The Global Health Network on Alcohol Control: Successes and Limits of Evidence-based Advocacy

Global efforts to address alcohol harm have significantly increased since the mid-1990s. By 2010, the World Health Organization (WHO) had adopted the non-binding Global Strategy to Reduce the Harmful Use of Alcohol. This study investigates the role of a global health network, anchored by the Global Alcohol Policy Alliance (GAPA), which has used scientific evidence on harm and effective interventions to advocate for greater global public health efforts to reduce alcohol harm. The study uses process-tracing methodology and expert interviews to evaluate the accomplishments and limitations of this network. The study documents how network members have not only contributed to greater global awareness about alcohol harm, but also advanced a public health approach to addressing this issue at the global level. Although the current network represents an expanding global coalition of like-minded individuals, it faces considerable challenges in advancing its cause towards successful implementation of effective alcohol control policies across many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The analysis reveals a need to transform the network into a formal coalition of regional and national organizations that represent a broader variety of constituents, including the medical community, consumer groups and development-focused non-governmental organizations. Considering the growing harm of alcohol abuse in LMICs and the availability of proven and cost-effective public health interventions, alcohol control represents an excellent ‘buy’ for donors interested in addressing non-communicable diseases. Alcohol control has broad beneficial effects for human development, including promoting road safety and reducing domestic violence and health care costs across a wide variety of illnesses caused by alcohol consumption

A Human Rights-Based Approach (HRBA) in Practice: Evaluating NGO Development Efforts

Human rights-based approaches (HRBAs) promise greater alignment of development efforts with universal norms, as well as a focus on the root causes of poverty. While HRBAs have been widely adopted across the development sector, there is little systematic evidence about the actual impact of this strategic shift. Evaluating the effectiveness of HRBAs is challenging because various non-governmental and other organizations have developed very different understandings of how to apply a rights-based framework in the development context. This essay takes a step toward the rigorous evaluation of HRBAs by offering a comprehensive review of rights-based programming implemented by Plan International, a child-centered organization. It shows that Plan’s adoption of HRBA-inspired strategies has transformed its interactions with local communities and added an explicit focus on the state as the primary duty bearer. There is evidence for a systematic increase in individual rights awareness, greater ownership exercised by community organizations, and the application of evidence-based advocacy aimed at scaling up proven program activities. But Plan’s peculiar brand of HRBA neglects collaboration with domestic social movements and civil society, largely avoids a more confrontational approach towards the state, and has yet to produce evidence for regular successful rights claims by disadvantaged communities against governmental representatives at local, regional, or national levels. The study also reveals a limited ability of Plan to address disparities and discrimination within local communities, as well as a need to define clearly the organization’s own accountability and duties deriving from its presence in local communities across more than fifty developing nations

Understanding the Limits of Transnational NGO Power: Forms, Norms, and the Architecture

A growing chorus of critics have called upon transnational nongovernmental organizations (TNGOs) from the Global North to “decolonize” their practices, to “shift the power” to the Global South, and to put an end to “white saviorism” by initiating a variety of significant organizational changes. Despite these repeated calls, the TNGO sector still struggles to reform. Explanations for TNGOs’ ongoing struggles from within the field of international relations have generally centered on TNGOs themselves and the ironies and paradoxes of organizational growth and financial success. This article introduces a different argument that TNGOs’ struggles to adapt in response to their critics are the result of TNGOs’ “nonprofitness.” By virtue of being nonprofit, TNGOs are embedded in an architecture consisting of forms and norms that inherently limit the extent to which they are able to change. Using the construct of the architecture, this article provides a novel account for the challenges that TNGOs confront as they attempt to close the gap between the rhetoric and reality of inclusive and transformational socioeconomic, political, or environmental change

Comparing Global Alcohol and Tobacco Control Efforts: Network Formation and Evolution in International Health Governance

Smoking and drinking constitute two risk factors contributing to the rising burden of non-communicable diseases in low- and middle-income countries. Both issues have gained increased international attention, but tobacco control has made more sustained progress in terms of international and domestic policy commitments, resources dedicated to reducing harm, and reduction of tobacco use in many high-income countries. The research presented here offers insights into why risk factors with comparable levels of harm experience different trajectories of global attention. The analysis focuses particular attention on the role of dedicated global health networks composed of individuals and organizations producing research and engaging in advocacy on a given health problem. Variation in issue characteristics and the policy environment shape the opportunities and challenges of global health networks focused on reducing the burden of disease. What sets the tobacco case apart was the ability of tobacco control advocates to create and maintain a consensus on policy solutions, expand their reach in low- and middle-income countries and combine evidencebased research with advocacy reaching beyond the public health-centered focus of the core network. In contrast, a similar network in the alcohol case struggled with expanding its reach and has yet to overcome divisions based on competing problem definitions and solutions to alcohol harm. The tobacco control network evolved from a group of dedicated individuals to a global coalition of membership-based organizations, whereas the alcohol control network remains at the stage of a collection of dedicated and like-minded individuals

Introduction to the special issue 'Online dating: social innovation and a tool for research on partnership formation'

Vor dem Hintergrund der Auseinandersetzung mit den ökonomischen Dimensionen der Kontaktmärkte präsentieren die Verfasser zwei idealtypische Geschäftsmodelle, die bei der Gestaltung von digitalen Kontaktbörsen angewandt werden. Bei dem einen sind die Interessenten die aktive Seite, die im Netz nach möglichen Partnern suchen. Im zweiten Fall übernehmen spezialisierte Firmen die aktive Rolle und präsentieren im Netz relevante Angebote. Kennzeichnend für die Realität dieser Märkte sind diverse Mischformen von digitalen Kontaktbörsen. In dieser Pluralität sehen die Autoren einen wesentlichen Grund für das wissenschaftliche Interesse an diesen Märkten. Die organisatorischen und kommunikativen Dimensionen der digitalen Kontaktbörsen sowie die Kritik an diesem Phänomen werden als jeweilige Gegenstände spezialisierter Forschungsrichtungen präsentiert. Anschließend werden die Beiträge des Sonderhefts dargestellt. (ICF

Molecular structure of the 8.0 kDa subunit of cytochrome-c reductase from potato and its Δψ-dependent import into isolated mitochondria

AbstractThe cytochrome-c reductase (EC 1.10.2.2) of the mitochondrial respiratory chain couples electron transport from ubiquinol to cytochrome c with proton translocation across the inner mitochondrial membrane. The enzyme from potato was shown to be composed of 10 subunits. Isolation and characterization of cDNA clones for the second smallest subunit reveal an open reading frame of 216 bp encoding a protein of 8.0 kDa. The protein exhibits similarities to a 7.2/7.3 kDa subunit of cytochrome-c reductase from bovine and yeast, that is localized on the intermembrane space side of the enzyme complex. It also shows similarity to a previously unidentified 7.8 kDa protein of cytochrome-c reductase from Euglena. The potato 8.0 kDa protein has a segmental structure, as its sequence can be devided into four parts, each comprising a central Arg-(Xaa)5-Val motif. N-terminal sequencing of the mature 8.0 kDa protein indicates the absence of a cleavable mitochondrial targeting sequence. Import of the in vitro synthesized 8.0 kDa protein into isolated potato mitochondria confirms the lack of a presequence and reveals a dependence of the transport on the membrane potatial Δψ across the inner mitochondrial membrane. These features are unique among the intermembrane space proteins known so far

Struktureller Konflikt? Die Debatte um die Neue Weltinformations- und -kommunikationsordnung. Neorealistische Hypothesen zum Nord-Süd-Verhältnis

Der Essay behandelt Stephen D.Krasners Buch 'Structural Conflict. The Third World Against Global Liberalism' in Bezug auf die Debatte auf einer neuen Weltinformations- und -kommunikationsordnung der siebziger und achtziger Jahre. In einem ersten Schritt wird die Entwicklung von der älteren Perspektive des 'Realismus' (als einer der verschiedenen theoretischen Ansätze bzw. Paradigmen in den internationalen Beziehungen) zu den verschiedenen Strängen des neorealistischen Paradigmas zusammengefasst. In Kapitel 3, 4 und 5 werden empirische Untersuchungen durchgeführt, um die neorealistischen Hypothesen von Krasner zu evaluieren. Diese Hypothesen werden zum einen anhand der Interessenformation der Blockfreien-Bewegung und zum anderen anhand der Interessenkonflikte der blockfreien mit westlichen Ländern innerhalb der verschiedenen Foren der UNESCO überprüft. Die Untersuchung kommt zu dem Ergebnis, dass Krasner zu Recht Wert auf Macht-Asymmetrien legt, dass er aber seinen Ansatz nicht mit Waltz' neorealistischem Konzept in Übereinkunft bringen kann. Empirisch gesehen versucht sein Macht-Konzept, nicht-intentionale Aspekte der Macht mit einzubeziehen, welche aber Macht nur dann erkennt, wenn man sie auf intentionale Akteure zurückführen kann. Er bleibt aber analytisch blind für den umgekehrten Fall, in dem Akteure ihre Machtressourcen aus einem bestehenden Regime beziehen, die Akteure also passiv von der bestehenden Ordnung profitieren. Damit kann Krasner Macht, die sich in historisch gewachsenen Strukturen verfestigt hat, nicht theoretisch erfassen, vielmehr nutzt er das Konzept im Sinne unhinterfragter Plausibilität. Zudem wird die unabhängige Rolle der internationalen Organisationen, wenn man den Einfluß auf Politikresultate betrachtet, in Krasners Ansatz nicht hinreichend berücksichtigt

Characterization of the bifunctional cytochrome c reductase-processing peptidase complex from potato mitochondria

In potato, cytochrome c reductase, a protein complex of the respiratory chain, exhibits processing activity toward mitochondrial precursor proteins. One of the two cooperating components of the processing peptidase was shown to be identical with subunit III of the complex. Here we report that two additional proteins of the complex (subunit I and II) share 40-50% sequence identity with the processing enhancing protein, the other component of the processing enzyme from fungi and mammals. Thus the composition and structure of the complex integrated processing peptidase seems to be different from its fungal and mammalian counterparts. Cytochrome c reductase from potato is extraordinarily stable, and separation of subunit III from the complex leads to aggregation of the remaining subcomplex and irreversible loss of processing activity. Expression of the three high molecular weight subunits of the complex allowed purification of each individual protein. Neither the individual subunits nor their combinations are active in in vitro processing assays suggesting that they may need the structural support of the complex for activity. In contrast to mitochondrial processing peptidases from other organisms, the purified potato enzyme is active in the presence of high salt (above 1 M NaCl) and works efficiently without addition of metal ions. These data indicate that potato cytochrome c reductase is a bifunctional protein complex with unique features. Possibly, there is a more general evolutionary relationship between cytochrome c reductases and mitochondrial processing peptidases than hitherto assumed

How Billionaires Explain Their Philanthropy: A Mixed-Method Analysis of the Giving Pledge Letters

This study investigates a discourse about billionaire philanthropy established in letters submitted by 187 of 209 signatories of the Giving Pledge. The philanthropy of the wealthy is gaining increasing public attention and is subject to growing criticism, which demands additional study of how the wealthy collectively explain their generosity. The mixed-method analysis finds a strong emphasis on education and health causes and identifies two distinct and coherent rationales for being generous. The majority of letters express a social–normative rationale, consisting of two prevailing explanations: an expressed gratitude and desire to “give back” (1) and references to family upbringing as a socializing force (2). A minority of letters articulate a personal–consequentialist rationale, highlighting three separate explanations: a large inheritance may harm offspring (1), giving as personal gratification (2), and an acknowledgment of excess wealth with no better use (3). An expressed desire to have impact and make a difference appears in both rationales. The overall dominance of a social–normative rationale projects a discourse emphasizing benevolence as well as a narrative in which billionaires are an exceptionally productive and grateful subset of society. While previous studies have primarily focused on identifying individual psychological motives, this study shows how the Giving Pledge letters reflect a philanthropic discourse among the wealthy going back to Andrew Carnegie’s Gospel of Wealth