Public Services In Rural Areas Research Articles

Analysis Of Decentralization Policy Implementation In Improving The Quality Of Public Services In Rural Areas

This study aims to analyze the implementation of decentralization policies and their impact on the quality of public services in rural areas. Decentralization has been implemented with the expectation of enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of public services through the delegation of authority to local governments. This research employs a qualitative approach with a case study method in several villages in [Name of the Regency] Regency. Data were obtained through in-depth interviews with village government officials, community leaders, and residents, as well as through the analysis of policy documents and related reports. The results of the study indicate that the implementation of decentralization policies in rural areas has brought about several positive changes, such as increased accessibility to services and greater community participation in the decision-making process. However, there are also several challenges, including limited human and financial resources and resistance to change. These findings suggest that although decentralization has the potential to improve the quality of public services, its success is highly dependent on local capacity and sustained support from the central government. Based on these findings, the study provides strategic recommendations to strengthen the implementation of decentralization policies, including enhancing human resource capacity through continuous training, ensuring adequate budget allocation, and encouraging collaboration between central and local governments. Thus, it is hoped that the quality of public services in rural areas can continue to improve, bringing greater benefits to the local community.

Impacts of family care for children and the elderly on women's employment: evidence from rural China.

China's traditional culture makes rural women and men take on different family responsibilities. Use "China Family Panel Studies" (CFPS) data and build Logit and propensity score matching models to empirically study the impact of children care and elderly care on rural married women going out to work. And explore the welfare effects of basic education public services in helping rural women take care of their families. The results show that caring for children has a significant hindering effect on rural married women's job hunting. Especially for those in low-income families, the employment inhibition is most significant among women aged 20-30 with multiple children. Contrary to previous cognition, supporting the elderly has a certain weak stimulating effect. The kindergarten public services in rural areas can help women take care of their children and relieve their work pressure. The primary school public services have not played a role in alleviating them. This shows that there are still a large number of female laborers in rural China who are unable to go out to work due to family care. The improvement of rural basic education public services can promote more rural women going out to work. This finding will provide a policy reference for the introduction of a formal care system and the establishment of basic education public services in China.

Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Factors That Influence Skilled Talents Scarcity in Agricultural Industry: Case Study of 14 Cities in Hunan Province

As skilled talent is the core element in optimizing the industrial structure, clarifying the factors that influence the lack of skilled talent in the agricultural industry is essential. The lack of skilled talent in the agricultural industry is a complex problem. The author based this study on the push–pull theory and used the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (FSQCA) research method to explore the “joint effect” of the factors that affect the lack of skilled talents in the agricultural industry in 14 cities of Hunan Province. This paper found that indicators such as the rural industry status, rural medical level, agricultural and forestry financial investment, urbanization construction, regional economic development level, and local government officials were all presented under sufficient conditions. These influencing factors have a “combined effect” on the agricultural industry’s lack of skilled talent. The rural industry status indicator was the core condition, appearing in all the configurations. This article’s main marginal contribution is that it defined three conditional configurations for the lack of “present” agricultural skilled talents, and dependent configurations are consistent. Among the three conditional configurations, the “rural industry + economic construction and financial investment” configuration is the most powerful way to retain skilled agricultural talents. In addition, the causal relationship between the lack of “present” agricultural industry skilled talents and the lack of “absent” agricultural industry skilled talents are asymmetric. The primary task is to develop rural industries to solve the problem of the shortage of skilled talent in the agricultural industry. Additionally, then implement the ‘industry+‘ combination policy. So the government must create related policies in the following areas: the supply of essential public services in rural areas, the economic construction of prefectures, the development of county urbanization, and the financial investment in agriculture, forestry, and water conservancy.

The Poverty Alleviation Effect of Public Services and Social Development Opportunities

After 2020, the strategic focus of rural poverty reduction will shift from absolute poverty to relative poverty. How to accurately identify the root causes of rural relative poverty and alleviate the problem of rural relative poverty has become the key factor to realize rural revitalization. Using the binary logistic regression model and the comprehensive survey data of Chinese society, it is found that the lack of feasible ability of farmers has an obvious poverty effect. Among them, the lack of basic feasible ability such as physical health and mental health and feasible development ability such as education are important factors leading to farmers’ relative poverty; however, the poverty causing effect of farmers’ willingness to work is not obvious, and the state of relative poverty will stimulate farmers’ willingness to work to a certain extent; increasing the supply of basic public services in rural areas is an important way to alleviate rural relative poverty; increasing rural social development opportunities also has an important effect on poverty alleviation, which can significantly reduce the probability of farmers’ relative poverty.

Spatial feature analysis of rural basic public service supply based on TOPSIS model and Data aggregation algorithm

The provision of basic public services in rural areas is a necessary condition for promoting farmers, agriculture, and rural development, and has important economic effects. The supply of basic public services in rural areas has an impact on agricultural growth, rural poverty reduction, and farmers’ production and investment, and ultimately directly or indirectly affect farmers’ income and consumption. In order to effectively improve the effectiveness of providing basic public services in rural areas, this study takes rural basic public services as the research object, and analyzes the economic and geographic perspectives, models, and algorithms of supply effectiveness through a literature review. It was found that the research area level needs to be deepened, and the shortcomings of traditional models and algorithms were also found. This article will make full use of the TOPSIS model’s methodological advantages in comprehensive ranking, combine the entropy method with the TOPSIS model, and sort the evaluation objects by approaching the optimal solution, so as to more objectively evaluate the rural basic public service supply in the sample counties. Based on the data aggregation algorithm, with the help of spatial analysis methods, Gini coefficient, and Theil index to further study the spatial distribution characteristics of supply. The research shows that the method has good performance and can be used as a reference for the subsequent related research rural basic services theory.

The effect of basic public service on urban-rural income inequality: a sys-GMM approach

Based on provincial panel data of China ranging from 2004 to 2015, this paper has empirically examined the effect of basic public service on the urban–rural income inequality with a system generalised method of moments (sys-GMM). We arrive at the following conclusions: 1) the improvement of public service provision is conducive to narrowing the urban–rural income gap; 2) compared with the ‘hard’ public services (including infrastructure, environmental protection and cultural facilities), the ‘soft’ public services (including education, medical care and social security) play a more significant role in reducing the disparity; 3) the household registration system impairs the welfare brought by the ‘soft’ public services and exacerbates the passive effect of ‘hard’ public services on the income gap; 4) the interactive impact of household registration regulation and public service provision on the income gap is more significant in developed areas. These findings suggest the government should give priority to the improvement of ‘soft’ public services, reevaluate the way of spending on ‘hard’ public services in rural areas and deepen the household registration system reform.

Understanding the factors affecting the attraction and retention of health professionals in rural and remote areas: a mixed-method study in Niger

BackgroundThe critical shortage of human resources in health is a critical public health problem affecting most low- and middle-income countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. In addition to the shortage of health professionals, attracting and retaining them in rural areas is a challenge. The objective of the study was to understand the factors that influence the attraction and retention of health professionals working in rural areas in Niger.MethodsA mixed-method study was conducted in Tillabery region, Niger. A conceptual framework was used that included five dimensions. Three data collection methods were employed: in-depth interviews, documentary analysis, and concept mapping. In-depth interviews were conducted with three main actor groups: policy-makers and Ministry of Health officials (n = 15), health professionals (n = 102), and local health managers (n = 46). Concept mapping was conducted with midwifery students (n = 29). Multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis were performed to analyse the data from the concept mapping method. A content analysis was conducted for the qualitative data.ResultsThe results of the study showed that the local environment, which includes living conditions (no electricity, lack of availability of schools), social factors (isolation, national and local insecurity), working conditions (workload), the lack of financial compensation, and individual factors (marital status, gender), influences the attraction and retention of health professionals to work in rural areas. Human resources policies do not adequately take into account the factors influencing the retention of rural health professionals.ConclusionIntersectoral policies are needed to improve living conditions and public services in rural areas. The government should also take into account the feminization of the medical profession and the social and cultural norms related to marital status and population mobility when formulating human resources management policies.

Defining ‘Success’ of Local Citizens’ Initiatives in Maintaining Public Services in Rural Areas: A Professional's Perspective

AbstractIn the shift towards the Big Society, it is widely proclaimed that citizen participation and citizens’ initiatives are indispensable to maintaining services that used to be run by local or regional governments. Despite the increased interest in citizens’ initiatives, research has scarcely debated what actually defines the success of such initiatives. Using focus group discussions, this study examined the meanings and norms collectively constructed by government officials and professionals regarding the success and failure of citizens’ initiatives in rural areas. Remarkably, we found that the professional perspective of successful citizens’ initiatives was not dominated by the achievement of actual policy targets or project goals, such as maintaining public services. Rather, an initiative was perceived as successful as long as citizens are continuously active and in charge. Arguably, this somewhat paternalistic professional view of successful citizens’ initiatives could be challenged by the volunteers in those initiatives.

Koprodukcja usług publicznych na obszarach wiejskich w Polsce = Co-production of public services in rural areas in Poland

The article deals with co-production issues in public services in the context of rural development. In the first part, a theoretical analysis of the theoretical aspects of co-production of public services, including the definitions and characteristics and the assumptions necessary to achieve potential success in its implementation, was analyzed. The second part discusses the possible uses of co-production of public services in rural areas and outlines the potential benefits of its implementation, both in the economic and social spheres.

Enhancing the Reach of Public Services Through Mobile Governance: The Mobile Seva Initiative in India

Mobile governance has emerged as a new paradigm for enhancing the reach of and access to public services by the citizens. While the Common Service Centres (CSCs) have helped in enhancing access to public services in rural areas, low penetration of computers and Internet in the country has hindered wider access. In July 2011, the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), Government of India launched a new countrywide initiative on mobile governance, named as Mobile Seva. This project aims at creating a common platform to enable all government departments and agencies in the country at central, state, and local levels to provide their electronic services through mobile phones and tablets. The project has achieved very good success within a short time. It already has 980 departments across the country on board and is offering over 295 services through mobile devices. The platform has already delivered over 775 million SMS based transactions to the citizens and businesses. It has also created a Mobile AppStore with over 290 live mobile apps for a wide range of public services. In this paper, I analyse the performance of this project in detail and examine the critical factors behind its success. I also examine the potential failure factors that, if not addressed properly, may undermine the project’s sustainability in the medium and long term. The analysis in the paper shows that the project has achieved its success due to a number of factors that include formulation of a national policy framework on mobile governance and support from the highest decision making body on National e-Governance Plan in the country, responsiveness of the implementing team, ease of onboarding and implementation for the departments, portal effectiveness, performance reliability, transparency and participatory design. However, there are a number of potential critical failure factors that may affect the performance of the project in future. These include lack of technical knowhow and qualified resources within departments, lack of adequate power and connectivity at department offices, lack of detailed understanding about departments’ systems, lack of face to face interaction and lack of adequate awareness about the project. These issues need to be addressed properly to ensure that the project does not suffer a sustainability failure in the long term. Developing an appropriate business model and ensuring institutional support for the project are also very important factor for its long-term sustainability.

Analysis of the impact of production technology and gender on under-utilised indigenous vegetables production in south-western Nigeria

We quantified the impact of new production technologies on total land area allocated to production of six (ugu, igbagba, tete atetedaye, woorowo, ogunmo and odu) selected high-premium under-utilised indigenous vegetables (UIVs) in south-western Nigeria. Leaf yields and accruable returns were estimated by comparing the data for these parameters at the commencement of the project in 2011 (through a baseline survey) with the same set of parameters after three years (in 2013) of project implementation. Through a structured interview and focus group discussion involving 134 randomly selected respondents (59 women and 75 men) from the 350 UIVs cooperative members in the rainforest and derived savanna agroecologies in four states (Oyo, Ondo, Osun and Ekiti) of south-western Nigeria, we studied the gender gap between male and female farmers with respect to access to productive farm resources. The data obtained were analysed using appropriate descriptive and inferential statistics. On average across south-western Nigeria in 2013, areas of 7.67, 7.0, 5.6, 1.9, 2.83 and 0.72 ha were planted to ugu, igbagba, tete atetedaye, woorowo, ogunmo and odu, respectively, compared to areas in 2011 of 0.3, 0.2, 0.6, 0, 0.32 and 0 ha, respectively. Yield analyses showed that the productivity of ugu, igbagba, tete atetedaye, woorowo, ogunmo and odu increased by 62%, 67%, 60%, 100%, 64% and 100%, respectively, as a result of the seeding rate technology applied between 2011 and 2013. More than 80% of the male and female respondents were aged between 31 and 60 years and possessed mean UIV farming experience of 18.7 years (males) and 13.4 years (females). The average farm area was 3.4 ha for men and 2.8 ha for women. The difficulty in accessing agrochemicals, modern technologies and marketing outlets was skewed towards females. We identified inadequate finance, lack of storage facilities, marketing outlets, multiple household responsibilities, lack of technology, lack of inputs and gender inequality as some of the problems associated with UIV production as perceived by both male and female respondents. Age (r = 0.290) and farming experience (r = 0.216) of female UIVs farmers, and age (r = 0.300), farming experience (r = 0.226), education (r = 0.363) and income (r = 0.224) of male UIV farmers were positively correlated with access to production resources (p≤0.01). In conclusion, there is a need to drop policies that are less favourable to rural women and to focus on the appreciation of their role as producers of wealth, and additionally to strengthen the network of public services in rural areas, including education and welfare services.

Viešųjų paslaugų prieinamumas seniems asmenims kaimiškose vietovėse

Many countries encounter a demographic change where the numer of elderly people will increase. As a result, the number of very old people needing various services [7]. The population in Lithuanian rural areas (communities) is ageing very fast.The need of various services in local community is increasing by ageing population [15]. Public Service, as defined in the Law on Public Administration of the Republic of Lithuania, encompasses all the activities of legal persons, controlled by the state or municipalities, when providing social services for persons, as well as services in the spheres of education, science, culture, sports and other services provided for by laws. Other people may also provide public services in the cases and in the manner provided for by law [16]. The research reveals that elderly people are experiencing social exclusion (isolation). The social policy has important role that lead to the development of supportive infrastructure, community engagement and intimate relationships that reduce feelings of exclusion [5]. The first stage of creation of supportive public services infrastructure is the determination of service accessibility. It is important to clarify the main factors influencing the accessibility of services. The aim of this article is to reveal the accessibility of public services in rural areas for elderly people. By using qualitative research method there was analized the accessibility of these public services: social services, transport services and health services. By the research was discovered that the accessibility of public services to elderly people in rural areas restrains objective (health problems, lack of needed services, lack of money for needed services, access to public transport, living in disadvantaged rural area) and subjective (various fears, lack of knowledge about possible help, resistance to ask for help) factors. The accessibility of public services for elderly people in rural areas facilitates informal support of neighbours and relative (children), informal voluntary support of specialists. The elderly people were wanting and very motivated to take care about themselfs. This factor also facilitate the accessibility of public services. doi:10.5200/sm-hs.2013.103

Digital and public services in rural areas: the infernal couple for towns and rural planning ? The case of the “téléguichets” in the department of Lot

Le teleguichet, borne permettant un acces a distance, est-il un outil revolutionnaire d’amenagement du territoire pour maintenir l’accessibilite des services publics en milieu rural ou est-il un outil participant au delaissement progressif du territoire par les services publics ? Apres les premieres experimentations effectuees dans quelques departements francais et en particulier dans le Lot, territoire majoritairement rural tres touche par les effets de la RGPP, la reponse se revele complexe et nuancee. Les elus sont en effet partages entre enthousiasme et resignation face a ce nouvel outil, mais ne souhaitent pas rater l’opportunite d’en avoir un sur leur commune plutot que de le voir s’installer dans la commune voisine. Quant aux usagers, generalement peu nombreux – ce qui pose question par rapport a l’investissement realise –, ils apparaissent a posteriori tres satisfaits de l’utilisation des teleguichets.

Conflicts arising from the restructuring of public services in rural areas

La politique de restructuration des services publics dans les petites villes et dans les zones rurales mise en œuvre par les gouvernements successifs depuis le debut des annees 1990 a provoque de nombreux conflits locaux, caracterises par une tres forte mobilisation des acteurs et de la population. Ces conflits traduisent un veritable « stress territorial ». Leur intensite s’explique par les enjeux objectifs souleves par les decisions de fermeture (perte d’emplois, perte d’attractivite du territoire, risques sanitaires), mais aussi par des enjeux plus subjectifs (image et statut de la ville, angoisse d’un declin irreversible, « desertification » ou « mort » du territoire). Plus globalement, ces crises locales expriment la crise d’une representation fondamentale, en matiere d’amenagement du territoire : celle de « l’interet general ». Quelles priorites et quelle echelle geographique pertinente pour concilier au mieux equilibre des finances publiques et egalite d’acces aux services publics ?

Does corruption affect health outcomes in the Philippines?

We examine the effect of corruption on health outcomes in the Philippines. We find that corruption reduces the immunization rates, delays the vaccination of newborns, discourages the use of public health clinics, reduces satisfaction of households with public health services, and increases waiting time at health clinics. We also find that corruption affects public services in rural areas in different ways than urban areas, and that corruption harms the poor more than the wealthy.

Does Corruption Affect Health and Education Outcomes in the Philippines?

We examine the effect of corruption in municipal governments on health and education outcomes in the Philippines. We find that corruption lowers the immunization rate of children, delays the vaccination of newborns, prevents the treatment of patients, discourages the use of public health clinics, reduces satisfaction of households with public health services, and increases waiting time of patients at health clinics. Corruption also has a negative effect on education outcomes: it reduces test scores, lowers national ranking of schools, raises variation of test scores within schools and reduces satisfaction ratings. We also find that corruption affects public services in rural areas in different ways than urban areas, and that corruption harms the poor more than the wealthy

Conflicting Objectives for Rural Local Government: Service Provision to Exurban Communities in Israel

The delivery of public services in rural areas is a problem encountered not only by declining and peripheral areas but also by newly founded exurban communities. The problems of small size are exacerbated by the demand within these communities for high levels and a high quality of service provision. The existing local government network in these rural and rurban areas is unable to cope with the increased demand emanating from these new communities. This is particularly problematic in Israel, where the rural system of local government, the regional councils, have traditionally fulfilled the role of providing services to agricultural and cooperative communities. In this paper the nature of the service demands made by new exurban communities in Israel, the problems encountered by the regional councils in providing these same services, and the tensions which result from this lack of compatibility are discussed. Proposed functional solutions are presented and compared, ranging from minor modifications to the existing system of rural local government to those which require a change in the formal municipal status of the exurban communities.

Financing Public Services in Rural Areas: A Synthesis

RAPID CHANGES in technology, shifts in population, changes in the price and availability of resources, and changes in the institutions and organizations providing goods and services have resulted in a geographical redistribution of population and economic activity. Rural residents who were unable to, or who chose not to, migrate from their communities have not received an equitable share of the income and capital values generated by these changes in the U. S. economy and public investments. The result has been fewer people left to support the existing social, economic, political, and cultural institutions in rural America. Per