Cross-cutting Policy Research Articles

Policy engagement as ‘empowered representation’: democratic mediation through a participatory research project on climate resilience

Background: The article analyses the policy engagement component of a research project on climate resilience in vulnerable communities that took place in Cape Town, South Africa. Conducted in 2022, the engagement included community and stakeholder events in three research sites, and a cross-cutting policy event with municipal officials, held at the end of the project. Importantly, this policy engagement process occurred in a context of political marginalisation, that is, one characterised by low trust, and little meaningful representation or even communication between these vulnerable communities and the city. Aims and objectives: This article examines the impact of policy engagement on political relations between local government and vulnerable communities. Methods: The overall methodology of the article is qualitative, using an illustrative case-study research design to unpack the subjective experiences of both government officials and residents of vulnerable communities. Primary data included many primary documents, direct observation of the engagements and post-event interviews. Findings: First, the engagement process created new ‘invented’ spaces for the representation of community perspectives to the city, and the city’s perspective to the community. Second, the engagement facilitated community self-representation through educating community members to advocate for their ideas in these new invented spaces. Third, this engagement tended to be more constructive and deliberative than polarising and confrontational. Discussion and conclusions: Drawing on the theoretical framework of ‘political mediation’, the policy engagement process is characterised as a positive instance of democratic mediation through ‘empowered representation’, with some specified limitations.

Using linked data to inform multidimensional real-world issues: Canadian examples

Issues at the top of global and national policy agendas, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate emergency, and energy and cost of living crises, are illustrating the interconnectivity of the economy, society, and the environment. Moreover, it is clear, that impacts of these issues are not uniformly felt across societies. Greater granularity of information is required to address inequalities. As a result, policy makers are taking a more holistic view of issues to address the interlinkages across domains. This is driving the demand for Statistics Canada to provide statistical insights that address these cross-cutting policy issues and provide more granular information across multiple domains. Linked data are necessary for understanding the interrelated nature of these issues and the scope of their impact. For example, recent Canadian research based on linked data has shown that COVID-19 led to changes in work arrangements that have implications for public transit use and greenhouse gas emissions. The employer-employee linked administrative data augmented with a further linkage to census data provide opportunities for Canadian researchers to produce multidimensional insights on a portrait of racialized groups and immigrants including refugees’ presence in the Canadian economy, their sociodemographic characteristics, and their performance over time relative to other Canadians, particularly post the COVID pandemic. Rapid growth in data availability for research also poses new challenges ranging from technical issues needed for the feasibility of data linkage to stewardship issues related to governance, access, and oversight. The presentation will also discuss the lessons learned and reflections from the Canadian experiences.

Towards Improved Gender Inclusive Peacebuilding in Africa: Policy Implications

Purpose: Although several earlier studies have looked at peacebuilding and its limiting aspects, research on gender-inclusive peacebuilding dimensions remains limited, especially in Africa. Global events have continued to emphasise the inextricable pertinence of the interconnectedness between peace, conflict and gender. This reinforces how masculinity crises cause violence against some other genders. This study sought to examine gender- inclusive peacebuilding gaps in Africa and provide policy suggestions for improvements. Methods: Qualitative research methodology was employed through an analysis of secondary data gleaned from available work obtained from academics, peace experts, research reports, international agencies and various organizations. Results & conclusion: The study shows that conflict dynamics are essentially gendered and made out of gendered identities. Developing gender-inclusive peacebuilding processes, exclusively being attentive to intersectionality, involves bringing different views into peacebuilding processes. For improvement, some strategies and opportunities should involve altering power imbalances within structures to promote peace. Originality/Value: This is one of the few studies that establishes gender inclusive peacebuilding in the African continent and provides cross-cutting policy implications rather than those that are country specific. Moreover, gender inclusive peacebuilding is a topical issue that occupies the peacebuilding global agenda.

Beyond individual responsibility – towards a relational understanding of financial resilience through participatory research and design

Abstract This paper contributes to an increasingly critical assessment of a policy framing of ‘financial resilience’ that focuses on individual responsibility and financial capability. Using a participatory research and design process, we construct a ground-up understanding of financial resilience that acknowledges not only an individual’s actions, but the contextual environment in which they are situated, and how those relate to one another. We inductively identify four inter-connected dimensions of relational financial resilience: infrastructure (housing, health, and childcare), financial and economic factors (income, expenses, and financial services and strategies), social factors (motivation and community and family), and the institutional environment (policy and local community groups, support and advice services). Consequently, we recommend that social policies conceptualise financial resilience in relational terms, as a cross-cutting policy priority, rather than being solely a facet of individual financial capability.

Paradoxes of Norway’s energy transition: controversies and justice

ABSTRACT Norway exemplifies a number of paradoxes in relation to the just transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy provision. We investigate these paradoxes by focusing on key controversies from the oil and gas sector and onshore wind power. Despite the widespread interest in avoiding conflict and increasing public acceptance, this article sees controversies as useful sites for uncovering justice issues in possible transition pathways. The controversies reveal competing interpretations of just transition amidst an inadequate cross-cutting policy response. Conventional solutions for restructuring petro-maritime industries involve taking controversies out of sight from the public and internalizing the issue of just transition to the sector’s needs. This achieves only shallow engagement with broader society regarding the scope of societal transition needed to meet climate policies. Controversies around onshore wind installations are on the doorsteps of communities themselves and call attention to the difficult social aspects of transition that require a much broader public debate and policy response. We conclude that just transition should not be interpreted sectorally in competing energy futures but rather should infiltrate both the fossil and renewables sides of the Norwegian energy provision paradox. Key policy insights Policies must take stock of controversies and acknowledge and unravel them to understand justice issues rather than seek to minimize them for political expedience. Just transition policies should not be limited to directly affected sectors and locations to minimize controversies but should reach broader aspects of society to enable the deepest scope of transition (from the industrial sector to community and society). Just development of renewable energy in Norway requires consideration of procedural, distributional, recognition and restorative aspects of energy development. Energy policy targets need to be both long-term and inclusive. More attention is needed to the oil and gas supply-side and energy demand reduction to connect the energy transition with ambitious climate policies.

A policy mix approach for assessing rural household resilience to climate shocks: Insights from Northeast Brazil

ABSTRACT Climate change adaptation is a cross-cutting policy issue that accounts for a diversity of policy approaches, tools, and goals. Unclear conceptualization and the absence of comparable metrics are challenges that hinder the assessment of progress toward policy goals. This study draws on a policy mix approach to analyze adaptation efforts at the subnational level. It examines the complex pathways by which rural households in Northeast Brazil build resilience capacities and deal with drought with policy support. Particular emphasis is placed on the implementation of policy mixes composed of climate-related and broader development instruments as well as on the coordination of these instruments in the mix. The resilience of households benefiting from different instrument mixes is examined, and the results show a trend toward an intermediary value for our composite resilience metric highlighting the adoption of coping rather than transformative adaptive strategies. However, changing these trends toward enhanced resilience pathways depends on the improved implementation of the policy mixes and on political factors that include administrative issues, but also coordination and negotiation among policy actors.

Primary mental health care for older persons in India: how age-inclusive are public policies?

The need to improve the primary mental healthcare system in India has gained increasing public health attention. Concomitantly, efforts to frame and develop appropriate public mental health care through legislation and related strategies and programmes have been undertaken. Because older people in India are particularly prone to mental health problems, this study explores the inclusiveness of Indian public policies in addressing the primary mental health care needs of older people from a cross-policy perspective. The basis of this thematic document analysis is 41 key national strategic documents (1999-2018) from different thematically grouped policy fields. In the context of population ageing, socio-economic challenges for older people and changing family norms, the policies delineate a pronounced interest in old-age-inclusive primary mental health care, whereas international policies are regarded as important reference points. While some of the policies address older persons as a vulnerable group in general, others delineate a more differentiated picture of the older population. Moreover, as new rights with implications for old-age mental health care, including community-based access to mental health care, have emerged, an integrated old-age mental healthcare policy spanning across sectors remains absent. Although old-age-inclusive primary mental health care is an emerging trend in India, its development as a cross-cutting policy issue remains in its infancy. Accordingly, unambiguous integrated policy approaches are needed to address the complex mental healthcare needs of older persons, and further research should be undertaken to focus on mental healthcare strategies and approaches at the primary care level.

Transition towards sustainable yak farming in Bhutan: stakeholders’ viewpoints and recommendations for future steps

ABSTRACT The Bhutanese government initiated a highland development programme in the year 2016 to promote yak farming because the number of yak farming families is declining. However, there are several cross-cutting policies and issues that affect successful implementation of interventions to support yak farming in transition. We studied the challenges and opportunities to sustain yak farming and related trade-offs around problems and solutions through individual and focus group interviews with six stakeholder groups (i.e. herders from two regions, extensionists, park rangers, livestock officials, and forest officials). Overall the herders rated forage availability and yak mortality as the main threats to yak farming, while government officials rated labour availability as the main threats. Most problems and solutions that were identified in the focus group interviews had diverging views among the stakeholder groups. There is clearly a need for a multi-stakeholder dialogue aiming to discuss problems and solutions together. This should take away misleading and disputed claims, and provide understanding about the approach to cope with risks and uncertainty around transhumance yak-based communities. A strong collaboration should lead to appropriate policy, which would reduce challenges and barriers, and simultaneously give opportunities to herders and their children to stay in yak farming in future.

The process of renewal and development of cooperatives in Ho Chi Minh City (1986-2019)

Cooperatives are a major form of collective economy – an important economic component, the basis for the development of the national economy. The development of the collective economy has become a cross-cutting and consistent policy of The Communist Party and the State of Vietnam in the transition period to socialism. Since 1986, clearly defining that role and its importance, the Communist Party Committee of Ho Chi Minh City proactively had supportive policies, at initial stage, in terms of facilities, legal matters and change of business production direction. In the first ten years after the renovation, the development of the cooperative faced many difficulties due to the change of policy and mechanism from the subsidized centrally planned economy to the market economy. Since 1996, when the Law on Cooperatives came into existence, it created a legal basis, contributing to promoting the development of cooperatives in many economic fields. On that basis, Ho Chi Minh City paid more attention to the development of cooperatives. Directives and specialized resolutions on cooperatives were formulated, and specific policies on cooperatives were formed. As a result, over the past 30 years, cooperatives have gradually recovered and developed in many economic fields, becoming an economic component in the economic structure of the city. In addition, the cooperatives also contribute significantly to creating jobs, increasing incomes and improving people's lives in the city. In the current context, cooperatives in the City need to innovate more strongly to adapt and to develop.

Exploring Integration Trajectories for a European Health Union

COVID-19 emerged as a cross-cutting problem across governance sectors and levels, urging the creation of a European Health Union. There are already a number of integrated European governance strategies – such as the European Energy Union (2015) and the European Green Deal (2019) – adopted for overcoming problems of governance fragmentation and inadequacy of fragmented policy responses to cross-cutting policy challenges. Past studies focused on the interaction between crisis and policy change and investigated the activation of different mechanisms to enhance integration. This article contributes to the debate over the creation of a European Health Union by unpacking the acknowledged dimensions of policy integration – policy frame, subsystem involvement, policy goals and policy instruments – in order to assess their manifestations in the new EU4Health policy and to establish what contextual conditions triggered the activation of the integration-enabling mechanisms that led to a more integrated European Health Union. In so doing, it offers an analytical illustration and discusses implications for decision-making.

Tackling maternal mortality by improving technical efficiency in the production of primary health services: longitudinal evidence from the Mexican case.

Ensuring regular and timely access to efficient and quality health services reduces the risk of maternal mortality. Specifically, improving technical efficiency (TE) can result in improved health outcomes. To date, no studies in Mexico have explored the connection of TE with either the production of maternal health services at the primary-care level or the maternal-mortality ratio (MMR) in populations without social security coverage. The present study combined data envelopment analysis (DEA), longitudinal data and selection bias correction methods with the purpose of obtaining original evidence on the impact of TE on the MMR during the period 2008-2015. The results revealed that MMR fell 0.36% (P < 0.01) for every percentage point increase in TE at the jurisdictional level or elasticity TE-MMR. This effect proved lower in highly marginalized jurisdictions and disappeared entirely in those with low- or medium-marginalization levels. Our findings also highlighted the relevance of certain social and economic aspects in the attainment of TE by jurisdictions. This clearly demonstrates the need for comprehensive, cross-cutting policies capable of modifying the structural conditions that generate vulnerability in specific population groups. In other words, achieving an effective and sustainable reduction in the MMR requires, inter alia, that the Mexican government review and update two essential elements: the criteria behind resource allocation and distribution, and the control mechanisms currently in place for executing and ensuring accountability in these two functions.

A Strategy to Support Efficient Development and Use of Innovations in Personalized Medicine and Precision Medicine.

This analysis addresses an important policy question: "What are potentially transformative strategies and methods to define and measure value at all levels of decision making that are aligned with personalized medicine/precision medicine (PM/PrM)?" To approach this question, we build on our previous work with PM and recent work as members of ISPOR's Special Task Force on Value Assessment Frameworks. We focused on 3 key challenges: (1) the need for a broader concept of value for PM/PrM; (2) the development of appropriate concepts and methods for measuring and splitting the innovation reward for PM/PrM; and (3) the application of this expanded concept to align value assessment in the hierarchy of related decision contexts, from formulary inclusion and value-based pricing to shared patient-provider decision making. Our working assumption was that the goal of policy affecting PM/PrM technologies should be to promote "dynamic efficiency"-the optimal development, adoption, and use of these technologies. For this purpose, we laid out 6 basic cross-cutting policy principles. First, rewards for innovation should be value-based and flexible over time and across indications as new evidence emerges. Second, the concept of value should be based on the microeconomic concept of willingness to pay and should include, at its core, the value of health gain-in terms of the length and quality of life- but also going beyond this to include other uncertainty-related elements. Third, innovation rewards should be modifiable given new real-world evidence and knowledge. Fourth, the scientific information embedded in PM and PrM technologies is a global public good that should be financed globally through differential pricing. Fifth, reward systems need to recognize that the diagnostic technologies that make PM and PrM possible are technically "economic complements." Sixth, splitting the rewards among complementary inputs is arbitrary in a static sense but matters dynamically. For PM/PrM value assessment, we argue for including the "value of knowing"; the need for indication-specific pricing; the importance of updating the economic evaluation and pricing over the product life cycle; addressing the new challenge posed by next-generation sequencing and high-cost combination therapies; and aligning value metrics across different decision contexts based on health benefit and patient-centered utility. DISCLOSURES: No previous outside funding supported this policy analysis. The authors have nothing to disclose. The authors are grateful to have received first place in the PhRMA Foundation-Personalized Medicine Coalition 2018 Value Assessment Challenge Award for this work.

The role of advisory bodies in the emergence of cross-cutting policy issues: comparing innovation policy in Norway and Germany

ABSTRACTThe article examines the role of policy advisory bodies in the emergence of national innovation policy. Cross-cutting policy issues such as innovation policy pose unique challenges to governments. Given that they do not fit neatly within the purview of existing government departments, it is often unclear who is responsible for dealing with a given issue. Issues may go unaddressed or else be subject to competing initiatives from different departments. What role do policy advisory bodies play in addressing and advancing cross-cutting policy issues? The article examines how the issue of innovation policy was taken up and addressed by policy advisory bodies in two empirical cases: Norwegian ad hoc advisory commissions examining innovation policy during the period 1972–2016, and the German standing expert commission for science and innovation formed in 2006. The article finds that policy advice on innovation was adopted to a varying extent by the political-administrative system. It argues that this can be attributed to the organisation of advisory bodies and to the efforts of these bodies to establish connections and draw bridges across an entrenched political landscape.

The institutional dimension of resource efficiency in a multi-level governance system—Implications for policy mix design

The paper undertakes a closer look on the relation of institutions and policy mixes within the multi-level scope of the European Union in the policy field of resource efficiency and maps out different configurations. Based on an extensive analysis of scope, foci, instruments and especially the distribution of institutional responsibilities in 32 EU countries, the paper aims to amplify the categorisation of policy mix characteristics developed by Rogge and Reichardt by considerations on the institutional background of policy mixes. It specifically brings into question the potential impact of different institutional settings on the consistency and coherence of approaches in this evolving policy field. Resource efficiency is an eminently cross-cutting policy concept and a specific interesting unit of analysis due to the observable heterogeneity of implementation approaches. However, it is still mainly disconnected from energy issues and, at the same time, EU policy has shifted to the circular economy approach, indicating further need for streamlining with the resource efficiency approach. The paper stresses the need to include institutional and multi-level governance issues for policy design and the development of policy mixes, especially in the context of the now refocused resource efficiency agenda to the transition to a circular economy.

Exploring the dynamics of food-related policymaking processes and evidence use in Fiji using systems thinking

BackgroundObesity and non-communicable diseases are significant public health issues globally and particularly in the Pacific. Poor diet is a major contributor to this issue and policy change is a powerful lever to improve food security and diet quality. This study aims to apply systems thinking to identify the causes and consequences of poor evidence use in food-related policymaking in selected government ministries in Fiji and to illicit strategies to strengthen the use of evidence in policymaking.MethodsThe Ministry of Health and Medical Services and the Ministry of Agriculture in Fiji were invited through their respective Permanent Secretaries to participate in the study. Three 180-minute group model building (GMB) workshops were conducted separately in each ministry over three consecutive days with selected policymakers who were instrumental in developing food-related policies designed to prevent non-communicable diseases. The GMB workshops mapped the process of food-related policymaking and the contribution of scientific and local evidence to the process, and identified actions to enhance the use of evidence in policymaking.ResultsAn average of 10 policymakers participated from each ministry. The causal loop diagrams produced by each ministry illustrated the causes and consequences of insufficient evidence use in developing food policies or precursors of the specific actions. These included (1) consultation, (2) engagement with stakeholders, (3) access and use of evidence, and (4) delays in policy processes. Participants agreed to potential leverage points on the themes above, addressing pertinent policymaker challenges in precursor control, including political influence, understanding of trade policies, competing government priorities and level of awareness on the problem. Specific actions for strengthening evidence use included training in policy development and research skills, and strengthening of coordination between ministries.ConclusionsThe GMB workshops improved participants’ understanding of how different parts of the policy system interact. The causal loop diagrams and subsequent action plans enabled the identification of systems-level interventions in both ministries to improve evidence-informed policy development. A guide for integrating multi-sectoral consultation and stakeholder engagement in developing cross-cutting policies is currently being developed.

Political parties and climate policy

This study presents an innovative approach to hand-coding parties’ policy preferences in the relatively new, cross-sectoral field of climate change mitigation policy. It applies this approach to party manifestos in six countries, comparing the preferences of parties in Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy and the United Kingdom over the past two decades. It probes the data for evidence of validity through content validation and convergent/discriminant validation and engages with the debate on position-taking in environmental policy by developing a positional measure that incorporates ‘pro’ and ‘anti’ climate policy preferences. The analysis provides evidence for the validity of the new measures, shows that they are distinct from comparable measures of environmental policy preferences and argues that they are more comprehensive than existing climate policy measures. The new measures strengthen the basis for answering questions that are central to climate politics and to party politics. The approach developed here has important implications for the study of new, complex or cross-cutting policy issues and issues that include both valence and positional aspects.

Young people and housing: identifying the key issues

The housing experiences of young people are a contemporary global concern, with the exacerbation of young people's housing problems in many countries reported widely in the media and raising important policy questions. In response, this special issue of the International Journal of Housing Policy presents new empirical research from Europe and East Asia and seeks to identify key areas for improvement in national housing policies. This editorial summarises the main housing issues identified in the special issue articles and identifies the emergence of two cross-cutting policy challenges. The first challenge is to ensure all young people have an equal opportunity to leave the family home and live independently. This will require a much greater awareness of the political, economic and cultural forces restricting young people's transitions. The second key policy challenge is to improve the suitability and availability of housing for young people, with studies in this special issue specifically pointing towards an improved private rented sector and further provision of shared housing. Articles in this special issue indicate that a failure to respond to these significant housing policy challenges will have wide reaching social and economic consequences.

Internal Contradictions and External Anxieties: One ‘Coherent’ Arctic Policy for the European Union?

The European Union’s overarching policy towards the Arctic is an umbrella policy of complementary and coordination nature composed of internal, external and foreign policy elements. This article examines the policy framework from the perspective of ‘coherence’. What could a coherent and integrated EU Arctic policy entail – as called for by the Council and the European Parliament? I problematise the notion of coherence and offer an understanding of coherence deemed workable in the context of a regionfocused policy-making. Different dimensions of coherence are discussed: internal (lack of contradictory objectives), institutional (coherence between EU institutions), vertical (between the EU and its member states) and external (interaction with other Arctic actors). A number of interrelated contradictions or dichotomies are identified with focus on: Circumpolar versus European Arctic, maritime and terrestrial, internal and external, environmental and developmental goals. There is also a tension between the eagerness to adjust to narratives prevalent in the Arctic – owing to the anxiety of Arctic actors regarding the EU’S presence – and the need to respond to internal voices and retain EU values. While coherence as an ideal goal is a necessary principle of policymaking, its practical application may be counterproductive to a cross-cutting policy field, unless the meaning of ‘coherence’ is specified. I argue that the umbrella Arctic policy should be characterised by procedural rather than outcome coherence. That includes developing and maintaining durable mechanisms for dialogue with Arctic partners, management of the impact of EU policies, ongoing identification of gaps, effective internal coordination frameworks, and modes of continued involvement in Arctic governance structures. The Arctic policy could provide input into general EU decision-making processes, especially if inconsistencies are revealed. Institutional setting with a less dominant role of services focused on maritime and external aspects should be considered.

What's in a word? The framing of health at the regional level: ASEAN, EU, SADC and UNASUR.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the European Union, the Southern African Development Community and the Union of South American Nations have increasingly been involved in health diplomacy in the past decade, yet little is known about how they frame health as a foreign policy issue and how this has an impact on their prioritisation of policies. For this, we conducted a review of existing grey and peer-reviewed literature that address regional integration and health, as well as a documentary review according to security, development, trade, human rights, moral/ethical reasonings and global public goods frames identified in the literature. The policy frames identified responded to the challenges these regions currently face. The Association of Southeast Asian Nation’s struggle with re-emerging diseases has led to favouring a securitisation approach to health, the European Union approaches health as a cross-cutting policy issue, the Southern African Development Community presents health as a driver for development, and while the Union of South American Nations emphasises health as a human right and addresses the social determinants of health as an ethical imperative. Overall, these policy frames were useful in analysing the framing of health in foreign policy at the regional level. However, within our analysis, we identified a new frame that approaches health as an intersectoral issue. The impact of regional organisations’ forward will depend on their ability to harness their convening power and speak in a coherent voice on health matters.

Shared performance targets for the horizontal coordination of public organizations: control theory and departmentalism in the United Kingdom’s Public Service Agreement system

Coordinating organizations horizontally is a longstanding difficulty of public governance, often called departmentalism in central government systems. Several tools for horizontal coordination have previously been analysed but shared performance targets across departments have received relatively little attention. This article develops a control theory of shared performance target systems for horizontal coordination of departments consisting of ‘director’ (shared objective and target setting), ‘detector’ (shared monitoring of progress), and ‘effector’ (shared feedback to promote achievement of targets) components. The theory distinguishes between two kinds of shared targets: those promoting sequential coordination and simultaneous coordination among departments. The expectations of control theory are assessed for the Public Service Agreement (PSA) adopted in the United Kingdom. PSAs enabled a step change increase in discussion of shared policy objectives across departments. However, despite these benefits, the fundamentally separate broader ministerial and departmental accountability structures led to the setting of vague outcome targets, underdeveloped performance reporting, and fragmented delivery arrangements for shared targets. Points for practitioners The findings provide a cautionary tale for policy-makers seeking to implement horizontally shared targets across departmental organizations. The UK Government’s Public Service Agreement (PSA) system reveals that shared target systems for departments supervised by a finance ministry are a useful tool for incentivizing departments to collaborate with other departments in policy discussions and resource allocation. However, it was difficult for departments to set specific cross-cutting targets and to develop practical joint delivery and performance reporting strategies across existing departmental boundaries. The effects of the system were, for the most part, counteracted by departmentally focused resource and accountability structures. In some cases, broader structural reform to reorganize departmental structures to align with the formerly cross-cutting policy challenge was necessary rather than predominantly relying on shared targets to pursue policy goals.