Regional Flagship Research Articles

Regional Flagship Priorities of WHO South-East Asia: fostering efficiency in public health

Regional Flagship Priorities of WHO South-East Asia: fostering efficiency in public health

Progress Toward Measles Elimination - South-East Asia Region, 2003-2020.

In 2013, member states of the World Health Organization (WHO) South-East Asia Region* (SEAR) adopted the goal of measles elimination and rubella and congenital rubella syndrome control† by 2020 (1). In 2014, to provide impetus toward achieving this goal, the Regional Director declared measles elimination and rubella control one of the Regional Flagship Priorities. In 2019, SEAR member states declared a revised goal of eliminating both measles and rubella§ by 2023 (2). The recommended strategies to achieve elimination include 1) achieving and maintaining ≥95% coverage with 2 doses of measles- and rubella-containing vaccine in every district through routine or supplementary immunization activities¶ (SIAs); 2) developing and sustaining a sensitive and timely case-based surveillance system that meets recommended performance indicators**; 3) developing and maintaining an accredited laboratory network; 4) achieving timely identification, investigation, and response to measles outbreaks; and 5) collaborating with other public health initiatives to achieve the preceding four strategies. This report updates a previous report and describes progress toward measles elimination in SEAR during 2003-2020 (3). In 2002, coverage with the first dose of a measles-containing vaccine in routine immunization (MCV1) was 70%, and only three countries in SEAR had added a second routine dose of measles-containing vaccine in routine immunization (MCV2). During 2003-2020, all countries introduced MCV2, and estimated coverage with MCV1 increased 35%, from 65% to 88%, and coverage with MCV2 increased 1,233% from 6% to 80%. Approximately 938 million persons were vaccinated in SIAs. Annual reported measles incidence declined by 92%, from 57.0 to 4.8 cases per 1 million population, and estimated deaths decreased by 97%; an estimated 9.3 million deaths were averted by measles vaccination. By 2020, five countries were verified as having achieved measles elimination. To achieve measles elimination in the region by 2023, additional efforts are urgently needed to strengthen routine immunization services and improve measles-containing vaccine (MCV) coverage, conduct periodic high-quality SIAs, and strengthen measles case-based surveillance and laboratory capacity.

Implementing a decade of strengthening the health workforce in the WHO South-East Asia Region: achievements and way forward for primary health care

Background Health workers are the cornerstone of primary health care (PHC) services, the delivery of an effective coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) response and progress towards universal health coverage (UHC). In 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) South-East Asia Region committed to the Decade for Health Workforce Strengthening 2015–2024, and UHC became a regional flagship with a focus on strengthening the health workforce. Since its inception, three rounds of monitoring with standardized indicators have been completed.Methods In 2019, data on human resources for health were collected through the National Health Workforce Accounts online platform by the country focal points; this was complemented by a regional online consultation in June 2020. A mid-term review report on the Decade for Health Workforce Strengthening was launched during the 73rd session of the Regional Committee in September 2020.Results The availability of doctors, nurses and midwives in the South-East Asia Region has increased by 21% since the decade began in 2014. Nine countries of the region are now above the 2006 WHO threshold of 22.8 doctors, nurses and midwives per 10 000 population, compared with only six countries in 2014. However, only two countries are above the 2016 revised WHO threshold of 44.5 doctors, nurses and midwives per 10 000 population, the density estimated to be needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Countries of the WHO South-East Asia Region have made progress to different extents during the past 5 years on strengthening governance of human resources for health, data, rural retention and health professional education.Discussion Addressing broader health workforce challenges and particularly PHC workforce challenges will require extra commitment and prioritization by governments for the second half of the decade. COVID-19 presents the necessity and an opportunity to increase long-term investment in the health workforce and in strengthening PHC in the South-East Asia Region.

Strategic academic leadership programs in Russia: Past and future

The article discusses the projects aimed to develop the national higher education system: “5-100” supporting regional flagship universities and the “Priority 2030” program, as well as the problems of their implementation and opportunities for participating universities to improve their results in terms of ensuring the constitutional right of the citizens for affordable and quality education. It has become evident that although the concentration of resources in the group of leading universities contributes to their entry into prestigious international academic rankings, it widens the gap between them and the bulk of other universities as regards the infrastructure, procurement and human resourcing that deteriorates the development of the educational system as a whole. The authors emphasize the necessity to consider the experience of implementing the “5-100” project in the future, in particular, when carrying out the “Priority 2030” project launched in 2021. The authors outline positive aspects of this project which can facilitate the development mechanisms for the regions in the Russian Federation as a result of the government funding and the creation of consortia with leading universities. The article also covers the key points during the tendering procedures of the Priority 2030 project, which in the future can play a significant role in the process of implementation of development programs for individual universities. The authors conclude that the use of the “5-100” project experience can improve the performance of the entire system of the national higher education.

산업의 성장 잠재성을 고려한 지역주력산업 분류모형 및 맞춤형 정책 제안: 제조 중소기업의 특화도 분석을 중심으로

산업의 성장 잠재성을 고려한 지역주력산업 분류모형 및 맞춤형 정책 제안: 제조 중소기업의 특화도 분석을 중심으로

Turning commitments into actions: perspectives on emergency preparedness in South-East Asia.

Emergency preparedness is a continuous process in which risk and vulnerability assessments, planning and implementation, funding, partnerships and political commitment at all levels must be sustained and acted upon. It relates to health systems strengthening, disaster risk reduction and operational readiness to respond to emergencies. Strategic interventions to strengthen the capacities of countries in the World Health Organization (WHO) South-East Asia Region for emergency preparedness and response began in 2005. Efforts accelerated from 2014 when emergency risk management was identified as one of the regional flagship priority programmes following the pragmatic approach "sustain, accelerate and innovate". Despite increased attention and some progress on risk management, the existing capacities to respond to health emergencies are inadequate in the face of prevailing and increasing threats posed by multiple hazards, including climate change and emerging and re-emerging diseases. The setting up of a "preparedness stream" under the South-East Asia Regional Health Emergency Fund in July 2016 was an important milestone. The endorsement of the Five-year regional strategic plan to strengthen public health preparedness and response - 2019-2023 by Member States was another step forward. Furthermore, ministerial-level commitment, in the form of the Delhi Declaration on Emergency Preparedness, adopted in September 2019 in the 72nd session of the WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia, is in place to facilitate Member States to invest resources in the protection and safety of people and systems and in overall emergency risk management through national action plans for health security. It is essential now to turn these commitments into actions to strengthen emergency preparedness in countries of the region.

Audit of training of digital personnel for regional economy in the conditions of Industry 4.0

Purpose The purpose of the paper is to develop the scientific and methodological provision of an audit of training of digital personnel for the regional economy in the conditions of Industry 4.0 by the example of regional flagship universities of modern Russia. Design/methodology/approach The authors use the method of regression analysis for determining the dependence of the level of digitization of regions’ economy on the competitiveness of their basic universities. The research is performed by the example of regions of the Volga Federal District of the Russian Federation, in which there are regional flagship universities as of early 2019. Findings It is determined that audit of training of digital personnel for the regional economy in the conditions of Industry 4.0 in modern Russia is conducted within the monitoring of the effectiveness of universities by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation. Most of the indicators that are necessary for the audit of training of digital personnel for the regional economy in the conditions of Industry 4.0 are not taken into account. The data of the monitoring allow compiling a fragmentary idea of the potential of a regional flagship university in training of digital personnel for the regional economy in the conditions of Industry 4.0, while the results of this training are not assessed or controlled. This leads to low potential and low efficiency of Russia’s regional flagship universities in training of digital personnel for the regional economy in the conditions of Industry 4.0. Originality/value The forms for an audit of training of digital personnel for the regional economy in the conditions of Industry 4.0 by the regional flagship university are developed. The indicators of the potential and results of the university in training of digital personnel are combined with the existing methodology of evaluation of the effectiveness of universities in Russia. An additional advantage of the authors’ recommendations is the universal character of the developed forms, which allows using them in other countries for an audit of training of digital personnel for the regional economy in the conditions of Industry 4.0.

“Regional flagship” university model in Russia: searching for the third mission incentives

This study seeks to explore the incentive factors that serve to instigate university engagement in the third-mission agenda based on evidence drawn from the Russian system of higher education. We pay special attention to how the split of natural and externally induced drivers of the third mission has changed from the Soviet era and up until the immediate modernity. Our analysis has shown that the balance of these two types of incentives never remained flat over the course of history as the Russian university system encountered and had to address different challenges and imperatives at various points in time. We have also found that, while federal initiatives have been adopted by the Russian state that have created a distinctive cohort of universities entrusted with comprehensively contributing to the socio-economic and innovative potential of their host localities as a top-priority task, the third-mission agenda is by no means reduced solely to this very group of institutions, as there are many other universities that are not directly expected to focus on the third mission, but which still favor pursuing proactive and fruitful collaborations with regional stakeholders as arguably representing one of the crucial factors in long-term university sustainability.

Guest Editorial Selected Papers From Regional Flagship Conferences of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society (ICECS 2017, LASCAS 2018, and NEWCAS 2018)

This issue represents selected papers from three Regional Flagship Conferences of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society in 2017 and 2018: International Conference on Electronics, Circuits and Systems (ICECS) 2017 held in Batumi, Georgia, on 5–8 December 2017; Latin American Symposium on Circuits and Systems (LASCAS) 2018 held in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, on 25–28 February 2018 and International NEWCAS Conference held in Montreal, Canada on 24–27 June 2018. The authors of the best papers presented at these conferences were invited to contribute to this special issue. It includes 19 papers across the technical topics relevant to the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society: analog, digital and mixed-signal circuits, computer-aided design, power electronics, signal processing and circuits and systems for communications.

Murmansk Arctic State University – Institution with the Northern Character

The article focuses on the issues of the formation of a conceptually new target model of a regional flagship university. Based on the experience of the formation and development of the Murmansk Arctic State University, which acquired the status of a flagship one in 2017, the authors analyze the origins of the formation of the model, its specificity, which is substantively and formally defined in the parameters of the Arctic perspective. The major intensively developing areas of MASU’s activity in the past two years have been focuses on two important factors of regional development, implemented in the form of two strategic flagship university projects. The first strategic project – “MASU is the scientific and technological hub of the region” – is aimed at solving the most acute regional task of effectively using both the economic and scientific / innovative potential of the region. The second strategic project – “Creative City is a Territory of Development” – reflects the interaction of the creative communities of the region, the Russian Federation and the world with prospect consumers represented by the regional government, municipalities, institutions and industrial enterprises. MASU is the main platform for combining a variety of strategies and searches aimed at changing urban and township sociocultural spaces, an integrator of various areas of design, creative technologies and cultural practices that affect the improvement of the quality of life and human capital development. The key role is determined by the role of the flagship university as a driver of the regional socio-economic development. The developing dialogue between the university, business and government is affirmed as an indispensable condition for the University’s successful functioning and a pledge for its further development.

Guest Editorial 2017 Special Issue on CASS Regional Flagship Conferences

Welcome to the 2017 Special Issue on the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society (CASS) Regional Flagship Conferences, a collection of selected papers presented at the 2016 IEEE Asia Pacific Conference on Circuits and Systems (APCCAS 2016), held in Jeju, South Korea, October 25–28, 2016, the 23rd IEEE International Conference on Electronics Circuits and Systems (ICECS 2016), held in Monte Carlo, Monaco, December 11–14, 2016, and the 8th IEEE Latin American Symposium on Circuits and Systems (LASCAS 2017), held in Bariloche, Argentina, February 20–23, 2017. In APCCAS 2016, 212 papers were presented, selected from 310 papers submitted; in ICECS 2016, 191 papers were presented, selected from 353 papers submitted; in LASCAS 2017, 70 papers were presented, selected from 172 papers submitted.