Independent Government Agency Research Articles

Enhancing environmental policy through evidence synthesis: a review of the Environmental Evidence for the Future (EEF) Initiative

The Environmental Evidence for the Future (EEF) Initiative emerged in response to the challenges and opportunities presented by the UK’s decision to leave the European Union and its associated Environmental Frameworks. The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), working closely with the Collaboration for Environmental Evidence (CEE) and UK stakeholders, developed the initiative to identify and address crucial evidence gaps, offering a long-term vision for environmental policy and sustainability. The EEF Initiative progressed through three stages: strategic priority identification, NERC panel award selection, and the production of Systematic Maps of existing evidence. The first stage involved collaborative workshops across the UK to identify key knowledge gaps in environmental science. The subsequent prioritisation resulted in 65 challenges across 10 thematic areas. The second stage saw NERC initiating, with CEE support, an open call for research proposals emphasising the use of evidence synthesis methodology. The selection process, balancing topic importance and applicant expertise, led to funding for five projects. The final stage involved the production of Systematic Maps of existing evidence based on the CEE Guidelines and Standards, providing a structured overview of existing literature on specific topics. The EEF Initiative demonstrated effective collaboration between UKRI (NERC), an independent non-profit (CEE), academia, and government agencies, addressing critical environmental challenges through rigorous evidence synthesis methodologies. The programme enhanced understanding and utilisation of these methodologies within the research community. Key lessons include the importance of inclusive priority-setting, differentiation between broad policy questions and specific Systematic Map questions, recognition of the value of Systematic Maps, and the role of experience in evidence synthesis teams. As policymakers and researchers navigate environmental policies in a resource-constrained environment, the EEF Initiative highlights the cost-effectiveness and efficiency of systematic mapping and review processes for evidence-based decision-making. The success of funding through NERC sets a precedent for future thematic evidence focused programmes, emphasising the need for continued support in developing synthesis skills among researchers and encouraging direct government commissions for targeted and responsive evidence. The EEF Initiative serves as a model for effective collaboration, providing valuable insights into addressing evidence gaps and shaping evidence-based policymaking in an ever-evolving environmental landscape.

Establishing a national biosafety and biosecurity agency for the United States.

The rapid advancement of biological research and biotechnology requires a novel and robust regulatory agency to ensure uniform biosafety and biosecurity governance in the United States. The current fragmented regulatory landscape needs to be refocused to address the complexities of modern biological research, including risks associated with accidental, inadvertent, and deliberate biological incidents. An independent government agency, which we call the National Biosafety and Biosecurity Agency (NBBA), that is devoted to biosafety and biosecurity could effectively address these challenges. The NBBA would consolidate various regulatory functions, streamline processes, and enhance oversight. This oversight would encompass life sciences research in the United States, regardless of the source of funding or level of classification. The agency could also contribute to the bioeconomy by streamlining requirements to safeguard public health and the environment while fostering scientific and commercial progress. The proposed agency would govern high-risk biological pathogens, manage the Federal Select Agent Program, enforce policies related to dual use research of concern, pathogens with enhanced pandemic potential, and nucleic acid synthesis screening, administer regulations on the use and care of laboratory animals, as well as regulate other relevant biosafety and biosecurity activities. The goal would be to provide one-stop shopping for the biomedical research and biotechnology sectors subject to oversight by the Federal government. To ensure leadership in global biosafety and biosecurity, the agency's mission would include international collaboration, applied research, education, workforce development, and coordination with national security initiatives. Creating an agency like the NBBA will be politically challenging but presenting a comprehensive vision and engaging stakeholders early and frequently, and being transparent in the process, will be essential for garnering support. Creating a unified biosafety and biosecurity governance system in the United States will ensure the safe and secure advancement of biological research while sustaining innovation and maintaining international competitiveness.

Sound on the Quiet: Speaker Identification and Auditory Objectivity in Czechoslovak Fonoscopy, 1975-90.

Audio technologies that allowed eavesdropping on private conversations were a key tool in Cold War-era surveillance practices. In 1975, in the midst of the Cold War, a criminal police agency called the Fonoscopy Department was established in Czechoslovakia's capital, Prague, to explore the forensic potential of sound analysis for speaker identification. This article reveals for the first time that, aside from the well-known Czechoslovak secret police's wiretapping and eavesdropping activities, an independent government agency engaged in forensic fonoscopy, developing sound-based expertise. Examining the department's practices challenges the notion of mechanical and visually grounded objectivity to show how forensic science negotiated objective knowledge at the intersection of aural analysis and visualization technologies. More generally, the article contributes to debates on utilizing "sonic skills" to produce knowledge and evidence for security and legal purposes.

Trends in the incidence, surgical management and outcomes of type B aortic dissections in Australia over the last decade.

This study aims to investigate the incidence and in-hospital outcomes of surgical repair for type B aortic dissection (TBAD) in Australia. Data were obtained from the Australasian Vascular Audit (AVA) and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). The former is a total practice audit mandated for all members of the Australian and New Zealand Society for Vascular Surgery (ANZSVS) while the latter is an independent government agency which records all healthcare data in Australia. All cases of TBAD which underwent surgical intervention (endovascular or open repair) between 2010 and 2019 were identified using prospectively recorded data from the AVA (New Zealand data was excluded). The primary outcomes were temporal trends in procedures and hospital mortality; secondary outcomes were complications and risk factors for mortality. All admissions and procedures for, and hospital deaths from, TBAD in Australia were identified in AIHW datasets using the relevant diagnosis and procedure codes, with age-standardized rates calculated for the period 2000-01 to 2018-19. A total of 567 cases of TBAD underwent vascular surgical intervention (AVA data, Australia). Of these, 96.3% were treated by endovascular repair. There was an increase in the annual procedure number from 45 in 2010 to 88 in 2019. In-hospital mortality was 4.8% for endovascular repair and 19% for open repair (p = 0.021). From 2000-01 to 2018-19, the age-standardized procedure rates for TBAD (Australia) doubled, the proportion of admitted patients undergoing a procedure rose from 28% to 43%, and in-hospital deaths fell by 25%. There has been an increasing incidence of vascular surgical intervention for TBAD in Australia. The majority of patients received endovascular therapy while the mortality from surgically managed TBAD appears to be falling.

COVID-19 Testing in Sweden During 2020-Split Responsibilities and Multi-Level Challenges.

Sweden's use of soft response measures early in the COVID-19 pandemic received a good deal of international attention. Within Sweden, one of the most debated aspects of the pandemic response has been COVID-19 testing and the time it took to increase testing capacity. In this article, the development of and the debate surrounding COVID-19 testing in Sweden during 2020 is described in detail, with a particular focus on the coordination between national and regional actors in the decentralised healthcare system. A qualitative case study was carried out based on qualitative document analysis with a chronological presentation. To understand COVID-19 testing in Sweden, two aspects of its public administration model emerged as particularly important: (i) the large and independent government agencies and (ii) self-governing regions and municipalities. In addition, the responsibility principle in Swedish crisis management was crucial. Overall, the results show that mass testing was a new area for coordination and involved a number of national and regional actors with partly different views on their respective roles, responsibilities and interpretations of the laws and regulations. The description shows the ambiguities in the purpose of testing and the shortcomings in communication and cooperation during the first half of 2020, but after that an increasing consistency among the crucial actors. During the first half of 2020, testing capacity in Sweden was limited and reserved to protect the most vulnerable in society. Because mass testing for viruses is not normally carried out by the 21 self-governing regions responsible for healthcare and communicable disease prevention, and the Public Health Agency of Sweden stated that there was no medical reason to test members of the public falling ill with COVID-like symptoms, the responsibility for mass testing fell through the cracks during the first few months of the pandemic. This article thus illustrates problems associated with multi-level governance in healthcare during a crisis and illustrates the discrepancy between the health service's focus on the individual and the public health-oriented work carried out within communicable disease control.

School quality ratings are weak predictors of students' achievement and well-being.

In England, all state-funded schools are inspected by an independent government agency, the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted). Inspections aim to hold schools accountable and to promote the improvement of education, with the results made available to the public. Ofsted reports intend to index school quality, but their influence on students' individual outcomes has not been previously studied. The aim of the current study was to explore the extent to which school quality, as indexed by Ofsted ratings, is associated with students' educational achievement, well-being and school engagement. We use an England population-based sample of 4,391 individuals, for whom school performance at age 11 and GCSE grades at age 16 were accessed from the National Pupil Database, and who completed measures of well-being and school engagement at age 16. We found that Ofsted ratings of secondary school quality accounted for 4% of the variance in students' educational achievement at age 16, which was further reduced to 1% of the variance after we accounted for prior school performance at age 11 and family socioeconomic status. Furthermore, Ofsted ratings were weak predictors of school engagement and student well-being, with an average correlation of .03. Our findings suggest that differences in school quality, as indexed by Ofsted ratings, have little relation to students' individual outcomes. Accordingly, our results challenge the usefulness of Ofsted ratings as guides for parents and students when choosing secondary schools.

Implementation Study of Public Policies, Synergity of Policy for Defense Area and National Area Spatial in Grati Pasuruan

The development of a global, regional and national strategic environment has led to the development of factual and potential threats that must be faced by Indonesia. A strong defense is needed that is supported by all available resources, one of which is related to the area of defense. This research will analyze the implementation of defense areas, especially military training areas in Grati Pasuruan. Problems arise in several regions of Indonesia related to defense areas, even to the point of causing fatalities as happened in the TNI AL Grati Pasuruan training area. For this reason, this research is aimed at analyzing how the spatial planning of defense policy is currently implemented. The theory used is the theory of Van Matter and Van Horn policy implementation. The method used in this research is a qualitative method with a phenomenological approach. The results showed that the implementation of the defense area policy could not be carried out, due to the finding of inhibiting factors, namely the lack of coordination from the regional government and the Ministry of Home Affairs in planning and ratifying the regional spatial planning, resulting in overlapping in the utilization of an area. The supporting factors are that all policies related to regional spatial regulation already exist. So that in this research suggestion is to bring back an independent government agency, whose task is to coordinate and make decisions regarding spatial planning, this independent institution will act as a policy force driver in national spatial planning. As a recommendation, the Pasuruan Regency regional regulation related to spatial planning to be evaluated and an independent institution be formed immediately by strengthening policies to the operational level. Keywords: Defense Area, Spatial Planning, Implementation DOI : 10.7176/PPAR/9-11-04 Publication date: November 30 th 2019

Independent government agencies in Iraq / Integrity Commission a model

The state did not witness the emergence of independent bodies because of the nature of the ruling regimes that were characterized by political tyranny represented by the king at the time, as is the case with Greece and the Greeks and Persia and the Romans and others. As for the Islamic state, which emerged later, it saw the emergence of what looks like independent bodies that we see today, There was the so-called Diwan Al-Hesba and the Ombudsman's Office as an independent body from the Islamic State, which operated independently to support the oppressed and the equitable distribution of financial resources, even though it was headed by well-known governors of justice and honesty. A state in the modern era, many countries, especially in Europe, have seen the emergence of independent bodies in them and have become models to be emulated in many countries of the world as in France, the United States and Britain.

Changes on tap at U.S. Chemical Safety Board

After a briefing in late June, Vanessa Allen Sutherland formally ended her three-year stint as chair of the U.S. Chemical Safety & Hazard Investigation Board (CSB). She described her term on the board as a “fix-it” role for the small independent government agency, which investigates chemically related industrial accidents. She refused to say exactly why she cut short her five-year board term other than a need for more time for her family. However, rail transportation company Norfolk Southern announced on June 25 that Sutherland was joining the company as a vice president. Sutherland took over board leadership in 2015 after a period when CSB was under attack by members of Congress and federal oversight agencies. U.S. President Barack Obama had called for the resignation of the board’s then leader, whom Sutherland replaced. CSB stakeholders hoped that Sutherland’s arrival would calm the turbulence and let the agency refocus on what it

Criminalizing Indigenous Rights

Brazil is in the midst of perhaps the most sweeping criminalization of indigenous rights in recent history. The “ruralists,” politicians in Congress with ties to the country’s influential agribusiness lobby, are pushing through legislation to rob independent government agencies of the ability to designate ancestral land for indigenous peoples. Brazilian journalist Fernanda Canofre reports on the politics behind the nation’s land battles, which killed more than 60 people last year.

Inquiry into funding and delivery of programs to reduce homelessness

Inquiry into funding and delivery of programs to reduce homelessness

GeoFORCE: Inspiring the geoscientists of tomorrow through field experiences

In line with SEG's mission of connecting and inspiring the people and science of geophysics, GeoFORCE Texas has provided a field-camp experience for more than 1500 high school students since the inaugural field experience in 2005. GeoFORCE Texas can be described as a collective-impact initiative, the mission of which is to increase the number of students pursuing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) degrees in college and moving into the future high-tech workforce, with an emphasis on degrees and careers in the geosciences. A collective impact is described as “the commitment of a group of important actors from different sectors to a common agenda for solving a specific social problem.” The important actors in GeoFORCE are corporations, foundations, targeted independent school districts, state and federal government agencies, and a university school of geosciences.

Eco-cities as an Assemblage of Worlding Practices

Eco-cities are gaining attention in policy and academic circles over the past few years. Yet they pose difficulties as objects of study since they have been diversely defined and implemented. This paper argues that eco-cities are better understood as an assemblage of worlding practices. Combining these two concepts foregoes the emphasis on the eco-city’s physical structures and focuses more on its policy environment and its relations with other locations. The case study being examined is the Philippine’s Clark Green, the country’s first eco-city project. Its main proponent is an independent government agency, the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA), tasked with developing former military locations for civilian uses. Their vision is to create a world-class project built by international stakeholders in order to elevate the status of the Philippines and the Filipinos. They have chosen to emulate the Songdo International Business District in South Korea as their benchmark model. Not only are they adopting the ideas of a smart city but also similar strategies to enter the international education and logistics industries. The paper will show how the BCDA uses the eco-city idea as a tool to enter various national and international discourses that extend beyond the project’s geographical boundaries. Yet the strategies and visions of an independent government-owned corporation are tempered by challenges from local stakeholders, conflicting national priorities, and failures from similar policies applied elsewhere. The paper highlights the need for worlding projects to be embedded in their own national context for greater policy coordination.

Utilizing Telehealth to Support Treatment of Acute Stress Disorder in a Theater of War: Prolonged Exposure via Clinical Videoconferencing.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and acute stress disorder are prevalent mental health diagnoses associated with the military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and are especially significant in service members returning from combat. Prolonged exposure (PE) therapy is a highly effective behavioral treatment for these symptoms, and providing this treatment as soon as possible, even in the midst of a soldier's combat deployment, has strong potential benefits. In the current case study, telehealth technology was used to support the delivery of PE therapy to treat a service member diagnosed with acute stress disorder in a war zone. PE was conducted face-to-face on the relatively secure Forward Operating Base for the first half of therapy and via clinical videoconferencing (CV) to the service member's remote combat outpost during the later stages of therapy. The service member exhibited marked improvements in symptoms over 10 sessions. Results are consistent with previous empirical findings and highlight the potential benefits of using telehealth to deliver evidenced-based treatment for traumatic stress disorders in a war zone. This case study provides a preliminary working model for delivering PE in a combat environment using multiple delivery systems. Benefits and clinical utility of CV-delivered exposure therapy are discussed, particularly for providers pending future operational deployments (e.g., including members of the military, independent government agencies, and first responders) and for those treating patients in remote locations.

Assessing the pro-poor effect of different contracting schemes for health services on health facilities in rural Afghanistan.

Despite progress in improving health outcomes in Afghanistan by contracting public health services through non-governmental organizations (NGOs), inequity in access persists between the poor and non-poor. This study examined the distributive effect of different contracting types on primary health services provision between the poor and non-poor in rural Afghanistan. Contracts to NGOs were made to deliver a common set of primary care services in each province, with the funding agencies determining contract terms. The contracting approaches could be classified into three contracting out types (CO-1, CO-2 and CO-3) and a contracting-in (CI) approach based on the contract terms, design and implementation. Exit interviews of patients attending randomly sampled primary health facilities were collected through systematic sampling across 28 provinces at two time points. The outcome, the odds that a client attending a health facility is poor, was modelled using logistic regression with a robust variance estimator, and the effect of contracting was estimated using the difference-in-difference approach combined with stratified analyses. The sample covered 5960 interviews from 306 health facilities in 2005 and 2008. The adjusted odds of a poor client attending a health facility over time increased significantly for facilities under CO-1 and CO-2, with odds ratio of 2.82 (1.49, 5.36) P-value 0.001 and 2.00 (1.33, 3.02) P-value 0.001, respectively. The odds ratios for those under CO-3 and CI were not statistically significantly different over time. When compared with the non-contracting facilities, the adjusted ratio of odds ratios of poor status among clients was significantly higher for only those under CO-1, ratio of 2.50 (1.32, 4.74) P-value 0.005. CO-1 arrangement which allows contractors to decide on how funds are allocated within a fixed lump sum with non-negotiable deliverables, and actively managed through an independent government agency, is effective in improving equity of health services provision.

Independent Drug Testing to Ensure Drug Safety and Efficacy

This article analyzes a reform proposal that would preclude bias in clinical trials used to test drugs that is inherent in the current system where the pharmaceutical firms sponsoring the drug designs the clinical trial and selects the researchers who will conduct the research. Under the current approach manufacturers can frame the research in a way that biases the result. Moreover, organizations that perform the research depend on the pharmaceutical firm sponsor for their income, an arrangement that fosters dependency corruption. The reform proposal would remove all drug firm influence on the design and conduct of clinical trials used to decide whether to allow marketing of a drug. A federal agency would select the researchers to design and conduct the phase II and III clinical trial, or the clinical trial would be conducted by an independent government agency. The pharmaceutical firm that wished to market the drug would be required to finance the clinical trial. Between the late 1950s and 1980s, reformers and congressional leaders championed variations of this proposal, but pharmaceutical industry opposition blocked its enactment and so the federal government pursued alternative strategies, which have proved ineffective. By the mid-1990s, scandals prompted several leaders in drug policy and research to again advocate legislation to require independent drug testing. The paper concludes by the discussing difficulties that will arise in implementing this proposal and how these can be overcome.

Consumer perception of beneficial effects of probiotics for human health

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the knowledge, perception and buying behaviour of probiotics. 72 participants in Middelburg, the Netherlands, filled out a detailed questionnaire regarding probiotics and their customer and consumer behaviour. It can be concluded from this study that the concept of probiotics is generally poorly understood. Health-conscious consumers seem to be the group most aware of the correct meaning of the term probiotics. Almost 50% of the participants did not believe that probiotics had any health effect. Independent organisations and/or government agencies appeared to be the preferred source of information on the functionality of probiotics.

Collective and individual alternative dispute resolution in France and Britain

The paper compares trends and case studies of individual and collective employment conflicts in France and the UK. Its focus is on the extent to which conciliation, mediation and mediation are used within the two different industrial relations systems. In both, third-party intervention is associated with the legitimacy conveyed by the involvement of both employers and trade unions, or by the presence of an impartial judge. The research finds extensive use of alternative dispute resolution is taking place in both countries, with dispute resolution taking place commonly in the justice system in France, while in the UK there is extensive use made of the arms-length independent government agency, Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service. However, the research concludes that the most effective third-party interventions take place when they are combined with mobilisation, rather than merely being the sole form of dispute resolution.

The National Zoological Gardens of South Africa: a National Research Facility

The National Zoological Gardens of South Africa (NZG) has been a declared National Research Facility of the National Research Foundation (NRF) since 1 April 2004. As an independent government agency, the NRF promotes and supports research in all knowledge fields. The National Research Facilities, placed under the custodianship of the NRF, contribute to the provision of a high-quality research platform for the research community across the national science system. The NZG as a National Research Facility is in a unique position to generate new knowledge, core technologies and data pools/collections commensurate with international standards. It provides a critical mass of equipment, skills and users and the potential for networking and attracting collaboration. The facility offers unique opportunities for the advancement of science and for an interface between science and the public, and the additional provision of opportunities for people development. The broad strategic contexts of the NZG are thematic drivers. These drivers focus on the way the organization attracts, develops and retains talent. The aim is to uphold excellence in all investments in knowledge, people and infrastructure.

Restructuring Taiwan's port state control inspection authority

Abstract To improve marine transportation safety, countries around the world have established authorities dedicated to implementing port state control (PSC). Appropriate measures have also been taken to ensure that these dedicated organizations are given enough power to carry out their duties independently and credibly as a safety mechanism. In contrast, Taiwan's existing PSC inspections are administrated by commercial port authorities, causing impartiality. The disadvantages of such a system become evident when a ship is found to have critical faults, because commercial port authorities have difficulty deciding whether the ship should be detained. Under such circumstances, the impartiality and objectivity of these port authorities are often questioned. Therefore, the restructuring of port authorities to improve dedication and objectivity is a critical issue in the implementation of PSC. This research uses three stages of methodology: (1) the in-depth expert interviews aim to gather information; (2) the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) calculates the weight of guidelines and evaluates feasible solutions. Port state control officers (PSCOs), maritime transport operators, and the staffs of competent authorities are used as the respondents of this expert questionnaire; and (3) the close-loop questionnaire survey evaluates and confirms the results of the above two research processes. The objective of this research is to create the best solution for introducing an independent authority dedicated to managing Taiwan's PSC tasks. Based on the evaluation of this research study, the optimal solution is to establish an independent government agency under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC). An alternative optimal solution is to form a PSC committee under MOTC, which would serve as a temporary measure if legislation for establishing an independent government agency is delayed. These solutions would improve the PSC in Taiwan and strengthen marine transportation safety.