Transformation Agenda Research Articles

Assessing The Impacts of Community-Based Technical Education and Training Projects in Northern Malaysia

Leaving no one behind is the central transformative promise of the 2030 Agenda of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In Malaysia, the formation of the All-Party Parliamentary Group Malaysia on the Sustainable Development Goals (APPGM-SDG) by the Malaysian Parliament has made it possible to localise this SDGs’ transformative agenda. Therefore, this paper attempts to discuss the effectiveness of programs conducted by solution providers in the Northern region in managing and conducting projects, the impact of the projects on the beneficiaries, the alignment and mapping of the impact evaluations of the solution providers with the SDG goals and APPGM-SDG modules,and identification of issues and recommended solutions to the projects in the Northern region. Twenty-three (23) APPGM-SDGs projects were implemented from 2021 to 2022, consisting of various programs, mainly entrepreneurship, environment, research and education. As a bipartisan initiative to localise SDG goals in Parliamentary constituencies in Malaysia, it is crucial to analyse the impact of its implementation. Hence, this study has conducted an impact evaluation analysis from October 2022 until January 2023 in seven (7) constituencies in Kedah, Penang and Perak. Using four (4) dimensions of impact analysis framework, which are psychology and knowledge, skills, network, and system of these projects on the beneficiaries to determine the effectiveness of each project. This study has collected data from document analysis, focus group discussion and site-visit to the twenty-three (23) projects in the Northern Region. The findings indicate the programmes were well-implemented and beneficiaries managed to learn new skills and strengthen their networks.

The Challenges of Implementing Industrial Revolution 4.0 Elements in TVET

The advent of the industrial revolution 4.0 (IR4.0) impacted the national industry andthe need to provide a highly skilled and competitive workforce. However, the previous study on the implementation of IR4.0 in vocational collegesin Malaysia is still unsatisfactory. Previous studies have also focused on Technical Education and Vocational Training (TVET) at the higher education. Therefore, this study conducted to explore the challenges towards the implementation of the IR4.0 element in the Vocational College (VC) curriculum. VC offers education skills certificate and diploma level to secondary school students. VC needs to be prepared to face this phenomenon in providing national human resources. The study employsqualitative design using in depth semi structured interview method guided by the interview protocol. Seven participants who met the sampling criteria were involved in this study. The Interview recording systematically managed and translated verbatim as interview transcripts. Then a thematic analysis performed using ATLAS.ti software (version 8) to construct appropriate codes, categories and themes to answer the research questions. The results of the interviews found five main challenges identified on the implementation of the IR4.0 element in the VC curriculum; curriculum review, providing teaching workforce, providing infrastructure, industry relations and engaging in education. Overall findings indicate the need for a revisit of the VC curriculum to implement the IR4.0 element and has implications to implement in providing a national workforce that meets the needs of the industrial demand. This study expected useful to Bahagian Pendidikan dan Latihan Teknikal Vokasional(BPLTV) in strengthening the Vocational Education Transformation agenda through the implementation of VC curriculum revisit by considering the challenges of IR4.0 implementation from various angles discussed to ensure students' knowledge and skills meet IR4.0 requirements to contribute to national development.

Beyond “platformania” in the construction sector: Conceptualisations and implications of product platformisation in the UK

The UK government’s recent transformation agenda focused on a Platform approach to Design for Manufacture and Assembly (P-DfMA) has attracted interest from the construction sector. A closer examination of the P-DfMA agenda raises questions about its origins and implications. This paper critically analyses grey sector literature, policy and government-supported reports on P-DfMA to discuss how it has been conceptualised, and the implications for the growing “platformania” in the UK construction sector. To this end, firstly platform conceptualisations are synthesised, and distinctions between product platforms and DfMA are highlighted. Secondly, based on an analysis of policy and related documents, five areas critical to driving the platformisation agenda are identified: Product platform development; digitally designed components; platform leadership and ownership; platform governance; and business models. The critical analysis suggests that product platformisation in the UK construction sector requires two distinct types of platform approaches: the product platform; and a transaction platform or a marketplace for buyers and sellers of the components of product platforms. The implications of both for the strategic organising of construction firms, and the five areas identified, are discussed and synthesised with the evidence from management literature. Practical and policy implications for sector stakeholders are outlined, along with questions for future research on product platformisation in the construction sector.

Accommodating New Modes of Work in the Era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution in Ghana: Some Comparative Lessons from the United Kingdom and South Africa

Over the past decade, Ghana has significantly improved in the digitalisation and transformation agenda. The digitalisation agenda has paved the way for creating an inclusive digital economy. Through this agenda, many Ghanaians now have access to digital platforms, particularly those in the financial and transportation sectors. The quest to digitalise the Ghanaian economy has also created an enabling platform for digital entrepreneurship. The digital economy ecosystem has presented many Ghanaians with economic and employment opportunities that did not exist in the traditional or mainstream economy. While the economic potential of the Ghanaian digital economy cannot be denied, the employment opportunities created by the digital transformation drive present some challenges for the traditional labour market. Moreover, the novel nature of the digital transformation drive poses some difficulties for the existing legal framework of labour laws in Ghana. In addition to examining how Ghana’s labour laws can accommodate gig workers, this article discusses the digital economy’s meaning and significance in Africa, particularly in Ghana. Furthermore, it discusses the new modes of work associated with the digital economy. In addressing the issue of whether the current legal framework in Ghana can accommodate gig workers, the article reflects on the nature of the relationship between gig workers and owners of digital platforms. The article accordingly deals with the issue of whether the Labour Act 651 of 2003 offers guidance in addressing the employment status of gig workers in Ghana. In dealing with whether gig workers are employees of digital platform providers, this article draws some comparative and judicial lessons from the legal position in the United Kingdom (UK) and South Africa. The article concludes with a call for the statutory protection of gig workers in Ghana.

Towards a transformative lifelong learning agenda for non-traditional students at university

Liberalisation of higher education in Uganda meant opening its provision to the private sector, and also running a public-private mix model at public institutions. Consequently, the composition and needs of the student population at universities have changed due to flexibility in provision of study programmes and access routes. Students who had previously been excluded are also joining in increasing numbers. This article uses the feminist frameworks to equality and difference, discourses of integration and exclusion, and the concepts of Othering and Other to unpack equality of access, equity and inclusivity spaces of these new types of students. The aim is to contribute towards a learning agenda that promotes quality and sustainable educational development for all. We draw our findings from the voices of non-traditional students at a public university in Uganda. We validate these with voices of other germane actors to understand better the institutional policy and practice environments available to them. The equal opportunity provision has widened access for NTS but their equity and inclusivity spaces remain inadequately filled. To achieve sustainable inclusive and equitable quality higher education, we suggest a policy, practice and provision environment that promotes a transformative lifelong learning agenda.

Influence of Budget Allocations within Government Budget Execution on Market Participation: Case of Maize in the Southern Highland regions of Tanzania

Government budget allocations within budget execution are important in pushing the agricultural transformation agenda in Tanzania. However, agriculture public expenditure review studies show that with the exception of a few geographical areas in Tanzania, government budget allocations have generally been insufficient to bring about the desirable transformation from subsistence to commercial agriculture. Thus, this paper investigates the pivotal role of government budget allocations within budget execution in facilitating the commercialisation of maize, a crop that is both a major food and cash crop in Tanzania. It also assesses the factors that affect the performance of budget allocations. The descriptive survey design was employed whereby a cross-sectional survey was conducted to collect data from 180 local government officials in the Mbeya and Songwe regions that were sampled in the southern highland regions. Data was analysed through descriptive statistics and multiple regression using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software. The mean and standard deviation were used to measure budget allocations via the interpretation of means by Weak (Wk) and Strong (St). The findings show that the means of budget allocations were strong, and all four variables under it exerted a positive influence on maize commercialisation as measured through market participation. From the parameter estimates, standardised beta coefficient values were 0.468, 0.091, 0.030 and 0.167, respectively. In addition, the findings also show and confirm the requirement of the Maputo Declaration of 2003, which was reiterated by the Malabo Declaration of 2014, for governments in Africa to allocate at least 10% of their national budgets to agriculture. Based on the findings, the researchers conclude that effective and efficient budget allocations within budget execution are essential for achieving government development goals and objectives, including the transformation of agriculture from subsistence to commercial. It is recommended that the government should strengthen the budget execution process at all levels of government

Displaced risk. Keeping mothers and babies safe: a UK ambulance service lens.

The aim of this professional practice paper is to provide a critical commentary on displaced risk among perinatal and neonatal patients attended to by the ambulance service. NHS services across the United Kingdom are currently facing unprecedented demand and increased scrutiny in their ability to provide safe and personalised care to patients. While current focus in the system centres around addressing social care demand, hospital bed capacity, planned care waiting times, staffing and ambulance handover delays, a less explored cohort of patients impacted by the current healthcare crisis is perinatal and neonatal populations attended to by the ambulance service. Little focus has been paid within national agendas to the care provided to women and babies outside of planned maternity and obstetric care. A case is presented to highlight the importance of considering urgent and emergency maternity care provision provided by the ambulance service, and the impact of 'displaced risk' due to the current pressures within healthcare systems. Placed in a national context, drawing upon current independent reviews into maternity services, national transformation agendas and the most recent MBRRACE-UK confidential enquiry into maternal deaths and morbidity, a case is made to commissioners and Integrated Care Systems to focus on and invest in the unplanned pre-hospital care of maternity and neonatal patients. Recognition of the ambulance service as a key provider of care to this cohort of patients is paramount, calling on services and systems to work together on realising and addressing displaced risk for perinatal populations across the United Kingdom. A system approach that acknowledges the need for high-quality care at every point of contact and equitability in access to services for pregnant, postpartum and neonatal patients is vital.

Complex legacies and future prospects: Conceptualising changes in South African doctoral education

ABSTRACT A number of key drivers are responsible for the major shifts taking place in doctoral education globally, including massification, globalisation, digitalisation and the knowledge economy. While each of these drivers permeates the South African higher education context to some extent, we argue that the country’s complex historical legacies provide a unique background and lens through which key drivers of doctoral education can be framed. Thus, our focus is first to outline the complex legacy of apartheid and its implications for the country’s transformation agenda and resulting shifts taking place in the South African higher and doctoral education landscape. Secondly, to account for some future prospects, we draw on the outcomes of the recent (2020/21) national review of doctoral programmes in South Africa. We highlight some recommendations that universities need to attend to via their respective doctoral improvement plans as a possible future agenda for driving and improving doctoral education.

What Gets Measured Gets Done: Challenges in Monitoring Water, Energy, and Food Security in Northern Canada

This paper describes the challenges that were encountered during the collection of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicators for water (SDG 6), energy (SDG 7), and food (SDG 2) security in northern Canada. Our findings indicate only 49% of indicator data were publicly available, while 21% had to be calculated using alternative sources or methods, 18% had to be replaced with proxy indicators for which data were available, and 12% of indicators were deemed unavailable entirely. The most common types of data challenges were associated with completeness, timeliness, and granularity. Given the current challenges faced by residents of northern Canada, with their livelihoods closely intertwined with the accessibility and availability of water, energy and food (WEF) resources, a comprehensive plan for data collection, storage, and management of WEF-related SDGs is required to advance WEF security from an aspirational to a transformative policy agenda.

Insani’s Human Resource Management in Transforming Private Islamic Universities in Jambi

The goal of this study is to create a representation of several tertiary institutions that are capable of significant transformations. The findings of this field research: 1) Management policies in preparing Insani’s Human Resources (SDI) for the transformation agenda at IAI Muhammad Azim with a focus on HR readiness policies and academic governance policies. The Governance Policy at IAI YASNI applies the principles of Insani’s Human Resource Management (MSDI), namely: shura, musyarakah, al-ujrah, and obedience to leaders, 2) The process of transformation through the practice of MSDI in Private Higher Education IAIMA and IAI YASNI is divided into the process of administrative transition and the process of building a transformative work culture and MSDI, 3) The dynamics in the Implementation of the Transformation Agenda at Private Higher Education in Jambi province run dynamically and continuously through internalization of transformative values and strategic planning and capacity building of higher education SDI, 4) There are several barriers to IAI Muhammad Azim’s transformation program, including a lack of commitment to the organization, a dearth of qualified human resources (tridharma and education and training), acclimatization to new technologies and cultural norms, and opposition to internal change. The following factors are preventing IAI Yasni from implementing its change agenda: compensation restrictions, sincerity, resistance, and conflict of interest between administrators, 5) The accomplishments of the transformation agenda that IAI Muhammad Azim can produce, specifically: adjustments to a new work culture, adjustments to human resources from an Islamic values perspective, and institutional adjustments. A new integrated digitalization-based work culture, quality-based tridharma education, and the construction of a new work culture based on competence and sincerity are all part of IAI Yasni’s transformation plan, and 6) Kopertais as a facilitator and institution that fosters and has internal performance, namely assisting universities in preparing material for changes in status transfer.

How Australian environmental non-governmental organisations frame and enact climate justice

This paper seeks to examine how Australian environmental non-governmental organisations (ENGOs) communicate about and mobilise their supporters for climate justice. ENGOs play an important role in raising awareness and changing values, attitudes and behaviours related to climate justice. However, while many Australian ENGOs have begun incorporating language around climate justice in their communications, it remains unclear how this concept is framed and enacted in practice. Using data collected from 619 ENGO websites and 149 grant applications, we examine how ENGOs describe climate justice and the collective action frames they use to mobilise action. We found that while few ENGOs provided detailed explanations of climate justice on their websites, they primarily framed climate injustice as a procedural and distributive problem. The fossil fuel sector was most commonly identified as the cause of climate injustice, and First Nations communities most commonly affected. ENGOs linked different climate justice dimensions to diverse causes, issues and actions, indicating a nuanced understanding of how climate justice can be enacted in different contexts. However, they primarily proposed incremental tactics involving education, solidarity and allyship behaviours rather than radical actions through which to drive a transformative agenda of social, political or economic change. We conclude the paper with a discussion of applied implications for ENGOs and suggestions for future research.

Capacities for resilience: persisting, adapting and transforming through bricolage

ABSTRACT Resilience has become increasingly popular in sustainability research and practice as a way to describe change. Within this discourse, the notion of resilience as the capacity of people, practices and processes, to persist, adapt or transform is particularly salient. The ability to bounce back from shock (persistence) or to take adaptive measures to cope with change are most commonly attributed to resilience, but at the same time, there is a strong push for a transformation agenda from various social and environmental movements. How capacities for resilience are enacted and performed through social practices remains relatively underexplored and there is potential for more dialogue and learning across disciplinary traditions. In this article, we outline the ‘Resilience Capacities Framework’ as a way to a) explicitly address questions of agency in how resilience capacities are enacted and b) account for the dynamic interactions between pathways of persistence, adaptation and transformation. Our starting point is to conceptualise future pathways as co-evolved, whereby social and ecological relationships are shaped through processes of selection, variation and retention, enacted in everyday practices. Drawing on theories of bricolage and structuration, we elaborate on the role of actors as bricoleurs, consciously and non-consciously shaping socio-ecological relationships and pathways of change. Informed by cases of rural change from mountain areas, we explore the extent to which an approach focusing on agency and bricolage can illuminate how the enactment of resilience capacities shapes intersecting pathways of change.

Sustainable transformation agenda for enhanced global food and nutrition security: a narrative review.

The world's population is currently growing at an exponential rate, which is estimated to be over 8 billion inhabitants as reported by United Nations on November 15, 2022. According to FAO, 870 million people out of this population do not have enough food to eat, with the vast majority of hungry people (98%) living in developing countries, where almost 15% of the population is undernourished. Furthermore, the world's population is estimated to come to 9 billion by 2050, which would incur severe food scarcity and would seriously hamper global food security. Food losses, especially post-harvest loss as a result of poor agricultural practices have also been reported to greatly impact the economy, the environment, and the livelihoods of low and medium countries and Sub-Saharan-African. Therefore, realistic options should be established for promoting sustainable agriculture systems, improving nutrition, and achieving food security to end hunger in our nations. This paper elucidates the drivers of food insecurity including food losses, escalating population growth, hunger, and food production, among others, and provided some transformation approaches such as value addition through appropriate and emerging food processing and preservation techniques, application of biotechnological options through genetically modified foods and functional foods consumption and integration of indigenous underutilized nutrient-dense food crops which could serve as all-inclusive and sustainable transformation options for enhanced food and nutrition security, especially in developing countries, which is where the hunger burden and the prevalence of malnutrition and non-communicable diseases are high.

Learning from Barcelona’s grassroots housing struggles: Towards a transformational Degrowth agenda

This article contributes to the nascent literature on housing for Degrowth. It recognises that housing plays a pivotal role in the creation and perpetuation of socio-ecological injustices, and therefore must be a core strategic element of a transition towards a Degrowth society. I argue for a deeper integration of bottom-up, scalable strategies and class politics in Degrowth housing proposals in order to create the widespread and emancipatory social transformation called for by the Degrowth agenda. The militant research for this paper was rooted in a case study of the Sindicat d’Habitatge de Vallcarca (Vallcarca Housing Union; SHV), which is part of Barcelona’s multifaceted grassroots movement for housing justice. The analysis first explores the synergies between Degrowth and the SHV using a Degrowth framework, and then looks beyond this framework, asking what both movements can learn from each other’s theoretical and strategic approaches. It highlights the SHV’s grassroots, class-based politics of solidarity and social inclusivity, and explores how the SHV could benefit from engaging with the ecological and intersectional politics of Degrowth. The article raises the importance of building connections between post-growth theories and radical housing struggles on a broader scale, in order to tackle top-down and growth-based ‘sustainable housing’ initiatives and create genuinely transformational and emancipatory housing alternatives.

Towards developing a decolonial transdisciplinary praxis that supports a socially-transformative occupational science: Emergent insights from an educational project in South Africa

ABSTRACT As occupational science develops its socially transformative agenda, the discipline must learn how to ‘do’ a science that responds to complex social issues. Developing occupational science as a ‘transdisciplinary science’ has been indicated as a potential tool to do so. As such, this paper presents the emergent insights generated through attempting to engage a decolonial transdisciplinary praxis within health and rehabilitation sciences, as a contribution to the conceptual development of transdisciplinarity within the discipline. Reflections on the authors’ experiences of engaging in a project that intentionally brought undergraduate occupational therapy, speech-language pathology, audiology, and physiotherapy students together to collectively respond to justice and equity-related needs at a low-income school in Cape Town, South Africa, were used to generate these insights. Engaging in a context shaped by coloniality and apartheid, our reflections revealed three key notions that supported the decolonial enactment of a transdisciplinary practice: ‘Exploring how to un-discipline ourselves’; ‘Embracing the vulnerability of decolonising the self’; and ‘Intentionally occupying a liminal space’. Our further interpretation of what these notions meant for our practice culminated in what we saw as critical for the enactment of transdisciplinarity: How to conceptualise and work with a ‘praxis of uncertainty’. We discuss the potential value of the praxis of uncertainty in decolonial transdisciplinary work and offer impetus for its continued conceptual development, arguing that developing such knowledge could contribute to moving occupational science towards becoming a socially transformative discipline.

Resilience policing and disaster management during Australia's Black Summer bushfire crisis

Policing landscapes are being transformed by disaster risks associated with climate change. ‘Resilience policing’ is described as an emergent model of security governance that builds upon established state-based community policing traditions to support the management of these complex risks and hazards. The assumption is that established policing capabilities might be harnessed to enhance disaster resilience. Empirical research on resilience policing is lacking however, and it is unclear whether this model is truly innovative, or simply a progression of established community policing models. This article explores these questions by considering how local police contributed to disaster management activities in a remote rural community which was directly impacted by Australia's catastrophic Black Summer bushfires in 2019–20. Our qualitative, empirical case study illustrates how institutionalized learnings, organizational and systemic reforms, and everyday policing activities enhanced the absorptive and adaptive capabilities of police as emergency responders, emergency management networks, and local residents. Our analysis indicates that a resilience policing model, anchored in existing community engagement and partnership-working methods, may hold promise as a means of enhancing the adaptative capacity of police and improving alignment between policing and emergency management networks. Less optimistically, it reveals potential obstacles to adapting this template for use in complex policing environments, sustaining institutional focus and adaptive capabilities amidst poly-crises, and aligning policing roles and mandates with transformative climate adaptation agendas.

"In the trenches": South African vice-chancellors leading transformation in times of change

This paper examined the transformational goals and strategies of nine black university vice-chancellors in South Africa in order to understand how they direct transformation of higher education in the country. The paper draws from narrative inquiry underlined by transformational leadership theory, and focuses on in-depth interviews with university vice-chancellors. The study focused on the key themes that direct vice-chancellors' transformational leadership strategies. These are devolution of power, the needs to transform the institutional culture and attain social equity through putting students first, and addressing the next generation of academic scholars. Finally, the paper draws attention to the enduring imperative to transform universities through a social equity lens and the significance of vice-chancellors' transformational agendas and strategies in this regard. The local context of the university plays an important role in transformational leadership goals and strategies

A renewed argument for the designation of Social Security Law as a module in the LLB curriculum

The Covid-19 pandemic and the government’s response thereto has shifted socio-economic rights to the forefront of the nation’s attention. Social security measures formed the vanguard of measures to address the dire economic consequences of the lockdown and subsequent restrictions on breadwinners and their dependants. More than two years after the government’s temporary interventions, the discourse has morphed into a debate on the need and viability of more comprehensive and long-term measures. All the proposed measures – whether it be a national social security fund, national health insurance or even a basic income grant – point towards social security becoming ubiquitous in South Africa. However, very few LLB graduates have been exposed to the Social Security Law module as part of their law degree. This underscores the need for equipping LLB graduates with the fundamentals of this branch of law. This article makes three arguments. First, it argues for the inclusion of the Social Security Law module in the LLB curriculum of all law faculties in the country, preferably as a core module. Second, it posits that it is time, almost 30 years into the country’s democracy, to shift our attention towards an aggressive pursuit of socio-economic rights, and in doing so, there is a corresponding need to equip LLB graduates with the tools to play a meaningful role in the country’s transformation agenda. Finally, the article makes a case for the creation of an association of Social Security Law teachers to ensure, among others, the sharing of expertise and the provision of support and guidance to faculties and colleagues who wish to introduce Social Security Law as an LLB module.

A future with no individual ownership is not a happy one: Property theory shows why

The World Economic Forum (WEF) predicted that, by 2030, individuals would own nothing and be happy. This article examines the prediction from a property perspective. We situate the prediction by considering the societal transformations that inform it and show how they concern property. We use property theory to advance property as a socio-legal construct that has formed around the human-thing relationships that are claimed to be deeply embedded in the human condition. By assuring access to the things to which humans relate, property ownership can support personhood, the realisation of which is, we contend, a threshold requirement for human happiness. Accordingly, any transformative agenda that promotes the abolition of individual ownership should be rejected on account of its failure to properly take account not only of human happiness, but of the human condition more generally. We argue that, contrary to the WEF prediction, an owner-less future would not be a happy one for individuals. Ownership should thus be preserved as a property concept and we offer an aspiration for it that better supports not just human happiness, but also a more socially just, sustainable, and emancipatory future.

A conceptual review of Sustainable Development Goal 17: Picturing politics, proximity and progress

We outline the discursive origins of United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 17, describing its ambiguous marching orders, which are further confused by shifting and contested stakeholder approaches. The widespread effect is to obscure the primary aim of making the tropics and other vulnerable countries more resilient, and also globally overcoming barriers to their development. We argue that ecological reflexivity, as developed and advanced by deliberative democracy and the Earth System Governance Project, belongs at the apex of those capacities needed for implementing the Agenda for Transformation. Ecological reflexivity conceptually grounds inclusive, open, critical, and consequential engagement of discourses situated among capable representatives, advocates, and citizens. SDG-related partnerships – whether designed around funding, technology, knowledge generation, or business innovation – are the locus in which this gets worked out. We advance this aim by proposing adjustment of the focal point using a Picturing framework that can enable both scholarly and practitioner approaches to SDG 17 to correct distortions and also materially ‘strengthen the means of implementation’. Using this framework, which entails Picturing politics, Picturing proximity to the poor, and Picturing progress, actors can shift attention to the accompanying discursive properties that affect implementation of the 2030 Agenda. Picturing is given concrete application through five case examples aligned to the research lenses of the Earth System Governance Research Framework. By drawing on studies spanning Barbados, Grenada, Bolivia, Ghana, Zambia, Peru, India and Fiji we demonstrate potential for the Picturing framework to provoke novel development pathways for a more sustainable future in the tropics.