Subnational Approach Research Articles

Entre o desinteresse e a desigualdade: percepções de <i>brokers</i> e <i>stakeholders</i> sobre a implementação de políticas florestais em nível subnacional

Objective/context: In 2020, Ucayali was the Peruvian region with the highest loss of Amazonian forest (47,267 hectares). Measures have been taken regarding climate commitments and environmental governance, but the results continue without notoriety, and mitigation actions are limited. From a subnational approach, the article seeks to analyze the perceptions of brokers and actors involved about the implementation of forest policies in the Ucayali region. Methodology: Based on a qualitative strategy that included semi-structured interviews and a co- construction workshop to evidence the perceptions of the actors involved, with direct knowledge of the territory and implementation, and intermediary agents (brokers), the latter with the capacity to influence the decisions made regarding the formulation of action plans. Conclusions: The results demonstrate the existence of a structural difficulty in achieving short- or long-term change actions. There are institutional limitations but also a lack of support from civil society. Originality: Considering the type and limited number of studies on perceptions of climate change-oriented policies, the results obtained allow for generating relevant evidence for policy formulation processes and articulation between different levels of government.

Polls of fear? Electoral violence, incumbent strength, and voter turnout in Côte d’Ivoire

How, and under what conditions, does electoral violence influence voter turnout? Existing research often presumes that electoral violence demobilizes voters, but we lack knowledge of the conditions under which violence depresses turnout. This study takes a subnational approach to probe the moderating effect of local incumbent strength on the association between electoral violence and turnout. Based on existing work, I argue that electoral violence can reduce voter turnout by heightening threat perceptions among voters and eroding public trust in the electoral system, thereby raising the expected costs of voting and undermining the belief that one’s vote matters. Moreover, I propose that in elections contested across multiple local rather than a single national voting district, the negative effect of electoral violence on turnout should be greater in districts where the incumbent is stronger. This is because when the incumbent is stronger, voters have lesser strategic and purposive incentives to vote than voters in localities where the opposition is stronger. I test the argument by combining original subnational event data on electoral violence before Côte d’Ivoire’s 2021 legislative elections with electoral records. The results support the main hypothesis and indicate that electoral violence was associated with significantly lower voter turnout in voting districts where the incumbent was stronger, but not where the opposition was stronger. The study contributes new knowledge on the conditions under which electoral violence depresses voter turnout, and suggests that voters in opposition strongholds can be more resilient to electoral violence than often assumed.

Post introduction evaluation of the malaria vaccine implementation programme in Ghana, 2021

BackgroundMalaria remains a public health challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa with the region contributing to more than 90% of global cases in 2020. In Ghana, the malaria vaccine was piloted to assess the feasibility, safety, and its impact in the context of routine use alongside the existing recommended malaria control measures. To obtain context-specific evidence that could inform future strategies of introducing new vaccines, a standardized post-introduction evaluation (PIE) of the successes and challenges of the malaria vaccine implementation programme (MVIP) was conducted.MethodsFrom September to December 2021, the WHO Post-Introduction Evaluation (PIE) tool was used to conduct a mixed methods evaluation of the MVIP in Ghana. To ensure representativeness, study sites and participants from the national level, 18 vaccinating districts, and 54 facilities from six of the seven pilot regions were purposively selected. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected using data collection tools that were adapted based on the WHO PIE protocol. We performed summary descriptive statistics on quantitative data, thematic analysis on qualitative data, and triangulation of the results from both sets of analyses.ResultsAbout 90.7% (49/54) of health workers stated that the vaccine introduction process was smooth and contributed to an overall improvement of routine immunisation services. About 87.5% (47/54) of healthcare workers, and 95.8% (90/94) of caregivers accepted RTS,S malaria vaccine. Less than half [46.3%; (25/54)] of the healthcare workers participated in the pre-vaccine introduction training but almost all [94.4%; (51/54)] were able to constitute and administer the vaccine appropriately. About 92.5% (87/94) of caregivers were aware of the RTS,S introduction but only 44.0% (44/94) knew the number of doses needed for maximum protection. Health workers believed that the MVIP has had a positive impact on under five malaria morbidity.ConclusionsThe malaria vaccine has been piloted successfully in Ghana. Intensive advocacy; community engagement, and social mobilization; and regular onsite supportive supervision are critical enablers for successful introduction of new vaccines. Stakeholders are convinced of the feasibility of a nationwide scale up using a phased subnational approach taking into consideration malaria epidemiology and global availability of vaccines.

Reducing societal impacts of SARS-CoV-2 interventions through subnational implementation.

To curb the initial spread of SARS-CoV-2, many countries relied on nation-wide implementation of non-pharmaceutical intervention measures, resulting in substantial socio-economic impacts. Potentially, subnational implementations might have had less of a societal impact, but comparable epidemiological impact. Here, using the first COVID-19 wave in the Netherlands as a case in point, we address this issue by developing a high-resolution analysis framework that uses a demographically stratified population and a spatially explicit, dynamic, individual contact-pattern based epidemiology, calibrated to hospital admissions data and mobility trends extracted from mobile phone signals and Google. We demonstrate how a subnational approach could achieve similar level of epidemiological control in terms of hospital admissions, while some parts of the country could stay open for a longer period. Our framework is exportable to other countries and settings, and may be used to develop policies on subnational approach as a better strategic choice for controlling future epidemics.

Multiple Fragmentations: A Subnational Analysis of the Early Childhood Education and Care Workforce in Argentina.

The divided nature of the ECEC workforce is widely acknowledged. While scholarship has focused primarily on the consequences of the education–care divide, few studies have examined the workforce’s fragmentation from a subnational perspective, particularly in the Global South. This article explores multiple fragmentations in the workforce, drawing on three provincial case studies in Argentina. The study included 17 interviews with national and subnational policy makers and three focus groups with ECEC workers. We explore ECEC workers’ heterogeneous conditions and experiences across three provinces and demonstrate how vertical and horizontal fragmentation combine to create multiple fragmentations. We argue that subnational approaches are critical for better understanding the ECEC workforce’s complexities and, ultimately, ECEC systems.

Mapping soil organic carbon stocks in Tunisian topsoils

Better knowledge of the amount and spatial distribution of soil organic carbon (SOC) stock at national level is a key element for monitoring, planning and decision-making regarding soil quality management, agriculture or carbon storage options. The present study proposes for the first time a Digital Soil Mapping (DSM) initiative to map SOC stocks in Tunisian topsoils (0–30 cm) at 100 m resolution, using a Quantile Regression Forest (QRF) algorithm, a range of environmental covariates, and a national database of 1540 SOC stock profiles. Our results provided a revised assessment of the SOC stock on the Tunisian territory at 391Tg C in the first 30 cm of soil profile, i.e. an average of 2.53 kg m-2. The map of SOC stocks outperformed global DSM products such as SoilGrids 2.0 in both R2 (0.44 vs. 0.15) and RMSE (1.94 vs. 2.52 kg m−2) and can be used as a benchmark against changes of land use and climate. The importance of the environmental covariates tested indicates the major role of bioclimatic data and, to a lesser extent, remote sensing images and topography-related variables. Our study did not show a significant added value of using additional covariates in relation to nationally available variables or the SOC map predicted by SoilGrids2.0. Finally, our results showed that increasing the quality and quantity of soil profile observations is most likely the best way to improve the future SOC map, starting with the northern region of Tunisia, which has the highest SOC stock predictions and uncertainties in the country. An alternative way would be the exploration of new covariates through sub-national approaches.

Spatio-temporal monitoring of health facility-level malaria trends in Zambia and adaptive scaling for operational intervention

BackgroundThe spatial and temporal variability inherent in malaria transmission within countries implies that targeted interventions for malaria control in high-burden settings and subnational elimination are a practical necessity. Identifying the spatio-temporal incidence, risk, and trends at different administrative geographies within malaria-endemic countries and monitoring them in near real-time as change occurs is crucial for developing and introducing cost-effective, subnational control and elimination intervention strategies.MethodsThis study developed intelligent data analytics incorporating Bayesian trend and spatio-temporal Integrated Laplace Approximation models to analyse high-burden over 32 million reported malaria cases from 1743 health facilities in Zambia between 2009 and 2015.ResultsThe results show that at least 5.4 million people live in catchment areas with increasing trends of malaria, covering over 47% of all health facilities, while 5.7 million people live in areas with a declining trend (95% CI), covering 27% of health facilities. A two-scale spatio-temporal trend comparison identified significant differences between health facilities and higher-level districts, and the pattern observed in the southeastern region of Zambia provides the first evidence of the impact of recently implemented localised interventions.ConclusionsThe results support our recommendation for an adaptive scaling approach when implementing national malaria monitoring, control and elimination strategies and a particular need for stratified subnational approaches targeting high-burden regions with increasing disease trends. Strong clusters along borders with highly endemic countries in the north and south of Zambia underscore the need for coordinated cross-border malaria initiatives and strategies.

When Are Gender Quotas Fulfilled? Party Strategy and Historical Memory in Ukrainian City Elections

AbstractMany studies have investigated why countries adopt gender quotas for their elections. In this article, we answer a different question: why do political parties comply with gender quotas when the costs of noncompliance are absent or minimal? To answer this question, we analyze data from 1,600 party lists and 106 parties competing across 121 cities in the 2015 municipal elections in Ukraine. Our subnational approach tests whether contextual factors flagged by the broader gender literature explain variation in compliance across localities. The results of our models support our contention that Ukrainian political parties behaved strategically in terms of nominations and quota compliance. We find that urbanization and female incumbency fueled quota compliance. Parties, however, were less likely to comply with quotas in cities with more Ukrainian speakers. We suggest that the politics of memory explain this outcome, as Ukrainian speakers are more likely to remember of the costs of Soviet rule.

Voting between two global crises. A NUTS3-level analysis of retrospective voting in four South-European countries

AbstractGreece, Italy, Portugal and Spain went several times to the polls during the 2010–2019 decade. It was a period characterised by the strenuous effort to recover the economic situation before the onset of the Great Recession; an effort, however, often constrained by externally imposed austerity policies, and by a refugee crisis that contributed to the growing salience of the immigration issue. The article adopts an original sub-national approach to examine if and how the economic situation and the incidence of immigration affected the electoral outcomes in the four South-European countries. Adopting a theory of retrospective behaviour, the research reported in the article confirms the association between employment and immigration levels, on the one hand, and punishment of the incumbent government on the other. However, the electoral effects of immigration are conditioned by the partisan composition of the government and, under centre-right cabinets, are aggravated by a negative economic conjuncture.

Sixteen ways to adapt: a comparison of state-level climate change adaptation strategies in the federal states of Germany

Climate change adaptation (CCA) to reduce or prevent negative climate change impacts and, in some cases, maximize potential benefits is a complex challenge demanding multi-level policy action. In federalist systems, sub-national governments are among key actors for enabling adaptation and their clear commitments can increase collaboration and innovation at the local level. Germany serves as a particularly insightful case for observing the variance among sub-national approaches due to its role as a “leader” in CCA at the national level. This paper provides the first systematic assessment of all sixteen state adaptation strategies in Germany and examines how German states are fostering adaptation, the extent to which their approaches vary, and which patterns have emerged. Based on a qualitative document analysis of over 30 documents, this assessment focuses on five indicators synthesized from literature climate policy analyses and on barriers and facilitating factors of adaptation. Results find that German state strategies are often non-committal sets of recommendations and identify three clusters displaying different degrees of institutionalization and guidance. While federalism allows for flexibility among state responses, the absence of federal mandates and policy standards allows some states to fall behind while others continue to develop their strategies to foster adaptation. These sixteen diverse approaches each have implications for adaptation governance at other levels.

Comparative studies of early childhood education and care: beyond methodological nationalism

ABSTRACT With early childhood inhabiting a firm position on policy agendas, an emerging global consensus acknowledges the need for research into early childhood education and care (ECEC) systems. However, standardised approaches to comparison dominate the field. These studies tend to be grounded in methodological nationalism, assuming nation states as the natural and necessary unit to study social phenomena. I argue the national unit is not sufficient to understand ECEC systems and that we need to consider subnational levels (district and local). Subnational approaches enable the reconstruction of the different actors and institutions at play in all levels of ECEC systems. This movement beyond methodological nationalism requires a shift towards integrated approaches and territorialised policy analysis. I illustrate my argument drawing on qualitative data from two subnational studies in Argentina. I discuss the conceptual and methodological implications for international comparison and comparative research in the early childhood field.

The Failed Federalism of Affordable Housing: Why States Don't Use Housing Vouchers

This Article uncovers a critical disjuncture in our system of providing affordable rental housing. At the federal level, the oldest, fiercest debate in low-income housing policy is between project-based and tenant-based subsidies: should the government help build new affordable housing projects or help renters afford homes on the private market? But at the state and local levels, it is as if this debate never took place. The federal government (following most experts) employs both strategies, embracing tenant-based assistance as more cost-effective and offering tenants greater choice and mobility. But this Article shows that state and local housing voucher programs are rare, small, and limited to special populations. States and cities almost exclusively provide project-based rental assistance. They move in lockstep despite disparate market conditions and political demands: project-based spending overwhelmingly predominates in both high- and lowrent markets and in both liberal and conservative states. States have done so across decades of increased spending. This uniform subnational approach suggests an unhealthy federalism—neither efficient nor experimental. This Article further diagnoses why states have made this unusual choice, identifying four primary culprits: (1) fiscally-constrained states use project-based models to minimize painful cuts during recessions; (2) incomplete federal housing subsidies inadvertently incentivize project-based spending; (3) the interest groups involved in financing and constructing affordable housing are relatively more powerful subnationally; and (4) rental assistance’s unusual, lottery-like nature elevates the value of visible spending over cost-effectiveness. Finally, this Article points the way toward reform, offering two paths forward. Taking a federalist perspective allows for a new understanding of federal housing statutes. Better cooperative models—expanding either the federal or state role in providing affordable housing—could accept states’ limitations in providing rental assistance and exploit their strengths.

Socioeconomics effects on global hotspots of common debris items on land and the seafloor

Pollution of coastal environments by anthropogenic debris is a global problem that is increasingly in the public eye. We evaluated the influence of socioeconomic and geographic factors on common debris items at a global scale. We compared debris density and socioeconomic drivers of the ten most common items reported on land and the seafloor, analyzing data from 22,508 land-based and 7,290 seafloor clean-ups and surveys across 116 and 118 countries, respectively. We found debris hotspots for different items span numerous countries across all continents. This demonstrates that the debris problem is global and heterogeneous, pointing to the transboundary nature of the issue and necessitating sub-national approaches to implementing effective solutions. Food and beverage packaging items, predominantly made from single-use plastics, accounted for much of the debris. Hotspots of individual debris items were differentially driven by socioeconomic factors. In general, total debris counts increased with the value of infrastructure, and decreased with national wealth. Highly polluted sites occurred in high-infrastructure, low-wealth locations such as Athens, Greece; Tunis, Tunisia and Lima, Peru. Based on these findings, we identify specific opportunities for policy makers and citizens alike to focus efforts aimed at reducing debris entering the environment.

Social economy, sustainable entrepreneurship and regional policy drivers

ABSTRACT The social economy (SE) has raised strong interest in recent years. Due its intrinsic characteristics, which prioritize collective benefit and influence local development, SE has been viewed as specially rooted in a territory. Thus, it can be expected that the more proximity on policies, the more positive effect of these efforts. In this paper we explore these relationships by analysing Galician’s case, one autonomous region in Spain. In this region, government promotion has been decisive in enhancing SE, establishing a favourable ecosystem that has made this region the seminal reference for the regional development of SE, with significant repercussions on its territory. Building on this analysis, this study undertakes a subnational approach regarding the public policies aimed to promote SE, so the results might be useful to enhance the effectiveness of these policies, focusing on proximity and adjustment to the territory.

Exploring spatio-temporal variations in environmental impacts from eating out in the United Kingdom

In this study we estimated the environmental burden of eating away from home based on emission factors of food recipes consumed in different regions and countries within the United Kingdom. Food based emissions were expressed in kg CO2 equivalent per capita per week and were calculated based on food consumption data between the years 2001 and 2018. Time series analysis was used to estimate emissions for the years 2019 and 2020 for all study areas. These results were used to estimate the endpoint impacts on human health as well as terrestrial and aquatic species during the study period. Finally, an estimate of the emissions for 2020 was also carried out based on available market data for the first 11 months of the year. This was subsequently compared with the forecasts calculated earlier to observe the impacts of Covid-19 led lockdowns on eating out and hence the emissions. By taking a subnational approach, we aimed to highlight the importance of appreciating similarities and differences among these regions and policy implications thereof. To the best knowledge of the authors this is the first and only study focusing on regional food-based emissions from eating out in the United Kingdom.

Making the Final Decade of the Sustainable Development Goals Count: An Analysis of Donors’ Subnational Approaches to Reaching the Poorest People

Although the proportion of the world’s population living in poverty has declined substantially over the last two decades, the absolute number of people that live in poverty or vulnerable conditions has remained high. Nearly 70% of the poor now live in countries classified as middle-income.3 We conducted a document review and comparative analysis of six of the largest global health donors to better understand the extent to which they incorporate subnational poverty into their allocation decisions and programming. The donors we studied were Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (Gavi); the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (the Global Fund); the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR); the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)—specifically, its Global Health Bureau; the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA); and the Government of Japan. We found that most donor high-level strategy documentation allude to the relationship between poverty and health by, for example, noting the financial burden of specific diseases targeted or the disproportionate disease burdens that may fall on the poorest people. However, only two of these donors, Gavi and IDA, incorporate any subnational poverty indicators or broader subnational poverty focus that could be tracked and monitored over time. Gavi and IDA also integrate household level wealth or health expenditure data in their routine monitoring processes, though there is limited information about how much this integration influences how these two donors target aid toward the poorest communities. For the other four donors—Global Fund, PEPFAR, USAID, and Japan—subnational poverty is either not addressed or else is invoked in the context of other social or demographic factors that make certain groups of people vulnerable to disease (e.g., sex workers’ vulnerability to HIV).

The OLI Paradigm as a comprehensive model of FDI determinants: a sub-national approach

PurposeThis study aims to advance a sub-national perspective within the OLI Paradigm by analyzing how and to what extent the Eclectic Paradigm can serve as a general model to capture region-specific aspects of the location determinants of FDI, encompassing institutional effects that extend beyond the quality of institutions.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted a systematic literature review of 41 selected papers published between 1990 and 2019. Using inductive content analysis, they investigated the theoretical choices used to support analyses of the effects of institutional factors on MNEs' location decisions at the sub-national level.FindingsIt was found that, when changing from the national to the sub-national level of analysis, there is no need to change the main assumptions used in the literature, although a different perspective must be adopted. The Eclectic Paradigm permeates most of the studies revised and can serve as a general model to capture the sub-national perspective. It offers a foundation for new perspectives on the dynamics of institutional and political factors and their effects on location strategies and determinants at the sub-national level. Adopting the OLI Paradigm with a sub-national approach could widen the IB literature's prevailing focus on traditional economic factors and institutional quality.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors contribute to extant International Business literature Their paper enhances the literature on FDI location determinants by providing a more specific approach to development of a sub-national perspective within the OLI Paradigm, extending the institutional effects to capture more region-specific factors influencing the location of FDI. Study limitations are related to our analytical focus on the location dimension, excluding motives for FDI or firm-level location strategies. Rather than limiting analysis to quantitative studies, future research that includes qualitative studies and also covers the other dimensions of the OLI Paradigm could open additional new research avenues for advancing the sub-national perspective within the field of IB.Practical implicationsThe authors’ main findings suggest that MNEs' location strategies should include a sub-national perspective, which means that firms need to assess different levels of the location and understand their interaction with nationwide constraints and limitations, as it may affect firms' ability to effectively conduct their value-adding activities. They also contribute elements that can support sub-national governments' actions and policies aiming to enhance locational advantages to attract and retain FDI.Originality/valueThis review specifically analyzes the location determinants of FDI at the sub-national level, in studies published in a broad set of journals, from a variety of fields, prioritizing articles that investigate sub-national institutional determinants. The authors derive implications for the International Business literature and propose that the sub-national dimension should be incorporated into the Eclectic paradigm in order to better understand the influence of institutional sub-national determinants.

Sub-national structures matter when evaluating physical activity promotion: Lessons from Germany

Abstract Background Public policies are increasingly acknowledged as important part of promoting physical activity (PA). However, especially in states with sub-national administrative structures such as Germany, national and sub-national approaches differ considerably. In Germany, sport for all (SfA) promotion is mostly organized at sub-national level, which is usually not covered in national evaluations. Knowledge of these structures helps to understand national outcomes, enables comparisons and learning within and between countries, and assists in identifying support structures for effective PA promotion. Methods Data were collected in the PEN Policy Evaluation Network project. In addition to the WHO HEPA PAT, a questionnaire was sent to the sports representatives of the 16 federal states. Responses of 11 state representatives were included and overarching issues were identified using inductive thematic analysis. Results PA promotion in Germany is organized in three areas: SfA, professional sports and school sports. SfA promotion at sub-national level is assigned to different administrative bodies (ministries, senate administration, state chancellery) and policy areas: culture, health and care, home affairs with various aspects, education, social affairs and family. The priorities of the federal states are more diverse and specific compared to the national level. There is an overlap in the topics: urban planning, cycling, health prevention and targeting children. Cooperation mechanisms and partners vary between federal states, but some partners are active at sub-national and national level. Conclusions The results provide an insight into the complexity of PA and especially SfA promotion at sub-national level in Germany. Our results suggest that a broader range of approaches is used in the 16 German states than national overviews would suggest. These particularities must be taken into account when assessing and comparing the results from different countries. Key messages The promotion of SfA at German sub-national level is much more diverse than represented at national level evaluations. Knowledge of sub-national structures enables the understanding of national outcomes, the promotion of cross-national learning and the identification of supportive structures for effective PA promotion.

The value of sub-national data: The dynamics of contentious politics in Nepal

Over the last decade, a renewed interest in the empirical analysis of contentious politics has led to significant improvements in the quality and quantity of data. The related wave of research has thus turned to analysis of the dynamics of contentious politics from a comparative perspective. Unfortunately, these studies use country level datasets for their analysis, creating a mismatch between the original actor-based theoretical framework and the empirical conceptualization of contentious collective action. We discuss the conceptual challenges this theoretical-empirical gap generates and highlight how contentious dynamics can be studied with a bottom-up sub-national approach. To do so, we present a new fine-grained dataset of contentious collective action in post-conflict Nepal (2007 to 2010). We descriptively show how this type of data can help us improve our understanding of repertoires of contentious politics. This paper highlights the relevance of gathering information on active organizations to study the inherent dynamics of contentious politics.

When are Gender Quotas Fulfilled? Strategy and Context in Ukrainian City Elections

Many studies have investigated why countries across the globe have adopted gender quotas for their elections. In this article, we answer a different question: why do political parties comply with gender quotas when the costs of compliance are absent or minimal. To answer the question, we analyze data from the 2015 city elections in Ukraine, including 1,630 party lists from 106 parties competing in 121 cities. Our subnational approach allows us to test whether contextual factors flagged by the broader gender literature explain variation in compliance across Ukrainian localities. The results of our models support our contention that Ukrainian political parties behaved strategically in terms of nominations and quota compliance. We find that urbanization and female incumbency fueled quota compliance. Parties, however, were less likely to comply with quotas in cities with more religious and nationalist populations. Taken together, parties acted strategical, complying with the quota based on local context.