The Challenge of Communicating Change: A Case Study of Ghana’s Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) Policy

In settings where health reform has been launched, the momentum for organisational change is slow because information used for management decisions assumes a top-down character at the expense of lateral and bottom-up models that seem more appropriate.  While no one communication approach is sufficient, this study investigated the effect of exposure to six communication mechanisms under Ghana’s pro-poor Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) policy. Findings show that districts’ exposure to the various information sources directly correlates with progress made in the implementation of CHPS. Keywords: innovation, laggards, moderates

Harnessing Technology: analysis of emerging trends affecting the use of technology in education (September 2008)

Research to support the delivery and development of Harnessing Technology: Next Generation Learning 2008–1

Cultural districts and economic development

The aim of this paper is to analyze the economic properties as well as tbe institutions governing the start-up and the evolution of cultural districts. Cultural districts are a good example of economic development based on localized culture. The first part of the paper (sections 1-3) reviews the relationships between culture, viewed as an idiosyncratic good, and the theory of industrial districts. The sections 4-6 of the paper present a discussion of two models of cultural districts: the industrial cultural district (mainly based on positive externalities, localized culture, and traditions in "arts and crafts"), and the institutional cultural district (mainly based on property rights assigmnent and symbolic values). The section 7 deals with other models of quasi-industrial-districts, namely the museum cultural district (mainly based on network externalities and the search for optimal size), and the metropolitan cultural district (mainly based on communication technology,performing arts, leisure time industries and e-commerce). Policy issues will be analyzed in the final section 8. The hypothesis of a possible convergence of all districts models towards the institutional district, based on the creation of a system of property rights as a means to protect localized production will be discussed.

Deregulation and Enterprization in Central and Eastern Telecommunication - a Benchmark for the West?

The restructuring of telecommunication in Central and Eastern Europe occurs at a time when the classical structures of telecommunication are falling apart worldwide. Coming from the socialist system in which telecommunication did not exist as an independent economic activity, the Eastern European countries have created specific "post-socialist" modes of reform, often outdoing Western countries in terms of speed and radicality. Deregulation and enterprization have dominated the process in all countries, leading to advanced technical standards and a wide segmentation of telecommunication markets. The role of foreign direct investment and technology transfer was particularly important. But the reforms also lead to an increasing social gap between the prosperous users of advanced telecommunication services, and the average citizen for which even telephony has become a luxury good. Our thesis is that CEE telecommunication reform, rather than copying Western models, may become a benchmark for the West, in particular for Western Europe. Technically, the advanced reform countries in Central Europe are about to succeed the leapfrogging process, i.e. the jump from post-war socialist technologies to world-leading edge-of-technology standards. With regard to industry structures, Central and Eastern European countries show that the age of "classical" integrated telecommunication activities is definitely over. Instead, most diversified telecommunication services are integrated in the emerging information sector. Finally, the very notion of telecommunication as an "infrastructure" is put in question for the first time in Eastern Europe. We start to address the two relevant policy issues: modes of regulation, and science and technology policies to accompany the restructuring process.

Measuring the 'success' of telehealth interventions

Despite substantial investment over recent years in telehealth there appears to be little consensus regarding what a successful implementation should achieve. However, defining success is often controversial and complex due to differing views from the large number of stakeholders involved, the local environment where telehealth is deployed and the scope, or size, of any planned initiative. Nevertheless, a number of generic measures are proposed in this paper which then provides a framework for the measurement of success. The local context can then be applied to determine the exact emphasis on specific measures, but it is proposed that all of the measures should be included in the holistic measurement of success. Having considered what constitutes success attention is then given to how success should be quantified. Robust evaluation is fundamental and there is much debate as to whether the �gold standard� Randomised Control Trial (RCT) is the most appropriate methodology for telehealth. If the intervention, technology and system, can be maintained in a stable state then the RCT may well provide the most authoritative evidence for decision makers. However, ensuring such stability, in what is still a novel combination of technology and service, is difficult and consequently other approaches may be more appropriate when stability is unlikely to be maintained

Social and societal aspects of the information society

O presente texto é uma contribuição individual do autor que integrou o High Level Expert Group on Social and Societal Aspects of the Information Society da Comissão Europeia

Co-production of the car as a ‘service': involving customers in the value chain

This article is dealing with a possible scenario for the future of the automobile thanks to the shift from an artefact vision to a services vision by which the customer might be involved as a true partner in the design of cars. This paper is therefore quite speculative but is challenging the supposedly stabilised relationship between the OEMs and their ultimate clients.Automobile ; Customers ; Co-makership ; Service ; Value chain