Local Policy Responses Research Articles

Can we adapt fairly? Systematic review of health equity implications of climate change in coastal communities in the UK

Abstract As climate change becomes more apparent, it is important to evaluate the equity implications of adaptation interventions and policy measures. Many coastal populations experience high levels of social deprivation, which can be compounded by environmental factors. Coastal hazards, such as erosion and flooding can cause short and long term impacts on physical and mental health. To systematically review the published evidence on the differential impacts of coastal change on health inequalities and review the implications of adaptation responses for health inequality. We systemically reviewed the evidence for the UK only on a) inequalities in coastal flood impact or risk, and b) effectiveness and equity implications of current measures to manage the climate risks to an acceptable level of impact. Interventions included: plans and guidance, insurance, and infrastructure, including natural flood management. We found 8 papers quantifying differentials in current and future impacts of coastal flood risk and 6 papers assessing equity implications of adaptation measures. Coastal flood risk is unevenly distributed. Those owning their own home were more likely to experience flood impacts including increased stress and displacement. There is good evidence that policies for household insurance and property level protection measures have the potential to increase inequalities; other measures (community engagement; planning; defences) may reduce health inequalities, depending on implementation and local context. Adaptation to coastal change requires a range of approaches in the short and longer term, which potentially exacerbate current inequalities. Adaptation responses that rely on individual behaviour change, such as relocation, purchasing insurance, or retrofitting dwellings, may exacerbate inequalities within coastal communities. Climate change challenges organisations to deliver national and local policy responses ensuring that adaptation is effective and equitable.

Encouraging politicians to act on climate: A field experiment with local officials in six countries

AbstractLocal governments play an important role in addressing the climate crisis. However, despite public support for climate action, local policy responses have been limited. We argue that (1) biased beliefs about voter preferences, (2) the time horizon for credit claiming, and (3) source credibility are barriers for legislators to learn and adopt new environmental policies. We test these arguments in a real policy‐learning context. Representatives from six Western countries received customized invitations to a webinar on climate solutions for local governments. We find that constituency opinion on climate issues made local office‐holders more responsive to public preferences. Invitations sent by a climate scientist and emphasizing shorter term policy effects increased interest in the webinar, but did not boost the likelihood of policy commitments. Only US officials responded negatively to climate scientists. The results reveal concrete steps to induce climate action and contribute to scholarship on policy learning.

Local governments and aging policies: An analysis of municipalities in the region of Madrid

Local governments are increasing their efforts to provide services to older adults ranging from health and care for dependents to leisure and cultural activities. Despite the widespread adoption of the active aging paradigm, the intensity of the aging process and the capacity and preferences of local governments to address the consequences of aging are not uniformly distributed. This study examines variations in local government responses to aging based on a survey conducted between October 2018 and February 2019 among government officials and political representatives in municipalities in the Community of Madrid with a population exceeding 10,000 inhabitants. A descriptive exploration of the survey responses suggests variability in local governments’ approach to aging, which is associated with factors such as the concentration of older adults in the municipality and differences in available income levels. In municipalities that prioritize resource-intensive policies, such as health care and programs targeting poverty and the prevention of social exclusion, there is a higher concentration of older adults and lower levels of available income. Conversely, wealthier municipalities tend to focus on policies aimed at promoting leisure and culture. This divergence in local policy responses highlights the heterogeneity within the active aging paradigm. Furthermore, it provides a nuanced understanding of how these policies can be adapted and responsive to the specific needs of each municipality.

Investigating local policy responses to support care-experienced young people in China – A scoping review

An increasing amount of attention is being paid to young people with care experience on an international scale. They are often associated with negative outcomes after leaving care, such as low educational attainment, unstable housing, job instability and social exclusion. While many countries have prescribed social policies for supporting them for a more fruitful transition out of care, there is little information available in the context of China at local levels. Given this, this paper maps and examines existing local policies, exploring how local authorities support care-experienced young people in China. To achieve, it adopts a scoping review. The findings highlight (i) China’s local polices as a whole prescribe a variety of services, resources, and/or measures to support care-experienced young people, of which housing and employment are at the top of the list; (ii) current policy responses are insufficient, and opportunities of this group of people to access the stipulated support are quite limited. The findings of this study indicate that policymakers need to improve local policies in order to make them more operable, sophisticated, and comprehensive, so that care-experienced young people can reap the greatest benefits from them. Also, a national leaving-care policy that provides guidance to local authorities should be considered, adding consistency and clarity to relevant policies across the country. The limitations of this paper relate mainly to its review methods, which point to the need to expand data sources and conduct cross-reviews to enhance the findings’ credibility and robustness.

Associations between partisan media consumption, opioid use disorder stigma, and opioid policy support: An exploration of the media’s role in the ongoing opioid epidemic

We report on a preliminary investigation into the relationship between partisan media consumption (PMC) among U.S. adults and their (1) opioid use disorder (OUD) stigma, (2) national OUD policy support (e.g., Medicaid coverage for OUD treatment), (3) local OUD policy support (e.g., safe injection sites), (4) discriminatory OUD policies (e.g., denying housing), and (5) carceral OUD policies (e.g., jailing people who use opioids). We performed a cross-sectional survey of a nationally-representative sample of U.S. adults (n = 6,515) from October 1-November 19, 2021. We surveyed a sample of U.S. adults ages 18 and older drawn from NORC's AmeriSpeak® Panel. AmeriSpeak is a probability-based ongoing panel of over 40,000 households designed to represent the U.S. household population. Cross-sectional analyses revealed significant relationships between PMC and OUD stigma (b = 0.29, p <.001, CI95 = 0.14,0.43), support for national (b = -0.31, p <.01, CI95 = -0.54,-0.09) and local policy responses (b = -0.38, p <.001, CI95 = -0.59,-0.17), and support for discriminatory opioid use disorder policies (b = 0.27, p <.01, CI95 = 0.07,0.45). After controlling for self-reported political affiliation and other potential covariates, Republican-leaning media consumption was significantly associated with increased OUD stigma, less support for national and local harm reduction or rehabilitative policies, and more support for discriminatory policies against individuals experiencing OUD. The opposite associations were observed for Democratic-leaning media consumption. Markers for racism mediated the relationship between PMC and support for carceral policies (indirect path b = -0.41,p <.001, CI95 = -0.50,-0.31). Our results indicate that public health advocates must collaborate with conservative leaders to find bipartisan common ground for targeted communication campaigns.

How have Europe’s outermost regions dealt with the economic and social consequences of the COVID‐19 crisis? Effects, policies and recommendations

AbstractThis paper contributes to the literature by documenting how regions have experienced and managed the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) crisis, particularly for regions that are largely understudied and whose territorial characteristics (related to hyper‐remoteness and poverty) deserve greater attention. To this end, the study investigated regional strategy and planning documents and conducted 32 semi‐structured interviews with public authority representatives, sectoral actors and civil society groups. The findings show the socio‐economic consequences of the crisis and local policy responses. The study proposes a reflection in terms of public policies on what could be the ‘world after’ in the outermost regions, and highlights how the COVID‐19 crisis presented an opportunity to design and implement future territorial development policies that are more adapted to the context and territorial characteristics of these regions. Building a resilience policy in the outermost regions requires strengthening the territories’ capacities, which involves their structural equipment.

Governing Transition: Case Studies in Transformative Adaptation

Global climate change presents both acute and long-term risks to humanity. Managed retreat has emerged in the literature as one method by which to manage some acute and slow-onset events caused by climate change, but it requires substantial additional research and examination. It is now clear that humanity must scrutinize how and where we live and the wisdom of policies that support continued rebuilding and reinvestment after climate-related disasters. Despite its emergence as a potential policy response to risk, the phrase “managed retreat” is documented as a barrier in itself to successful adaptation actions, largely because the term is currently almost exclusively considered to mean physical movement of infrastructure or people out of harm’s way—that is, retreat. There is a need to document and consider case studies where managed retreat is being utilized more broadly and to consider these case studies as a climate governance approach to managing risk. The case studies presented of local policy responses to climate-induced disaster events demonstrate examples of the permanent changes that are already occurring to the existing and historical governance of climate-related risks. These case studies can serve to broaden the climate adaptation discussion and framework beyond “managed retreat” and may lead to more successful implementation of adaptation measures that reduce climate risks. We adopt the term “transformative adaptation measures,” rather than “managed retreat,” and provide case study illustrations of climate governance strategies that communities faced with a changing climate risk profile may consider, rather than focusing on “retreat.”

Fiscal decentralization, intergovernmental mobility, and the innovativeness of local governments' policy response in COVID‐19: Evidence from China

AbstractPolicy innovation is an essential approach for local governments to deal with external challenges, which is also the case in response to the COVID‐19 pandemic. This article discusses the effects of fiscal decentralization and leaders' intergovernmental mobility on the innovativeness of local governments in pandemic response. By investigating the economic relief policy of local governments in China, we find that both fiscal decentralization and local leaders' intergovernmental mobility in their previous careers facilitate the innovativeness of local governments' economic relief policy for pandemic recovery, and the business experience of local leaders enhances the positive influence of fiscal decentralization on the innovativeness of local policy. The results indicate that fiscal decentralization and the intergovernmental connection based on leaders' political mobility are likely to be two predominant factors for local governments to enable horizontal mutual learning and central‐local policy coordination, and as a result foster policy innovativeness in response to the pandemic.

Water policy and resilience of potable water infrastructure to climate risks in rural Malawi

Adverse effects of climate risks on access to potable water are increasingly being acknowledged in sub Saharan Africa. Resilient infrastructure supported by appropriate governance arrangements, is therefore central to water security under these extreme weather events. For several decades, governments in sub Saharan Africa have developed governance arrangements including infrastructure and legislation to ensure water security. However, the effectiveness of policy consideration in resilience of potable water infrastructure to climate risks/extreme weather events as well as their seasonality has been a neglected area. Using Zomba rural in Southern Malawi as a case study, this study was therefore aimed at addressing this gap by assessing the effectiveness of local water policy responses to extreme weather events using the 2015 flooding effects on potable water in Zomba rural in Southern Malawi as a case study. The study firstly analysed rainfall and extremes indices for evidence of trends of climate risks in Zomba during the period from 1982 to 2015. To understand the effects of the 2015 flooding on water infrastructure and access to potable water as well as evaluate policy provisions for responses to climate risks, the study further applied a qualitative approach through policy document review, key informant interviews, focus group discussions. The results suggest a generally decreasing annual rainfall pattern with high variability by seasons and frequent occurrences of droughts and flooding. The annual rainfall decrease was not statistically significant at α = 0.05 level, whereas the extremes indices were statistically significant. However, the study found that current policy frameworks are more biased towards drought preparedness as compared to flooding preparedness. For instance, the 2015 floods destroyed vital water supply infrastructure and the responsible institutions could not rehabilitate the damaged infrastructure, leaving communities with intermittent and no supply of potable water for over six months. On the other hand, during dry seasons and drought conditions, the intakes are above the water level. These results show that the present rural water infrastructure is vulnerable and not resilient enough to extreme weather events. In addition, the water institutions are especially not prepared to handle flooding events and their impacts. In this regard, water legislation and infrastructure designs do not adequately take into consideration the effects of extreme events on access to potable water, making water security a challenge in rural Malawi.

County-Level Variation in Changes in Firearm Mortality Rates Across the US, 1989 to 1993 vs 2015 to 2019

Firearm violence remains a critical public health challenge, disproportionately impacting some US regions. County-level variation may hold key insights into how firearm mortality rates vary across the US. To model county-level changes in firearm mortality rates (total, homicide, and suicide) from 1989 to 1993 vs 2015 to 2019 and identify and characterize hot spots showing unexpected changes over time. This is a cross-sectional study with 2 time points using a novel small area estimation method to analyze restricted access mortality microdata by cause of death and US county. The analysis included 3111 US counties from 49 states and the District of Columbia from January 1, 1989, to December 31, 2019. Bayesian spatial models were fitted to map geographical variation in changes in age-standardized firearm mortality rates (per 100 000 person-years) from 1989 to 1993 vs 2015 to 2019. County outliers (or hot spots) were defined as having observed rates that fell outside the 95% credible intervals of their expected posterior predictive distribution. These counties were characterized using visualization and descriptive statistics of their characteristics. Data were analyzed from June to December 2021. County of residence. Five-year age-standardized mortality rates by US county, age, and cause of death for 1989 to 1993 and 2015 to 2019. Between 1989 and 2019, 1 036 518 firearm deaths were recorded in counties across the US. Suicide was the most common cause of firearm mortality (589 285 deaths) followed by homicide (412 231 deaths). Age-standardized rates (deaths per 100 000 individuals) for firearm deaths and suicides increased from 1989 to 1993 vs 2015 to 2019 (mean [SD] change, 0.16 [8.78] for firearm deaths and 1.21 [6.91] for suicides), while firearm homicides decreased (mean [SD] change, -0.39 [3.96]). However, these national trends were not homogeneous across counties and often varied by geographical region. The West and Midwest showed the most pronounced increases in firearm suicide rates, whereas the Southeast showed localized increases in firearm homicide rates, despite the national decreasing trend. Critical hot spots were identified in urban counties of Alabama, and firearm homicide rates (per 100 000) in Baltimore City, Maryland, almost doubled from 29.71 to 47.43, and by 2015 to 2019 it accounted for 66.7% of all firearm homicide in Maryland. By contrast, District of Columbia showed promising improvements over time, decreasing from 56.5 firearm homicides per 100 000 in 1989 to 1993 to 14.45 in 2015 to 2019. There was substantial variation in rates and changes in firearm deaths among US counties. Geographical hot spots may be useful to inform targeted prevention efforts and local policy responses.

Convergence on Coercion: Functional and Political Pressures as Drivers of Global Childhood Vaccine Mandates.

Vaccine hesitancy is a global problem with diverse local policy responses, from voluntaristic to coercive. Between 2015 and 2017, California, Australia, France, and Italy increased the coerciveness of their childhood vaccine regimes. Despite this apparent convergence, there is little evidence of imposition, policy learning, or diffusion - the drivers that are usually discussed in scholarly literature on policy convergence. The fact that the four governments were oriented across the political spectrum, with quite different political and institutional systems, further indicates an empirical puzzle. To better understand the drivers of enhanced vaccine mandates, a crucial issue during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) global rollout, this article engages with four case studies assembled from qualitative analysis of semi-structured in-country interviews and document analysis between November 2018 and November 2020. Key informants had specific expert knowledge or played a role in the introduction or implementation of the new policies. Interview transcripts were coded inductively and deductively, augmented with extensive analysis of legal, policy, academic and media documents. The case analysis identifies two key and interacting elements in government decisions to tighten vaccine mandates: functional and political pressures. Policy-makers in Italy and France were primarily driven by functional challenges, with their vaccination governance systems under threat from reduced population compliance. California and Australia did not face systemic threats to the functioning of their systems, but activists utilised local opportunities to heighten political pressure on decision makers. In four recent cases of high-income jurisdictions making childhood vaccination policies more coercive, vaccine hesitancy alone could not explain why the policies arose in these jurisdictions and not others, while path dependency alone could not explain why some jurisdictions with mandates made them more coercive. Explanation lies in restrictive mandates being attractive for governments, whether they face systemic functional problems in vaccine governance, or political pressures generated by media and activists. Mandates can be framed as targeting whole populations or localised groups of refusers, and implemented without onerous costs or policy complexity.

Sub-national water–food–labour nexus in Colombia

Poorer countries often face a severe trade-off: the need to improve socio-economic conditions is hard to balance with the maintenance of key ecological processes. As a case study, we select Colombia, a Latin American country with almost 10% of its inhabitants living in extreme poverty. We elaborate a water–food–labour (WFL) nexus grounded on a sub-national Environmentally Extended Input–Output (EEIO) analysis to assess the virtual water trade (VWT) and virtual informal labour (VIL) flows across administrative departments and economic sectors related to domestic trade. The main results are the following: high cross-departmental resource interdependence both in terms of VWT and VIL, rich departments highly depend on the resources of their neighbouring trading partners, extreme poverty conditions shown by economically isolated departments, and considerable income inequality in the food production sectors. Moreover, departments that are net exporters of virtual water suffer from water stress that might be exacerbated by future high rainfall variability due to climate change. These results suggest that strategies to attain sustainable development goals (SDGs) must deal with the biophysical constraints and the economic and political feasibility of the proposed solutions. In this vein, we argue that a holistic framework, grounded on quantitative analyses, is necessary to support informed policy decisions for the simultaneous achievement of multiple (possibly contrasting) goals. Moreover, severe spatial imbalances call for local policy responses coordinated at the national level.

Municipal institutions and local policy responses to immigrants: policies towards day labourers in California

ABSTRACT This paper examines the various factors that influence how local elected officials (mayors and council persons) in the United States develop policy responses to immigrant day labourers in their jurisdictions. We argue that in addition to demographic and political factors, the design of municipal political institutions shapes their responses. Inclusive day labourer policies are more likely to occur in mayor–council systems than in council–manager systems. In addition, we argue that it is important to consider how the interaction of factors affects local policy responses. Several factors have been identified as impacting local immigration policies, but in order to understand the widespread variation in local policy responses, it is necessary to examine how these factors interact in particular localities over extended periods of time. Interaction leads to dynamic policies that change over time. Local policy responses are examined quantitatively – using a dataset based on day labourer hiring sites in California and fitting multilevel generalized linear models – and qualitatively – using transcribed city council meetings.

‘Tuscans are different’: the cognitive dimension of local asylum policymaking during the 2015 European ‘refugee crisis’

ABSTRACT This article sheds light on the so-far-neglected role of decision-makers’ subjective interpretations and cognitive factors in local asylum policymaking, complementing and challenging the existing literature explaining local policy responses to the 2015 European ‘refugee crisis’. How and why do local decision-makers interpret the environment in which they operate? Do subjective interpretations contribute to influence local asylum policymaking, and how? To analyse these questions, the paper adopts an actor-centred approach grounded on framing and sensemaking theories and on Bevir and Rhodes’ concept of ‘situated agency’, and it develops a methodology based on anonymous interviews and social network analysis. Such an approach is applied to the heuristic case of Tuscany, an Italian region where the local asylum policies produced during the ‘crisis’ cannot be convincingly explained by looking merely at structural, institutional or strategic factors. Three arguments are developed here. First, at least in situations of ‘crisis’, local decision-makers are not mere passive recipients of information, but active interpreters and rationalizers, whose subjective interpretations result from framing processes and several judgement heuristics. Second, these interpretations can decisively influence local migration policymaking. Third, these interpretations can be also shaped by policy outputs, meaning that local asylum policymaking processes can have important constitutive effects.

Avoiding Trouble Ahead: Lessons Learned and Suggestions for Economic Evaluations of COVID-19 Vaccines.

With vaccines for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) being introduced in countries across the world, policy makers are facing many practical considerations about how best to implement a vaccination programme. The supply of vaccines is insufficient for the global population, so decisions must be made as to which groups are prioritised for any vaccination and when. Furthermore, the aims of vaccination programmes will differ between countries, with some prioritising economic benefits that could stem from the relaxation of non-pharmaceutical interventions and others seeking simply to reduce the number of COVID-19 cases or deaths. This paper aims to share the experiences and lessons learned from conducting economic evaluations in Singapore and Thailand on hypothetical COVID-19 vaccines to provide a basis for other countries to develop their own contextualised economic evaluations, with particular focus on the key uncertainties, technical challenges, and characteristics that modellers should consider in partnership with key stakeholders. Which vaccines, vaccination strategies, and policy responses are most economically beneficial remains uncertain. It is therefore important for all governments to conduct their own analyses to inform local policy responses to COVID-19, including the implementation of COVID-19 vaccines in both the short and the long run. It is essential that such studies are designed, and ideally conducted, before vaccines are introduced so that policy decisions and implementation procedures are not delayed.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40258-021-00661-5.

Climate Emergency—Climate Action Planning and Delivery Recommendations

In 2019, the United Kingdom (UK) became one of the first countries to declare a climate emergency. In this regard, many local governments in the country (which encompass districts, unitary counties, boroughs, and councils) have taken the lead to declare a climate emergency. Only a few local authorities developed and issued plans with specific actions on achieving the targets of their declared emergencies. The following policy memo sheds light upon the most pressing challenges in climate emergency action planning. A preceding comparative analysis (Kandzhova et. al., 2020) revealed that the currently published action plans differ considerably in structure, detailedness and overall approaches. The lack of standardisation of climate action planning from either the national government or other responsible institutions leads to varying local policy responses. The preceding analysis identified the most pertinent challenges to be in the areas of 1) securing finance; 2) social inclusiveness and equality; and 3) realisation of co-benefits of action plans. We present recommendations for each of the aforementioned areas.

Surge in global metal mining threatens vulnerable ecosystems

Mining activities induce profound changes to societies and the environment they inhabit. With global extraction of metal ores doubling over the past two decades, pressures related to mining have dramatically increased. In this paper, we explore where growing global metal extraction has particularly taken effect. Using fine-grain data, we investigate the spatial and temporal distribution of mining of nine metal ores (bauxite, copper, gold, iron, lead, manganese, nickel, silver and zinc) across approximately 3,000 sites of extraction worldwide between 2000 and 2019. To approach the related environmental implications, we intersect mining sites with terrestrial biomes, protected areas, and watersheds categorised by water availability. We find that 79% of global metal ore extraction in 2019 originated from five of the six most species-rich biomes, with mining volumes doubling since 2000 in tropical moist forest ecosystems. We also find that half of global metal ore extraction took place at 20 km or less from protected territories. Further, 90% of all considered extraction sites correspond to below-average relative water availability, with particularly copper and gold mining occurring in areas with significant water scarcity. Our study has far-reaching implications for future global and local policy and resource management responses to mitigate the negative effects of the expected expansion of metal mining.

India’s domestic and foreign policy responses to COVID-19

ABSTRACT A year after the first known case of COVID-19 was reported, India had the second-highest incidence of cases and accounted for about 13% of the global total. This article traces India’s local and foreign policy responses to the global pandemic. The article advances two arguments. First, while the government was swift and decisive in its response, the pandemic exposed weakness in policy coordination and inadequacies in India’s social protection system. Second, while the pandemic spread rapidly across the country, the government exploited diplomatic opportunities to demonstrate leadership both within South Asia and globally.

US elections: treating the acute-on-chronic decompensation

As the USA nears the 2020 presidential election, the country remains confounded by a confluence of population health and economic issues. There are regional epidemics of unsuppressed severe COVID-19. The country is experiencing a sustained period of economic contraction resulting from local policy (eg, stay-at-home orders) and spontaneous collective physical distancing responses to the COVID-19 epidemic. Both of these burdens are inequitably borne by Black, Latin, and American Indian communities,1 whose disproportionate killings by police have been widely known but only recently highlighted in the sustained, widespread protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement sparked by George Floyd's killing earlier this year.

Local adaptation policy responses to extreme weather events.

At a global level, climate change is expected to result in more frequent and higher-intensity weather events, with impacts ranging from inconvenient to catastrophic. The potential for disasters to act as “focusing events” for policy change, including adaptation to climate change risk, is well known. Moreover, local action is an important element of climate change adaptation and related risk management efforts. As such, there is a good reason to expect local communities to mobilize in response to disaster events, both with immediate response and recovery-focused activities, as well as longer-term preparedness and adaptation-focused public policy changes. However, scholars also note that the experience of disaster does not always yield policy change; indeed, disasters can also result in policy inertia and failure, perhaps as often or more often than major policy change. This study poses two key research questions. First, we ask to what degree policy change occurs in communities impacted by an extreme weather event. Second, we seek to understand the conditions that lead to adaptation-oriented policy adoption in response to an extreme weather event. Our results suggest two main recipes for future-oriented policy adoption in the wake of an extreme weather event. For both recipes, a high-impact event is a necessary condition for future-oriented policy adoption. In the first recipe for change, policy adoption occurs in Democratic communities with highly focused media attention. The second, less expected recipe for change involves Republican communities that have experienced other uncommon weather events in the recent past. We use a comparative case approach with 15 cases and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis methods. Our approach adds to the existing literature on policy change and local adaptation by selecting a mid-N range of cases where extreme weather events have the potential to act as focusing events, thereby sidestepping selection on the dependent variable. Our approach also takes advantage of a novel method for measuring attention, the latent Dirichlet allocation approach.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s11077-020-09401-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.