Equitable Governance Research Articles

Facilitating Multifunctional Green Infrastructure Planning in Washington, DC through a Tableau Interface

Multifunctional urban green infrastructure (UGI) can regulate stormwater, mitigate heat islands, conserve biodiversity and biocultural diversity, and produce food, among other functions. Equitable governance of UGI requires new tools for sharing pertinent information. Our goal was to develop a public-access geographic information system (GIS) that can be used for comprehensive UGI planning in Washington, DC (the District) and to create an e-tool for UGI in the form of Tableau dashboards. The dashboards allow stakeholders to identify (1) existing UGI and (2) potential areas for new UGI including urban agriculture (UA). They also allow users to manipulate the data and identify priority locations for equitable UGI development by applying population vulnerability indices and other filters. We demonstrate use of the dashboards through scenarios focusing on UA in the District, which currently has 150 ha of existing UGI in the form of documented projects and an additional 2734 ha potentially suitable for UGI development. A total of 2575 ha is potentially suitable for UA, with 56% of that area in Wards 5, 7, and 8, which are largely food deserts and whose residents are primarily Black and experience the greatest inequities. Our work can serve as a model for similar digital tools in other locales using Tableau and other platforms.

An Approach to Scientific and Legislative Governance of Solar Radiation Modification Research in the United States

The climate crisis requires immediate, rapid, and responsible action across all sectors. Without implementation of aggressive mitigation strategies, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that we will fail to remain below the catastrophic global warming threshold of 1.5°C. Climate engineering technologies, such as carbon dioxide removal and solar radiation modification (SRM), have been proposed as mitigation strategies, but have not been deployed at scale. In addition to the scaling problems, SRM technologies, particularly stratospheric aerosol injection, have faced criticism over ethical implications of their implementation. The United Nations (UN) efforts to introduce international governance over SRM have been blocked by several countries, including the United States (US). Meanwhile, domestic researchers in the US have independently pursued small-scale experiments. The effects of these experiments remain uncertain, yet, if scaled, extend to non-consenting countries, including those already more susceptible to the climate crisis. We recommend that the US (1) stop blocking the UN from pursuing research into the impacts of SRM to allow for equitable governance options to be explored and (2) establish a national advisory committee on solar geoengineering.

It’s Just Conservation: To What Extent Are Marine Protected Areas in the Irish Sea Equitably Governed and Managed?

It is not enough to simply designate a protected area. According to the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Aichi Target 11, these sites should be governed and managed effectively and equitably. Equitable (i.e., fair and inclusive) conservation is vital to ensuring effective protection of natural resources while maintaining human well-being. Yet, equity tends to be overlooked in protected area assessments. Three marine protected areas (MPAs) in Great Britain, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland were selected to assess equitable governance and management in the Irish Sea. This is one of the first studies to assess equity across multiple stakeholder groups in MPAs. The Site-level Assessment for Governance and Equity (SAGE) toolkit, developed by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) to address the gap in equity assessments, was used to evaluate equitable governance and management in these MPAs. Based on the three dimensions of equity (recognition, distribution, and procedure), SAGE contains Likert-scale questions to assess good governance by evaluating how different stakeholder groups perceive their protected area’s management and how included they feel in decision-making. Quantitative data from SAGE is complemented by qualitative data from semi-structured interviews with stakeholders to understand the impact MPA management has on local communities and MPA users. The results of this study reveal a lack of communication between MPA authorities and local stakeholders. They highlight the need for co-management in the form of inclusive partnerships as an alternative to the current top-down governance approach favoed in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Equitable and effective area-based conservation: towards the conserved areas paradigm

In 2018, the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) adopted a decision on protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs). It contains the definition of an OECM and related scientific and technical advice that has broadened the scope of governance authorities and areas that can be engaged and recognised in global conservation efforts. The voluntary guidance on OECMs and protected areas, also included in the decision, promotes the use of diverse, effective and equitable governance models, the integration of protected areas and OECMs into wider landscapes and seascapes, and mainstreaming of biodiversity conservation across sectors. Taken as a whole, the advice and voluntary guidance provides further clarity about the CBD Parties’ understanding of what constitutes equitable and effective area-based conservation measures within and beyond protected areas and provides standardised criteria with which to measure and report areas’ attributes and performance. This policy perspective suggests that this CBD decision represents further evidence of the evolution from the ‘new paradigm for protected areas’ to a broader ‘conserved areas paradigm’ that embodies good governance, equity and effective conservation outcomes and is inclusive of a diversity of contributions to conservation within and beyond protected areas.

Pre-existing conditions in Hispanics/Latinxs that are COVID-19 risk factors

SummaryCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has exposed health care disparities in minority groups including Hispanics/Latinxs (HL). Studies of COVID-19 risk factors for HL have relied on county-level data. We investigated COVID-19 risk factors in HL using individual-level, electronic health records in a Los Angeles health system between March 9, 2020, and August 31, 2020. Of 9,287 HL tested for SARS-CoV-2, 562 were positive. HL constituted an increasing percentage of all COVID-19 positive individuals as disease severity escalated. Multiple risk factors identified in Non-Hispanic/Latinx whites (NHL-W), like renal disease, also conveyed risk in HL. Pre-existing nonrheumatic mitral valve disorder was a risk factor for HL hospitalization but not for NHL-W COVID-19 or HL influenza hospitalization, suggesting it may be a specific HL COVID-19 risk. Admission laboratory values also suggested that HL presented with a greater inflammatory response. COVID-19 risk factors for HL can help guide equitable government policies and identify at-risk populations.

Exploring country-wide equitable government health care facility access in Uganda

BackgroundRural access to health care remains a challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa due to urban bias, social determinants of health, and transportation-related barriers. Health systems in Sub-Saharan Africa often lack equity, leaving disproportionately less health center access for the poorest residents with the highest health care needs. Lack of health care equity in Sub-Saharan Africa has become of increasing concern as countries enter a period of simultaneous high infectious and non-communicable disease burdens, the second of which requires a robust primary care network due to a long continuum of care. Bicycle ownership has been proposed and promoted as one tool to reduce travel-related barriers to health-services among the poor.MethodsAn accessibility analysis was conducted to identify the proportion of Ugandans within one-hour travel time to government health centers using walking, bicycling, and driving scenarios. Statistically significant clusters of high and low travel time to health centers were calculated using spatial statistics. Random Forest analysis was used to explore the relationship between poverty, population density, health center access in minutes, and time saved in travel to health centers using a bicycle instead of walking. Linear Mixed-Effects Models were then used to validate the performance of the random forest models.ResultsThe percentage of Ugandans within a one-hour walking distance of the nearest health center II is 71.73%, increasing to 90.57% through bicycles. Bicycles increased one-hour access to the nearest health center III from 53.05 to 80.57%, increasing access to the tiered integrated national laboratory system by 27.52 percentage points. Significant clusters of low health center access were associated with areas of high poverty and urbanicity. A strong direct relationship between travel time to health center and poverty exists at all health center levels. Strong disparities between urban and rural populations exist, with rural poor residents facing disproportionately long travel time to health center compared to wealthier urban residents.ConclusionsThe results of this study highlight how the most vulnerable Ugandans, who are the least likely to afford transportation, experience the highest prohibitive travel distances to health centers. Bicycles appear to be a “pro-poor” tool to increase health access equity.

Health-system equity, egalitarian democracy and COVID-19 outcomes: An empirical analysis.

Aims:The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a spate of studies showing a close connection between inequitable access to health care, welfare services and adverse outcomes from the pandemic. Others have argued that democratic governments have generally failed relative to more autocratic ones, simply because autocrats can make the hard choices required for stemming the spread of viruses. We address this question by asking whether more ‘egalitarian’ forms of democracy matter, given that they contain more equitable health-care access and societal infrastructure, such as social capital and trust.Methods:We use standard regression techniques, including instrumental variables analysis addressing endogeneity on COVID-19 testing and deaths data as of the end of May and beginning of September. We use novel data from the Varieties of Democracy Project on health-system equity and egalitarian democracy.Results:Our results suggest that more equitable access to health care increases testing rates and lowers the death rate from COVID-19. Broader egalitarian governance, measured as egalitarian democracy, however, shows the opposite effect. Thus, factors associated with health-care capacity to reach and treat matter more than broader societal factors associated with social capital and trust. The results are robust to alternative testing procedures, including instrumental variable technique for addressing potential endogeneity.Conclusions:Despite a great deal of public health focus on how equitable governance helps fight the adverse effects of so-called neoliberal pandemics, we find that broadly egalitarian factors have had the opposite effect on fighting COVID-19, especially when an equitable health system has been taken into account. Fighting disease, thus, might be more about the capacity of health systems rather than societal factors, such as trust in government and social capital.

Development and Expansion in the Marine Social Sciences: Insights from the Global Community

Increasing recognition of the human dimensions of climate change, pollution, exploitation, and other threats to the marine environment has resulted in an expansion of marine social science research in recent years. The importance of understanding the complexities of societal relationships with our global ocean, seas and coasts, and how this might influence sustainable management and effective and equitable governance, will be crucial to address the challenges facing our marine systems. Given their growing importance, this paper seeks to undertake a global assessment of the current status and trends in marine social science research and outline the next steps and key directions for the field. Specifically, by adapting established horizon scanning methods, we conduct a survey of the global marine social science research and practitioner community. We find that current research within the marine social sciences is broad, and focused on themes relating to (but not limited to) governance and decision-making, stakeholder participation and engagement, the socio-cultural dimensions of marine systems, ocean literacy, community-based and area-specific management, and the blue economy. We also identify priorities for future research, for example, relating to aspects of social justice, welfare and equity in relation to the use and governance of marine systems, blue growth and the expansion of marine industries, and enhancing ocean literacy to build ocean stewardship and citizenship. Our results, however, suggest several barriers that may prevent the extent to which the marine social sciences can continue to expand and develop in these directions. Barriers include, but are not limited to, the relationship between marine social sciences and other disciplines (i.e. lack of acceptance of marine social science as a legitimate discipline) and the visibility and recognition of marine social science both internal and external to academia (e.g. by policy-makers and practitioners). Finally, we identify a series of enablers for overcoming the barriers identified (e.g. promoting marine social sciences, engaging stakeholders and enlisting champions and building interdisciplinary teams). In doing so, this paper generates prospective thinking and highlights recommendations for effective marine social science research and practice, as well as the potential for interdisciplinary collaboration into the future.

From Blue Economy to Blue Communities: reorienting aquaculture expansion for community wellbeing

Efforts to expand the marine aquaculture industry often draw on a discourse of opportunity that highlights untapped potential for economic growth. This discourse also underlies the more general concept of Blue Economy in which oceans are a frontier for economic development. Marine aquaculture is seen as an important part of Blue Economy, but the current discourse overlooks evidence that straightforward trickle-down effects—from aggregate economic growth at the national level to holistic benefits at the community level—rarely exist for marine aquaculture. Using the case of marine aquaculture in the United States, we argue that a shift in focus to community wellbeing is necessary to realize the potential benefits of marine aquaculture expansion. More generally, we suggest that marine aquaculture illustrates the need to reorient Blue Economy to Blue Communities, a concept that draws on the multidimensional concept of wellbeing to foreground social, cultural, and environmental factors alongside economic growth. With attention to just and equitable governance embedded in place and context, marine aquaculture can grow in ways that enhance wellbeing in Blue Communities while supporting broader economic development.

Transferrable Principles to Revolutionize Drinking Water Governance in First Nation Communities in Canada

There are analogous challenges when it comes to the management and provision of health services and drinking water in First Nations reserves in Canada; both represent human rights and both involve complex and multijurisdictional management. The purpose of this study is to translate the tenets of Jordan’s Principle, a child-first principle regarding health service provision, within the broader context of First Nation drinking water governance in order to identify avenues for positive change. This project involved secondary analysis of data from 53 semi-structured, key informant (KI) interviews across eight First Nation communities in western Canada. Data were coded according to the three principles of: provision of culturally inclusive management, safeguarding health, and substantive equity. Failure to incorporate Traditional Knowledge, water worldviews, and holistic health as well as challenges to technical management were identified as areas currently restricting successful drinking water management. Recommendations include improved infrastructure, increased resources (both financial and non-financial), in-community capacity building, and relationship building. To redress the inequities currently experienced by First Nations when it comes to management of and access to safe drinking water, equitable governance structures developed from the ground up and embedded in genuine relationships between First Nations and Canadian federal government agencies are required.

Governing for Diversity: An Exploration of Practitioners' Urban Forest Preferences and Implications for Equitable Governance

Urban forests are increasingly acknowledged as sources of multiple benefits and central to climate resilience and human wellbeing. Given these diverse and significant benefits, it is important to govern urban forests so as to ensure that all residents have equitable access and enjoyment. Understanding urban forest preferences, and including them in planning and management, is a key aspect of informed and contextually-relevant urban forest governance. Although many studies have examined public urban forest preferences, we lack an understanding of the preferences of a key stakeholder: urban foresters. This study presents the results of semi-structured interviews with 22 urban forestry and allied green practitioners focused on preferred and least-preferred aspects of the urban forest. Participants expressed their preferred urban forest characteristics according to four themes: administration, spatial attributes, naturalness, and social benefits. Least-preferred characteristics were expressed under the themes of administration and degradation. Results suggest that practitioners employ a systems-level lens when discussing urban forest preferences, in contrast to the general public. However, they also draw on personal experience when constructing their preferences, particularly in relation to naturalness and spatial diversity. These results highlight the importance of recognitional green equity and mosaic governance in urban forestry, to facilitate a just balance amongst the diverse preferences of urban forest stakeholders.

Criminalization and the Improvement of the Punishment System

China’s existing punishment system is rational in that it accords with realities and is based on historical continuity. Any adjustments should only be premised on maintaining its basic framework and upholding the spirit of the rule of law while promoting equitable human rights protection and efficient social governance. That is, the administrative detention stipulated in such administrative laws as the Public Security Administrative Penalties Law should be abolished; the type of penalty in these laws should optimized; and at the same time all penalties aimed at depriving people of their liberty should be transferred to the Criminal Law. Whether deprivation of liberty is involved should be made the criterion for distinguishing the range of adjustments to the Criminal Law and those administrative laws that stipulate penalties. Therefore, judgments of the punishability (strafbarkeit) of criminal penalties should be made the main basis for adjusting the de jure boundaries of the scope of the Criminal Law. We should develop a rational and balanced criminalization path and a reasonable and just system of punishment.

Turbulent transformation: abrupt societal disruption and climate resilient development

ABSTRACT COVID-19 has triggered major upheavals to life as we know it in every corner of the planet. The governance response has been deep and far-reaching, albeit variable and contradictory. Disruptions like the pandemic inspire new perspectives on climate resilient development, especially with respect to the role of governance in navigating transformations. We reflect on what reactions and responses to COVID-19 around the world suggest about society’s ability to transform – and what types of global development we need to transform away from – in order to support more climate resilient and equitable futures. We identify three key pivot points to stimulate further thinking on governance for climate resilient development: the tension between engendering transformation and returning back to normal; the role of disruption and uncertainty for triggering transformation; and the role of systemic inequality in how people are affected by crises. In particular, we spotlight the turbulent nature of transformation, and challenge the dominant belief that predicted, controlled and desired outcomes can be engineered through rational policy decisions. Climate resilient development navigates the turbulence of transformation through solidarity and socially equitable governance by opening up space for inclusive and even contestatory politics.

Regulating Equitable Water Resources Governance in Indonesia

This research starts from the case where Law Number 17 of 2019 is seen to support privatisation (commercialisation) and the control over rights to water that can trigger injustice. This surely contravenes Article 33 of the 1945 Indonesian Constitution. Indication concerning water commercialisation is clearly stated on Article 46 of Law Number 17 of 2019 stating that private companies can play a role in running drinking water system. The state guarantees the rights of every individual to water to fulfil their daily primary need as regulated in Article 33 Paragraph (2) and (3) of the 1945 Indonesian Constitution. In reference to that issue, what is implemented is that the state guarantees the availability and management of water resources for the citizens of Indonesia, which is aimed for more optimal water resources management to achieve social justice. This is a legal research employing statute and historical approaches. In terms of regulating water resources governance following the reform to date, there has not been an indicator showing the practice of good environmental governance, and this has raised an impact causing a gap in water services for members of public. There seems to be a connection between centralistic legal politics and what influences political patterns that are pro-investment, leading to a counter-productive issue to the effectuation of justice and the principle of good governance.

Demographic Responses to Political Transformation in Africa

Gender inequality in Africa remains ambiguous because of the steep challenges of women empowerment and development. Little has been done on the influence of equitable governance on women’s empowerment in Africa. Besides, previous empirical studies are limited to studying the influence of democracy on gender equality in education and fail to offergeneralisable conclusions. These mixedresults have motivated us to evaluate the relationshipbetween a shift in political regime and different measures of women’s empowerment in selected Africa countries. Data on indices of women empowerment and political transformation from 1980 through 2017 were analysed using the Pooled Mean Group Panel estimation procedure. It is expected that demographic responses should influence transformation in the political arena in Africa. Therefore, the African government, through legislative and executive domains, should demonstrate a sincere transformational plan for the inclusion of women at all levels.

Do Advanced Information Technologies Produce Equitable Government Responses in Coproduction: An Examination of 311 Systems in 15 U.S. Cities

This article seeks to answer the following primary research question: Do governments respond differently to citizen service requests depending on where those requests originate in the city? This study is particularly salient in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests in response to police violence or the gross neglect of infrastructure in Flint, MI. Although numerous studies have been able to demonstrate bias in policing, few (if any) have looked at biases that may be present in other types of general government services. Empirical evidence has supported the claims by some that some cities were responding slower to service requests made in poor and minority neighborhoods than they were in the richer, whiter neighborhoods, but these earlier works were from an era before 311. The article seeks to fill this gap in the modern coproduction literature to evaluate whether advanced information technologies enable equitable responses by governments. The results of our 15-city study of 311 systems (nonemergency service requests made by city residents) demonstrate no systematic differences in how the cities respond that would indicate a bias against minorities and poorer residents. Unsurprisingly, the effects are not consistent across all of our sample cities. Although some cities have statistically significant differences showing slower responses for these neighborhoods and others show quicker, the practical differences are so small as to be of little concern during our study period (2007–2016).

Material deceptions and the qualities of time

Material deceptions and the qualities of time

Social Learning for Facilitating Dialogue and Understanding of the Ecosystem Services Approach: Lessons from a Cross-Border Experience in the Alboran Marine Basin

Social learning (SL) appears to have considerable potential to enhance the impact of the ecosystem services approach (ESA) discourse on policy and society. However, empirical research to better understand the processes that support SL, the effects it generates, and the conditions that enable such learning is limited. This study assesses the ability of SL to enhance dialogue and understanding of the ESA to support transformative social change in governance practice in the Alboran Marine Basin. To do so, we conducted a specifically designed SL process oriented towards the ESA as a governance approach in this marine region. The SL process was developed through three interlinked workshops involving scientists, decision-makers and local users from Spain and Morocco, the two countries that share the governance of this social-ecological system. The results revealed that the SL process progressively facilitated (i) a more inclusive and constructive ecosystem services dialogue, (ii) a better understanding of the social-ecological system in which the actors were embedded, (iii) an enhanced recognition of science-policy-society complementarities to address sustainability issues, and (iv) a gradual social transformation towards more sustainable and equitable governance. Via the SL process, a variety of factors were identified as contributing to the creation of four relevant conditions that facilitated its successful operationalisation. These conditions included (i) the generation of trust and shared understanding, (ii) the facilitation of knowledge exchanges between actor groups across frontiers, (iii) the promotion of more democratic participation, and (iv) the co-production of practical outcomes. These contextual insights provided empirical evidence of the prominent role SL can play to enhance dialogue and understanding of the ESA for supporting its adoption as governance practice. On this basis, it is argued that operationalising SL in those processes focused on making the ESA relevant to policy and society is pivotal to its implementation in governance practice.

Leveraging public adaptation finance through urban land reclamation: cases from Germany, the Netherlands and the Maldives

Flood risk in urban areas around the world is increasing due to socio-economic development and climate change. Urban climate adaptation measures are beneficial over the longer term, particularly in coastal areas, yet the upfront costs of such measures are significant. Moreover, public actors responsible for adaptation to flood risk face constrained budgets. A promising strategy for overcoming these constraints and enabling greater adaptation investment is land reclamation that includes adaptation, i.e. flood risk reduction. Land reclamation in high-value urban areas can generate substantial revenues through the sale or lease of new land, or taxes on increased economic activities, thus offsetting public adaptation investments. This paper explores the potential of land reclamation for leveraging public adaptation investments and associated distributional issues, by analysing 3 urban land reclamation and adaptation projects in Germany, the Netherlands and the Maldives. We find that all projects have leveraging potential, and leveraging in projects primarily aimed at land creation is particularly high. Further, due to low adaptation costs needed to protect revenue streams in such projects, these investments appear to be ‘low-regret’. Regarding distributional aspects, high project costs and limited public budgets for adaptation constrain public actors’ ability to ensure equitable outcomes through planning instruments, for example, social housing. Further, in implementation, competition for project benefits can lead to further inequalities. We conclude that urban land reclamation presents a significant opportunity to leverage public adaptation investments under certain conditions. We further outline future research needs including to extend land-based financing theory from related urban infrastructure sectors to inform the design of equitable governance arrangements and to better understand the role of such urban land reclamation projects in regional or national development pathways.

Communication Within and Among Faith-Based Organizationsin Community Empowerment Program

The issue of this research is concerning the communication within and among Zakat Management Organizations (OPZs) as Faith-Based Organization (FBO). The main research problem is how OPZ(s) can successfullydevelop cooperationin increasing both public trust and institutional productivity. Interpretive Approach through Social Construction Theory was used as a reference to see the process of organizational communication through OPZ’s communicator ethos. The research method used was qualitative with a technique of case study, and informants were from OPZ’s West Java unit. The results showed that the communicator ethos as a source of credibility in communicationwithin and among OPZs, derived from Islamic Teachings, applicable (positive)laws, and basic guidelines of OPZs, can produce organizational values as the basis of implementing cooperation in community empowerment programs. Cooperation among OPZsin an empowerment program is more related to personal power and interpersonal power aspectsthan to political power aspect. There is a need to strengthen openness and mutual trust values among the OPZs, changes in zakat regulation, more transparent, accountable and equitable governance in order to increase trust, realization of zakat potentials, and prosperity.