Lessons For Governance Research Articles

Learning from Latin America: Coordinating Policy Responses across National and Subnational Levels to Combat COVID-19

We provide policy lessons for governments across Latin America by drawing on an original dataset of daily national and subnational non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) during the COVID-19 pandemic for eight Latin American countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, and Peru. Our analysis offers lessons for health system decision-making at various levels of government and highlights the impact of subnational policy implementation for responding to health crises. However, subnational responses cannot replace coordinated national policy; governments should emphasize the vertical integration of evidence-based policy from national to local levels while tailoring local policies to local conditions as they evolve. Horizontal policy integration across sectors and jurisdictions will also improve coordination at each level of government. The Latin American experiences with policy and politics during the COVID-19 pandemic project glocal health policy recommendations that connect global considerations with local needs.

Governing intersectional climate justice: Tactics and lessons from Barcelona

AbstractCities and local governments are important actors in the global governance of climate change; however, the specific governance principles and arrangements that enable urban climate plans and policies to realize commitments to social equity and justice remain largely unexplored. This article uses the City of Barcelona, Spain, as a critical case study of emerging “intersectional climate justice” practice, where plans to build resilience to climate change are pursued in conjunction with efforts to tackle structural inequalities in accessing the built environment, health services, energy, housing, and transportation experienced by frontline communities. The study illustrates how Barcelona and its community partners do this through four different categories of governance and decision‐making tactics, which include: (1) experimenting with disruptive planning strategies; (2) working transversally across agencies and actors to institutionalize climate justice over time; (3) putting care at the center of urban planning; and (4) mobilizing place‐based approaches to tackle intersecting vulnerabilities of frontline residents. These tactics seek to redistribute the benefits of climate‐resilient infrastructures more fairly and to enhance participatory processes more meaningfully. Finally, we assess the limitations and challenges of mobilizing these tactics in everyday urban politics. Barcelona's experience contributes to research on climate governance by challenging the notion of distinct waves of governance and revealing concurrent dimensions of climate urbanism that coexist spatially and temporally. Our research also illustrates lessons for fairer climate governance in the city, where different tactics are mobilized to address structural and intersecting socioeconomic vulnerabilities that exacerbate the experience of climate change of frontline residents.

Seeing Cattle like a State: Sedentist Assumptions of the Namibian Livestock Identification and Traceability System

Abstract Livestock identification and traceability systems (LITS) are an increasingly prominent component of national livestock development policies around the world. In theory, LITS allow governments to track and respond to disease and livestock theft efficiently. However, this paper argues that LITS are suffused with sedentist assumptions that are at odds with the livestock management practices of pastoralist communities. Drawing on qualitative interviews with implementing bureaucrats and affected pastoralist communities as well as one author's experience of growing up and managing cattle in a pastoralist community, we review the sedentist assumptions that animate the Namibian Livestock Identification and Traceability System (NamLITS) and describe how pastoralists in north-western Namibia perceive that NamLITS has affected their economic, social and political lives. We then show the strategies that pastoralists use to comply and circumvent NamLITS, and conclude with lessons for governments and development practitioners considering livestock tracing systems and mobile communities affected by them.

Governance and Management of Higher Education in the Commonwealth of Asia: Sharing the Asian Experience for the Common Good in the Commonwealth of Africa

The purpose of this article was to critically explore the experiences and lessons of governance in higher education systems in the Commonwealth of Asia, and most importantly how these experiences and good practices can be applied to the governance and management of higher education in Commonwealth nations, especially in the Commonwealth of Africa. In order to address the purpose of this research study, systematic secondary research was conducted through a keyword search strategy. Using the gathered data, discussions were made on the various governance and management aspects in three Commonwealth Asian countries namely Malaysia, Singapore, and India in aspects and issues such as university autonomy, quality assurance, university-based research development, funding, institutional differentiation, and governance reforms proved salient for discussion. It is important to note that this article is not attempting to address higher education across geopolitical contexts by comparing governance practices between Commonwealth Africa and Commonwealth Asia; instead, it aims to share good practices for the common good and to generate a contextual application of higher education governance practices between the Commonwealth of Asia and the Commonwealth of Africa.

Landscape of team-based care to manage hypertension: results from two surveys in low/middle-income countries

ObjectivesTeam-based care is essential for improving hypertension outcomes in low-resource settings. We assessed perceptions of country representatives and healthcare workers (HCWs) on team-based hypertension care in low/middle-income countries.DesignTwo cross-sectional surveys.SettingThe...

Good Governance as An Economic Driver for Service Delivery: Lessons for South African Government

Good governance is an essential practice which brings sustainable good living standards and remains a pipedream to various countries. As such, the quest for service delivery has prompted the need for leaders at different levels, from the apex national government level to the lowest local government level, to exercise good governance. In the year 2021, over 5 464 complaints of poor service delivery were recorded in South Africa and of 257 South African municipalities, only 16 were in stable condition. However, there are limited previous studies on the relationship between good governance and service delivery. In pursuit of economic development, the purpose of this paper is to investigate good governance and show its spectre of relevance to service delivery with a view to providing lessons to South Africa. The paper dovetails with good governance and service delivery exercised in various developed countries. The study utilised a literature research approach in which the researcher gathered textbooks, seminar and workshop papers, journal articles, and both local and international newspapers and websites. The paper gives the key findings of this study which are useful to the South African Government. The Government of South Africa should develop useful initiatives to support the improvement of service quality along with the existing tools and systems that promote smooth and effective public service delivery.

Political Approach In Islamic Studies

This research aims to to know and understand the meaning of etymology, terminology and characteristics or concrete manifestations of the political approach in Islamic studies, to understand and find out what are the factors that cause the existence of this political approach so that it is used in studying Islamic studies, and to find out and understand what are the academic implications that arise from using this political approach in understanding Islamic studies. This article is written based on the type of literature research with primary data in the form of 30 main references which are divided into 3 material objects to be studied. The research results show that: 1) As a method used in studying Islam in depth, the political approach is always related to the benefit of the people and humans. This shows that politics is not always negative. 2) The existence of a political approach is influenced by several factors. The existence of similarities in the object of study makes Islam deepen through this method. However, it cannot be denied that the differences in the views of the ulama' on the relationship between Islam and politics are also a factor that hinders its existence. 3) A political approach can have a positive impact in the form of several leadership and government lessons that can be applied from the time of the Prophet to his successors caliphs. The existence of a field of Islamic science that specifically discusses government can also be useful for a leader of the people.

Scale, evidence, and community participation matter: lessons in effective and legitimate adaptive governance from decision making for Menindee Lakes in Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin

Rivers and their interdependent human communities form social-ecologically complex systems that reflect basin scale functionally but are often governed by spatially mismatched governance systems. Accounting for this complexity requires flexible adaptive governance systems supported by legitimacy in decision-making processes. Meaningful community dialogue, information exchange, transparency, and scientific rigor are essential to this process. We examined failings in the adaptive governance of the Menindee Lakes system, a major Australian wetland system on the Barka/Darling River of the Murray-Darling Basin. Ecological sustainability of the Menindee Lakes was a casualty of a top-down governance, driven by the New South Wales Government in pursuit of “water savings” for the Murray-Darling Basin, a large scale, federally influenced region. We used quantitative and qualitative methods to analyze long-term social-ecological impacts and stakeholder perceptions of adaptive governance. State and federal government agencies failed basic processes of adaptive governance, ignoring local environmental sustainability in pursuit of basin scale objectives at great cost to governments, communities, humans, and non-humans. This resulted in the development of an ineffective, technocratic solution that lacked community input, leading to a complete loss of support by local communities, including traditional owners. We emphasize the importance of elements of scale in adaptive governance projects, if such projects are going to be effective and legitimate with consequences of coarse commitments to large spatial scale political and environmental objectives.

Governance lessons from the Atlantic Forest to the conservation of the Amazon

Brazilian forests critical are for climate, water, biodiversity, and ecosystem services. The Atlantic Forest and the Amazon are among the most important tropical forests of the world but have different conservation status. The first is below its minimum threshold for biodiversity conservation while the Amazon is approaching its dieback threshold. Aiming to examine policy lessons from the Atlantic Forest which could be applied to the conservation of the Amazon, we first analysed the forest cover of basins of the Amazon compared to the reality of the Atlantic Forest. We found that regions of the Amazon already have forest cover similar to the Atlantic Forest and that 34% of them are below the dieback threshold. We propose policy lessons to avoid that the Amazon follow the same route of the Atlantic Forest and concluded that they need to be implemented urgently in a precautionary approach.

Climate change adaptation of smallholders on the Tibetan plateau under government interventions

The increasing severity of climate change has posed a great challenge to smallholders' livelihoods. In addition to smallholders' autonomous adaptations, policy-makers need to consider how to make sound government interventions to help smallholders effectively adapt to climate change. This study aims to explore how smallholders adapt to climate change under government interventions, and in turn provide recommendations for the government to better promote smallholder adaptation. To achieve this purpose, 1552 household survey data were collected in four agro-pastoral regions of the Tibetan Plateau (TP). A machine learning approach (boosted regression tree, BRT) was used to explore the factors influencing the adaption strategies of smallholders to climate change, especially the role of government interventions in this process. The results show that the smallholders mainly adopted four adaptation strategies (off-home activities, nature reclaiming farmland, raising more livestock, and crop management), while local governments helped them by providing subsidies, training, credit, insurance, and improved varieties; building roads and irrigation facilities; and organizing cooperatives. The results of the BRT model show that the natural capital indicators (elevation, farmland area) were still important factors influencing the smallholders' adoption of adaptation strategies, because natural capital reflects the livelihood basis of smallholders to some extent. The results also suggest that government interventions such as subsidies, cooperatives, and training played an important role in this process. Based on these results, we propose targeted policy recommendations to help local governments improve existing government interventions and to provide lessons for governments in other regions or countries to plan government interventions to promote smallholder adaptation.

Strengths, disconnects and lessons in local and central governance of the response to the first wave of COVID-19 in Ghana.

To explore governance, coordination and implementation actors, structures and processes, facilitators, and barriers within local government and between central and local government in Ghana's COVID-19 response during the first wave of the outbreak. Cross-sectional single case study. Data collection involved a desk review of media, policy and administrative documents and key informant in-depth interviews. Two municipalities in the Greater Accra region of Ghana. Local government decentralised decision makers and officials of decentralised departments. None. None. Coordination between the national and local government involved the provision of directives, guidelines, training, and resources. Most of the emergency response structures at the municipal level were functional except for some Public Health Emergency Management Committees. Inadequate resources challenged all aspects of the response. Coordination between local government and district health directorates in risk communication was poor. During the distribution of relief items, a biased selection process and a lack of a bottom-up approach in planning and implementation were common and undermined the ability to target the most vulnerable beneficiaries. Adequate financing and equipping of frontline health facilities and workers for surveillance, laboratory and case management activities, transparent criteria to ensure effective targeting and monitoring of the distribution of relief items, and a stronger bottom-up approach to the planning and implementation of interventions need to be given high priority in any response to health security threats such as COVID-19. This work is funded by International Development Research Centre Grant No. 109479, Exploring and learning from evidence, policy and systems responses to COVID-19 in West and Central Africa.

Rethinking malaria: Governance lessons from other disease programs.

The global disruptions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the stagnation of progress of global malaria elimination efforts have provided an opportunity to rethink several aspects of the global malaria program, including its governance at all levels, from the community to the nation and to the world. Approaching this issue requires an examination of the critical governance factors that affect malaria elimination as well as lessons that could be learned from the governance of other global health programs. The paper, therefore, first reviews malaria program governance challenges at the global, national, and sub-national levels. We then conducted a literature review of governance factors that affected four major global disease elimination programs; (1) the global smallpox eradication program; (2) polio eradication efforts (focus on Latin America); (3) the onchocerciasis eradication program; and (4) global COVID-19 pandemic control efforts. Based on this review, we identified eight comment governance themes that impact disease elimination programs. These include 1) International support and coordination; 2) Financing; 3) Data use for engagement and decision making, 4) Country ownership; 5) National program structure and management, 6) Community support/engagement; 7) Multisectoral engagement; and 8) Technology and innovation The paper then illustrates how these eight governance themes were factored in the four disease control programs, draws lessons and insights about the role of governance from these programs and outlines the implications for governance of malaria elimination efforts. The paper concludes by making recommendations for improving governance of malaria elimination programs and how the analyses of other global disease control programs can provide new ideas and inspiration for a more robust push towards malaria eradication.

LESSONS TO BE LEARNT FROM THE EXTINCTION OF THE “NATIONAL FLOWER” OF SOUTH AFRICA

The increasing waste problem experienced with plastic bags in South Africa led to the banning of the manufacturing and distribution of thin plastic bags on 9 May 2003 (GN 625 in GG 24839 of 2003-05-09). The promulgation of these regulations was the result of three years of regulatory activity from the side of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT) as well as lengthy negotiations between the government, business and labour sectors. The result of these negotiations was the drafting of a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between organised business, government and labour, which included areas of agreement in relation to issues such as the minimum thickness of plastic bags. It is interesting to note that the consensus between the parties was not embodied in an Environmental Management Co-operation Agreement (EMCA) as provided for in section 35 of the National Environmental Management Act 107 of 1998 (NEMA).It is the intent of this note to reflect on the manner in which the problem of plastic bags was addressed through the regulatory authority of the Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (the Minister). This note furthermore ascertains whether an EMCA could have been a worthwhile instrument to regulate the issue of plastic bags in South Africa. Some proposals are made in conclusion with regard to the usage of an EMCA as a mechanism to address environmental issues.This ex post facto investigation is of value since lessons for government, business and labour may be distilled from the plastic bags experience. It may in addition be of assistance in the application of solutions for future environmental problems. This note does not undertake an extensive examination of the content of the plastic bag regulations, but rather focuses on the manner in which this issue is regulated as well as the process that was embarked upon prior to the promulgation of the regulations.

Assessing biodiversity policy designs in Australia, France and Sweden. Comparative lessons for transformative governance of biodiversity?

ABSTRACT Biodiversity decline undermines the conditions for life on Earth resulting in calls for transformative governance of biodiversity. Under the Convention on Biological Diversity, national biodiversity strategies provide the primary mechanism through which governments demonstrate their conservation efforts. With many countries due to develop new strategies under the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, it is timely to assess existing ones to identify policy design elements that could be ‘ratcheted up’ to meet the transformative agenda. This article analyzes and compares the policy designs of national biodiversity strategies in Australia, France and Sweden. We cover problem framing, policy goals, targeted groups, implementing agents, and policy instruments, to draw lessons on how national strategies can be designed to further support transformation of biodiversity governance. We identify elements in these strategies that can be used to inspire future ones: a negotiated framing of biodiversity and participatory processes in France, nested and integrated goals, targets and measures in Sweden, and an engagement with indigenous knowledge in Australia. However, to bring about transformative change, the analysis also shows the need for novel and fundamental re-designs to successfully target indirect drivers of biodiversity loss, shift power relations, and make biodiversity conservation a priority rather than an option.

Characteristics of Governance for Domains beyond National Jurisdiction: Lessons for Future Outer Space Governance

ABSTRACT Outer space is a domain beyond national jurisdiction where the governance regime is generally permissive. However, as actors and activities increase, additional governance is required. Other domains beyond national jurisdiction already benefit from functioning governance structures that have enabled activities to be conducted in an orderly, peaceful, and equitable manner. Although, as a physical domain, space is unique, the actors and interests are not. The actors are states and private entities. The interests are economic gain, safety and sustainability, national security, and international relations. Governance regimes for international civil aviation, telecommunications, and commercial shipping share common characteristics essential to achieving the consent and cooperation of states. Since the actors in the outer space domain are also states and private entities, and their interests are similar to those which they, by their very nature, pursue in other domains, the common characteristics shared among actors can guide the quest for future governance regimes of outer space.

What factors drive policy transfer in smart city development? Insights from a Delphi study

Smart city initiatives are viewed as an input to existing urban systems to solve various problems faced by modern cities. Making cities smarter implies not only technological innovation and deployment, but also having smart people and effective policies. Cities can acquire knowledge and incorporate governance lessons from other jurisdictions to develop smart city initiatives that are unique to the local contexts. We conducted two rounds of surveys involving 23 experts on an e-Delphi platform to consolidate their opinion on factors that facilitate policy transfer among smart cities. Findings show a consensus on the importance of six factors: having a policy entrepreneur; financial instruments; cities’ enthusiasm for policy learning; capacity building; explicit regulatory mechanisms; and policy adaptation to local contexts. Correspondingly, three policy recommendations were drawn. Formalizing collaborative mechanisms and joint partnerships between cities, setting up regional or international networks of smart cities, and establishing smart city repositories to collect useful case studies for urban planning and governance lessons will accelerate policy transfer for smart city development. This study sheds light on effective ways policymakers can foster policy learning and transfer, especially when a jurisdiction's capacity is insufficient to deal with the uncertainties and challenges ahead. • Consolidated opinions of 23 experts via two rounds of e-Delphi study on smart cities. • Identified six key factors to foster policy learning and transfer in smart cities. • Policy capacity, context sensitivity, financial and regulatory tools are crucial. • Policy entrepreneurs and enthusiasm to learn also drive inter-city policy transfer. • We also suggest formalising collaborative mechanisms and smart city repositories.

Introduction to the Special Issue “Bringing Governance Back Home: Lessons for Local Government Regarding Rapid Climate Action”

There is a growing recognition both that rapid action on climate change is urgently necessary, and that many of the responsibilities for this action (e [...]

Towards a constructed order of co-governance: Understanding the state-society dynamics of neighbourhood collaborative responses to COVID-19 in urban China.

The state-society relationship in neighbourhood governance has been a focal topic in the urban governance literature, though the existing scholarship was primarily drawn from non-crisis situations. Adopting a mixed-methods approach, this study investigates the intricate state-society dynamics manifested at the neighbourhood scale as state and societal actors collaborated during China's COVID-19 responses. Our study reveals a pattern of collaborative rather than confrontational dynamics between resident committees and other stakeholders during pandemic responses, which reflects the emergence of a constructed order of neighbourhood co-governance in urban China. Previous community-building reforms consolidated the political legitimacy, power and capacity of resident committees, which were empowered to play a critical coordinating role in bridging hierarchical state mobilisation and horizontal stakeholders in the collaborative pandemic responses. These findings contribute to a more nuanced understanding of neighbourhood co-governance in the international literature and provide lessons for resilience governance from a comparative lens.

Embracing uncertainty: rethinking migration policy through pastoralists\u2019 experiences

Today there is a disjuncture between migration flows that are complex, mixed and constantly evolving and the emerging global migration governance paradigm that seeks to impose clarity, certainty, regularity and order. Addressing the gap between policies and realities, this article explores lessons for migration policy and governance from mobile pastoralists’ experience. Using examples from human migration flows within and between Europe and Africa and insights from pastoral systems from India, Italy and Kenya, the article identifies important similarities between international migration and pastoral mobility. We focus on four interconnections: both international migration and pastoral mobility show multi-directional and fragmented patterns; both involve multiple, intersecting socio-economic, political, cultural and environmental drivers; both must respond to non-linear systems, where critical junctures and tipping points undermine clear prediction and forecasts, making social navigation and reliability management more useful concepts than risk-based prediction and control and finally for both uncertainty is not conceived of as a state of crisis but an inherent feature, pregnant with possibility and hope. Building on these four points, and drawing from pastoralists’ experiences, we propose some methodological, practical and policy reflections for bridging the disjuncture between migration realities on the ground and global migration governance policies and discourses.

Network resilience and EU fisheries policy engagement in third countries: Lessons for post-Brexit governance

This article examines the ways in which third countries can engage with, and respond to, European Union policy-making processes. A novel analytical framework based on the concept of network resilience which consists of an institutional, political and policy dimension is operationalised to understand third country access to European Union policy-making. Empirically, the article examines the experiences of three non-European Union countries, Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Norway in the context of the European Union’s Common Fisheries Policy. The article concludes by presenting a research agenda based on an in-depth analysis of network resilience and reflects on what the findings mean for future research, particularly within the context of understanding the development of UK–EU post-Brexit relations.