In Search of Solutions: Stakeholder Perspectives on the Norwegian GP Crisis

MasteroppgaveSAMPOL350MASV-SAP

The Impact of Digital Technology on Environmental Sustainability and Resilience: An Evidence Review

Striving for ‘environmental sustainability and resilience’ (ESR) is postulated as a crucial, universal and global challenge of the twenty-first century. Today, this challenge has to be addressed in a world that is dynamic in its societal, economic and political constituents, heightened by increased interconnectedness resulting from globalisation. From a developing country perspective these issues need to be reconciled alongside developmental priorities, producing ongoing controversies and contradictions. This is further compounded by the fundamental matter of climate change. Undeniably the multitude of dimensions interlinked to achieving ESR are inherently complex and dynamic, inter-related across geographies of scale, space and place. Hence recent academic literature depicts the necessity of a systems-based approach in effectively conceptualising the field in the future. It is proposed that to account for the competing challenges and complexity, radical rethinking and innovation of approaches are required. This standpoint contrasts strongly with conventional development approaches, which predominantly focus on ‘palliative care’. One area from which relevant innovation stems is the digital sector. As this is now firmly what many term the ‘digital age’ or even ‘digital revolution’, there has recently been increasing application of digital technologies in developing country contexts. To date, this innovation has incorporated a spectrum of developmental initiatives, inclusive of those categorised under ESR headings. Inevitably, evidence on the impact of these innovations in practice is key in justifying resources, continuous learning and enabling effective progress. The latest World Development Report, Digital Dividends, explores impact from a development perspective focused largely on increased prosperity and inclusivity through economic growth, social dynamics and public service delivery in developing countries. Similarly, there are examples such as the UK Department for International Development’s recent review exploring the impact of digital technologies across their own development programmes. However, there appears to be relatively limited work to date collating and addressing the existing evaluative evidence specifically from the ESR viewpoint. The evidence that does currently exist on these areas seems to be primarily documented at the individual intervention level. The objective of this report was, therefore, to contribute to this evolving field by exploring and synthesising existing documented evidence. Commonalities and disjoints of successes and failures were drawn from across the findings, to produce a stronger evidence base on the impact of digital innovation in ESR. Impacts were considered alongside the academic theorisations of innovation with particular reference to complexity. This aims to identify emerging themes and gaps to ultimately deduce research-informed policy and to practice relevant lessons moving forward.UK Department for International Developmen

Economic governance in the Basque country: balancing continuity and novelty

From the theoretical perspective of experimental governance and in the context of increasing asymmetric decentralization experienced worldwide, this article analyses the current system of economic governance of the Basque Autonomous Community (BAC) and the challenges for the near future. The article first deals with the distribution of powers and coordination mechanisms between the BAC, the Spanish State and the European Union, on the one hand, and within the BAC, between the Basque government, the three provincial councils and the municipalities; and then, examines the governance of RIS3 transformative strategies from 2013 onwards. The Basque case shows an adequate balance between continuity and novelty, both in the public policies and in the system and mechanisms of governance and coordination. However, the BAC should urgently address two big challenges: the weakness of non-technological innovation and the full incorporation of key agents, particularly universities and cities, to the governance house

The Role of Cybersecurity in the Public Sphere - The European Dimension

he aim of this paper is to present the areas in EU and domestic legal systems which cover currently applicable laws on cybersecurity and the related cyber-liability. Legal regulations related to cybersecurity that are currently in force embrace only a very narrow understanding of the notions of cyberspace and cybercrime. This paper aims to present those areas of the existing regulations in which the notions of cyber-liability have been preliminarily defined. Issues that are currently viewed as only marginally relevant to the functioning of states in the domain of cyberspace operations or artificial intelligence are also related to cyber-liability. The paper covers issues related to online platforms as well as the role of the state and public administration, network technologies and financial institutions in cybersecurity system especially from European perspective. It also investigates the issues related to strategic and political responsibility, cooperation mechanisms, obligations of telecommunication entrepreneurs, personal data and drone operations in public space. Part of the paper is also related to the movement of cultural assents, digital platforms, blocking injunctions and blocking access, threats of the cyberterrorism, cybersecurity, cybercrime in Hungary, including COVID-19 environment, as well as authorities competent for cybersecurity in Germany. This broad perspective is used to better understand regulatory purposes in European contexts to secure digital society development

Implementation of National Health Insurance in South Africa: views of healthcare managers in a private healthcare institution

South Africa is in the process of reforming its healthcare system by implementing universal health coverage for its citizens. Universal health coverage is defined as the access of all people to comprehensive health services at an affordable cost with protection against catastrophic health expenditures leading to financial hardship. The system being implemented in South Africa is known as National Health Insurance (NHI) and is seen by the South African government as the key to addressing the shortcomings and disparities in the current public and private healthcare sectors. Healthcare managers have a crucial role to play in health reform yet are often overlooked in debate over health reform. The primary aim of this study was to better understand the views of healthcare managers, working in a private healthcare institution in South Africa, towards the implementation of the NHI. The purpose of this was to make recommendations that would assist the private healthcare institution under investigation to optimise the implementation of the NHI. A quantitative research design was used to explore and describe the views of healthcare managers. Firstly, a literature review was conducted to gain international as well as local perspectives of healthcare practitioners on universal health coverage. Secondly, a census survey in the form of an online questionnaire was developed and distributed to 193 healthcare managers representing different managerial and medical disciplines in a private healthcare institution with facilities nation-wide. A total of 63 questionnaires were returned for analysis. Quantitative data were analysed using Microsoft Excel, Statistica and SPSS Statistics. Qualitative data in the form of written comments by the participants were analysed using interpretive analysis that involved sequential steps of familiarisation and immersion, development of themes, coding, elaboration and interpretation and checking. The qualitative element of the study was limited in nature and was used merely to enrich the quantitative findings. The study found that there was a lack of knowledge amongst private healthcare managers concerning the NHI, poor communication from the government regarding the proposed NHI and high levels of negativity towards the ability of the government to successfully implement the NHI. However it was found that despite concerns regarding the NHI, the private healthcare managers surveyed showed a willingness to actively participate in its implementation. Recommendations regarding policy and practise were made for private healthcare institutions as well as for the South African government in order to assist with the implementation of the NHI

Public Governance Responses to Covid-19 in Italy and South Korea

학위논문(석사) -- 서울대학교대학원 : 국제대학원 국제학과(국제협력전공), 2021.8. 체디아 사라.The year 2020 started with the international community witnessing the outbreak of a major coronavirus infection in China. In just a few weeks, the infection spread out to other countries, strongly hitting in particular Italy and South Korea which have thus become the first two countries to experience a major outbreak outside of China. With similar population ratio and comparable levels of economic development, Italy and South Korea have ranked for several weeks 2nd and 3rd for Covid-19 confirmed cases, becoming the new epicenters in Europe and Asia. However, the different policy implementations endorsed by the two governments to respond to the crisis have determined the two countries to experience very different outcomes, with South Korea slowing down the spread in record time while Italy not only keeps registering high number of daily confirmed cases, but also registers one of the highest mortality rate of the whole OECD area. This paper aims at investigating the degree of effectiveness of the crisis management strategies endorsed by the two countries and to analyze the extent to which such outcomes have been the result of the decision-making process carried out by the two governments and to what extent country-specific factors such as demographic pattern, healthcare system, crisis communication and trust in government have influenced the results.2020년은 국제사회가 중국에서의 코로나 바이러스 감염의 발생을 목격하면서 시작되었다. 코로나바이러스가 발생한지 몇 주 만에 다른 나라들로 퍼져나갔고, 특히 이탈리아와 한국에는 강력한 타격을 받으며, 중국 밖에서 발생한 최초의 두 나라가 되었다. 두 나라는 유사한 인구 비율과 경제 규모로 몇 주 동안 코로나19 확진 환자 수가 2, 3위를 차지하며 유럽과 아시아의 새로운 서사시가 되었다. 그러나, 두 정부가 이 위기에 대처하기 위해 시행한 다른 정책으로 인해 두 나라는 매우 상반되는 결과를 경험하게 되었다. 한국은 기록적인 시간 내에 확산을 늦추고, 이탈리아는 계속해서 많은 일일 확진자를 기록하고 있을 뿐만 아니라 OECD 전체 지역의 사망률도 가장 높은 나라 중 하나가 되었다. 본 논문은 양국이 시행한 위기 관리 전략의 효과 정도를 조사하고, 이러한 결과가 양국 정부가 수행한 의사결정 과정의 결과인지, 인구통계학적 패턴, 의료제도, 위기 커뮤니케이션 그리고 정부에 대한 신뢰 등 국가별 요인이 어느 정도로 영향을 미쳤는지 분석하는 것을 목적으로 한다.I. Introduction 1 II. Literature Review 4 1. Covid-19: What do we know so far? 4 2. How are other countries tackling the virus worldwide? 6 3. How are societies responding to the crisis? 8 III. Research Design 12 1. Research Questions 12 2. Dependent and Independent Variables 12 3. Theoretical Framework 13 4. Limitations 17 5. Data Sources 17 IV. The Case of Italy 18 1. Background 18 2. The Italian Response: Praise 24 3. The Italian Response: Criticism 26 V. The Case of South Korea 29 1. Background 29 2. The South Korean Response: Praise 30 3. The South Korean Response: Criticism 32 VI. Cross-Country Comparison 34 1. How effective have the two responses been so far? 34 2. What factors determined such outcome? 38 i. Crisis Communication 38 ii. Compliance 40 iii. Trust in government 43 iv. Cultural factors 46 v. Demographic factors 50 vi. Material capacity and information asymmetry 54 vii. Healthcare system 59 VII. Conclusion 63 VIII. References 67석