolandSearch for more papers by this authorJerzy Kruszewski, Jerzy Kruszewski Department of Infectious Diseases and Allergology, Central Clinical Hospital Ministry of National Defence, Military Medical Institute, 04-141 Warsaw, PolandSearch for more papers by this authorAndrzej Bant, Andrzej Bant Department of Infectious Diseases and Allergology, Central Clinical Hospital Ministry of National Defence, Military Medical Institute, 04-141 Warsaw, PolandSearch for more papers by this author Krzysztof Klos, Corresponding Author Krzysztof Klos Department of Infectious Diseases and Allergology, Central Clinical Hospital Ministry of National Defence, Military Medical Institute, 04-141 Warsaw, PolandKrzysztof Klos, MD, Department of Infectious Diseases and Allergology, Central Clinical Hospital Ministry of National Defence, Military Medical Institute, ul. Szaserow 128, 04-141 Warszawa, Poland. Tel/fax: +48 22 810 29 09.e-mail: [email protected]Search for more papers by this authorRadoslaw Spiewak, Radoslaw Spiewak Department of Experimental Dermatology and Cosmetology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Jagiellonian University Medical College, 30-688 Krakow, PolandSearch for more papers by this authorJerzy Kruszewski, Jerzy Kruszewski Department of Infectious Diseases and Allergology, Central Clinical Hospital Ministry of National Defence, Military Medical Institute, 04-141 Warsaw, PolandSearch for more papers by this authorAndrzej Bant, Andrzej Bant Department of Infectious Diseases and Allergology, Central Clinical Hospital Ministry of National Defence, Military Medical Institute, 04-141 Warsaw, PolandSearch for more papers by this author First published: 19 December 2010 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0536.2010.01784.xCitations: 4 Conflicts of interest: All authors declare no conflict of interest. Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL No abstract is available for this article.Citing Literature Volume64, Issue1January 2011Pages 61-62 RelatedInformation

Budgeting in the Philippines

This profile offers a general overview of the Philippine system of budgeting at national level. Special characteristics of the Philippine budget process are examined, such as a commitment to fiscal discipline and the national planning function. The three steps of the annual budget formulation cycle are described: the development of economic assumptions and revenue forecasts; the use of a medium-term expenditure framework to assess the continuing costs of existing programmes; and identifying the resultant “fiscal space” through the Paper on Budget Strategy. The process for allocating resources is then described, including the “Budget Call”, the submission and review of proposals, the role of the central ministry and the line ministries, and finally the role of Congress, constitutional restrictions, and the nature of executive-legislative relations.

Peasant Political Mobilization and the 1898 anti-Jewish Riots in Western Galicia

This article focuses on the anti-Jewish riots that took place in the spring and summer of 1898 in the western counties of the Habsburg province of Galicia, today divided between Poland and Ukraine. More than 5000 Polish peasants and townspeople were arrested, thousands were tried, and many received long prison sentences. An increasingly strident Catholic anti-Semitism, rumor, mass political mobilization, and actions urged and taken by the various levels of the Habsburg state — the central ministries in Vienna; the office of the Galician governor in the provincial capital of Lemberg; military and police forces on the ground; local officials in western Galicia — all affected the outbreak and course of the violence. The article argues that the riots were not simply a manifestation of rural backwardness, but rather should be understood in the context of the arrival of mass politics in the Habsburg countryside.

Institutional and Policy Analysis of River Basin Management: The Tarcoles River Basin, Costa Rica

This paper describes and analyzes the effort to institute river basin management in the Tarcoles basin of Costa Rica. Located in west-central Costa Rica, the Tarcoles basin represents 4.2 percent of the nation's total land area, but is home to half the nation's population and the metropolitan area of San Jose, the nation's capital and largest city. Water management issues include severe water pollution resulting from sewage, industrial waste discharges, agricultural runoff, and deforestation. In the early 1990s a locally-initiated effort established a river basin commission for the Rio Grande de Tarcoles (CRGT), which was supported by the central government's environment ministry. Since the late 1990s, however, the DRGT has struggled through changes of leadership, inconsistent support from the central government, and waning participation from basin stakeholders. Despite several programs to arrest deforestation and encourage better industrial and agricultural practices, the basin's water problems continue largely unabated. The Tarcoles case is instructive about both the possibilities and the fragility of efforts to establish integrated water resource management at the river basin level.

Europeanization and multi‐level governance in Slovenia

This study considers whether EU cohesion policy has contributed to the development of a more compound polity in Slovenia and, specifically, considers the extent to which there is a process of Europeanization characterized by emergent features of multi‐level governance. After providing a brief background on the nature of domestic governance and politics, it reviews the development of cohesion policy instruments in Slovenia and, then, discusses the scope and the nature of changes that have taken place in the last decade. The main finding is that despite the pre‐existing corporatist tradition suggesting a greater openness to cross‐sectoral engagement than in most new member states, this tradition has little impact on the domestic approach to governing the structural funds. Only a weak system of multi‐level governance has been developed, meeting the letter rather than the spirit of EU requirements, with central government ministries dominating both planning and implementation processes.

Health Impact of the 2004 Andaman Nicobar Earthquake and Tsunami in Indonesia

The human impact of the tsunami that occurred on 26 December 2004 was enormous, with Indonesia bearing a huge proportion of the losses. The aftermath brought predictions of communicable disease outbreaks and widespread fear of epidemics. However, evidence from previous disasters due to natural hazards does not support all of these predictions. The objectives of this study were to: (1) describe the relative importance of infectious diseases and injuries as a consequence of a disaster due to natural hazards; and (2) identify key recommendations for the improvement of control and surveillance of these diseases during and after disasters. A team from the Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters visited Jakarta and Banda Aceh from 11-23 January 2005, and collected data from the Central and Provincial Ministries of Health (MOH), the World Health Organization (WHO), and a field hospital from the International Committee of the Red Cross in Banda Aceh. The epidemiological profiles of diseases before and after the tsunami were compared. Cholera, tetanus, wounds and wound infections, acute respiratory infections, malaria, and dengue were included in this analysis. Certain diseases (e.g., cholera, malaria, dengue) are not always an immediate priority post-disaster. Rates of disaster-related health conditions requiring emergency response fell by half, and became negligible around four weeks after the precipitating events. Some conditions, such as aspiration pneumonia and tetanus, which normally are rare, require special preparedness for emergency personnel. In addition, resistant and rare pathogens are associated with disasters due to natural hazards in the tropics and require specialized knowledge for the rapid and successful treatment of related infections. Within the first four weeks of a disaster, international humanitarian agencies in the health sector should start working with the MOH. The WHO surveillance system established immediately after the tsunami offers lessons for developing a prototype for future emergencies. Guidelines for tetanus and aspiration pneumonia should be included in disaster medicine handbooks, and humanitarian aid groups should be prepared to provide emergency obstetrics and post-natal services. Relief funding after naturally occurring disasters should consider funding sustainability. Donors should know when to stop providing emergency relief funds and transition to recovery/development strategies.

Hypertensive Target Organ Damage in Ghanaian Civil Servants with Hypertension

BackgroundLow levels of detection, treatment and control of hypertension have repeatedly been reported from sub Saharan Africa, potentially increasing the likelihood of target organ damage.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted on 1015 urban civil servants aged≥25 years from seven central government ministries in Accra, Ghana. Participants diagnosed to have hypertension were examined for target organ involvement. Hypertensive target organ damage was defined as the detection of any of the following: left ventricular hypertrophy diagnosed by electrocardiogram, reduction in glomerular filtration rate, the presence of hypertensive retinopathy or a history of a stroke.ResultsOf the 219 hypertensive participants examined, 104 (47.5%) had evidence of target organ damage. The presence of target organ damage was associated with higher systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels. The odds of developing hypertensive target organ damage was five to six times higher in participants with blood pressure (BP)≥180/110 mmHg compared to those with BP<140/90 mmHg, and there was a trend to higher odds of target organ damage with increasing BP (p = 0.001). Women had about lower odds of developing target organ damage compared to men.ConclusionsThe high prevalence of target organ damage in this working population associated with increasing blood pressure, emphasises the need for hypertension control programs aimed at improving the detection of hypertension, and importantly addressing the issues inhibiting the effective treatment and control of people with hypertension in the population.

History of health technology assessment: Spain

The aim of this study was to describe the characteristics of the introduction and diffusion of health technology assessment (HTA) in Spain. A survey to summarize the evolution of HTA was sent to representatives of different HTA initiatives in Spain. HTA was introduced in the late 1980s. The main factors were the trend to an increase in healthcare expenditure, concerns regarding efficiency in providing health care, as well as in the level of rationality introducing high technology. Spain has direct (i.e., regulation) and indirect (i.e., payment systems, evidence-based programs, HTA) mechanisms to control health technologies. A recent high priority regulation has established the need of HTA to decide the introduction of a new health technology in the lists of public healthcare coverage, although similar regulations existed in the past and were scarcely implemented. HTA initiatives started at the regional government level. Its introduction followed a progressive pattern among regions. In the beginning, resources were scarce and expertise limited, with work done at intramural level. With time, expertise increase, and promotion of commissioned work was implemented. HTA knowledge transfer in the healthcare system has been carried out through courses, publications, and commissioned research. Currently, there are seven HTA units/agencies, which coordinate their work. HTA in Spain is in its maturity. Facing the unavoidable change of health care environment over time, HTA is also evolving and, currently, there is a trend to broaden the areas of influence of HTA by devolving capacity to hospitals and applying principles to very early phases of health technology development, under the umbrella of regional HTA units/agencies. However, there are two main challenges ahead. One is to have a real impact at the highest level of healthcare policy coordination among Spanish regions, which is done at the Central Ministry of Health. The other is to avoid the influence of political waves in the level of recognition of HTA at the policy decision-making level and to have an adequate and stable funding of HTA initiatives.

Contributions and Constraints to the Implementation of Inclusive Education in Lesotho

This article reports on a study that investigated the extent to which central ministry policy initiatives result in large‐scale educational change in developing countries. Specifically, Lesotho's policy of inclusive special education was examined as a case study. The study employed a multi‐method approach to yield a large data‐set. Results indicate that policy implementation was limited in both depth (the approaches to inclusive education in some schools) and breadth (the number of schools that have received training in inclusive education). Where implementation was present, perceived teacher knowledge and skill was a strong predictor of success and teachers had positive attitudes toward children with disabilities.

Public funding of health at the district level in Indonesia after decentralization-sources, flows and contradictions.

BackgroundDuring the Suharto era public funding of health in Indonesia was low and the health services were tightly controlled by the central government; district health staff had practically no discretion over expenditure. Following the downfall of President Suharto there was a radical political, administrative and fiscal decentralization with delivery of services becoming the responsibility of district governments. In addition, public funding for health services more than doubled between 2001 and 2006. It was widely expected that services would improve as district governments now had both more adequate funds and the responsibility for services. To date there has been little improvement in services. Understanding why services have not improved requires careful study of what is happening at the district level.MethodsWe collected information on public expenditure on health services for the fiscal year 2006 in 15 districts in Java, Indonesia from the district health offices and district hospitals. Data obtained in the districts were collected by three teams, one for each province. Information on district government revenues were obtained from district public expenditure databases maintained by the World Bank using data from the Ministry of Finance.ResultsThe public expenditure information collected in 15 districts as part of this study indicates district governments are reliant on the central government for as much as 90% of their revenue; that approximately half public expenditure on health is at the district level; that at least 40% of district level public expenditure on health is for personnel, almost all of them permanent civil servants; and that districts may have discretion over less than one-third of district public expenditure on health; the extent of discretion over spending is much higher in district hospitals than in the district health office and health centers. There is considerable variation between districts.ConclusionIn contrast to the promise of decentralization there has been little increase in the potential for discretion at the district level in managing public funds for health – this is likely to be an important reason for the lack of improvement in publicly funded health services. Key decisions about money are still made by the central government, and no one is held accountable for the performance of the sector – the district blames the center and the central ministries (and their ministers) are not accountable to district populations.

Obesity in urban civil servants in Ghana: Association with pre-adult wealth and adult socio-economic status

To investigate the distribution of obesity and its association with pre-adult wealth and adult socio-economic factors in urban Ghanaian civil servants. Cross-sectional study of urban civil servants. A total of 1015 (615 men and 400 women) civil servants aged 25 years and above employed in seven central government ministries and departments in Accra, Ghana were studied (participation rate 82.7%). The prevalence of obesity [body mass index (BMI) > or =30.0 kg/m(2)] was 10% in men and 36% in women. Men of higher pre-adult or current socio-economic position generally had higher mean BMI and waist circumference. In women, however, the mean waist circumference was higher in those of lower socio-economic position (lower education, less pre-adult wealth), but mean BMI did not differ significantly between socio-economic groups. There was a positive graded association between pre-adult and adult levels of wealth (determined by the availability of selected household amenities) and the risk of obesity in men (P-trend=0.003), but weak suggestions of an inverse association between adult level of wealth and obesity in women under 45 years of age. The high prevalence of obesity in this population indicates the need for appropriate interventions for its prevention and treatment. Programmes and interventions to control obesity need to address different needs of men and women in the various social strata, and must not be limited to adults.

The effects of university mergers in China since 1990s

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to discover and better understand the efficiency of university mergers from the perspective of knowledge production, with the research capability as the point of contact.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 20 colleges and universities directly under the central ministries that merged in 2000 were taken as the research samples. Factor analysis methods are adopted to calculate the public factor scores, which were taken as the basis of the time series analysis and similar comparative analysis.FindingsThe results indicated that, by the end of 2005, the reform of universities merger has a positive impact on the universities' knowledge production, but there was a “short‐term prosperity” after the merger happened, especially in the aspect of scientific research funding efficiency and the transformation of knowledge production outcomes.Originality/valueFew if any mergers are painless and in the literature on mergers it is generally agreed that it can take up to ten years for the wounds to heal and for the new institution forged from previously autonomous identities to operate as a cohesive and well integrated whole.

Aspects of the Status of Management Information Systems and the Information Needs for Public Administration in Uganda

This paper examines the status and evaluates the progress made towards the establishment of a management information system (MIS) for public administration in Uganda as well as considering the information needs of public administration in the country. The study focuses on the information systems of two central government ministries, the Ministry of Health (MoH) and the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (MFPED), and the local administration of five districts. In addition to a literature review, questionnaires were administered to 530 respondents. Data collected was analysed using both quantitative and qualitative techniques. The study reveals that although public administration in Uganda is based on New Public Management (NPM), an approach which exploits IT-based MIS, the information system that is in place is still dependant on printed data. Computer supplies are dismally inadequate, favour central as opposed to local government, and use of basic applications such as word-processing, constitutes the bulk of computer competency. Thus, the application of a management information system within a networked-computer environment barely exists. The study recommends developing ICT policy, strengthening MIS training, developing MIS infrastructure and providing and developing sectoral information analysis centres with relevant rights and obligations.