Local Government Staff Research Articles

Moving the Field Forward: A Decade of Progress Implementing Health in All Policies in the United States.

Moving the Field Forward: A Decade of Progress Implementing Health in All Policies in the United States.

Local Government Staff Performance Management in Tanzania: Experience of Open Performance Review and Appraisal System (OPRAS) in Kinondoni Municipal Council

The article presents a study that examined the effectiveness of the implementation of OPRAS on local government staff performance in the Kinondoni Municipal Council (KMC) in Tanzania. The study adopted a case study research design and used questionnaires, in-depth interview and documentary review in data collection. The Sample size was 100 respondents selected through purposive sampling and the content analysis and cross tabulation methods were used in data analysis. The major study findings indicate that there was a weak implementation of OPRAS because there was no communication of the needs for OPRAS to employees, provision of OPRAS related training, and motivations to public servants were inadequately addressed. Furthermore, in local government authorities (LGAs) particularly KMC, there has been very little concern, demonstrated by inadequate funds and mechanisms put in place that ensure its implementation is effective and sustainable. In regard to this, the findings demonstrated an absence of viable efforts in terms of plans and strategies set to establish an effective and sustainable implementation of OPRAS in the KMC. The financial constrains caused by the absence of a specific budget for OPRAS implementation, laxity of the management in monitoring the implementation of OPRAS in the KMC, as well as inadequate funds disbursed by the central government to KMC are the major factors restraining the effective implementation of OPRAS in the KMC. It is therefore concluded that there is a need for the government to strictly adhere to the processes required in the implementation of OPRAS, such as communicating the need for OPRAS to public servants and setting adequate funds for OPRAS to be conducted.

The decentralization reform in Ukraine: problems of implementation in a social crisis

In the article, key challenges and problems that arose during the implementation of local self-government reform and financial decentralization in Ukraine were analyzed and systematized, in particular: poor communication between government and citizens; inconsistent power sharing between local self-government bodies and executive bodies as well as between councils of the united territorial communities and district state administrations and district councils; ensuring the capacity of formed communities; low quality of local government staff; inefficient use of financial resources. Factors that were behind the resistance of local communities to reform or a passive attitude to the creation of united territorial communities were identified and studied, namely: economic (expectations of reduced financial capacity of the community due to unification), socio-cultural (ethnic, linguistic, religious, cultural differences between residents of neighboring communities), psychological (distrust of central and local government, fear of reduction of social facilities, decline and disappearance of peripheral villages and towns, strengthening local elites), geographical (deterioration of access to service centers), and environmental (efforts of community residents to avoid the transfer of harmful industries to their own territory). The geographical unevenness of the pace of the process of unification of territorial communities in the course of decentralization has been associated with the position of political actors at different levels − central, regional, subregional and local. According to the type of attitude of the regional leadership to decentralization, three groups of regions were identified: those supporting the reform, and those who passively or actively resisted the change. The main reasons and forms of resistance of district councils and district state administrations to the decentralization reform have been clarified, the motives of actions of local political actors explained. Key words: decentralization, local self-government, local self-government bodies, united territorial community, social crisis.

Development of Estimation Formula of Manpower Volume for Shelter Management by Local Government Staff Based on the Survey of the Kumamoto Earthquake Response Activities

Development of Estimation Formula of Manpower Volume for Shelter Management by Local Government Staff Based on the Survey of the Kumamoto Earthquake Response Activities

When public spending goes local: agricultural expenditure at a key stage in Ghana’s decentralisation reform

This paper provides a qualitative analysis that highlights the implications on agricultural services of a key stage in decentralisation reforms in Ghana. We assess the status of agricultural expenditure decentralisation and draw out the likely implications for agricultural service delivery and national strategies. The study finds that agricultural officers at all levels (national, regional and district) had concerns about the implementation of the new decentralisation reform. These included budget cuts and delays in releases that coincided with the reform period; the transfer of staff from the civil service to the local government service; and a sense that agriculture may receive less attention when allocation of government resources becomes the preserve of assemblies and district chief executives, rather than the central agricultural ministry. The structural changes also meant that agricultural local government staff now needed to learn to ‘market’ the value of their public services to local government leadership, in order to protect resources for agriculture. The decentralisation reform also necessitated new public expenditure reporting practices to ensure a clear overview of sectoral spending across government tiers.

Food for People in Place: Reimagining Resilient Food Systems for Economic Recovery

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated response have brought food security into sharp focus for many New Zealanders. The requirement to “shelter in place” for eight weeks nationwide, with only “essential services” operating, affected all parts of the New Zealand food system. The nationwide full lockdown highlighted existing inequities and created new challenges to food access, availability, affordability, distribution, transportation, and waste management. While Aotearoa New Zealand is a food producer, there remains uncertainty surrounding the future of local food systems, particularly as the long-term effects of the pandemic emerge. In this article we draw on interviews with food rescue groups, urban farms, community organisations, supermarket management, and local and central government staff to highlight the diverse, rapid, community-based responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings reveal shifts at both the local scale, where existing relationships and short supply chains have been leveraged quickly, and national scale, where funding has been mobilised towards a different food strategy. We use these findings to re-imagine where and how responsibility might be taken up differently to enhance resilience and care in diverse food systems in New Zealand.

Barriers and facilitators to implementing a healthier food outlet initiative: perspectives from local governments.

Local governments have integral roles in contributing to public health. One recent focus has been on how local governments can impact community nutrition by engaging food service outlets to improve their food offer. The Healthier Catering Commitment (HCC) is an initiative where London local governments support takeaways and restaurants to meet centrally defined nutrition criteria on their food options. Using the case of HCC, the current study aims to provide (1) practical learnings of how local governments could facilitate and overcome barriers associated with implementing healthy food service initiatives in general, and (2) specific recommendations for enhancements for HCC. Key informant, semi-structured interviews were conducted with local government staff involved in HCC, exploring barriers and facilitators to HCC implementation in food businesses. A thematic analysis approach was used, with results presented according to a logic pathway of ideal implementation in order to provide practical, focused insights. Local governments implementing HCC. Twenty-two individuals supporting HCC implementation. Facilitators to implementation included flexible approaches, shared resourcing and strategically engaging businesses with practical demonstrations. Barriers were limited resources, businesses fearing negative customer responses and low uptake in disadvantaged areas. Key suggestions to enhance implementation and impact included offering additional incentives, increasing HCC awareness and encouraging recruited businesses to make healthy changes beyond initiative requirements. In order to facilitate the implementation of healthy food initiatives in food outlets, local governments would benefit from involving their environmental health team, employing community-tailored approaches and focusing on supporting businesses in disadvantaged areas.

The Principle of Open and Competitive Recruitment to Official Posts in Local Government Units in Poland

This article is to present the principle of open and competitive recruitment for official positions, applicable under the Polish Act on local government employees. The point of departure for the discussion on the provisions of the Act is the Constitution of the Republic of Poland. Not only has the analysis covered the regulation contained in the Act on employees of local government , but also addressed the relationship between the employer's specific obligation to re-employ the employee on the basis of the provisions of the Polish Labour Code and the rule of general recruitment for official positions applicable under the Law on local government employees. These considerations are largely of a practical nature, based in particular on the relevant case-law and on the professional experience of the author herself, who is a local government staff member employed as an attorney-at-law in a local government unit of the regional level.

Nudges against pandemics: Sweden’s COVID-19 containment strategy in perspective

ABSTRACT Sweden’s strategy to contain the COVID-19 pandemic stands out internationally as more liberal in terms of not ordering a complete lockdown of society. Sweden kept its primary schools, daycare centers and industries largely open. The government financially supported furloughed workers and increased its support to regional and local governments delivering healthcare and elderly care. However, the death toll in Sweden which passed 4000 by late May 2020 stands in stark contrast to those of other, comparable countries, raising questions about the design of the strategy, and its appropriateness. The paper argues that key assumptions sustaining the strategy, for instance that symptom-free people do not carry, and cannot transmit the Coronavirus, or that local and regional government staff had the necessary training and equipment to tackle the pandemic, along with problems associated with coordinating a decentralized healthcare system, may explain the poor performance of the Swedish containment strategy.

Mainstreaming public involvement in a complex research collaboration: A theory-informed evaluation.

IntroductionThere is an extensive literature on public involvement (PI) in research, but this has focused primarily on experiences for researchers and public contributors and factors enabling or restricting successful involvement in specific projects. There has been less consideration of a ‘whole system’ approach to embedding PI across an organization from governance structures through to research projects.ObjectiveTo investigate how a combination of two theoretical frameworks, one focused on mainstreaming and the other conceptualizing quality, can illuminate the embedding of positive and influential PI throughout a research organization.MethodsThe study used data from the evaluation of a large UK research collaboration. Primary data were collected from 131 respondents (including Public Advisers, university, NHS and local government staff) via individual and group interviews/workshops. Secondary sources included monitoring data and internal documents.FindingsCLAHRC‐NWC made real progress in mainstreaming PI. An organizational vision and infrastructure to embed PI at all levels were created, and the number and range of opportunities increased; PI roles became more clearly defined and increasingly public contributors felt able to influence decisions. However, the aspiration to mainstream PI throughout the collaboration was not fully achieved: a lack of staff ‘buy‐in’ meant that in some areas, it was not experienced as positively or was absent.ConclusionThe two theoretical frameworks brought a novel perspective, facilitating the investigation of the quality of PI in structures and processes across the whole organization. We propose that combining these frameworks can assist the evaluation of PI research.

Impact of state joint local government account (SJLGA) on the capacity of some selected local government councils in Borno state to execute capital projects

The creation of State Joint Local Government Account (SJLGA) was primarily to serve as a medium through which funds from the federation account are disbursed to local governments for developmental purposes. However, in spite of increased efforts through allocation there are still major gaps to be filled in the area of service delivery at the local government level. The study adopted the survey research where both primary and secondary data were sourced. Data were presented on tables using frequency counts and simple percentages. A total of 800 questionnaires were administered randomly on respondents out of which 400 to local government staff and 400 to community leaders, 353 for community leaders and 344 from local government staffs were retrieved as valid and used for data analysis. Meanwhile, Spearman Rank order, an inferential statistical tool was used to test the hypotheses. The study revealed that the operations of joint account has not significantly improved the performance of local governments in the execution of capital projects in key areas of primary health care, primary education, agriculture and rural infrastructure. The study concluded that State Joint local government account has not significantly improved the performance of selected local government councils in service delivery in Borno state. It was recommended among others that State Joint local government account should be scrapped so as to ensure financial autonomy of local governments in Borno state. It is only then that service delivery can be greatly improved at the local government level.

Accounting Information Systems and Financial Accountability in Bushenyi District Local Government in Western Uganda

This study was about Accounting Information System and Financial Accountability in Bushenyi District Local Government. Using descriptive, correlational survey and cross sectional designs, a researcher generated questionnaire and an interview guide to collect data. Data was analyzed using frequencies, percentages, means, standard deviation, Pearson’s linear correlation coefficient and regression analysis. Results reveal that more than 68% of Bushenyi District local government staff was male; majority of the staff were between 31-40 years with working experience of 3-4 years. The application of accounting information system in Bushenyi District local government was high: Accounting information recording (average mean = 3.09); financial reporting (average mean= 3.11); software usage (average mean= 2.78. The level of financial accountability in Bushenyi District local government was low (overall mean= 1.90). It was concluded that the applications of accounting information system is high but the levels of financial accountability are still very low meaning that there is significant relationship between accounting information system and financial accountability in Bushenyi District Local Government. The researcher recommends that there is need to promote the use computers by all workers at the District by training them to solve the problems of low levels of financial accountability. Keywords : Accounting Information Recording, Financial Reporting, Software Usage and Financial Accountability DOI: 10.7176/RJFA/11-9-01 Publication date: May 31 st 2020

Integrating Business CSR With Local Government Development Program: Business Perception

The mandate of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Indonesia through various laws and regulations, provide an alternative source of funding for local government for the development and the provision of basic services in their area. However, the process of integrating business CSR with local development program must consider the perception of all relevant stakeholders, namely local government officials and staff or managers managing CSR programs in the company. Business CSR are often placed as an instrument for companies to achieve its interest, such as to obtain a social license, reputation and security of business. This study is aimed at understanding business perceptions in integrating business CSR with local development program. The study took place in Muara Enim Regency, South Sumatra province, which is known as a regent where many mining and plantation companies operating in the region. The method used is a descriptive qualitative research method by conducting unstructured interviews with managers and staff of 10 business companies in this region. The study found that there were differences in perceptions of managers and staff towards the integration of CSR with local development programs. The differences of perception is occurred as the local government is still not adopted the business interests. This can be used as a guideline for all parties as a first step to integrate CSR programs with regional development planning.

Examining the integrity behavior challenges of enforcement officers in Malaysian local government

There is a call from society to examine the integrity behavior challenges of local government (LG) enforcement officers who work directly with citizens due to the nature of this job. One of the job requirements of enforcement officers is to investigate law enforcement directly to their customers, such as petty traders, hawkers, business owners, developers and contractors, and others. In executing their duties, particularly on law enforcement, high integrity behavior and professionalism of enforcement officers in LG administrative areas of responsibility are necessary. Based on the framework, the study aims to examine the integrity behavior challenges of enforcement officers from the citizens’ and staff’ perspectives, in particular, on to what extent the officers face the difficulties and challenges in executing their enforcement tasks. Thus, during the study, 30 respondents, namely the citizens and LG staff in Kedah, were surveyed. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis to gain specific dimensions related to integrity behavior. From the citizens’ perspective on LG enforcement teams’ integrity behavior, challenges were related to main aspects such as biasness, political intervention, and bureaucracy matters. Meanwhile, LG staff consider integrity behavior challenges to be affected by opportunistic attitudes among staff, workforce, and financial issues. The study suggests that enforcement officers should develop soft skills, employability skills, and upgrade academic levels to understand the current situation and develop negotiation skills to deal with grassroots society.

Twitter-Based Safety Confirmation System for Disaster Situations

In the aftermath of disastrous events in Japan, safety information and rescue requests, as well as emergency alerts and damage situations, have been shared on Twitter. However, even victims who are familiar with smartphones or similar devices and social media cannot easily share detailed information, such as the coordinates or address of their current location, which are essential components of safety information and rescue requests. Moreover, local governments and rescue experts have difficulty in gathering such tweets from Twitter. In this paper, we propose a novel system to enable the victims to share their safety information, make rescue requests, and enable quick information gathering for decision making by local government staff or rescue experts. The proposed system is a Twitter-based safety confirmation system named T-@npi. Using the proposed application, the users can easily submit their safety information and send rescue requests on Twitter. The users who want to confirm the safety information can check it quickly on Twitter or via this system. Furthermore, the registered safety information is displayed on an online map to support rescue and assistance activities by local governments and rescue experts.

After the fire: Perceptions of land use planning to reduce wildfire risk in eight communities across the United States

Wildfire losses are increasing across the United States, and yet land use planning to reduce wildfire risk is not federally mandated and is rarely used by local jurisdictions. We examined local government staff and leaders’ perceptions of land use planning and regulations to reduce wildfire risk, in a range of communities, after wildfire risk had been made evident with the loss of homes due to wildfire. Although policy after fire was largely unchanged we found local leaders had devoted substantial attention to the subject of land use planning. Communities were dealing with a number of internal concerns, including staff perceptions of wildfire risk, staff opinions of planning and regulations, policy coordination challenges, other governmental priorities, and a lack of public support for land use planning and regulations to reduce wildfire risk. Many of these considerations were present across study sites, and thus not easily linked to characteristics of the study site (rural/urban, type of housing lost to wildfire, presence of amenity growth). The scale and scope of local government, the diversity of residents and development, and the social fit between policies and local settings all combine to determine the efficacy and use of land use planning and regulations to reduce wildfire risk. Wildfire is unique among hazards in that the threat continues to evolve along with development, requiring local communities to adapt strategies over time. Successful examples of using land use planning and regulations, in a range of settings, will be increasingly valuable in disseminating the concept of fire adapted communities.

Cascading climate change impacts and implications

Climate change is expected to have adverse impacts and implications for a range of human-environment systems. However, our understanding of the extent to which these impacts may propagate as cascades, compounding to form multiple impacts across sectors, is limited. Cascades result from interdependencies between systems and sub-systems of coupled natural and socio-economic systems in response to changes and feedback loops. The combined effects of interacting stressors may affect the ability of individuals, governments, and the private sector to adapt in time, before widespread damage occurs. We discuss the origins of cascading impacts thinking and present the results of an investigation of cascading impacts and implications in New Zealand. A participatory and collaborative approach was used through workshops and semi-structured interviews with sector informants, including engineers, local government staff, and financial risk managers and analysts from the financial services sectors. Qualitative data collection was combined with network and systems analysis to examine increased frequency of high-intensity rainfall events, sea-level rise and drought, across urban water infrastructure and the financial services, and the implications of cascading climate change impacts for governance. Results demonstrate that closer consideration of the combined effects of linked stressors can facilitate a better understanding of the scope and scale of climate change impacts. By using critical systems thinking in characterising and assessing how climate change impacts cascade across domains, we show the implications of cascades for their governance and reveal where climate change adaptation interventions might be focused. The research methods and insights into cascades provide a conceptual and practical basis for further development, which can inform the design of additional studies in other domains and jurisdictions.

Assessing governance challenges of local biodiversity and ecosystem services: Barriers identified by the expert community

This paper assesses barriers to local biodiversity and ecosystem (BES) governance within cities, drawing on findings from an international expert survey encompassing 45 cities in 25 countries. BES is recognised as a key foundation for sustainable cities, yet current literature indicates that more clarity is needed on the factors which may undermine BES initiatives. Survey findings show broad agreement that officials in development sectors have inadequate BES knowledge, budgets for BES are insufficient, and planners in the locality lack knowledge about BES. Respondents not working for local governments were more likely to see policy change with administrations, budget limitations, and lack of expertise as barriers. Respondents for cities in less-developed countries agreed significantly more that there were harmful cultural activities, and were more concerned that inadequate consideration from governments at different scales and poor internal communication were barriers. Based on the findings, we suggest (a) a need to evaluate the effectiveness of collaboration both within government and between sectors; (b) the importance of building capacity within local government staff, both in techno-scientific knowledge and in engaging the policy landscape with this knowledge; and (c) the importance of further considering how BES conservation may relate to culturally meaningful practices.

Implementation and evaluation of a visualization and analysis system for historical disaster records

This research implements a visualization and analysis system for historical disaster records. This system consists of a storage system and a presentation system for saving and visualizing the disaster information, respectively. In an evaluation experiment, we assessed the operability, readability, necessity, functionality, effectiveness, and applicability of the visualization and analysis system in accessing and visualizing disaster records. The system was evaluated by 18 local government staff. The evaluation was rated highly in many items, but several functionalities, such as “strengthen system cooperation with external applications”, “enhance the stored disaster information”, “enhance the visualization information”, and “cooperate with a map of social media information”, will be introduced and/or extended in future work.

Application of flood vulnerability index in flood vulnerability assessment: a case study in Mai Hoa Commune, Tuyen Hoa District, Quang Binh Province

This study adopted a flood vulnerability index (FVI) to assess the flood vulnerability of ten villages in Mai Hoa Commune, a mountainous community living along Gianh River in Tuyen Hoa District, Quang Binh Province. The flood vulnerability indicators, which are grouped into Exposure, Susceptibility, and Resilience, were identified given the previous studies on FVI elsewhere and in consultation with local key informants. A questionnaire survey then was conducted with local households and key government staff to compute the FVI of the villages. The data were analyzed by Excel software and then flood vulnerability maps were created by the Quantum GIS software. The findings indicate that there are three villages at the high level, five at the moderate level, and two at the low level of flood vulnerability. The findings also reveal that the exposure indicators such as population in the flooded area and farmland in the flooded area, the susceptibility indicators such as vulnerable population, poverty rate and population with the main income from agriculture, and the resilience indicators such as external support for household disaster risk management, practices in flood risk management, financial capacity for recovery, social resources, and swimming skills, are the main determinants of village flood vulnerability. The findings further indicate that FVI can be used as an effective tool to compare determinants of flood vulnerability among the villages. It, accordingly, suggests priority actions specified to flood vulnerability reduction for the villages.