Process and impact evaluation of the Greater Christchurch Urban Development Strategy Health Impact Assessment

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>despite health impact assessment (HIA) being increasingly widely used internationally, fundamental questions about its impact on decision-making, implementation and practices remain. In 2005 a collaboration between public health and local government authorities performed an HIA on the Christchurch Urban Development Strategy Options paper in New Zealand. The findings of this were incorporated into the Greater Christchurch Urban Development Strategy;</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>using multiple qualitative methodologies including key informant interviews, focus groups and questionnaires, this study performs process and impact evaluations of the Christchurch HIA including evaluation of costs and resource use;</p> <p>Results</p> <p>the evaluation found that the HIA had demonstrable direct impacts on planning and implementation of the final Urban Development Strategy as well as indirect impacts on understandings and ways of working within and between organisations. It also points out future directions and ways of working in this successful collaboration between public health and local government authorities. It summarises the modest resource use and discusses the important role HIA can play in urban planning with intersectoral collaboration and enhanced relationships as both catalysts and outcomes of the HIA process;</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>as one of the few evaluations of HIA that have been published to date, this paper makes a substantial contribution to the literature on the impact, utility and effectiveness of HIA.</p

After the quake: the complex dance of local government, national government and accounting

This research considers accounting for post-earthquake recovery in New Zealand. New Zealand’s most devastating earthquakes are considered to be the Murchison earthquake of 1929, the Napier/Hawke’s Bay earthquake of 1931 and the Christchurch earthquakes of 2010–11. At the time of the Murchison and Napier earthquakes, government accounting information was an ex post record of expenditure. Contemporary government accounting in New Zealand is accrual based and comprehensive, and so accounting information has played a more prominent role in the management of Christchurch’s earthquake recovery. Apart from evidencing the significant change to government accounting, an historical comparison of accounting in the context of the Murchison and Napier earthquakes vis-à-vis the Christchurch earthquakes indicates the extent of change in the interplay between national and local government in New Zealand. The relationship between national and local government, though legally unchanged, has become more complex, but the financial reports do not reveal this complexity. Through historical analysis the extent of this change is made visible

Adolescent Criminal Justice Involvement and Adulthood Sexually Transmitted Infection in a Nationally Representative US Sample

Criminal justice involvement (CJI) disrupts social and sexual networks, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) thrive on network disruption. Adolescent CJI may be a particularly important determinant of STI because experiences during adolescence influence risk trajectories into adulthood. We used Wave III (2001–2002: young adulthood) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N = 14,322) to estimate associations between history of adolescent (younger than 18 years) CJI and adult STI risk. Respondents who reported a history of repeat arrest in adolescence, adolescent conviction, and arrest both as an adolescent and an adult (persistent arrest) had between two to seven times the odds of STI (biologically confirmed infection with chlamydia, gonorrhea, or trichomoniasis) in adulthood and between two to three times the odds of multiple partnerships and inconsistent condom use in the past year in adulthood. In analyses adjusting for sociodemographic and behavioral factors, history of having six or more adolescent arrests was associated with more than five times the odds of STI (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 5.44, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 1.74–17.1). Both adolescent conviction and persistent CJI appeared to remain independent correlates of STI (conviction: AOR 1.90, 95 % CI 1.02–3.55; persistent CJI: AOR 1.60, 95 % CI 0.99–2.57). Adolescents who have repeat arrests, juvenile convictions, and persist as offenders into adulthood constitute priority populations for STI treatment and prevention. The disruptive effect of adolescent CJI may contribute to a trajectory associated with STI in adulthood