Free Basic Services Research Articles

Water and welfare: Free basic water revisited

ABSTRACT This paper reviews South Africa’s efforts to realise the right to water from a welfare policy perspective. ‘Free basic water’ (FBW), initially a water sector policy, was later recognised to be part of the country’s wider social protection framework. However, while the principle of providing poor households with free basic services has been sustained, FBW has not provided reliable access for many of its intended beneficiaries. Analysis of the policy, implementation and performance of the programme identifies unresolved policy tensions between welfare objectives and other government priorities, reflected in the choice of targeted rather than universal welfare strategies. It is concluded that these welfare policy tensions have weakened the outcomes of the free basic water policy which are more usually blamed on operational and institutional failures. While the FBW principle is generally accepted, practical performance is often weak.

Research on home care model of intelligent community based on SD model -- Taking Meilin community as an example

The problem of aging has appeared in some countries, and the problem of providing for the aged has become one of the key issues. In recent years, aging has also become a social problem in China, but the current pension model can not meet the diversified and personalized needs of the elderly in China. In this paper, the intelligent community home-based elderly care model has become the forefront of academic research and a new topic of elderly care practice. On this basis, this paper sorts out the research context of the home-based elderly care model in smart communities, and uses Maslow's Hierarchical Needs Theory (MHNT) and Welfare Pluralism Theory (WPT) as research methods to analyze the needs of the elderly and the choice of welfare providers. In addition, this paper uses the method of system dynamics to establish a model to analyze the supply and demand balance of different pension models, and demonstrates the advancement of community home-based pension model. Finally, through the interview and investigation of the staff and managers of the smart community home-based elderly care model in Meilin community, Dongzhi County, Anhui Province, China, this paper summarizes the existing elderly care model in the community, and finds some deficiencies, such as the lack of full-time personnel, the inadequate use of new technologies and the lack of financial support. According to this, the paper puts forward corresponding countermeasures: (1) the problems of personnel can be solved by strengthening the training of service personnel, improving the system of volunteers and community service personnel working together, etc;(2) The problem of technology application can be solved by cooperating with external enterprises or other organizational units in research and development; (3In terms of financial support, it is necessary to broaden the channels of obtaining funds, seek the cooperation of enterprises, and adopt the innovative pension service mode of charging for providing high-end services and using the income for public welfare free basic services to effectively raise funds. Through the above research, the authors can put forward solutions to the pension problems faced by Meilin community, integrate relevant resources, and reduce the social burden.

Is South Africa Building a Capable State through Developmental Local Government?

It is widely agreed that service provision is the biggest challenge facing South African municipalities, particularly smaller municipalities. This paper is a South African Municipality document study and focuses on creating a capable state through the developmental government and the effects of these problems in order to find ways to reduce the problems of service delivery. A qualitative approach was used, and data was collected from various jurisdictions through record review and telephone interviews to fill the data gaps in knowledge. Clean water, work prospects and free basic services have been described by most municipalities as the key service delivery obstacles that hinder the realization of a vision for the developmentally competent local government in South Africa. The study found that yet another problem is political intervention in municipal administration. Although public engagement in civic affairs is a legal necessity, much remains to be done to bring about meaningful participation. Sanitation has always been a challenge for service delivery, particularly in rural communities, due primarily to a lack of infrastructure. Lastly, it was found that municipalities need to do more to create human resources to provide services that resemble a status of a developmentally competent South African local government.

6 months after the start of medical reform of the primary and secondary levels: is everything ok?..

Background. The main goal of reforming the primary health care system (PHC) is to improve its quality and accessibility. At present, 30.45 million declarations have been signed in Ukraine with 23,453 primary care physicians. More than 70 % of those who signed the declaration are satisfied with their family doctor (FD). All PHC utilities have signed the agreements with the National Health Service of Ukraine. However, only 9 % of respondents considered health care reform successful.
 Objective. To describe the current condition of PHC reform.
 Materials and methods. Review of the available statistics and publications on this issue.
 Results and discussion. High-quality transformation of PHC requires consideration of historical experience, regulatory framework, financial efficiency, organization of quality medical care, effective human resources policy, and social efficiency. The groundwork for the current reform began in 2006, when the concept of the State Program for PHC development was adopted. Since 2010, there is a separate medical specialty “General practice – family medicine”. By 2020, there should be a complete retraining of physicians and pediatricians for FD, who had to take care of 80 % of the patient’s needs. New principles of financing for real patients and the functioning of the system allowing to choose a doctor were implemented only in 2017-2020, and all the imperfections of PHC could not be eliminated. FD should be aware that their competence and the depth of services provided are now particularly important. Another task of the reform is to improve the financial efficiency of PHC: streamlining the budget, providing the feasibility and justification of costs, establishing the free package of guaranteed medical services. The disadvantages of the current financial system are that the re-indexation of doctors’ salaries has not taken place, inflation and rising drug prices have not been taken into account. Apart from that, there are no adjustment factors for rural doctors and payment for home visits. The reasons for inefficient funding are the lack of budgetary resources, the inertia of management in the context of frequent changes in the leadership of the Ministry of Health, non-transparent management of some institutions, negative lobbying by representatives of other sectors of health care. The organization of medical care also does not address a number of issues: there are no national screening programs, no criteria for the quality of work of doctors and nurses, and no mechanism of life and health insurance of medical staff. The eHealth system and the personnel aspects of PHC also need improvement. Thus, in 5 out of 6 outpatient clinics there is a shortage of medical staff. The forced retraining of long-serving physicians has provoked considerable resistance, and some of these physicians have never become FD. Among other issues that need to be addressed are the establishment of interactions between the departments of medical universities and clinical bases, legalization of scientific and pedagogical workers in the system of the National Health Service of Ukraine, payment for the work of interns. In terms of social efficiency, the benefits for the patient are the ability to choose a doctor and a PHC facility, the availability of an electronic queue, free basic services, the ability to communicate with a doctor and order medication online. Disadvantages include problems with medical care in case of temporary absence of a doctor, especially unpredicted, lack of possibility of emergency admission in some institutions, long travel distance to the PHC institution.
 Conclusions. 1. The main goal of reforming the PHC system is to improve its quality and accessibility. 2. Qualitative transformation of PHC requires taking into account historical experience, regulatory framework, financial efficiency, organization of quality medical care, effective personnel policy, social efficiency. 3. The current PHC system has a number of gaps that should be gradually addressed. 4. Among other issues that need to be addressed – the establishment of interactions between the departments of medical universities with clinical bases, legalization in the system of the National Health Service of Ukraine of scientific and pedagogical workers, payment for the work of interns. 5. The advantages of the modern PHC system for the patient are the ability to choose a doctor and a PHC facility, the availability of an electronic queue, free basic services, the ability to communicate with a doctor and order medication online.

Nativism in South African municipal indigent policies through a human rights lens

ABSTRACT The dawn of constitutional democracy in South Africa triggered a new wave of immigration into the country. Foreign migrants post-1994 now make up about seven per cent of the country's population. The majority of the new intake are Africans pursuing economic opportunities, or refugees seeking asylum. The convergence of South African citizens and foreigners, especially in the country's major cities, generates competition over space and limited social welfare services which at times degenerates into conflicts with dire consequences. Some South African Ministers and local government leaders have resorted to a nativistic discourse to address competition over limited welfare services and to shield themselves for the failures of the State to achieve the large-scale egalitarian transformation envisaged by the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. This article uses local government indigent policies to show how several South African municipalities use citizenship as a mandatory condition for accessing free basic services, and discusses how the institutionalised blanket exclusion of foreigners from accessing these services violates the obligation of non-discrimation which is protected in international and South African human rights law. Against the backdrop of the government's socio-economic rights obligations, this article argues that it is necessary for some municipal indigent policies to be amended to at least cater for the basic needs of indigent foreigners with a permanent residence permit and those with official refugee status in South Africa. It is argued that the blanket exclusion of these categories of destitute non-citizens without consideration of their immigration status fails to distinguish between those who have become part of South African society and have made their homes in the country and those who are in South Africa on a transient basis. Keywords: Nativism, municipal indigent policies, free basic municipal services, socioeconomic rights, foreigners, permanent residents, refugees, South Africa.

Zero-rating Internet platforms formation: a game theoretic analysis

Zero-rating Internet is a term that is used for not counting data usage of end-users for accessing basic capabilities of some websites via mobile network operators. Recently, an open zero-rating platform called Free Basics is offered by Facebook which in addition to providing free basic services of Facebook to the end-users, it allows other websites to provide their contents as zero-rated through the platform for free. In this paper, we provide a game theoretic analysis to investigate the reasons behind the formation of fully or partially open zero-rating platforms such as Free Basics. For this purpose, a variant of a specific dynamic game called asymmetric volunteer’s timing dilemma is used to model zero-rating platforms formation with content providers as the players. The general solution of the game is determined as a form of sub-game perfect Nash equilibrium (SPNE). Moreover, specific forms of utility functions for content providers are introduced with consideration of network effects to draw SPNE of the game and demonstrate the behaviors of the involved parameters in the game results. The modeling and its solution helps us to explain current state of the zero-rating platforms and its stability. In particular, our result is in accord with the formation of Free Basics platform by Facebook.

The Moving Line Between State Benevolence and Control: Municipal Indigent Programmes in South Africa

‘Municipal indigents’ are a category of poor citizens who qualify to receive certain municipal services for free in South Africa. Having registered as municipal indigents, the poor not only gain access to free basic services but also embark upon a voyage into a bureaucratic underworld where policies are changed and eligibility criteria and sanctions are unevenly applied. Various preconditions and limits on services, as well as social surveillance of indigent households, has turned indigency programmes into a ‘regime’. The policy has swung from hard cost recovery (mass disconnections) during the period 1994–2000 to ‘free’ basic services and, more recently, to social-shaming and criminalisation. This paper provides a thematic account of recent municipal indigent processes in order to explore the ‘moving boundary’ between benevolence and control regarding this crucial citizen–state interface. Based on recent interviews with government officials, a review of relevant government documents, and describing the administrative complexities, the paper reveals aspects of what the poor confront in day-to-day experiences of the state. It is argued that there are lessons for all municipalities seeking a more sustainable and democratic path to citizenship rather than an ongoing low-level war with poor citizens.

Estimating a poverty line: An application to free basic municipal services in South Africa

One of the key interventions aimed at improving the welfare of South African households has been local government's provision of a package of free basic municipal services to poor households. It is, however, not completely clear how different municipalities identify households that are eligible for these services. Evidence suggests that many municipalities currently provide services to all households with a monthly income of less than R1500 a month. This ‘free basic services poverty line’ is, however, low in comparison with a number of unofficial poverty lines used by policymakers and researchers in South Africa. This paper considers the impact of increasing the value of the free basic services line, in terms of the additional share and number of households eligible for support and the additional financial cost. We find that urban municipalities would face the steepest increases in their free basic services budgets with any potential increase in the free basic services poverty line.

Estimating a Poverty Line: An Application to Free Basic Municipal Services in South Africa

One of the key interventions aimed at improving the welfare of South African households has been local government’s provision of a package of free basic services (FBS) to poor households. It is, however, not completely clear how different municipalities identify households which are eligible for FBS. Evidence suggests that many municipalities currently provide services to all households with a monthly income of less than R1500 per month. This “FBS poverty line” is, however, low in comparison with a number of unofficial poverty lines utilised by policymakers and researchers in South Africa. This paper considers the impact of increasing the value of the FBS line, both in terms of the additional share and number of households eligible for support as well as the additional financial cost. We find that urban municipalities will face the steepest increases in their FBS budgets with any potential increase in the FBS poverty line.

GLOBALISATION/COMMODIFICATION OR DEGLOBALISATION/DECOMMODIFICATION IN URBAN SOUTH AFRICA

The main trends in contemporary South African urban policy were set before the end of apartheid, when market logic was adopted with the assistance of the World Bank. Once in power, the African National Congress amplified this logic in several crucial respects, as witnessed in the 1994 housing and 1998 municipal government policies. Those policies failed to address long-standing deficiencies in housing finance, services provision, land distribution, residential segregation and the like. The government is, hence, dealing an intense popular backlash partly characterised by ‘IMF Riot’ reactions, and partly by highly organised, ideologically sophisticated, sustained resistance. The protests began in earnest in 1997, but in 1999 began to take an organisational form that may ultimately presage a new political party. The style, rhetoric and programme of the urban protests are consistent with other international movements associated with the ‘decommodification’ of services and the ‘deglobalisation’ of capital. One result of the backlash, in 2000, was the government's election-time promise of ‘free basic services’ to municipal residents. However, as witnessed in the case of Johannesburg, the turn from neoliberalism is not complete, and struggles continue over services disconnections, pre-paid meters and the shape of water tariffs.