Policy Domains Research Articles

Education data needs and challenges for building back from COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has led governments worldwide to impose extensive restrictions on citizens, some of which may have long-term impact after their removal. Education is arguably the policy domain where closure policies are anticipated to lead to greatest lasting loss, in this case learning loss. Currently, limited data exists from which researchers and practitioners can draw insightful conclusions about how to remedy the problem. In this paper, we outline the global pattern in pandemic school-closure periods and illustrate data needs through the examples drawn from Brazil and India, two large countries which experienced prolonged periods of school closures during the pandemic. We conclude with a series of recommendations for building an improved data environment at government, school and household levels, to serve the building back agenda in education, and to provide better opportunities for evidence-based policymaking thereafter.

Tourism Development to Enhance Resident Well-Being: A Strong Sustainability Perspective

Tourism research must recognise recent advances in sustainability theory if it is to progress conceptually and in the policy domain. By applying the method of critical review, this paper demonstrates the relevance of the capitals approach to sustainable tourism development, with human well-being identified as the ultimate objective of the process. Distinguishing between weak and strong sustainability, a policy framework is developed to merge the capitals approach with well-being outcomes to determine the direct and indirect benefits of tourism developments to stakeholders and destination residents. Several challenges must be addressed if sustainability principles and practices are to be embedded in tourism policymaking.

The Democratic Dangers of Central Bank Planning

Abstract Eric Monnet makes the case that central banks should introduce welfare-oriented credit policies and suggests legitimating these new powers through the establishment of deliberative credit councils. In this article, I argue that Monnet fails to consider how his model of central bank planning might insulate rather than democratize central banking. With low trust in experts and no society-wide consensus about how best to respond to wicked problems such as climate change, the principal danger is that Monnet’s credit councils may allow political actors to pursue agendas they do not feel they can get past electorates. Indeed, political actors may see shaping central banks’ credit policies as preferable to engaging the contentious fiscal policy domain precisely because the effects of credit policies cannot be easily held to account by voters. I suggest that credit councils are unlikely to provide a democratic channel for redressing these problems because they will inevitably privilege the voices of experts from the financial sector, industry, and (non-)governmental organisations – a de facto epistocracy – over the lay publics subject to their decisions.

A Methodological Tool to Integrate Theoretical Concepts in Climate Change Adaptation to Spatial Planning

Climate change adaptation has become an important policy domain, as it has the potential to substantially reduce many of the adverse impacts of climate change. Several scientific terms and general concepts have been used to comprehend adaptation, including vulnerability, exposure, sensitivity, adaptability, and resilience. However, most of these concepts are often used in inconsistent ways and their relationship is to a large extent unclear. As a result, there is a lack of clear understanding of adaptation and its practical implementation in fields such as spatial planning, whose role in tackling climate change, especially through ecosystem approaches, is critical. This paper attempts to investigate the practical integration of adaptation in the context of spatial planning, specifically through Green Infrastructure (GI) planning. Applying a thematic analysis to 91 scientific and major policy documents, the main determinants of the critical concepts that relate to adaptation were identified, classified, and intertwined with key determinants of GI planning and design. The analysis led to the development of a methodological tool, named REAd GrIn. This model can be used to prepare and evaluate spatial plans and policies, which integrate the concepts of resilience, vulnerability, and adaptability to achieve adaptation through spatial planning.

Telehealth Adoption During COVID-19: Lessons Learned from Obstetric Providers in the Rocky Mountain West.

Obstetric providers have used telemedicine to manage gestational diabetes, mental health, and prenatal care. However, the uptake of telemedicine in this field has not been universal. The COVID-19 pandemic catalyzed the adoption of telehealth in obstetric care, which will have lasting effects, especially for rural communities. We sought to understand the experience of adapting to telehealth among obstetric providers in the Rocky Mountain West to identify implications for policy and practice. This study included 20 semi-structured interviews with obstetric providers in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. The interviews followed a moderator's guide based on the Aday & Andersen Framework for the Study of Access to Medical Care, exploring domains of health policy, the health system, the utilization of health services, and the population at risk. All the interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using thematic analysis. Findings indicate that participants view telehealth as a useful tool during prenatal and postpartum care; many participants intend to continue telehealth practices after the pandemic. Participants shared that their patients reported benefits to telehealth beyond COVID-19 safety, including limiting travel time, reducing time off work, and alleviating childcare needs. Participants expressed concern that expanding telehealth will not equally benefit all patients and could widen existing health inequities. Success moving forward will require a telehealth infrastructure, adaptive telehealth models, and provider and patient training. As obstetric telehealth expands, efforts must prioritize equitable access for rural and low-income communities, so all patients can benefit from the technological advancements to support health.

There is no capitalist conspiracy and the rich are not all‐powerful

There is no capitalist conspiracy and the rich are not all‐powerful

Disruptive Reparations? Tunisia's Victim Regions and the Collective Reparations Dilemma in Transitional Societies

In the past decade, an encompassing transitional justice process has been developed in Tunisia, which interacts with various other policy domains, including that of development. This article foregrounds three important interrelated innovations of Tunisia's transitional justice process: The explicit attention to economic crimes and violations of economic, social, and cultural rights; the introduction of the notion of victim regions; and the conceptualization of collective reparation programs. I discuss these innovations in light of the ongoing debate about the collective reparations dilemma in transitional societies, and notably about the ideal relation between (collective) reparation programs and development. The article then introduces the notion of disruptive reparations to theorize this relation in a way that foregrounds the need to consider and disrupt the political, socio-economic, and epistemic structures that facilitated the initial harm. This exercise acknowledges the specificity of various policy domains, and approaches them in a way that is fundamentally rooted in victims’ justice needs.

Before the Party Hijacks: The Limited Role of Party Cues in Appraisal of Low-Salience Policies—Experimental Evidence

AbstractWhat shapes Americans’ policy preferences: partisanship or policy content? While previous studies have addressed this question, many of them focused on high-salience policies. This raises an identification challenge because the content of such policies contains party cues. The current study employs a diverse set of low-salience policies to discern the unique effects of party cues and policy content, before the issues are “hijacked” by the parties. These policies are embedded in an original conjoint experiment administered among a national US sample. The design enables me to assess the effects of policy content and partisan sponsorship orthogonally. Contrary to previous studies, I find that respondents are attentive to policy content on low-salience issues, and it influences their policy preferences similarly or even more than party cues, across policy domains. Moreover, the support patterns and levels of Democrats and Republicans for many low-salience policies are similar. Party cues, by contrast, polarize partisans’ preferences across domains.

A widening authority–legitimacy gap in EU regulatory governance? An experimental study of the European Medicines Agency’s legitimacy in health security regulation

ABSTRACT Agencification in the EU stretches the confines of the European regulatory state to the maximum by extending to policy domains that were formerly the exclusive terrain of national institutions. Although the challenge to legitimize EU-level agencies is widely acknowledged, scant empirical research has been done on the conditions under which EU-level epistemic authority prevails or fails. To fill this gap, we examine whether EU agencies are perceived as more legitimate when the scientific nature of their regulatory outputs is made explicit and whether they start facing grave legitimacy challenges when national-level stakeholders signal disapproval with their scientific recommendations. We draw on a survey experiment with Dutch local politicians to study their legitimacy perceptions about the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and its mandate to authorize vaccines in view of cross-border health security risks. Our data suggest that the EMA is regarded as a highly legitimate agency and that disapproval by national-level politicians and citizens does not undermine its epistemic authority in the eyes of local decision-makers. This study contributes to the scholarship on non-majoritarian institutions’ legitimation imperatives by introducing novel research avenues and analytical tools to continue rigorous empirical testing of the well-established theoretical and normative claims.

Implementing post-normal science with or for EU policy actors: using quantitative story-telling

There is increasing recognition of the wicked nature of the intertwined climate, biodiversity and economic crises, and the need for adaptive, multi-scale approaches to understanding the complexity of both the problems and potential responses. Most science underpinning policy responses to sustainability issues, however, remains overtly apolitical and focussed on technical innovation; at odds with a critical body of literatures insisting on the recognition of systemic problem framing when supporting policy processes. This paper documents the experience of implementing a mixed method approach called quantitative story-telling (QST) to policy analysis that explicitly recognises this normative dimension, as the methodology is part of a post-normal science (PNS) toolkit. The authors reflect on what was learnt when considering how QST fared as a tool for science–policy interaction, working with European Union (EU) level policy actors interested in sustainable agriculture and sustainable development goal 2. These goals—also known as UN Agenda 2030—are the latest institutionalisation of the pursuit of sustainable development and the EU has positioned itself as taking a lead in its implementation. Thus, the paper illustrates our experience of using PNS as an approach to science policy interfaces in a strategic policy context; and illustrates how the challenges identified in the science–policy literature are amplified when working across multiple policy domains and taking a complex systems approach. Our discussion on lessons learnt may be of interest to researchers seeking to work with policy-makers on complex sustainability issues.

How usability of policy transparency promotes citizen compliance: evidence from a survey experiment

Although policy transparency is praised highly to promote citizen compliance, it sometimes loses its effect in practice due to the lack of scientific design. To better exploit policy transparency, this study examined how the usability of policy transparency promotes citizen compliance, and the role of perceived benefit and descriptive social norms in this mechanism. The results of an online survey experiment conducted in the urban renewal policy domain revealed that, in the implementation of the house expropriation policy, easy-to-understand policy transparency encourages citizen compliance better, since it promotes more perceived benefits. Furthermore, descriptive social norms were found to influence the way perceived benefits promote citizen compliance; more in detail, negative norms were found to increase, and positive norms to decrease, the role of perceived benefit, eventually influencing the effectiveness of policy transparency. This research is a breakthrough for the effectiveness of policy transparency, emphasizing the role of perceived benefit and descriptive social norms in policy compliance.

Directionality challenges for transformative innovation policy: lessons from implementing climate goals in the process industry

ABSTRACT In the new paradigm of ‘transformative’ or ‘mission-oriented’ innovation policy, which addresses broad societal challenges, policy makers are given a large responsibility for setting or shaping the direction of socio-technical transitions. However, the literature has so far not provided much concrete advice on how to achieve directionality in practice. The main argument of this conceptual article is that a more detailed approach is needed to better understand the challenges policy makers might face when they attempt to translate societal goals into more concrete and actionable policy agendas. It identifies and discusses eight analytically derived directionality challenges: handling goal conflicts, defining system boundaries, identifying realistic pathways, formulating strategies, realising destabilisation, mobilising relevant policy domains, identifying target groups, and accessing intervention points. To illustrate these challenges, the article uses examples from the implementation of the Swedish climate goal in the process industry.

How to collaborate for health throughout the project timeline – a longitudinal study reflecting on implemented strategies in three projects for a healthy living environment

BackgroundWhen improving the health of local and regional populations, cross-sector collaboration between different policy domains, non-governmental organisations and citizens themselves is needed. Previously, enabling factors and strategies have been identified to improve cross-sector collaboration for health. However, few longitudinal studies have been conducted to understand how the implementation of strategies for cross-sector collaboration changes throughout the collaboration process. The aim of this study is therefore to learn more about the different strategies that were implemented throughout three cross-sector collaboration projects for a healthy living environment.MethodsThe realist evaluation approach was used to understand how the implemented strategies worked, in which context, why and with what outcomes. Project partners were asked to reflect on their implemented strategies at two different moments in the project timelines, and quarterly updates with project leaders were held. In addition two reference panels were organised for data triangulation.ResultsThree key insights for successful cross-sector collaboration throughout projects for a healthy living environment were identified, namely 1. Investing in trust among the partners and faith in the project has a positive influence on continuing the collaboration throughout the project; 2. Making stakeholders actively participate throughout the project requires additional strategies after the onset of the project, and 3. Defining roles, tasks, and other prerequisites at the start of the project helps in pursuing the project over time, but needs re-examination throughout the project. These key insights were based on multiple examples of implemented strategies, linked to context, mechanisms and outcomes. ConclusionsThis study shows the different strategies that can be employed as the collaboration in projects for a healthy living environment progresses. We found that ‘trust’ does not merely include the relationships built between the partners, but at the onset of projects can also be based on faith in the project itself. In addition, as it can be difficult to foresee the right investments and strategies at the onset of the project, frequent reflection moments to choose fitting strategies might benefit regional partners in their cross-sector collaboration for health.

Rural health frontiers: exploring insights, lessons, and priority actions identified through a global 40-speaker webinar series on rural health equity.

Tackling rural health inequities requires equity-oriented approaches within health systems (eg across human resources, service delivery, information systems, health products, governance, financing) and action at cross-sectoral levels and with communities to address social and environmental determinants. During the July 2021 to March 2022 period, more than 40 experts contributed to an 8-part webinar series on rural health equity, sharing experiences, insights and lessons learnt for both systems strengthening and action on determinants. The webinar series was convened by WHO in collaboration with WONCA's Rural Working Party, OECD and agencies in the UN Inequalities Task Team subgroup on rural inequalities. From rural proofing to advancing a One Health approach, to research on barriers to health services, to ensuring an Indigenous health focus and community engagement in medical education, the series covered a range of topics relevant to diminishing rural health inequities. The 10-minute presentation will highlight emerging lessons, where more research activity, deliberation in policy and programming domains, and joined up action across stakeholders and sectors have been called for.

A meta aggregation of qualitative research on retention of general practitioners in remote Canada and Australia.

Our aim was to systematically review qualitative evidence regarding the experiences and perceptions of general practitioners and what factors influence their retention in remote areas of Canada and Australia. The objectives were to identify gaps and inform policy to improve retention of remote general practitioners, which should in turn improve the health of our marginalised remote communities. Meta-aggregation of qualitative studies. Remote general practice in Canada and Australia. General practitioners and general practice registrars who had worked in a remote area for a minimum of one year and/or were intending to stay remote long term in their current placement. Twenty-four studies were included in the final analysis. A total of 811 participants made up the sample with a length of retention ranging from 2 to 40 years. Six synthesised findings were identified from a total of 401 findings; these were around peer and professional support, organisational support, uniqueness of remote lifestyle and work, burnout and time off, personal family issues and cultural and gender issues. Long term retention of doctors in remote areas of Australia and Canada is influenced by a range of negative and positive perceptions, and experiences with key factors being professional, organisational, or personal. All six factors span a spectrum of policy domains and service responsibilities and therefore a central coordinating body could be well placed to implement a multifactorial retention strategy.

Governance towards coordination for water resources management: The effect of governance modes

Integrated Water Resource Management relies intensive coordination, vertically across different levels of government and horizontally across policy sectors, as many decisions affecting water resources are taken outside the water sector (e.g., in agriculture, industry). Coordination problems across levels and sectors may arise due to incompatibilities of governance modes – coordinative mechanisms ranging from hierarchy, network, to market mode – employed in the often fragmented water policy domain. This paper contributes to the discussion departing from the overarching hypothesis that synergistic interplay of governance modes rather than the dominance of a single mode supports coordination. This hypothesis is rooted in the assumption that given the plurality of state and non-state actors in water governance, who are entangled in formal and informal relationships, neither the dominance of hierarchical control, market competition, nor collaboration in networks alone is capable to ensure coordination results as different modes are appropriate for different relationships within the sector. Coordination processes and results, therefore depend on the synergistic interplay between the governance modes employed. The paper presents case studies from Germany, Mongolia, South Africa, and Spain, which face different cross-sector coordination challenges. Our findings suggest that despite policy reforms for integrated water and environmental governance, hierarchy prevails in formal provisions and practices to differing degrees. We find evidence that synergistic interplay between governance modes supports horizontal coordination, which is necessary for solving nexus governance challenges. However, synergistic interplay is not sufficient to translate coordination practices to coordination outcomes. Factors such as leadership and conflicts powerfully influence the translation as well.

Perspective: Lessons from COVID-19 of countries in the European region in light of findings from the health system response monitor.

Decision-makers initially had limited data to inform their policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. The research community developed several online databases to track cases, deaths, and hospitalizations; however, a major deficiency was the lack of detailed information on how health systems were responding to the pandemic and how they would need to be transformed going forward. In an effort to fill this information gap, in March 2020, the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, the WHO European Regional Office and the European Commission created the COVID-19 Health System Response Monitor (HSRM) to collect and organise up-to-date information on how health systems, mainly in the WHO European Region, were responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. The HSRM analysis and broader Observatory work on COVID-19 shone light on a range of health system challenges and weaknesses and catalogued policy options countries put in place during the pandemic to address these. Countries prioritised policies on investing in public health, supporting the workforce, maintaining financial stability, and strengthening governance in their response to COVID-19. COVID-19 is likely to continue to impact health systems for the foreseeable future; the ability to cope with this pressure, and other shocks, depends on having good information on what other countries have done so that health systems develop adequate policy options. In support of this, the country information on the COVID-19 HSRM will remain available as a repository to inform decision makers on options for actions and possible measures against COVID-19 and other public health emergencies. Building on its previous work on health systems resilience, the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies will sustain its focus on analysing key issues related to the recovery from the pandemic and making health systems more resilient. This includes policy knowledge transfer between countries and systematic resilience testing, aiming at contributing to an improved understanding of health system response, recovery, and preparedness. The COVID-19 Health System Response Monitor (HSRM) was the first database in the WHO European Region to collect and organise up-to-date information on how health systems were responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. The HSRM provides a repository of policies which can be used to inform decision makers in health and other policy domains on options for action and possible measures against COVID-19 and other public health emergencies. This initiative proved particularly valuable, especially during the early phases of the pandemic, when there was limited information for countries to draw on as they formulated their own policy response to the pandemic. Our perspectives paper highlights some key challenges within health systems that the HSRM was able to identify during the pandemic and considers policy options countries put in place in response. Our research contributes to literature on emergency responses and recovery, health systems performance assessment, particularly health system resilience, and showcases the Observatory experience on how to design such a data collection tool, as well as how to leverage its findings to support cross-country learning.

THE ROLE OF THE COURTS IN THE PUBLIC POLICY DOMAIN IN SOUTH AFRICA

During the pre-democratic constitutional dispensation, South African public law was marked by the pre-eminence of the executive and the legislature in a parliamentary system of government. The courts were generally loath to review matters related to policy. The adoption of the interim and subsequently the final constitutions changed the position by making the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 the supreme law of the country, with separation of powers between the three branches of government. The approach of the courts has changed noticeably from restraint to activism. Their role in reviewing policies has been steadily growing. They are now thrust into the formulation of government or public policy, which traditionally fell within the ambit of the executive branch of government. This new-found role of the courts has led to concerns that the judiciary’s constant interference in the policy domain borders on violating the hallowed principle of separation of powers. The central argument of this article is that the courts’ intervention in the public policy domain, if not handled with caution, has the potential to undermine the principle of separation of powers implicit in the South African Constitution.

Strengthening Links Between European Union Space and Defence: Adopting a Combined Approach

For two decades, there has been an ongoing debate in the European Union (EU) on how to link space programmes with its security and defence policy and how to translate words into action. This article examines the approaches proposed by two interesting contributions to this debate. The first has been put forward by the EUISS and proposes a top-down institutional approach taking advantage of the opportunity provided by the EU's “Strategic Compass” process on security and defence. Thus, the case of a dedicated “EU Space and Defence Strategy” to be established is proposed. The second approach has been put forward by the French ARES Group and argues that a bottom-up approach can enhance a common strategic view better than top-down declarations. By highlighting the possibility of funding for the development of military space capabilities by the European Defence Fund, the authors argue that the Commission's European secure connectivity project can be an ideal test case for the EU member states to blend their national capabilities with those of the EU. This article contributes to this debate by examining both arguments. It compares them with work done from 2002 to 2006, which was intended, according to a 2004 Council decision “to serve as a reference for future proceedings in the field of military capacities”. This analysis differs from the EUISS argument in that it proposes an update of the 2007 EU Space Policy to redefine the Common Security and Defence Policy goals first. Regarding the ARES Group, a bottom-up approach analysis validates the communication needs and their hierarchy, thus concluding that if implemented, it can be a timely solution in the Permanent Structured Cooperation framework. The analysis suggests that a relevant combined cooperative process in the Common Security and Defence Policy domain can give the EU time to examine the space implications of the Russia–Ukraine conflict and to establish its space vision for the European Defence Union.

How do societies reform their agricultural water management towards new priorities for water, agriculture, and the environment?

Concerns about sustainability, climate change and increasing inter-sectoral competition for water and land are pressing societies to set a new course in economic development, agriculture, water distribution and the environment. Although changes in societal priorities are an important driver of agricultural water management reform, the extent of reform is constrained by social and biophysical limits. Existing frameworks offer limited insight how reforms in agricultural water management accommodate shifted societal priorities, and how these reforms might unfold across policy domains, farming practices and land and water resources. In this paper, we define the concept of “reorientation” as a shift in broader societal priorities that drives reform of agricultural water management. We discuss 21 reorientation examples around the world. The examples reveal much diversity in the starting point of a reorientation, the degree to which a reorientation has unfolded, the role of governments, and the scales involved in a reorientation. We end the paper with a call for analytical frameworks and empirical studies to generate insights how societies reform their agricultural water management towards ambitious sustainable production and consumption modes.