WorldWideScience

Sample records for policy makers objectives

  1. Evidence-Informed Health Policies in Eastern Mediterranean Countries: Comparing Views of Policy Makers and Researchers

    Science.gov (United States)

    El-Jardali, Fadi; Lavis, John N.; Jamal, Diana; Ataya, Nour; Dimassi, Hani

    2014-01-01

    The objective of this paper is to conduct comparative analysis about the views and practices of policy makers and researchers on the use of health systems evidence in policy making in selected Eastern Mediterranean countries. We analysed data from two self-reported surveys, one targeted at policy makers and the other at researchers. Results show a…

  2. Why Social Policy Needs Objective Indicators

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    R. Veenhoven (Ruut)

    2002-01-01

    textabstractThere are many qualms about subjective indicators, and some believe that social policy would be better for not using them. This paper consists of a review of these objections. It is argued that policy makers need subjective indicators. The main reasons being: 1. Social policy is never

  3. Public and policy maker support for point-of-sale tobacco policies in New York.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schmitt, Carol L; Juster, Harlan R; Dench, Daniel; Willett, Jeffrey; Curry, Laurel E

    2014-01-01

    To compare public and policy maker support for three point-of-sale tobacco policies. Two cross-sectional surveys--one of the public from the New York Adult Tobacco Survey and one of policy makers from the Local Opinion Leader Survey; both collected and analyzed in 2011. Tobacco control programs focus on educating the public and policy makers about tobacco control policy solutions. Six hundred seventy-six county-level legislators in New York's 62 counties and New York City's five boroughs (response rate: 59%); 7439 New York residents aged 18 or older. Landline response rates: 20.2% to 22%. Cell phone response rates: 9.2% to 11.1%. Gender, age, smoking status, presence of a child aged 18 years or younger in the household, county of residence, and policy maker and public support for three potential policy solutions to point-of-sale tobacco marketing. t-tests to compare the demographic makeup for the two samples. Adjusted Wald tests to test for differences in policy support between samples. The public was significantly more supportive of point-of-sale policy solutions than were policy makers: cap on retailers (48.0% vs. 19.2%, respectively); ban on sales at pharmacies (49.1% vs. 38.8%); and ban on retailers near schools (53.3% vs. 42.5%). cross-sectional data, sociodemographic differences, and variations in item wording. Tobacco control programs need to include information about implementation, enforcement, and potential effects on multiple constituencies (including businesses) in their efforts to educate policy makers about point-of-sale policy solutions.

  4. Communicating the Needs of Climate Change Policy Makers to Scientists

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brown, Molly E.; Escobar, Vanessa M.; Lovell, Heather

    2012-01-01

    This chapter will describe the challenges that earth scientists face in developing science data products relevant to decision maker and policy needs, and will describe strategies that can improve the two-way communication between the scientist and the policy maker. Climate change policy and decision making happens at a variety of scales - from local government implementing solar homes policies to international negotiations through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Scientists can work to provide data at these different scales, but if they are not aware of the needs of decision makers or understand what challenges the policy maker is facing, they are likely to be less successful in influencing policy makers as they wished. This is because the science questions they are addressing may be compelling, but not relevant to the challenges that are at the forefront of policy concerns. In this chapter we examine case studies of science-policy partnerships, and the strategies each partnership uses to engage the scientist at a variety of scales. We examine three case studies: the global Carbon Monitoring System pilot project developed by NASA, a forest biomass mapping effort for Silvacarbon project, and a forest canopy cover project being conducted for forest management in Maryland. In each of these case studies, relationships between scientists and policy makers were critical for ensuring the focus of the science as well as the success of the decision-making.

  5. Is Twitter a forum for disseminating research to health policy makers?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kapp, Julie M; Hensel, Brian; Schnoring, Kyle T

    2015-12-01

    Findings from scientific research largely remain inside the scientific community. Research scientists are being encouraged to use social media, and especially Twitter, for dissemination of evidence. The potential for Twitter to narrow the gap on evidence translated into policy presents new opportunities. We explored the innovative question of the feasibility of Twitter as a tool for the scientific community to disseminate to and engage with health policy makers for research impact. We created a list of federal "health policy makers." In December 2014, we identified members using several data sources, then collected and summarized their Twitter usage data. Nearly all health policy makers had Twitter accounts. Their communication volume varied broadly. Policy makers are more likely to push information via Twitter than engage with constituents, although usage varied broadly. Twitter has the potential to aid the scientific community in dissemination of health-related research to health policy makers, after understanding how to effectively (and selectively) use Twitter. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  6. Social values and solar energy policy: the policy maker and the advocate

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Shama, A.; Jacobs, K.

    1980-07-01

    Solar energy policy makers and advocates have significantly different hierarchies (clusters) of values upon which they evaluate the adoption of solar technologies. Content analysis, which examines the frequency with which policy makers identify different types of values, indicates that they hold economic values to be of primary importance. Environmental, social, and national security values are also substantial elements of the policy makers' value clusters associated with solar energy. This finding is confirmed by a qualitative analysis of policy makers' values. Advocates, on the other hand, assign almost equal weights (33%) to economic values and social values, slightly less weight to environmental values, and significant attention to ethical and security values as well. These results of frequency analysis are made somewhat more complicated by a qualitative interpretation of the advocates' positions. As part of their more holistic approach, several of the advocates indicated that all values discussed by them are instrumental toward achieving higher-order, ethical and environmental values. In addition, our preliminary investigation indicates that neither group is entirely homogeneous. Testing this and other propositions, as well as obtaining a similar picture of the values which the public associates with solar energy, are topics of future research.

  7. Experiences with a dialogue process between policy makers and global modellers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Van Daalen, C.E.; Thissen, W.A.H.; Berk, M.M.

    1998-01-01

    Between 1995 and 1997, a series of five workshops, henceforth called the Delft process, took place with the aim to explore and enhance use of the IMAGE 2 model to support international climate negotiations. The IMAGE 2 model is a multi-disciplinary, integrated model designed to simulate the dynamics of the global society-biosphere-climate system. The workshops facilitated a dialogue between policy makers and scientists involved in the development and applications of the IMAGE 2 model. In this way, policy makers would benefit from the policy makers on how to improve the policy relevance of the IMAGE 2 model. The evaluation at the end of the workshop series showed that participants have used information from the workshop at international negotiation conferences and in preparation of policy documents. The process shows that creating a forum for direct science-policy interactions can be very useful and productive, and has confirmed the importance of creating an open and constructive atmosphere between policy makers, and between policy makers and analysts, to enhance utilisation of scientific knowledge. The authors' analysis also suggests that many factors have to be 'in the right position at the right time and place' to achieve such a success, and that it is difficult to prevent the occurrence of biases in processes like this. 33 refs

  8. Taking Legislators to the Field: Communicating with Policy Makers about Natural Resource Issues

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sawin, R. S.; Buchanan, R. C.

    2006-12-01

    Policy makers are among the most important audiences for scientific information. In particular, legislators, legislative staff, governmental agency staff, business leaders, environmental leaders, and others need accurate, objective natural-resource information to make policy decisions. This audience is busy and difficult to reach with technical information. As part of its public outreach program, the Kansas Geological Survey (a division of the University of Kansas) communicates directly with policy makers through an annual field conference. Operated since 1995, the conference presents information by combining field experiences, presentations by experts, and participant interaction. The primary objective is to give policy makers first-hand, unbiased information about the state's natural resource issues. The field conference takes policy makers to locations where natural resources are produced or used, or where there are important environmental issues, introducing them to experts and others who carry out (or are affected by) their decisions. The conference consists of three days of site visits, presentations, hands-on activities, and panel discussions. Participation is by invitation. Participants pay a small fee, but most costs are covered by co-sponsors, usually other state or local agencies, that are recruited to help defray expenses. Participants receive a guidebook before the trip. Travel is by chartered bus; lodging and meals are provided. Conferences have focused on topics (such as energy or water) or regions of the state. The most recent conference focused on cross-boundary issues and included stops in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri. Written, post-conference evaluations are extremely positive. Legislators report that they regularly use conference information and contacts during the law-making process; conference information played a direct role in decisions related to underground natural-gas storage rules, water-rights by-back legislation, and sand and gravel

  9. Assessment of policy makers' individual and organizational capacity ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    An evidence to policy self-assessment questionnaire was used to assess the capacity of forty MNCH policy makers to acquire, assess, adapt and apply research evidence for policy making. Results: Low mean ratings were observed ranging from 2.68-3.53 on a scale of 5 for knowledge about initiating/conducting research ...

  10. Obesity prevention programs and policies: practitioner and policy-maker perceptions of feasibility and effectiveness.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cleland, Verity; McNeilly, Briohny; Crawford, David; Ball, Kylie

    2013-09-01

    The aims of this study were to map obesity prevention activity being implemented by government, non-government, and community-based organizations; to determine practitioner and policy-maker perceptions of the feasibility and effectiveness of a range of evidence-based obesity prevention strategies; and to determine practitioner and policy-maker perceptions of preferred settings for obesity prevention strategies. This study involved a cross-sectional survey of 304 public health practitioners and policy-makers from government, non-government, and community organizations across Victoria, Australia. Participants reported their organizations' current obesity prevention programs and policies, their own perceptions of the feasibility and effectiveness of strategies to prevent obesity and their preferred settings for obesity prevention. Thirty-nine percent had an obesity prevention policy, and 92% were implementing obesity prevention programs. The most common programs focused on education, skill-building, and increasing access to healthy eating/physical activity opportunities. School curriculum-based initiatives, social support for physical activity, and family-based programs were considered the most effective strategies, whereas curriculum-based initiatives, active after-school programs, and providing access to and information about physical activity facilities were deemed the most feasible strategies. Schools were generally perceived as the most preferred setting for obesity prevention. Many organizations had obesity prevention programs, but far fewer had obesity prevention policies. Current strategies and those considered feasible and effective are often mismatched with the empirical literature. Systems to ensure better alignment between researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers, and identifying effective methods of translating empirical evidence into practice and policy are required. Copyright © 2012 The Obesity Society.

  11. The utilization of research evidence in Health Workforce Policies: the perspectives of Portuguese and Brazilian National Policy-Makers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Craveiro, Isabel; Hortale, Virginia; Oliveira, Ana Paula Cavalcante de; Dal Poz, Mario; Portela, Gustavo; Dussault, Gilles

    2018-03-01

    The production of knowledge on Human Resources for Health (HRH) issues has increased exponentially since 2000 but integration of the research in the policy-making process is often lagging. We looked at how research on HRH contributes or not to inform policy decisions and interventions affecting the health workforce in Portugal and Brazil. We designed a comparative case study of semi-structured interviews with present and past national decision-makers, policy advisors and researchers. Issues explored included the existence of a national HRH policy and the use, or non-use, of research evidence by policy makers and reasons to do so. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, anonymized and analysed thematically. Policy-makers in Brazil recognize a greater use of evidence in the process of defining HRH policy when compared to Portugal's. But the existence of formal instruments to support policy development is not sufficient to ensure that policies are informed by evidence. In both countries the importance of the use of evidence in the formulation of policies was recognized by policy-makers. However, the influence of other factors, such as political pressures from various lobby groups and from the media and the policy short timeframe which requires rapid responses, is predominant.

  12. International benchmaking: Supplying the information for product efficiency policy makers

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Siderius, H.P.; Jeffcott, S.; Blok, K.

    2012-01-01

    In the development of effective product efficiency policy, the critical element for policy makers is comprehensive, independent information. However, easily accessible, reliable information on the energy performance of products and policies is often scarce within a particular market, and rarer still

  13. Rationality versus reality: the challenges of evidence-based decision making for health policy makers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McCaughey, Deirdre; Bruning, Nealia S

    2010-05-26

    Current healthcare systems have extended the evidence-based medicine (EBM) approach to health policy and delivery decisions, such as access-to-care, healthcare funding and health program continuance, through attempts to integrate valid and reliable evidence into the decision making process. These policy decisions have major impacts on society and have high personal and financial costs associated with those decisions. Decision models such as these function under a shared assumption of rational choice and utility maximization in the decision-making process. We contend that health policy decision makers are generally unable to attain the basic goals of evidence-based decision making (EBDM) and evidence-based policy making (EBPM) because humans make decisions with their naturally limited, faulty, and biased decision-making processes. A cognitive information processing framework is presented to support this argument, and subtle cognitive processing mechanisms are introduced to support the focal thesis: health policy makers' decisions are influenced by the subjective manner in which they individually process decision-relevant information rather than on the objective merits of the evidence alone. As such, subsequent health policy decisions do not necessarily achieve the goals of evidence-based policy making, such as maximizing health outcomes for society based on valid and reliable research evidence. In this era of increasing adoption of evidence-based healthcare models, the rational choice, utility maximizing assumptions in EBDM and EBPM, must be critically evaluated to ensure effective and high-quality health policy decisions. The cognitive information processing framework presented here will aid health policy decision makers by identifying how their decisions might be subtly influenced by non-rational factors. In this paper, we identify some of the biases and potential intervention points and provide some initial suggestions about how the EBDM/EBPM process can be

  14. Rationality versus reality: the challenges of evidence-based decision making for health policy makers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bruning Nealia S

    2010-05-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Current healthcare systems have extended the evidence-based medicine (EBM approach to health policy and delivery decisions, such as access-to-care, healthcare funding and health program continuance, through attempts to integrate valid and reliable evidence into the decision making process. These policy decisions have major impacts on society and have high personal and financial costs associated with those decisions. Decision models such as these function under a shared assumption of rational choice and utility maximization in the decision-making process. Discussion We contend that health policy decision makers are generally unable to attain the basic goals of evidence-based decision making (EBDM and evidence-based policy making (EBPM because humans make decisions with their naturally limited, faulty, and biased decision-making processes. A cognitive information processing framework is presented to support this argument, and subtle cognitive processing mechanisms are introduced to support the focal thesis: health policy makers' decisions are influenced by the subjective manner in which they individually process decision-relevant information rather than on the objective merits of the evidence alone. As such, subsequent health policy decisions do not necessarily achieve the goals of evidence-based policy making, such as maximizing health outcomes for society based on valid and reliable research evidence. Summary In this era of increasing adoption of evidence-based healthcare models, the rational choice, utility maximizing assumptions in EBDM and EBPM, must be critically evaluated to ensure effective and high-quality health policy decisions. The cognitive information processing framework presented here will aid health policy decision makers by identifying how their decisions might be subtly influenced by non-rational factors. In this paper, we identify some of the biases and potential intervention points and provide some initial

  15. Rationality versus reality: the challenges of evidence-based decision making for health policy makers

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    Background Current healthcare systems have extended the evidence-based medicine (EBM) approach to health policy and delivery decisions, such as access-to-care, healthcare funding and health program continuance, through attempts to integrate valid and reliable evidence into the decision making process. These policy decisions have major impacts on society and have high personal and financial costs associated with those decisions. Decision models such as these function under a shared assumption of rational choice and utility maximization in the decision-making process. Discussion We contend that health policy decision makers are generally unable to attain the basic goals of evidence-based decision making (EBDM) and evidence-based policy making (EBPM) because humans make decisions with their naturally limited, faulty, and biased decision-making processes. A cognitive information processing framework is presented to support this argument, and subtle cognitive processing mechanisms are introduced to support the focal thesis: health policy makers' decisions are influenced by the subjective manner in which they individually process decision-relevant information rather than on the objective merits of the evidence alone. As such, subsequent health policy decisions do not necessarily achieve the goals of evidence-based policy making, such as maximizing health outcomes for society based on valid and reliable research evidence. Summary In this era of increasing adoption of evidence-based healthcare models, the rational choice, utility maximizing assumptions in EBDM and EBPM, must be critically evaluated to ensure effective and high-quality health policy decisions. The cognitive information processing framework presented here will aid health policy decision makers by identifying how their decisions might be subtly influenced by non-rational factors. In this paper, we identify some of the biases and potential intervention points and provide some initial suggestions about how the

  16. Policy priority objectives: comparative assessment in four European cities

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Alonso Ramos, A.

    2016-07-01

    Sustainability must be an urban issue. Cities should be managed so as to minimize their impacts on environment, but providing an appropriate framework for economic and social development. However, European cities are facing some trends that threaten sustainable development. The aim of the EC research project INSIGHT-7FP (2013/16) is to develop appropriate management tools that can help to achieve sustainability in the context of European cities. In the project, a set of policy objectives have been designed for the management of urban areas, in order to face the main threats existing over cities. The paper presents a methodology based on indicators for analysing the progress towards these ten policy objectives in the four EU cities participating in the project: London (12.3 mill. inhab.), Madrid (6.4 mill. inhab.), Barcelona (5.4 mill. inhab.) and Rotterdam (1.4 mill. inhab.). All the indicators used in the analysis have been validated by ten policy makers of European cities. These policy makers participated on the stakeholders consultation carried out in the project, where the importance of the policy objectives proposed was also assessed. The paper concludes determining the policy priority objectives in each city, in order to contain the main threats existing over them: London should especially address the threats of social exclusion and transport inefficiency; Madrid the threats of economic decline and urban sprawl; Barcelona the economic decline and Rotterdam the contribution to climate change and the urban sprawl. Finally, the role played by the land use and transport system in these policy objectives is analysed. To this end, the assessment allows for the comparability of the results in a horizontal manner, in the basis of common indicators. Nearly half of these indicators are related to the land use and transport system of the cities. (Author)

  17. It's All in the Lens: Differences in Views on Obesity Prevention between Advocates and Policy Makers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jones, Ellen; Nguyen, Leah; Kong, Jooyoung; Brownson, Ross C.; Bailey, Jessica H.

    2012-01-01

    Abstract Background: Intervention strategies to reduce obesity include policy and environmental changes that are designed to provide opportunities, support, and cues to help people develop healthier behaviors. Policy changes at the state level are one way to influence access, social norms, and opportunities for better nutrition and increased physical activity among the population. Methods: Ten states were selected for a broad variance in obesity rates and number of enacted obesity prevention policies during the years of 2006–2009. Within the selected states, a purely qualitative study of attitudes of childhood obesity policy using semistructured telephone interviews was conducted. Interviews were conducted with state policy makers who serve on public health committees. A set of six states that had more than eight childhood obesity policies enacted were selected for subsequent qualitative interviews with a convenience sample of well-established advocates. Results: Policy makers in states where there was more childhood obesity policy action believed in the evidence behind obesity policy proposals. Policy makers also varied in the perception of obesity as a constituent priority. The major differences between advocates and policy makers included a disconnect in information dissemination, opposition, and effectiveness of these policies. Conclusions: The findings from this study show differences in perceptions among policy makers in states with a greater number of obesity prevention bills enacted. There are differences among policy makers and advocates regarding the role and effectiveness of state policy on obesity prevention. This presents an opportunity for researchers and practitioners to improve communication and translation of evidence to policy makers, particularly in states with low legislation. PMID:22799551

  18. Teacher Education Research and Education Policy-Makers: An Australian Perspective

    Science.gov (United States)

    White, Simone

    2016-01-01

    As teacher educators, we want our research to be influential in contributing to educational policy and practice, but there remains little understanding about ways in which teacher educators might more productively engage with each other and policy-makers so as to maximise their research impact. Drawing on an empirical study and policy document…

  19. Enhancing the Capacity of Policy-Makers to Develop Evidence-Informed Policy Brief on Infectious Diseases of Poverty in Nigeria

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chigozie Jesse Uneke

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available Background The lack of effective use of research evidence in policy-making is a major challenge in most low- and middle-income countries (LMICs. There is need to package research data into effective policy tools that will help policy-makers to make evidence-informed policy regarding infectious diseases of poverty (IDP. The objective of this study was to assess the usefulness of training workshops and mentoring to enhance the capacity of Nigerian health policy-makers to develop evidence-informed policy brief on the control of IDP. Methods A modified “before and after” intervention study design was used in which outcomes were measured on the target participants both before the intervention is implemented and after. A 4-point Likert scale according to the degree of adequacy; 1 = “grossly inadequate,” 4 = “very adequate” was employed. The main parameter measured was participants’ perceptions of their own knowledge/understanding. This study was conducted at subnational level and the participants were the career health policy-makers drawn from Ebonyi State in the South-Eastern Nigeria. A oneday evidence-to-policy workshop was organized to enhance the participants’ capacity to develop evidence-informed policy brief on IDP in Ebonyi State. Topics covered included collaborative initiative; preparation and use of policy briefs; policy dialogue; ethics in health policy-making; and health policy and politics. Results The preworkshop mean of knowledge and capacity ranged from 2.49-3.03, while the postworkshop mean ranged from 3.42–3.78 on 4-point scale. The percentage increase in mean of knowledge and capacity at the end of the workshop ranged from 20.10%–45%. Participants were divided into 3 IDP mentorship groups (malaria, schistosomiasis, lymphatic filariasis [LF] and were mentored to identify potential policy options/recommendations for control of the diseases for the policy briefs. These policy options were subjected to research

  20. Enhancing the Capacity of Policy-Makers to Develop Evidence-Informed Policy Brief on Infectious Diseases of Poverty in Nigeria

    Science.gov (United States)

    Uneke, Chigozie Jesse; Ezeoha, Abel Ebeh; Uro-Chukwu, Henry; Ezeonu, Chinonyelum Thecla; Ogbu, Ogbonnaya; Onwe, Friday; Edoga, Chima

    2015-01-01

    Background: The lack of effective use of research evidence in policy-making is a major challenge in most low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). There is need to package research data into effective policy tools that will help policy-makers to make evidence-informed policy regarding infectious diseases of poverty (IDP). The objective of this study was to assess the usefulness of training workshops and mentoring to enhance the capacity of Nigerian health policy-makers to develop evidence-informed policy brief on the control of IDP. Methods: A modified "before and after" intervention study design was used in which outcomes were measured on the target participants both before the intervention is implemented and after. A 4-point Likert scale according to the degree of adequacy; 1 = "grossly inadequate," 4 = "very adequate" was employed. The main parameter measured was participants’ perceptions of their own knowledge/understanding. This study was conducted at subnational level and the participants were the career health policy-makers drawn from Ebonyi State in the South-Eastern Nigeria. A one-day evidence-to-policy workshop was organized to enhance the participants’ capacity to develop evidence-informed policy brief on IDP in Ebonyi State. Topics covered included collaborative initiative; preparation and use of policy briefs; policy dialogue; ethics in health policy-making; and health policy and politics. Results: The preworkshop mean of knowledge and capacity ranged from 2.49-3.03, while the postworkshop mean ranged from 3.42–3.78 on 4-point scale. The percentage increase in mean of knowledge and capacity at the end of the workshop ranged from 20.10%–45%. Participants were divided into 3 IDP mentorship groups (malaria, schistosomiasis, lymphatic filariasis [LF]) and were mentored to identify potential policy options/recommendations for control of the diseases for the policy briefs. These policy options were subjected to research evidence synthesis by each

  1. Communication among scientists, decision makers and society: Developing policy-relevant global climate change research

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bernabo, J.C.

    1995-01-01

    Defining the research most relevant to policy is not simply a technical task that can be answered by scientists. Decision makers need and value information differently than curiosity-driven scientists. In order to link science more effectively to policy, the two communities must gain a greater mutual understanding. Decision makers must define their needs so that scientists can determine how, and by when, research can address these needs. This vital dialogue between communities typically has been more ad hoc than systematic. The complexity and urgency of the global climate change issue necessitate ongoing communication between scientists and decision makers on the information needed for policy development and what research can provide The results of relevant science policy dialogues are discussed herein. Effective communication between researchers and decision makers is a crucial ingredient for successfully addressing society's pressing environmental concerns. The increase in policy makers' demands for research that is relevant to solving societal issues highlights the communication gap between the technical and policy communities. The gap, largely caused by lack of mutual understanding, results in flawed and inadequate communication that hinders decision making and confuses the public. This paper examines the cause of this communication gap and describes the significance of recent efforts to develop more fruitful science-policy dialogues on the issue of global climate change. First, the post-Cold War shift in government priorities for research funding is described; then the underlying relationship between science and policy is explored to identify key sources of ongoing mis-communication. The paper then explains the importance of defining policy-relevant science questions that research can address. Finally, three projects are described involving the elicitation of decision makers' information needs in The United States, The Netherlands, and internationally

  2. Key Policy Makers' Awareness of Tobacco Taxation Effectiveness through a Sensitization Program.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heydari, Gholamreza; Ebn Ahmady, Arezoo; Lando, Harry A; Chamyani, Fahimeh; Masjedi, Mohammadreza; Shadmehr, Mohammad B; Fadaizadeh, Lida

    2015-12-01

    The implementation of 5 of the 6 WHO MPOWER program in Iran is satisfactory; the only notable shortcoming is the lack of tobacco taxation increases. This study was designed to increase key policy makers' awareness of tobacco taxation effectiveness through a sensitization program in Iran. This analytical and semi-experimental study in 2014 included 110 tobacco control key policy makers, who were trained and received educational materials on the importance of tobacco taxation. A valid and reliable questionnaire was completed before and three months after intervention. Data were analyzed using mean (SD), t-Test and analysis of variance. The mean (SD) scores at pre- and post-test were 2.7 ± 3 and 8.8 ± 1 out of 10, respectively. Paired t-tests demonstrated a significant difference in the pre- post-test knowledge scores. Increasing knowledge and promoting favorable attitudes of policy makers can lead to greater attention which could in turn change tobacco taxation policies.

  3. How do researchers influence decision-makers? Case studies of Mexican policies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Trostle, J; Bronfman, M; Langer, A

    1999-06-01

    Though the problems translating or applying research in policy-making are legion, solutions are rare. As developing countries increase their capacities to develop effective local solutions to their health problems, they confront the research/policy dilemma. Yet few descriptive studies of research-policy links can be found from developing countries, and the relevance of European and North American models and data is questionable. We report the results of a descriptive study from Mexico of the relationship between health research and policy in four vertical programmes (AIDS, cholera, family planning, immunization). We interviewed 67 researchers and policy-makers from different institutions and levels of responsibility. We analyzed interviewee responses looking for factors that promoted or impeded exchanges between researchers and policy-makers. These were, in turn, divided into emphases on content, actors, process, and context. Many of the promoting factors resembled findings from studies in industrialized countries. Some important differences across the four programmes, which also distinguish them from industrialized country programmes, included extent of reliance on formal communication channels, role of the mass media in building social consensus or creating discord, levels of social consensus, role of foreign donors, and extent of support for biomedical versus social research. We recommend various ways to increase the impact of research on health policy-making in Mexico. Some of the largest challenges include the fact that researchers are but one of many interest groups, and research but one input among many equally legitimate elements to be considered by policy-makers. Another important challenge in Mexico is the relatively small role played by the public in policy-making. Further democratic changes in Mexico may be the most important incentive to increase the use of research in policy-making.

  4. Engaging policy makers in road safety research in Malaysia: a theoretical and contextual analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tran, Nhan T; Hyder, Adnan A; Kulanthayan, Subramaniam; Singh, Suret; Umar, R S Radin

    2009-04-01

    Road traffic injuries (RTIs) are a growing public health problem that must be addressed through evidence-based interventions including policy-level changes such as the enactment of legislation to mandate specific behaviors and practices. Policy makers need to be engaged in road safety research to ensure that road safety policies are grounded in scientific evidence. This paper examines the strategies used to engage policy makers and other stakeholder groups and discusses the challenges that result from a multi-disciplinary, inter-sectoral collaboration. A framework for engaging policy makers in research was developed and applied to describe an example of collective road safety research in Malaysia. Key components of this framework include readiness, assessment, planning, implementation/evaluation, and policy development/sustainability. The case study of a collaborative intervention trial for the prevention of motorcycle crashes and deaths in Malaysia serves as a model for policy engagement by road safety and injury researchers. The analytic description of this research process in Malaysia demonstrates that the framework, through its five stages, can be used as a tool to guide the integration of needed research evidence into policy for road safety and injury prevention.

  5. Bioenergy, Land Use Change and Climate Change Mitigation. Report for Policy Advisors and Policy Makers

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Berndes, Goran [Chalmers Univ. of Technology (Sweden); Bird, Nell [Joanneum Research (Austria); Cowle, Annette [National Centre for Rural Greenhouse Gas Research (Australia)

    2010-07-01

    The report addresses a much debated issue - bioenergy and associated land use change, and how the climate change mitigation from use of bioenergy can be influenced by greenhouse gas emissions arising from land use change. The purpose of the report was to produce an unbiased, authoritative statement on this topic aimed especially at policy advisors and policy makers.

  6. Factors that explain how policy makers distribute resources to mental health services.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Corrigan, Patrick W; Watson, Amy C

    2003-04-01

    Advocates hope to influence the resource allocation decisions of legislators and other policy makers to capture more resources for mental health programs. Findings from social psychological research suggest factors that, if pursued, may improve advocacy efforts. In particular, allocation decisions are affected by policy makers' perceptions of the scarcity of resources, effectiveness of specific programs, needs of people who have problems that are served by these programs, and extent of personal responsibility for these problems. These perceptions are further influenced by political ideology. Conservatives are motivated by a tendency to punish persons who are perceived as having personal responsibility for their problems by withholding resources, whereas liberals are likely to avoid tough allocation decisions. Moreover, these perceptions are affected by political accountability, that is, whether politicians perceive that their constituents will closely monitor their decisions. Just as the quality of clinical interventions improves when informed by basic research on human behavior, the efforts of mental health advocates will be advanced when they understand the psychological forces that affect policy makers' decisions about resources.

  7. Making the Most of Obesity Research: Developing Research and Policy Objectives through Evidence Triangulation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oliver, Kathryn; Aicken, Catherine; Arai, Lisa

    2013-01-01

    Drawing lessons from research can help policy makers make better decisions. If a large and methodologically varied body of research exists, as with childhood obesity, this is challenging. We present new research and policy objectives for child obesity developed by triangulating user involvement data with a mapping study of interventions aimed at…

  8. Policy maker and provider knowledge and attitudes regarding the provision of emergency contraceptive pills within Lao PDR

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hansana Visanou

    2010-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The Ministry of Health (MOH launched the National Reproductive Health Policy in 2005, which included recommendations regarding the use of emergency contraceptive pills (ECP. However, ECP have not yet been introduced officially in the public sector of the Lao PDR. Thus, their availability is limited. Understanding the knowledge of ECP and attitudes about their provision, barriers to use, and availability among health providers and policy makers is essential to successfully incorporate ECP into reproductive health services. Methods Qualitative research methods using in-depth interviews were employed to collect data from policy makers and health providers (auxiliary medical staff, nurses, and medical doctors. Altogether, 10 policy makers, 22 public providers, and 10 providers at private clinics were interviewed. Content analysis was applied to analyze the transcribed data. Results The majority of policy makers and health care providers had heard about ECP and supported their introduction in the public sector. However, their knowledge was poor, many expressed inconsistent attitudes, and their ability to meet the demand of potential users is limited. Conclusions There is a need to train health providers and policy makers on emergency contraception and improve their knowledge about ECP, especially regarding the correct timing of use and the availability of methods. In addition, the general public must be informed of the attributes, side effects, and availability of ECP, and policy makers must facilitate the approval of ECP by the Lao Food and Drug Administration. These interventions could lead to increased access to and demand for ECP.

  9. Getting from Here to There: The Roles of Policy Makers and Principals in Increasing Science Teacher Quality

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shen, Ji; Gerard, Libby; Bowyer, Jane

    2010-04-01

    In this study we investigate how federal and state policy makers, and school principals are working to improve science teacher quality. Interviews, focused discussions, and policy documents serve as the primary data source. Findings suggest that both policy makers and principals prioritize increasing incentives for teachers entering the science teaching profession, providing professional development for new teachers, and using students’ data to evaluate and improve instruction. Differences between the two leadership groups emerged in terms of the grain size and practicality of their concerns. Our findings indicate that the complexity of educational challenges to improve science teacher quality call for the co-construction of policy by multiple constituent groups including school principals, federal and state policy makers, and science education researchers.

  10. Green roofs : a resource manual for municipal policy makers

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lawlor, G.; Currie, B.A.; Doshi, H.; Wieditz, I. [Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., Ottawa, ON (Canada)

    2006-05-15

    As knowledge of the environmental benefits of green roofs and technology improves, green roofs are quickly gaining acceptance in North America. European jurisdictions have been using green roof technology for stormwater management, to reduce energy use in buildings and to increase amenity space. By reviewing the reasons that municipalities throughout the world have set green roof policies and programs, policy makers can more easily determine which policies suit their needs. This manual provided an overview of international and Canadian green roof policies and programs. It presented information on 12 jurisdictions that demonstrated leadership in green roof policy development. The manual also presented information on an additional 13 jurisdictions with less-developed green roof policies. Activities that were discussed for each of these jurisdictions included: description of jurisdiction; key motivators; green roof policy; process to establish policy; effectiveness; lessons learned; future predictions; and applicability to Canada of international jurisdictions. The manual also provided general information on green roofs such as a definition of green roofs and green roof terminology. Key motivators for green roofs include stormwater runoff control; reduction in urban heat-island effect; reduction in building energy consumption; and air pollution control. refs., tabs., figs.

  11. Do evidence summaries increase policy-makers' use of evidence from systematic reviews: A systematic review protocol.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Petkovic, Jennifer; Welch, Vivian; Tugwell, Peter

    2015-09-28

    Systematic reviews are important for decision-makers. They offer many potential benefits but are often written in technical language, are too long, and do not contain contextual details which makes them hard to use for decision-making. There are many organizations that develop and disseminate derivative products, such as evidence summaries, from systematic reviews for different populations or subsets of decision-makers. This systematic review will assess the effectiveness of systematic review summaries on increasing policymakers' use of systematic review evidence and to identify the components or features of these summaries that are most effective. We will include studies of policy-makers at all levels as well as health-system managers. We will include studies examining any type of "evidence summary," "policy brief," or other products derived from systematic reviews that present evidence in a summarized form. The primary outcomes are the following: (1) use of systematic review summaries decision-making (e.g., self-reported use of the evidence in policy-making, decision-making) and (2) policy-maker understanding, knowledge, and/or beliefs (e.g., changes in knowledge scores about the topic included in the summary). We will conduct a systematic review of randomized controlled trials (RCTs), non-randomized controlled trials (NRCTs), controlled before-after studies (CBA), and interrupted time series (ITS) studies. The results of this review will inform the development of future systematic review summaries to ensure that systematic review evidence is accessible to and used by policy-makers making health-related decisions.

  12. Joint research project to develop a training course or nuclear policy decision makers and planners in developing countries between KAERI and IAEA

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, E. J.; Suh, I. S.; Lee, H. Y. and others

    2000-12-01

    KAERI developed training course curricula on nuclear power policy and planning for decision makers and planners in developing countries under the assistance of the IAEA. It was utilized two IAEA staff members and a Korean consultation group were utilized for the development of curricula. Curriculum consists of training objectives, training contents in modular basis, detailed contents of each training module, training setting, training duration, session hours, and entry requirements of audience. One is workshop on nuclear energy policy for high-level decision makers in developing countries. The other is training course on nuclear power planning and project management for middle level managers in developing countries. The textbook in English will be printed by the end of February in 2001. Developed curricula will be implemented for Vietnam high level nuclear decision makers, middle level managers in developing countries and north Korea nuclear high level decision makers in 2001. These training courses' curricula and textbook will be utilized as basic technical documents to promote the national nuclear bilateral technical cooperation programs with Morocco, Egypt, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Ukraine, etc

  13. Joint research project to develop a training course or nuclear policy decision makers and planners in developing countries between KAERI and IAEA

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lee, E. J.; Suh, I. S.; Lee, H. Y. and others

    2000-12-01

    KAERI developed training course curricula on nuclear power policy and planning for decision makers and planners in developing countries under the assistance of the IAEA. It was utilized two IAEA staff members and a Korean consultation group were utilized for the development of curricula. Curriculum consists of training objectives, training contents in modular basis, detailed contents of each training module, training setting, training duration, session hours, and entry requirements of audience. One is workshop on nuclear energy policy for high-level decision makers in developing countries. The other is training course on nuclear power planning and project management for middle level managers in developing countries. The textbook in English will be printed by the end of February in 2001. Developed curricula will be implemented for Vietnam high level nuclear decision makers, middle level managers in developing countries and north Korea nuclear high level decision makers in 2001. These training courses' curricula and textbook will be utilized as basic technical documents to promote the national nuclear bilateral technical cooperation programs with Morocco, Egypt, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Ukraine, etc.

  14. Communicating Scientific Findings to Lawyers, Policy-Makers, and the Public (Invited)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thompson, W.; Velsko, S. P.

    2013-12-01

    This presentation will summarize the authors' collaborative research on inferential errors, bias and communication difficulties that have arisen in the area of WMD forensics. This research involves analysis of problems that have arisen in past national security investigations, interviews with scientists from various disciplines whose work has been used in WMD investigations, interviews with policy-makers, and psychological studies of lay understanding of forensic evidence. Implications of this research for scientists involved in nuclear explosion monitoring will be discussed. Among the issues covered will be: - Potential incompatibilities between the questions policy makers pose and the answers that experts can provide. - Common misunderstandings of scientific and statistical data. - Advantages and disadvantages of various methods for describing and characterizing the strength of scientific findings. - Problems that can arise from excessive hedging or, alternatively, insufficient qualification of scientific conclusions. - Problems that can arise from melding scientific and non-scientific evidence in forensic assessments.

  15. To bail out or not to bail out systemically relevant financial institutions: The incentives of policy makers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lucas Marc Fuhrer

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available The recent financial crisis has shown that many financial institutions may be systemically relevant. Their bankruptcy would cause significant costs for the overall economy. However, a clear definition of systemic risks still does not exist. Thus, the decision, whether an institution is, or is not systemically relevant is in the end made by policy makers. This paper takes a closer look at the incentives available to policy makers and their influence on the bailout decision. In the model presented here it is possible to show, that too many financial institutions get bailed out, when assuming that policy makers tend to be more risk-averse than socially optimal. The costs due to this misallocation of resources can be significant.

  16. Knowledge and Attitudes of a Number of Iranian Policy-makers towards Abortion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hourieh, Shamshiri-Milani; Abolghasem, Pourreza; Feizollah, Akbari

    2010-10-01

    Unsafe and illegal abortions are the third leading cause of maternal death. It affects physical, emotional and social health of women and their families. Abortion is a multi-dimensional phenomenon with several social, legal, and religious implications. The views of policy-makers affect the approach to abortion in every society. Understanding the attitudes and knowledge of high-ranking decision makers towards abortion was the purpose of this study. A qualitative research was implemented by carrying out individual interviews with 29 out of a selection of 80 presidents of medical sciences universities, senior executive managers in the legal system, forensic medicine and decision-makers in the health system and a number of top Muslim clerics, using a semi-structured questionnaire for data gathering. Content analysis revealed the results. There were considerable unwillingness and reluctance among the interviewees to participate in the study. The majority of participants fairly knew about the prevalence of illegal abortions and their complications. There was strong agreement on abortion when health of the mother or the fetus was at risk. Abortion for reproductive health reasons was supported by a minority of the respondents. The majority of them disagreed with abortion when pregnancy was the result of a rape, temporary marriage or out of wedlock affairs. Making decision for abortion by the pregnant mother, as a matter of her right, did not gain too much approval. It seemed that physical health of the mother or the fetus was of more importance to the respondents than their mental or social health. The mother's hardship was not any indication for induced abortion in the viewpoints of the interviewed policy-makers. Strengthening family planning programs, making appropriate laws in lines with religious orders and advocacy programs targeting decision makers are determined as strategies for improving women's health rights.

  17. High salt meals in staff canteens of salt policy makers: observational study

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Brewster, L.M.; Berentzen, C.A.; van Montfrans, G.A.

    2011-01-01

    To assess the salt content of hot meals served at the institutions of salt policy makers in the Netherlands. Observational study. 18 canteens at the Department of Health, the Health Council, the Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority, university hospitals, and affiliated non-university

  18. Understanding frailty: a qualitative study of European healthcare policy-makers' approaches to frailty screening and management.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gwyther, Holly; Shaw, Rachel; Jaime Dauden, Eva-Amparo; D'Avanzo, Barbara; Kurpas, Donata; Bujnowska-Fedak, Maria; Kujawa, Tomasz; Marcucci, Maura; Cano, Antonio; Holland, Carol

    2018-01-13

    To elicit European healthcare policy-makers' views, understanding and attitudes about the implementation of frailty screening and management strategies and responses to stakeholders' views. Thematic analysis of semistructured qualitative interviews. European healthcare policy departments. Seven European healthcare policy-makers representing the European Union (n=2), UK (n=2), Italy (n=1), Spain (n=1) and Poland (n=1). Participants were sourced through professional networks and the European Commission Authentication Service website and were required to be in an active healthcare policy or decision-making role. Seven themes were identified. Our findings reveal a 'knowledge gap', around frailty and awareness of the malleability of frailty, which has resulted in restricted ownership of frailty by specialists. Policy-makers emphasised the need to recognise frailty as a clinical syndrome but stressed that it should be managed via an integrated and interdisciplinary response to chronicity and ageing. That is, through social co-production. This would require a culture shift in care with redeployment of existing resources to deliver frailty management and intervention services. Policy-makers proposed barriers to a culture shift, indicating a need to be innovative with solutions to empower older adults to optimise their health and well-being, while still fully engaging in the social environment. The cultural acceptance of an integrated care system theme described the complexities of institutional change management, as well as cultural issues relating to working democratically, while in signposting adult care , the need for a personal navigator to help older adults to access appropriate services was proposed. Policy-makers also believed that screening for frailty could be an effective tool for frailty management. There is potential for frailty to be managed in a more integrated and person-centred manner, overcoming the challenges associated with niche ownership within the

  19. Health System Decision Makers' Feedback on Summaries and Tools Supporting the Use of Systematic Reviews: A Qualitative Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ellen, Moriah E.; Lavis, John N.; Wilson, Michael G.; Grimshaw, Jeremy; Haynes, R. Brian; Ouimet, Mathieu; Raina, Parminder; Gruen, Russell

    2014-01-01

    Health system managers and policy makers need timely access to high quality, policy-relevant systematic reviews. Our objectives were to obtain managers' and policy makers' feedback about user-friendly summaries of systematic reviews and about tools related to supporting or assessing their use. Our interviews identified that participants prefer key…

  20. Changing the hearts and minds of policy makers: an exploratory study associated with the West Virginia Walks campaign.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leyden, Kevin M; Reger-Nash, Bill; Bauman, Adrian; Bias, Tom

    2008-01-01

    To pilot test whether West Virginia Walks changed local policy makers' awareness of walking-related issues. A quasi-experimental design with preintervention and postintervention mail surveys. Morgantown, WV (intervention community), and Huntington, WV (comparison community). One hundred thirty-three and 134 public officials in Morgantown and 120 and 116 public officials in Huntington at baseline and at follow-up, respectively. An 8-week mass media social ecological campaign designed to encourage moderate-intensity walking among insufficiently active persons aged 40 to 65 years. Policy makers listed three problems they believed needed to be addressed in their community. They then rated the severity of several problems that many communities face using a Likert scale, with 1 representing "not a problem" and 5 representing "an extremely important problem." Independent sample t-tests were used to examine differences in mean responses at baseline and at follow-up. Statistically significant increases in the perceived importance of walking-related issues were observed among policy makers in Morgantown but not in the comparison community. Integrated communitywide health promotion campaigns designed to influence the public can also affect the perceptions of policy makers. Future research should examine this linkage and determine whether resource allocation and policy changes follow such interventions.

  1. A bi-objective model for optimizing replacement time of age and block policies with consideration of spare parts’ availability

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alsyouf, Imad

    2018-05-01

    Reliability and availability of critical systems play an important role in achieving the stated objectives of engineering assets. Preventive replacement time affects the reliability of the components, thus the number of system failures encountered and its downtime expenses. On the other hand, spare parts inventory level is a very critical factor that affects the availability of the system. Usually, the decision maker has many conflicting objectives that should be considered simultaneously for the selection of the optimal maintenance policy. The purpose of this research was to develop a bi-objective model that will be used to determine the preventive replacement time for three maintenance policies (age, block good as new, block bad as old) with consideration of spare parts’ availability. It was suggested to use a weighted comprehensive criterion method with two objectives, i.e. cost and availability. The model was tested with a typical numerical example. The results of the model demonstrated its effectiveness in enabling the decision maker to select the optimal maintenance policy under different scenarios and taking into account preferences with respect to contradicting objectives such as cost and availability.

  2. Balancing health and industrial policy objectives in the pharmaceutical sector: lessons from Australia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morgan, Steve; McMahon, Meghan; Greyson, Devon

    2008-08-01

    Policy-makers worldwide struggle to balance health with industrial policy objectives in the pharmaceutical sector. Tensions arise over pricing and reimbursement in particular. What health plans view as necessary to maintain equitable access to medicines, industry views as inimical to R&D and innovation. Australia has grappled with this issue for years, even incorporating the goal of "maintaining a responsible and viable medicines industry" into its National Medicines Policy. This case study was conducted via a narrative review that examined Australia's experiences balancing health and industrial policy objectives in the pharmaceutical sector. The review included electronic databases, grey literature and government publications for reports on relevant Australian policy published over the period 1985-2007. While pharmaceutical companies claim that Australia's pricing and reimbursement policies suppress drug prices and reduce profits, national policy audits indicate these claims are misguided. Australia appears to have secured relatively low prices for generics and "me-too drugs" while paying internationally competitive prices for "breakthrough" medicines. Simultaneously, Australia has focused efforts on local pharmaceutical investment through a variety of industry-targeted R&D incentive policies. Despite the fact that policy reviews suggest that Australia has achieved balance between health and industrial policy objectives, the country continues to face criticism from industry that its health goals harm innovation and R&D. Recent reforms raise the question whether Australia can sustain the apparent balance.

  3. Designing evaluation studies to optimally inform policy: what factors do policy-makers in China consider when making resource allocation decisions on healthcare worker training programmes?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Shishi; Legido-Quigley, Helena; Spencer, Julia; Coker, Richard James; Khan, Mishal Sameer

    2018-02-23

    In light of the gap in evidence to inform future resource allocation decisions about healthcare provider (HCP) training in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and the considerable donor investments being made towards training interventions, evaluation studies that are optimally designed to inform local policy-makers are needed. The aim of our study is to understand what features of HCP training evaluation studies are important for decision-making by policy-makers in LMICs. We investigate the extent to which evaluations based on the widely used Kirkpatrick model - focusing on direct outcomes of training, namely reaction of trainees, learning, behaviour change and improvements in programmatic health indicators - align with policy-makers' evidence needs for resource allocation decisions. We use China as a case study where resource allocation decisions about potential scale-up (using domestic funding) are being made about an externally funded pilot HCP training programme. Qualitative data were collected from high-level officials involved in resource allocation at the national and provincial level in China through ten face-to-face, in-depth interviews and two focus group discussions consisting of ten participants each. Data were analysed manually using an interpretive thematic analysis approach. Our study indicates that Chinese officials not only consider information about the direct outcomes of a training programme, as captured in the Kirkpatrick model, but also need information on the resources required to implement the training, the wider or indirect impacts of training, and the sustainability and scalability to other settings within the country. In addition to considering findings presented in evaluation studies, we found that Chinese policy-makers pay close attention to whether the evaluations were robust and to the composition of the evaluation team. Our qualitative study indicates that training programme evaluations that focus narrowly on direct training

  4. Engaging policy-makers, heath system managers, and policy analysts in the knowledge synthesis process: a scoping review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tricco, Andrea C; Zarin, Wasifa; Rios, Patricia; Nincic, Vera; Khan, Paul A; Ghassemi, Marco; Diaz, Sanober; Pham, Ba'; Straus, Sharon E; Langlois, Etienne V

    2018-02-12

    It is unclear how to engage a wide range of knowledge users in research. We aimed to map the evidence on engaging knowledge users with an emphasis on policy-makers, health system managers, and policy analysts in the knowledge synthesis process through a scoping review. We used the Joanna Briggs Institute guidance for scoping reviews. Nine electronic databases (e.g., MEDLINE), two grey literature sources (e.g., OpenSIGLE), and reference lists of relevant systematic reviews were searched from 1996 to August 2016. We included any type of study describing strategies, barriers and facilitators, or assessing the impact of engaging policy-makers, health system managers, and policy analysts in the knowledge synthesis process. Screening and data abstraction were conducted by two reviewers independently with a third reviewer resolving discrepancies. Frequency and thematic analyses were conducted. After screening 8395 titles and abstracts followed by 394 full-texts, 84 unique documents and 7 companion reports fulfilled our eligibility criteria. All 84 documents were published in the last 10 years, and half were prepared in North America. The most common type of knowledge synthesis with knowledge user engagement was a systematic review (36%). The knowledge synthesis most commonly addressed an issue at the level of national healthcare system (48%) and focused on health services delivery (17%) in high-income countries (86%). Policy-makers were the most common (64%) knowledge users, followed by healthcare professionals (49%) and government agencies as well as patients and caregivers (34%). Knowledge users were engaged in conceptualization and design (49%), literature search and data collection (52%), data synthesis and interpretation (71%), and knowledge dissemination and application (44%). Knowledge users were most commonly engaged as key informants through meetings and workshops as well as surveys, focus groups, and interviews either in-person or by telephone and emails

  5. A Framework for Using Qualitative Research To Inform Policy-Makers and Empower Practitioners: Lessons from Madagascar.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heneveld, Ward; Craig, Helen

    National education policy reforms often do not translate into changes at the classroom level. This paper presents a conceptual framework developed for Sub-Saharan Africa to assist policy-makers in bridging the gap between school practice and national policies. It also describes how the framework was applied to current school-improvement efforts in…

  6. Communicating Geosciences with Policy-makers: a Grand Challenge for Academia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harrison, W. J.; Walls, M. R.; Boland, M. A.

    2015-12-01

    Geoscientists interested in the broader societal impacts of their research can make a meaningful contribution to policy making in our changing world. Nevertheless, policy and public decision making are the least frequently cited Broader Impacts in proposals and funded projects within NSF's Geosciences Directorate. Academic institutions can play a lead role by introducing this societal dimension of our profession to beginning students, and by enabling interdisciplinary research and promoting communication pathways for experienced career geoscientists. Within the academic environment, the public interface of the geosciences can be presented through curriculum content and creative programs. These include undergraduate minors in economics or public policy designed for scientists and engineers, and internships with policy makers. Federal research institutions and other organizations provide valuable policy-relevant experiences for students. Academic institutions have the key freedom of mission to tackle interdisciplinary research challenges at the interface of geoscience and policy. They develop long-standing relationships with research partners, including national laboratories and state geological surveys, whose work may support policy development and analysis at local, state, regional, and national levels. CSM's Payne Institute for Earth Resources awards mini-grants for teams of researchers to develop collaborative research efforts between engineering/science and policy researchers. Current work in the areas of nuclear generation and the costs of climate policy and on policy alternatives for capturing fugitive methane emissions are examples of work at the interface between the geosciences and public policy. With academic engagement, geoscientists can steward their intellectual output when non-scientists translate geoscience information and concepts into action through public policies.

  7. What Policy Actors Seek for: Reciprocal Misunderstanding of Objectives of Participatory Decision Making

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Birutė PITRĖNAITĖ-ŽILĖNIENĖ

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available The goal of this research is to explore different policy actors’ attitudes towards participation in public decision making. The paper examines objectives of external participants’ involvement and compares various participants’ judgements on the process and results of participation. We screened operation of formal networks of participatory decision making at the Lithuanian Ministries of Health and Education & Science. The research revealed the willingness of decision makers to allow different stakeholders to contribute to the solution of problems of diverse character. The results of interviews manifested reciprocal miscommunication towards objectives and results of participatory decision making. Public administrators demonstrated their high willingness to acquire expertise, while external participants sought to present specific interests and got them implemented as well. However, it has to be admitted that decision makers are not committed to the results generated by stakeholders.

  8. Green buildings in Malaysia towards greener environment: challenges for policy makers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Suhaida, M. S.; Tan, K. L.; Leong, Y. P.

    2013-06-01

    The launch of the National Green Technology Policy (NGTP) in 2009 is a manifesto of the government's seriousness in implementing "green" initiatives for the country. Specifically for buildings, the government promotes the application of renewable energy (RE) and energy efficiency (EE) and the application of green building index. With the introduction of Low Carbon Cities Framework, Green Pass, Green Neighbourhood, Green Building Index by various agencies and organisations in Malaysia, it is time to look back and see how all these tools could come together. This paper attempts to identify the challenges in harmonising the green initiatives for policy makers toward greener environment for sustainability.

  9. The value of vaccination: results of an Italian survey among Medical Doctors, Policy Makers and General Population

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chiara Cadeddu

    2012-03-01

    Full Text Available

    Abstract:

    Background: In the Italian context, evolving toward the abandonment of compulsory vaccination, the
    maintenance of adequate levels of coverage appears as essential. The promotion of a good vaccination
    knowledge, supported by strong scientific evidence, and the collaboration of all the involved stakeholders,
    appears hence fundamental. The aim of this survey was to understand why vaccination is not appreciated
    for its real value by different stakeholders.
    Methods: In collaboration with other Italian Universities and Health Districts, in Summer 2011 we submitted
    a survey of 17 questions to a convenience sample of Italian Medical Doctors, Policy Makers and General
    Population. The main questions analyzed the importance of vaccination for health, actions to attain vaccination
    value and consequences of a free choice policy.
    Results: Of the 173 stakeholders interviewed, 78% of Medical Doctors, 82% Policy Makers and 46%
    General Population believe that vaccination is important for health. The most important actions suggested
    for strengthening vaccination were information about its efficacy and safety and studies on its impact on
    Public Health, according to most of General Population and of Medical Doctors and Policy Makers, respectively.
    According to 60.4% Medical Doctors, 72.8% Policy Makers and 56.3% General Population the abolition
    of compulsory vaccination would lead to a reduction of vaccinees in all the Italian regions.
    Conclusions: Our study confirms the need for a thorough “education in vaccination”. Among stakeholders
    there are still doubts that hinder the decision process about vaccination policies and programmes. On
    the other hand, a call for an “Alliance” for promoting and implementing vaccination to its full potential
    would be favoured, as

  10. Sustainability of Long-term Care: Puzzling Tasks Ahead for Policy-Makers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ilaria Mosca

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available Background The sustainability of long-term care (LTC is a prominent policy priority in many Western countries. LTC is one of the most pressing fiscal issues for the growing population of elderly people in the European Union (EU Member States. Country recommendations regarding LTC are prominent under the EU’s European Semester. Methods This paper examines challenges related to the financial- and organizational sustainability of LTC systems in the EU. We combined a targeted literature review and a descriptive selected country analysis of: (1 public- and private funding; (2 informal care and externalities; and (3 the possible role of technology in increasing productivity. Countries were selected via purposive sampling to establish a cohort of country cases covering the spectrum of differences in LTC systems: public spending, private funding, informal care use, informal care support, and cash benefits. Results The aging of the population, the increasing gap between availability of informal care and demand for LTC, substantial market failures of private funding for LTC, and fiscal imbalances in some countries, have led to structural reforms and enduring pressures for LTC policy-makers across the EU. Our exploration of national policies illustrates different solutions that attempt to promote fairness while stimulating efficient delivery of services. Important steps must be taken to address the sustainability of LTC. First, countries should look deeper into the possibilities of complementing public- and private funding, as well as at addressing market failures of private funding. Second, informal care externalities with spill-over into neighboring policy areas, the labor force, and formal LTC workers, should be properly addressed. Thirdly, innovations in LTC services should be stimulated to increase productivity through technology and process innovations, and to reduce costs. Conclusion The analysis shows why it is difficult for EU Member State

  11. What Policy Actors Seek for: Reciprocal Misunderstanding of Objectives of Participatory Decision Making

    OpenAIRE

    Birutė PITRĖNAITĖ-ŽILĖNIENĖ; Birutė MIKULSKIENĖ

    2013-01-01

    The goal of this research is to explore different policy actors’ attitudes towards participation in public decision making. The paper examines objectives of external participants’ involvement and compares various participants’ judgements on the process and results of participation. We screened operation of formal networks of participatory decision making at the Lithuanian Ministries of Health and Education & Science. The research revealed the willingness of decision makers to allow different ...

  12. Towards a green economy in Europe. EU environmental policy targets and objectives 2010-2050

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2013-07-15

    The 'green economy' has emerged as a priority in policy debate in recent years. But what does the concept mean in practice and how can decision-makers measure progress towards this strategic goal? This report provides some answers, presenting a detailed overview of the key objectives and targets in EU environmental policy and legislation for the period 2010-2050. It focuses on selected environmental and resource policy areas, specifically: energy; greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and ozone-depleting substances; air quality and air pollution; transport sector emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollutants; waste; water; sustainable consumption and production (SCP); chemicals; biodiversity and land use. (Author)

  13. How do the public and policy makers communicate their perceptions of environmental risk to academics?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Holden, Jennifer

    2010-05-01

    This paper investigates the ways that the public and policy makers talk about environmental risk to academics. The case study is heavy-metal contamination of food in Zambia, Southern Africa. In several localities in Zambia, urban agriculture is practised using heavy-metal contamination wastewater for irrigation. This leads to contaminated food crops that are subsequently consumed. One case study site where this occurs is Chunga, situated in the northwest of the Zambian capital: Lusaka. For members of the public, six focus groups were carried out at the Chunga, Zambia study site, involving a total of 48 participants. The participants were those involved in urban agriculture through cultivation, selling and consumption of food crops. Urban agriculturalist focus group participants were recruited through key field informants. Focus group discussion starter questions involved pollution awareness, health impacts of pollution in the area and who is responsible for communicating environmental contamination risks to the general population. For policy stakeholders, 39 semi-structured interviews were conducted with individuals from various organisations including government ministries, non-governmental organisations, community based organisations and international institutions. Semi-structured interviews investigated the perceived major health issues in Zambia, food safety, environmental contamination and specifically heavy-metal contamination. Policy stakeholders were identified through policy mapping and organisations mentioned in focus group discussions and other interviews. The results at the Chunga study site show that members of the public perceive: (i) heavy metal pollution is not an issue in Lusaka and for their irrigation practices, (ii) dirty food can cause illness, (iii) heavy metals in foods can cause illness but they are not present at the Chunga site. Amongst urban agriculturalists the quantity of food available is the greatest issue, with some saying that they

  14. Sustainability of Long-term Care: Puzzling Tasks Ahead for Policy-Makers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mosca, Ilaria; van der Wees, Philip J; Mot, Esther S; Wammes, Joost J G; Jeurissen, Patrick P T

    2016-08-17

    The sustainability of long-term care (LTC) is a prominent policy priority in many Western countries. LTC is one of the most pressing fiscal issues for the growing population of elderly people in the European Union (EU) Member States. Country recommendations regarding LTC are prominent under the EU's European Semester. This paper examines challenges related to the financial- and organizational sustainability of LTC systems in the EU. We combined a targeted literature review and a descriptive selected country analysis of: (1) public- and private funding; (2) informal care and externalities; and (3) the possible role of technology in increasing productivity. Countries were selected via purposive sampling to establish a cohort of country cases covering the spectrum of differences in LTC systems: public spending, private funding, informal care use, informal care support, and cash benefits. The aging of the population, the increasing gap between availability of informal care and demand for LTC, substantial market failures of private funding for LTC, and fiscal imbalances in some countries, have led to structural reforms and enduring pressures for LTC policy-makers across the EU. Our exploration of national policies illustrates different solutions that attempt to promote fairness while stimulating efficient delivery of services. Important steps must be taken to address the sustainability of LTC. First, countries should look deeper into the possibilities of complementing public- and private funding, as well as at addressing market failures of private funding. Second, informal care externalities with spill-over into neighboring policy areas, the labor force, and formal LTC workers, should be properly addressed. Thirdly, innovations in LTC services should be stimulated to increase productivity through technology and process innovations, and to reduce costs. The analysis shows why it is difficult for EU Member State governments to meet all their goals for sustainable LTC

  15. Women as decision and policy makers. Asia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    1995-09-01

    The focus of this news brief is on the Community-based Sustainable Family Planning/Maternal and Child Health (FP/MCH) Project promoted in Bangladesh, Laos, Nepal, and the Philippines. The project emphasizes women's involvement as policy makers and evaluators. The aim is to involve women at all project levels as part of an effort to correct gender imbalances. Programs are being directed toward sustainability. Women are placed in positions at each level of the tiered system of steering committees, which range from local village committees to central committees. Men may still retain the top positions, but women are given decision making power at the highest levels of policy and program development and implementation. The Asia region is challenged by quality of care issues related to reproductive health services. Program expansion is proceeding into rural areas with outreach services and fee charging. Projects are community-based, which means mobilization of community people. The community approach is suitable to an Asian culture that does not adhere to strict rules of privacy. Women's groups are eager to discuss sensitive issues such as contraception and to offer personal experiences and solutions to problems. Mass meetings and individual counseling sessions are available. IEC materials are available to the Asian FP/MCH program from JOICFP. Some of these materials promote the concept of the Asian community spirit as a building block of development. The Asian approach is an alternative to Western models and may be valid for other regions.

  16. European electricity markets - policy deficiencies, design deficiencies, and opportunities for policy-makers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bettzuge, Marc Oliver

    2013-11-01

    Paraphrasing a well-known dictum, one can say that 'design follows policies'. Therefore, before discussing questions of market design, one has to clarify the policies which the desired market design is supposed to implement. Hence, this paper starts by briefly reviewing the status of current policies for the electricity sector. Specifically, it will discuss political objectives, the choice of the basic regulatory paradigm, and the issue of subsidiarity between the EU and the member states

  17. Bridging the gap between science and policy: an international survey of scientists and policy makers in China and Canada.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Choi, Bernard C K; Li, Liping; Lu, Yaogui; Zhang, Li R; Zhu, Yao; Pak, Anita W P; Chen, Yue; Little, Julian

    2016-02-06

    Bridging the gap between science and policy is an important task in evidence-informed policy making. The objective of this study is to prioritize ways to bridge the gap. The study was based on an online survey of high-ranking scientists and policy makers who have a senior position in universities and governments in the health sector in China and Canada. The sampling frame comprised of universities with schools of public health and medicine and various levels of government in health and public health. Participants included university presidents and professors, and government deputy ministers, directors general and directors working in the health field. Fourteen strategies were presented to the participants for ranking as current ways and ideal ways in the future to bridge the gap between science and policy. Over a 3-month survey period, there were 121 participants in China and 86 in Canada with response rates of 30.0 and 15.9 %, respectively. The top strategies selected by respondents included focus on policy (conducting research that focuses on policy questions), science-policy forums, and policy briefs, both as current ways and ideal ways to bridge the gap between science and policy. Conferences were considered a priority strategy as a current way, but not an ideal way in the future. Canadian participants were more in favor of using information technology (web-based portals and email updates) than their Chinese counterparts. Among Canadian participants, two strategies that were ranked low as current ways (collaboration in study design and collaboration in analysis) became a priority as ideal ways. This could signal a change in thinking in shifting the focus from the "back end" or "downstream" (knowledge dissemination) of the knowledge transfer process to the "front end" or "upstream" (knowledge generation). Our international study has confirmed a number of previously reported priority strategies to bridge the gap between science and policy. More importantly, our

  18. Assessment of policy makers' individual and organizational capacity to acquire, assess, adapt and apply research evidence for maternal and child health policy making in Nigeria: a cross-sectional quantitative survey.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Uneke, Chigozie Jesse; Sombie, Issiaka; Keita, Namoudou; Lokossou, Virgil; Johnson, Ermel; Ongolo-Zogo, Pierre; Uro-Chukwu, Henry Chukwuemeka

    2017-09-01

    Throughout the world, there is increasing awareness and acknowledgement of the value of research evidence in the development of effective health policy and in quality health care practice and administration. Among the major challenges associated with the lack of uptake of research evidence into policy and practice in Nigeria is the capacity constraints of policymakers to use research evidence in policy making. To assess the capacity of maternal and child health policy makers to acquire, access, adapt and apply available research evidence. This cross-sectional quantitative survey was conducted at a national maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) stakeholders' engagement event. An evidence to policy self-assessment questionnaire was used to assess the capacity of forty MNCH policy makers to acquire, assess, adapt and apply research evidence for policy making. Low mean ratings were observed ranging from 2.68-3.53 on a scale of 5 for knowledge about initiating/conducting research and capacity to assess authenticity, validity, reliability, relevance and applicability of research evidence and for organizational capacity for promoting and using of research for policy making. There is need to institute policy makers' capacity development programmes to improve evidence-informed policymaking.

  19. Moving towards tangible decision-making tools for policy makers: Measuring and monitoring energy access provision

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bhanot, Jaya; Jha, Vivek

    2012-01-01

    Access to energy services has been recognised as central to achieving economic growth and sustainable development. However, almost 1.3 billion people in the world still lack access to electricity and 2.7 billion lack access to clean cooking facilities. In this backdrop, the issue of energy access is receiving more interest than ever before and this has brought to the fore, the need for a robust decision support tool for policy makers to measure the progress of energy access provision and also to provide direction for future policy making. The paper studies existing definitions of energy access and identifies the key requirements for an appropriate decision-making tool to measure and monitor energy access provision. In this context the paper assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the metrics currently being used to measure energy access in policy, as well as of contemporary monitoring and evaluation frameworks being used in other sectors. Based on these insights, a dashboard of indicators is proposed as an alternate decision support tool for policy makers to measure energy access. The paper concludes with a discussion on what is needed to operationalise this proposed framework. - Highlights: ► No one indicator or metric can successfully capture progress on energy access. ► A service oriented approach is necessary to measure energy access. ► Socio-economic and political contexts influence success of energy access policies.

  20. "We noticed that suddenly the country has become full of MRI". Policy makers' views on diffusion and use of health technologies in Iran

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tishelman Carol

    2010-04-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Objective Uncontrolled proliferation of health technologies (HT is one contributor to the increasing pressure on health systems to adopt new technologies. With limited resources, policy-makers encounter difficulties in fulfilling their responsibility to meet the healthcare needs of the population. The aim of this study is to explore how policy-makers' reason about the diffusion and utilization of health technologies in Iran using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI and interferon beta as tracers. Method This qualitative exploration complements quantitative data generated in a research project investigating the diffusion and utilization of MRI and interferon beta in Iran. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 informants in different positions and levels of authority in the Ministry of Health (MOH, University of Medical Sciences, Health Insurance Organizations, and Parliament. The data was analysed using the framework approach. Findings Although policy-makers appeared to be positive to health technology assessment (HTA, the processes of policy-making described by the interviewees did not seem to be based on a full understanding of this (discipline. Several obstacles to applying knowledge about HT and HTA were described. The current official plan for MRI adoption and diffusion in the country was said not to be followed, and no such plan was described for interferon beta. Instead, market forces such as advertising, and physician and consumer demand, appear to have strong influence on HT diffusion and use. Dual practice may have increased the induced demand and also reduced the supervision of the private sector by the MOH. Conclusion Management instability and lack of coordination in the MOH were found to be important obstacles to accumulation of knowledge and experience which, in turn, could have led to suboptimal managerial and policy-making processes. Furthermore marketing should be controlled in order to avoid

  1. Solar Photovoltaic Energy Policy in Europe: Losing Sight of What is Right. Current Developments and Lessons Learned for Policy-makers and Industry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cherrelle, Eid

    2012-01-01

    interesting to examine China and the United States in regard to PV manufacturing and installation capacity. China may be characterized by its high and early PV production, exporting almost 90% of its output. What will this and other developments mean for European PV industry and job creation? At present, the deployment of PV is under much discussion in many countries, within and outside of Europe. Changes in Feed-in-Tariffs (FIT) are following each other closely and motivations behind deployment are presently frequently discussed in the political sphere. Still, there are important points to consider. What are the costs of PV? How are the costs expected to decrease and how effective are current policies concerning PV penetration? Are these policies also effective in eventually reaching the CO 2 reduction targets? PV technologies are still developing and it is important to not be moved by assumptions on efficiencies or effectiveness of the technology. The aim of this report is to provide recommendations for the debate concerning PV deployment in Europe and to provide suggestions for both policy-makers and industry in- and outside of Europe. This is done by analyzing the main developments related to PV worldwide. The report will furthermore present technical developments of PV and will present a comparison in the international context with US and Asia. In Section 2, the position of PV policy is given within the EU renewable projections for 2020. Before continuing with the support policies for PV in Section 4, the main developments in PV technologies with definitions are provided in Section 3. Afterwards, case studies of the five major European countries with the largest European installed capacities in PV are presented with their efforts and policies associated to PV in Section 5. In Section 6, an evaluation of the European Policy is presented, after which a brief review of the US and China and their PV industries is given with their policy incentives to increase PV installation

  2. Energizing Government Decision-Makers with the Facts on Solar Technology, Policy, and Integration

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    2017-01-01

    The Solar Technical Assistance Team (STAT) is a network of solar technology and implementation experts who provide timely, unbiased expertise to assist policymakers and regulators in making informed decisions about solar programs and policies. Government officials can submit requests directly to the STAT for technical assistance. STAT then partners with experts in solar policy, regulation, finance, technology, and other areas to deliver accurate, up-to-date information to state and local decision makers. The STAT responds to requests on a wide range of issues -- including, but not limited to, feed-in tariffs, renewable portfolio standards, rate design, program design, workforce and economic impacts of solar on jurisdictions, and project financing.

  3. Marginal Propensity to Consume in Hungary: The long-term versus Short-term Challenges to Policy Makers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Keith Write

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available This study uses Hungarian quarterly data from the International Monetary Fund to estimate a distributed lag model whose coefficients allow derivation of the short-run and long-run marginal propensities to consume.  MPCs are main factors determining the consumption, investment, government spending, and export and import multipliers of the economy.  Hungary's economy has stagnated and its policy makers are exploring new ways to manage its economy.  Our model reveals that the numerical value of Hungarian short-run marginal propensity to consume (MPC is 0.4081181655 and the long-run MPC is 0.9458619.  These results are consistent with the corresponding figures in emerging and advanced economies.  These derived MPCs suggest that Hungarian economic policy makers should use fiscal instruments to bring these macroeconomic variables back to their long-term trend effectively

  4. Open Education and OER - A guide and call to action for policy makers

    OpenAIRE

    Deepwell, Maren; Weller, Martin; Campbell, Lorna; Wilson, Joe

    2017-01-01

    Executive Summary ALT has produced this call to action to highlight to education policy makers and professionals how Open Education and OER can expand inclusive and equitable access to education and lifelong learning, widen participation, and create new opportunities for the next generation of teachers and learners, preparing them to become fully engaged digital citizens. Open Education can also promote knowledge transfer while enhancing quality and sustainability, supporting social inclu...

  5. Examining the policy climate for HIV prevention in the Caribbean tourism sector: a qualitative study of policy makers in the Dominican Republic.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Padilla, Mark B; Reyes, Armando Matiz; Connolly, Maureen; Natsui, Shaw; Puello, Adrian; Chapman, Helena

    2012-05-01

    The Caribbean has the highest prevalence rates of HIV/AIDS outside sub-Saharan Africa, and a broad literature suggests an ecological association between tourism areas and sexual vulnerability. Tourism employees have been shown to engage in high rates of sexual risk behaviours. Nevertheless, no large-scale or sustained HIV prevention interventions have been conducted within the tourism industry. Policy barriers and resources are under-studied. In order to identify the policy barriers and resources for HIV prevention in the tourism sector, our research used a participatory approach involving a multisectoral coalition of representatives from the tourism industry, government, public health and civil society in the Dominican Republic. We conducted 39 in-depth semi-structured interviews with policy makers throughout the country focusing on: prior experiences with HIV prevention policies and programmes in the tourism sector; barriers and resources for such policies and programmes; and future priorities and recommendations. Findings suggest perceptions among policy makers of barriers related to the mobile nature of tourism employees; the lack of centralized funding; fear of the 'image problem' associated with HIV; and the lack of multisectoral policy dialogue and collaboration. Nevertheless, prior short-term experiences and changing attitudes among some private sector tourism representatives suggest emerging opportunities for policy change. We argue that the time is ripe for dialogue across the public-private divide in order to develop regulatory mechanisms, joint responsibilities and centralized funding sources to ensure a sustainable response to the HIV-tourism linkage. Policy priorities should focus on incorporating HIV prevention as a component of occupational health; reinforcing workers' health care rights as guaranteed by existing law; using private sector tourism representatives who support HIV prevention as positive role models for national campaigns; and

  6. Handbook - TRACE-ing human trafficking : Handbook for policy makers, law enforcement agencies and civil society organisations

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Rijken, Conny; Pijnenburg, Annick

    2016-01-01

    Human trafficking is one of the largest criminal enterprises in the world. It is a multi-billiondollar crime of global scale. This is because human trafficking as a criminal enterprise continues to evolve as a high profit-low risk business for perpetrators and challenges policy makers, law

  7. Building the capacity of policy-makers and planners to strengthen mental health systems in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Roxanne Keynejad

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Little is known about the interventions required to build the capacity of mental health policy-makers and planners in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs. We conducted a systematic review with the primary aim of identifying and synthesizing the evidence base for building the capacity of policy-makers and planners to strengthen mental health systems in LMICs. Methods We searched MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, Web of Knowledge, Web of Science, Scopus, CINAHL, LILACS, ScieELO, Google Scholar and Cochrane databases for studies reporting evidence, experience or evaluation of capacity-building of policy-makers, service planners or managers in mental health system strengthening in LMICs. Reports in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French or German were included. Additional papers were identified by hand-searching references and contacting experts and key informants. Database searches yielded 2922 abstracts and 28 additional papers were identified. Following screening, 409 full papers were reviewed, of which 14 fulfilled inclusion criteria for the review. Data were extracted from all included papers and synthesized into a narrative review. Results Only a small number of mental health system-related capacity-building interventions for policy-makers and planners in LMICs were described. Most models of capacity-building combined brief training with longer term mentorship, dialogue and/or the establishment of networks of support. However, rigorous research and evaluation methods were largely absent, with studies being of low quality, limiting the potential to separate mental health system strengthening outcomes from the effects of associated contextual factors. Conclusions This review demonstrates the need for partnership approaches to building the capacity of mental health policy-makers and planners in LMICs, assessed rigorously against pre-specified conceptual frameworks and hypotheses, utilising longitudinal evaluation and mixed

  8. The Solutions Project: Educating the Public and Policy Makers About Solutions to Global Warming, Air Pollution, and Energy Security

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jacobson, M. Z.

    2015-12-01

    Three major global problems of our times are global warming, air pollution mortality and morbidity, and energy insecurity. Whereas, policy makers with the support of the public must implement solutions to these problems, it is scientists and engineers who are best equipped to evaluate technically sound, optimal, and efficient solutions. Yet, a disconnect exists between information provided by scientists and engineers and policies implemented. Part of the reason is that scientific information provided to policy makers and the public is swamped out by information provided by lobbyists and another part is the difficulty in providing information to the hundreds of millions of people who need it rather than to just a few thousand. What other ways are available, aside from issuing press releases on scientific papers, for scientists to disseminate information? Three growing methods are through social media, creative media, and storytelling. The Solutions Project is a non-profit non-governmental organization whose goal is to bring forth scientific information about 100% clean, renewable energy plans to the public, businesses, and policy makers using these and related tools. Through the use of social media, the development of engaging internet and video content, and storytelling, the group hopes to increase the dissemination of information for social good. This talk discusses the history and impacts to date of this group and its methods. Please see www.thesolutionsproject.org and 100.org for more information.

  9. Children's Participation in Decision-Making in the Philippines: Understanding the Attitudes of Policy-Makers and Service Providers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bessell, Sharon

    2009-01-01

    This article explores the ideas about children's participation in decision-making held by government officials and non-government representatives engaged in promoting children's participation in the Philippines. It suggests that the ideas that policy-makers and service deliverers hold about children's participation are heterogeneous, diverse and…

  10. A policy-based multi-objective optimisation framework for residential distributed energy system design★

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wouters Carmen

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Distributed energy systems (DES are increasingly being introduced as solutions to alleviate conventional energy system challenges related to energy security, climate change and increasing demands. From a technological and economic perspective, distributed energy resources are already becoming viable. The question still remains as to how these technologies and practices can be “best” selected, sized and integrated within consumer areas. To aid decision-makers and enable widespread DES adoption, a strategic superstructure design framework is therefore still required that ensures balancing of multiple stakeholder interests and fits in with liberalised energy system objectives of competition, security of supply and sustainability. Such a design framework is presented in this work. An optimisation-based approach for the design of neighbourhood-based DES is developed that enables meeting their yearly electricity, heating and cooling needs by appropriately selecting, sizing and locating technologies and energy interactions. A pool of poly-generation and storage technologies is hereto considered combined with local energy sharing between participating prosumers through thermal pipeline design and microgrid operation, and, a bi-directional connection with the central distribution grid. A superstructure mixed-integer linear programming approach (MILP is proposed to trade off three minimisation objectives in the design process: total annualised cost, annual CO2 emissions and electrical system unavailability, aligned with the three central energy system objectives. The developed model is applied on a small South Australian neighbourhood. The approach enables identifying “knee-point” neighbourhood energy system designs through Pareto trade-offs between objectives and serves to inform decision-makers about the impact of policy objectives on DES development strategies.

  11. Perceptions of Oncologists, Healthcare Policy Makers, Patients and the General Population on the Value of Pharmaceutical Treatments in Oncology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sacristán, José A; Lizan, Luís; Comellas, Marta; Garrido, Pilar; Avendaño, Cristina; Cruz-Hernández, Juan J; Espinosa, Javier; Dilla, Tatiana

    2016-11-01

    The purpose of this study was to explore the main factors explaining the relative weight of the different attributes that determine the value of oncologic treatments from the different perspectives of healthcare policy makers (HCPM), oncologists, patients and the general population in Spain. Structured interviews were conducted to assess: (1) the importance of the attributes on treatment choice when comparing a new cancer drug with a standard cancer treatment; (2) the importance of survival, quality of life (QoL), costs and innovation in cancer; and (3) the most worrying side effects related to cancer drugs. A total of 188 individuals participated in the study. For all participants, when choosing treatments, the best rated characteristics were greater efficacy, greater safety, treatment adaptation to patients' individual requirements and the rapid reincorporation of patients to their daily activities. There were important differences among participants in their opinion about survival, QoL and cost. In general, oncologists, patients, and the general population gave greater value to gains in QoL than healthcare policy makers. Compared to other participants healthcare policy makers gave greater importance to the economic impact related to oncology treatments. Gains in QoL, survival, safety, cost and innovation are perceived differently by different groups of stakeholders. It is recommended to consider the perspective of different stakeholders in the assessment of a new cancer drugs to obtain more informed decisions when deciding on the most appropriate treatment to use. Eli Lilly & Co, Madrid (Spain).

  12. Characteristics and use of urban health indicator tools by municipal built environment policy and decision-makers: a systematic review protocol.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pineo, Helen; Glonti, Ketevan; Rutter, Harry; Zimmermann, Nicole; Wilkinson, Paul; Davies, Michael

    2017-01-13

    There is wide agreement that there is a lack of attention to health in municipal environmental policy-making, such as urban planning and regeneration. Explanations for this include differing professional norms between health and urban environment professionals, system complexity and limited evidence for causality between attributes of the built environment and health outcomes. Data from urban health indicator (UHI) tools are potentially a valuable form of evidence for local government policy and decision-makers. Although many UHI tools have been specifically developed to inform policy, there is poor understanding of how they are used. This study aims to identify the nature and characteristics of UHI tools and their use by municipal built environment policy and decision-makers. Health and social sciences databases (ASSIA, Campbell Library, EMBASE, MEDLINE, Scopus, Social Policy and Practice and Web of Science Core Collection) will be searched for studies using UHI tools alongside hand-searching of key journals and citation searches of included studies. Advanced searches of practitioner websites and Google will also be used to find grey literature. Search results will be screened for UHI tools, and for studies which report on or evaluate the use of such tools. Data about UHI tools will be extracted to compile a census and taxonomy of existing tools based on their specific characteristics and purpose. In addition, qualitative and quantitative studies about the use of these tools will be appraised using quality appraisal tools produced by the UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and synthesised in order to gain insight into the perceptions, value and use of UHI tools in the municipal built environment policy and decision-making process. This review is not registered with PROSPERO. This systematic review focuses specifically on UHI tools that assess the physical environment's impact on health (such as transport, housing, air quality and greenspace

  13. An integrated assessment of climate change impacts for Athens- relevance to stakeholders and policy makers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Giannakopoulos, C.; Hatzaki, M.; Kostopoulou, E.; Varotsos, K.

    2010-09-01

    Analysing climate change and its impact needs a production of relevant elements for policy making that can be very different from the parameters considered by climate experts. In the framework of EU project CIRCE, a more realistic approach to match stakeholders and policy-makers demands is attempted. For this reason, within CIRCE selected case studies have been chosen that will provide assessments that can be integrated in practical decision making. In this work, an integrated assessment of climate change impacts on several sectors for the urban site of Athens in Greece is presented. The Athens urban case study has been chosen since it provides excellent opportunities for using an integrated approach across multiple temporal and spatial scales and sectors. In the spatial dimension, work extends from the inner city boundaries to the surrounding mountains and forests. In the temporal dimension, research ranges from the current observed time period (using available meteorological and sector data) to future time periods using data from several climate change projections. In addition, a multi-sector approach to climate change impacts is adopted. Impacts sectors covered range from direct climate impacts on natural ecosystems (such as flash floods, air pollution and forest fire risk) to indirect impacts resulting from combined climate-social-economic linkages (such as energy demand, tourism and health). Discussion of impact sector risks and adaptation measures are also exploited. Case-study work on impact sector risk to climate change is of particular interest to relevant policy makers and stakeholders, communication with who is ensured through a series of briefing notes and information sheets and through regional workshops.

  14. Budget-makers and health care systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    White, Joseph

    2013-10-01

    Health programs are shaped by the decisions made in budget processes, so how budget-makers view health programs is an important part of making health policy. Budgeting in any country involves its own policy community, with key players including budgeting professionals and political authorities. This article reviews the typical pressures on and attitudes of these actors when they address health policy choices. The worldview of budget professionals includes attitudes that are congenial to particular policy perspectives, such as the desire to select packages of programs that maximize population health. The pressures on political authorities, however, are very different: most importantly, public demand for health care services is stronger than for virtually any other government activity. The norms and procedures of budgeting also tend to discourage adoption of some of the more enthusiastically promoted health policy reforms. Therefore talk about rationalizing systems is not matched by action; and action is better explained by the need to minimize blame. The budget-maker's perspective provides insight about key controversies in healthcare policy such as decentralization, competition, health service systems as opposed to health insurance systems, and dedicated vs. general revenue finance. It also explains the frequency of various "gaming" behaviors. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. Timely injection of knowledge when interacting with stakeholders and policy makers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bouma, Johan

    2015-04-01

    Timely injection of knowledge when interacting with stakeholders and policy makers. J.Bouma Em. Prof. Soil Science, Wageningen University, the Netherlands During the last decade, the spectacular development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has strongly increased the accessible amount of data and information for stakeholders and policy makers and the science community is struggling to adjust to these developments. In the Netherlands not only industry has now a major impact on the research agenda but this is now to be extended to citizens at large. Rather than complain about an apparent "gap" between science and society and wrestle with the challenge to bridge it in a rather reactive manner, the science community would be well advised to initiate a proactive approach, showing that knowledge implies a deep understanding of issues and processes that does not necessarily follow from having data and information. The "gap" certainly applies to soil research in the context of sustainable development where many often well informed stakeholders are involved with widely different opinions, norms and values. Changes are suggested in the manner in which we frame our work: (i) longer involvement with projects from initiation to implementation in practice; (ii) active role of "knowledge brokers" who inject the right type of knowledge during the entire project run in a joint-learning mode, and (iii) not proposing new research from a science perspective but demonstrating a clear need because existing knowledge is inadequate. Yet more conceptual discussions about e.g. inter- and transdisciplinarity, worrysome soil degradation and lack of professional recognition are less meaningful than specific case studies demonstrating the crucial role of soil science when analysing land-based environmental problems. New narratives are needed instead of statistics, openness to learn from best practices and pilot projects as a necessary next step beyond awareness raising. Soil

  16. 'A preferred consultant and partner to the Royal Government, NGOs, and the community': British American Tobacco's access to policy-makers in Cambodia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    MacKenzie, Ross; Collin, Jeff

    2017-04-01

    British American Tobacco Cambodia (BATC) has dominated the country's tobacco market since its launch in 1996. Aggressive marketing in a weak regulatory environment and strategies to influence tobacco control policy have contributed to an emerging tobacco-related public health crisis. Analysis of internal tobacco industry documents, issues of BATC's in-house newsletter, civil society reports and media demonstrate that BATC officials have successfully sought to align the company with Cambodia's increasingly controversial political and business leadership that is centred around the Cambodian People's Party with the aim of gaining access to policy-makers and influencing the policy process. Connections to the political elite have resulted in official recognition of the company's ostensible contribution to Cambodia's economic and social development and, more significantly, provided BATC with opportunities to petition policy-makers and to dilute tobacco control regulation. Corporate promotion of its contribution to Cambodia's economic and social development is at odds with its determined efforts to thwart public health regulation and Cambodia's compliance with the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

  17. Water bodies typology system: a Chilean case of scientific stakeholders and policy makers dialogue

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rodrigo Fuster

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this project was to obtain a scientists-validated Typology System, which would allow to classify the surface waters bodies in Chile and, therefore, to facilitate the environmental institutional water management in the country. For this, during the years 2009 and 2011, a Typology System for the surface freshwater bodies was developed for Chile based on the methodology described by the Water Framework Directive of the European Union, which was adapted to local features through the knowledge of limnologist experts in the country, as well as policy makers' experience and their management requirements . In a first stage, national ecoregions were developed and abiotic variables were defined to compose the Typology System. The resulted Typology System for lakes and rivers was generated following an a priori and top down approach to difference biocenosis, based on geomorphologic, hydrologic and physic criteria. In a second stage, the proposed Typology System was validated by experts and policy makers, in which process new arrangements were included in the system. The working methodology used for both stages was bibliographic review, interviews to local experts in biocenosis and workshops. It is specially highlighted the participative processes and discussions in which all the agents involved were present, all of which resulted in the creation of a valid system from a scientific point of view and a product that is applicable to the necessities of the environmental institutions of the country. This work represents a successful experience in the improvement of the communication between scientists and politicians in Chile, which is a relevant factor for the elaboration of more efficient and effective environmental policies, integrating not only management and economic issues, but also more technical aspects that can influence in the final success of any long term strategy. For this reason, the replication of this kind of experiences, as well as

  18. Radioactive waste management policy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Morrison, R.W.

    1983-06-01

    The speaker discusses the development of government policy regarding radioactive waste disposal in Canada, indicates overall policy objectives, and surveys the actual situation with respect to radioactive wastes in Canada. He also looks at the public perceptions of the waste management situation and how they relate to the views of governmental decision makers

  19. Vocations: The Link between Post-Compulsory Education and the Labour Market. What the Research Says For... Government & Policy-Makers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wheelahan, Leesa; Buchanan, John; Yu, Serena

    2015-01-01

    This summary brings together the relevant key findings for government and policy-makers from the research program "Vocations: The Link between Post-Compulsory Education and the Labour Market." The program was comprised of three different strands: (1) pathways from VET in Schools, (2) pathways within and between vocational education and…

  20. Analysis of International Policies In The Solar Electricity Sector: Lessons for India

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Deshmukh, Ranjit; Bharvirkar, Ranjit; Gambhir, Ashwin; Phadke, Amol

    2011-08-10

    Although solar costs are dropping rapidly, solar power is still more expensive than conventional and other renewable energy options. The solar sector still needs continuing government policy support. These policies are driven by objectives that go beyond the goal of achieving grid parity. The need to achieve multiple objectives and ensure sufficient political support for solar power makes it diffi cult for policy makers to design the optimal solar power policy. The dynamic and uncertain nature of the solar industry, combined with the constraints offered by broader economic, political and social conditions further complicates the task of policy making. This report presents an analysis of solar promotion policies in seven countries - Germany, Spain, the United States, Japan, China, Taiwan, and India - in terms of their outlook, objectives, policy mechanisms and outcomes. The report presents key insights, primarily in qualitative terms, and recommendations for two distinct audiences. The first audience consists of global policy makers who are exploring various mechanisms to increase the penetration of solar power in markets to mitigate climate change. The second audience consists of key Indian policy makers who are developing a long-term implementation plan under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission and various state initiatives.

  1. Public perception on forestry issues in the Region of Valencia (Eastern Spain): diverging from policy makers

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Fabra-Crespo, M.; Mola-Yudego, B.; Gritten, D.; Rojas-Briales, E.

    2012-11-01

    Are the policies designed by decision-makers differing from society's wishes and preferences. The present paper analyzes the divergences between forest policy and public opinion in the Region of Valencia (Comunidad Valenciana) in Eastern Spain. The data is based on an extensive telephone survey of the general public on their perception of forestry issues. The issues studied include attitudes regarding forest fires, silvicultural treatments, the externalise produced by forest owners, and the state forest services role related to these issues. In total, the answers of 823 respondents were analyzed using classification trees. The results of the analysis showed a large divergence between the desires, preferences and priorities of society, on the one hand, and the policies implemented by the regional government, on the other. The study concludes that communication strategies concerning sustainable forest management need to be further developed by the responsible authorities, with the input of the research community. (Author) 53 refs.

  2. Perspectives of policy and political decision makers on access to formal dementia care: expert interviews in eight European countries.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Broda, Anja; Bieber, Anja; Meyer, Gabriele; Hopper, Louise; Joyce, Rachael; Irving, Kate; Zanetti, Orazio; Portolani, Elisa; Kerpershoek, Liselot; Verhey, Frans; Vugt, Marjolein de; Wolfs, Claire; Eriksen, Siren; Røsvik, Janne; Marques, Maria J; Gonçalves-Pereira, Manuel; Sjölund, Britt-Marie; Woods, Bob; Jelley, Hannah; Orrell, Martin; Stephan, Astrid

    2017-08-03

    As part of the ActifCare (ACcess to Timely Formal Care) project, we conducted expert interviews in eight European countries with policy and political decision makers, or representatives of relevant institutions, to determine their perspectives on access to formal care for people with dementia and their carers. Each ActifCare country (Germany, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, United Kingdom) conducted semi-structured interviews with 4-7 experts (total N = 38). The interview guide addressed the topics "Complexity and Continuity of Care", "Formal Services", and "Public Awareness". Country-specific analysis of interview transcripts used an inductive qualitative content analysis. Cross-national synthesis focused on similarities in themes across the ActifCare countries. The analysis revealed ten common themes and two additional sub-themes across countries. Among others, the experts highlighted the need for a coordinating role and the necessity of information to address issues of complexity and continuity of care, demanded person-centred, tailored, and multidisciplinary formal services, and referred to education, mass media and campaigns as means to raise public awareness. Policy and political decision makers appear well acquainted with current discussions among both researchers and practitioners of possible approaches to improve access to dementia care. Experts described pragmatic, realistic strategies to influence dementia care. Suggested innovations concerned how to achieve improved dementia care, rather than transforming the nature of the services provided. Knowledge gained in these expert interviews may be useful to national decision makers when they consider reshaping the organisation of dementia care, and may thus help to develop best-practice strategies and recommendations.

  3. The Policy Maker's Anguish: Regulating Personal Data Behavior Between Paradoxes and Dilemmas

    Science.gov (United States)

    Compañó, Ramón; Lusoli, Wainer

    Regulators in Europe and elsewhere are paying great attention to identity, privacy and trust in online and converging environments. Appropriate regulation of identity in a ubiquitous information environment is seen as one of the major drivers of the future Internet economy. Regulation of personal identity data has come to the fore including mapping conducted on digital personhood by the OECD; work on human rights and profiling by the Council of Europe andmajor studies by the European Commission with regard to self-regulation in the privacy market, electronic identity technical interoperability and enhanced safety for young people. These domains overlap onto an increasingly complex model of regulation of individuals' identity management, online and offline. This chapter argues that policy makers struggle to deal with issues concerning electronic identity, due to the apparently irrational and unpredictable behavior of users when engaging in online interactions involving identity management. Building on empirical survey evidence from four EU countries, we examine the first aspect in detail - citizens' management of identity in a digital environment. We build on data from a large scale (n = 5,265) online survey of attitudes to electronic identity among young Europeans (France, Germany, Spain, UK) conducted in August 2008. The survey asked questions about perceptions and acceptance of risks, general motivations, attitudes and behaviors concerning electronic identity. Four behavioral paradoxes are identified in the analysis: a privacy paradox (to date well known), but also a control paradox, a responsibility paradox and an awareness paradox. The chapter then examines the paradoxes in relation of three main policy dilemmas framing the debate on digital identity. The paper concludes by arguing for an expanded identity debate spanning policy circles and the engineering community.

  4. CURRICULUM POLICY MAKERS PERCEPTIONS OF CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT PROCESS BASED ON SOLO TAXONOMY IN SECONDARY LEVEL SCHOOLS IN SRI LANKA

    OpenAIRE

    P. H. Kusumawathie; Norhisham Mohamad; Ferdous Azam

    2017-01-01

    Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the conceptual awareness of curriculum policy makers on curriculum development process based on SOLO Taxonomy curriculum approach in secondary level schools. Further, the study explored the relationship between the curriculum development inputs and the SOLO based curriculum development process. The curriculum development inputs are teacher effectiveness, school community, school environment and technology availability. Method: Data was collecte...

  5. Agricultural pricing policy in Kenya : scope and impact

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Meilink, H.A.

    1985-01-01

    Reviews the findings of available studies and reports thought to be of relevance to policy makers. A discussion of the institutional framework, of criteria used in price-setting procedures, and of scope and objectives of the agricultural pricing policies is folowed by an examination of what these

  6. National health policy-makers' views on the clarity and utility of Countdown to 2015 country profiles and reports: findings from two exploratory qualitative studies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hunter, Benjamin M; Requejo, Jennifer H; Pope, Ian; Daelmans, Bernadette; Murray, Susan F

    2014-08-15

    The use of sets of indicators to assess progress has become commonplace in the global health arena. Exploratory research has suggested that indicators used for global monitoring purposes can play a role in national policy-making, however, the mechanisms through which this occurs are poorly understood. This article reports findings from two qualitative studies that aimed to explore national policy-makers' interpretation and use of indicators from country profiles and reports developed by Countdown to 2015. An initial study aimed at exploring comprehension of Countdown data was conducted at the 2010 joint Women Deliver/Countdown conference. A second study was conducted at the 64th World Health Assembly in 2011, specifically targeting national policy-makers. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 29 and 22 participants, respectively, at each event. Participants were asked about their understanding of specific graphs and indicators used or proposed for use in Countdown country profiles, and their perception of how such data can inform national policy-making. Responses were categorised using a framework analysis. Respondents in both studies acknowledged the importance of the profiles for tracking progress on key health indicators in and across countries, noting that they could be used to highlight changes in coverage, possible directions for future policy, for lobbying finance ministers to increase resources for health, and to stimulate competition between neighbouring or socioeconomically similar countries. However, some respondents raised questions about discrepancies between global estimates and data produced by national governments, and some struggled to understand the profile graphs shown in the absence of explanatory text. Some respondents reported that use of Countdown data in national policy-making was constrained by limited awareness of the initiative, insufficient detail in the country profiles to inform policy, and the absence of indicators felt to

  7. An analytical framework to assist decision makers in the use of forest ecosystem model predictions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Larocque, Guy R.; Bhatti, Jagtar S.; Ascough, J.C.; Liu, J.; Luckai, N.; Mailly, D.; Archambault, L.; Gordon, Andrew M.

    2011-01-01

    The predictions from most forest ecosystem models originate from deterministic simulations. However, few evaluation exercises for model outputs are performed by either model developers or users. This issue has important consequences for decision makers using these models to develop natural resource management policies, as they cannot evaluate the extent to which predictions stemming from the simulation of alternative management scenarios may result in significant environmental or economic differences. Various numerical methods, such as sensitivity/uncertainty analyses, or bootstrap methods, may be used to evaluate models and the errors associated with their outputs. However, the application of each of these methods carries unique challenges which decision makers do not necessarily understand; guidance is required when interpreting the output generated from each model. This paper proposes a decision flow chart in the form of an analytical framework to help decision makers apply, in an orderly fashion, different steps involved in examining the model outputs. The analytical framework is discussed with regard to the definition of problems and objectives and includes the following topics: model selection, identification of alternatives, modelling tasks and selecting alternatives for developing policy or implementing management scenarios. Its application is illustrated using an on-going exercise in developing silvicultural guidelines for a forest management enterprise in Ontario, Canada.

  8. Towards a stakeholders' consensus on patient payment policy: the views of health-care consumers, providers, insurers and policy makers in six Central and Eastern European countries.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tambor, Marzena; Pavlova, Milena; Golinowska, Stanisława; Sowada, Christoph; Groot, Wim

    2015-08-01

    Although patient charges for health-care services may contribute to a more sustainable health-care financing, they often raise public opposition, which impedes their introduction. Thus, a consensus among the main stakeholders on the presence and role of patient charges should be worked out to assure their successful implementation. To analyse the acceptability of formal patient charges for health-care services in a basic package among different health-care system stakeholders in six Central and Eastern European countries (Bulgaria, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Ukraine). Qualitative data were collected in 2009 via focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with health-care consumers, providers, policy makers and insurers. The same participants were asked to fill in a self-administrative questionnaire. Qualitative and quantitative data are analysed separately to outline similarities and differences in the opinions between the stakeholder groups and across countries. There is a rather weak consensus on patient charges in the countries. Health policy makers and insurers strongly advocate patient charges. Health-care providers overall support charges but their financial profits from the system strongly affects their approval. Consumers are against paying for services, mostly due to poor quality and access to health-care services and inability to pay. To build consensus on patient charges, the payment policy should be responsive to consumers' needs with regard to quality and equity. Transparency and accountability in the health-care system should be improved to enhance public trust and acceptance of patient payments. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  9. Special report on renewable energy sources and climate change mitigation, (SRREN). Summary for policy makers; FNs klimapanel: Spesialrapport om fornybar energi, sammendrag for beslutningstakere

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    2011-06-15

    In May 2011 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published a report on six renewable energy sources and their role in climate change mitigation. This is a Norwegian, unofficial translation of the Summary for Policy makers. (Author)

  10. Lessons from Oil Pollution Research: Consensus, Controversy, and Education of Policy Makers and the Public.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Farrington, J. W.

    2007-12-01

    Controversies concerning scientific research findings, consensus of a majority of expert scientists, and attempts by vested interest groups to offer alternative interpretations from the consensus with the goal of influencing policy makers" and the public's understanding is not a new phenomenon with respect to complex environmental issues. For example, controversies about new scientific research findings from studies of oil spills and other aspects of petroleum and petroleum refined product inputs, fates and effects in the marine environment intensified in the late 1960s to early 1970s and continues today as evidenced by ongoing debates surrounding the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. This paper provides an overview of the interactions between authentic new scientific findings with respect to oil pollution in the marine environment in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the consensus gained in the ensuing years by continued research, and through various science - policy processes, and a spectrum of concomitant public education efforts. Lessons learned from this ongoing process may be instructive to current debates in other arenas of environmental science.

  11. Educational Goods and Values: A Framework for Decision Makers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brighouse, Harry; Ladd, Helen F.; Loeb, Susanna; Swift, Adam

    2016-01-01

    This article articulates a framework suitable for use when making decisions about education policy. Decision makers should establish what the feasible options are and evaluate them in terms of their contribution to the development, and distribution, of educational goods in children, balanced against the negative effect of policies on important…

  12. Policy Makers, Information and Learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beers, Pieter J.; van Asselt, Marjolein B. A.; Vermunt, Jan D.; Kirschner, Paul A.

    2003-01-01

    Interviews explored the information needs of seven Dutch policymakers dealing with global sustainability. They sought information on cultural perspectives and linkages. Information gathering emphasized filtering to find specific information. Most used an application-oriented working style that, combined with policy-driven information seeking, was…

  13. Global Assessment of Methane Gas Hydrates: Outreach for the public and policy makers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beaudoin, Yannick

    2010-05-01

    The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), via its official collaborating center in Norway, GRID-Arendal, is in the process of implementing a Global Assessment of Methane Gas Hydrates. Global reservoirs of methane gas have long been the topic of scientific discussion both in the realm of environmental issues such as natural forces of climate change and as a potential energy resource for economic development. Of particular interest are the volumes of methane locked away in frozen molecules known as clathrates or hydrates. Our rapidly evolving scientific knowledge and technological development related to methane hydrates makes these formations increasingly prospective to economic development. In addition, global demand for energy continues, and will continue to outpace supply for the foreseeable future, resulting in pressure to expand development activities, with associated concerns about environmental and social impacts. Understanding the intricate links between methane hydrates and 1) natural and anthropogenic contributions to climate change, 2) their role in the carbon cycle (e.g. ocean chemistry) and 3) the environmental and socio-economic impacts of extraction, are key factors in making good decisions that promote sustainable development. As policy makers, environmental organizations and private sector interests seek to forward their respective agendas which tend to be weighted towards applied research, there is a clear and imminent need for a an authoritative source of accessible information on various topics related to methane gas hydrates. The 2008 United Nations Environment Programme Annual Report highlighted methane from the Arctic as an emerging challenge with respect to climate change and other environmental issues. Building upon this foundation, UNEP/GRID-Arendal, in conjunction with experts from national hydrates research groups from Canada, the US, Japan, Germany, Norway, India and Korea, aims to provide a multi-thematic overview of the key

  14. The policy chicken and the science egg. Has applied ecology failed the transgenic crops debate?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gray, A J

    2014-12-01

    Ecology has a long history of research relevant to and impacting on real-world issues. Nonetheless problems of communication remain between policy-makers and scientists because they tend to work at different levels of generality (policy deals with broad issues, science prefers specific questions), and complexity (policy-makers want simple answers, ecologists tend to offer multi-factorial solutions) and to different timescales (policy-makers want answers tomorrow, ecologists always seem to want more time). These differences are not unique to the debate about the cultivation of transgenic crops. Research on gene flow is used to illustrate how science and policy are intimately bound together in a value-laden, iterative and messy process unlike that characterised by the 'encounter problem-do science-make policy' model. It also demonstrates how the gap between science and policy is often characterised by value-laden language. Scientists involved in ERA for transgenic crops may find their engagement with policy- and decision-makers clouded by misunderstanding about what one should expect from the other. Not the least of these, that science can define harm, is explored in a discussion of the U.K. Farm Scale Evaluations of herbicide-tolerant GM crops. The varied responses to these extensive trials highlight the problems of linking specific scientific experiments with broad policy objectives. The problems of applied ecology in the transgenic crops debate are not unique but may differ from other areas of environmental policy in the intense politicisation of the debate, the emphasis on assessment of risk and the particularly broad policy objectives.

  15. An In-Depth Analysis of Adult Learning Policies and Their Effectiveness in Europe

    Science.gov (United States)

    European Union, 2015

    2015-01-01

    Adult learning policies, like any other policies, need to be effective: they need to reach their objectives and attain the desired impacts, which should be carefully defined. Understanding the performance of policies allows policy makers to change and improve them. A growing body of research and statistics provides important insights into how…

  16. Policy, inquiries, and the courts

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jowell, J.

    1982-01-01

    In relation to nuclear power policy, two objectives of a liberal democracy are examined: the accountability of the decision-maker to the public; and the efficient and effective implementation of management policy. The places of Parliament, administrative law, planning constraints and the public enquiry are discussed, with special reference to legal aspects of the procedure at the public enquiry to ensure that it is as fair and effective as possible. (U.K.)

  17. Research for health policy

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Bell, Erica

    2010-01-01

    ... Explicit, implicit, and pragmatic dimensions of policy-maker's needs and context 31 Constraints on policy-makers 32 Deciphering trade-offs 33 The policy-problem: deciphering uncertainty and the problem of innovation 34 A tool for deciphering policy problems 35 The different components of the policy problem 37 Recommended reading 38 Case studies in...

  18. Spatial Knowledge Infrastructures - Creating Value for Policy Makers and Benefits the Community

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arnold, L. M.

    2016-12-01

    The spatial data infrastructure is arguably one of the most significant advancements in the spatial sector. It's been a game changer for governments, providing for the coordination and sharing of spatial data across organisations and the provision of accessible information to the broader community of users. Today however, end-users such as policy-makers require far more from these spatial data infrastructures. They want more than just data; they want the knowledge that can be extracted from data and they don't want to have to download, manipulate and process data in order to get the knowledge they seek. It's time for the spatial sector to reduce its focus on data in spatial data infrastructures and take a more proactive step in emphasising and delivering the knowledge value. Nowadays, decision-makers want to be able to query at will the data to meet their immediate need for knowledge. This is a new value proposal for the decision-making consumer and will require a shift in thinking. This paper presents a model for a Spatial Knowledge Infrastructure and underpinning methods that will realise a new real-time approach to delivering knowledge. The methods embrace the new capabilities afforded through the sematic web, domain and process ontologies and natural query language processing. Semantic Web technologies today have the potential to transform the spatial industry into more than just a distribution channel for data. The Semantic Web RDF (Resource Description Framework) enables meaning to be drawn from data automatically. While pushing data out to end-users will remain a central role for data producers, the power of the semantic web is that end-users have the ability to marshal a broad range of spatial resources via a query to extract knowledge from available data. This can be done without actually having to configure systems specifically for the end-user. All data producers need do is make data accessible in RDF and the spatial analytics does the rest.

  19. 7 CFR 1210.330 - Policy and objective.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... research, development, advertising, and promotion in order to: (a) Strengthen watermelons' competitive... PROMOTION PLAN Watermelon Research and Promotion Plan Research and Promotion § 1210.330 Policy and objective...

  20. Health seeking behaviour and health service utilization in Pakistan: challenging the policy makers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shaikh, Babar T; Hatcher, Juanita

    2005-03-01

    There is a growing literature on health seeking behaviours and the determinants of health services utilization especially in the context of developing countries. However, very few focused studies have been seen in Pakistan in this regard. This paper presents an extensive literature review of the situation in developing countries and relates the similar factors responsible for shaping up of a health seeking behaviour and health service utilization in Pakistan. The factors determining the health behaviours may be seen in various contexts: physical, socio-economic, cultural and political. Therefore, the utilization of a health care system, public or private, formal or non-formal, may depend on socio-demographic factors, social structures, level of education, cultural beliefs and practices, gender discrimination, status of women, economic and political systems environmental conditions, and the disease pattern and health care system itself. Policy makers need to understand the drivers of health seeking behaviour of the population in an increasingly pluralistic health care system. Also a more concerted effort is required for designing behavioural health promotion campaigns through inter-sectoral collaboration focusing more on disadvantaged segments of the population.

  1. Bridging Science and Policy: The AGU Science Policy Conference

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hankin, E. R.; Uhlenbrock, K.; Landau, E. A.

    2013-12-01

    In recent years, science has become inextricably linked to the political process. As such, it is more important now than ever for science to forge a better relationship with politics, for the health of both science and society. To help meet this need, the American Geophysical Union (AGU) strives to engage its members, shape policy, and inform society about the excitement of Earth and space science and its role in developing solutions for the sustainability of the planet. In June 2013, AGU held its second annual Science Policy Conference in Washington, D.C. The goal of the conference is to provide a new forum for diverse discussions and viewpoints on the challenges and opportunities of science policy, with a focus on applications of Earth and space science that serve local, national, and international communities. The meeting brought together more than 300 scientists, policy makers, industry professionals, members of the press, and other stakeholders to discuss the topics concerning the Arctic, climate change, oceans, energy, technology and infrastructure, and natural hazards science as they relate to challenges impacting society. Sessions such as 'The Water-Energy Nexus,' 'Potential for Megadisasters,' 'The Changing Ocean and Impacts on Human Health,' and 'Drowning and Drought: Agricultural Impacts of Climate Change' are examples of some of the intriguing and timely science policy issues addressed at the conference. The findings from the conference were used to develop a summary report. The report highlights key facts and figures to be used as a resource in discussions with policy makers and other stakeholders regarding the conference topics. This presentation will discuss the goals and outcomes of the conference and how the event represents one of the many ways AGU is approaching its 'Science and Society' priority objective as part of the Union's strategic plan; namely by increasing the effectiveness and recognition of AGU among policy makers as an authoritative

  2. TableMaker: An Excel Macro for Publication-Quality Tables

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marek Hlavac

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available This article introduces TableMaker, a Microsoft Excel macro that produces publicationquality tables and includes them as new sheets in workbooks. The macro provides an intuitive graphical user interface that allows for the full customization of all table features. It also allows users to save and load table templates, and thus allows layouts to be both reproducible and transferable. It is distributed in a single computer file. As such, the macro is easy to share, as well as accessible to even beginning and casual users of Excel. Since it allows for the quick creation of reproducible and fully customizable tables, TableMaker can be very useful to academics, policy-makers and businesses by making the presentation and formatting of results faster and more efficient.

  3. Adolescent pregnancies and girls' sexual and reproductive rights in the amazon basin of Ecuador: an analysis of providers' and policy makers' discourses

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sebastian Miguel

    2010-06-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Adolescent pregnancies are a common phenomenon that can have both positive and negative consequences. The rights framework allows us to explore adolescent pregnancies not just as isolated events, but in relation to girls' sexual and reproductive freedom and their entitlement to a system of health protection that includes both health services and the so called social determinants of health. The aim of this study was to explore policy makers' and service providers' discourses concerning adolescent pregnancies, and discuss the consequences that those discourses have for the exercise of girls' sexual and reproductive rights' in the province of Orellana, located in the amazon basin of Ecuador. Methods We held six focus-group discussions and eleven in-depth interviews with 41 Orellana's service providers and policy makers. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed using discourse analysis, specifically looking for interpretative repertoires. Results Four interpretative repertoires emerged from the interviews. The first repertoire identified was "sex is not for fun" and reflected a moralistic construction of girls' sexual and reproductive health that emphasized abstinence, and sent contradictory messages regarding contraceptive use. The second repertoire -"gendered sexuality and parenthood"-constructed women as sexually uninterested and responsible mothers, while men were constructed as sexually driven and unreliable. The third repertoire was "professionalizing adolescent pregnancies" and lead to patronizing attitudes towards adolescents and disregard of the importance of non-medical expertise. The final repertoire -"idealization of traditional family"-constructed family as the proper space for the raising of adolescents while at the same time acknowledging that sexual abuse and violence within families was common. Conclusions Providers' and policy makers' repertoires determined the areas that the array of sexual and reproductive

  4. A Quasi-Feed-In-Tariff policy formulation in micro-grids: A bi-level multi-period approach

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Taha, Ahmad F.; Hachem, Nadim A.; Panchal, Jitesh H.

    2014-01-01

    A Quasi-Feed-In-Tariff (QFIT) policy formulation is presented for micro-grids that integrates renewable energy generation considering Policy Makers' and Generation Companies' (GENCOs) objectives assuming a bi-level multi-period formulation that integrates physical characteristics of the power-grid. The upper-level problem corresponds to the PM, whereas the lower-level decisions are made by GENCOs. We consider that some GENCOs are green energy producers, while others are black energy producers. Policy makers incentivize green energy producers to generate energy through the payment of optimal time-varying subsidy price. The policy maker's main objective is to maximize an overall social welfare that includes factors such as demand surplus, energy cost, renewable energy subsidy price, and environmental standards. The lower-level problem corresponding to the GENCOs is based on maximizing the players' profits. The proposed QFIT policy differs from the FIT policy in the sense that the subsidy price-based contracts offered to green energy producers dynamically change over time, depending on the physical properties of the grid, demand, and energy price fluctuations. The integrated problem solves for time-varying subsidy price and equilibrium energy quantities that optimize the system welfare under different grid and system conditions. - Highlights: • We present a bi-level optimization problem formulation for Quasi-Feed-In-Tariff (QFIT) policy. • QFIT dictates that subsidy prices dynamically vary over time depending on conditions. • Power grid's physical characteristics affect optimal subsidy prices and energy generation. • To maximize welfare, policy makers ought to increase subsidy prices during the peak-load

  5. Explaining the non-implementation of health-improving policies related to solid fuels use in South Africa

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Matinga, Margaret Njirambo; Clancy, Joy S.; Annegarn, Harold J.

    2014-01-01

    In 1998, the South African government developed an energy policy that focused on a pro-poor agenda. Its objectives included addressing the health impacts of solid fuel use in households. Fourteen years later, and with household electrification at over 80%, millions still use solid fuels and yet ambitious policy objectives to address this situation are not being met. Using three theoretical frameworks; institutional capacity, policy inheritance and the symbolic use of policy, this paper analyses the reasons why household energy policy objectives related to solid fuels and health, as stated in the 1998 South African energy policy, have not been implemented. The results of the analysis show that the symbolic use of policy, including meanings of objects used for meeting policy objectives is the most critical explanation. The paper illustrates that political and historical contexts are critical to understanding policy outcomes in developing and transition countries which often experience tensions between implementing what may seem as objective policies, and that matches their political and historical experiences and aspirations. We recommend that policy analysts in the energy sector complement currently common methods to include political contexts of policy development and implementation in order to better understand why policy makers chose to implement certain policies over others. - Highlights: • Policy non-implementation in developing countries focuses on lack of resources. • We add policy inheritance and policy symbolism to assess non-implementation. • South Africa's racial politics affect how policies are perceived and implemented. • Politically, firewood and electricity symbolise repression and emancipation. • Electricity and firewood's symbolic meanings affect policy makers' focus on these

  6. EU policy objectives and energy investment decisions

    OpenAIRE

    Alario, Juan

    2007-01-01

    EU energy policies have changed focus in the last few years with a view to substantially reducing energy import dependency and greenhouse gas emissions. The EU Commission has played a leading role in defining the new orientations. The implementation of the EU policy objectives approved by the Council of March 2007 will require a substantial expansion of energy investments. However, the degree of uncertainty affecting investment decisions remains high, notably in relation to the pricing of CO2...

  7. Extreme Trust Region Policy Optimization for Active Object Recognition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Huaping; Wu, Yupei; Sun, Fuchun; Huaping Liu; Yupei Wu; Fuchun Sun; Sun, Fuchun; Liu, Huaping; Wu, Yupei

    2018-06-01

    In this brief, we develop a deep reinforcement learning method to actively recognize objects by choosing a sequence of actions for an active camera that helps to discriminate between the objects. The method is realized using trust region policy optimization, in which the policy is realized by an extreme learning machine and, therefore, leads to efficient optimization algorithm. The experimental results on the publicly available data set show the advantages of the developed extreme trust region optimization method.

  8. Attitudes of policy makers in Hawaii towards public health and related issues before and after an economic recession in the United States

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jay E Maddock

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available Legislation and regulation at the state and local level can often have a greater impact on the public’s health than individual-based approaches. Elected and appointed officials have an essential role in protecting and improving public health. Despite this important role, little systematic research has been done to assess the relative importance of public health issues compared to other policy issues in times of economic hardship. This study assessed attitudes of elected and appointed decision makers in Hawaii in 2007 and 2013 to determine if priorities differed before and after the economic recession. Methods: Elected and appointed state and county officials were mailed surveys at both time points. Respondents rated the importance of 23 specified problems, of which 9 asked about specific public health issues. Results: The survey was completed by 126 (70.4% respondents in 2007 and 117(60.9% in 2013. Among the public health issues, five saw significant mean decreases. These variables included: climate change, pedestrian safety, government response to natural disasters, access to healthcare, and pandemic influenza. Obesity was the only public health issue to increase in importance across the two time points. In terms of relative ranking across the time points, only drug abuse and obesity were among the top ten priorities. Lack of public health training, pandemic influenza, and government response to natural disasters were among the bottom five priorities. Conclusions: After the economic recession, many public health issues have a lower priority among Hawaii’s policy makers than before the downturn. Additional education and advocacy is needed to keep public health issues on the minds of decision makers during tough economic times.

  9. Climate change mitigation policy paradigms — national objectives and alignments

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Halsnæs, Kirsten; Garg, Amit; Christensen, John M.

    2014-01-01

    for discussing how a multi objective policy paradigm can contribute to future climate change mitigation. The paper includes country case studies from Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union (EU), India, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa, South Korea and the United States covering renewable energy options......, industry, transportation, the residential sector and cross-sectoral policies. These countries and regions together contribute more than two thirds of global GHG emissions. The paper finds that policies that are nationally driven and that have multiple objectives, including climate-change mitigation, have...... been widely applied for decades in both developing countries and industrialised countries. Many of these policies have a long history, and adjustments have taken place based on experience and cost effectiveness concerns. Various energy and climate-change policy goals have worked together...

  10. DETERMINATION OF OBJECTIVES FOR URBAN FREIGHT POLICY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniel Kaszubowski

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available Background: Decisions regarding strategic planning of urban freight transport very often are based on superficial assumptions inadequately reflecting the actual character of encountered challenges. The trend may be observed to adapt isolated solutions without supporting measures and verification of expected outcomes. Selected urban freight solutions have a significant potential to alleviate transport related problems, but they require unorthodox approach beyond standard traffic planning and road management. City's current planning experience must be taken into account to plan an optimized sequence of actions. Method: Due to complexity of the problem and specific decision making factors the analytic network process ANP was selected to determine relevant objective of the urban freight policy. Gdynia was selected as the subject for modeling with a review of the current freight planning practice as a first step. Then, classification of policy objective and their prerequisites were identified supported with descriptive feasibility assessment. This allowed for a development of the ANP decision-making model. Results: Considered objectives for urban freight policy were identified were optimization, reduction and transfer. After verifying relevant decision factors optimization was selected as the most feasible option for Gdynia. Other alternatives were rated around four times lower with a slight prevalence of reduction over transfer. Such ranking reflects current planning practice and availability of transferable experiences. Despite the indicative results, it must be stressed that urban freight planning should be based on the long term methodical approach not to exclude any emerging possibilities. 

  11. Solving the Policy Implementation Problem

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gregg A. Garn

    1999-08-01

    Full Text Available When Republican legislators in Arizona failed to approve educational vouchers in four consecutive legislative sessions, a charter school program was approved as a compromise. The charter school policy was written during a special summer session and within three years, over 30,000 students were enrolled in 260 charter schools across the state. Republican policy makers, who failed to enact voucher legislation, proclaimed the charter school program to be an overwhelming success and protected it from amendments by Democrats and potential actions of bureaucrats that could have altered the policy intent. Research on the implementation of policy indicates that state and local implementors frequently undermine or alter legislative intentions. However, when Arizona policy makers approved the charter school policy, they overcame this persistent implementation phenomenon and, in fact, succeeded in preserving the legislative intentions in the working program. This policy study analyzes how they were able to achieve this elusive result. Key policy makers attended to four significant features of policy implementation in creating the charter school policy: communication, financial resources, implementor attitudes, and bureaucratic structure. Manipulating these key variables allowed policy makers to reduce implementation slippage.

  12. Views of policy makers and health promotion professionals on factors facilitating implementation and maintenance of interventions and policies promoting physical activity and healthy eating: results of the DEDIPAC project.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Muellmann, Saskia; Steenbock, Berit; De Cocker, Katrien; De Craemer, Marieke; Hayes, Catherine; O'Shea, Miriam P; Horodyska, Karolina; Bell, Justyna; Luszczynska, Aleksandra; Roos, Gun; Langøien, Lars Jørun; Rugseth, Gro; Terragni, Laura; De Bourdeaudhuij, Ilse; Brug, Johannes; Pischke, Claudia R

    2017-12-06

    The uptake, implementation, and maintenance of effective interventions promoting physical activity (PA) and a healthy diet and the implementation of policies targeting these behaviors are processes not well understood. We aimed to gain a better understanding of what health promotion professionals and policy makers think are important factors facilitating adoption, implementation, and maintenance of multi-level interventions and policies promoting healthy eating and PA in Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Norway, and Poland. Six interventions and six policies were identified based on pre-defined criteria. Forty semi-structured interviews were conducted with stakeholders from various sectors to elicit information on factors impacting adoption, implementation, and maintenance of these interventions and policies. All interview transcripts were coded in NVivo, using a common categorization matrix. Coding in the respective countries was done by one researcher and validated by a second researcher. Active involvement of relevant stakeholders and good communication between coordinating organizations were described as important factors contributing to successful adoption and implementation of both interventions and policies. Additional facilitating factors included sufficient training of staff and tailoring of materials to match needs of various target groups. The respondents indicated that maintenance of implemented interventions/policies depended on whether they were embedded in existing or newly created organizational structures in different settings and whether continued funding was secured. Despite considerable heterogeneity of interventions and health policies in the five countries, stakeholders across these countries identify similar factors facilitating adoption, implementation, and maintenance of these interventions and policies.

  13. Models for policy-making in sustainable development. The state of the art and perspectives for research

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Boulanger, Paul-Marie; Brechet, Thierry

    2005-01-01

    More and more frequently policy-makers are urged to assess the impact of their strategies and policies in terms of sustainable development. This necessitates the use of applied scientific models as tools for identifying and evaluating the likely environmental, economic and social impacts of alternative policies. The objective of this paper is to provide a framework to help decision-makers choose the most appropriate-or the most appropriate mix-of models, by assessing their relative strengths and weaknesses. The paper also allows potential improvements in modeling techniques to be identified. Six modeling paradigms are assessed, both on a general basis and with respect to two specific policy contexts (energy policy, and land use and transport planning)

  14. Implications for alcohol minimum unit pricing advocacy: what can we learn for public health from UK newsprint coverage of key claim-makers in the policy debate?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hilton, Shona; Wood, Karen; Patterson, Chris; Katikireddi, Srinivasa Vittal

    2014-02-01

    On May 24th 2012, Scotland passed the Alcohol (Minimum Pricing) Bill. Minimum unit pricing (MUP) is an intervention that raises the price of the cheapest alcohol to reduce alcohol consumption and related harms. There is a growing literature on industry's influence in policymaking and media representations of policies, but relatively little about frames used by key claim-makers in the public MUP policy debate. This study elucidates the dynamic interplay between key claim-makers to identify lessons for policy advocacy in the media in the UK and internationally. Content analysis was conducted on 262 articles from seven UK and three Scottish national newspapers between 1st May 2011 and 31st May 2012, retrieved from electronic databases. Advocates' and critics' constructions of the alcohol problem and MUP were examined. Advocates depicted the problem as primarily driven by cheap alcohol and marketing, while critics' constructions focused on youth binge drinkers and dependent drinkers. Advocates justified support by citing the intervention's targeted design, but critics denounced the policy as illegal, likely to encourage illicit trade, unsupported by evidence and likely to be ineffective, while harming the responsible majority, low-income consumers and businesses. Critics' arguments were consistent over time, and single statements often encompassed multiple rationales. This study presents advocates with several important lessons for promoting policies in the media. Firstly, it may be useful to shift focus away from young binge drinkers and heavy drinkers, towards population-level over-consumption. Secondly, advocates might focus on presenting the policy as part of a wider package of alcohol policies. Thirdly, emphasis on the success of recent public health policies could help portray the UK and Scotland as world leaders in tackling culturally embedded health and social problems through policy; highlighting past successes when presenting future policies may be a valuable

  15. Assessment of policy makers' individual and organizational capacity ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    2017-09-03

    Sep 3, 2017 ... An evidence to policy self-assessment questionnaire was used to assess the capacity of forty. MNCH policy ... search, lack of actionable messages in research reports, and limited ... of research evidence is but one factor influencing all stag- es of what ... However, in order to design an effective capacity en-.

  16. The Use of Social Ecological Hotspots Mapping: Co-Developing Adaptation Strategies for Resource Management by Communities and Policy Makers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alessa, L.

    2014-12-01

    Ultimately, adaptation is based on a set of trade-offs rather than optimal conditions, something that is rarely seen in messy social ecological systems (SES). In this talk, we discuss the role of spatial hot-spot mapping using social and biophysical data to understand the feedbacks in SES. We review the types of data needed, their means of acquisition and the analytic methods involved. In addition, we outline the challenges faced in co-developing this type of inquiry based on lessons learned from several long-term programs. Finally, we present the utility of SES hotspots in developing adaptation strategies on the ground by communities and policy makers.

  17. Healthy public policy in poor countries: tackling macro-economic policies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mohindra, K S

    2007-06-01

    Large segments of the population in poor countries continue to suffer from a high level of unmet health needs, requiring macro-level, broad-based interventions. Healthy public policy, a key health promotion strategy, aims to put health on the agenda of policy makers across sectors and levels of government. Macro-economic policy in developing countries has thus far not adequately captured the attention of health promotion researchers. This paper argues that healthy public policy should not only be an objective in rich countries, but also in poor countries. This paper takes up this issue by reviewing the main macro-economic aid programs offered by international financial institutions as a response to economic crises and unmanageable debt burdens. Although health promotion researchers were largely absent during a key debate on structural adjustment programs and health during the 1980s and 1990s, the international macro-economic policy tool currently in play offers a new opportunity to participate in assessing these policies, ensuring new forms of macro-economic policy interventions do not simply reproduce patterns of (neoliberal) economics-dominated development policy.

  18. Política de autogestión hospitalaria en Chile: percepciones de los tomadores de decisiones Hospital self-management policy in Chile: perceptions of decision-makers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Claudio A. Méndez

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available OBJETIVO: Conocer las percepciones de los tomadores de decisiones respecto de la etapa de implementación de la política de autogestión hospitalaria en dos hospitales de alta complejidad del sur de Chile. MÉTODOS: Se realizó un estudio cualitativo descriptivo y exploratorio basado en entrevistas semiestructuradas en profundidad a tomadores de decisiones de los hospitales Regional de la ciudad de Valdivia y San José de la ciudad de Osorno, durante el período de agosto de 2010 a diciembre de 2011. Se seleccionó una muestra por conveniencia de 26 tomadores de decisiones. Las 26 entrevistas fueron grabadas y transcritas en forma literal. El análisis de la información se hizo utilizando la técnica de análisis de contenido, en su aproximación inductiva. RESULTADOS: Para los entrevistados, la conceptualización de la autogestión está determinada por la autonomía para la toma de decisiones respecto de la asignación de recursos y el financiamiento de la provisión de servicios de salud en las instituciones hospitalarias. También manifestaron que para mejorar la etapa de implementación se deben incluir políticas de recursos humanos y de financiamiento de la función de provisión de servicios de salud. A las debilidades, por su parte, las relacionaron con la ausencia de capacidades organizacionales y competencias gerenciales de los equipos de salud para la implementación de los cambios. CONCLUSIONES: La política de autogestión hospitalaria es conceptualizada desde la autonomía financiera, y su implementación está determinada por las brechas de capacidad que persisten en el diseño de la política.OBJECTIVE: To learn the perceptions of decision-makers concerning the imple­men­t­ation stage of a hospital self-management policy in two highly complex hospitals in southern Chile. METHODS: A descriptive, exploratory, qualitative study based on semi-structured in-depth interviews of decision-makers at the Regional Hospital of Valdivia

  19. Space assets, technology and services in support of energy policy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vasko, C. A.; Adriaensen, M.; Bretel, A.; Duvaux-Bechon, I.; Giannopapa, C. G.

    2017-09-01

    Space can be used as a tool by decision and policy makers in developing, implementing and monitoring various policy areas including resource management, environment, transport, security and energy. This paper focuses on the role of space for the energy policy. Firstly, the paper summarizes the European Union's (EU) main objectives in energy policy enclosed in the Energy Strategy 2020-2030-2050 and demonstrates how space assets can contribute to achieving those objectives. Secondly, the paper addresses how the European Space Agency (ESA) has established multiple initiatives and programs that directly finance the development of space assets, technology and applications that deliver services in support of the EU energy policy and sector. These efforts should be continued and strengthened in order to overcome identified technological challenges. The use of space assets, technology and applications, can help achieve the energy policy objectives for the next decades.

  20. Patron Time-Use May Be an Effective Metric for Presenting Library Value to Policy Makers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ann Glusker

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available Objective – To test a metric for library use, that could be comparable to metrics used by competing government departments, for ease of understanding by policy makers. Design – Four types of data were collected and used: Time-diaries, exit surveys, gate counts, and circulation statistics. Setting – A large public library in British Columbia, Canada. Subjects – Time-diary subjects were 445 patrons checking out materials; exit survey subjects were 185 patrons leaving the library. Methods – A paper-based time diary, prototypes of which were tested, was given to patrons who checked out library materials during a one-week period. These patrons were charged with recording the use of the checked-out items during the entire three-week loan period. From this information, the average number of hours spent with various types of loaned material (print and audio/DVD was calculated. The average number of hours spent per item type was then applied to the circulation statistics for those items, across a month, to get a total of hours spent using all circulated material during that month. During the same one-week period of time-diary distribution, exit surveys were conducted by library staff with patrons leaving the library, asking them how long they had spent in the library during their current visit. The average number of minutes per visit was calculated and then applied to the gate count for the month, to get a total number of minutes/hours spent “resident” in the library that month. Adding the totals, a grand total of patron time-use hours was calculated. A monetary value was applied per hour, using the results of a contingent valuation study from Missoula, Montana (Dalenberg et al., 2004, in order to convert hours of library benefit into a dollar figure. Main Results – There was a 24% response rate for the time diaries (106/445. The diary entries yielded an average of 3.5 hours of time-use per print item, and 1.9 hours per DVD. The range for

  1. Development of an integrated model for energy systems planning and carbon dioxide mitigation under uncertainty - Tradeoffs between two-level decision makers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jin, S W; Li, Y P; Xu, L P

    2018-07-01

    A bi-level fuzzy programming (BFLP) method was developed for energy systems planning (ESP) and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) mitigation under uncertainty. BFLP could handle fuzzy information and leader-follower problem in decision-making processes. It could also address the tradeoffs among different decision makers in two decision-making levels through prioritizing the most important goal. Then, a BFLP-ESP model was formulated for planning energy system of Beijing, in which the upper-level objective is to minimize CO 2 emission and the lower-level objective is to minimize the system cost. Results provided a range of decision alternatives that corresponded to a tradeoff between system optimality and reliability under uncertainty. Compared to the single-level model with a target to minimize system cost, the amounts of pollutant/CO 2 emissions from BFLP-ESP were reduced since the study system would prefer more clean energies (i.e. natural gas, LPG and electricity) to replace coal fuel. Decision alternatives from BFLP were more beneficial for supporting Beijing to adjust its energy mix and enact its emission-abatement policy. Results also revealed that the low-carbon policy for power plants (e.g., shutting down all coal-fired power plants) could lead to a potentially increment of imported energy for Beijing, which would increase the risk of energy shortage. The findings could help decision makers analyze the interactions between different stakeholders in ESP and provide useful information for policy design under uncertainty. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  2. Bilevel formulation of a policy design problem considering multiple objectives and incomplete preferences

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hawthorne, Bryant; Panchal, Jitesh H.

    2014-07-01

    A bilevel optimization formulation of policy design problems considering multiple objectives and incomplete preferences of the stakeholders is presented. The formulation is presented for Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) policy design for decentralized energy infrastructure. The upper-level problem is the policy designer's problem and the lower-level problem is a Nash equilibrium problem resulting from market interactions. The policy designer has two objectives: maximizing the quantity of energy generated and minimizing policy cost. The stakeholders decide on quantities while maximizing net present value and minimizing capital investment. The Nash equilibrium problem in the presence of incomplete preferences is formulated as a stochastic linear complementarity problem and solved using expected value formulation, expected residual minimization formulation, and the Monte Carlo technique. The primary contributions in this article are the mathematical formulation of the FIT policy, the extension of computational policy design problems to multiple objectives, and the consideration of incomplete preferences of stakeholders for policy design problems.

  3. Nurses and Lifelong Learning: Creating "Makers and Shapers" or "Users and Choosers"?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Butcher, Diane; Bruce, Anne

    2016-04-01

    How have the meaning and goals of lifelong learning for nurses shifted under neoliberal political policy? This article critically scrutinizes the political undercurrents of lifelong learning. While the original intent of lifelong learning was to foster intellectual, critical, social, and political citizen engagement (creating "makers and shapers" of social policy), instrumental learning-learning to meet practical economic ends-has taken priority and is instead creating marketable workers (creating "users and choosers"). International educational neoliberal policy reform has altered the very nature of education. Under pervasive neoliberal political influence, lifelong learning has become distorted as the goals of learning have shifted towards creating marketable workers who are expected, while unsupported, to engage in learning to ensure ongoing employability in an open market. By examining new understandings of lifelong learning, nurses can make informed choices as to whether they aspire to be a "user and chooser" or "maker and shaper" of lifelong learning in their workplaces. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  4. Issues affecting therapist workforce and service delivery in the disability sector in rural and remote New South Wales, Australia: perspectives of policy-makers, managers and senior therapists.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Veitch, Craig; Dew, Angela; Bulkeley, Kim; Lincoln, Michelle; Bundy, Anita; Gallego, Gisselle; Griffiths, Scott

    2012-01-01

    The disability sector encompasses a broad range of conditions and needs, including children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, people with acquired disabilities, and irreversible physical injuries. Allied health professionals (therapists), in the disability sector, work within government and funded or charitable non-government agencies, schools, communities, and private practice. This article reports the findings of a qualitative study of therapist workforce and service delivery in the disability sector in rural and remote New South Wales (NSW), Australia. The aim was to investigate issues of importance to policy-makers, managers and therapists providing services to people with disabilities in rural and remote areas. The project gathered information via semi-structured interviews with individuals and small groups. Head office and regional office policy-makers, along with managers and senior therapists in western NSW were invited to participate. Participants included 12 policy-makers, 28 managers and 10 senior therapists from NSW government agencies and non-government organisations (NGOs) involved in providing services and support to people with disabilities in the region. Information was synthesised prior to using constant comparative analysis within and across data sets to identify issues. Five broad themes resonated across participants' roles, locations and service settings: (1) challenges to implementing policy in rural and remote NSW; (2) the impact of geographic distribution of workforce and clients; (3) workforce issues - recruitment, support, workloads, retention; (4) equity and access issues for rural clients; and (5) the important role of the NGO sector in rural service delivery and support. Although commitment to providing best practice services was universal, policy-related information transfer between organisations and employees was inconsistent. Participants raised some workforce and service delivery issues that are similar to

  5. Design for sustainability of industrial symbiosis based on emergy and multi-objective particle swarm optimization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ren, Jingzheng; Liang, Hanwei; Dong, Liang; Sun, Lu; Gao, Zhiqiu

    2016-08-15

    Industrial symbiosis provides novel and practical pathway to the design for the sustainability. Decision support tool for its verification is necessary for practitioners and policy makers, while to date, quantitative research is limited. The objective of this work is to present an innovative approach for supporting decision-making in the design for the sustainability with the implementation of industrial symbiosis in chemical complex. Through incorporating the emergy theory, the model is formulated as a multi-objective approach that can optimize both the economic benefit and sustainable performance of the integrated industrial system. A set of emergy based evaluation index are designed. Multi-objective Particle Swarm Algorithm is proposed to solve the model, and the decision-makers are allowed to choose the suitable solutions form the Pareto solutions. An illustrative case has been studied by the proposed method, a few of compromises between high profitability and high sustainability can be obtained for the decision-makers/stakeholders to make decision. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  6. Mapping a Research Agenda for Home Care Safety: Perspectives from Researchers, Providers, and Decision Makers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Macdonald, Marilyn; Lang, Ariella; MacDonald, Jo-Anne

    2011-01-01

    The purpose of this qualitative interpretive design was to explore the perspectives of researchers, health care providers, policy makers, and decision makers on key risks, concerns, and emerging issues related to home care safety that would inform a line of research inquiry. Defining safety specifically in this home care context has yet to be…

  7. Factors that encourage and discourage policy-making to prevent childhood obesity: Experience in the United States.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rutkow, Lainie; Jones-Smith, Jesse; Walters, Hannah J; O'Hara, Marguerite; Bleich, Sara N

    2016-12-01

    Policy-makers throughout the world seek to address childhood obesity prevention, yet little is known about factors that influence policy-makers' decisions on this topic. From September 2014 to April 2015, we conducted 43 semi-structured interviews about factors that encourage and discourage policy-makers' support for childhood obesity prevention policies. We interviewed policy-makers (n = 12) and two other groups engaged with childhood obesity prevention policies: representatives of non-governmental organizations (n = 24) and academics (n = 7). Factors that encourage policy-makers' support for childhood obesity prevention policies included: positive impact on government finances, an existing evidence base, partnerships with community-based collaborators, and consistency with policy-makers' priorities. Factors that discourage policy-makers' support included the following: perceptions about government's role, food and beverage industry opposition, and policy-makers' beliefs about personal responsibility. As public health practitioners, advocates, and others seek to advance childhood obesity prevention in the U.S. and elsewhere, the factors we identified offer insights into ways to frame proposed policies and strategies to influence policy-makers.

  8. Methodology for the selection of routes for international cross-border line projects involving multiple objectives and decision-makers in the analyses of restrictions and environmental possibilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Angel S, Enrique; Cadena, Luis Fernando

    2005-01-01

    A scheme was developed and applied to select the optimum environmental route for international cross-border line projects, in a decision making context involving multiple objectives and multiple decision-makers, the project studied was the electricity interconnection for central America (SIEPAC) for which a prospective assessment was carried out regarding the restrictions and possibilities in the light of the Colombian environmental dimensions management model. The methodology proposed followed these stages: Definition and approval of the structure of environmental restriction and criticality variables, sectorization and selection of complex sections, definition of decision-makers for multi-objective analysis; design and application of consultation tool; definition and modeling of options applying SIG; sensitivity analysis of alternative routes and project's environment management. Different options were identified for insertion and permanence of the project according to the criteria of various interest groups and actors consulted: environmental authorities, electricity companies, scientific community and civil society

  9. What drives the gender gap in STEM? The SAGA Science, Technology and Innovation Gender Objectives List (STI GOL) as a new approach to linking indicators to STI policies

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Fernandez, E.; Schaaper, M.; Bello, A.

    2016-07-01

    There is a large imbalance in the participation of women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields across all of Latin American countries despite the fact that the region has one of the highest proportions of female researchers worldwide (44% according to UIS statistics). Female researchers face persisting institutional and cultural barriers, which limit the development of their careers and constrains their access to decision-making positions. In this framework, UNESCO has launched the STEM and Gender Advancement (SAGA) project, which has for objective to address the gender gap in STEM fields in all countries at all levels of education and research as well as to promote women’s participation in science. SAGA is a global UNESCO project with the support of the Swedish Government through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). One of the outcomes of this project is the SAGA Science, Technology and Innovation Gender Objectives List (STI GOL), which is an innovative tool that aids in the identification of gaps in the policy mix. Additionally, the STI GOL configures the conceptual backbone of the SAGA project, by linking gender equality STI policy instruments with indicators. By using the STI GOL, and identifying the gender gaps, policy-makers will be able to implement evidence-based policies in STEM fields. The SAGA STI GOL is a new and innovative way of contributing to the development of effective gender sensitive policies in STI fields, both in education and in the workplace. Likewise, it enables the categorization of STI policies and instruments, with the objective of identifying gaps in the policy mix and aid in the creation and design of evidence-based public policies to promote gender equality. (Author)

  10. Knowledge Translation to Advance the Nurse Practitioner Role in British Columbia: Researchers and decision-makers conduct policy-relevant research to guide legislative and regulatory development and the design of a nurse practitioner education program.

    OpenAIRE

    MacDonald, Marjorie; Regan, Sandra; Davidson, Heather; Schreiber, Rita; Crickmore, Jane; Moss, Lesley; Pinelli, Janet; Pauly, Bernadette

    2006-01-01

    This project brought together a team of researchers and decision-makers to conduct policy-relevant research to support the introduction of advanced nursing practice roles in British Columbia. All team members, including decision-makers, were actively involved in the conceptualization, design, data collection, analysis and interpretation of the study. This level of engagement, coupled with ongoing knowledge translation (KT) activities, led to the implementation by stakeholders of a majority of...

  11. Mitigation strategies for pandemic influenza A: balancing conflicting policy objectives.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    T Déirdre Hollingsworth

    Full Text Available Mitigation of a severe influenza pandemic can be achieved using a range of interventions to reduce transmission. Interventions can reduce the impact of an outbreak and buy time until vaccines are developed, but they may have high social and economic costs. The non-linear effect on the epidemic dynamics means that suitable strategies crucially depend on the precise aim of the intervention. National pandemic influenza plans rarely contain clear statements of policy objectives or prioritization of potentially conflicting aims, such as minimizing mortality (depending on the severity of a pandemic or peak prevalence or limiting the socio-economic burden of contact-reducing interventions. We use epidemiological models of influenza A to investigate how contact-reducing interventions and availability of antiviral drugs or pre-pandemic vaccines contribute to achieving particular policy objectives. Our analyses show that the ideal strategy depends on the aim of an intervention and that the achievement of one policy objective may preclude success with others, e.g., constraining peak demand for public health resources may lengthen the duration of the epidemic and hence its economic and social impact. Constraining total case numbers can be achieved by a range of strategies, whereas strategies which additionally constrain peak demand for services require a more sophisticated intervention. If, for example, there are multiple objectives which must be achieved prior to the availability of a pandemic vaccine (i.e., a time-limited intervention, our analysis shows that interventions should be implemented several weeks into the epidemic, not at the very start. This observation is shown to be robust across a range of constraints and for uncertainty in estimates of both R(0 and the timing of vaccine availability. These analyses highlight the need for more precise statements of policy objectives and their assumed consequences when planning and implementing strategies

  12. On avoiding framing effects in experienced decision makers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garcia-Retamero, Rocio; Dhami, Mandeep K

    2013-01-01

    The present study aimed to (a) demonstrate the effect of positive-negative framing on experienced criminal justice decision makers, (b) examine the debiasing effect of visually structured risk messages, and (c) investigate whether risk perceptions mediate the debiasing effect of visual aids on decision making. In two phases, 60 senior police officers estimated the accuracy of a counterterrorism technique in identifying whether a known terror suspect poses an imminent danger and decided whether they would recommend the technique to policy makers. Officers also rated their confidence in this recommendation. When information about the effectiveness of the counterterrorism technique was presented in a numerical format, officers' perceptions of accuracy and recommendation decisions were susceptible to the framing effect: The technique was perceived to be more accurate and was more likely to be recommended when its effectiveness was presented in a positive than in a negative frame. However, when the information was represented visually using icon arrays, there were no such framing effects. Finally, perceptions of accuracy mediated the debiasing effect of visual aids on recommendation decisions. We offer potential explanations for the debiasing effect of visual aids and implications for communicating risk to experienced, professional decision makers.

  13. 32 CFR 237a.3 - Objective and policy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ...) MISCELLANEOUS PUBLIC AFFAIRS LIAISON WITH INDUSTRY § 237a.3 Objective and policy. (a) It is important that...D. Such understanding can be achieved by (1) wide dissemination of information to the business community, consistent with national security, and (2) cooperation with industry in public relations...

  14. Working for Policy

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Colebatch, H.K.; Hoppe, Robertus; Noordegraaf, Mirko

    2010-01-01

    Though democratic government calls for well-designed and implemented policy, there is surprisingly little expert guidance available for policy makers and politicians. Working for Policy fills that gap, addressing the nature of policy work and offering necessary guidance. The contributors bring

  15. Helping decision makers frame, analyze, and implement decisions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Runge, Michael C.; McDonald-Madden, Eve

    2018-01-01

    All decisions have the same recognizable elements. Context, objectives, alternatives, consequences, and deliberation. Decision makers and analysts familiar with these elements can quickly see the underlying structure of a decision.There are only a small number of classes of decisions. These classes differ in the cognitive and scientific challenge they present to the decision maker; the ability to recognize the class of decision leads a decision maker to tools to aid in the analysis.Sometimes we need more information, sometimes we don’t. The role of science in a decision-making process is to provide the predictions that link the alternative actions to the desired outcomes. Investing in more science is only valuable if it helps to choose a better action.Implementation. The successful integration of decision analysis into environmental decisions requires careful attention to the decision, the people, and the institutions involved.

  16. How to form on food and nutritional security for decision makers of communities and cooperative on Cuban

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Inés Margarita Torres Rivero

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this work is to support a training strategy for policy decision makers and managers of local projects Integrated in Alimentary and Nutritional Security (SAN in communities and cooperative, sustained on a pedagogical approach, based on the relationship between the components of the SAN, the government official's functions (FG and the administration of local projects integrated as way of performance of this subject. The objective of the strategy is to achieve that decision makers of Pinar del Rio province, can appropriate the knowledge, abilities and values for facilitating their integral preparation related with the SAN, and can negotiate the existent potentialities in communities and cooperative, develop local projects in SAN that supplement the emanated politics from state upper level, then the strategy allows a pertinent acting that impacts in the town that is an inevitable necessity for Cuba and specifically for this province, which is the most vulnerable province to environmental changes that so much influences in SAN.

  17. The emergence and workings of a process view in public education policy

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Grønbæk Pors, Justine; Ratner, Helene Gad

    2017-01-01

    This article presents a study of Danish primary education policy with the purpose of exploring what is put at stake when contemporary management discourses describe the object of management as fluid and emergent processes rather than as entities, persons and things. The article examines how...... such a process view of organisation allows policy makers to imagine innovative change, but also how a process view interacts in particular ways with financial pressures and become entangled to increased performance measurements. We conclude that in this particular case, a conception of the object of management...

  18. EDUCATION MANAGEMENT DECISION-MAKERS IN EUROPEAN PRE – UNIVERSITY EDUCATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    DUMITRAȘCU DANUȚ DUMITRU

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available EDUCATION MANAGEMENT DECISION-MAKERS IN EUROPEAN PRE – UNIVERSITY EDUCATION Ana Tuºa, 1 Affiliation , “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu, Faculty of Economics, Department of management Claudiu Sorin Voinia 2 , Affiliation, “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu Faculty of Engineering, Department of Industrial Engineering Dãnuþ Dumitru Dumitraºcu 3 Affiliation, “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu, Faculty of Economics, Department of management The theme paper consists in a comparative analysis of European preuniveristary education decision makers. Decision makers in preuniversity education management remain the key issue in the political agenda of most European countries. The diversity of educational policies in each European country aims to increase school autonomy, in a way that allows comparison of their main elements of management. Scientific research carried out aimed both theoretical and practical terms: - comparative analysis of how the makers of European schools are responsible for the management practiced in the educational institution. - identification of the achievement of school autonomy. Lately, in terms of policy makers and school autonomy, schools have gone through many reforms. It was felt the need to improve the democratic management and the quality of the educational process. The analysis and the approaches differ in terms of pace of reform, scale transfer of authority and areas that apply. No approach can be chosen as the ideal one or more effective than others, because the contexts in which they were made are so diverse. However, as it moves along, educational policy makers can learn from the approaches and experiences of others. The methodology was based on: the study of scientific literature from the country and abroad, on the theory and practice regarding the decision in the management of school education activities. Comparative analysis was conducted based on questionnaires

  19. What do decision makers learn from public forums on climate-related hazards and resilience?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weller, N.; Farooque, M.; Sittenfeld, D.

    2017-12-01

    Public engagement around climate resilience efforts can foster learning for both public audiences and decision makers. On the one hand, public audiences learn about environmental hazards and strategies to increase community resilience through effective public engagement. On the other, decision makers and scientists learn about community members' values and priorities and their relation to environmental hazards and resilience strategies. Evidence from other public engagement efforts involving decision makers suggests that decision maker involvement results in reflection by officials on their own values, capacities, and roles. However, few public engagement exercises evaluate impacts on decision makers. As part of the Science Center Public Forums project, which aims to conduct public forums in eight cities across the country on resiliency to drought, heat, extreme precipitation, and sea level rise, we sought to 1) build partnerships with local decision makers and scientists around public forums and 2) explore how decision makers and scientists interacted with the planning and undertaking of those public forums. We held workshops with decision makers and scientists to inform forum content and identify local resilience issues. We will conduct interviews with local decision makers regarding their involvement in forum planning, their reflections and takeaways from the forum itself, and their perspectives on the value of public engagement for policy making. We will present our model of engagement with decision makers, initial findings from interviews, and lessons learned from connecting decision makers and scientists to public engagement efforts.

  20. Round Six Of Partners Investing In Nursing's Future: Implications For The Health Sector, Policy Makers, And Foundations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jellinek, Paul S; Reinhardt, Renee J; Ladden, Maryjoan D; Salmon, Marla E

    2015-07-01

    In its 2011 report on the future of nursing, the Institute of Medicine issued recommendations to position nursing to meet the challenges of twenty-first-century health care. Following release of the report, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation funded eleven local and regional partnerships of nurses, foundations, and other stakeholders to begin implementing some of the recommendations in their regions. A qualitative evaluation of these partnerships found that although not all goals were met, most of the partnerships achieved meaningful gains. Partnership participants emphasized the value of engaging foundations and other stakeholders from outside nursing in the implementation process, the necessity of funding for implementation, the need for policy makers to address constraints that local and regional partnerships by themselves cannot address, and the unique leadership and convening role that local and regional foundations can play to help their regions respond to complex challenges for the nursing profession. Project HOPE—The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc.

  1. Improving adolescent health policy: incorporating a framework for assessing state-level policies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brindis, Claire D; Moore, Kristin

    2014-01-01

    Many US policies that affect health are made at the state, not the federal, level. Identifying state-level policies and data to analyze how different policies affect outcomes may help policy makers ascertain the usefulness of their public policies and funding decisions in improving the health of adolescent populations. A framework for describing and assessing the role of federal and state policies on adolescent health and well-being is proposed; an example of how the framework might be applied to the issue of teen childbearing is included. Such a framework can also help inform analyses of whether and how state and federal policies contribute to the variation across states in meeting adolescent health needs. A database on state policies, contextual variables, and health outcomes data can further enable researchers and policy makers to examine how these factors are associated with behaviors they aim to impact.

  2. Performance Evaluation of an Object Management Policy Approach for P2P Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dario Vieira

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available The increasing popularity of network-based multimedia applications poses many challenges for content providers to supply efficient and scalable services. Peer-to-peer (P2P systems have been shown to be a promising approach to provide large-scale video services over the Internet since, by nature, these systems show high scalability and robustness. In this paper, we propose and analyze an object management policy approach for video web cache in a P2P context, taking advantage of object's metadata, for example, video popularity, and object's encoding techniques, for example, scalable video coding (SVC. We carry out trace-driven simulations so as to evaluate the performance of our approach and compare it against traditional object management policy approaches. In addition, we study as well the impact of churn on our approach and on other object management policies that implement different caching strategies. A YouTube video collection which records over 1.6 million video's log was used in our experimental studies. The experiment results have showed that our proposed approach can improve the performance of the cache substantially. Moreover, we have found that neither the simply enlargement of peers' storage capacity nor a zero replicating strategy is effective actions to improve performance of an object management policy.

  3. The Realization Mechanism of China's Monetary Policy Objectives: 2001-2010

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Wang Guogang

    2013-01-01

    This article explores the realization mechanism for the final and interim targets of China's monetary policy from 2001 to 2010.It finds that the three significant price surges in the ten years were not the results of loose monetary policy While maintaining rapid economic growth,China avoided the inflation linked with excess monetary supply.The introduction of total new lending in the interim targets also showed the maturing of China's monetary policy target system.To improve China's monetary operation,three measures need to te taken:firstly,basing stabilizing monetary policy on the trend of the non-food price index within the CPI;secondly,readjusting the definition of money according the different characteristics of transaction money and reserve money;and thirdly,including yuan exchange rates into the intermediate objectives of monetary policy.

  4. Demand driven innovation policies in the European Union

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Camilla; Goldberg, Itzhak

    The objective of the PICK-ME (Policy Incentives for Creation of Knowledge – Methods and Evidence) research project is to provide theoretical and empirical perspectives on innovation which give a greater role to the demand-side aspect of innovation. The main question is how can policy make...... on the skills side must be targeted through education policies that fosters centers of excellence. R&D incentives are also considered as a separate instrument but more a question for future research since there is no evidence available on R&D incentives as a Gazelle type of policy. Spatial policies to foster...... throughout the paper. The main concern of policy-makers should therefore be how to support Gazelle type of firms through various policies. The effectiveness of different policy instruments are considered. For example, venture capitalism is in the paper identified as an important modern institution...

  5. Applying gene flow science to environmental policy needs: a boundary work perspective.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ridley, Caroline E; Alexander, Laurie C

    2016-08-01

    One application of gene flow science is the policy arena. In this article, we describe two examples in which the topic of gene flow has entered into the U.S. national environmental policymaking process: regulation of genetically engineered crops and clarification of the jurisdictional scope of the Clean Water Act. We summarize both current scientific understanding and the legal context within which gene flow science has relevance. We also discuss the process by which scientific knowledge has been synthesized and communicated to decision-makers in these two contexts utilizing the concept of 'boundary work'. Boundary organizations, the work they engage in to bridge the worlds of science, policy, and practice, and the boundary objects they produce to translate scientific knowledge existed in both examples. However, the specific activities and attributes of the objects produced varied based on the needs of the decision-makers. We close with suggestions for how scientists can contribute to or engage in boundary work with policymakers.

  6. Clearing the air. Air quality modelling for policy support

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hendriks, C.

    2017-01-01

    The studies presented in this thesis were performed to provide policy makers with more accurate information about the sources of air pollution and the possible consequences of future developments on air quality. This enables policy makers to make better informed decisions when formulating policies

  7. Improving policy implementation through collaborative policymaking

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ansell, Christopher; Sørensen, Eva; Torfing, Jacob

    2017-01-01

    We offer a fresh perspective on implementation problems by suggesting that collaborative policy design and adaptive policy implementation will help public policy makers to improve policy execution. Classical implementation theories have focused too narrowly on administrative stumbling blocks and ...... collaborative policymaking and adaptive policy implementation might work in theory and practice......We offer a fresh perspective on implementation problems by suggesting that collaborative policy design and adaptive policy implementation will help public policy makers to improve policy execution. Classical implementation theories have focused too narrowly on administrative stumbling blocks...... and New Public Management has reinforced the split between politics and administration. Attempts to improve policy implementation must begin by looking at policy design, which can be improved through collaboration and deliberation between upstream and downstream actors. We provide a broad overview of how...

  8. Modeling urban expansion policy scenarios using an agent-based approach for Guangzhou Metropolitan Region of China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Guangjin Tian

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available Policy makers and the human decision processes of urban planning have an impact on urban expansion. The behaviors and decision modes of regional authority, real estate developer, resident, and farmer agents and their interactions can be simulated by the analytical hierarchy process (AHP method. The driving factors are regressed with urban dynamics instead of static land-use types. Agents' behaviors and decision modes have an impact on the urban dynamic pattern by adjusting parameter weights. We integrate an agent-based model (ABM with AHP to investigate a complex decision-making process and future urban dynamic processes. Three policy scenarios for baseline development, rapid development, and green land protection have been applied to predict the future development patterns of the Guangzhou metropolitan region. A future policy scenario analysis can help policy makers to understand the possible results. These individuals can adjust their policies and decisions according to their different objectives.

  9. The Role of Knowledge Brokers in International Ocean Policy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mannix, H.

    2013-12-01

    The concept of the 'boundary' between science and policy has been used as a tool to separate and protect the credibility of both parties - the scientist and the policy maker. While this separation is important, it also results in frustration by both sides, a reduction in efficiency and ultimately establishes policy that has the potential to be more effective. Many now agree that the process of knowledge generation and transmission to decision makers, and eventually into effective policy, should not be a one-way, linear push of information, but a multi-party dialogue in which decision makers, scientists and intermediaries work together to increase the effectiveness of the scientific information for the policy process. These intermediaries, or knowledge brokers, are described as persons or organizations that actively facilitate the creation, sharing, and use of knowledge. This work discusses the reasons for the boundary between science and policy and the inherent challenges in bridging the boundary. It examines the role and activities of knowledge brokers and illuminates the process by which scientific and technical knowledge is translated from knowledge generators (i.e. scientists) to knowledge users (i.e. policy makers) in international environmental governance. The study then considers the role of knowledge brokers in practice, through a case study of the ongoing effort to establish marine protected areas in the high seas. Specifically, this study examines who the knowledge brokers are working on this topic, their activities, and what lessons their experiences hold for the effective translation of scientific information to policy makers in other international issues. The study concludes that 1) knowledge brokers and boundary organizations are an essential part of the effective translation of scientific knowledge to policy makers in international environmental governance and 2) both knowledge generators and knowledge users would benefit by recognizing the role of

  10. Designing Dynamic Adaptive Policy Pathways using Many-Objective Robust Decision Making

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kwakkel, Jan; Haasnoot, Marjolijn

    2017-04-01

    Dealing with climate risks in water management requires confronting a wide variety of deeply uncertain factors, while navigating a many dimensional space of trade-offs amongst objectives. There is an emerging body of literature on supporting this type of decision problem, under the label of decision making under deep uncertainty. Two approaches within this literature are Many-Objective Robust Decision Making, and Dynamic Adaptive Policy Pathways. In recent work, these approaches have been compared. One of the main conclusions of this comparison was that they are highly complementary. Many-Objective Robust Decision Making is a model based decision support approach, while Dynamic Adaptive Policy Pathways is primarily a conceptual framework for the design of flexible strategies that can be adapted over time in response to how the future is actually unfolding. In this research we explore this complementarity in more detail. Specifically, we demonstrate how Many-Objective Robust Decision Making can be used to design adaptation pathways. We demonstrate this combined approach using a water management problem, in the Netherlands. The water level of Lake IJselmeer, the main fresh water resource of the Netherlands, is currently managed through discharge by gravity. Due to climate change, this won't be possible in the future, unless water levels are changed. Changing the water level has undesirable flood risk and spatial planning consequences. The challenge is to find promising adaptation pathways that balance objectives related to fresh water supply, flood risk, and spatial issues, while accounting for uncertain climatic and land use change. We conclude that the combination of Many-Objective Robust Decision Making and Dynamic Adaptive Policy Pathways is particularly suited for dealing with deeply uncertain climate risks.

  11. Overarching sustainability objectives overcome incompatible directions in the Common Fisheries Policy

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Goti, Leyre; Fitzpatrick, Mike; Döring, Ralf

    2018-01-01

    The lack of clarity in the objectives of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) must be addressed to create a more efficient balance across diverse ecological, economic and social dimensions. Particularly economic and social objectives present at an overarching level must be made explicit and addressed...... objectives to managing fisheries can be derived from stakeholders. The paper first reviews the definition of objectives, from a historical and conceptual perspective. Secondly, it discusses the issues of manageability and acceptability, and finally describes an articulation of the high level objectives...

  12. Evidence for Agile Policy Makers: The Contribution of Transformative Realism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Room, Graham

    2013-01-01

    Advocates of evidence-based policy making (EBPM) are typically concerned with the impact of particular interventions. This implicit ontology of the policy world, as disaggregated into a variety of independent interventions, has been challenged by Pawson (2006), in terms of the contingencies that activate, inhibit or reshape the impact of any…

  13. Public Acceptance on Nuclear Power: A Strategic Need to Shift to 5Ps (Politicians, Policy Makers, Professionals, Public and Press) Acceptance on Nuclear Power

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dato Syed Ahmad Idid, S.N. K. A.-I.

    2015-01-01

    Business should not be as usual in formulating strategies and plans to enhance awareness regarding the benefits of nuclear power as an option for energy mix. Although, presently 435 nuclear power reactors in operation in 30 countries are delivering cost competitive electricity to consumers, creating significant job, investment and business opportunities, supporting enterprises, contributing significantly to these nations economic growth, however these positive impacts and benefits have not be sufficiently transmitted to the various stakeholders and population, who have until recently only received unbalanced views and news from an uninformed press. Negative and generally unbalanced press coverage of isolated nuclear incidents and accidents such as TMI, Chernobyl and most recently Fukushima has resulted in public protests to nuclear power, contributing to several nuclear power programmes being delayed or not able to take off. This situation is further exacerbated by uninformed politicians and policy makers who have the influence but were not able to harness their positions to assure the public due to lack of knowledge regarding the economic and social benefits of nuclear power. As the challenges to the nuclear industry presently also include ageing nuclear professionals, lack of updates regarding business and financing opportunities to business and financing professionals, thus the benefits of career, business and financing opportunities must also be disseminated to these Professionals. This paper aims to highlight the fundamental need to expand present Public Awareness Programme to become the 5Ps (Politicians, Policy makers, Professionals, Public and Press) Awareness Programme on Nuclear Power. (author)

  14. The challenges of working in underserved areas: a qualitative exploratory study of views of policy makers and professionals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    AbuAlRub, Raeda F; El-Jardali, Fadi; Jamal, Diana; Iblasi, Abdulkareem S; Murray, Susan F

    2013-01-01

    The inadequate number of health care providers, particularly nurses, in underserved areas is one of the biggest challenges for health policymakers. There is a scarcity of research in Jordan about factors that affect nurse staffing and retention in underserved areas. To elucidate the views of staff nurses working in underserved areas, directors of health facilities in underserved areas and key informants from the policy and education arena on issues of staffing and retention of nurses in underserved areas. An exploratory study using a qualitative approach with semi-structured interviews was utilized to elucidate the views of 22 key informants from the policy and education arena, 11 directors of health centers, and 19 staff nurses on issues that contribute to low staffing and retention of nurses in underserved areas. The five stage 'framework approach' proposed by Bryman et al. (1993) was utilized for data analysis. Nursing shortage in underserved areas in Jordan are exacerbated by a lack of financial incentives, poor transportation and remoteness of these areas, bad working conditions, and lack of health education institutions in these areas, as well as by opportunities for internal and external migration. Young Jordanian male nurses usually grab any opportunity to migrate and work outside the country to improve their financial conditions; whereas, female nurses are more restricted and not encouraged to travel abroad to work. Several strategies are suggested to enhance retention in these areas, such as promoting financial incentives for staff to work there, enhancing the transportation system, and promoting continuous and academic education. Nurses' administrators and health care policy makers could utilize the findings of the present study to design and implement comprehensive interventions to enhance retention of staff in underserved areas. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. The Mexican hydro-meteorological disasters and climate network (redesclim) as model on outreach decision makers on disaster public policy in Mexico.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Welsh-Rodriguez, C. M.; Rodriguez-Estevez, J. M., Sr.; Romo-Aguilar, M. D. L.; Brito-Castillo, L.; Salinas-Prieto, A.; Gonzalez-Sosa, E.; Pérez-Campuzano, E.

    2017-12-01

    REDESCLIM was designed and develop in 2011 due to a public call from The Science and Technology Mexican Council (CONACYT); CONACYT lead the activities for its organization and development among the academic community. REDESCLIM was created to enhance the capacity of response to hydro-meteorological disasters and climate events through an integrative effort of researchers, technologists, entrepreneurs, politicians and society. Brief summary of our objectives: 1) Understand the causes of disasters, to reduce risks to society and ecosystems 2) Support research and interdisciplinary assessment of the physical processes in natural and social phenomena to improve understanding of causes and impacts 3) Strengths collaboration with academic, government, private and other interdisciplinary networks from Mexico and other countries 4) Build human capacity and promote the development of skills 5) Recommend strategies for climate hazard prevention, mitigation and response, especially for hazard with the greatest impacts in Mexico, such as hurricanes, floods, drought, wild fires and other extremes events. We provide a continues communication channel on members research results to provide scientific information that could be used for different proposes, specificaly for decision makers who are dealing with ecological and hydro meteorological problems that can result in disasters, and provide a services menu based on the members scientific projects, publications, teaching courses, in order to impact public policy as final result. http://www.redesclim.org.mx. So far we have some basic results: Fiver national meetings (participants from 35 countries around the world), 7 Workshops and seminars (virtual and in-person), Climatic data platforms ( http://clicom.mex.cicese.mx, http://clicom-mex.cicese.mx/malla, http://atlasclimatico.unam.mx/REDESCLIM2/ ), climate change scenarios for the general public at http://escenarios.inecc.gob.mx, 14 seed projects, one model to hurricane simulation

  16. QuantCrit: Education, Policy, "Big Data" and Principles for a Critical Race Theory of Statistics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gillborn, David; Warmington, Paul; Demack, Sean

    2018-01-01

    Quantitative research enjoys heightened esteem among policy-makers, media, and the general public. Whereas qualitative research is frequently dismissed as subjective and impressionistic, statistics are often assumed to be objective and factual. We argue that these distinctions are wholly false; quantitative data is no less socially constructed…

  17. Climate change science and the development of environment/energy policies

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bernabo, J.C.

    1994-01-01

    For the past decade climate research in the US has focused on long-term-understanding of earth systems rather than addressing the more immediate information needs of decision makers, such as information on impacts and solutions. During the Bush Administration, the primary objective was to determine if there was a problem, with little emphasis on developing information on what to do about the issue. The Clinton Administration is trying to refocus research to assist more effectively in decision making. This reevaluation is part of the post-Cold War shift toward funding federal research based more explicitly on the relevancy to societal needs. The Joint Climate Project to Address Decision Makers' Uncertainties was sponsored by EPRI, DOE, DOI, EPA, USDA, and USFS to assess what information is most relevant for decision making and how research could address those needs. The results of this stakeholders' needs assessment are being used to help reorient the federal program. Decision makers' priorities include greater emphasis on impacts and responses. More work is required in the ecological and social sciences to provide information for policy making. Researchers periodically need to provide interim information and policy-relevant assessments while continuing to improve long-term scientific understanding

  18. A Multi-Objective Unit Commitment Model for Setting Carbon Tax to Reduce CO2 Emission: Thailand's Electricity Generation Case

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nuchjarin Intalar

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available Carbon tax policy is a cost-effective instrument for emission reduction. However, setting the carbon tax is one of the challenging task for policy makers as it will lead to higher price of emission-intensive sources especially the utility price. In a large-scale power generation system, minimizing the operational cost and the environmental impact are conflicting objectives and it is difficult to find the compromise solution. This paper proposes a methodology of finding a feasible carbon tax rate on strategic level using the operational unit commitment model. We present a multi-objective mixed integer linear programming model to solve the unit commitment problem and consider the environmental impacts. The methodology of analyzing of the effect of carbon tax rates on the power generation, operating cost, and CO2 emission is also provided. The trade-off relationship between total operating cost and total CO2 emission is presented in the Pareto-optimal curve to analyze the feasible carbon tax rate that is influencing on electricity operating cost. The significant outcome of this paper is a modeling framework for the policy makers to determine the possible carbon tax that can be imposed on the electricity generation.

  19. Policy Pathways: Energy Performance Certification of Buildings

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2010-07-01

    Improving energy efficiency is one of the most effective measures to address energy security, climate change and economic objectives. The Policy Pathways series can help countries capture this potential by assisting with the implementation of the 25 energy efficiency policy recommendations that were published by the International Energy Agency (IEA) in 2008. This policy pathway on energy performance certification of buildings is the second in the series. It aims to provide a 'how-to' guide to policy makers and relevant stakeholders on the essential elements in implementing energy performance certification of buildings programmes. Energy performance certification of buildings is a way to rate the energy efficiency of individual buildings -- whether they be residential, commercial or public. It is a key policy instrument that can assist governments in reducing energy consumption in buildings. This policy pathway showcases experiences from countries around the world to show examples of good practice and delivers a pathway of ten critical steps to implement energy performance certification of buildings programmes.

  20. Fundamental Objectives and Directives Principles of State Policy: A ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Corruption is a term that is eclectic. It is a global phenomenon that has paired itself with both past and present civilizations. Financial corruption is a variant of this obnoxious ill of modern state, Nigeria not being an exception. The provisions of the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State policy in the ...

  1. Implementation of a health policy advisory committee as a knowledge translation platform: the Nigeria experience

    Science.gov (United States)

    Uneke, Chigozie Jesse; Ndukwe, Chinwendu Daniel; Ezeoha, Abel Abeh; Uro-Chukwu, Henry Chukwuemeka; Ezeonu, Chinonyelum Thecla

    2015-01-01

    Background: In recent times, there has been a growing demand internationally for health policies to be based on reliable research evidence. Consequently, there is a need to strengthen institutions and mechanisms that can promote interactions among researchers, policy-makers and other stakeholders who can influence the uptake of research findings. The Health Policy Advisory Committee (HPAC) is one of such mechanisms that can serve as an excellent forum for the interaction of policy-makers and researchers. Therefore, the need to have a long term mechanism that allows for periodic interactions between researchers and policy-makers within the existing government system necessitated our implementation of a newly established HPAC in Ebonyi State Nigeria, as a Knowledge Translation (KT) platform. The key study objective was to enhance the capacity of the HPAC and equip its members with the skills/competence required for the committee to effectively promote evidence informed policy-making and function as a KT platform. Methods: A series of capacity building programmes and KT activities were undertaken including: i) Capacity building of the HPAC using Evidence-to-Policy Network (EVIPNet) SUPPORT tools; ii) Capacity enhancement mentorship programme of the HPAC through a three-month executive training programme on health policy/health systems and KT in Ebonyi State University Abakaliki; iii) Production of a policy brief on strategies to improve the performance of the Government’s Free Maternal and Child Health Care Programme in Ebonyi State Nigeria; and iv) Hosting of a multi-stakeholders policy dialogue based on the produced policy brief on the Government’s Free Maternal and Child Health Care Programme. Results: The study findings indicated a noteworthy improvement in knowledge of evidence-to-policy link among the HPAC members; the elimination of mutual mistrust between policy-makers and researchers; and an increase in the awareness of importance of HPAC in the Ministry

  2. Implementation of a Health Policy Advisory Committee as a Knowledge Translation Platform: The Nigeria Experience

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chigozie Jesse Uneke

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available Background In recent times, there has been a growing demand internationally for health policies to be based on reliable research evidence. Consequently, there is a need to strengthen institutions and mechanisms that can promote interactions among researchers, policy-makers and other stakeholders who can influence the uptake of research findings. The Health Policy Advisory Committee (HPAC is one of such mechanisms that can serve as an excellent forum for the interaction of policy-makers and researchers. Therefore, the need to have a long term mechanism that allows for periodic interactions between researchers and policy-makers within the existing government system necessitated our implementation of a newly established HPAC in Ebonyi State Nigeria, as a Knowledge Translation (KT platform. The key study objective was to enhance the capacity of the HPAC and equip its members with the skills/competence required for the committee to effectively promote evidence informed policy-making and function as a KT platform. Methods A series of capacity building programmes and KT activities were undertaken including: i Capacity building of the HPAC using Evidence-to-Policy Network (EVIPNet SUPPORT tools; ii Capacity enhancement mentorship programme of the HPAC through a three-month executive training programme on health policy/health systems and KT in Ebonyi State University Abakaliki; iii Production of a policy brief on strategies to improve the performance of the Government’s Free Maternal and Child Health Care Programme in Ebonyi State Nigeria; and iv Hosting of a multi-stakeholders policy dialogue based on the produced policy brief on the Government’s Free Maternal and Child Health Care Programme. Results The study findings indicated a noteworthy improvement in knowledge of evidence-to-policy link among the HPAC members; the elimination of mutual mistrust between policy-makers and researchers; and an increase in the awareness of importance of HPAC in the

  3. Experiences and attitudes towards evidence-informed policy-making among research and policy stakeholders in the Canadian agri-food public health sector.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Young, I; Gropp, K; Pintar, K; Waddell, L; Marshall, B; Thomas, K; McEwen, S A; Rajić, A

    2014-12-01

    Policy-makers working at the interface of agri-food and public health often deal with complex and cross-cutting issues that have broad health impacts and socio-economic implications. They have a responsibility to ensure that policy-making based on these issues is accountable and informed by the best available scientific evidence. We conducted a qualitative descriptive study of agri-food public health policy-makers and research and policy analysts in Ontario, Canada, to understand their perspectives on how the policy-making process is currently informed by scientific evidence and how to facilitate this process. Five focus groups of 3-7 participants and five-one-to-one interviews were held in 2012 with participants from federal and provincial government departments and industry organizations in the agri-food public health sector. We conducted a thematic analysis of the focus group and interview transcripts to identify overarching themes. Participants indicated that the following six key principles are necessary to enable and demonstrate evidence-informed policy-making (EIPM) in this sector: (i) establish and clarify the policy objectives and context; (ii) support policy-making with credible scientific evidence from different sources; (iii) integrate scientific evidence with other diverse policy inputs (e.g. economics, local applicability and stakeholder interests); (iv) ensure that scientific evidence is communicated by research and policy stakeholders in relevant and user-friendly formats; (V) create and foster interdisciplinary relationships and networks across research and policy communities; and (VI) enhance organizational capacity and individual skills for EIPM. Ongoing and planned efforts in these areas, a supportive culture, and additional education and training in both research and policy realms are important to facilitate evidence-informed policy-making in this sector. Future research should explore these findings further in other countries and contexts.

  4. Using Multi-Objective Optimization to Explore Robust Policies in the Colorado River Basin

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alexander, E.; Kasprzyk, J. R.; Zagona, E. A.; Prairie, J. R.; Jerla, C.; Butler, A.

    2017-12-01

    The long term reliability of water deliveries in the Colorado River Basin has degraded due to the imbalance of growing demand and dwindling supply. The Colorado River meanders 1,450 miles across a watershed that covers seven US states and Mexico and is an important cultural, economic, and natural resource for nearly 40 million people. Its complex operating policy is based on the "Law of the River," which has evolved since the Colorado River Compact in 1922. Recent (2007) refinements to address shortage reductions and coordinated operations of Lakes Powell and Mead were negotiated with stakeholders in which thousands of scenarios were explored to identify operating guidelines that could ultimately be agreed on. This study explores a different approach to searching for robust operating policies to inform the policy making process. The Colorado River Simulation System (CRSS), a long-term water management simulation model implemented in RiverWare, is combined with the Borg multi-objective evolutionary algorithm (MOEA) to solve an eight objective problem formulation. Basin-wide performance metrics are closely tied to system health through incorporating critical reservoir pool elevations, duration, frequency and quantity of shortage reductions in the objective set. For example, an objective to minimize the frequency that Lake Powell falls below the minimum power pool elevation of 3,490 feet for Glen Canyon Dam protects a vital economic and renewable energy source for the southwestern US. The decision variables correspond to operating tiers in Lakes Powell and Mead that drive the implementation of various shortage and release policies, thus affecting system performance. The result will be a set of non-dominated solutions that can be compared with respect to their trade-offs based on the various objectives. These could inform policy making processes by eliminating dominated solutions and revealing robust solutions that could remain hidden under conventional analysis.

  5. Pizza makers' contact dermatitis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lembo, Serena; Lembo, Claudio; Patruno, Cataldo; Balato, Anna; Balato, Nicola; Ayala, Fabio

    2014-01-01

    Contact eczema to foods, spices, and food additives can occur in occupational and nonoccupational settings in those who grow, handle, prepare, or cook food. Pizza is one of the most eaten foods in every continent, and pizza making is a common work in many countries. We aimed to evaluate the occurrence and the causes of contact dermatitis in pizza makers in Naples. We performed an observational study in 45 pizza makers: all the enrolled subjects had to answer a questionnaire designed to detect personal history of respiratory or cutaneous allergy, atopy; work characteristics and timing were also investigated. Every subject attended the dermatology clinic for a complete skin examination, and when needed, patients were patch tested using the Italian baseline series of haptens integrated with an arbitrary pizza makers series. Our results reported that 13.3% of the enrolled pizza makers (6/45) presented hand eczema, and that 8.9% (4/45) were affected by occupational allergic contact dermatitis. Diallyl disulfide and ammonium persulfate were the responsible substances. Performing patch tests in pizza makers and food handlers affected by hand contact dermatitis is useful. We propose a specific series of haptens for this wide working category.

  6. Development of an interactive interface to raise awareness of public, policy makers, and practitioners about natural hazards.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gordova, Yulia; Gordov, Evgeny; Okladnikov, Igor; Titov, Alexander

    2017-04-01

    used for undergraduate and graduate students training. In addition, the system capabilities allow creating information resources to raise public awareness about climate change, its causes and consequences, which is a necessary step for the subsequent adaptation to these changes. "Climate" allows climatologists, specialists in related fields, decision-makers, stakeholders and the public use a variety of geographically distributed spatially-referenced data, resources and processing services via a web-browser. Currently, an interactive System User Manual for decision-makers is developed. It contains not only the information needed to use the system and perform practical tasks, but also the basic concepts explained in detail. The knowledge necessary for understanding the causes and possible consequences of the processes is given. The results of implementation of practical tasks are available not only in the form of color surface maps, but also on the Internet and in the form of layers for most GIS. Thus these layers can be used in usual desktop GIS which is a common software for most of decision-makers. Thus, this manual helps to prepare qualified users, which in the future will be able to determine the policy of the region to adapt to climate change impacts and hazards. The work is supported by Russian Science Foundation grant № 16-19-10257.

  7. Monitoring Values and Practices of Oak Woodland Decision Makers on the Urban Fringe

    Science.gov (United States)

    William Stewart

    1991-01-01

    Concern over oak woodlands has shifted away from ranch management towards residential areas. This shift has been accompanied by the involvement of decision makers who previously had little involvement with rangeland policies and practices. A survey of three recent Cooperative Extension workshops illustrates a number of important patterns regarding interest and...

  8. Create the conditions - renewable energy and energy storage policies choices for island nations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Timmins, Thomas

    2015-01-01

    This fast moving, detailed presentation offers an in-depth look at the development, launch and renewal of renewable energy procurement programs worldwide, with an eye to (a) educating renewable energy policy makers and procurement program designers with up-to-date information on issues, investor concerns and trends from island nations around the globe, (b) informing industry participants and industry advocates regarding divergent public policy choices facing policy makers, and (c) helping industry stakeholders to assist public policy choice makers in formulating effective and sustainable policy choices. (full text)

  9. Many-Objective Reservoir Policy Identification and Refinement to Reduce Institutional Myopia in Water Management

    Science.gov (United States)

    Giuliani, M.; Herman, J. D.; Castelletti, A.; Reed, P. M.

    2013-12-01

    Institutional inertia strongly limits our ability to adapt water reservoir operations to better manage growing water demands as well as their associated uncertainties in a changing climate. Although it has long been recognized that these systems are generally framed in heterogeneous socio-economic contexts involving a myriad of conflicting, non-commensurable operating objectives, our broader understanding of the multiobjective consequences of current operating rules as well as their vulnerability to hydroclimatic uncertainties is severely limited. This study proposes a decision analytic framework to overcome policy inertia and myopia in complex river basin management contexts. The framework combines reservoir policy identification and many-objective optimization under uncertainty to characterize current operations and discover key tradeoffs between alternative policies for balancing evolving demands and system uncertainties. The approach is demonstrated on the Conowingo Dam, located within the Lower Susquehanna River, USA. The Lower Susquehanna River is an interstate water body that has been subject to intensive water management efforts due to the system's competing demands from urban water supply, atomic power plant cooling, hydropower production, and federally regulated environmental flows. Initially our proposed framework uses available streamflow observations to implicitly identify the Conowingo Dam's current but unknown operating policy. This baseline policy is identified by fitting radial basis functions to existing system dynamics. Our assumption in the baseline policy is that the dam operator is represented as a rational agent seeking to maximize primary operational objectives (i.e., guaranteeing the public water supply and maximizing the hydropower revenue). The quality of the identified baseline policy is evaluated by its ability to replicate historical release dynamics. Once identified, the historical baseline policy then provides a means of representing

  10. Climate change and local policy. Report of the workshop 2 December 1998, KIT, Amsterdam

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schol, E.; Van Vuuren, V.C.; Burger, H.

    1999-01-01

    The objective of the title workshop was to exchange knowledge among Dutch experts and local policy makers on the possibilities for cities to reduce their CO 2 -emissions. The workshop was subdivided into three working groups: (1) Monitoring and Benchmarking; (2) Liberalization of the Energy Market; and (3) Mobilization of the Target Groups

  11. Hydro-environmental management of groundwater resources: A fuzzy-based multi-objective compromise approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alizadeh, Mohammad Reza; Nikoo, Mohammad Reza; Rakhshandehroo, Gholam Reza

    2017-08-01

    Sustainable management of water resources necessitates close attention to social, economic and environmental aspects such as water quality and quantity concerns and potential conflicts. This study presents a new fuzzy-based multi-objective compromise methodology to determine the socio-optimal and sustainable policies for hydro-environmental management of groundwater resources, which simultaneously considers the conflicts and negotiation of involved stakeholders, uncertainties in decision makers' preferences, existing uncertainties in the groundwater parameters and groundwater quality and quantity issues. The fuzzy multi-objective simulation-optimization model is developed based on qualitative and quantitative groundwater simulation model (MODFLOW and MT3D), multi-objective optimization model (NSGA-II), Monte Carlo analysis and Fuzzy Transformation Method (FTM). Best compromise solutions (best management policies) on trade-off curves are determined using four different Fuzzy Social Choice (FSC) methods. Finally, a unanimity fallback bargaining method is utilized to suggest the most preferred FSC method. Kavar-Maharloo aquifer system in Fars, Iran, as a typical multi-stakeholder multi-objective real-world problem is considered to verify the proposed methodology. Results showed an effective performance of the framework for determining the most sustainable allocation policy in groundwater resource management.

  12. Urban stormwater source control policies: why and how?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    G. Petrucci

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available Stormwater source control is becoming a common strategy for urban stormwater management in many countries. It relies on regulations or other policy instruments compelling or inciting implementation, for each new urban development, of small-scale facilities to locally store and manage stormwater. Local authorities that pioneered source control since the 1980s have already observed that small-scale facilities systematically implemented over a catchment are able to influence its hydrological behaviour. This capability is the main strength of source control, as it allows compensation for the negative effects of urbanization. Yet, it also represents its main risk: if initial decision-making is not sufficiently accurate, source control can produce long-term negative effects. Because of its current spreading, source control will acquire an increasing role as a driver of hydrological changes in urban catchments, and the directions of these changes depend on current policy-making practices. This paper presents an analysis and a critical discussion of the main objectives that policy-makers attribute to stormwater source control. The investigation is based on a sample of French case studies, completed by a literature review for international comparison. It identifies four main objectives, some typical of urban stormwater management and some more innovative: flood reduction, receiving waters protection, sustainable development, costs reduction. The discussion focuses on how current policy-making practices are able to translate these objectives in concrete policy instruments, and on which knowledge and tools could improve this process. It is shown that for some objectives, basic knowledge is available, but the creation of policy instruments which are effective at the catchment scale and adapted to local conditions is still problematic. For other objectives, substantial lacks of knowledge exist, casting doubts on long-term effectiveness of current policy

  13. Can the Green Economy deliver it all? Experiences of renewable energy policies with socio-economic objectives

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pahle, Michael; Pachauri, Shonali; Steinbacher, Karoline

    2016-01-01

    Highlights: • Open question if renewables achieve both environmental and socioeconomic objectives. • Two policies each assessed looking at energy access and employment respectively. • Important role of governments and need for monitoring capacity is confirmed. • Short-term socioeconomic benefits realized in two cases, but they may not sustain. • Cases underline need for methodologies to better assess multiple-objective policies. - Abstract: The Green Economy (GE) paradigm aims to reconcile environmental and socio-economic objectives. Policies to deploy renewable energy (RE) are widely perceived as a way to tap the potential synergies of these objectives. It is, however, still largely unclear whether the potential of simultaneously achieving both environmental and socio-economic objectives can be fully realized, and whether and how multiple objectives influence policy design, implementation, and evaluation. We aim to contribute to this aspect of GE research by looking at selected country experiences of renewable energy deployment with respect to the socio-economic goals of job creation or energy access. Across the cases examined, we find the following implications of relevance for the GE framework: First, we confirm the important role of governmental action for GE, with the specific need to state objectives clearly and build monitoring capacity. Second, consistent with the “strong” green growth variant of GE, some of the cases suggest that while renewable deployment may indeed lead to short-term socio-economic benefits, these benefits may not last. Third, we underline the urgent need for new methodologies to analyze and better understand multiple-objective policies, which are at the heart of the GE paradigm.

  14. Clarity versus complexity: land-use modeling as a practical tool for decision-makers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sohl, Terry L.; Claggett, Peter

    2013-01-01

    The last decade has seen a remarkable increase in the number of modeling tools available to examine future land-use and land-cover (LULC) change. Integrated modeling frameworks, agent-based models, cellular automata approaches, and other modeling techniques have substantially improved the representation of complex LULC systems, with each method using a different strategy to address complexity. However, despite the development of new and better modeling tools, the use of these tools is limited for actual planning, decision-making, or policy-making purposes. LULC modelers have become very adept at creating tools for modeling LULC change, but complicated models and lack of transparency limit their utility for decision-makers. The complicated nature of many LULC models also makes it impractical or even impossible to perform a rigorous analysis of modeling uncertainty. This paper provides a review of land-cover modeling approaches and the issues causes by the complicated nature of models, and provides suggestions to facilitate the increased use of LULC models by decision-makers and other stakeholders. The utility of LULC models themselves can be improved by 1) providing model code and documentation, 2) through the use of scenario frameworks to frame overall uncertainties, 3) improving methods for generalizing key LULC processes most important to stakeholders, and 4) adopting more rigorous standards for validating models and quantifying uncertainty. Communication with decision-makers and other stakeholders can be improved by increasing stakeholder participation in all stages of the modeling process, increasing the transparency of model structure and uncertainties, and developing user-friendly decision-support systems to bridge the link between LULC science and policy. By considering these options, LULC science will be better positioned to support decision-makers and increase real-world application of LULC modeling results.

  15. Policies and place-making for competitive cities

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Musterd, S.; Kovács, Z.; Musterd, S.; Kovács, Z.

    2013-01-01

    Policy-makers are making efforts to strengthen the competitiveness of their cities and urban regions. This book is about these policies and their implications for place-making and competitive cities. Policies driven by ‘classic’ location theory, cluster policies, ‘creative class’ policies aimed at

  16. Moldova: Background and U.S. Policy

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Woehrel, Steven

    2004-01-01

    .... policy makers, including trafficking in persons and weapons. This short report provides information and analysis on Moldova, including its political and economic situation, foreign policy, and on U.S...

  17. Moldova: Background and U.S. Policy

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Woehrel, Steven

    2005-01-01

    .... policy makers, including trafficking in persons and weapons. This short report provides information and analysis on Moldova, including its political and economic situation, foreign policy, and on U.S...

  18. Pragmatism and Nationalism: Industrialization Policy in Indonesia and Nigeria

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ahmad Helmy Fuady

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available This paper examines industrialization policy in two oil giant economies, Indonesia and Nigeria. What are the key features of continued economic divergence in these two countries since the 1980s? It shows that Indonesia’s policy-makers adopted a series of liberalization measures and switched to an export-oriented strategy to develop manufacturing industries from the mid-1980s, while Nigeria’s policy-makers was reluctant to do so. This paper also seeks to understand the rationale behind the different policy choices. This paper argues that policy-makers’ experience and educational background are possible explanation to the different industrialization policies in these two countries.

  19. Helminthiasis Prevalence in Brick Makers at Lambada Peukan Village, Aceh Besar Region, Indonesia

    OpenAIRE

    Syahrizal, Dedy; Mustika, Cut; Ikhsan,; Azhary, Mulkan

    2011-01-01

    Helminthiasis are the common health problem in the develop country. WHO prediction 400 million people had infection of helminthiasis. Soil is the usual media to transmitted helminth to human (soil transmitted helminthiasis). One of the rule worker that has hard contact to helminth is the brick maker. This activity usual doing with convensional technique.The objective of this devotion are to knowing helminthiasis prevalence on brick maker in Lambada Peukan Village. The primer data is the co...

  20. Are Sexual and Reproductive Health Policies Designed for All? Vulnerable Groups in Policy Documents of Four European Countries and Their Involvement in Policy Development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ivanova, Olena; Dræbel, Tania; Tellier, Siri

    2015-08-12

    Health policies are important instruments for improving population health. However, experience suggests that policies designed for the whole population do not always benefit the most vulnerable. Participation of vulnerable groups in the policy-making process provides an opportunity for them to influence decisions related to their health, and also to exercise their rights. This paper presents the findings from a study that explored how vulnerable groups and principles of human rights are incorporated into national sexual and reproductive health (SRH) policies of 4 selected countries (Spain, Scotland, Republic of Moldova, and Ukraine). It also aimed at discussing the involvement of vulnerable groups in SRH policy development from the perspective of policy-makers. Literature review, health policy analysis and 5 semi-structured interviews with policy-makers were carried out in this study. Content analysis of SRH policies was performed using the EquiFrame analytical framework. The study revealed that vulnerable groups and core principles of human rights are differently addressed in SRH policies within 4 studied countries. The opinions of policy-makers on the importance of mentioning vulnerable groups in policy documents and the way they ought to be mentioned varied, but they agreed that a clear definition of vulnerability, practical examples, and evidences on health status of these groups have to be included. In addition, different approaches to vulnerable group's involvement in policy development were identified during the interviews and the range of obstacles to this process was discussed by respondents. Incorporation of vulnerable groups in the SRH policies and their involvement in policy development were found to be important in addressing SRH of these groups and providing an opportunity for them to advocate for equal access to healthcare and exercise their rights. Future research on this topic should include representatives of vulnerable communities which could

  1. Assessing Volatilities of Monetary Policy and their Effects on the Islamic and Conventional Stock Markets in Indonesia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M Shabri Abd Majid

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available The main objective of this study is to empirically assess the volatilities of the monetary policy instruments and their effects on the Indonesian Islamic and conventional stock market. The changes in exchange rate, interest rates, and money supply and their effects on the stock markets are investigated using the using the Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity frameworks. As a big-open economy, the capital market of Indonesia is vulnerable to the global monetary shocks changes, thus the US federal funds rate is also incorporated into the GARCH model. The study documented that, with the exception of the US interest rate, the volatilities of all monetary policy variables of interest rate, exchange rate, and money supply were documented affecting the volatilities of both Islamic and conventional stock markets. These findings imply that the volatilities of Islamic and conventional stock markets have similar determinants, thus to stabilize the markets, the investigated monetary policy variables should be controlled for by the policy-makers. Any monetary policy design imposed by the policy-makers would have a similar effect on both conventional and Islamic stocks in Indonesia.DOI: 10.15408/sjie.v7i2.7352

  2. Science and technology policy

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Who is responsible for environmental and technological policy in Denmark? And how are those "policy-makers" made accountable to the public for their decisions?   This report attempts to answer these important questions by presenting the Danish contribution to the EU-funded project, Analysing Public...

  3. Cancer beliefs and prevention policies: comparing Canadian decision-maker and general population views.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nykiforuk, Candace I J; Wild, T Cameron; Raine, Kim D

    2014-12-01

    The knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs of key policy influencers and the general public can support or hinder the development of public policies that support cancer prevention. To address gaps in knowledge concerning healthy public policy development, views on cancer causation and endorsement of policy alternatives for cancer prevention among government influencers (elected members of legislative assemblies and senior ministry bureaucrats), non-governmental influencers (school board chairs and superintendents, print media editors and reporters, and workplace presidents and senior human resource managers), and the general public were compared. Two structured surveys, one administered to a convenience sample of policy influencers (government and non-governmental) and the other to a randomly selected sample of the general public, were used. The aim of these surveys was to understand knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs regarding health promotion principles and the priority and acceptability of policy actions to prevent four behavioral risk factors for cancer (tobacco use, alcohol misuse, unhealthy eating, and physical inactivity). Surveys were administered in Alberta and Manitoba, two comparable Canadian provinces. Although all groups demonstrated higher levels of support for individualistic policies (e.g., health education campaigns) than for fiscal and legislative measures, the general public expressed consistently greater support than policy influencers for using evidence-based policies (e.g., tax incentives or subsidies for healthy behaviors). These results suggest that Canadian policy influencers may be less open that the general public to adopt healthy public policies for cancer prevention, with potential detriment to cancer rates.

  4. Toward an Innovation Policy for Pakistan

    OpenAIRE

    Speakman, John; Afzal, Kiran; Yuge, Yasuhiko; Hanna, James

    2012-01-01

    This policy paper aims to assist policy makers, as they develop the Pakistan Innovation Policy, with an independent assessment of where Pakistan stands now, an international perspective on policy priorities, a review of policy options and some implementation and institutional perspectives. The paper begins with a review of the key lessons of international experience together with a study of ...

  5. A Reward-Maximizing Spiking Neuron as a Bounded Rational Decision Maker.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leibfried, Felix; Braun, Daniel A

    2015-08-01

    Rate distortion theory describes how to communicate relevant information most efficiently over a channel with limited capacity. One of the many applications of rate distortion theory is bounded rational decision making, where decision makers are modeled as information channels that transform sensory input into motor output under the constraint that their channel capacity is limited. Such a bounded rational decision maker can be thought to optimize an objective function that trades off the decision maker's utility or cumulative reward against the information processing cost measured by the mutual information between sensory input and motor output. In this study, we interpret a spiking neuron as a bounded rational decision maker that aims to maximize its expected reward under the computational constraint that the mutual information between the neuron's input and output is upper bounded. This abstract computational constraint translates into a penalization of the deviation between the neuron's instantaneous and average firing behavior. We derive a synaptic weight update rule for such a rate distortion optimizing neuron and show in simulations that the neuron efficiently extracts reward-relevant information from the input by trading off its synaptic strengths against the collected reward.

  6. Policy Review on Adult Learning: The Adult Non-Formal Education Policy of Mali, West Africa

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gadio, Moussa

    2011-01-01

    This article focuses on the issue of policy development for adult learning in Mali, West Africa. On January 2007, the Malian government adopted the "Adult Non-formal Education Policy Document," which was intended to regulate the adult learning sector and federate the actions of policy makers, adult education providers, and adult…

  7. Use of national clinical databases for informing and for evaluating health care policies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Black, Nick; Tan, Stefanie

    2013-02-01

    Policy-makers and analysts could make use of national clinical databases either to inform or to evaluate meso-level (organisation and delivery of health care) and macro-level (national) policies. Reviewing the use of 15 of the best established databases in England, we identify and describe four published examples of each use. These show that policy-makers can either make use of the data itself or of research based on the database. For evaluating policies, the major advantages are the huge sample sizes available, the generalisability of the data, its immediate availability and historic information. The principal methodological challenges involve the need for risk adjustment and time-series analysis. Given their usefulness in the policy arena, there are several reasons why national clinical databases have not been used more, some due to a lack of 'push' by their custodians and some to the lack of 'pull' by policy-makers. Greater exploitation of these valuable resources would be facilitated by policy-makers' and custodians' increased awareness, minimisation of legal restrictions on data use, improvements in the quality of databases and a library of examples of applications to policy. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. Barriers to optimizing investments in the built environment to reduce youth obesity: policy-maker perspectives.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grant, Jill L; MacKay, Kathryn C; Manuel, Patricia M; McHugh, Tara-Leigh F

    2010-01-01

    To identify factors which limit the ability of local governments to make appropriate investments in the built environment to promote youth health and reduce obesity outcomes in Atlantic Canada. Policy-makers and professionals participated in focus groups to discuss the receptiveness of local governments to introducing health considerations into decision-making. Seven facilitated focus groups involved 44 participants from Atlantic Canada. Thematic discourse analysis of the meeting transcripts identified systemic barriers to creating a built environment that fosters health for youth aged 12-15 years. Participants consistently identified four categories of barriers. Financial barriers limit the capacities of local government to build, maintain and operate appropriate facilities. Legacy issues mean that communities inherit a built environment designed to facilitate car use, with inadequate zoning authority to control fast food outlets, and without the means to determine where schools are built or how they are used. Governance barriers derive from government departments with distinct and competing mandates, with a professional structure that privileges engineering, and with funding programs that encourage competition between municipalities. Cultural factors and values affect outcomes: people have adapted to car-oriented living; poverty reduces options for many families; parental fears limit children's mobility; youth receive limited priority in built environment investments. Participants indicated that health issues have increasing profile within local government, making this an opportune time to discuss strategies for optimizing investments in the built environment. The focus group method can foster mutual learning among professionals within government in ways that could advance health promotion.

  9. Informing the Romanian decision makers on nuclear energy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chirica, T.; Sandru, P.

    1997-01-01

    The paper describes the 'pro-nuclear' sector of the Romanian civil society activity to better inform the Romanian Decision Makers on nuclear power issues. The 'Romanian Nuclear Energy Association' - AREN and the Romanian Radioprotection Society - SRRp, having the support of the 'Romanian General Association of Engineers' - AGIR, started on December 1996 a strong campaign to form a correct opinion among the new elected bodies and the new Government of the country, related to the future development of the Romanian Nuclear Program as a national priority and to expedite the restart of the Cernavoda NPP-Unit 2 completion. The paper describes the strategy of this lobby campaign, the objectives assumed and the results. The authors have taken advantage of the OECD - Nuclear Energy Agency information exchange about the Decision Makers informing process about nuclear energy and have the intention to share their experience with other sister societies dealing with similar conditions. This could be also a good experience for other areas of activity. (authors)

  10. Agricultural franchising and contribution to achieving objectives of the EU common agricultural policy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stanković Milica

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The Common Agricultural Policy is the oldest, the most complex, the most expensive EU policy and it represents one of the most important drivers of European integration. Agrarian franchising is one of the innovations in the field of franchising, which implementation is still in its infancy and it is necessary to strive for the popularization of this business model. The aim of the paper is to emphasize the importance of agricultural franchising concept development and contribution of implementation of this concept to the achievement of the Common Agricultural Policy objectives and improvement of the agrarian sector as a whole. Special attention is paid on agricultural franchising as a hybrid form of disinvestment in conditions of economic crisis. Based on analysis of advantages and disadvantages of agricultural franchising, we conclude that it has the potential for solving a large number of problems that occur in the agrarian sector, with a particular focus on the importance of agricultural franchising to the achievement of the CAP objectives.

  11. Energy policy and externalities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bertel, E.; Fraser, P.

    2002-01-01

    External costs of energy have been assessed in a number of authoritative and reliable studies based upon widely accepted methodologies such as life cycle analysis (LCA). However, although those costs are recognised by most stakeholders and decision makers, results from analytical work on externalities and LCA studies are seldom used in policy making. The International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) convened a joint workshop in November 2001 to offer experts and policy makers an opportunity to present state-of-the-art results from analytical work on externalities and debate issues related to the relevance of external costs and LCA for policy-making purposes. The findings from the workshop highlight the need for further work in the field and the potential rote of international organisations like the IEA and the NEA in this context. (authors)

  12. A framework for sustainable invasive species management: environmental, social and economic objectives

    Science.gov (United States)

    Larson, Diane L.; Phillips-Mao, Laura; Quiram, Gina; Sharpe, Leah; Stark, Rebecca; Sugita, Shinya; Weiler, Annie

    2011-01-01

    Applying the concept of sustainability to invasive species management (ISM) is challenging but necessary, given the increasing rates of invasion and the high costs of invasion impacts and control. To be sustainable, ISM must address environmental, social, and economic factors (or *pillars*) that influence the causes, impacts, and control of invasive species across multiple spatial and temporal scales. Although these pillars are generally acknowledged, their implementation is often limited by insufficient control options and significant economic and political constraints. In this paper, we outline specific objectives in each of these three *pillars* that, if incorporated into a management plan, will improve the plan's likelihood of sustainability. We then examine three case studies that illustrate how these objectives can be effectively implemented. Each pillar reinforces the others, such that the inclusion of even a few of the outlined objectives will lead to more effective management that achieves ecological goals, while generating social support and long-term funding to maintain projects to completion. We encourage agency directors and policy-makers to consider sustainability principles when developing funding schemes, management agendas, and policy.

  13. Compulsory Attendance Policies: About Age or Intervention? SREB Focus Report

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grove, Jeffrey

    2014-01-01

    Over the past decade, SREB state policy-makers have focused on actions to reduce dropout rates and increase high school graduation rates. Some policy-makers have suggested that raising their state's compulsory attendance age (often called the dropout age) to require students to stay in school until age 17 or 18 is an important step. However,…

  14. Beginning RPG Maker VX Ace

    CERN Document Server

    Perez, Darrin

    2014-01-01

    Beginning RPG Maker VX Ace takes you through the process of using the RPG Maker VX Ace game development engine to create your very own role playing game. The book has been designed with the complete beginner in mind who has little to no experience with the engine. Tutorials and exercises will take you from installing the software to putting the final touches upon your first project. Game design can be quite a daunting challenge, as it generally involves a large amount of programming know-how on top of having to plan everything out that makes a good game what it is. RPG Maker VX Ace

  15. Categorizing the telehealth policy response of countries and their implications for complementarity of telehealth policy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Varghese, Sunil; Scott, Richard E

    2004-01-01

    Developing countries are exploring the role of telehealth to overcome the challenges of providing adequate health care services. However, this process faces disparities, and no complementarity in telehealth policy development. Telehealth has the potential to transcend geopolitical boundaries, yet telehealth policy developed in one jurisdiction may hamper applications in another. Understanding such policy complexities is essential for telehealth to realize its full global potential. This study investigated 12 East Asian countries that may represent a microcosm of the world, to determine if the telehealth policy response of countries could be categorized, and whether any implications could be identified for the development of complementary telehealth policy. The countries were Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. Three categories of country response were identified in regard to national policy support and development. The first category was "None" (Cambodia, Myanmar, and Vietnam) where international partners, driven by humanitarian concerns, lead telehealth activity. The second category was "Proactive" (China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand) where national policies were designed with the view that telehealth initiatives are a component of larger development objectives. The third was "Reactive" (Hong Kong and Japan), where policies were only proffered after telehealth activities were sustainable. It is concluded that although complementarity of telehealth policy development is not occurring, increased interjurisdictional telehealth activity, regional clusters, and concerted and coordinated effort amongst researchers, practitioners, and policy makers may alter this trend.

  16. They aren't all first cousins: Bedouin marriage and health policies in Lebanon.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mansour, Nisrine; Chatty, Dawn; El-Kak, Faysal; Yassin, Nasser

    2014-01-01

    Fertility and consanguineous marriages among the Bedouin tribes of the Middle East have long generated interest particularly around health outcomes and social relations. In particular, Bedouin in Lebanon have increasingly embraced the Lebanese national bio-medical health system in the past two decades, while Lebanese policy-makers' responses continue to be minimal and ill-informed. This paper investigates the mismatch between policy-makers' formulations of Bedouin consanguineous marriages and the Bedouins's actual reproductive practices and discusses the implications of these formulations on the Bedouins's access to health services. The findings are drawn from the data collected as part of the Bedouin Health Project, an EU-funded five-year study (2005-2010), aiming at assessing access to reproductive and child health care among the Bedouin in Lebanon. The data was collected from 6 clusters representing the main Bedouin informal and unrecognized settlements in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon. The data consists of 111 socioeconomic questionnaires with Bedouin women users of local public, private, and nongovernmental reproductive and child health-focused clinics, in addition to 40 in-depth interviews with Bedouin women across the clusters and 17 semi-structured interviews with policy-makers. The findings suggest a gap between the perceptions of policy-makers and the incidence of consanguineous marriages and reproductive practices among the Bedouin. While there was no national data available for the Bedouin populations, policy-makers relied on a constructed 'Bedouin reproductive profile' that portrayed them as 'a problematic health group'. The national policy formulation of the Bedouin reproductive profile has an exclusionary impact on the Bedouin population as they are ignored from any targeted health policies or provided with politically motivated palliative care provision. These findings highlight the importance of addressing stereotyping and discrimination among health

  17. Universal approximators for multi-objective direct policy search in water reservoir management problems: a comparative analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Giuliani, Matteo; Mason, Emanuele; Castelletti, Andrea; Pianosi, Francesca

    2014-05-01

    The optimal operation of water resources systems is a wide and challenging problem due to non-linearities in the model and the objectives, high dimensional state-control space, and strong uncertainties in the hydroclimatic regimes. The application of classical optimization techniques (e.g., SDP, Q-learning, gradient descent-based algorithms) is strongly limited by the dimensionality of the system and by the presence of multiple, conflicting objectives. This study presents a novel approach which combines Direct Policy Search (DPS) and Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithms (MOEAs) to solve high-dimensional state and control space problems involving multiple objectives. DPS, also known as parameterization-simulation-optimization in the water resources literature, is a simulation-based approach where the reservoir operating policy is first parameterized within a given family of functions and, then, the parameters optimized with respect to the objectives of the management problem. The selection of a suitable class of functions to which the operating policy belong to is a key step, as it might restrict the search for the optimal policy to a subspace of the decision space that does not include the optimal solution. In the water reservoir literature, a number of classes have been proposed. However, many of these rules are based largely on empirical or experimental successes and they were designed mostly via simulation and for single-purpose reservoirs. In a multi-objective context similar rules can not easily inferred from the experience and the use of universal function approximators is generally preferred. In this work, we comparatively analyze two among the most common universal approximators: artificial neural networks (ANN) and radial basis functions (RBF) under different problem settings to estimate their scalability and flexibility in dealing with more and more complex problems. The multi-purpose HoaBinh water reservoir in Vietnam, accounting for hydropower

  18. An Object-Oriented Information Model for Policy-based Management of Distributed Applications

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Diaz, G.; Gay, V.C.J.; Horlait, E.; Hamza, M.H.

    2002-01-01

    This paper presents an object-oriented information model to support a policy-based management for distributed multimedia applications. The information base contains application-level information about the users, the applications, and their profile. Our Information model is described in details and

  19. Putting research in place: an innovative approach to providing contextualized evidence synthesis for decision makers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stephen Bornstein

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The Contextualized Health Research Synthesis Program (CHRSP, developed in 2007 by the Newfoundland and Labrador Centre for Applied Health Research, produces contextualized knowledge syntheses for health-system decision makers. The program provides timely, relevant, and easy-to-understand scientific evidence; optimizes evidence uptake; and, most importantly, attunes research questions and evidence to the specific context in which knowledge users must apply the findings. Methods As an integrated knowledge translation (KT method, CHRSP: Involves intensive partnerships with senior healthcare decision makers who propose priority research topics and participate on research teams; Considers local context both in framing the research question and in reporting the findings; Makes economical use of resources by utilizing a limited number of staff; Uses a combination of external and local experts; and Works quickly by synthesizing high-level systematic review evidence rather than primary studies. Although it was developed in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, the CHRSP methodology is adaptable to a variety of settings with distinctive features, such as those in rural, remote, and small-town locations. Results CHRSP has published 25 syntheses on priority topics chosen by the provincial healthcare system, including: Clinical and cost-effectiveness: telehealth, rural renal dialysis, point-of-care testing; Community-based health services: helping seniors age in place, supporting seniors with dementia, residential treatment centers for at-risk youth; Healthcare organization/service delivery: reducing acute-care length of stay, promoting flu vaccination among health workers, safe patient handling, age-friendly acute care; and Health promotion: diabetes prevention, promoting healthy dietary habits. These studies have been used by decision makers to inform local policy and practice decisions. Conclusions By asking the health

  20. Carbon footprint of canned mussels from a business-to-consumer approach. A starting point for mussel processors and policy makers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Iribarren, Diego; Hospido, Almudena; Moreira, Maria Teresa; Feijoo, Gumersindo

    2010-01-01

    The increasing demand for environmental information on the global warming impact of products requires a solid methodological framework which guarantees comparability and communicability. The publicly available specification PAS 2050 combines approaches to a variety of greenhouse gas specific assessment issues to deliver a globally applicable product Carbon Footprinting (CF) method, which is expected to be widely accepted. Specifically, this paper aims to demonstrate the implementation of a CF scheme for a common canned mussel product according to PAS 2050 guidelines. A final value of 4.35 kg CO 2 e per triple pack of round cans of mussels was calculated. Furthermore, this CF study led to identify primary packaging (can production) and mussel shell management as the main activities where efforts should focus for climate change mitigation. Throughout this case study, CF opportunities and drawbacks are discussed. The whole text tries to provide a starting point for both mussel processors and policy makers to benefit from the potential advantages of a responsible use of this increasingly popular tool.

  1. Educational Quasi-Market in Chile: The Discourse of Policy Makers Cuasi mercado educacional en Chile: el discurso de los tomadores de decisión.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Claudio Almonacid

    2008-04-01

    Full Text Available The Chilean educational system is characterized by the functioning of a cuasi (free market, in which increasing degrees of administrative, financial and curricular decentralization take place within a context where two constitutional rights are in conflict: the right to (free education and the freedom of teaching. This conflict arose from the design and implementation of said decentralization policy due to its negative effects in the processes of social inclusion of children and youngsters. In order to understand why those two constitutional rights are in conflict, it must be taken into account that such decentralization policy was designed by the military regime (1973-1990 as one of several neoliberal policies implemented in many different fields of the Chilean society, and that said policy has been kept in effect by the subsequent administrations of the “Concertación de Partidos por la Democracia” (Coalition of Parties for Democracy (since 1990 to present in a so called “transition process to democracy.” This research paper is intended to understand how the process of educational decentralization was conceived and how the system is in effect up to the present, as well as to understand the effects it has had on the process of social exclusion. To do that, the views of selected policy makers who have had active participation in this process are analyzed. First, there is a reference to the way the Chilean educational system works, and then the opinions of several educational policy makers about the processes of educational decentralization and social exclusion are analyzed. El sistema educacional chileno se caracteriza por el funcionamiento de un cuasi mercado en donde existen crecientes grados de descentralización administrativa, financiera y curricular, coexistiendo dos principios en tensión: el derecho a la educación y la libertad de enseñanza. Esta tensión se encuentra presente desde el diseño de esta política educativa

  2. The "Good Governance" of Evidence in Health Policy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hawkins, Benjamin; Parkhurst, Justin

    2016-01-01

    Calls for evidence-based policy often fail to recognise the fundamentally political nature of policy making. Policy makers must identify, evaluate and utilise evidence to solve policy problems in the face of competing priorities and political agendas. Evidence should inform but cannot determine policy choices. This paper draws on theories of…

  3. To what extent are Canadian second language policies evidence-based? Reflections on the intersections of research and policy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cummins, Jim

    2014-01-01

    THE PAPER ADDRESSES THE INTERSECTIONS BETWEEN RESEARCH FINDINGS AND CANADIAN EDUCATIONAL POLICIES FOCUSING ON FOUR MAJOR AREAS: (a) core and immersion programs for the teaching of French to Anglophone students, (b) policies concerning the learning of English and French by students from immigrant backgrounds, (c) heritage language teaching, and (d) the education of Deaf and hard-of hearing students. With respect to the teaching of French, policy-makers have largely ignored the fact that most core French programs produce meager results for the vast majority of students. Only a small proportion of students (languages, preferring instead to leave uncorrected the proposition that acquisition of languages such as American Sign Language by young children (with or without cochlear implants) will impede children's language and academic development. The paper reviews the kinds of policies, programs, and practices that could be implemented (at no additional cost) if policy-makers and educators pursued evidence-based educational policies.

  4. Determinants of knowledge translation from health technology assessment to policy-making in China: From the perspective of researchers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Wenbin; Shi, Lizheng; Pong, Raymond W.; Dong, Hengjin; Mao, Yiwei; Tang, Meng; Chen, Yingyao

    2018-01-01

    Background For health technology assessment (HTA) to be more policy relevant and for health technology-related decision-making to be truly evidence-based, promoting knowledge translation (KT) is of vital importance. Although some research has focused on KT of HTA, there is a dearth of literature on KT determinants and the situation in developing countries and transitional societies remains largely unknown. Objective To investigate the determinants of HTA KT from research to health policy-making from the perspective of researchers in China. Design Cross-sectional study. Methods A structured questionnaire which focused on KT was distributed to HTA researchers in China. KT activity levels in various fields of HTA research were compared, using one-way ANOVA. Principal component analysis was performed to provide a basis to combine similar variables. To investigate the determinants of KT level, multiple linear regression analysis was performed. Results Based on a survey of 382 HTA researchers, it was found that HTA KT wasn’t widespread in China. Furthermore, results showed that no significant differences existed between the various HTA research fields. Factors, such as attitudes of researchers toward HTA and evidence utilization, academic ranks and linkages between researchers and policy-makers, had significant impact on HTA KT (p-valuespolicy-makers, policy-relevance of HTA research, practicality of HTA outcomes and making HTA reports easier to understand also contributed to predicting KT level. However, academic nature of HTA research was negatively associated with KT level. Conclusion KT from HTA to policy-making was influenced by many factors. Of particular importance were collaborations between researchers and policy-makers, ensuring policy relevance of HTA and making HTA evidence easier to understand by potential users. PMID:29300753

  5. Stakeholder involvement: views from a policy maker

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gray, Elizabeth

    2006-01-01

    In 1999 powers and responsibilities were devolved from the UK government to the new devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This paper deals with the issue of radioactive waste management in the Scottish context as, following devolution, responsibility for radioactive waste management in Scotland is a devolved responsibility of the Scottish Parliament. The founding principles of the Scottish Parliament are: Openness and participation, Accountability, Power sharing, Equal opportunities. The government of Scotland is known as the Scottish Executive and has 22 Ministers covering a wide range of devolved responsibilities including: wider environmental matters, health, socioeconomic, skills and education. The Scottish Ministers also have specific responsibility in legislation regarding the governance of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA). Scotland also has its own agencies to deliver his government policies, such as the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and enterprise and skills delivery bodies. There is a high level of interest in nuclear and radioactive waste issues in Scotland as Scotland has both civil nuclear and defense sites around the country which generate radioactive waste. Alongside this is its close proximity to the largest nuclear site in the UK: Sellafield

  6. Public health: disconnections between policy, practice and research

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kok Gerjo

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Public health includes policy, practice and research but to sufficiently connect academic research, practice and public health policy appears to be difficult. Collaboration between policy, practice and research is imperative to obtaining more solid evidence in public health. However, the three domains do not easily work together because they emanate from three more or less independent 'niches'. Work cycles of each niche have the same successive steps: problem recognition, approach formulation, implementation, and evaluation, but are differently worked out. So far, the research has focused on agenda-setting which belongs to the first step, as expressed by Kingdon, and on the use of academic knowledge in policy makers' decision-making processes which belongs to the fourth step, as elaborated by Weiss. In addition, there are more steps in the policy-making process where exchange is needed. Method A qualitative descriptive research was conducted by literature search. We analyzed the four steps of the policy, practice and research work cycles. Next, we interpreted the main conflicting aspects as disconnections for each step. Results There are some conspicuous differences that strengthen the niche character of each domain and hamper integration and collaboration. Disconnections ranged from formulating priorities in problem statements to power roles, appraisal of evidence, work attitudes, work pace, transparency of goals, evaluation and continuation strategies and public accountability. Creating awareness of these disconnections may result in more compatibility between researchers, policy makers and practitioners. Conclusion We provide an analysis that can be used by public health services-related researchers, practitioners and policy makers to be aware of the risk for disconnections. A synthesis of the social, practical and scientific relevance of public health problems should be the starting point for a dialogue that seeks to

  7. Towards health in all policies for childhood obesity prevention

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    A.-M. Hendriks (Anna-Marie); S.P.J. Kremers (Stef); J.S. Gubbels (Jessica); H. Raat (Hein); N.K. de Vries (Nanne); M.W.J. Jansen (Maria W.)

    2013-01-01

    textabstractThe childhood obesity epidemic can be best tackled by means of an integrated approach, which is enabled by integrated public health policies, or Health in All Policies. Integrated policies are developed through intersectoral collaboration between local government policy makers from

  8. Energy policies for rural electrification : a social multi-criteria evaluation approach

    OpenAIRE

    Munda, Giuseppe

    2005-01-01

    In this article, a real-world case- study is presented with two general objectives: to give a clear and simple illustrative example of application of social multi-criteria evaluation (SMCE) in the field of rural renewable energy policies, and to help in understanding to what extent and under which circumstances solar energy is suitable for electrifying isolated farmhouses. In this sense, this study might offer public decision- makers some insight on the conditions that favour the diffusion of...

  9. The unsustainable Makers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Adam Arvidsson

    2010-03-01

    Full Text Available The Makers is the latest novel of the American science fiction writer, blogger and Silicon Valley intellectual Cory Doctorow. Set in the 2010s, the novel describes the possible impact of the present trend towards the migration of modes of production and organization that have emerged online into the sphere of material production. Called New Work, this movement is indebted to a new maker culture that attracts people into a kind of neo-artisan, high tech mode of production. The question is: can a corporate-funded New Work movement be sustainable? Doctorow seems to suggest that a capitalist economy of abundance is unsustainable because it tends to restrict the reach of its value flows to a privileged managerial elite.

  10. Communication with U.S. federal decision makers : a primer with notes on the use of computer models as a means of communication.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Webb, Erik Karl; Tidwell, Vincent Carroll

    2009-10-01

    This document outlines ways to more effectively communicate with U.S. Federal decision makers by outlining the structure, authority, and motivations of various Federal groups, how to find the trusted advisors, and how to structure communication. All three branches of Federal governments have decision makers engaged in resolving major policy issues. The Legislative Branch (Congress) negotiates the authority and the resources that can be used by the Executive Branch. The Executive Branch has some latitude in implementation and prioritizing resources. The Judicial Branch resolves disputes. The goal of all decision makers is to choose and implement the option that best fits the needs and wants of the community. However, understanding the risk of technical, political and/or financial infeasibility and possible unintended consequences is extremely difficult. Primarily, decision makers are supported in their deliberations by trusted advisors who engage in the analysis of options as well as the day-to-day tasks associated with multi-party negotiations. In the best case, the trusted advisors use many sources of information to inform the process including the opinion of experts and if possible predictive analysis from which they can evaluate the projected consequences of their decisions. The paper covers the following: (1) Understanding Executive and Legislative decision makers - What can these decision makers do? (2) Finding the target audience - Who are the internal and external trusted advisors? (3) Packaging the message - How do we parse and integrate information, and how do we use computer simulation or models in policy communication?

  11. Credibility of Policy Announcements Under Asymmetric Information

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Christensen, Michael

    1999-01-01

    In a simple macro-economic model, where the monetary authorities process superior information about a real shocks, the scope for an active stabilization policy is shown to depend on the credibility of the policy maker. Lack of credibility increases the need for an active stabilization policy...

  12. A Collaborative Approach to Bridging the Research-Policy Gap through the Development of Policy Advice Software

    Science.gov (United States)

    Milne, Barry John; Lay-Yee, Roy; McLay, Jessica; Tobias, Martin; Tuohy, Pat; Armstrong, Ann; Lynn, Robert; Pearson, Janet; Mannion, Oliver; Davis, Peter

    2014-01-01

    We have developed a software-based tool to support a dynamic micro-simulation model of life-course development (to age 13) as an aid to policy makers assessing the impact of policies affecting children. We demonstrate how this approach bridges the research-policy gap by creating: (1) an easy transfer of evidence in a form that policymakers can use…

  13. Affording Sustainability: Adopting a Theory of Affordances as a Guiding Heuristic for Environmental Policy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Roope O. Kaaronen

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Human behavior is an underlying cause for many of the ecological crises faced in the 21st century, and there is no escaping from the fact that widespread behavior change is necessary for socio-ecological systems to take a sustainable turn. Whilst making people and communities behave sustainably is a fundamental objective for environmental policy, behavior change interventions and policies are often implemented from a very limited non-systemic perspective. Environmental policy-makers and psychologists alike often reduce cognition ‘to the brain,’ focusing only to a minor extent on how everyday environments systemically afford pro-environmental behavior. Symptomatic of this are the widely prevalent attitude–action, value–action or knowledge–action gaps, understood in this paper as the gulfs lying between sustainable thinking and behavior due to lack of affordances. I suggest that by adopting a theory of affordances as a guiding heuristic, environmental policy-makers are better equipped to promote policies that translate sustainable thinking into sustainable behavior, often self-reinforcingly, and have better conceptual tools to nudge our socio–ecological system toward a sustainable turn. Affordance theory, which studies the relations between abilities to perceive and act and environmental features, is shown to provide a systemic framework for analyzing environmental policies and the ecology of human behavior. This facilitates the location and activation of leverage points for systemic policy interventions, which can help socio–ecological systems to learn to adapt to more sustainable habits. Affordance theory is presented to be applicable and pertinent to technically all nested levels of socio–ecological systems from the studies of sustainable objects and households to sustainable urban environments, making it an immensely versatile conceptual policy tool. Finally, affordance theory is also discussed from a participatory perspective

  14. Affording Sustainability: Adopting a Theory of Affordances as a Guiding Heuristic for Environmental Policy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kaaronen, Roope O

    2017-01-01

    Human behavior is an underlying cause for many of the ecological crises faced in the 21st century, and there is no escaping from the fact that widespread behavior change is necessary for socio-ecological systems to take a sustainable turn. Whilst making people and communities behave sustainably is a fundamental objective for environmental policy, behavior change interventions and policies are often implemented from a very limited non-systemic perspective. Environmental policy-makers and psychologists alike often reduce cognition 'to the brain,' focusing only to a minor extent on how everyday environments systemically afford pro-environmental behavior. Symptomatic of this are the widely prevalent attitude-action, value-action or knowledge-action gaps, understood in this paper as the gulfs lying between sustainable thinking and behavior due to lack of affordances. I suggest that by adopting a theory of affordances as a guiding heuristic, environmental policy-makers are better equipped to promote policies that translate sustainable thinking into sustainable behavior, often self-reinforcingly, and have better conceptual tools to nudge our socio-ecological system toward a sustainable turn. Affordance theory, which studies the relations between abilities to perceive and act and environmental features, is shown to provide a systemic framework for analyzing environmental policies and the ecology of human behavior. This facilitates the location and activation of leverage points for systemic policy interventions, which can help socio-ecological systems to learn to adapt to more sustainable habits. Affordance theory is presented to be applicable and pertinent to technically all nested levels of socio-ecological systems from the studies of sustainable objects and households to sustainable urban environments, making it an immensely versatile conceptual policy tool. Finally, affordance theory is also discussed from a participatory perspective. Increasing the fit between local

  15. Affording Sustainability: Adopting a Theory of Affordances as a Guiding Heuristic for Environmental Policy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kaaronen, Roope O.

    2017-01-01

    Human behavior is an underlying cause for many of the ecological crises faced in the 21st century, and there is no escaping from the fact that widespread behavior change is necessary for socio-ecological systems to take a sustainable turn. Whilst making people and communities behave sustainably is a fundamental objective for environmental policy, behavior change interventions and policies are often implemented from a very limited non-systemic perspective. Environmental policy-makers and psychologists alike often reduce cognition ‘to the brain,’ focusing only to a minor extent on how everyday environments systemically afford pro-environmental behavior. Symptomatic of this are the widely prevalent attitude–action, value–action or knowledge–action gaps, understood in this paper as the gulfs lying between sustainable thinking and behavior due to lack of affordances. I suggest that by adopting a theory of affordances as a guiding heuristic, environmental policy-makers are better equipped to promote policies that translate sustainable thinking into sustainable behavior, often self-reinforcingly, and have better conceptual tools to nudge our socio–ecological system toward a sustainable turn. Affordance theory, which studies the relations between abilities to perceive and act and environmental features, is shown to provide a systemic framework for analyzing environmental policies and the ecology of human behavior. This facilitates the location and activation of leverage points for systemic policy interventions, which can help socio–ecological systems to learn to adapt to more sustainable habits. Affordance theory is presented to be applicable and pertinent to technically all nested levels of socio–ecological systems from the studies of sustainable objects and households to sustainable urban environments, making it an immensely versatile conceptual policy tool. Finally, affordance theory is also discussed from a participatory perspective. Increasing the fit

  16. Multi-objective design of fuzzy logic controller in supply chain

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ghane, Mahdi; Tarokh, Mohammad Jafar

    2012-08-01

    Unlike commonly used methods, in this paper, we have introduced a new approach for designing fuzzy controllers. In this approach, we have simultaneously optimized both objective functions of a supply chain over a two-dimensional space. Then, we have obtained a spectrum of optimized points, each of which represents a set of optimal parameters which can be chosen by the manager according to the importance of objective functions. Our used supply chain model is a member of inventory and order-based production control system family, a generalization of the periodic review which is termed `Order-Up-To policy.' An auto rule maker, based on non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II, has been applied to the experimental initial fuzzy rules. According to performance measurement, our results indicate the efficiency of the proposed approach.

  17. MakerBot projects blueprints

    CERN Document Server

    Larson, Joseph

    2013-01-01

    MakerBot Projects Blueprints is a project-based book, with each chapter taking you through the creation of an awesome stand-alone project. MakerBot Project Blueprints is for anyone with an interest in the 3D printing revolution and the slightest bit of computer skills. Whether you own a 3D printer or not you can design for them. All it takes is Blender, a free 3D modeling tool, this book and a little creativity and someday you'll be able to hold something you designed in the computer in your hands.

  18. Computerized clinical decision support systems for chronic disease management: a decision-maker-researcher partnership systematic review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roshanov, Pavel S; Misra, Shikha; Gerstein, Hertzel C; Garg, Amit X; Sebaldt, Rolf J; Mackay, Jean A; Weise-Kelly, Lorraine; Navarro, Tamara; Wilczynski, Nancy L; Haynes, R Brian

    2011-08-03

    The use of computerized clinical decision support systems (CCDSSs) may improve chronic disease management, which requires recurrent visits to multiple health professionals, ongoing disease and treatment monitoring, and patient behavior modification. The objective of this review was to determine if CCDSSs improve the processes of chronic care (such as diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring of disease) and associated patient outcomes (such as effects on biomarkers and clinical exacerbations). We conducted a decision-maker-researcher partnership systematic review. We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, Ovid's EBM Reviews database, Inspec, and reference lists for potentially eligible articles published up to January 2010. We included randomized controlled trials that compared the use of CCDSSs to usual practice or non-CCDSS controls. Trials were eligible if at least one component of the CCDSS was designed to support chronic disease management. We considered studies 'positive' if they showed a statistically significant improvement in at least 50% of relevant outcomes. Of 55 included trials, 87% (n = 48) measured system impact on the process of care and 52% (n = 25) of those demonstrated statistically significant improvements. Sixty-five percent (36/55) of trials measured impact on, typically, non-major (surrogate) patient outcomes, and 31% (n = 11) of those demonstrated benefits. Factors of interest to decision makers, such as cost, user satisfaction, system interface and feature sets, unique design and deployment characteristics, and effects on user workflow were rarely investigated or reported. A small majority (just over half) of CCDSSs improved care processes in chronic disease management and some improved patient health. Policy makers, healthcare administrators, and practitioners should be aware that the evidence of CCDSS effectiveness is limited, especially with respect to the small number and size of studies measuring patient outcomes.

  19. The balance space approach to multicriteria decision making—involving the decision maker

    OpenAIRE

    Ehrgott, M.

    2002-01-01

    The balance space approach (introduced by Galperin in 1990) provides a new view on multicriteria optimization. Looking at deviations from global optimality of the different objectives, balance points and balance numbers are defined when either different or equal deviations for each objective are allowed. Apportioned balance numbers allow the specification of proportions among the deviations. Through this concept the decision maker can be involved in the decision process. In this paper we prov...

  20. Environmental policy and environment-saving technologies. Economic aspects of policy making under uncertainty

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ossokina, I.

    2003-07-01

    It is generally known that natural environment is profoundly influenced by technological change. The direction and the size of this influence are, however, surrounded by uncertainties, which substantially complicate environmental policy making. This dissertation uses game-theoretical models to study policy making under uncertainty about (a) the costs of technological advances in pollution control, (b) the preferences of the policy maker and the voters, and (c) the consequences of policy measures. From a positive point of view the analysis provides explanations for environmental policies in modern democracies. From a normative point of view it gives a number of recommendations to improve environmental policies.

  1. NIGERIA AND THE ENIGMA OF POLICY IMPLEMENTATION Osita ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    NGOZI

    This calls for a change of attitude on the part of policy implementers and the target .... implementation by policy decision makers while it is often taken that once a policy is ... only to attract public acclaim and attention with less regard to their.

  2. QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS REGARDING THE DECISION-MAKERS IN TERMS OF TOURISM PROMOTION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ariadna-Ioana GAVRA JURAVLE

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this paper was to obtain qualitative information from the decision-makers in Bucovina in order to identify their attitude in terms of tourism promotion and their level of information regarding promotion, tourism and tourists. We set four objectives: analyzing the level of awareness regarding the benefits provided by tourism for the municipality and the locality; identifying the level of information regarding the range of services available for tourists in the localities where the mayors carry out their activities; determining the attitude of the decision-makers vis-à-vis promotion and identifying the perceptions of the interviewees regarding the place of promotion in tourism development. The research method we used is qualitative research, namely the in-depth interview.

  3. Challenges : adopting GIS for diplomacy and foreign policy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Christian, Carol

    Foreign policy and diplomacy are, by definition, location specific. GIS-related tools can be useful to decision makers and problem solvers to merge diverse data that impinges on policy issues. While to a degree, such technologies have been adopted for natural disaster response, security, and environmental studies, widespread adoption of GIS into policy tasks has been slow. Decision makers and nonexperts are reluctant to assimilate new tools into old cultures because of a number of hurdles. Yet clearly, information sharing would be advantageous and allow visualization of information and situations in a more productive environment. This presentation will touch upon some of the challenges and stimulate discussion.

  4. Transport Technologies and Policy Scenarios to 2050 (Executive Summary)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    World Energy Council

    2007-01-01

    Transport is one of the major global consumers of energy, currently representing between 20 and 25 percent of aggregate energy consumption and CO 2 emissions. Strong growth in energy consumption to 2050 in all sectors, with the transport proportion projected to remain stable up to 2050. Transport therefore has an important role to lay in contributing to the primary objective of the World Energy Council: sustainable energy for all. Passenger vehicle technology is expected to remain dependent on petroleum fuels and internal combustion engines (ICE) for the foreseeable future, since these elements remain the most convenient and affordable for mass personal mobility. Enhancement of ICEs through clean diesels, hybrids and new combustion techniques will ensure increased efficiency, continuing the consistent historical annual improvement in vehicle efficiency. Policy makers must first agree on the overall objective, whether it be a reduction in energy consumption or greenhouse gas emissions. Technological development must be complemented by rational policy that will encourage and enable the technologies to emerge

  5. Partnering Healthy@Work: an Australian university-government partnership facilitating policy-relevant research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jose, Kim; Venn, Alison; Jarman, Lisa; Seal, Judy; Teale, Brook; Scott, Jennifer; Sanderson, Kristy

    2017-12-01

    Research funding is increasingly supporting collaborations between knowledge users and researchers. Partnering Healthy@Work (pH@W), an inaugural recipient of funding through Australia's Partnership for Better Health Grants scheme, was a 5-year partnership between the Menzies Institute for Medical Research, University of Tasmania and the Tasmanian State Service (TSS). The partnerships purpose was to evaluate a comprehensive workplace health promotion programme (Healthy@Work) targeting 30 000 public sector employees; generating new knowledge and influencing workplace health promotion policy and decision-making. This mixed methods study evaluates the partnership between policy-makers and academics and identifies strategies that enabled pH@W to deliver key project outcomes. A pH@W document review was conducted, two partnership assessment tools completed and semi-structured interviews conducted with key policy-makers and academics. Analysis of the partnership assessment tools and interviews found that pH@W had reached a strong level of collaboration. Policy-relevant knowledge was generated about the health of TSS employees and their engagement with workplace health promotion. Knowledge exchange of a conceptual and instrumental nature occurred and was facilitated by the shared grant application, clear governance structures, joint planning, regular information exchange between researchers and policy-makers and research student placements in the TSS. Flexibility and acknowledgement of different priorities and perspectives of partner organizations were identified as critical factors for enabling effective partnership working and research relevance. Academic-policy-maker partnerships can be a powerful mechanism for improving policy relevance of research, but need to incorporate strategies that facilitate regular input from researchers and policy-makers in order to achieve this. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions

  6. Strengthening capacity to apply health research evidence in policy making: experience from four countries

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hawkes, Sarah; K Aulakh, Bhupinder; Jadeja, Nidhee; Jimenez, Michelle; Buse, Kent; Anwar, Iqbal; Barge, Sandhya; Odubanjo, M Oladoyin; Shukla, Abhay; Ghaffar, Abdul; Whitworth, Jimmy

    2016-01-01

    Increasing the use of evidence in policy making means strengthening capacity on both the supply and demand sides of evidence production. However, little experience of strengthening the capacity of policy makers in low- and middle- income countries has been published to date. We describe the experiences of five projects (in Bangladesh, Gambia, India and Nigeria), where collaborative teams of researchers and policy makers/policy influencers worked to strengthen policy maker capacity to increase the use of evidence in policy. Activities were focused on three (interlinked) levels of capacity building: individual, organizational and, occasionally, institutional. Interventions included increasing access to research/data, promoting frequent interactions between researchers and members of the policy communities, and increasing the receptivity towards research/data in policy making or policy-implementing organizations. Teams were successful in building the capacity of individuals to access, understand and use evidence/data. Strengthening organizational capacity generally involved support to infrastructure (e.g. through information technology resources) and was also deemed to be successful. There was less appetite to address the need to strengthen institutional capacity—although this was acknowledged to be fundamental to promoting sustainable use of evidence, it was also recognized as requiring resources, legitimacy and regulatory support from policy makers. Evaluation across the three spheres of capacity building was made more challenging by the lack of agreed upon evaluation frameworks. In this article, we propose a new framework for assessing the impact of capacity strengthening activities to promote the use of evidence/data in policy making. Our evaluation concluded that strengthening the capacity of individuals and organizations is an important but likely insufficient step in ensuring the use of evidence/data in policy-cycles. Sustainability of evidence

  7. Policy instruments for energy conservation and environmental policy in the Netherlands

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bovenberg, A.L. [Tinbergen Inst., Rotterdam (Netherlands)

    1992-03-01

    In this paper it is assumed that the policy objective is not so much to economize on energy as to reduce pollution. In particular, to curb the emissions of carbon dioxide. A number of environmental policy instruments pertaining to fossil fuels are analyzed, mainly in the context of the Dutch economy: regulation, subsidies, voluntary agreements with industry, and taxation. At the moment, most industrial countries, including the Netherlands, rely almost entirely on the first three instruments. More recently, however, there has been a growing interest in environmental taxation. The theory that taxation is always and everywhere the best instrument assumes, however, perfect markets and a closed economy. Most economies, including the Dutch one, are riddled with market imperfections. Hence, policy makers confront a second best case. This implies that in selecting policy instruments, they have to resort to a more pragmatic `case-by-case` approach. A diversified diet is advocated. Taxation is part of that diet. Section 2 explores a number of important advantages of the tax instrument. Section 3 discusses a number of problems if a small open economy like the Netherlands would unilaterally adopt such a tax, especially if that tax would include energy-intensive firms that are subject to international competition. In this connection, some alternative policy instruments are analyzed in Section 4. Section 5 proceeds by investigating the case of international coordination and explores the conditions under which coordinated taxes could be successful. Section 6 analyzes policies targeted at households and at firms that are not subject to international competition. 13 refs.

  8. Regionally-varying and regionally-uniform electricity pricing policies compared across four usage categories

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cho, Seong-Hoon; Kim, Taeyoung; Kim, Hyun Jae; Park, Kihyun; Roberts, Roland K.

    2015-01-01

    The objective of our research is to predict how electricity demand varies spatially between status quo regionally-uniform electricity pricing and hypothetical regionally-varying electricity pricing across usage categories. We summarize the empirical results of a case study of electricity demand in South Korea with three key findings and their related implications. First, the price elasticities of electricity demand differ across usage categories. Specifically, electricity demands for manufacturing and retail uses are price inelastic and close to unit elastic, respectively, while those for agricultural and residential uses are not statistically significant. This information is important in designing energy policy, because higher electricity prices could reduce electricity demands for manufacturing and retail uses, resulting in slower growth in those sectors. Second, spatial spillovers in electricity demand vary across uses. Understanding the spatial structure of electricity demand provides useful information to energy policy makers for anticipating changes in demand across regions via regionally-varying electricity pricing for different uses. Third, simulation results suggest that spatial variations among electricity demands by usage category under a regionally-varying electricity-pricing policy differ from those under a regionally-uniform electricity-pricing policy. Differences in spatial changes between the policies provide information for developing a realistic regionally-varying electricity-pricing policy according to usage category. - Highlights: • We compare regionally-varying and regionally-uniform electricity pricing policies. • We summarize empirical results of a case study of electricity demand in South Korea. • We confirm that spatial spillovers in electricity demands vary across different uses. • We find positive spatial spillovers in the manufacturing and residential sectors. • Our methods help policy makers evaluate regionally-varying pricing

  9. IMPACT OF ROMANIAN HIGHER EDUCATION FUNDING POLICY ON UNIVERSITY EFFICIENCY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    CRETAN Georgiana Camelia

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available The issues of higher education funding policy and university operating efficiency are hot points on the actual public agenda worldwide as the pressures exercised upon the public resources increased, especially in the aftermath of the last economic crisis. Concerned with the improvement of the funding mechanism through which government allocates the public funds in order to meet the national core objectives within the area of higher education, the policy makers adjusted the funding policy by diversifying the criteria used in distributing the funds to public universities. Thus, the aim of this research is to underline both the impact and the consequences the public funding patterns of higher education have on the relative efficiency of public funded higher education institutions, across time. Moreover, the research conducted aims to determine whether the changes occurred within the Romanian public funding methodology of higher education institutions improved the relative efficiency scores of public funded universities, before and after the economic crisis of 2008. Thus, on one hand we have underlined the changes brought to the Romanian public funding mechanism of higher education during the years of 2007, 2009 and 2010 compared to the year of 2006, using the content analysis, and on the other hand we assessed and compared the relative efficiency scores of each selected public funded university using a multiple input - multiple output linear programming model, by employing the Data Envelopment Analysis technique. The findings of the research undertaken emphasized that a more performance oriented funding mechanism improves the efficiency scores of public universities. The results of the research undertaken could be used either by the policy makers within the area of higher education or by the administrative management of public universities in order to correlate the funding with the results obtained and/or the objectives assumed by both the

  10. The emergence and workings of a process view in public education policy

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Grønbæk Pors, Justine; Ratner, Helene Gad

    2017-01-01

    such a process view of organisation allows policy makers to imagine innovative change, but also how a process view interacts in particular ways with financial pressures and become entangled to increased performance measurements. We conclude that in this particular case, a conception of the object of management...... as processes is utilised to stabilise a belief that undoing organisational structures and categories offer an almost limitless resource for a simultaneous improvement of performance and reduction of expenses....

  11. Ciclovía initiatives: engaging communities, partners, and policy makers along the route to success.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zieff, Susan G; Hipp, J Aaron; Eyler, Amy A; Kim, Mi-Sook

    2013-01-01

    Recent efforts to increase physical activity through changes to the built environment have led to strategies and programs that use existing public space, including bicycle lanes, temporary parks, and the ciclovia initiative (scheduled events in which streets are closed to motorized vehicles and opened for recreational activities) popularized in South America. This article describes and compares the processes and structures involved in developing and implementing a ciclovia-type program in 2 US urban contexts: San Francisco, California, and St Louis, Missouri. Considering the current growth of and interest in ciclovia initiatives, important outcomes, lessons learned are offered for application in other, similar settings. Primary sources from both initiatives and from published research on ciclovias constitute the body of evidence and include year-end reports, grant applications, meeting minutes, budgets, published ciclovia guidelines, evaluation studies and Web sites, media sources, and interviews and personal communication with the organizers. Primary source documents were reviewed and included in this analysis if they offered information on 3 grounded questions: What processes were used in developing the initiative? What are the current structures and practices used in implementation of initiatives? What are important lessons learned and best practices from initiatives for recommendations to stakeholders and policy makers in other contexts? Among the categories compared, the structures and processes for implementation regarding buy-in and city department collaboration, route selection, programming, partnerships, media promotion, community outreach, and merchant support were relatively similar among the 2 initiatives. The categories that differed included staffing and volunteer engagement and funding. Buy-in from community partners, merchants, residents, and city agencies is critical for a positive experience in developing and implementing ciclovia-type initiatives

  12. An evaluation of equity and equality in physical activity policies in four European countries.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hämäläinen, Riitta-Maija; Sandu, Petru; Syed, Ahmed M; Jakobsen, Mette W

    2016-11-24

    There is strong research evidence on the importance of health equity and equality for wellbeing in societies. As chronic non-communicable diseases are widespread, the positive impact of physical activity (PA) on health has gained importance. However, PA at the population level is far from optimal. PA depends not only on individual factors, but also on policies for PA in sport, health, transport, education and other sectors, on social and cultural factors, and on the environment. Addressing health inequalities and inequities in PA promotion policies could benefit from policy development processes based on partnership and collaboration between various sectors, researchers, practitioners and policy makers (= cross-sectoral, evidence-informed policy making). The objective of this article is to describe how equity and equality was addressed in PA policies in four EU member states (Denmark, Finland, Romania and England), who were partners in the REPOPA project ( www.repopa.eu , EC/FP7/Health Research/GA 281532). Content analysis of 14 PA policies and 61 interviews were undertaken between 2012 and 2013 with stakeholders involved in developing PA policies in partner countries. Even though specific population subgroups were mentioned in the policy documents analysed, they were not necessarily defined as vulnerable populations nor was there a mention of additional emphasis to support such groups from being marginalised by the policy due to inequity or inequality. There were no clear objectives and activities in the analysed policies suggesting commitment of additional resources in favour of such groups. Addressing equity and equality were often not included in the core aims of the policies analysed; these aspects were mentioned in the background of the policy documents analysed, without being explicitly stated in the aims or activities of the policies. In order to tackle health inequities and inequalities and their consequences on the health status of different population

  13. Macroprudential Policy: A Summary

    OpenAIRE

    Mahdi Ebrahimi Kahou; Alfred Lehar

    2016-01-01

    The 2007 global financial crisis brought sharply into focus the need for macroprudential policy as a means of controlling systemic financial stability. This has become a focal point for policy-makers and numerous central banks, including the Bank of Canada, but it has its drawbacks, particularly here in Canada. As a counterbalance to microprudential policy, the idea of a macroprudential outlook reaches beyond the notion that as long as every banking institution is healthy, financial stability...

  14. Frameworks for pricing greenhouse gas emissions and the policy objectives they promote

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Higgins, Paul A.T.

    2013-01-01

    Four cost-effective frameworks for pricing greenhouse gas emissions currently receive widespread attention: cap-and-trade, emission fees, and hybrid cap-and-trade approaches that include upper or lower limits on permit prices (price ceilings or floors). This paper develops a fifth framework that uses an emission fee with an upper limit on the quantity of emissions—a quantity ceiling—and compares the impact of each framework on emission prices and quantities. Cap-and-trade with a price ceiling minimizes price increases for emitting activities in all cases whereas an emission fee with a quantity ceiling maximizes emissions reductions. Thus, the choice of framework influences policy outcomes because each framework is more or less suited to particular policy goals. Whether pursuing one potential policy goal serves society's interests best depends on the eventual consequences of climate damage and emissions pricing, which are uncertain when policy choices are made. Policy updating over time may reduce but likely cannot entirely eliminate the differences in outcome that arise due to framework choice. Therefore, the “best” framework for emissions pricing depends on subjective preferences regarding the relative importance of different policy objectives, most notably whether one is more risk averse to climate damages or emissions price increases. - Highlights: • This article develops and examines a carbon tax that includes a quantity constraint on emissions. • This approach maximizes climate protection in all cases, unlike existing policy alternatives. • This promotes rapid reductions in emissions if mitigation is easy without risk to long term targets. • This analysis reveals that different policy frameworks promote different policy goals. • The analysis helps round out ongoing policy discussions over how to deal with climate change

  15. Improving policy making through government-industry policy learning: The case of a novel Swedish policy framework

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stigson, Peter; Dotzauer, Erik; Yan Jinyue

    2009-01-01

    Climate change poses an unprecedented challenge for policy makers. This paper analyzes how industry sector policy expertise can contribute to improved policy making processes. Previous research has identified that policy making benefit by including non-governmental policy analysts in learning processes. Recent climate and energy policy developments, including amendments and the introduction of new initiatives, have rendered current policy regimes as novel to both governments and the industry. This increases business investment risk perceptions and may thus reduce the effectiveness and efficiency of the policy framework. In order to explore how government-industry policy learning can improve policy making in this context, this article studied the Swedish case. A literature survey analyzed how policy learning had been previously addressed, identifying that the current situation regarding novel policies had been overlooked. Interviews provided how industrial actors view Swedish policy implementation processes and participatory aspects thereof. The authors conclude that an increased involvement of the industry sector in policy design and management processes can be an important measure to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of climate and energy policies

  16. Climatic change and local policy, Amsterdam, Netherlands. Policy options and implementation strategies to reduce emission of CO2

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schol, E.; Van den Bosch, A.; Ligthart, F.A.T.M.; Roemer, J.C.; Ruijg, G.J.; Schaeffer, G.J.; Dinkelman, D.H.; Kok, I.C.; De Paauw, K.F.B.

    1998-04-01

    Insight is given into the local policy options with respect to climate change, in this case within the sphere of influence of Amsterdam local authorities. A list of new policy options for CO2-reduction has been made with the assistance of local policy makers and representatives of interest groups. These policy options have been divided into three qualitative scenarios: Institutional Cultural Change, Technological Innovation and Least Regrets. The environmental, economic and other effects have been described for each policy option. The three most interesting policy options have been selected by local policy makers and representatives of interest groups during a workshop. Implementation strategies have been developed for the options selected. These strategies have been discussed during a second workshop. The reduction target, stabilization of CO2-emissions in 2015 compared to 1993, can be realized by a combination of all the new policy options. The three selected policy options count for 40% of this total CO2-emission reduction. Finally, a general outline on the methodology to construct local policies for climate protection has been described. This methodology can also be applied to other cities and municipal administrators, e.g. participants of Cities for Climate Protection, an initiative of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, or the Netherlands Climate Association. 136 refs

  17. Databases as policy instruments. About extending networks as evidence-based policy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stoevelaar Herman

    2007-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background This article seeks to identify the role of databases in health policy. Access to information and communication technologies has changed traditional relationships between the state and professionals, creating new systems of surveillance and control. As a result, databases may have a profound effect on controlling clinical practice. Methods We conducted three case studies to reconstruct the development and use of databases as policy instruments. Each database was intended to be employed to control the use of one particular pharmaceutical in the Netherlands (growth hormone, antiretroviral drugs for HIV and Taxol, respectively. We studied the archives of the Dutch Health Insurance Board, conducted in-depth interviews with key informants and organized two focus groups, all focused on the use of databases both in policy circles and in clinical practice. Results Our results demonstrate that policy makers hardly used the databases, neither for cost control nor for quality assurance. Further analysis revealed that these databases facilitated self-regulation and quality assurance by (national bodies of professionals, resulting in restrictive prescription behavior amongst physicians. Conclusion The databases fulfill control functions that were formerly located within the policy realm. The databases facilitate collaboration between policy makers and physicians, since they enable quality assurance by professionals. Delegating regulatory authority downwards into a network of physicians who control the use of pharmaceuticals seems to be a good alternative for centralized control on the basis of monitoring data.

  18. The domestic supply outlook, how the producing industry is reacting, and the challenge to regulators and policy makers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jordan, C.A.

    1992-01-01

    This paper addresses three main topics which include an overview of the nation's natural gas reserves; a discussion of the challenges the natural gas industry faces in extracting these reserves in the realm of regulations and cost-effective extraction; and a discussion on how the industry, regulators, and policy makers can work together to extract these reserves in an economic manner while effectively operating within existing regulations. The paper also promotes methods to update and change regulations when necessary as a result of technological change or advancement. The results of the reserve study have shown that there are over 2,000 trillion cubic feet of natural gas still available in the US and Canada, not including undiscovered or additional extraction brought about by new technology. The paper goes on to discuss the historical wellhead pricing of natural gas and what these new reserve figures mean to future natural gas costs. The paper then discusses the adequacy of current distribution systems to meet an increasing demand for natural gas. Finally the paper discusses the need for more deregulation of the gas industry to make it more competitive and keep the development of these resources alive in this country. The author presents information on the decline of exploration and development in this country as a result of increased regulation

  19. What Attracts Decision Makers' Attention?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bentzen, Eric; Christiansen, John K.; Varnes, Claus J.

    2011-01-01

    portfolio meetings. The study seeks to investigate how managers allocate their attention and the role of different factors for their attention. Observations also make it possible to compare prior research and expectations with the actual observed behavior of decision makers. Design....../methodology/approach – The present analysis draws on insights from previous research into decision making in product and portfolio management and studies on organizational decision making. The authors frame why the attention of decision makers is so critical in complex situations. Data for this study were collected through direct......Purpose – Managers' attention is a scarce resource in complex innovation settings. Prior research on the factors to which managers pay attention is mostly based on surveys. The present study aims to address the need for knowledge about the behavior of decision makers based on observations from...

  20. Cost-containment as part of pharmaceutical policy

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Almarsdóttir, Anna Birna; Traulsen, Janine Marie

    2005-01-01

    and profit controls; 2) reimbursement system charges; 3) other fiscal measures; 4) quality measures. Pharmaceuticals policy has suffered from the pervasive misunderstanding that drugs are like any other commodity; resulting in policy makers viewing pharmaceuticals expenditures without thinking about drugs...

  1. Prospective analysis of energy security: A practical life-cycle approach focused on renewable power generation and oriented towards policy-makers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    García-Gusano, Diego; Iribarren, Diego; Garraín, Daniel

    2017-01-01

    Highlights: • Formulation and application of the Renewable Energy Security Index (RESI). • Prospective analysis combining Energy Systems Modelling and Life Cycle Assessment. • Feasibility proven through two case studies of power generation in Spain and Norway. • Good coverage of key energy security aspects (availability, affordability, etc.). • Novel and easy-to-report index suitable for energy policy-making. - Abstract: Energy security is a wide-ranging term to encompass issues such as security of supply, reliability of infrastructures, affordability and environmental friendliness. This article develops a robust indicator – the Renewable Energy Security Index, RESI – to enrich the body of knowledge associated with the presence of renewable energy technologies within national electricity production mixes. RESI is built by combining environmental life cycle assessment and techno-economic energy systems modelling. Spain and Norway are used as illustrative case studies for the prospective analysis of power generation from an energy security standpoint. In the Spanish case, with a diversified electricity production mix and a growing presence of renewable technologies, RESI favourably “evolves” from 0.36 at present to 0.65 in 2050 in a business-as-usual scenario, reaching higher values in a highly-restricted CO_2 scenario. The Norwegian case study attains RESI values similar to 1 due to the leading role of renewable electricity (mainly hydropower) regarding both satisfaction of national demand and exportation of electricity surplus. A widespread use of RESI as a quantifiable energy security index of national power generation sectors is found to be feasible and practical for both analysts and energy policy-makers, covering a significant number of energy security aspects.

  2. The Appreciative System of Urban ICT Policies: An Analysis of Perceptions of Urban Policy Makers

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Cohen-Blankshtain, G.; Nijkamp, P.

    2004-01-01

    Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has become an important tool to promote a variety of public goals and policies. In the past years much attention has been given to the expected social benefits from deploying ICTs in different urban fields (transportation, education, public

  3. Policies for Renewable Heat

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2012-07-01

    This paper builds on IEA publications, Deploying Renewables, Principles for Effective Policies and Deploying Renewables, Best and Future Policy Practice, that discuss the 'integrated policy approach,' whereby renewable energy technologies require different support policies at different stages of their maturity pathways. The paper discusses how the integrated policy approach applies to renewable heat. It attempts to provide guidance for policy-makers on renewable heat throughout the different phases of the policy lifecycle, allowing for the specific challenges of renewable heat and needs of the many stakeholders involved. Stimulating a market for heat involves challenges that are different and, often, more difficult to overcome than in the electricity and transport sectors.

  4. FileMaker Pro 9

    CERN Document Server

    Coffey, Geoff

    2007-01-01

    FileMaker Pro 9: The Missing Manual is the clear, thorough and accessible guide to the latest version of this popular desktop database program. FileMaker Pro lets you do almost anything with the information you give it. You can print corporate reports, plan your retirement, or run a small country -- if you know what you're doing. This book helps non-technical folks like you get in, get your database built, and get the results you need. Pronto.The new edition gives novices and experienced users the scoop on versions 8.5 and 9. It offers complete coverage of timesaving new features such as the Q

  5. Truth and Credibility in Sincere Policy Analysis: Alternative Approaches for the Production of Policy-Relevant Knowledge.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bozeman, Barry; Landsbergen, David

    1989-01-01

    Two competing approaches to policy analysis are distinguished: a credibility approach, and a truth approach. According to the credibility approach, the policy analyst's role is to search for plausible argument rather than truth. Each approach has pragmatic tradeoffs in fulfilling the goal of providing usable knowledge to decision makers. (TJH)

  6. Environmental policy (Republic of Macedonia)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1997-01-01

    With a defined set of policy goals, policy makers face an important decision on how and at what cost to the economy environmental compliance can be achieved. The costs of environmental compliance for Macedonia are still to be determined. However, environmental cost estimates, even those done with the highest degree of precision will not provide the actual burden that the society will face. The level of actual costs and their distribution in the economy will depend on the type of instruments that will be used by policy makers. In general, there are two policy options to be considered, namely command and control which relies on administrative instruments and market based which uses economic instrument. The command and control based environmental policy requires that ambient standards, emission standards and new source performance standards are in place, together with a permitting system and compliance monitoring to ensure enforcement. A market based environmental policy aims at achieving higher levels of environmental quality by correcting the imperfections of the market. This is done by what is called internalizing negative environmental externalities. In simple words, polluters are forced to pay a pollution charge or a tax and include the costs of pollution in the costs of production and finally in the prices of goods. (author)

  7. Conceptualizing Education Policy in Democratic Societies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Perry, Laura B.

    2009-01-01

    Although theorists and policy makers agree that schooling should be democratic, what this exactly means often varies. This article establishes a conceptual model for analyzing education policy in democratic societies, based on the key concepts of equality, diversity, participation, choice, and cohesion. The model facilitates the design,…

  8. Climate change and energy policies, coal and coalmine methane in China

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yang Ming [3E and T International, Suite 1506, Building No. 10, Luo Ma Shi Street, Xuanwu District, Beijing 100052 (China)], E-mail: ming.yang7@gmail.com

    2009-08-15

    The Chinese government has made many energy policies on coal, and coalmine methane (CMM) use. However, not all of these policies have effects or positive impacts. For example, it has been quite a few years since the national government made policies to encourage coalmine methane power to be sold to the grid. Practice showed that not any kilowatt of electricity was sold from a coalmine methane power plant to the grid in Sichuan and Guizhou Provinces as of December 2008. The objectives of this paper are to review and evaluate the Chinese government energy and climate policies that are related to coal and coalmine methane, analyze relevant policy barriers, and make recommendations to overcome these barriers and avoid policy failures. This paper provides the literature review, challenges, resources, policies and other updated information on China's CMM recovery and utilization. The paper concludes that China needs to further reform its energy and environment management system, engage provincial governments in CMM capture and use activities, and provide incentives to qualified engineers and skilled workers to work in remote coal mining areas. This paper transfers key messages to policy makers for them to make better CMM capture and use policies.

  9. Climate change and energy policies, coal and coalmine methane in China

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yang Ming

    2009-01-01

    The Chinese government has made many energy policies on coal, and coalmine methane (CMM) use. However, not all of these policies have effects or positive impacts. For example, it has been quite a few years since the national government made policies to encourage coalmine methane power to be sold to the grid. Practice showed that not any kilowatt of electricity was sold from a coalmine methane power plant to the grid in Sichuan and Guizhou Provinces as of December 2008. The objectives of this paper are to review and evaluate the Chinese government energy and climate policies that are related to coal and coalmine methane, analyze relevant policy barriers, and make recommendations to overcome these barriers and avoid policy failures. This paper provides the literature review, challenges, resources, policies and other updated information on China's CMM recovery and utilization. The paper concludes that China needs to further reform its energy and environment management system, engage provincial governments in CMM capture and use activities, and provide incentives to qualified engineers and skilled workers to work in remote coal mining areas. This paper transfers key messages to policy makers for them to make better CMM capture and use policies.

  10. To What Extent Are Canadian Second Language Policies Evidence-Based? Reflections on the Intersections of Research and Policy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jim eCummins

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available The paper addresses the intersections between research, ideology, and Canadian educational policies focusing on four major areas: (a core and immersion programs for the teaching of French to Anglophone students, (b policies concerning the learning of English and French by students from immigrant backgrounds, (c heritage language teaching, and (d the education of Deaf and hard-of hearing students. With respect to the teaching of French, policy-makers have largely ignored the fact that most core French programs produce meager results for the vast majority of students. Only a small proportion of students (< 10% attend more effective alternatives (e.g. French immersion and Intensive French programs. With respect to immigrant-background students, a large majority of teachers and administrators have not had opportunities to access the knowledge base regarding effective instruction for these students nor have they had opportunities for pre-service or in-service professional development regarding effective instructional practices. Educational policies have also treated the linguistic resources that children bring to school with, at best, benign neglect. In some cases (e.g., Ontario school systems have been explicitly prohibited from instituting enrichment bilingual programs that would promote students’ bilingualism and biliteracy. Finally, with respect to Deaf students, policy-makers have ignored overwhelming research on the positive relationship between academic success and the development of proficiency in natural sign languages, preferring instead to perpetuate the falsehood that acquisition of languages such as American Sign Language by young children (with or without cochlear implants will impede children’s language and academic development. The paper reviews the kinds of policies, programs, and practices that could be implemented (at no additional cost if policy-makers and educators pursued evidence-based educational policies.

  11. Assessment report on NRP sub-theme 'International instruments for climate change policy'

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bruggink, J.J.C.; Van Beek, P.; Folmer, H.; Zhang, Z.X.; Blok, K.; Phylipsen, D.; Worrell, E.; Gupta, J.; Junne, G.; Van der Wurff, R.

    1995-01-01

    The projects implemented in the Dutch National Research Programme on Global Air Pollution and Climate Change are organised in several themes and sub-themes. Within the theme on Sustainable Solutions five projects are grouped under the heading International Instruments for Climate Change Policy. These five projects deal primarily with issues concerning the position of developing countries in the debate on limiting global CO2-emissions. They cover a broad spectrum of topics: international negotiation strategies, tropical deforestation, industrial energy conservation, national energy scenarios, emission guidelines. This contribution presents an overview of the objectives, methodologies and results of the projects and includes a critical evaluation of the potential relevance of the work for policy makers. 1 tab., 36 refs

  12. Eco-informatics for decision makers advancing a research agenda

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cushing, J.B.; Wilson, T.; Brandt, L.; Gregg, V.; Spengler, S.; Borning, A.; Delcambre, L.; Bowker, G.; Frame, M.; Fulop, J.; Hert, C.; Hovy, E.; Jones, J.; Landis, E.; Schnase, J.L.; Schweik, C.; Sonntag, W.; ,

    2005-01-01

    Resource managers often face significant information technology (IT) problems when integrating ecological or environmental information to make decisions. At a workshop sponsored by the NSF and USGS in December 2004, university researchers, natural resource managers, and information managers met to articulate IT problems facing ecology and environmental decision makers. Decision making IT problems were identified in five areas: 1) policy, 2) data presentation, 3) data gaps, 4) tools, and 5) indicators. To alleviate those problems, workshop participants recommended specific informatics research in modeling and simulation, data quality, information integration and ontologies, and social and human aspects. This paper reports the workshop findings, and briefly compares these with research that traditionally falls under the emerging eco-informatics rubric. ?? Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.

  13. Policy Statements Issued by Scientific Societies: Why Less can be More

    Science.gov (United States)

    Folger, P. F.

    2001-12-01

    The results of hydrological research are increasingly important to decision-makers grappling with problems as diverse as global climate change, non-point source pollution, extreme weather events, and damage from flooding. In some cases scientific aspects of these problems are interwoven with economic, political and social disputes, and policy makers often seek the consensus scientific opinion to help shape the debate. Policy or position statements issued by scientific societies like AGU can embody scientific consensus and thus inform the public and policy makers. But this is not always the case. The potential for creating public misunderstanding is ever present. Therefore, the process leading to a policy statement needs to be deliberative, inclusive to the extent possible, and circumspect. In contrast to advocacy organizations or trade groups, as a learned society AGU and members acting on its behalf should only advocate positions on political or social issues that are based solely on available geophysical data and recognized scientific debate. That does not mean that AGU and other scientific societies must refrain from entering a political debate. AGU has a responsibility to its members to adopt positions of advocacy on geophysical science issues based on their intrinsic merits and needs. However, a learned society like AGU should state only what is credible about the scientific aspects of a political debate and not overstep its authority as an objective source of analysis and commentary for the geophysical sciences. Before adopting an advocacy position, AGU's volunteers follow a process that includes checks and balances so that the final statement is based on sound scientific issues and reflects the interests of the Union as a whole. Any AGU member or committee can propose a position statement, but the Committee on Public Affairs (COPA) decides whether the proposal fall within the guidelines for advocacy. If it does and if COPA considers the issue worthy of an

  14. Electricity supply industry modelling for multiple objectives under demand growth uncertainty

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Heinrich, G.; Basson, L.; Howells, M.; Petrie, J.

    2007-01-01

    Appropriate energy-environment-economic (E3) modelling provides key information for policy makers in the electricity supply industry (ESI) faced with navigating a sustainable development path. Key challenges include engaging with stakeholder values and preferences, and exploring trade-offs between competing objectives in the face of underlying uncertainty. As a case study we represent the South African ESI using a partial equilibrium E3 modelling approach, and extend the approach to include multiple objectives under selected future uncertainties. This extension is achieved by assigning cost penalties to non-cost attributes to force the model's least-cost objective function to better satisfy non-cost criteria. This paper incorporates aspects of flexibility to demand growth uncertainty into each future expansion alternative by introducing stochastic programming with recourse into the model. Technology lead times are taken into account by the inclusion of a decision node along the time horizon where aspects of real options theory are considered within the planning process. Hedging in the recourse programming is automatically translated from being purely financial, to include the other attributes that the cost penalties represent. From a retrospective analysis of the cost penalties, the correct market signals, can be derived to meet policy goal, with due regard to demand uncertainty. (author)

  15. Policy objective of generic medicines from the investment perspective: The case of clopidogrel.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Elek, Péter; Harsányi, András; Zelei, Tamás; Csetneki, Kata; Kaló, Zoltán

    2017-05-01

    The objective of generic drug policies in most countries is defined from a disinvestment perspective: reduction in expenditures without compromising health outcomes. However, in countries with restricted access of patients to original patented drugs, the objective of generic drug policies can also be defined from an investment perspective: health gain by improved patient access without need for additional health budget. This study examines the investment aspect of generic medicines by analyzing clopidogrel utilization in European countries between 2004 and 2014 using multilevel panel data models. We find that clopidogrel consumption was strongly affected by affordability constraints before the generic entry around 2009, but this effect decayed by 2014. After controlling for other variables, utilization had a substantially larger trend increase in lower-income European countries than in the higher-income ones. Generic entry increased clopidogrel consumption only in lower- and average-income countries but not in the highest-income ones. An earlier generic entry was associated with a larger effect. The case of clopidogrel indicates that the entrance of generics may increase patient access to effective medicines, most notably in lower-income countries, thereby reducing inequalities between European patients. Policymakers should also consider this investment aspect of generic medicines when designing pharmaceutical policies. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  16. Energy sector methane recovery and use: the importance of policy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Tom Kerr; Michelle Hershman

    2009-08-15

    To raise awareness about appropriate policy options to advance methane recovery and use in the energy sector, the IEA has conducted a series of analyses and studies over the past few years. This report continues IEA efforts by providing policy makers with examples and best practices in methane mitigation policy design and implementation. This report offers an overview of four types of methane mitigation projects that have the strongest links to the energy sector: oil and gas methane recovery and reduction of leaks and losses; coal mine methane; landfill methane; and manure methane recovery and use. It identifies successful policies that have been used to advance these important projects. This information is intended to guide policy makers as they search for low-cost, near-term solutions to climate change. 38 refs., 10 figs., 1 app.

  17. Improving access to skilled attendance at delivery: a policy brief for Uganda.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nabudere, Harriet; Asiimwe, Delius; Amandua, Jacinto

    2013-04-01

    This study describes the process of production, findings for a policy brief on Increasing Access to Skilled Birth Attendance, and subsequent use of the report by policy makers and others from the health sector in Uganda. The methods used to prepare the policy brief use the SUPPORT Tools for evidence-informed health policy making. The problem that this evidence brief addresses was identified through an explicit priority setting process involving policy makers and other stakeholders, further clarification with key informant interviews of relevant policy makers, and review of relevant documents. A working group of national stakeholder representatives and external reviewers commented on and contributed to successive drafts of the report. Research describing the problem, policy options, and implementation considerations was identified by reviewing government documents, routinely collected data, electronic literature searches, contact with key informants, and reviewing the reference lists of relevant documents that were retrieved. The proportion of pregnant women delivering from public and private non-profit facilities was low at 34 percent in 2008/09. The three policy options discussed in the report could be adopted independently or complementary to the other to increase access to skilled care. The Ministry of Health in deliberating to provide intrapartum care at first level health facilities from the second level of care, requested for research evidence to support these decisions. Maternal waiting shelters and working with the private-for-profit sector to facilitate deliveries in health facilities are promising complementary interventions that have been piloted in both the public and private health sector. A combination of strategies is needed to effectively implement the proposed options as discussed further in this article. The policy brief report was used as a background document for two stakeholder dialogue meetings involving members of parliament, policy makers

  18. A Third Way for Health Policy?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alexander D. Peden

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Economics has hit the mainstream in the last decade with popular books like Freakonomics and The Undercover Economist reaching the masses. These authors have used their toolkits far beyond the narrow scope of money and finance and answered questions pertaining to anything from social policy to demographics to crime. Their appeal has largely been their ability to explain that small underlying forces can have major impacts, intended or otherwise, on many different areas of society. One recent book following this trend is Nudge, published in 2008 by University of Chicago academics Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein. The book has attracted acclaim from both journals and the press, with The Financial Times naming it as one of the best business books for 2008. Nudge coins the term ‘choice architecture’, referring to the manner in which a range of alternatives is presented, which the authors contend is commonly overlooked as an integral part of many decisions we all face during the course of our day-to-day lives (1. When people take the time to judiciously research all alternatives before them, or use their reflective systems in the parlance of the book, they generally make objectively good decisions. Unfortunately, in practice people cannot or do not take the time to do so and instead use their automatic or gut thinking systems, leading to inferior outcomes. The first section of the book then compellingly demonstrates the evidence of its importance in a multitude of situations. There are many lessons to be learned along the way, applicable to both policy-makers and those who wish to critically examine some of their own choices in life. Among these, lessons is the fact that a large percentage of the population will stick with an easy default option without consideration of better alternatives, even when considering a life-altering decision such as retirement planning. There are even examples of people who fail to take advantage of subsidies to

  19. Finding facts for policy makers. IPCC's Special Reports and the Third Assessment Report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Leemans, R.; Verbeek, K.

    2000-01-01

    The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an international body of the WMO (World Meteorological Organization) and UNEP (United Nations Environmental Programme) that publishes authoritative reports on the scientific, technical and socio-economic aspects of climate change and climate policy. The knowledge contained in the IPCC reports forms the basis for the development of global climate policy by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The three volumes of the Third Assessment Report will be published early in 2001, shortly after Cop6 (Sixth Convention of Parties, The Hague, Netherlands, November 2000). This broadly supported summary of scientific insights will be important for the further substantiation of climate policy

  20. Monetary Policy Objectives During the Crisis: An Overview of Selected Southeast European Countries

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Krstevska Aneta

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The recent global crisis brought many challenges to the central bankers worldwide, including the issue of monetary policy objectives. In this view, besides price stability maintenance, a special attention by central bankers during the crisis was given to the output stabilization. This paper explores this issue on the case of a group of countries from Southeast Europe (SEE. For this purpose, rather simple analysis of the policy rate and output gap as well as output gap variability by countries have been provided, aimed at giving some initial insights of the monetary policy and output stabilization during the crisis. Our findings pointed that the central banks in the analysed SEE countries paid attention to the output stabilization, specifically during the crisis period and that was presumably enabled by controllable inflation developments.

  1. Psychology, behavioral economics, and public policy

    OpenAIRE

    Amir, O; Ariely, D; Cooke, A; Dunning, D; Epley, N; Gneezy, U; Koszegi, B; Lichtenstein, D; Mazar, N; Mullainathan, S; Prelec, D; Shafir, E; Silva, J

    2005-01-01

    Economics has typically been the social science of choice to inform public policy and policymakers. In the current paper we contemplate the role behavioral science can play in enlightening policymakers. In particular, we provide some examples of research that has and can be used to inform policy, reflect on the kind of behavioral science that is important for policy, and approaches for convincing policy-makers to listen to behavioral scientists. We suggest that policymakers are unlikely to in...

  2. Experimentation at the interface of science and policy : a multi-case analysis of how policy experiments influence political decision-makers

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    McFadgen, Belinda; Huitema, Dave

    2017-01-01

    For decades now, scholars have grappled with questions about how knowledge producers can enhance the influence of their knowledge on users and improve policy making. However, little attention has been paid to how policy experiments, a flexible and ex ante method of policy appraisal, obtain influence

  3. Travelling Policies and Contextual Considerations: On Threshold Criteria

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nir, Adam; Kondakci, Yasar; Emil, Serap

    2018-01-01

    Educational policy borrowing has become rather common in our globalised world. However, the literature lacks contextual criteria that may be employed by researchers and policy makers to assess the correspondence of a particular policy to the local context of a borrowing system. Based on a secondary analysis of documents and research reports, this…

  4. The evidence-policy divide: a 'critical computational linguistics' approach to the language of 18 health agency CEOs from 9 countries.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bell, Erica; Seidel, Bastian M

    2012-10-30

    There is an emerging body of literature suggesting that the evidence-practice divide in health policy is complex and multi-factorial but less is known about the processes by which health policy-makers use evidence and their views about the specific features of useful evidence. This study aimed to contribute to understandings of how the most influential health policy-makers view useful evidence, in ways that help explore and question how the evidence-policy divide is understood and what research might be supported to help overcome this divide. A purposeful sample of 18 national and state health agency CEOs from 9 countries was obtained. Participants were interviewed using open-ended questions that asked them to define specific features of useful evidence. The analysis involved two main approaches 1)quantitative mapping of interview transcripts using Bayesian-based computational linguistics software 2)qualitative critical discourse analysis to explore the nuances of language extracts so identified. The decision-making, conclusions-oriented world of policy-making is constructed separately, but not exclusively, by policy-makers from the world of research. Research is not so much devalued by them as described as too technical- yet at the same time not methodologically complex enough to engage with localised policy-making contexts. It is not that policy-makers are negative about academics or universities, it is that they struggle to find complexity-oriented methodologies for understanding their stakeholder communities and improving systems. They did not describe themselves as having a more positive role in solving this challenge than academics. These interviews do not support simplistic definitions of policy-makers and researchers as coming from two irreconcilable worlds. They suggest that qualitative and quantitative research is valued by policy-makers but that to be policy-relevant health research may need to focus on building complexity-oriented research methods for

  5. Price caps and price floors in climate policy: a quantitative assessment

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Philibert, Cedric

    2008-12-15

    This study assesses the long-term economic and environmental effects of introducing price caps and price floors in hypothetical climate change mitigation architecture, which aims to reduce global energy-related CO2 emissions by 50% by 2050. Based on abatement costs in IPCC and IEA reports, this quantitative analysis confirms what qualitative analyses have already suggested: introducing price caps could significantly reduce economic uncertainty. This uncertainty stems primarily from unpredictable economic growth and energy prices, and ultimately unabated emission trends. In addition, the development of abatement technologies is uncertain. With price caps, the expected costs could be reduced by about 50% and the uncertainty on economic costs could be one order of magnitude lower. Reducing economic uncertainties may spur the adoption of more ambitious policies by helping to alleviate policy makers' concerns of economic risks. Meanwhile, price floors would reduce the level of emissions beyond the objective if the abatement costs ended up lower than forecasted. If caps and floors are commensurate with the ambition of the policy pursued and combined with slightly tightened emission objectives, climatic results could be on average similar to those achieved with 'straight' objectives (i.e. with no cost-containment mechanism). (auth)

  6. Science Under Attack Public Policy, Science Education, and the Emperor's New Clothes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Krauss, Lawrence

    2005-01-01

    The popular debate about the teaching of intelligent design in public schools is but one quandary for scientists and policy makers. Given recent developments which have worked to breed a general distrust of science, it is evident that researchers and politicians alike should be wary of using popular opinion as a guide for policy and pedagogy when it comes to science in public education. Dr. Krauss will qualify this complex issue and will address how educators, policy makers and scientists can work effectively to prevent public misconceptions of science.

  7. Distributed Solar Photovoltaics for Electric Vehicle Charging: Regulatory and Policy Considerations (Brochure)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    2014-09-01

    Increasing demand for electric vehicle (EV) charging provides an opportunity for market expansion of distributed solar technology. A major barrier to the current deployment of solar technology for EV charging is a lack of clear information for policy makers, utilities and potential adopters. This paper introduces the pros and cons of EV charging during the day versus at night, summarizes the benefits and grid implications of combining solar and EV charging technologies, and offers some regulatory and policy options available to policy makers and regulators wanting to incentivize solar EV charging.

  8. The sixteenth-century altar painting of the Cattaran (Kotor fraternity of leather-makers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Živković Valentina

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available The altar painting that the Cattaran Fraternity of Leather-makers commissioned from the Venetian painter Girolamo da Santa Croce in the first half of the sixteenth century contains the images of Sts Bartholomew, George and Antoninus. The presence of the first two saints is looked at from the perspective of a long-established religious tradition, while the reasons for depicting the archbishop Antoninus giving alms to the poor appear to reside in the then prevailing religious policy and the local social situation.

  9. Governing low-carbon energy transitions in sustainable ways: Potential synergies and conflicts between climate and environmental policy objectives

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hildingsson, Roger; Johansson, Bengt

    2016-01-01

    Climate change is a central sustainability concern, but is often treated separately from other policy areas in environmental governance. In this article we study how low-carbon energy transitions might be governed in line with broader sustainability goals. We identify conflicts and synergies between low-carbon strategies and the attainment of longer-term environmental objectives by examining the Swedish environmental quality objectives as a governance arrangement. Our analysis indicates that low-carbon strategies might be compatible with preserving other aspects of ecological sustainability. However, this requires relevant flanking policies and measures for non-climate objectives, e.g. systems that control the expansion of biomass and ensure the use of sustainable methods. For such a governance system to be credible and capable, it needs to be flexible in terms of adapting to specific and changing contexts, and reflexive enough to factor in new knowledge on requirements for sustainable development and potentially changing values of future generations. - Highlights: • We identify synergies and conflicts between climate and environmental objectives. • Low-carbon energy transitions can be compatible with other sustainability goals. • This demands relevant flanking policies, e.g. on sustainable biomass harvesting. • This requires policy measures to take different local contexts into account. • Governance systems need to respond to new knowledge and changing values.

  10. Getting ocean acidification on decision makers' to-do lists: dissecting the process through case studies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cooley, Sarah R.; Jewett, Elizabeth B.; Reichert, Julie; Robbins, Lisa L.; Shrestha, Gyami; Wieczorek, Dan; Weisberg, Stephen B.

    2015-01-01

    Much of the detailed, incremental knowledge being generated by current scientific research on ocean acidification (OA) does not directly address the needs of decision makers, who are asking broad questions such as: Where will OA harm marine resources next? When will this happen? Who will be affected? And how much will it cost? In this review, we use a series of mainly US-based case studies to explore the needs of local to international-scale groups that are making decisions to address OA concerns. Decisions concerning OA have been made most naturally and easily when information needs were clearly defined and closely aligned with science outputs and initiatives. For decisions requiring more complex information, the process slows dramatically. Decision making about OA is greatly aided (1) when a mixture of specialists participates, including scientists, resource users and managers, and policy and law makers; (2) when goals can be clearly agreed upon at the beginning of the process; (3) when mixed groups of specialists plan and create translational documents explaining the likely outcomes of policy decisions on ecosystems and natural resources; (4) when regional work on OA fits into an existing set of priorities concerning climate or water quality; and (5) when decision making can be reviewed and enhanced.

  11. Renewable electricity production costs-A framework to assist policy-makers' decisions on price support

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dinica, Valentina

    2011-01-01

    Despite recent progress, the production costs for renewable electricity remain above those for conventional power. Expectations of continuous reductions in production costs, typically underpin governments' policies for financial support. They often draw on the technology-focused versions of the Experience Curve model. This paper discusses how national-contextual factors also have a strong influence on production costs, such as geographic, infrastructural, institutional, and resource factors. As technologies mature, and as they reach significant levels of diffusion nationally, sustained increases in production costs might be recorded, due to these nationally contextual factors, poorly accounted for in policy-making decisions for price support. The paper suggests an analytical framework for a more comprehensive understanding of production costs. Based on this, it recommends that the evolution of specific cost levels and factors be monitored to locate 'sources of changes'. The paper also suggests policy instruments that governments may use to facilitate cost decreases, whenever possible. The application of the framework is illustrated for the diffusion of wind power in Spain during the past three decades. - Highlights: → Models, frameworks for policy-making on price support for renewable electricity production costs. → Policy instruments to help reduce production costs. → Limits to the influence of policies of production costs reductions.

  12. Assimilation of tourism satellite accounts and applied general equilibrium models to inform tourism policy analysis

    OpenAIRE

    Rossouw, Riaan; Saayman, Melville

    2011-01-01

    Historically, tourism policy analysis in South Africa has posed challenges to accurate measurement. The primary reason for this is that tourism is not designated as an 'industry' in standard economic accounts. This paper therefore demonstrates the relevance and need for applied general equilibrium (AGE) models to be completed and extended through an integration with tourism satellite accounts (TSAs) as a tool for policy makers (especially tourism policy makers) in South Africa. The paper sets...

  13. The Current Mind-Set of Federal Information Security Decision-Makers on the Value of Governance: An Informative Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stroup, Jay Walter

    2014-01-01

    Understanding the mind-set or perceptions of organizational leaders and decision-makers is important to ascertaining the trends and priorities in policy and governance of the organization. This study finds that a significant shift in the mind-set of government IT and information security leaders has started and will likely result in placing a…

  14. Optimal Waste Load Allocation Using Multi-Objective Optimization and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    L. Saberi

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: Increasing demand for water, depletion of resources of acceptable quality, and excessive water pollution due to agricultural and industrial developments has caused intensive social and environmental problems all over the world. Given the environmental importance of rivers, complexity and extent of pollution factors and physical, chemical and biological processes in these systems, optimal waste-load allocation in river systems has been given considerable attention in the literature in the past decades. The overall objective of planning and quality management of river systems is to develop and implement a coordinated set of strategies and policies to reduce or allocate of pollution entering the rivers so that the water quality matches by proposing environmental standards with an acceptable reliability. In such matters, often there are several different decision makers with different utilities which lead to conflicts. Methods/Materials: In this research, a conflict resolution framework for optimal waste load allocation in river systems is proposed, considering the total treatment cost and the Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD violation characteristics. There are two decision-makers inclusive waste load discharges coalition and environmentalists who have conflicting objectives. This framework consists of an embedded river water quality simulator, which simulates the transport process including reaction kinetics. The trade-off curve between objectives is obtained using the Multi-objective Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm which these objectives are minimization of the total cost of treatment and penalties that must be paid by discharges and a violation of water quality standards considering BOD parameter which is controlled by environmentalists. Thus, the basic policy of river’s water quality management is formulated in such a way that the decision-makers are ensured their benefits will be provided as far as possible. By using MOPSO

  15. Producing More Actionable Science Isn't the Problem; It's Providing Decision-Makers with Access to Right Actionable Knowledge

    Science.gov (United States)

    Trexler, M.

    2017-12-01

    Policy-makers today have almost infinite climate-relevant scientific and other information available to them. The problem for climate change decision-making isn't missing science or inadequate knowledge of climate risks; the problem is that the "right" climate change actionable knowledge isn't getting to the right decision-maker, or is getting there too early or too late to effectively influence her decision-making. Actionable knowledge is not one-size-fit-all, and for a given decision-maker might involve scientific, economic, or risk-based information. Simply producing more and more information as we are today is not the solution, and actually makes it harder for individual decision-makers to access "their" actionable knowledge. The Climatographers began building the Climate Web five years ago to test the hypothesis that a knowledge management system could help navigate the gap between infinite information and individual actionable knowledge. Today the Climate Web's more than 1,500 index terms allow instant access to almost any climate change topic. It is a curated public-access knowledgebase of more than 1,000 books, 2,000 videos, 15,000 reports and articles, 25,000 news stories, and 3,000 websites. But it is also much more, linking together tens of thousands of individually extracted ideas and graphics, and providing Deep Dives into more than 100 key topics from changing probability distributions of extreme events to climate communications best practices to cognitive dissonance in climate change decision-making. The public-access Climate Web is uniquely able to support cross-silo learning, collaboration, and actionable knowledge dissemination. The presentation will use the Climate Web to demonstrate why knowledge management should be seen as a critical component of science and policy-making collaborations.

  16. Language Policy, Multilingual Education, and Power in Rwanda

    Science.gov (United States)

    Samuelson, Beth Lewis; Freedman, Sarah Warshauer

    2010-01-01

    The evolution of Rwanda's language policies since 1996 has played and continues to play a critical role in social reconstruction following war and genocide. Rwanda's new English language policy aims to drop French and install English as the only language of instruction. The policy-makers frame the change as a major factor in the success of social…

  17. Public Policy and Protection from Exclusion - Phase III | IDRC ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    Public Policy and Protection from Exclusion - Phase III ... and decision-makers active in the promotion of equitable health policies, with a view to promoting the emergence of an observatory of health systems in the ... Policy in Focus publishes a special issue profiling evidence to empower women in the labour market.

  18. Politics, policies and processes: a multidisciplinary and multimethods research programme on policies on the social determinants of health inequity in Australia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baum, Fran; Friel, Sharon

    2017-12-21

    The development and implementation of multisectoral policy to improve health and reduce health inequities has been slow and uneven. Evidence is largely focused on the facts of health inequities rather than understanding the political and policy processes. This 5-year funded programme of research investigates how these processes could function more effectively to improve equitable population health. The programme of work is organised in four work packages using four themes (macroeconomics and infrastructure, land use and urban environments, health systems and racism) related to the structural drivers shaping the distribution of power, money and resources and daily living conditions. Policy case studies will use publicly available documents (policy documents, published evaluations, media coverage) and interviews with informants (policy-makers, former politicians, civil society, private sector) (~25 per case). NVIVO software will be used to analyse the documents to see how 'social and health equity' is included and conceptualised. The interview data will include qualitative descriptive and theory-driven critical discourse analysis. Our quantitative methodological work assessing the impact of public policy on health equity is experimental that is in its infancy but promises to provide the type of evidence demanded by policy-makers. Our programme is recognising the inherently political nature of the uptake, formulation and implementation of policy. The early stages of our work indicate its feasibility. Our work is aided by a Critical Policy Reference Group. Multiple ethics approvals have been obtained with the foundation approval from the Social and Behavioural Ethics Committee, Flinders University (Project No: 6786).The theoretical, methodological and policy engagement processes established will provide improved evidence for policy-makers who wish to reduce health inequities and inform a new generation of policy savvy knowledge on social determinants. © Article author

  19. Bioenergy systems sustainability assessment & management (BIOSSAM) guidance portal for policy, decision and development support of integrated bioenergy supply interventions

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Stafford, WHL

    2010-08-01

    Full Text Available . There are several new bioenergy interventions (policies, projects, or programmes) that are being considered and these developments must be assessed in terms of their sustainability. Both public and private sector policy makers, decision makers, and technology...

  20. Challenges of linking scientific knowledge to river basin management policy: AquaTerra as a case study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Slob, A.F.L.; Rijnveld, M.; Chapman, A.S.; Strosser, P.

    2007-01-01

    The EU Project AquaTerra generates knowledge about the river-soil-sediment-groundwater system and delivers scientific information of value for river basin management. In this article, the use and ignorance of scientific knowledge in decision making is explored by a theoretical review. We elaborate on the 'two-communities theory', which explains the problems of the policy-science interface by relating and comparing the different cultures, contexts, and languages of researchers and policy makers. Within AquaTerra, the EUPOL subproject examines the policy-science interface with the aim of achieving a good connection between the scientific output of the project and EU policies. We have found two major barriers, namely language and resources, as well as two types of relevant relationships: those between different research communities and those between researchers and policy makers. - Using scientific output in River Basin Management requires researchers and policy makers to acknowledge the multiple rationalities and different viewpoints that are brought in by the variety of stakeholders involved

  1. Global change research: Science and policy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rayner, S.

    1993-05-01

    This report characterizes certain aspects of the Global Change Research Program of the US Government, and its relevance to the short and medium term needs of policy makers in the public and private sectors. It addresses some of the difficulties inherent in the science and policy interface on the issues of global change. Finally, this report offers some proposals for improving the science for policy process in the context of global environmental change

  2. FileMaker Pro 11 The Missing Manual

    CERN Document Server

    Prosser, Susan

    2010-01-01

    This hands-on, friendly guide shows you how to harness FileMaker's power to make your information work for you. With a few mouse clicks, the FileMaker Pro 11 database helps you create and print corporate reports, manage a mailing list, or run your entire business. FileMaker Pro 11: The Missing Manual helps you get started, build your database, and produce results, whether you're running a business, pursuing a hobby, or planning your retirement. It's a thorough, accessible guide for new, non-technical users, as well as those with more experience. Start up: Get your first database up and runnin

  3. Energy poverty policies in the EU: A critical perspective

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bouzarovski, Stefan; Petrova, Saska; Sarlamanov, Robert

    2012-01-01

    Once confined to the UK context – where it was struggling to receive political recognition for years – the concept of energy (or fuel) poverty is slowly entering the EU's agenda, where it has crept into a number of regulatory documents and policy proposals. Using evidence gathered from an international workshop and semi-structured interviews with decision-makers, experts and advocacy activists in Brussels and Sofia, this paper explores the adoption of policies aimed at addressing energy poverty within (i) the organisational context of the EU; and (ii) national state institutions in Bulgaria – a member state facing considerable problems at the energy affordability – social inequality nexus. While the former are largely nascent and poorly co-ordinated, the latter have already been implemented de jure to a significant extent. However, many unresolved issues surrounding their de facto implementation remain. At the same time, national policy makers remain largely unaware of the existence of direct energy poverty related initiatives at the EU level. - Highlights: ► This paper explores the adoption of energy poverty policies within the EU and Bulgaria. ► We establish the existence of a range of nascent efforts to address the issue at EU level. ► Bulgaria has been good at implementing EU energy poverty relevant directives. ► However, policy makers speak a different language when it comes to direct energy poverty action.

  4. Lessons Learned from the Energy Policies of IEA Countries

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2009-07-01

    This information paper provides policy makers and managers, facing tough energy policy challenges, with a wider perspective of how the same issues are being addressed by different IEA member countries. The topics included are: Government structures for co-ordinating energy and climate policies; The use of long-term energy forecasts and scenarios; and Progress in the delivery of key energy security policies.

  5. Establishing a community of practice of researchers, practitioners, policy-makers and communities to sustainably manage environmental health risks in Ecuador.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spiegel, Jerry M; Breilh, Jaime; Beltran, Efrain; Parra, Jorge; Solis, Fernanda; Yassi, Annalee; Rojas, Alejandro; Orrego, Elena; Henry, Bonnie; Bowie, William R; Pearce, Laurie; Gaibor, Juan; Velasquez, Patricio; Concepcion, Miriam; Parkes, Margot

    2011-11-08

    The Sustainably Managing Environmental Health Risk in Ecuador project was launched in 2004 as a partnership linking a large Canadian university with leading Cuban and Mexican institutes to strengthen the capacities of four Ecuadorian universities for leading community-based learning and research in areas as diverse as pesticide poisoning, dengue control, water and sanitation, and disaster preparedness. In implementing curriculum and complementary innovations through application of an ecosystem approach to health, our interdisciplinary international team focused on the question: "Can strengthening of institutional capacities to support a community of practice of researchers, practitioners, policy-makers and communities produce positive health outcomes and improved capacities to sustainably translate knowledge?" To assess progress in achieving desired outcomes, we review results associated with the logic framework analysis used to guide the project, focusing on how a community of practice network has strengthened implementation, including follow-up tracking of program trainees and presentation of two specific case studies. By 2009, train-the-trainer project initiation involved 27 participatory action research Master's theses in 15 communities where 1200 community learners participated in the implementation of associated interventions. This led to establishment of innovative Ecuadorian-led master's and doctoral programs, and a Population Health Observatory on Collective Health, Environment and Society for the Andean region based at the Universidad Andina Simon Bolivar. Building on this network, numerous initiatives were begun, such as an internationally funded research project to strengthen dengue control in the coastal community of Machala, and establishment of a local community eco-health centre focusing on determinants of health near Cuenca. Strengthening capabilities for producing and applying knowledge through direct engagement with affected populations and

  6. Establishing a community of practice of researchers, practitioners, policy-makers and communities to sustainably manage environmental health risks in Ecuador

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Henry Bonnie

    2011-11-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The Sustainably Managing Environmental Health Risk in Ecuador project was launched in 2004 as a partnership linking a large Canadian university with leading Cuban and Mexican institutes to strengthen the capacities of four Ecuadorian universities for leading community-based learning and research in areas as diverse as pesticide poisoning, dengue control, water and sanitation, and disaster preparedness. Methods In implementing curriculum and complementary innovations through application of an ecosystem approach to health, our interdisciplinary international team focused on the question: “Can strengthening of institutional capacities to support a community of practice of researchers, practitioners, policy-makers and communities produce positive health outcomes and improved capacities to sustainably translate knowledge?” To assess progress in achieving desired outcomes, we review results associated with the logic framework analysis used to guide the project, focusing on how a community of practice network has strengthened implementation, including follow-up tracking of program trainees and presentation of two specific case studies. Results By 2009, train-the-trainer project initiation involved 27 participatory action research Master’s theses in 15 communities where 1200 community learners participated in the implementation of associated interventions. This led to establishment of innovative Ecuadorian-led master’s and doctoral programs, and a Population Health Observatory on Collective Health, Environment and Society for the Andean region based at the Universidad Andina Simon Bolivar. Building on this network, numerous initiatives were begun, such as an internationally funded research project to strengthen dengue control in the coastal community of Machala, and establishment of a local community eco-health centre focusing on determinants of health near Cuenca. Discussion Strengthening capabilities for producing and

  7. Hydropedology as a powerful tool for environmental policy research

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bouma, J.

    2006-01-01

    Rather than produce clear-cut answers to well-defined problems, research on future environmental policy issues requires a different approach whereby researchers are partners in joint learning processes among stakeholders, policy makers, NGOs (Non-Governmental Organisations) and industry. This

  8. Climate change and energy policies, coal and coalmine methane in China

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yang, Ming [3E and T International, Suite 1506, Building No. 10, Luo Ma Shi Street, Xuanwu District, Beijing 100052 (China)

    2009-08-15

    The Chinese government has made many energy policies on coal, and coalmine methane (CMM) use. However, not all of these policies have effects or positive impacts. For example, it has been quite a few years since the national government made policies to encourage coalmine methane power to be sold to the grid. Practice showed that not any kilowatt of electricity was sold from a coalmine methane power plant to the grid in Sichuan and Guizhou Provinces as of December 2008. The objectives of this paper are to review and evaluate the Chinese government energy and climate policies that are related to coal and coalmine methane, analyze relevant policy barriers, and make recommendations to overcome these barriers and avoid policy failures. This paper provides the literature review, challenges, resources, policies and other updated information on China's CMM recovery and utilization. The paper concludes that China needs to further reform its energy and environment management system, engage provincial governments in CMM capture and use activities, and provide incentives to qualified engineers and skilled workers to work in remote coal mining areas. This paper transfers key messages to policy makers for them to make better CMM capture and use policies. (author)

  9. An Investigation into the Decision Makers's Risk Attitude Index ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    An Investigation into the Decision Makers's Risk Attitude Index Ranking Technique for Fuzzy Critical Path Analysis. ... Nigerian Journal of Technology ... for a benchmark problem, the decision maker's risk attitude index ranking method produces unrealistic results when the decision maker's attitude towards risk was neutral.

  10. Management-By-Objectives in Healthcare

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Traberg, Andreas

    that managers are able to incorporate those indicators they find useful in their department, and thus secure sufficient informational support for the department's decision-making processes. The Performance Account thereby eases the identification of areas suited for corrective actions, and provides the decision......; collectively, however, they pose a significant drawback. The vast selection of self-contained initiatives limits the overview for decision makers and imposes an escalating administrative burden on operational staff members. Contrary to the initial objective, the expanding informational burden limits...... the overview and transparency for healthcare decision makers; as a result, well-documented initiatives fail to become integrated support in operational decision-making processes. This research work has thus striven to design a holistic Management-By-Objectives framework that can enable managers and operational...

  11. Effective Management for National or Local Policy Objectives?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Winter, Søren; Skou, Mette; Beer, Frederikke

    This research considers the role of local policies and management in affecting street-level bureaucrats’ actions in implementing national policy mandates. The focus on sanctioning behavior by social workers provides a strong test of these effects, given that the behaviors are both visible and have...... workers with a better fit with the goals of the organization increases workers’ compliance with local policy goals, but only when these diverge from national ones! Increasing staff capacity and information provision have simpler effects in fostering more compliance with the national policy mandate among...... workers. Managers’ addressing adverse selection problems seems more effective than coping with moral hazard. The combination of local politicians’ influence on the formation of local policy goals and managers’ influence in getting workers to comply with those indicates a very important role for policy...

  12. The role of financial intermediaries in monetary policy transmission

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Beck, T.H.L.; Colciago, A.; Pfajfar, D.

    The recent financial crisis has stimulated theoretical and empirical research on the propagation mechanisms underlying business cycles, in particular on the role of financial frictions. Many issues concerning the interactions between banking and monetary policy forced policy makers to redefine

  13. Does the market maker stabilize the market?

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Zhu, M.; Chiarella, C.; He, X.Z.; Wang, D.

    2009-01-01

    The market maker plays an important role in price formation, but his/her behavior and stabilizing impact on the market are relatively unclear, in particular in speculative markets. This paper develops a financial market model that examines the impact on market stability of the market maker, who acts

  14. Marijuana: A Study of State Policies & Penalties.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peat, Marwick, Mitchell and Co., Columbia, MD.

    This study is a comprehensive analysis of issues concerning marijuana that are of importance to state policy makers. It reviews the medical, legal, and historical dimensions of marijuana use and examines the range of policy approaches toward marijuana possession and use which state officials have considered. Attention is directed to the experience…

  15. Thermodynamic analysis of a solar coffee maker

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sosa-Montemayor, F.; Jaramillo, O.A.; Rio, J.A. del

    2009-01-01

    In this paper we present a novel solar concentrating application, a coffee brewing system using a satellite TV mini-Dish concentrator coupled to a stovetop espresso coffee maker. We present a theoretical model for the thermal behavior of the water in the lower chamber of the coffee maker. We validate the model obtaining good agreement with the experimental results. Our findings indicate that the coffee brewing system works, it takes 30-50 min to complete its task. The model and our practical experience encourage us to improve the concentration device in order to obtain a useful solar coffee maker, using the theoretical model as a safe guide to achieve this.

  16. Thermodynamic analysis of a solar coffee maker

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sosa-Montemayor, F.; Jaramillo, O.A. [Centro de Investigacion en Energia, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Privada Xochicalco S/N, Temixco, Morelos CP 62580 (Mexico); del Rio, J.A. [Centro Morelense de Innovacion y Tranferencia Tecnologica, CCyTEM, Camino Temixco a Emiliano Zapata, Km 0.3, Colonia Emiliano Zapata, Morelos CP 62760 (Mexico)

    2009-09-15

    In this paper we present a novel solar concentrating application, a coffee brewing system using a satellite TV mini-Dish concentrator coupled to a stovetop espresso coffee maker. We present a theoretical model for the thermal behavior of the water in the lower chamber of the coffee maker. We validate the model obtaining good agreement with the experimental results. Our findings indicate that the coffee brewing system works, it takes 30-50 min to complete its task. The model and our practical experience encourage us to improve the concentration device in order to obtain a useful solar coffee maker, using the theoretical model as a safe guide to achieve this. (author)

  17. Why Do Policy-Makers Adopt Global Education Policies? Toward a Research Framework on the Varying Role of Ideas in Education Reform

    Science.gov (United States)

    Verger, Antoni

    2014-01-01

    Globalization is profoundly altering the education policy landscape. It introduces new problems in education agendas, compresses time and space in policy processes, and revitalizes the role of a range of supra-national players in educational reform. This deterritorialization of the education policy process has important theoretical and…

  18. Nuclear power: the decision makers speak

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cohen, R.L.; Lichter, S.R.

    1983-01-01

    In October 1980, the authors surveyed selected scientific experts, decision-makers in financial and regulatory communities and Congress, and directors of major activist groups for national environmental organizations. Questions concerned policy preferences for and general attitudes toward nuclear energy, problems, energy resources, and considerations important to most influential groups in nuclear development. The survey revealed, surprisingly, that most regulators, congressional leaders, outside experts, and financiers are as united in their support of nuclear energy development as are industry executives, Three Mile Island notwithstanding. The antinuclear perspective is represented almost entirely by the heads of activist groups and a few scattered allies in Congress, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of Energy. A relatively few dissenters have played a major role in blocking nuclear development. Implications for the regulatory process from these survey results are that cost-benefit analyses and empirical findings on nuclear power issues will not convince activists and their followers; it appears that they have acquired a kind of veto over nuclear development. Through actively political behavior in the contest for nuclear energy's future, and through sympathetic media, activists have won the American public to their side. 7 tables

  19. Re-thinking the relevance of philosophy of education for educational policy making

    OpenAIRE

    Griffiths, Morwenna

    2014-01-01

    The overall question addressed in this article is,‘What kind of philosophy of education is relevant to educational policy makers?’ The article focuses on the following four themes: The meanings attached to the term philosophy (of education) by philosophers themselves; the meanings attached to the term philosophy (of education) by policy makers; the difference place and time makes to these meanings; how these different meanings affect the possibility of philosophy (of education) influencing po...

  20. Nordsøen Movie Maker

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    2013-01-01

    Tag på ekspedition under havets overflade med Nordsøen Movie Maker, hvor din tur i Nordsøen Oceanarium får et helt nyt virtuelt lag. Rejs ud til de syv destinationer og hold øje med de unikke ‘moviespots‘ i nærheden af akvarierne. Her kan du med Nordsøen Movie Maker filme og dokumentere dine...... oplevelser med legesyge sæler, susende hvirvelstrømme og gigantiske klumpfisk. Nordsøen Movie Maker giver filmen et ekstra virtuelt lag, og via augmented reality bliver der tilføjet seje og morsomme, animerede specialeffekter. 1) Download app’en 2) Find et moviespot ved ekspeditionsposterne i Nordsøen...... Oceanarium. Kig efter klaptræet. 3) Vælg den rigtige post i app’en og start med at filme dit filmklip Downloader du app’en før dit besøg, er du allerede klar til at starte ekspeditionen i det øjeblik, du træder ind i Oceanariets tusmørke, hvor de første moviespots er gemt. God fornøjelse med ekspeditionen...

  1. Policies for Migration and Development: A European Perspective. Policy Brief No. 30

    Science.gov (United States)

    Katseli, Louka T.; Lucas, Robert E. B.; Xenogiani, Theodora

    2006-01-01

    Managing migration has become a priority for policy makers both in developed and developing countries. Large immigration or emigration flows relative to domestic population's impact on almost all aspects of an economy and society: family structures, community life, educational and health systems, labour markets, security systems, governance and…

  2. Stabilization policies for the tourist sector

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hjalager, A. M.

    1999-01-01

    Over the past few decades, tourism has increasingly been included in economic policies at all levels. Not surprisingly, the tourism sector is highly satisfied with this development: the inclusion in economic policies can be taken as an indication of its acceptance as a respectable player - on equal...... and entries of firms. Data from the tourism sector in Denmark serve to illustrate the problems with considerable turbulence in the population of tourism enterprises. Instability can be regarded as a major challenge for policy makers. Within the policy tradition of interventionism, two main types of measures...

  3. Managing urban stormwater for urban sustainability: Barriers and policy solutions for green infrastructure application.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dhakal, Krishna P; Chevalier, Lizette R

    2017-12-01

    Green infrastructure (GI) revitalizes vegetation and soil, restores hydro-ecological processes destroyed by traditional urbanization, and naturally manages stormwater on-site, offering numerous sustainability benefits. However, despite being sustainable and despite being the object of unrelenting expert advocacy for more than two decades, GI implementation remains slow. On the other hand, the practice of traditional gray infrastructure, which is known to have significant adverse impacts on the environment, is still ubiquitous in urban areas throughout the world. This relationship between knowledge and practice seems unaccountable, which has not yet received adequate attention from academia, policy makers, or research communities. We deal with this problem in this paper. The specific objective of the paper is to explore the barriers to GI, and suggest policies that can both overcome these barriers and expedite implementation. By surveying the status of implementation in 10 US cities and assessing the relevant city, state and federal policies, we identified 29 barriers and grouped them into 5 categories. The findings show that most of the barriers stem from cognitive limitations and socio-institutional arrangements. Accordingly, we suggest 33 policies, also grouped into 5 categories, which span from conducting public education and awareness programs to changing policies and governance structures. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  4. Maker Cultures and the Prospects for Technological Action.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nascimento, Susana; Pólvora, Alexandre

    2018-06-01

    Supported by easier and cheaper access to tools and expanding communities, maker cultures are pointing towards the ideas of (almost) everyone designing, creating, producing and distributing renewed, new and improved products, machines, things or artefacts. A careful analysis of the assumptions and challenges of maker cultures emphasizes the relevance of what may be called technological action, that is, active and critical interventions regarding the purposes and applications of technologies within ordinary lives, thus countering the deterministic trends of current directions of technology. In such transformative potential, we will explore a set of elements what is and could be technological action through snapshots of maker cultures based on the empirical research conducted in three particular contexts: the Fab Lab Network, Maker Media core outputs and initiatives such as Maker Faires, and the Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA). Elements such as control and empowerment through material engagement, openness and sharing, and social, cultural, political and ethical values of the common good in topics such as diversity, sustainability and transparency, are critically analysed.

  5. Gender inequalities in the workplace: the effects of organizational structures, processes, practices, and decision makers' sexism.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stamarski, Cailin S; Son Hing, Leanne S

    2015-01-01

    Gender inequality in organizations is a complex phenomenon that can be seen in organizational structures, processes, and practices. For women, some of the most harmful gender inequalities are enacted within human resources (HRs) practices. This is because HR practices (i.e., policies, decision-making, and their enactment) affect the hiring, training, pay, and promotion of women. We propose a model of gender discrimination in HR that emphasizes the reciprocal nature of gender inequalities within organizations. We suggest that gender discrimination in HR-related decision-making and in the enactment of HR practices stems from gender inequalities in broader organizational structures, processes, and practices. This includes leadership, structure, strategy, culture, organizational climate, as well as HR policies. In addition, organizational decision makers' levels of sexism can affect their likelihood of making gender biased HR-related decisions and/or behaving in a sexist manner while enacting HR practices. Importantly, institutional discrimination in organizational structures, processes, and practices play a pre-eminent role because not only do they affect HR practices, they also provide a socializing context for organizational decision makers' levels of hostile and benevolent sexism. Although we portray gender inequality as a self-reinforcing system that can perpetuate discrimination, important levers for reducing discrimination are identified.

  6. The development of health policy in Malawi: The influence of context ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Within the health policy field, a growing literature is attempting to understand the diverse responses of policy makers to research, and to explain why certain research findings make their way into policy while others are effectively ignored. In this paper we apply a policy analysis framework to the development of cotrimoxazole ...

  7. Situating School District Resource Decision Making in Policy Context

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spain, Angeline K.

    2016-01-01

    Decentralization and deregulation policies assume that local educational leaders make better resource decisions than state policy makers do. Conceptual models drawn from organizational theory, however, offer competing predictions about how district central office administrators are likely to leverage their professional expertise in devolved…

  8. Development of policies for Natura 2000 sites: a multi-criteria approach to support decision makers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cortina, Carla; Boggia, Antonio

    2014-08-01

    The aim of this study is to present a methodology to support decision makers in the choice of Natura 2000 sites needing an appropriate management plan to ensure a sustainable socio-economic development. In order to promote sustainable development in the Natura 2000 sites compatible with nature preservation, conservation measures or management plans are necessary. The main issue is to decide when only conservation measures can be applied and when the sites need an appropriate management plan. We present a case study for the Italian Region of Umbria. The methodology is based on a multi-criteria approach to identify the biodiversity index (BI), and on the development of a human activities index (HAI). By crossing the two indexes for each site on a Cartesian plane, four groups of sites were identified. Each group corresponds to a specific need for an appropriate management plan. Sites in the first group with a high level both of biodiversity and human activities have the most urgent need of an appropriate management plan to ensure sustainable development. The proposed methodology and analysis is replicable in other regions or countries by using the data available for each site in the Natura 2000 standard data form. A multi-criteria analysis is especially suitable for supporting decision makers when they deal with a multidimensional decision process. We found the multi-criteria approach particularly sound in this case, due to the concept of biodiversity itself, which is complex and multidimensional, and to the high number of alternatives (Natura 2000 sites) to be assessed. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. Objectivity

    CERN Document Server

    Daston, Lorraine

    2010-01-01

    Objectivity has a history, and it is full of surprises. In Objectivity, Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison chart the emergence of objectivity in the mid-nineteenth-century sciences--and show how the concept differs from its alternatives, truth-to-nature and trained judgment. This is a story of lofty epistemic ideals fused with workaday practices in the making of scientific images. From the eighteenth through the early twenty-first centuries, the images that reveal the deepest commitments of the empirical sciences--from anatomy to crystallography--are those featured in scientific atlases, the compendia that teach practitioners what is worth looking at and how to look at it. Galison and Daston use atlas images to uncover a hidden history of scientific objectivity and its rivals. Whether an atlas maker idealizes an image to capture the essentials in the name of truth-to-nature or refuses to erase even the most incidental detail in the name of objectivity or highlights patterns in the name of trained judgment is a...

  10. Science Under Attack! Public Policy, Science Education, and the Emperor's New Clothes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Krauss, Lawrence (Case Western Reserve University)

    2005-12-05

    The popular debate about the teaching of intelligent design in public schools is but one quandary for scientists and policy makers. Given recent developments which have worked to breed a general distrust of science, it is evident that researchers and politicians alike should be wary of using popular opinion as a guide for policy and pedagogy when it comes to science in public education. Dr. Krauss will qualify this complex issue and will address how educators, policy makers and scientists can work effectively to prevent public misconceptions of science.

  11. Climate science information needs among natural resource decision-makers in the Northwest US

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elizabeth Allen

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Managing water resources, air quality, forests, rangelands and agricultural systems in the context of climate change requires a new level of integrated knowledge. In order to articulate a role for university-based research teams as providers of climate services, this paper analyzes environmental change concerns and expectations about climate models among natural resources decision-makers in the Northwest US. Data were collected during a series of workshops organized by researchers from BioEarth, a regional earth systems modeling initiative. Eighty-three stakeholders from industry, government agencies and non-governmental organizations engaged with a team of academic researchers developing integrated biophysical and economic climate modeling tools. Analysis of transcripts of workshop discussions, surveys, and questionnaires reveals diverse attitudes among stakeholders about: 1 preferred modes of engaging in climate science research, 2 specific concerns and questions about climate change impacts, and 3 the most relevant and usable scope and scale of climate change impacts projections. Diverse concerns and information needs among natural resource decision-makers highlight the need for research teams to define clear and precise goals for stakeholder engagement. Utilizing the skills of research team members who have communication and extension expertise is pivotally important. We suggest impactful opportunities for research teams and natural resource decision-makers to interface and learn from one another. Effective approaches include structuring group discussions to identify gaps in existing climate change impacts information, explicitly considering changing policies, technologies and management practices, and exploring possible unintended consequences of decisions.

  12. Are Sexual and Reproductive Health Policies Designed for All? Vulnerable Groups in Policy Documents of Four European Countries and Their Involvement in Policy Development

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Olena Ivanova

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available Background Health policies are important instruments for improving population health. However, experience suggests that policies designed for the whole population do not always benefit the most vulnerable. Participation of vulnerable groups in the policy-making process provides an opportunity for them to influence decisions related to their health, and also to exercise their rights. This paper presents the findings from a study that explored how vulnerable groups and principles of human rights are incorporated into national sexual and reproductive health (SRH policies of 4 selected countries (Spain, Scotland, Republic of Moldova, and Ukraine. It also aimed at discussing the involvement of vulnerable groups in SRH policy development from the perspective of policymakers. Methods Literature review, health policy analysis and 5 semi-structured interviews with policy-makers were carried out in this study. Content analysis of SRH policies was performed using the EquiFrame analytical framework. Results The study revealed that vulnerable groups and core principles of human rights are differently addressed in SRH policies within 4 studied countries. The opinions of policy-makers on the importance of mentioning vulnerable groups in policy documents and the way they ought to be mentioned varied, but they agreed that a clear definition of vulnerability, practical examples, and evidences on health status of these groups have to be included. In addition, different approaches to vulnerable group’s involvement in policy development were identified during the interviews and the range of obstacles to this process was discussed by respondents. Conclusion Incorporation of vulnerable groups in the SRH policies and their involvement in policy development were found to be important in addressing SRH of these groups and providing an opportunity for them to advocate for equal access to healthcare and exercise their rights. Future research on this topic should include

  13. Flood Risk Management Policy in Scotland: Research Questions Past, Present and Future

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilkinson, Mark; Hastings, Emily; MacDonald, Jannette

    2016-04-01

    Scotland's Centre of Expertise for Waters (CREW) delivers accessible research and expert opinion to support the Scottish Government and its delivery partners in the development and implementation of water policy. It was established in 2011 by the Scottish Government (Rural and Environmental Science and Analytical Services) in recognition of a gap in the provision of short term advice and research to policy (development and implementation). Key policy areas include the Water Framework Directive, Floods Directive, Drinking Water Directive, Habitats Directive and Scotland's Hydro Nation Strategy. CREW is unique in its demand-driven and free service for policy makers and practitioners, managing the engagement between scientists, policy makers and practitioners to work effectively across this interface. The users of CREW are the Scottish Government, Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Scottish Natural Heritage and Scottish Water. CREW has funded around 100 projects relating to water policy since its inception in 2011. Of these, a significant number relate to flood risk management policy. Based on a review of work to date, this poster will give an overview of these projects and a forward look at the challenges that remain. From learning from community led flood risk management to surface water flood forecasting for urban communities, links will be made between sustainable and traditional flood risk management while considering the perceptions of stakeholders to flood risk management. How can we deliver fully integrated flood risk management options? How policy makers, scientists and land managers can better work together will also be explored.

  14. Dose/response relationships and policy formulation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Robinson, P.D.

    1981-01-01

    The ICRP 26 cost/benefit approach to establishing operational radiation protection guidelines is discussed. The purpose is to aid the policy maker in the decision making process, using as a basis the dose-response curve

  15. Evaluating public policy instruments in the Greek building sector

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Spyridaki, Niki-Artemis; Banaka, Stefania; Flamos, Alexandros

    2016-01-01

    This paper applies a multi-criteria analysis (MCA) to evaluate public policy mechanisms that foster energy efficiency and renewable energy sources in the Greek building sector, based on stakeholders’ understanding and perceptions of the functionality of policy instruments. The objective is to shed light on the implementation of currently employed policy mechanisms that aim to achieve the 2020 energy savings targets and beyond, providing useful information to policy makers for future policy (re-) formulations. In this framework, policy instruments were evaluated against process-related criteria, such as implementation costs, distributional effects, and coherence of policy processes, so as to highlight successful policy practices during their implementation phase as well as to unveil cases of policy underperformance or unintended policy outcomes. To hedge uncertainties related to policy instrument selection, the method employs probabilistic evaluations of every alternative against each criterion. The MCA results showed that the country is still missing significant energy saving opportunities that could be reached through more streamlined implementation practices and political support. In times of fiscal crisis, the Greek government should also revitalize the implementation of alternative funding mechanisms and support policy alternatives such as green public procurement, voluntary agreements, and energy performance contracting. - Highlights: • We apply an MCA analysis to evaluate EE and RES policies instruments. • We focus on the implementation stage through qualitative criteria and ordinal scales. • We use the probabilistic evaluations of each alternative against each criterion. • We provide rankings of instruments according to process related criteria. • Greece should revitalize the implementation of funding mechanisms, GPP and VAs.

  16. Policy-maker attitudes to the ageing of the HIV cohort in Botswana ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Background: The roll out of antiretroviral therapy in Botswana, as in many countries ... planning, strategies and policies that govern social, physical and medical intervention ... Respondents also noted the lack of defined geriatric care within the ...

  17. Nigerian language policy and its implication in the school curriculum ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This paper observes that the Nigerian language policy, failed to take into consideration the socio-linguistic habits of Nigerians. Since English language is a focal point for communication it then implies that policy makers to formulate language policies based on realities of language need. This is the only way that the ...

  18. Scenarios use to engage scientists and decision-makers in a changing Arctic

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, O. A.; Eicken, H.; Payne, J. F.

    2015-12-01

    Scenarios provide a framework to develop more adaptive Arctic policies that allow decision makers to consider the best available science to address complex relationships and key uncertainties in drivers of change. These drivers may encompass biophysical factors such as climate change, socioeconomic drivers, and wild-cards that represent low likelihood but influential events such as major environmental disasters. We outline some of the lessons learned from the North Slope Science Initiative (NSSI) scenarios project that could help in the development of adaptive science-based policies. Three spatially explicit development scenarios were identified corresponding to low, medium and high resource extraction activities on the North Slope and adjacent seas. In the case of the high energy development scenario science needs were focused on new technology, oil spill response, and the effects of offshore activities on marine mammals important for subsistence. Science needs related to community culture, erosion, permafrost degradation and hunting and trapping on land were also identified for all three scenarios. The NSSI science needs will guide recommendations for future observing efforts, and data from these observing activities could subsequently improve policy guidance for emergency response, subsistence management and other issues. Scenarios at pan-Arctic scales may help improve the development of international policies for resilient northern communities and encourage the use of science to reduce uncertainties in plans for adapting to change in the Arctic.

  19. A scientist's guide to engaging decision makers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vano, J. A.

    2015-12-01

    Being trained as a scientist provides many valuable tools needed to address society's most pressing environmental issues. It does not, however, provide training on one of the most critical for translating science into action: the ability to engage decision makers. Engagement means different things to different people and what is appropriate for one project might not be for another. However, recent reports have emphasized that for research to be most useful to decision making, engagement should happen at the beginning and throughout the research process. There are an increasing number of boundary organizations (e.g., NOAA's Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessment program, U.S. Department of the Interior's Climate Science Centers) where engagement is encouraged and rewarded, and scientists are learning, often through trial and error, how to effectively include decision makers (a.k.a. stakeholders, practitioners, resource managers) in their research process. This presentation highlights best practices and practices to avoid when scientists engage decision makers, a list compiled through the personal experiences of both scientists and decision makers and a literature review, and how this collective knowledge could be shared, such as through a recent session and role-playing exercise given at the Northwest Climate Science Center's Climate Boot Camp. These ideas are presented in an effort to facilitate conversations about how the science community (e.g., AGU researchers) can become better prepared for effective collaborations with decision makers that will ultimately result in more actionable science.

  20. The mass balance of production and consumption: Supporting policy-makers for aquatic food security

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lopes, A. S.; Ferreira, J. G.; Vale, C.; Johansen, J.

    2017-03-01

    the world, well above both Malaysia and South Korea (each with 58 kg ind-1 y-1). The corrected data show that Portugal had the highest consumption rate in the world until the mid-1970's, when it was overtaken by Iceland for reasons discussed herein. The lack of detailed per-species consumption data, as well as the grouping of species by commodities, hinders a more detailed seafood consumption analysis, required by policy makers and stakeholders to effectively develop management measures to reduce illegal fishing or bycatch, and to correctly formulate strategic options for development of aquaculture and fisheries, necessary for ensuring food security over the next decades.

  1. Belonging together: dealing with the politics of disenchantment in Australian Indigenous policy

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Sullivan, Patrick

    2011-01-01

    .... Advancing the body of knowledge in the field of the anthropology of policy and public administration, this empirical study is a must-read for policy-makers, academics, and indigenous peoples alike.

  2. Innovation: Editorial Policies

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    for Researchers · for Journals · for Authors · for Policy Makers · about Open Access · Journal Quality. 521 African Journals. Browse By Category · Browse Alphabetically · Browse By Country · List All Titles · Free To Read Titles This Journal is Open Access. Featuring journals from 32 Countries: Algeria (5); Benin (2); Botswana ...

  3. Risk Implications of Energy Policy Instruments

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kitzing, Lena

    papers and a working paper), based on a combination of micro-economic and policy analysis. Financial theory is used for the quantitative analysis of investment problems under uncertainty, including mean-variance portfolio theory, real option analysis, Monte Carlo simulations and time series analysis...... show, both qualitatively and quantitatively, that policy makers cannot neglect risk implications when designing RES support instruments without compromising either on effectiveness or cost-efficiency of energy policy. The central research questions are: how can risk implications of RES policy...... instruments be integrated into policy design, so that the policies provide adequate investment incentives? And can the consideration of such risk implications in policy design make overall energy policy more successful? These questions are answered in seven research papers (four journal papers, two conference...

  4. Innovation Policy in European Union

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marta-Christina Suciu

    2006-11-01

    Full Text Available The innovation policies aim to analyze priority factors shaping innovative performance and to reflect the increasing appreciation of the economic and social importance of innovation. This paper is commissioned to examine topics of current interest or concern to innovation policy-makers in Europe. Based on literature and the framework of the European Action Plan for Innovation, this paper investigates different levels and fields of European innovational systems and practices.

  5. Policymaker's Guide to Feed-in Tariff Policy Design

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Couture, T. D.; Cory, K.; Kreycik, C.; Williams, E.

    2010-07-01

    Feed-in tariffs (FITs) are the most widely used renewable energy policy in the world for driving accelerating renewable energy (RE) deployment, accounting for a greater share of RE development than either tax incentives or renewable portfolio standard (RPS) policies. FITs have generated significant RE deployment, helping bring the countries that have implemented them successfully to the forefront of the global RE industry. In the European Union (EU), FIT policies have led to the deployment of more than 15,000 MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) power and more than 55,000 MW of wind power between 2000 and the end of 2009. In total, FITs are responsible for approximately 75% of global PV and 45% of global wind deployment. Countries such as Germany, in particular, have demonstrated that FITs can be used as a powerful policy tool to drive RE deployment and help meet combined energy security and emissions reductions objectives. This policymaker's guide provides a detailed analysis of FIT policy design and implementation and identifies a set of best practices that have been effective at quickly stimulating the deployment of large amounts of RE generation. Although the discussion is aimed primarily at decision makers who have decided that a FIT policy best suits their needs, exploration of FIT policies can also help inform a choice among alternative renewable energy policies.

  6. Decision Making with Imperfect Decision Makers

    CERN Document Server

    Guy, Tatiana Valentine; Wolpert, David H

    2012-01-01

    Prescriptive Bayesian decision making has reached a high level of maturity and is well-supported algorithmically. However, experimental data shows that real decision makers choose such Bayes-optimal decisions surprisingly infrequently, often making decisions that are badly sub-optimal. So prevalent is such imperfect decision-making that it should be accepted as an inherent feature of real decision makers living within interacting societies. To date such societies have been investigated from an economic and gametheoretic perspective, and even to a degree from a physics perspective. However, lit

  7. Beyond Foucault: Toward a User-Centered Approach to Sexual Harassment Policy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ranney, Frances J.

    2000-01-01

    Discusses how United States national policy regarding sexual harassment exemplifies the Foucauldian paradigm in its attempt to regulate sexuality through seemingly authorless texts. Proposes a user-centered approach to policy drafting that values the knowledge of workers as users and makers of workplace policy. Argues that regulation through such…

  8. Solar power and policy powerlessness − perceptions of persuasion in distributed residential solar energy policy development

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Simpson Genevieve

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Distributed residential solar energy (photovoltaic technologies have been praised as a mechanism to not only increase the penetration of renewable energy but engage the community in a clean energy revolution. In spite of this it is unclear how much potential there is for stakeholders to influence processes around the adoption of solar energy, including policy development and regulation. As part of a wider research project assessing the social acceptance of residential solar energy in Western Australia a variety of stakeholders, including public servants, network operators, Members of Parliament, energy advocates, renewable energy industry members and community members, were asked whether they thought they had the potential to influence solar policy. The objective of this research was to highlight positions of influence over policy development. In total 23 interviews with regional Western Australian householders and 32 interviews with members of industry and government were undertaken between May and October 2015. Most respondents believed that they had previously, or could in future, influence solar policy by taking advantage of networks of influence. However, stakeholders perceived as having policy influence did not necessarily demonstrate the capacity to influence policy beyond providing information to decision-makers, namely Cabinet members. Instead, networks of renewable energy advocates, industry and community members could apply political pressure through petitions, media coverage and liaising with parliamentarians to develop support for policy changes. Furthermore, while policies for the promotion of solar energy, and renewable energy more generally, could be implemented at various levels of government, only those policies delivered at the state level could address socio-political barriers to renewable energy adoption. These barriers include: a lack of political will and funding to overcome technical issues with network connection

  9. Tax Policy Assessment in Slovenia – Case of Interest Tax Shield

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jovanovic Tatjana

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available The tax policy assessment is an indispensable strategy within any modern country’s system of governance. There are several types of “impact assessments”, with RIA as one of the most commonly used. This tool is used to measure and analyse the benefits, costs and effects of a new or existing legal regime, which can be carried out by collecting and analysing empirical data in the context of a broader decision-making framework. The main objective of the paper is to analyse which stage the Slovenian regulatory impact assessment is in, and whether this stage is sophisticated enough to provide for the essential verification of tax policy and specific instruments, focusing mainly on the case of interest tax shield issues. Methodologically, the paper is based on a systematic literature review, a survey for public consultations and statistical tools for calculating the differences in internal indebtedness in different observed periods. The results show that the Slovenian RIA is not sophisticated enough to evaluate complex tax instruments and policy. Nevertheless, tax policy decision-makers should reconsider the implementation of a thin capitalization rule (but also future tax policy instruments focusing also on other, non-tax revenue, factors.

  10. Child Labour, Education Policy and Governance in Cambodia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Chae-Young

    2011-01-01

    This paper considers how the issue of child labour is located in Cambodian education policy debates and how it is affected by the major constraints surrounding the Cambodian education sector. In particular, it asks why Cambodian policy makers have not sought to address the issue explicitly despite its considerable, and adverse, impact on…

  11. Trajectories to reconcile sharing and commercialization in the maker movement

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Langley, David; Zirngibl, M.; Sbeih, J.; Devoldere, B.

    2017-01-01

    Maker technologies, including collaborative digital fabrication tools like 3-D printers, enable entrepreneurial opportunities and new business models. To date, relatively few highly successful maker startups have emerged, possibly due to the dominant mindset of the makers being one of cooperation

  12. Big ideas: innovation policy

    OpenAIRE

    John Van Reenen

    2011-01-01

    In the last CentrePiece, John Van Reenen stressed the importance of competition and labour market flexibility for productivity growth. His latest in CEP's 'big ideas' series describes the impact of research on how policy-makers can influence innovation more directly - through tax credits for business spending on research and development.

  13. Measuring the Effect of Gender-Based Policies on Economic Growth

    OpenAIRE

    Pierre-Richard Agénor; Otaviano Canuto

    2012-01-01

    To this day, policy makers, policy advisers, and economists in development institutions do not have any practical tools to help them to assess the impacts of policies aimed at promoting gender equality and quantify the effect of these policies on growth. Yet, there has been limited effort in that direction. This note lays out such a tool, a framework for quantifying the growth effects of g...

  14. New prospects in EU environmental policies. The Integrated Product Policy (IPP)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Carnimeo, G.; Iraldo, F.

    2000-01-01

    The Integrated Product Policy - IPP - is becoming one of the top priorities for the European Commission within the framework of the product-oriented environmental policies. Rather than a new policy, this is an innovative approach aimed at co-originated existing and forthcoming environmental policies, in order to manage in an integrated way and minimise the impacts connected with the whole product life-cycle. The underlying life-cycle guideline requires the management of each phase by considering what happens in all the other phases. What clearly emerges from a research carried out by Iefe Bocconi is, on the one hand, the effectiveness of co-operation and networking between all the actors involved in the product environmental management within the different phases of its life cycle (policy makers, producers, retailers, consumers, NGOs, etc.) and, on the other, the opportunity of developing an integrated management of both environmental policy instruments and corporate management tools [it

  15. Organisational Factors Affecting Policy and Programme Decision Making in a Public Health Policy Environment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zardo, Pauline; Collie, Alex; Livingstone, Charles

    2015-01-01

    Organisational factors can affect the success of interventions aimed at increasing research use. Research is needed to identify organisational factors affecting research use in specific public health policy contexts. Qualitative interviews with decision makers from a specific public health context identified a range of organisational factors that…

  16. Gaining Momentum: How Media Influences Public Opinion To Push Civil-Military Decision Makers Into Formulating Foreign Policy

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-02-09

    1 AIR WAR COLLEGE AIR UNIVERSITY GAINING MOMENTUM: HOW MEDIA INFLUENCES PUBLIC OPINION TO PUSH CIVIL-MILITARY DECISION MAKERS INTO...engagements from the past, evidence suggest the media or press does have an influence over public opinion, especially during times of war and humanitarian...changes and that leaders must take into consideration that public opinion and the media may provide a large amount of influence over how the nation

  17. Climate policy and nonrenewable resources : The green paradox and beyond

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Pittel, Karen; van der Ploeg, Rick; Withagen, Cees

    2014-01-01

    Recent developments suggest that well-intended climate policies–including carbon taxes and subsidies for renewable energy – might not accomplish what policy makers intend. Hans-Werner Sinn has described a "green paradox," arguing that these policies could hasten global warming by encouraging owners

  18. What Do Policy Makers Think of Educational Research & Evaluation? Or Do They?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Florio, David H.; And Others

    1979-01-01

    Twenty-six congressional staff members dealing with educational legislation were surveyed concerning their sources of information and the relative importance and value of educational inquiry in various stages of the policy process. Conclusions were drawn and recommendations regarding improvement of the process were made. (MH)

  19. Objective evaluation of situation awareness for dynamic decision makers in teleoperations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Endsley, Mica R.

    1991-01-01

    Situation awareness, a current mental mode of the environment, is critical to the ability of operators to perform complex and dynamic tasks. This should be particularly true for teleoperators, who are separated from the situation they need to be aware of. The design of the man-machine interface must be guided by the goal of maintaining and enhancing situation awareness. The objective of this work has been to build a foundation upon which research in the area can proceed. A model of dynamic human decision making which is inclusive of situation awareness will be presented, along with a definition of situation awareness. A method for measuring situation awareness will also be presented as a tool for evaluating design concepts. The Situation Awareness Global Assessment Technique (SAGAT) is an objective measure of situation awareness originally developed for the fighter cockpit environment. The results of SAGAT validation efforts will be presented. Implications of this research for teleoperators and other operators of dynamic systems will be discussed.

  20. Old-growth Policy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Diane Vosick

    2007-12-01

    Full Text Available Most federal legislation and policies (e.g., the Wilderness Act, Endangered Species Act, National Forest Management Act fail to speak directly to the need for old-growth protection, recruitment, and restoration on federal lands. Various policy and attitudinal barriers must be changed to move beyond the current situation. For example, in order to achieve the goal of healthy old growth in frequent-fire forests, the public must be educated regarding the evolutionary nature of these ecosystems and persuaded that collaborative action rather than preservation and litigation is the best course for the future of these forests. Land managers and policy makers must be encouraged to look beyond the single-species management paradigm toward managing natural processes, such as fire, so that ecosystems fall within the natural range of variability. They must also see that, given their recent evidence of catastrophic fires, management must take place outside the wildland-urban interface in order to protect old-growth forest attributes and human infrastructure. This means that, in some wilderness areas, management may be required. Land managers, researchers, and policy makers will also have to agree on a definition of old growth in frequent-fire landscapes; simply adopting a definition from the mesic Pacific Northwest will not work. Moreover, the culture within the federal agencies needs revamping to allow for more innovation, especially in terms of tree thinning and wildland fire use. Funding for comprehensive restoration treatments needs to be increased, and monitoring of the Healthy Forest Initiative and Healthy Forest Restoration Act must be undertaken.

  1. India and Iran's nuclear issue: the three policy determinants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rajiv, S. Samuel C.

    2011-01-01

    Three broad policy determinants can be discerned in Indian reactions to the Iranian nuclear issue. These include: 'strategic autonomy' as it relates to Indian foreign policy decision making; concerns regarding 'regional strategic stability' as it relates to events in its 'proximate neighbourhood'; and 'national security' implications on account of operative clandestine proliferation networks. Issues relating to the role of the US in influencing Indian policy positions at international forums and vis-a-vis domestic policy were prominent as regards the first determinant. Threats and 'advice' by American policy makers and law makers on specific issues like the Indo-US nuclear deal and the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline gave further grist to critics. However, an analysis of India's concerns regarding the other two policy considerations, i.e., strategic stability and national security were 'real and present' and also dominated public discourse as well. With India having become a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council from January 2011, it should be the task of Indian diplomacy, at the UNSC as well as at other bilateral and multilateral settings, to help expand the space for the application of 'satisfactory strategies' and reduce the range of 'unsatisfactory strategies'. (author)

  2. Health Policy and Management: In Praise of Political Science; Comment on “On Health Policy and Management (HPAM: Mind the Theory-Policy Practice Gap”

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    David J Hunter

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Health systems have entered a third era embracing whole systems thinking and posing complex policy and management challenges. Understanding how such systems work and agreeing what needs to be put in place to enable them to undergo effective and sustainable change are more pressing issues than ever for policy-makers. The theory-policy-practice-gap and its four dimensions, as articulated by Chinitz and Rodwin, is acknowledged. It is suggested that insights derived from political science can both enrich our understanding of the gap and suggest what changes are needed to tackle the complex challenges facing health systems.

  3. Does the market maker stabilize the market?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhu, Mei; Chiarella, Carl; He, Xue-Zhong; Wang, Duo

    2009-08-01

    The market maker plays an important role in price formation, but his/her behavior and stabilizing impact on the market are relatively unclear, in particular in speculative markets. This paper develops a financial market model that examines the impact on market stability of the market maker, who acts as both a liquidity provider and an active investor in a market consisting of two types of boundedly rational speculative investors-the fundamentalists and trend followers. We show that the market maker does not necessarily stabilize the market when he/she actively manages the inventory to maximize profits, and that rather the market maker’s impact depends on the behavior of the speculators. Numerical simulations show that the model is able to generate outcomes for asset returns and market inventories that are consistent with empirical findings.

  4. Constructing Perceptions of Climate Change: a case study of regional political decision makers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bray, D.

    2012-12-01

    This case study of climate change communications assesses the salient means of communication and the message adopted by regional political decision makers on the German Baltic coast. Realizing that cultural factors and local values (and not simply knowledge) are significant influences in explaining attitudes towards climate change, this analysis draws from the records of regional weather, from scientists with a specific focus on the region, from the political decision makers for that region, and the media message reaching the decision makers, ensuring all elements of the analysis are drawn from the same socioeconomic, geophysical, political and cultural context. This is important as the social dynamics surrounding the trust in science is of critical importance and, as such, all elements of the case study are specifically contained within a common context. If the utility of climate change knowledge is to prompt well conceived adaptation/mitigation strategies then the political decision process, or at least the perceptions shaping it, can best be understood by locating it within the world view of the decision makers involved in the production process. Using the results of two survey questionnaires, one of regional climate scientists and one of regional political decision makers, ten years of local weather records, and a summary of the message from mass media circulation, the discord in perceptions of regional climate change are quantitatively explored. The conclusions drawn from the analysis include, compared to the scientific assessment: The decision makers' perceptions of recent past differ from actual observations. The decision makers' perceptions of the future differ from scientific assessments. The decision makers tend to over estimate the magnitude of regional climate change and its impacts. The decision makers tend to over estimate the sense of immediacy for adaptation measures. The conclusions drawn suggest that in the regional political realm, it is often a

  5. The use of a policy dialogue to facilitate evidence-informed policy development for improved access to care: the case of the Winnipeg Central Intake Service (WCIS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Damani, Zaheed; MacKean, Gail; Bohm, Eric; DeMone, Brie; Wright, Brock; Noseworthy, Tom; Holroyd-Leduc, Jayna; Marshall, Deborah A

    2016-10-18

    Policy dialogues are critical for developing responsive, effective, sustainable, evidence-informed policy. Our multidisciplinary team, including researchers, physicians and senior decision-makers, comprehensively evaluated The Winnipeg Central Intake Service, a single-entry model in Winnipeg, Manitoba, to improve patient access to hip/knee replacement surgery. We used the evaluation findings to develop five evidence-informed policy directions to help improve access to scheduled clinical services across Manitoba. Using guiding principles of public participation processes, we hosted a policy roundtable meeting to engage stakeholders and use their input to refine the policy directions. Here, we report on the use and input of a policy roundtable meeting and its role in contributing to the development of evidence-informed policy. Our evidence-informed policy directions focused on formal measurement/monitoring of quality, central intake as a preferred model for service delivery, provincial scope, transparent processes/performance indicators, and patient choice of provider. We held a policy roundtable meeting and used outcomes of facilitated discussions to refine these directions. Individuals from our team and six stakeholder groups across Manitoba participated (n = 44), including patients, family physicians, orthopaedic surgeons, surgical office assistants, Winnipeg Central Intake team, and administrators/managers. We developed evaluation forms to assess the meeting process, and collected decision-maker partners' perspectives on the value of the policy roundtable meeting and use of policy directions to improve access to scheduled clinical services after the meeting, and again 15 months later. We analyzed roundtable and evaluation data using thematic analysis to identify key themes. Four key findings emerged. First, participants supported all policy directions, with revisions and key implementation considerations identified. Second, participants felt the policy roundtable

  6. Nuclear Belief Systems and Individual Policy-Makers: Duncan Sandys, Unmanned Weaponry, and the Impossibility of Defence

    OpenAIRE

    Betts, Lewis

    2014-01-01

    This thesis attempts to explore the influence that Duncan Sandys' experiences of the Second World War had on his policy preferences, and policy-making, in relation to British defence policy during his years in government. This is a significant period in British nuclear policy which began with thermonuclear weaponry being placed ostentatiously at the centre of British defence planning in the 1957 Defence White Paper, and ended with the British acquiring the latest American nuclear weapon techn...

  7. Injury and violence prevention policy: celebrating our successes, protecting our future.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koné, Rebecca Greco; Zurick, Elizabeth; Patterson, Sara; Peeples, Amy

    2012-09-01

    Policy strategies for injury and violence prevention influence systems development, organizational change, social norms, and individual behavior to improve the health and safety of a population. Injury and violence prevention professionals should consider how their issues resonate with various audiences, including policy makers, the public, and other decision makers. As the cost of healthcare continues to rise and greater demands are placed on the healthcare system, the use of public health policy becomes increasingly critical to protect the public's health and prevent injury and violence and its related morbidities and disabilities (Degutis, 2011). This article highlights some impactful policy successes from the field, allows us to reflect on the Injury Center's 20th anniversary, and describes steps to address injuries and violence into the future. The purpose of this paper is to discuss policy as a public health strategy and the critical role it plays in injury and violence prevention. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  8. Energy efficient policy impact in India: case study of investment in industrial energy efficiency

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yang, M.

    2006-01-01

    The objective of this paper is to identify the effectiveness of energy policy and capital investment in energy efficiency technologies in the industrial sector in India. Indian energy policies relating to industrial energy efficiency over the past 25 years are briefly reviewed, and a comparison study of these energy efficiency policies and strategies in India and China has been carried out. Interviews were conducted with a number of government policy-making institutions and a national industrial development bank. The accounts of 26 industrial enterprises which applied and used a loan of the Asian Development Bank were audited for data collection. Field-visits to seven industrial entrepreneurs were undertaken in a case study. Methodologies used in this study include documentation, cross-country reviews on energy policies, questionnaire design and distribution in the industrial sector, and on-site auditing of energy efficiency technologies. This paper concludes that current energy policies and strategies in India need further improvement to promote energy efficiency investment and energy efficiency technology development in the industrial sector. This paper will interest those policy makers and industrial entrepreneurs who are willing to finance energy efficiency projects and improve energy efficiency in the industrial sector. (author)

  9. Energy efficiency policy impact in India: case study of investment in industrial energy efficiency

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yang Ming

    2006-01-01

    The objective of this paper is to identify the effectiveness of energy policy and capital investment in energy efficiency technologies in the industrial sector in India. Indian energy policies relating to industrial energy efficiency over the past 25 years are briefly reviewed, and a comparison study of these energy efficiency policies and strategies in India and China has been carried out. Interviews were conducted with a number of government policy-making institutions and a national industrial development bank. The accounts of 26 industrial enterprises which applied and used a loan of the Asian Development Bank were audited for data collection. Field-visits to seven industrial entrepreneurs were undertaken in a case study. Methodologies used in this study include documentation, cross-country reviews on energy policies, questionnaire design and distribution in the industrial sector, and on-site auditing of energy efficiency technologies. This paper concludes that current energy policies and strategies in India need further improvement to promote energy efficiency investment and energy efficiency technology development in the industrial sector. This paper will interest those policy makers and industrial entrepreneurs who are willing to finance energy efficiency projects and improve energy efficiency in the industrial sector

  10. The global agenda council on the ageing society: policy principles

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Olshansky, S. Jay; Biggs, Simon; Achenbaum, W. Andrew

    2011-01-01

    In 2008, the World Economic Forum (WEF) created the Global Agenda Councils – an amalgamation of scientists, public policy makers, academics, physicians and business leaders with the task of devising transformational innovation in global governance for the purpose of advancing knowledge and collab......In 2008, the World Economic Forum (WEF) created the Global Agenda Councils – an amalgamation of scientists, public policy makers, academics, physicians and business leaders with the task of devising transformational innovation in global governance for the purpose of advancing knowledge......, proposing solutions, devising strategies, making public policy proposals and evaluating the effectiveness of actions using measurable benchmarks. This report is the first product of the WEF’s Council on the Ageing Society – our goal is to lay down the initial principles that will guide our actions...

  11. Trust makers, breakers and brokers: building trust in the Australian food system.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilson, Annabelle; Coveney, John; Henderson, Julie; Meyer, Samantha; Calnan, Michael; Caraher, Martin; Webb, Trevor; Elliott, Anthony; Ward, Paul

    2013-03-15

    The importance of consumer trust in the food supply has previously been identified, and dimensions of consumer trust in food-who they trust and the type of trust that they exhibit-has been explored. However, there is a lack of research about the mechanisms through which consumer trust in the food supply is developed, maintained, broken and repaired. This study seeks to address this gap by exploring if, and how, consumer trust in the food supply is considered by the media, food industry and governments when responding to food scares. The aim of the research is to develop models of trust building that can be implemented following food scares. Semi-structured interviews will be undertaken with media, public relations officials and policy makers in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Participants will be recruited through purposive sampling and will be asked to discuss a hypothetical case study outlining a food incident, and any experiences of specific food scares. Models of trust development, maintenance and repair will be developed from interview data. Comment on these models will be sought from experts in food-related organizations through a Delphi study, where participants will be asked to consider the usefulness of the models. Participants' comments will be used to revise the models until consensus is reached on the suitability and usability of the models. This study will contribute to the literature about systems-based trust, and explore trust as a social and regulatory process. The protocol and results will be of interest and use to the food industry, food regulators, consumer advocate groups, media seeking to report food-related issues and policy makers concerned with public health and consumer health and well-being. This research represents an important contribution to the translation of the theoretical conceptualizations of trust into practical use in the context of food.

  12. Typology and Financial Performance of Champagne Makers According to Distribution Channel

    OpenAIRE

    Declerck, Francis

    2005-01-01

    A typology of strategies related to the distribution channels used by Champagne makers is established. Champagne makers' operating profit depends on their distribution network, which affects selling prices. Based on a sample of 20 Champagne makers ("Maisons de Champagne"), economic and financial performance indicators for Champagne makers are analyzed with reference to the type of distribution channel.

  13. Promoting Health/Preventing Disease. Objectives for the Nation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Public Health Service (DHHS), Rockville, MD.

    Broad national goals, expressed as reductions in overall death rates or days of disability, have been established as guidelines for private and public sector policy makers in health-related fields. These goals were established through the work of various agencies, organizations, and individuals participating in a Department of Health and Human…

  14. Getting the message across biodiversity science and policy interfaces: A review

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Spierenburg, M.J.

    2012-01-01

    This contribution analyses the difficulties of biodiversity policy-making and the role of science. It addresses biodiversity scientists' struggles to communicate the value of biodiversity to policy-makers, and the tensions between producing policyrelevant research and being perceived as too

  15. Seven Foundational Principles of Population Health Policy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bhattacharya, Dru; Bhatt, Jay

    2017-10-01

    In 2016, Keyes and Galea issued 9 foundational principles of population health science and invited further deliberations by specialists to advance the field. This article presents 7 foundational principles of population health policy whose intersection with health care, public health, preventive medicine, and now population health, presents unique challenges. These principles are in response to a number of overarching questions that have arisen in over a decade of the authors' collective practice in the public and private sectors, and having taught policy within programs of medicine, law, nursing, and public health at the graduate and executive levels. The principles address an audience of practitioners and policy makers, mindful of the pressing health care challenges of our time, including: rising health-related expenditures, an aging population, workforce shortages, health disparities, and a backdrop of inequities rooted in social determinants that have not been adequately translated into formal policies or practices among the key stakeholders in population health. These principles are meant to empower stakeholders-whether it is the planner or the practitioner, the decision maker or the dedicated caregiver-and inform the development of practical tools, research, and education.

  16. Managing a hydro-energy reservoir: A policy approach

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Van Ackere, Ann [HEC Lausanne, Internef, Universite de Lausanne, CH 1015 Lausanne, Dorigny (Switzerland); Ochoa, Patricia [London Business School, Regent' s Park, London NW1 4SA (United Kingdom)

    2010-11-15

    Liberalisation and privatisation have increased the need to gain more understanding into the management of hydro storage (HS) plants. We analyse what types of reservoir management policies enable an owner or a public authority to achieve their respective objectives. By 'policy' we understand simple, easily applicable decision rules, which enable a decision maker to decide when and how much to produce based on currently available information. We use a stylised deterministic simulation model of a hydro-power producer (HP) who behaves strategically. We study a non-liberalised market, where the authorities aim to minimise the total electricity cost for customers and a liberalised market where the HP attempts to maximise his contribution. This enables us to evaluate the impact of the liberalisation of HS production decisions on production volumes and electricity prices. We conclude that imposing rigid policies with the aim of limiting the potential for strategic behaviour can create incentives to produce only at very high prices throughout the year. This can lead to very high total costs, especially when the producer has most flexibility (large reservoirs combined with large turbine capacity). More surprisingly, we observe lower total production in a non-liberalised market. (author)

  17. Managing a hydro-energy reservoir: A policy approach

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ackere, Ann van, E-mail: Ann.vanAckere@unil.c [HEC Lausanne, Internef, Universite de Lausanne, CH 1015 Lausanne, Dorigny (Switzerland); Ochoa, Patricia, E-mail: Patricia.Ochoa@edfenergy.co [London Business School, Regent' s Park, London NW1 4SA (United Kingdom)

    2010-11-15

    Liberalisation and privatisation have increased the need to gain more understanding into the management of hydro storage (HS) plants. We analyse what types of reservoir management policies enable an owner or a public authority to achieve their respective objectives. By 'policy' we understand simple, easily applicable decision rules, which enable a decision maker to decide when and how much to produce based on currently available information. We use a stylised deterministic simulation model of a hydro-power producer (HP) who behaves strategically. We study a non-liberalised market, where the authorities aim to minimise the total electricity cost for customers and a liberalised market where the HP attempts to maximise his contribution. This enables us to evaluate the impact of the liberalisation of HS production decisions on production volumes and electricity prices. We conclude that imposing rigid policies with the aim of limiting the potential for strategic behaviour can create incentives to produce only at very high prices throughout the year. This can lead to very high total costs, especially when the producer has most flexibility (large reservoirs combined with large turbine capacity). More surprisingly, we observe lower total production in a non-liberalised market.

  18. Managing a hydro-energy reservoir: A policy approach

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Van Ackere, Ann; Ochoa, Patricia

    2010-01-01

    Liberalisation and privatisation have increased the need to gain more understanding into the management of hydro storage (HS) plants. We analyse what types of reservoir management policies enable an owner or a public authority to achieve their respective objectives. By 'policy' we understand simple, easily applicable decision rules, which enable a decision maker to decide when and how much to produce based on currently available information. We use a stylised deterministic simulation model of a hydro-power producer (HP) who behaves strategically. We study a non-liberalised market, where the authorities aim to minimise the total electricity cost for customers and a liberalised market where the HP attempts to maximise his contribution. This enables us to evaluate the impact of the liberalisation of HS production decisions on production volumes and electricity prices. We conclude that imposing rigid policies with the aim of limiting the potential for strategic behaviour can create incentives to produce only at very high prices throughout the year. This can lead to very high total costs, especially when the producer has most flexibility (large reservoirs combined with large turbine capacity). More surprisingly, we observe lower total production in a non-liberalised market. (author)

  19. A Study on Internal Labor Movement and Policy Multiplier in Thailand

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Autsawin Suttiwichienchot

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available The main objective of this paper is trying to measure the effectiveness of selected supply side and demand side policies on Thai economy by using Computable General Equilibrium (CGE model. We found that there is a special characteristic of the unskilled labor movement among agricultural sector and other sectors in Thailand and this characteristic can represented by Harris-Todaro expected wage equation. Therefore, we developed the CGE model incorporating Harris-Todaro expected wage equilibrium for the labor market. The simulation result shows that, for selected supply side policy, the reduction of switching cost, increasing labor productivity (which are selected supply side policy, increasing in government spending and export promotion (which are selected demand side policy can contribute positive impacts to Thai economy. Interestingly, we found that if both the reduction of switching cost and the increasing labor productivity are implemented together, they will generate even more positive impacts to Thai economy than separately implemented. This finding suggests policy maker should implement both the reduction of switching cost and the increasing labor productivity together in order to gain more benefit to Thai economy. These two policies are supply side policy and related to labor market, thus improving labor market is a great choice for Thailand. Lastly, we found that all policies have the similar non-linear characteristic.

  20. Speaking truth to power revisited: science, policy and climate change

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bray, D. [GKSS-Forschungszentrum Geesthacht GmbH, Magdeburg (Germany). Inst. fuer Gewaesserforschung; Krueck, C. [VDI-Technologiezentrum Physikalische Technologien, Duesseldorf (Germany). Abt. Zukuenftige Technologien

    2000-07-01

    The issue of climate change from the perspectives of climate change scientists and climate policy makers is discussed using results from two survey questionnaires. Emphasis is given to the German context. Included is the self assessment of the state of the art of the climate sciences and the importance assigned to different sources of information by policy makers. Conclusions indicate that policy makers rely on a number of sources other than the direct results of science, and have assigned a greater sense of urgency to the issue of climate change than have scientists. (orig.) [German] Auf Grundlage der Ergebnisse zweier Fragebogenaktionen wird diskutiert, wie sich die Problematik von Klimaveraenderungen aus der Perspektive von Klimaforschern und aus der Perspektive von mit Klimapolitik befassten Entscheidungstraegern darstellt. Die Betonung liegt auf den Verhaeltnissen in Deutschland. Eingeschlossen ist eine Einschaetzung des aktuellen Standes der Klimaforschung durch die Wissenschaftler selbst sowie der Bedeutung, welche von politischen Entscheidungstraegern verschiedenen Informationsquellen beigemessen wird. Es zeigt sich, dass sich politische Entscheidungstraeger auf zahlreiche Informationsquellen verlassen, die nur indirekt die Resultate der Klimaforschung wiedergeben und, dass dieser Personenkreis das Problem der Klimaveraenderungen als draengender ansieht als die Wissenschaftler selbst. (orig.)

  1. Game of Thrones: Accommodating Monetary Policies in a Monetary Union

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dmitri Blueschke

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, we present an application of the dynamic tracking games framework to a monetary union. We use a small stylized nonlinear three-country macroeconomic model of a monetary union to analyze the interactions between fiscal (governments and monetary (common central bank policy makers, assuming different objective functions of these decision makers. Using the OPTGAME algorithm, we calculate solutions for several games: a noncooperative solution where each government and the central bank play against each other (a feedback Nash equilibrium solution, a fully-cooperative solution with all players following a joint course of action (a Pareto optimal solution and three solutions where various coalitions (subsets of the players play against coalitions of the other players in a noncooperative way. It turns out that the fully-cooperative solution yields the best results, the noncooperative solution fares worst and the coalition games lie in between, with a broad coalition of the fiscally more responsible countries and the central bank against the less thrifty countries coming closest to the Pareto optimum.

  2. Role of State Policy in Renewable Energy Development

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Doris, E.; Busche, S.; Hockett, S.; McLaren, J.

    2009-07-01

    State policies can support renewable energy development by driving markets, providing certainty in the investment market, and incorporating the external benefits of the technologies into cost/benefit calculations. Using statistical analyses and policy design best practices, this paper quantifies the impact of state-level policies on renewable energy development in order to better understand the role of policy on development and inform policy makers on the policy mechanisms that provide maximum benefit. The results include the identification of connections between state policies and renewable energy development, as well as a discussion placing state policy efforts in context with other factors that influence the development of renewable energy (e.g. federal policy, resource availability, technology cost, public acceptance).

  3. Feasibility of multi-sector policy measures that create activity-friendly environments for children: results of a Delphi study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aarts Marie-Jeanne

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Although multi-sector policy is a promising strategy to create environments that stimulate physical activity among children, little is known about the feasibility of such a multi-sector policy approach. The aims of this study were: to identify a set of tangible (multi-sector policy measures at the local level that address environmental characteristics related to physical activity among children; and to assess the feasibility of these measures, as perceived by local policy makers. Methods In four Dutch municipalities, a Delphi study was conducted among local policy makers of different policy sectors (public health, sports, youth and education, spatial planning/public space, traffic and transportation, and safety. In the first Delphi round, respondents generated a list of possible policy measures addressing three environmental correlates of physical activity among children (social cohesion, accessibility of facilities, and traffic safety. In the second Delphi round, policy makers weighted different feasibility aspects (political feasibility, cultural/community acceptability, technical feasibility, cost feasibility, and legal feasibility and assessed the feasibility of the policy measures derived from the first round. The third Delphi round was aimed at reaching consensus by feedback of group results. Finally, one overall feasibility score was calculated for each policy measure. Results Cultural/community acceptability, political feasibility, and cost feasibility were considered most important feasibility aspects. The Delphi studies yielded 16 feasible policy measures aimed at physical and social environmental correlates of physical activity among children. Less drastic policy measures were considered more feasible, whereas environmental policy measures were considered less feasible. Conclusions This study showed that the Delphi technique can be a useful tool in reaching consensus about feasible multi-sector policy measures. The

  4. Health Policy and Management: in praise of political science. Comment on "On Health Policy and Management (HPAM): mind the theory-policy-practice gap".

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hunter, David J

    2015-03-12

    Health systems have entered a third era embracing whole systems thinking and posing complex policy and management challenges. Understanding how such systems work and agreeing what needs to be put in place to enable them to undergo effective and sustainable change are more pressing issues than ever for policy-makers. The theory-policy-practice-gap and its four dimensions, as articulated by Chinitz and Rodwin, is acknowledged. It is suggested that insights derived from political science can both enrich our understanding of the gap and suggest what changes are needed to tackle the complex challenges facing health systems. © 2015 by Kerman University of Medical Sciences.

  5. Optimal Offering and Operating Strategy for a Large Wind-Storage System as a Price Maker

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ding, Huajie; Pinson, Pierre; Hu, Zechun

    2017-01-01

    Wind farms and energy storage systems are playing increasingly more important roles in power systems, which makes their offering non-negligible in some markets. From the perspective of wind farm-energy storage systems (WF-ESS), this paper proposes an integrated strategy of day-ahead offering...... and real-time operation policies to maximize their overall profit. As participants with large capacity in electricity markets can influence cleared prices by strategic offering, a large scaled WFESS is assumed to be a price maker in day-ahead markets. Correspondingly, the strategy considers influence...

  6. Quantifying the spatial implications of future land use policies in South Africa

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Le Roux, A.; Augustijn-Beckers, Petronella

    2017-01-01

    Land use policies have a definite and lasting impact on the way that cities grow; however, it is difficult for policy- and decision-makers to observe and quantify the implications of their land use policies and strategies. There is thus a need for information and tools that can adequately support

  7. Licensing Surrogate Decision-Makers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rosoff, Philip M

    2017-06-01

    As medical technology continues to improve, more people will live longer lives with multiple chronic illnesses with increasing cumulative debilitation, including cognitive dysfunction. Combined with the aging of society in most developed countries, an ever-growing number of patients will require surrogate decision-makers. While advance care planning by patients still capable of expressing their preferences about medical interventions and end-of-life care can improve the quality and accuracy of surrogate decisions, this is often not the case, not infrequently leading to demands for ineffective, inappropriate and prolonged interventions. In 1980 LaFollette called for the licensing of prospective parents, basing his argument on the harm they can do to vulnerable people (children). In this paper, I apply his arguments to surrogate decision-makers for cognitively incapacitated patients, rhetorically suggesting that we require potential surrogates to qualify for this position by demonstrating their ability to make reasonable and rational decisions for others. I employ this theoretical approach to argue that the loose criteria by which we authorize surrogates' generally unchallenged power should be reconsidered.

  8. The Impact of Monetisation Policy on Public Service: A Case Study ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    DrNneka

    An International Multi-disciplinary Journal, Ethiopia ... address the governance problems it was formulated to address. .... To make possible suggestions on how the Monetisation Policy could be ... as an invaluable tool for policy makers, students, public administrators and ..... Introduction to administrative reforms in Asia.

  9. Technological policy and wage inequality

    OpenAIRE

    Cozzi, Guido; Impullitti, Giammario

    2006-01-01

    In this paper we argue that government procurement policy played a role in stimulating the wave of innovation that hit the US economy in the 1980's, as well as the simultaneous increase in inequality and in education attainment. Since the early 1980's U.S. policy makers began targeting commercial innovations more directly and explicitly. We focus on the shift in the composition of public demand towards high-tech goods which, by increasing the market-size of innovative �rms, fun...

  10. “Have policy makers erred?” Implications of mother tongue education for preprimary schooling in Uganda

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ssentanda, Medadi Erisa

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available The Uganda language-in-education policy is silent about pre-primary schooling. This level of education is largely in the hands of private individuals who, because of wide-spread misconceptions about learning and acquiring English in Uganda (as in many other African countries, instruct pre-primary school learners in English. This article demonstrates how this omission in language-in-education policy is creating competition between rural government and private schools regarding the teaching of English and the development of initial literacy. The absence of an official language policy for pre-primary schooling has also dichotomised the implementation of mother tongue education in rural areas. The policy allows rural primary schools to use mother tongue as language of learning and teaching in the first three school grades. However, whereas private schools instruct through English only, government schools to a large extent adhere to the policy, albeit with undesirable consequences. The practical implications of lack of a language-in-education policy for and minimal government involvement in pre-primary schooling are discussed in this article.

  11. Comparison of auctions and alternative policy options for RES-E support

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kitzing, Lena; Islam, Marco; Fitch-Roy, Oscar

    2016-01-01

    benefits of RES, there may be valid reasons for policy makers not to employ auctions, since under particular circumstances it may be desirable not to control quantities but the price. As such, they raise the question whether pure support cost minimisation should be the only goal when implementing......This report concludes the work carried out in the course of Task 6.2 of the AURES project. It is its aim to compare auctions with alternative policy instruments and in particular, to examine under which circumstances auctions may be superior and inferior to achieve intended policy targets....... For that purpose, we identify a number of potential drivers that might affect an instrument’s effectiveness, its efficiency and further success criteria. Among this list of relevant drivers, the basis for our analysis is the factor risk, where our core focus is on risk for policy makers. Assuming a world...

  12. Perspective: Improving nutritional guidelines for sustainable health policies: Current status and perspectives

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Magni, Paolo; Bier, Dennis M; Pecorelli, Sergio

    2017-01-01

    a constructive coalition among scientists, policy makers, and communication professionals for sustainable health and nutritional policies. Currently, a strong rationale and available data support a personalized dietary approach according to personal variables, including sex and age, circulating metabolic...

  13. Gender and sexuality in Norwegian development policy and practice : The introduction of sexual orientation and gender identity in Norwegian development cooperation

    OpenAIRE

    Rodriguez, Annika W.

    2012-01-01

    Since 2005 Norwegian policy makers have sought to include perspectives on sexual orientation and gender identity in development cooperation. The main objectives of this study has been - To explore how the government and people who work with development cooperation perceive the roles sexual orientation and gender identity may or may not have in development cooperation. - To critically analyse Norway¡¦s development cooperation - its aims, strategies and justification - and explore how sex...

  14. Digital Aquifer - Integrating modeling, technical, software and policy aspects to develop a groundwater management tool

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tirupathi, S.; McKenna, S. A.; Fleming, K.; Wambua, M.; Waweru, P.; Ondula, E.

    2016-12-01

    Groundwater management has traditionally been observed as a study for long term policy measures to ensure that the water resource is sustainable. IBM Research, in association with the World Bank, extended this traditional analysis to include realtime groundwater management by building a context-aware, water rights management and permitting system. As part of this effort, one of the primary objectives was to develop a groundwater flow model that can help the policy makers with a visual overview of the current groundwater distribution. In addition, the system helps the policy makers simulate a range of scenarios and check the sustainability of the groundwater resource in a given region. The system also enables a license provider to check the effect of the introduction of a new well on the existing wells in the domain as well as the groundwater resource in general. This process simplifies how an engineer will determine if a new well should be approved. Distance to the nearest well neighbors and the maximum decreases in water levels of nearby wells are continually assessed and presented as evidence for an engineer to make the final judgment on approving the permit. The system also facilitates updated insights on the amount of groundwater left in an area and provides advice on how water fees should be structured to balance conservation and economic development goals. In this talk, we will discuss the concept of Digital Aquifer, the challenges in integrating modeling, technical and software aspects to develop a management system that helps policy makers and license providers with a robust decision making tool. We will concentrate on the groundwater model developed using the analytic element method that plays a very important role in the decision making aspects. Finally, the efficiency of this system and methodology is shown through a case study in Laguna Province, Philippines, which was done in collaboration with the National Water Resource Board, Philippines and World

  15. Technical note: An approach to derive breeding goals from the preferences of decision makers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alfonso, L

    2016-11-01

    This paper deals with the use of the Choquet integral to identify breeding objectives and construct an aggregate genotype. The Choquet integral can be interpreted as an extension of the aggregate genotype based on profit equations, substituting the vector of economic weights by a monotone function, called capacity, which allows the aggregation of traits based, for instance, on the preferences of decision makers. It allows the aggregation of traits with or without economic value, taking into account not only the importance of the breeding value of each trait but also the interaction among them. Two examples have been worked out for pig and dairy cattle breeding scenarios to illustrate its application. It is shown that the expression of stakeholders' or decision makers' preferences, as a single ranking of animals or groups of animals, could be sufficient to extract information to derive breeding objectives. It is also shown that coalitions among traits can be identified to evaluate whether a linear additive function, equivalent of the Hazel aggregate genotype where economic values are replaced by Shapley values, could be adequate to define the net merit of breeding animals.

  16. Settle for now but block for tomorrow: the deterrence effects of merger policy tools

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Seldeslachts, J.; Clougherty, J.A.; Barros, P.P.

    2009-01-01

    Antitrust policy involves not just the regulation of anticompetitive behavior but also an important deterrence effect. Neither scholars nor policy makers have fully researched the deterrence effects of merger policy tools because they have been unable to empirically measure these effects. We

  17. Analysis of selected policies towards universal health coverage in Uganda: the policy implementation barometer protocol.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hongoro, Charles; Rutebemberwa, Elizeus; Twalo, Thembinkosi; Mwendera, Chikondi; Douglas, Mbuyiselo; Mukuru, Moses; Kasasa, Simon; Ssengooba, Freddie

    2018-01-01

    Policy implementation remains an under researched area in most low and middle income countries and it is not surprising that several policies are implemented without a systematic follow up of why and how they are working or failing. This study is part of a larger project called Supporting Policy Engagement for Evidence-based Decisions (SPEED) for Universal Health Coverage in Uganda. It seeks to support policymakers monitor the implementation of vital programmes for the realisation of policy goals for Universal Health Coverage. A Policy Implementation Barometer (PIB) is proposed as a mechanism to provide feedback to the decision makers about the implementation of a selected set of policy programmes at various implementation levels (macro, meso and micro level). The main objective is to establish the extent of implementation of malaria, family planning and emergency obstetric care policies in Uganda and use these results to support stakeholder engagements for corrective action. This is the first PIB survey of the three planned surveys and its specific objectives include: assessment of the perceived appropriateness of implementation programmes to the identified policy problems; determination of enablers and constraints to implementation of the policies; comparison of on-line and face-to-face administration of the PIB questionnaire among target respondents; and documentation of stakeholder responses to PIB findings with regard to corrective actions for implementation. The PIB will be a descriptive and analytical study employing mixed methods in which both quantitative and qualitative data will be systematically collected and analysed. The first wave will focus on 10 districts and primary data will be collected through interviews. The study seeks to interview 570 respondents of which 120 will be selected at national level with 40 based on each of the three policy domains, 200 from 10 randomly selected districts, and 250 from 50 facilities. Half of the respondents at

  18. The nuclear power policy in Argentina (1965-2003)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Carreiro, Francisco M.

    2005-01-01

    This paper aims to expose some outcomes of a larger research on the nuclear power plants public policy review in Argentine, between 1965 and 2003. It points out the relevance of institutional design as a main factor to explain the policy evolution, and offers unpublished statistic data of this nuclear energy sector. Finally, some comments are presented in order to highlight the importance of the unsolved policy aspects that concern the decision makers in this area. (author) [es

  19. Policy Pathways: Modernising Building Energy Codes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2013-08-01

    Buildings are the largest consumers of energy worldwide and will continue to be a source of increasing energy demand in the future. Globally, the sector’s final energy consumption doubled between 1971 and 2010 to reach 2 794 million tonnes of oil equivalent (Mtoe), driven primarily by population increase and economic growth. Under current policies, the global energy demand of buildings is projected by the IEA experts to grow by an additional 838 Mtoe by 2035 compared to 2010. The challenges of the projected increase of energy consumption due to the built environment vary by country. In IEA member countries, much of the future buildings stock is already in place, and so the main challenge is to renovate existing buildings stock. In non-IEA countries, more than half of the buildings stock needed by 2050 has yet to be built. The IEA and the UNDP partnered to analyse current practices in the design and implementation of building energy codes. The aim is to consolidate existing efforts and to encourage more attention to the role of the built environment in a low-carbon and climate-resilient world. This joint IEA-UNDP Policy Pathway aims to share lessons learned between IEA member countries and non-IEA countries. The objective is to spread best practices, limit pressures on global energy supply, improve energy security, and contribute to environmental sustainability. Part of the IEA Policy Pathway series, Modernising building energy codes to secure our global energy future sets out key steps in planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. The Policy Pathway series aims to help policy makers implement the IEA 25 Energy Efficiency Policy Recommendations endorsed by IEA Ministers (2011).

  20. Guidelines for Using Movement Science to Inform Biodiversity Policy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barton, Philip S.; Lentini, Pia E.; Alacs, Erika; Bau, Sana; Buckley, Yvonne M.; Burns, Emma L.; Driscoll, Don A.; Guja, Lydia K.; Kujala, Heini; Lahoz-Monfort, José J.; Mortelliti, Alessio; Nathan, Ran; Rowe, Ross; Smith, Annabel L.

    2015-10-01

    Substantial advances have been made in our understanding of the movement of species, including processes such as dispersal and migration. This knowledge has the potential to improve decisions about biodiversity policy and management, but it can be difficult for decision makers to readily access and integrate the growing body of movement science. This is, in part, due to a lack of synthesis of information that is sufficiently contextualized for a policy audience. Here, we identify key species movement concepts, including mechanisms, types, and moderators of movement, and review their relevance to (1) national biodiversity policies and strategies, (2) reserve planning and management, (3) threatened species protection and recovery, (4) impact and risk assessments, and (5) the prioritization of restoration actions. Based on the review, and considering recent developments in movement ecology, we provide a new framework that draws links between aspects of movement knowledge that are likely the most relevant to each biodiversity policy category. Our framework also shows that there is substantial opportunity for collaboration between researchers and government decision makers in the use of movement science to promote positive biodiversity outcomes.

  1. Guidelines for Using Movement Science to Inform Biodiversity Policy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barton, Philip S; Lentini, Pia E; Alacs, Erika; Bau, Sana; Buckley, Yvonne M; Burns, Emma L; Driscoll, Don A; Guja, Lydia K; Kujala, Heini; Lahoz-Monfort, José J; Mortelliti, Alessio; Nathan, Ran; Rowe, Ross; Smith, Annabel L

    2015-10-01

    Substantial advances have been made in our understanding of the movement of species, including processes such as dispersal and migration. This knowledge has the potential to improve decisions about biodiversity policy and management, but it can be difficult for decision makers to readily access and integrate the growing body of movement science. This is, in part, due to a lack of synthesis of information that is sufficiently contextualized for a policy audience. Here, we identify key species movement concepts, including mechanisms, types, and moderators of movement, and review their relevance to (1) national biodiversity policies and strategies, (2) reserve planning and management, (3) threatened species protection and recovery, (4) impact and risk assessments, and (5) the prioritization of restoration actions. Based on the review, and considering recent developments in movement ecology, we provide a new framework that draws links between aspects of movement knowledge that are likely the most relevant to each biodiversity policy category. Our framework also shows that there is substantial opportunity for collaboration between researchers and government decision makers in the use of movement science to promote positive biodiversity outcomes.

  2. Identifying the science and technology dimensions of emerging public policy issues through horizon scanning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parker, Miles; Acland, Andrew; Armstrong, Harry J; Bellingham, Jim R; Bland, Jessica; Bodmer, Helen C; Burall, Simon; Castell, Sarah; Chilvers, Jason; Cleevely, David D; Cope, David; Costanzo, Lucia; Dolan, James A; Doubleday, Robert; Feng, Wai Yi; Godfray, H Charles J; Good, David A; Grant, Jonathan; Green, Nick; Groen, Arnoud J; Guilliams, Tim T; Gupta, Sunjai; Hall, Amanda C; Heathfield, Adam; Hotopp, Ulrike; Kass, Gary; Leeder, Tim; Lickorish, Fiona A; Lueshi, Leila M; Magee, Chris; Mata, Tiago; McBride, Tony; McCarthy, Natasha; Mercer, Alan; Neilson, Ross; Ouchikh, Jackie; Oughton, Edward J; Oxenham, David; Pallett, Helen; Palmer, James; Patmore, Jeff; Petts, Judith; Pinkerton, Jan; Ploszek, Richard; Pratt, Alan; Rocks, Sophie A; Stansfield, Neil; Surkovic, Elizabeth; Tyler, Christopher P; Watkinson, Andrew R; Wentworth, Jonny; Willis, Rebecca; Wollner, Patrick K A; Worts, Kim; Sutherland, William J

    2014-01-01

    Public policy requires public support, which in turn implies a need to enable the public not just to understand policy but also to be engaged in its development. Where complex science and technology issues are involved in policy making, this takes time, so it is important to identify emerging issues of this type and prepare engagement plans. In our horizon scanning exercise, we used a modified Delphi technique. A wide group of people with interests in the science and policy interface (drawn from policy makers, policy adviser, practitioners, the private sector and academics) elicited a long list of emergent policy issues in which science and technology would feature strongly and which would also necessitate public engagement as policies are developed. This was then refined to a short list of top priorities for policy makers. Thirty issues were identified within broad areas of business and technology; energy and environment; government, politics and education; health, healthcare, population and aging; information, communication, infrastructure and transport; and public safety and national security.

  3. Identifying the science and technology dimensions of emerging public policy issues through horizon scanning.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Miles Parker

    Full Text Available Public policy requires public support, which in turn implies a need to enable the public not just to understand policy but also to be engaged in its development. Where complex science and technology issues are involved in policy making, this takes time, so it is important to identify emerging issues of this type and prepare engagement plans. In our horizon scanning exercise, we used a modified Delphi technique. A wide group of people with interests in the science and policy interface (drawn from policy makers, policy adviser, practitioners, the private sector and academics elicited a long list of emergent policy issues in which science and technology would feature strongly and which would also necessitate public engagement as policies are developed. This was then refined to a short list of top priorities for policy makers. Thirty issues were identified within broad areas of business and technology; energy and environment; government, politics and education; health, healthcare, population and aging; information, communication, infrastructure and transport; and public safety and national security.

  4. Identifying the Science and Technology Dimensions of Emerging Public Policy Issues through Horizon Scanning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parker, Miles; Acland, Andrew; Armstrong, Harry J.; Bellingham, Jim R.; Bland, Jessica; Bodmer, Helen C.; Burall, Simon; Castell, Sarah; Chilvers, Jason; Cleevely, David D.; Cope, David; Costanzo, Lucia; Dolan, James A.; Doubleday, Robert; Feng, Wai Yi; Godfray, H. Charles J.; Good, David A.; Grant, Jonathan; Green, Nick; Groen, Arnoud J.; Guilliams, Tim T.; Gupta, Sunjai; Hall, Amanda C.; Heathfield, Adam; Hotopp, Ulrike; Kass, Gary; Leeder, Tim; Lickorish, Fiona A.; Lueshi, Leila M.; Magee, Chris; Mata, Tiago; McBride, Tony; McCarthy, Natasha; Mercer, Alan; Neilson, Ross; Ouchikh, Jackie; Oughton, Edward J.; Oxenham, David; Pallett, Helen; Palmer, James; Patmore, Jeff; Petts, Judith; Pinkerton, Jan; Ploszek, Richard; Pratt, Alan; Rocks, Sophie A.; Stansfield, Neil; Surkovic, Elizabeth; Tyler, Christopher P.; Watkinson, Andrew R.; Wentworth, Jonny; Willis, Rebecca; Wollner, Patrick K. A.; Worts, Kim; Sutherland, William J.

    2014-01-01

    Public policy requires public support, which in turn implies a need to enable the public not just to understand policy but also to be engaged in its development. Where complex science and technology issues are involved in policy making, this takes time, so it is important to identify emerging issues of this type and prepare engagement plans. In our horizon scanning exercise, we used a modified Delphi technique [1]. A wide group of people with interests in the science and policy interface (drawn from policy makers, policy adviser, practitioners, the private sector and academics) elicited a long list of emergent policy issues in which science and technology would feature strongly and which would also necessitate public engagement as policies are developed. This was then refined to a short list of top priorities for policy makers. Thirty issues were identified within broad areas of business and technology; energy and environment; government, politics and education; health, healthcare, population and aging; information, communication, infrastructure and transport; and public safety and national security. PMID:24879444

  5. Renewables 2016 Global Status Report. Key findings. A Record Breaking Year for Renewable Energy: New Installations, Policy Targets, Investment and Jobs. Mainstreaming renewables: guidance for policy makers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sawin, Janet L.; Sverrisson, Freyr; Seyboth, Kristin; Adib, Rana; Murdock, Hannah E.; Lins, Christine; Brown, Adam; Di Domenico, Stefanie E.; Kielmanowicz, Daniele; Williamson, Laura E.; Jawahar, Rashmi; Appavou, Fabiani; Musolino, Evan; Petrichenko, Ksenia; Farrell, Timothy C.; Thorsch Krader, Thomas; Skeen, Jonathan; Epp, Baerbel; Anna Leidreiter; Tsakiris, Aristeidis; Sovacool, Benjamin; Saraph, Aarth; Mastny, Lisa; Martinot, Eric

    2016-01-01

    2015 was an extraordinary year for renewable energy. Renewables are now cost competitive with fossil fuels in many markets and are established around the world as mainstream sources of energy. Cities, communities and companies are leading the rapidly expanding '100% renewable' movement. Distributed renewable energy is advancing rapidly to close the energy access gap. The REN21 Renewables Global Status Report (GSR) provides an annual look at the tremendous advances in renewable energy markets, policy frameworks and industries globally. Each report uses formal and informal data to provide the most up-to-date information available. Reliable, timely and regularly updated data on renewables energy are essential as they are used for establishing baselines for decision makers; for demonstrating the increasing role that renewables play in the energy sector; and illustrating that the renewable energy transition is a reality. This year's GSR marks 11 years of REN21 reporting. Over the past decade the GSR has expanded in scope and depth with its thematic and regional coverage and the refinement of data collection. The GSR is the product of systematic data collection resulting in thousands of data points, the use of hundreds of documents, and personal communication with experts from around the world. It benefits from a multi-stakeholder community of over 700 experts. Country information for 148 countries were received and used as basis for GSR2016 preparation. The country data received is featured in the REN21 Renewables Interactive Map (www.ren21.net/map)

  6. Energy conservation in the residential sector : The role of policy and market forces

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Aydin, Erdal

    2016-01-01

    In recent years, energy conservation has been a hot topic of debate among policy makers and researchers due to the concerns about global climate change and energy dependency. From a policy perspective, residential sector has been an important target for energy conservation policies as it is a major

  7. Developing a policy for paediatric biobanks

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hens, Kristien; Van El, Carla E; Borry, Pascal

    2013-01-01

    practice for policy makers of biobanks, researchers and anyone involved in dealing with stored tissue samples from children. Actual implementation of the principles will vary according to different jurisdictions.European Journal of Human Genetics advance online publication, 20 June 2012; doi:10.1038/ejhg...

  8. Information processing by networks of quantum decision makers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yukalov, V. I.; Yukalova, E. P.; Sornette, D.

    2018-02-01

    We suggest a model of a multi-agent society of decision makers taking decisions being based on two criteria, one is the utility of the prospects and the other is the attractiveness of the considered prospects. The model is the generalization of quantum decision theory, developed earlier for single decision makers realizing one-step decisions, in two principal aspects. First, several decision makers are considered simultaneously, who interact with each other through information exchange. Second, a multistep procedure is treated, when the agents exchange information many times. Several decision makers exchanging information and forming their judgment, using quantum rules, form a kind of a quantum information network, where collective decisions develop in time as a result of information exchange. In addition to characterizing collective decisions that arise in human societies, such networks can describe dynamical processes occurring in artificial quantum intelligence composed of several parts or in a cluster of quantum computers. The practical usage of the theory is illustrated on the dynamic disjunction effect for which three quantitative predictions are made: (i) the probabilistic behavior of decision makers at the initial stage of the process is described; (ii) the decrease of the difference between the initial prospect probabilities and the related utility factors is proved; (iii) the existence of a common consensus after multiple exchange of information is predicted. The predicted numerical values are in very good agreement with empirical data.

  9. Mechanical Objects and the Engineering Learner: An Experimental Study of How the Presence of Objects Affects Students' Performance on Engineering Related Tasks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bairaktarova, Diana N.

    2013-01-01

    People display varying levels of interaction with the mechanical objects in their environment; engineers in particular as makers and users of these objects display a higher level of interaction with them. Investigating the educational potential of mechanical objects in stimulating and supporting learning in engineering is warranted by the fact…

  10. Mini-grid Policy Tool-kit. Policy and business frameworks for successful mini-grid roll-outs

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Franz, Michael; Hayek, Niklas; Peterschmidt, Nico; Rohrer, Michael; Kondev, Bozhil; Adib, Rana; Cader, Catherina; Carter, Andrew; George, Peter; Gichungi, Henry; Hankins, Mark; Kappiah, Mahama; Mangwengwende, Simbarashe E.

    2014-01-01

    The Mini-grid Policy Tool-kit is for policy makers to navigate the mini-grid policy design process. It contains information on mini-grid operator models, the economics of mini-grids, and necessary policy and regulation that must be considered for successful implementation. The publication specifically focuses on Africa. Progress on extending the electricity grid in many countries has remained slow because of high costs of gird-extension and limited utility/state budgets for electrification. Mini-grids provide an affordable and cost-effective option to extend needed electricity services. Putting in place the right policy for min-grid deployment requires considerable effort but can yield significant improvement in electricity access rates as examples from Kenya, Senegal and Tanzania illustrate. The tool-kit is available in English, French and Portuguese

  11. Energy policy and public administration

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Daneke, G.A.; Lagassa, G.K. (eds.)

    1980-01-01

    At the 1979 conference of the American Society for Public Administration, each editor chaired a separate panel on the administrative dimensions of energy policy. Both panels revealed the importance of involvement in energy decision making by all levels of government. It turns out that energy policy makers are confronted with unrealistic, and therefore paralyzing, choices between two rather extreme sets of energy stategies and futures: large-scale, centralized technologies vs. small-scale, decentralized, appropriate technologies. The nineteen chapters selected and compiled here represent the basic policy issues that must be confronted along whichever path that is chosen. A separate abstract was prepared for each chapter.

  12. A knowledge brokerage approach for assessing the impacts of the setting up young farmers policy measure in Greece

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bournaris, Th.; Moulogianni, Ch.; Arampatzis, S.; Kiomourtzi, F.; Wascher, D.M.; Manos, B.

    2016-01-01

    This study explores Knowledge Brokerage (KB) aspects of an ex-post Impact Assessment (IA) for the Rural Development Programme (RDP) measure of setting up young farmers, under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), at the regional level in Northern Greece. The measure supports the entry of young farmers in agriculture by moving land from older to younger farmers. The aim of the study was to test a set of KB tools for improving the interaction between researchers and policy makers. Our analysis mainly focused on a suite of IA Support Modules to guide practitioners, and on a technical tool kit, a web-based contextualisation platform, to support the IA of the specific test case. Offering a structured approach towards IA, both the Support Modules and LIAISE-KIT allow framing the context, organisation, scheduling and method selection in the light of KB objectives. The evaluation of how IA Support Modules influence the Science Policy Interface (SPI), in the case of the ex-post assessment, demonstrated the high relevance of KB activities for facilitating the interaction between researchers and regional policy makers. The assessment bridges the gap between knowledge producers developing scientific output to be applied in a specific context, and knowledge users, who want clear messages regarding the policy challenges they face. Other conclusions include the need for specific guidelines and training for knowledge users, especially with regard to the use of tools. According to our findings, a consequent application of KB activities is a crucial pre-condition for successfully implementing IAs in future RDP measures.

  13. A knowledge brokerage approach for assessing the impacts of the setting up young farmers policy measure in Greece

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bournaris, Th.; Moulogianni, Ch.; Arampatzis, S.; Kiomourtzi, F. [Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece); Wascher, D.M. [Alterra Wageningen UR (Netherlands); Manos, B., E-mail: manosb@agro.auth.gr [Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece)

    2016-02-15

    This study explores Knowledge Brokerage (KB) aspects of an ex-post Impact Assessment (IA) for the Rural Development Programme (RDP) measure of setting up young farmers, under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), at the regional level in Northern Greece. The measure supports the entry of young farmers in agriculture by moving land from older to younger farmers. The aim of the study was to test a set of KB tools for improving the interaction between researchers and policy makers. Our analysis mainly focused on a suite of IA Support Modules to guide practitioners, and on a technical tool kit, a web-based contextualisation platform, to support the IA of the specific test case. Offering a structured approach towards IA, both the Support Modules and LIAISE-KIT allow framing the context, organisation, scheduling and method selection in the light of KB objectives. The evaluation of how IA Support Modules influence the Science Policy Interface (SPI), in the case of the ex-post assessment, demonstrated the high relevance of KB activities for facilitating the interaction between researchers and regional policy makers. The assessment bridges the gap between knowledge producers developing scientific output to be applied in a specific context, and knowledge users, who want clear messages regarding the policy challenges they face. Other conclusions include the need for specific guidelines and training for knowledge users, especially with regard to the use of tools. According to our findings, a consequent application of KB activities is a crucial pre-condition for successfully implementing IAs in future RDP measures.

  14. Decision makers, scientists and the public as stakeholders: the connection between traffic intervention policy and air quality in a local context.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weiand, L.; von Schneidemesser, E.; Schmitz, S.; Niehoff, N.

    2017-12-01

    Urban mobility is a key issue to make cities more inclusive, safer, and more environmentally friendly. To ensure a sustainable future, local policy should, among other actions, aim to improve access to sustainable transport systems and enhance mobility opportunities, while at the same time addressing critical environmental and health targets. In order to assess whether these objectives are met, measures should be informed and evaluated from a social and environmental perspective. Citizens' opinions and the acceptance of environmental policies are crucial to successful implementation of urban mobility measures. The complexity of urban air quality issues require transparent decision-making processes that are grounded in evidence-based research and embrace local knowledge. From this basis, our research group and the city council collaborated to assess a new policy action intended to address environmental and health targets. This talk will present the results from the assessment of this new policy, that was implemented in large part to alleviate air quality exceedances, from the perspective of public acceptability of the measure and the approach taken by the city council to implement the measure. Parallel to assessing the effect of this policy on the recorded levels of air pollution and traffic counts, we conducted a social survey to examine public opinions of this measure, as well as the link between air quality awareness and mobility decisions. 4661 responses were collected over a one month period. Survey participants were those most affected by the traffic measure, including commuters and local residents. The results show that there is an overall low acceptance rate of the measure (8%) as well as low concern for air quality (2,90 - where 1 = not concerned and 6 = very concerned). We also found that there is a negative relationship between air quality rating and air quality concern. A similar approach was taken to understand climate change concern, which will be

  15. Incorporating evolutionary principles into environmental management and policy

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lankau, Richard; Jørgensen, Peter Søgaard; Harris, David J.

    2011-01-01

    As policymakers and managers work to mitigate the effects of rapid anthropogenic environmental changes, they need to consider organisms’ responses. In light of recent evidence that evolution can be quite rapid, this now includes evolutionary responses. Evolutionary principles have a long history...... in conservation biology, and the necessary next step for the field is to consider ways in which conservation policy makers and managers can proactively manipulate evolutionary processes to achieve their goals. In this review, we aim to illustrate the potential conservation benefits of an increased understanding...... of evolutionary history and prescriptive manipulation of three basic evolutionary factors: selection, variation, and gene flow. For each, we review and propose ways that policy makers and managers can use evolutionary thinking to preserve threatened species, combat pest species, or reduce undesirable evolutionary...

  16. Are new industry policies precautionary?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Galland, Daniel; McDaniels, Timothy L

    2008-01-01

    . The paper finally argues that, although in practice, policy makers generally tend to make incremental choices that are reactive to diverse issues, new industries could adopt more precautionary policies based on processes of public negotiation, analytical decision making and regional planning based......This paper argues that regulatory processes and outcomes in the context of a new industry could respond to mechanisms and factors that shape governmental agendas, illustrating how policy can behave reactively rather than in a precautionary manner. In the case of salmon aquaculture, an emerging...... industry characterized by risks, uncertainties, exponential growth, economic significance and environmental controversy, the outcomes of such reactive policies are generally reflected in siting criteria that yield implicit environmental and socio-economic disadvantages and trade-offs. This paper proposes...

  17. Practical Policy Applications of Uncertainty Analysis for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gillenwater, M.; Sussman, F.; Cohen, J.

    2007-01-01

    International policy makers and climate researchers use greenhouse gas emissions inventory estimates in a variety of ways. Because of the varied uses of the inventory data, as well as the high uncertainty surrounding some of the source category estimates, considerable effort has been devoted to understanding the causes and magnitude of uncertainty in national emissions inventories. In this paper, we focus on two aspects of the rationale for quantifying uncertainty: (1) the possible uses of the quantified uncertainty estimates for policy (e.g., as a means of adjusting inventories used to determine compliance with international commitments); and (2) the direct benefits of the process of investigating uncertainties in terms of improving inventory quality. We find that there are particular characteristics that an inventory uncertainty estimate should have if it is to be used for policy purposes: (1) it should be comparable across countries; (2) it should be relatively objective, or at least subject to review and verification; (3) it should not be subject to gaming by countries acting in their own self-interest; (4) it should be administratively feasible to estimate and use; (5) the quality of the uncertainty estimate should be high enough to warrant the additional compliance costs that its use in an adjustment factor may impose on countries; and (6) it should attempt to address all types of inventory uncertainty. Currently, inventory uncertainty estimates for national greenhouse gas inventories do not have these characteristics. For example, the information used to develop quantitative uncertainty estimates for national inventories is often based on expert judgments, which are, by definition, subjective rather than objective, and therefore difficult to review and compare. Further, the practical design of a potential factor to adjust inventory estimates using uncertainty estimates would require policy makers to (1) identify clear environmental goals; (2) define these

  18. Practical Policy Applications of Uncertainty Analysis for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gillenwater, M. [Environmental Resources Trust (United States)], E-mail: mgillenwater@ert.net; Sussman, F.; Cohen, J. [ICF International (United States)

    2007-09-15

    International policy makers and climate researchers use greenhouse gas emissions inventory estimates in a variety of ways. Because of the varied uses of the inventory data, as well as the high uncertainty surrounding some of the source category estimates, considerable effort has been devoted to understanding the causes and magnitude of uncertainty in national emissions inventories. In this paper, we focus on two aspects of the rationale for quantifying uncertainty: (1) the possible uses of the quantified uncertainty estimates for policy (e.g., as a means of adjusting inventories used to determine compliance with international commitments); and (2) the direct benefits of the process of investigating uncertainties in terms of improving inventory quality. We find that there are particular characteristics that an inventory uncertainty estimate should have if it is to be used for policy purposes: (1) it should be comparable across countries; (2) it should be relatively objective, or at least subject to review and verification; (3) it should not be subject to gaming by countries acting in their own self-interest; (4) it should be administratively feasible to estimate and use; (5) the quality of the uncertainty estimate should be high enough to warrant the additional compliance costs that its use in an adjustment factor may impose on countries; and (6) it should attempt to address all types of inventory uncertainty. Currently, inventory uncertainty estimates for national greenhouse gas inventories do not have these characteristics. For example, the information used to develop quantitative uncertainty estimates for national inventories is often based on expert judgments, which are, by definition, subjective rather than objective, and therefore difficult to review and compare. Further, the practical design of a potential factor to adjust inventory estimates using uncertainty estimates would require policy makers to (1) identify clear environmental goals; (2) define these

  19. Young Children as Language Policy-Makers: Studies of Interaction in Preschools in Finland and Sweden

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boyd, Sally; Huss, Leena

    2017-01-01

    This special issue has as its focus the agency of young children in relation to language policy and practice in bi- and multilingual preschools in Finland and Sweden. Studies of language policy in practice in early childhood education and care (ECEC) in these two countries can be particularly relevant even to those in other contexts, because they…

  20. A Freight Transport Model for Integrated Network, Service, and Policy Design

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Zhang, M.

    2013-01-01

    “The goal of the European Transport Policy is to establish a sustainable transport system that meets society’s economic, social and environmental needs…” (ECE, 2009). This statement indicates the challenges that the European transport policy makers are faced with when facilitating an increasing

  1. Energy policies of IEA countries 2003. 2003 review

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2003-01-01

    This volume contains an analysis of developments in energy policies in the Member countries of the International Energy Agency. It features an overview of major trends in the energy markets, notably the renewed interest in energy security on the part of policy-makers. The study describes how, during the period before and during the war in Iraq, the IEA successfully worked to secure oil supply. 2003 was also a year when growing gas demand and rising import dependency in most IEA Member countries obliged energy policy makers to look at the longer term issue of security of gas supply. In addition to these external developments, an internal dimension of energy security arose in the context of electricity and gas market reform. The book also describes the efforts by countries having ratified the Kyoto Protocol to implement the agreements and the trend of energy R and D policies, as well as developments in energy security and energy market reform in major non-OECD countries. It includes: summaries of the in-depth reviews of Austria, Hungary, Italy, Ireland, Japan and Switzerland conducted from October 2002 to June 2003. The full reviews are published separately

  2. Scope of Policy Issues in eHealth: Results From a Structured Literature Review

    Science.gov (United States)

    Durrani, Hammad; Nayani, Parvez; Fahim, Ammad

    2012-01-01

    Background eHealth is widely used as a tool for improving health care delivery and information. However, distinct policies and strategies are required for its proper implementation and integration at national and international levels. Objective To determine the scope of policy issues faced by individuals, institutions, or governments in implementing eHealth programs. Methods We conducted a structured review of both peer-reviewed and gray literature from 1998–2008. A Medline search for peer-reviewed articles found 40 papers focusing on different aspects of eHealth policy. In addition, a Google search found 20 national- and international-level policy papers and documents. We reviewed these articles to extract policy issues and solutions described at different levels of care. Results The literature search found 99 policy issues related to eHealth. We grouped these issues under the following themes: (1) networked care, (2) interjurisdictional practice, (3) diffusion of eHealth/digital divide, (4) eHealth integration with existing systems, (5) response to new initiatives, (6) goal-setting for eHealth policy, (7) evaluation and research, (8) investment, and (9) ethics in eHealth. Conclusions We provide a list of policy issues that should be understood and addressed by policy makers at global, jurisdictional, and institutional levels, to facilitate smooth and reliable planning of eHealth programs. PMID:22343270

  3. Is natural gas green enough for the environmental and energy policies? Theme paper by IFRI/CIEP for TF3 2012-2015

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Aoun, Marie-Claire; Faure, Aurelie

    2015-06-01

    Climate change policies in line with the objective of transitioning to a lower-carbon world are progressively gaining support amongst policy-makers worldwide. In the run-up to the UN Climate Change Conference in December 2015 in Paris, policy-makers are intensifying their efforts to agree on a new global framework. The recent agreement between China and the United States and the G-20 meeting in Brisbane in November 2014 underscore these renewed efforts. Because the energy supply sector is the largest contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, reworking the current energy supply mix is a priority for policy-makers. So far this has resulted mainly in the promotion of low-carbon-emitting energy technologies. However, as part of this strategy, governments are also establishing support schemes for the deployment of renewable energy sources, and in some economies efforts are being made toward higher energy efficiency. It is widely recognised, at least with regard to existing technologies, that most renewable energy sources in electricity generation need to be backed up by more predictable and stable forms of energy, and fossil fuels often seem to be the unavoidable option. In view of the low-carbon goals mentioned above, it would seem logical that natural gas, as the fuel that produces the most energy per carbon emitted, would be strongly promoted: in combination with investments in renewable energy sources or stand-alone, gas-fired power generation achieves a meaningful reduction in GHG emissions compared to energy mixes that rely mainly on coal, for example. However, fuel switching for environmental purposes has not yet gained momentum. On the contrary, the last ten years have seen a marked increase in coal-fired generation, which has dwarfed the use of gas-fired generation in some cases and may have even negated the gains from investments in renewable energy. The contribution which gas can make towards reducing global warming by replacing coal in the fuel mix has

  4. Transfer Pricing and Developing Economies : A Handbook for Policy Makers and Practitioners

    OpenAIRE

    Cooper, Joel; Fox, Randall; Loeprick, Jan; Mohindra, Komal

    2016-01-01

    Recent years have seen unprecedented public scrutiny over the tax practices of Multinational Enterprise (MNE) groups. Tax policy and administration concerning international transactions, aggressive tax planning, and tax avoidance have become an issue of extensive national and international debate in developed and developing countries alike. Within this context, transfer pricing, historically a subject of limited specialist interest, has attained name recognition amongst a broader global audie...

  5. Policy Debate | Ecuador’s Yasuní-ITT Initiative : What Can We Learn from its Failure?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pamela L. Martin

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available Editor’s note: This paper is a contribution to the ‘Policy Debate’ section of International Development Policy. In this section, academics, policy-makers and practioners engage in a dialogue on global development challenges. Papers are copy-edited but not peer-reviewed. Instead, the initial thematic contribution is followed by critical comments and reactions from scholars and/or policy-makers.In her article ‘Pay to Preserve: The Global Politics of Ecuador’s Yasuní-ITT Proposal’, published in DevPol’s special issue on  Energy and Development in 2011, Pamela L. Martin, Associate Professor of Politics at the Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina, provided a favourable outlook on Ecuador’s innovative environmental governance mechanism. Accordingly, its unique potential lay in its objective of contributing towards sustainable development and social justice and in case of success, the author even predicted a possible replication in other developing countries. Despite its benefits, the initiative was abandoned in 2013. In this paper, Martin revisits the initiative and analyses the reasons for its failure, namely President Correa’s public pursuit of a Plan B, entering into negotiations with oil firms interested to explore the ITT reserves. Moreover, the initiative was in stark competition with the national REDD+ programme, the mainstream policy approach to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation against payments, which is being negotiated under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC.Pamela L. Martin’s article is followed by a response by Dr. Imme Scholz, Deputy Director of the German Development Institute/Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE. She examines why Germany, as the largest European donor, withdrew its support for the Yasuní-ITT Initiative.Readers who are intetested are invited to contribute to this policy debate on our blog .Download the whole

  6. Education Policy for Social Justice in Cyprus: The Role of Stakeholders' Values

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hajisoteriou, Christina; Angelides, Panayiotis

    2014-01-01

    This article examines (a) the official policy for social justice as developed by the Ministry of Education and Culture and its policy-makers, (b) the ways in which school leaders (head teachers) and school actors (teachers) understand education policy for social justice, and (c) the impact of this process on school leaders' and actors' action or…

  7. Economic and policy analysis for solar PV systems in Indiana

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jung, Jinho; Tyner, Wallace E.

    2014-01-01

    In recent years, the energy market in the US and globally is expanding the production of renewable energy. Solar energy for electricity is also expanding in the US. Indiana is one of the states expanding solar energy with solar photovoltaic (PV) systems. Therefore, we conduct benefit cost analysis with several uncertain input variables to determine the economics of adopting solar PV systems in Indiana based on policy instruments that could increase adoption of solar PV systems. The specific objectives are analyses of the cost distribution of solar PV systems compared with grid electricity in homes and estimating the probability that solar can be cheaper than electricity from grids under different policy combinations. We first do the analysis under current policy and then the analysis under potential policy options for a variety of scenarios. Also, the results inform government policy makers on how effective the alternative policies for encouraging solar PV systems are. The results show that current policies are important in reducing the cost of solar PV systems. However, with current policies, there is only 50–50 chance of solar being cheaper than electricity from grids. If potential policies are implemented, solar PV systems can be more economical than grid electricity. - Highlights: • We investigate the economics of solar PV systems based on policy instruments. • We do scenario analyses under different combinations of policies. • We examine the probability of solar being cheaper than grid electricity for each scenario. • With current policies, there is 50–50 chance of solar being cheaper than the grid. • With depreciation and carbon tax, solar is much more economical than the grid

  8. Assessment of the effectiveness of European air quality policies and measures. Final report on Task 3.3. Survey to access successes and failures of the EU Air Quality Policies

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2004-01-01

    The main objective of Task 3.3 of the title project was to survey the views of European policy makers and other stakeholders directly involved in air quality policy development and implementation on the successes and failures of the present European air quality policies. The survey also included several decisionmakers from the USA, Japan and Switzerland to learn about these countries' experiences with specific air quality policies. A list of approximately 90 people to be surveyed during the project was developed. The list included representatives from the European Commission, the European Parliament, national-level representatives from the Member States, including those designated by the CAFE Steering Group, along with representatives of local authorities, NGOs, industry and academia. The survey was conducted through a questionnaire and follow-up interviews. The questionnaire consists of four major parts. Part 1 includes questions about the impact of EU legislation on air quality. Part 2 is designed to learn about stakeholder opinions on the adequacy of Community-level measures with respect to air quality protection. Part 3 asks for opinions about various measures used in Community-level legislation on air quality as well as ideas for new or modified measures that could be effective in achieving better air quality in the EU. Part 4 includes questions about stakeholder involvement and transparency and was designed to assist with the implementation of Task 3.4 (on public participation and transparency) of the project. The analysis of responses for this part of the questionnaire is presented in the parallel Report for Task 3.4. The final version of the questionnaire used to interview European stakeholders is attached as Appendix II. For the decision-makers from the USA, Switzerland, and Japan a separate questionnaire was developed, and is attached as Appendix III. In all, the team received 49 responses from the 90 enquiries.

  9. The UNCCD Science-Policy Interface (SPI) - Exploring the sustainable land management nexus among the Rio Conventions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Safriel, Uriel; Akhtar-Schuster, Mariam; Abraham, Elena Maria; Cowie, Annette; Daradur, Mihail; de Vente, Joris; Dema Dorji, Karma; Kust, German; Metternicht, Graciela; Orr, Barron; Pietragalla, Vanina

    2015-04-01

    At its 11th meeting in Windhoek/Namibia, in September 2013, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) Conference of the Parties (COP) decided to establish a Science-Policy Interface (SPI)* (decision 23/COP.11). The goal of the SPI is to facilitate a two-way dialogue between scientists and policy makers in order to ensure the delivery of policy-relevant information, knowledge and advice on desertification/land degradation and drought (DLDD). The SPI established several initial objectives, including working with the scientific community to bring to the UNCCD and the other Rio conventions (climate change and biodiversity) the scientific evidence for the contribution of sustainable land use and management to climate change adaptation/mitigation and to safeguarding biodiversity and ecosystem services. *For more on the SPI see: http://www.unccd.int/en/programmes/Science/International-Scientific-Advice/Pages/SPI.aspx?HighlightID=282

  10. Case studies of green roof policy from Canada

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Marshall, S. [Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., Ottawa, ON (Canada)

    2006-07-01

    In order to overcome environmental, economic, and social challenges, such as stormwater management, heat island effects, reducing energy use in buildings and increasing amenity space, green roof technology has been a key approach used in many European countries and is gaining acceptance throughout North America as knowledge of the environmental benefits and green roof technology grows. While the conditions, benefits and market forces that have driven green roof development in Europe are not identical to Canada's, lessons can be learned from their experiences. Canadian municipalities that are looking to develop and implement green roof policies and programs will need information on how to tailor policies and programs for specific climate conditions, environmental concerns and regulatory realities. In order to provide Canadian municipal decision-makers with an overview of international and local green roof policies and programs, a green roof policy infrastructure manual was recently completed for the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. Decision-makers can be better informed about which policies may be best suited to meet their specific policy needs by reviewing the motivators and other factors behind existing programs around the world. The manual describes green roof policies in each of 12 different jurisdictions from Canada, the United States, Germany, Switzerland, Singapore, and Japan in terms of local green roof motivators and the steps taken along the continuum of establishing policy. This paper described the progress of some Canadian cities that are moving through six phases of establishing appropriate green roof policies and programs. The six phases were introductory and awareness; community engagement; action plan development and implementation; technical research; program and policy development and continuous improvement.

  11. Product Life Cycle concept use and application by marketing decision-makers in small South African organisations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    F. J. Herbst

    2003-12-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of the study was to test the underlying theory of the product life cycle concept with the primary objective of establishing what the use and practical value of the product life cycle concept is in making marketing decisions in small manufacturing and dealer organisations in Gauteng. The main focus was to test the ability of marketing decision-makers in these small organisations to associate their application and use of the product life cycle concept with Kotler's assumptions on marketing characteristics, described marketing objectives and proposed marketing strategies. A major finding was that small organisations tended to display a marketing knowledge level with the existing marketing theory. Another important conclusion of the study was that the current product life cycle concept theory needs to be broadened to include strategies on the expanded marketing mix. Apart from the different use and application by marketing decision-makers in small organisations in South Africa the product life cycle concept theory has potential as a strategic tool and a high likelihood for its future use as a marketing decision-making instrument.

  12. Policies to promote healthy eating in Europe

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Capacci, Sara; Mazzocchi, Mario; Macias, José Brambila

    2012-01-01

    This review provides a classification of public policies to promote healthier eating and a structured mapping of existing measures in Europe. Complete coverage of alternative policy types was ensured by complementing the review with a selection of major interventions from outside Europe. Within...... with policy-makers. This work led to a list of 129 policy interventions (of which 121 in Europe). For each policy type, a critical review of the available evidence basis on its effectiveness is provided. The review has emphasised the need for a more systematic and accurate evaluation of government......-level interventions, and a stronger focus on actual behavioural change rather than on attitude change or intentions only. The amount of evidence is very heterogeneous across policy types and often incomplete...

  13. Econometric Methods for Causal Evaluation of Education Policies and Practices: A Non-Technical Guide

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schlotter, Martin; Schwerdt, Guido; Woessmann, Ludger

    2011-01-01

    Education policy-makers and practitioners want to know which policies and practices can best achieve their goals. But research that can inform evidence-based policy often requires complex methods to distinguish causation from accidental association. Avoiding econometric jargon and technical detail, this paper explains the main idea and intuition…

  14. [The influence of the relationship between physicians and pharmaceutical companies on the patient from the point of view of policy-makers in Israel].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nissanholtz-Gannot, Rachel; Shani, Segev; Shvarts, Shifra

    2010-11-01

    The relationship between doctors and pharmaceutical companies is an integral part of the health system in Israel and the whole world. The mutual need for such a relationship requires us, as a society, to examine its influence on the individual and the system as a whole. This research examines the relationship from the points of view of the relevant parties within the health system and outside the health system (decision-makers). The authors used in-depth interviews and qualitative research methods in order to examine and understand the various positions of decision-makers. The position of the decision-makers, regarding all the aspects of this relationship, expresses their wishes and depends on their point of view. The impact of the relationship between the doctors and the pharmaceutical companies was examined with regard to the prescription behavior of the doctor. All the government representatives, all the physicians' representatives and those of the health funds, believe that the physicians' prescription behavior is impacted by the relationship. There are those who perceive this to be a negative trend and some doctors believe it to be a positive trend. With regard to possible harm to the patient, the parties believe that the relationship does not harm the patient, whereas most of the government representatives identify harm to the patients, both on the economic and health levels. The authors believe that the "influence" which exists or could exist on the part of the pharmaceutical companies is the main stumbling block in this relationship, which is expressed in the decision-makers' perspective.

  15. The role of experimentation in education policy

    OpenAIRE

    Sally Sadoff

    2014-01-01

    As the gold standard for programme evaluation, experimentation is gaining increasing attention from education researchers and policy-makers. In this article I discuss how experimentation can be used to shape education policy moving forward. I first discuss how well-designed experiments can both build upon and inform a general framework for the education production function. Experiments within this framework can be particularly powerful when they draw on a wide range of disciplines including c...

  16. Local enactments of national health promotion policies

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wimmelmann, Camilla Lawaetz

    2017-01-01

    organisational levels. Visiting, observing and interviewing 15 policy workers from 10 municipalities during a two-year period, this study investigated what happened to a Danish national health promotion policy as it was put into practice and managed in the Danish municipalities. The analysis reveals...... the concrete enactments and their locally experienced effects, our understanding of national public health policies risks becoming detached from praxis and unproductive. Public health policy-makers must pay methodological and analytical attention to the policies' multimodality and their concrete locally......Governments of welfare states are firmly committed to public health, resulting in a substantial number of public health policies. Given the multi-level structure of most welfare systems, the influence of a public health policy is related to its ability to spread geographically and move across...

  17. Should we use a direct regulation to implement the Healthy Prisons Agenda in England? A qualitative study among prison key policy makers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ismail, N; de Viggiani, N

    2017-08-31

    The Healthy Prisons Agenda seeks to reduce prisoners' health risks, balance prisoners' rights with a security regime, ensure equivalent prison health service provisions to community health services, and facilitate the whole-prison approach. There is an established assumption that legislation will ensure better implementation of health promotion programmes. This study aimed to examine whether a legislative framework, via a direct regulation, could lead to enhanced implementation of the Healthy Prisons Agenda in England. A qualitative study design was conducted using semi-structured interviews with 30 key prison policy makers in England. Our findings contradict the established assumption that legislation improves the implementation of health promotion programmes. A direct regulation was perceived as restrictive, manifesting excessive compliance and encouraging a risk-averse culture, whilst preoccupation with security, order and discipline amongst prison governors and custody staff was deemed an internal institutional barrier to implementing the Healthy Prisons Agenda. External barriers included diminishing resources, lengthier or delayed sentencing, and an unsympathetic public and political stance towards prisoner rehabilitation. A direct regulation should not be used to operationalize the Healthy Prisons Agenda. Rather, self-regulation, along with proactive solutions for the identified barriers to implementing the Agenda, is the most appropriate path forward. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Faculty of Public Health. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com

  18. A Comparative Analysis of Education Policy and Practice: The Case of Institutions in Mumbai and Delhi

    Science.gov (United States)

    Iyengar, Radhika; Surianarain, Sharmi

    2010-01-01

    There exist many actors within the realm of education policy planning and implementation, namely: the policy makers; the national, local and regional institutions engaged in the dissemination and interpretation of these policies; and the educational institutions that implement these policies at the ground level (schools). While schools are largely…

  19. Denmark : cultural policy profile : quick facts

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Duelund, Peter; Valtýsson, Bjarki; Bohlbro, Lærke

    of sources including research studies, governmental documents and reports by ministers and other key representatives, reports or manifestos of lobby/pressure groups, important statements from artists and cultural producers, from political campaigns, the media etc. The Compendium is targeted to a broad...... audience of policy makers and administrators, arts institutions and networks, researchers and documentation professionals, journalists and students. The information and data presented online helps to inform decision-making processes, to conduct comparative policy research and analyses, to maintain data...

  20. Learning a decision maker's utility function from (possibly) inconsistent behavior

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Thomas Dyhre; Jensen, Finn Verner

    2004-01-01

    developed for learning the probabilities from a database.However, methods for learning the utilities have only received limitedattention in the computer science community. A promising approach for learning a decision maker's utility function is to takeoutset in the decision maker's observed behavioral...... patterns, and then find autility function which (together with a domain model) can explainthis behavior. That is, it is assumed that decision maker's preferences arereflected in the behavior. Standard learning algorithmsalso assume that the decision maker is behavioralconsistent, i.e., given a model ofthe...... decision problem, there exists a utility function which canaccount for all the observed behavior. Unfortunately, this assumption israrely valid in real-world decision problems, and in these situationsexisting learning methods may only identify a trivial utilityfunction. In this paper we relax...

  1. Tools for integrating environmental objectives into policy and practice: What works where?

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Runhaar, Hens

    2016-07-15

    An abundance of approaches, strategies, and instruments – in short: tools – have been developed that intend to stimulate or facilitate the integration of a variety of environmental objectives into development planning, national or regional sectoral policies, international agreements, business strategies, etc. These tools include legally mandatory procedures, such as Environmental Impact Assessment and Strategic Environmental Assessment; more voluntary tools such as environmental indicators developed by scientists and planning tools; green budgeting, etc. A relatively underexplored question is what integration tool fits what particular purposes and contexts, in short: “what works where?”. This paper intends to contribute to answering this question, by first providing conceptual clarity about what integration entails, by suggesting and illustrating a classification of integration tools, and finally by summarising some of the lessons learned about how and why integration tools are (not) used and with what outcomes, particularly in terms of promoting the integration of environmental objectives.

  2. Tools for integrating environmental objectives into policy and practice: What works where?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Runhaar, Hens

    2016-01-01

    An abundance of approaches, strategies, and instruments – in short: tools – have been developed that intend to stimulate or facilitate the integration of a variety of environmental objectives into development planning, national or regional sectoral policies, international agreements, business strategies, etc. These tools include legally mandatory procedures, such as Environmental Impact Assessment and Strategic Environmental Assessment; more voluntary tools such as environmental indicators developed by scientists and planning tools; green budgeting, etc. A relatively underexplored question is what integration tool fits what particular purposes and contexts, in short: “what works where?”. This paper intends to contribute to answering this question, by first providing conceptual clarity about what integration entails, by suggesting and illustrating a classification of integration tools, and finally by summarising some of the lessons learned about how and why integration tools are (not) used and with what outcomes, particularly in terms of promoting the integration of environmental objectives.

  3. Iran's Nuclear Strategy Options and U.S. Foreign Policy Implications

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Davis, Jimmy D

    2005-01-01

    .... strategic interests. Iran's movement toward a nuclear weapon option creates complex issues for American national security policy makers and highlights the international community's inability to police rogue states effectively...

  4. The theory-based policy evaluation method applied to the ex-post evaluation of climate change policies in the built environment in the Netherlands

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Harmelink, Mirjam; Joosen, Suzanne; Blok, Kornelis

    2005-01-01

    The challenge within ex-post policy evaluation research is to unravel the whole policy process and evaluate the effect and effectiveness of the different steps. Through this unravelling of the policy implementation process, insight is gained on where something went wrong in the process of policy design and implementation and where the keys are for improving the effectiveness and efficiency. This article presents the results of an ex-post policy evaluation of the effect and effectiveness of the Energy Premium Regulation scheme and the Long Term Voluntary agreements to reduce CO 2 emissions in the built environment in the Netherlands applying the theory-based policy evaluation method. The article starts with a description of the theory-based policy evaluation method. The method begins with the formulation of a program theory, which describes the 'ideal' operation of a policy instrument, from the viewpoint of the policy makers. Thereupon the theory is checked and adapted through interviews with policy makers and executors, and the cause and effect chain is finally translated to (quantitative) indicators. The article shows that the theory-based evaluation method has benefits over other ex-post evaluation methods that include: The whole policy implementation process is evaluated and the focus is not just on the 'end-result' (i.e. efficiency improvement and CO 2 emission reduction). Through the development of indicators for each step in the implementation process, 'successes and failures' are quantified to the greatest possible extent. By applying this approach we not only learn whether policies are successful or not, but also why they succeeded or failed and how they can be improved

  5. Heterogeneous fundamentalists and market maker inventories

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Carraro, Alessandro; Ricchiuti, Giorgio

    2015-01-01

    In this paper, we develop a heterogeneous agents model of asset price and inventory with a market maker who considers the excess demand of two groups of agents that employ the same trading rule (i.e. fundamentalists) with different beliefs on the fundamental value. The dynamics of our model is driven by a bi-dimensional discrete non-linear map. We show that the market maker has a destabilizing role when she actively manages the inventory. Moreover, inventory share and the distance between agents’ beliefs strongly influence the results: market instability and periodic, or even, chaotic price fluctuations can be generated. Finally, we show through simulations that endogenous fluctuations of the fractions of agents may trigger instability for a larger set of parameters.

  6. Determination of Pareto frontier in multi-objective maintenance optimization

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Certa, Antonella; Galante, Giacomo; Lupo, Toni; Passannanti, Gianfranco

    2011-01-01

    The objective of a maintenance policy generally is the global maintenance cost minimization that involves not only the direct costs for both the maintenance actions and the spare parts, but also those ones due to the system stop for preventive maintenance and the downtime for failure. For some operating systems, the failure event can be dangerous so that they are asked to operate assuring a very high reliability level between two consecutive fixed stops. The present paper attempts to individuate the set of elements on which performing maintenance actions so that the system can assure the required reliability level until the next fixed stop for maintenance, minimizing both the global maintenance cost and the total maintenance time. In order to solve the previous constrained multi-objective optimization problem, an effective approach is proposed to obtain the best solutions (that is the Pareto optimal frontier) among which the decision maker will choose the more suitable one. As well known, describing the whole Pareto optimal frontier generally is a troublesome task. The paper proposes an algorithm able to rapidly overcome this problem and its effectiveness is shown by an application to a case study regarding a complex series-parallel system.

  7. The energy policy relevance of the 2014 IPCC Working Group III report on the macro-economics of mitigating climate change

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rosen, Richard A.; Guenther, Edeltraud

    2016-01-01

    Research which attempted to determine the macroeconomic importance of mitigating climate change through 2100 was presented primarily in Chapter 6 of the 2014 IPCC Working Group III report. Some of the findings of this chapter were then summarized in the Summary for Policy Makers (SPMs) of both the Synthesis Report, and the WGIII report. Unfortunately, these SPMs omitted key aspects of what the overall macroeconomic results for the costs and benefits of mitigating climate change actually did and did not include, how they were produced, and a careful assessment of their uncertainty and scientific validity. Yet, many of the major omissions were acknowledged deep in the text of Chapter 6, but were not revealed to the public. We conclude, therefore, that neither of these SPMs was useful for energy policy makers and energy managers, and they were misleading due to their many key omissions. Finally, we recommend several improvements that can be made to integrated assessment modeling methodologies so that the macroeconomic analysis of mitigating climate change resulting from the use of such models can be more relevant and useful to energy policy makers in the future, and can be communicated to them better. - Highlights: •The 2014 IPCC Working Group III Report has major omissions in its economic analysis. •Many well-known benefits of mitigation are not included in its economic results. •The Summary for Policy Makers is not very useful for energy policy decision makers. •The upcoming Sixth IPCC WGIII analysis should be structured quite differently.

  8. The True Cost of Electric Power. An Inventory of Methodologies to Support Future Decision-making in Comparing the Cost and Competitiveness of Electricity Generation Technologies. Summary for policy-makers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Burtraw, Dallas; Krupnick, Alan

    2012-06-01

    investments are directed at the electricity generation methods with the lowest true costs to investors and society. The aim of the report is to provide the background for policy-makers and investors who want to incorporate the concept of 'true costs' into the discussion of electricity generation. In some geographic areas, adequate data and methods exist to make a solid estimate of the total social costs of energy production. In those places where the data or methods (or both) are less robust, it is possible to use a benefits transfer approach that still gives stakeholders important guidance about the scale of the true costs of their investments and to get started in formulating policies to incorporate those costs into the market price. Whatever the state of the data and methods, the process of the analysis and stakeholder discussion can be just as important as the final results in providing guidance to decision-makers. Consideration of the true costs should be a component of decision-making for all energy investment worldwide. (authors)

  9. The Practice of Industrial Policy

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Much of the information relevant to policy formulation for industrial development is held by the private sector, not by public officials. There is, therefore, fairly broad agreement in the development literature that some form of structured engagement—often referred to as close or strategic...... of poverty reduction. In 2014, the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) launched a joint research project: The Practice of Industrial Policy. The aim is to help African policy makers develop better...... coordination between public and private sectors in order to identify the constraints to faster structural transformation and design, implement, and monitor policies to remove them. This book, written by national researchers and international experts, presents the results of that research by combining a set...

  10. Collaboration in public policy and practice: perspectives on boundary spanners

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Williams, Paul

    2012-01-01

    .... It will be of interest to academics, researchers and students interested in this field of study, and provides learning for policy makers and practitioners active in the fields of collaboration...

  11. Navigating the science-policy spectrum: Opportunities to work on policies related to your research

    Science.gov (United States)

    Licker, R.; Ekwurzel, B.; Goldman, G. T.; DeLonge, M. S.

    2017-12-01

    Many scientists conduct research with direct policy relevance, whether it be producing sea-level projections that are taken-up by local decision-makers, or developing new agricultural technologies. All scientists are affected by policies made by their respective local, regional, and federal governments. For example, budgets affect the grant resources available to conduct research and policies on visas influence the accessibility of new positions for foreign scientists. As a result, many scientists would like to engage with the policy domain, and either bring their science to bear on new policies that are in the works (science-for-policy) or inform policies on the scientific research enterprise (policy-for-science). Some scientists prefer to engage and be neutral to the policy outcome, serving primarily as an information resource. Many may choose to also advocate for a particular outcome based on their expertise and experience. Research shows that policy decisions benefit greatly from the input of scientific experts. We explore the spectrum between informing policies in a "non-prescriptive" manner to working on policies in an advocacy space. We highlight tips for successful engagement along this spectrum. Finally, we review current science-for-policy and policy-for-science issues of relevance to the geophysical sciences.

  12. Gold Medal for Finnish Health in All Policies Book

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ray Lewis

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available This article is a review of the book “Health in All Policies: Seizing opportunities, implementing policies” edited by Kimmo Leppo, Eeva Ollila, Sebastián Peña, Matthias Wismar, and Sarah Cook. This book (printed and online publication was published by the Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, Finland in 2013 (1. The book is freely available at http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/188809/Health-in-All-Policies-final.pdf. The main features, structure, and highlighted contents of the book are briefly sketched out in this review. The book promotes understanding of a Health in All Policies (HiAP approach, the history, and the scientific evidence of effectiveness available to apply the HiAP concept in order to overcome challenges faced by policy-makers. HiAP is a relatively novel approach which arises from the traditional idea that health is not only medicine (2. The book offers lessons to policy-makers and managers on how to apply the HiAP approach. It further highlights the health sector’s role in developing healthy public policies. In addition, the book provides examples of structures to foster collaboration, coherence, and participation among stakeholders from different government portfolios and responsibilities. The book further provides invaluable insights for politicians, researchers, and civil society advocates.

  13. Priorities for improving the scientific foundation of conservation policy in North America.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Noss, Reed F; Fleishman, Erica; Dellasala, Dominick A; Fitzgerald, John M; Gross, Mart R; Main, Martin B; Nagle, Fiona; O'Malley, Stacey L; Rosales, Jon

    2009-08-01

    The Society for Conservation Biology (SCB) can enhance conservation of biodiversity in North America by increasing its engagement in public policy. Toward this end, the North America Section of SCB is establishing partnerships with other professional organizations in order to speak more powerfully to decision makers and taking other actions--such as increasing interaction with chapters--geared to engage members more substantively in science-policy issues. Additionally, the section is developing a North American Biodiversity Blueprint, which spans the continental United States and Canada and is informed by natural and social science. This blueprint is intended to clarify the policy challenges for protecting continental biodiversity, to foster bilateral collaboration to resolve common problems, and to suggest rational alternative policies and practices that are more likely than current practices to sustain North America's natural heritage. Conservation scientists and practitioners can play a key role by drawing policy makers' attention to ultimate, as well as proximate, causes of biodiversity decline and to the ecological and economic consequences of not addressing these threats.

  14. Trialling an electronic decision aid for policy developers to support ageing well.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cummings, Elizabeth; Ellis, Leonie; Tin, Eh Eh; Boyer, Kim; Orpin, Peter

    2015-01-01

    The complex process of developing policies and planning services requires the compilation and collation of evidence from multiple sources. With the increasing numbers of people living longer there will be a high demand for a wide range of aged care services to support people in ageing well. The premise of ageing well is based on providing an ageing population with quality care and resources that support their ongoing needs. These include affordable healthcare, end of life care improvement, mental health services improvement, care and support improvement for people with dementia, and support for healthy ageing. The National Health and Medical Research Council funded a research project to develop a policy tool to provide a framework to assist policy makers and service planners in the area of ageing well in rural and regional Australia. It was identified that development of an electronic version of the policy tool could be useful resulting in a small pilot development being undertaken and tested with policy makers and service planners. This paper describes the development and trialling of a tablet based application used to assess the acceptability of computerised forms for participants actively involved in policy development. It reports on the policy developer's experience of the electronic tool to support ageing well policy making based on evidence.

  15. Criminal Liability of Political Decision-Makers in the Netherlands

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Geelhoed, Willem; Zimmermann, Frank

    2017-01-01

    Dutch criminal law does not provide for criminal liability for a political decision-maker who decides to build a bridge, if thereafter the project runs out of control or the bridge appears not to justify the funds spent on the project. This is most probably even the case if the decision-maker knew

  16. Handling uncertainty in bioenergy policy design – A case study analysis of UK and German bioelectricity policy instruments

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Purkus, Alexandra; Röder, Mirjam; Gawel, Erik; Thrän, Daniela; Thornley, Patricia

    2015-01-01

    In designing policies to promote bioenergy, policy makers face challenges concerning uncertainties about the sustainability of bioenergy pathways (including greenhouse gas balances), technology and resource costs, or future energy market framework conditions. New information becomes available with time, but policy adjustments can involve high levels of adaptation costs. To enable an effective steering of technology choices and innovation, policies have to strike a balance between creating a consistent institutional framework, which establishes planning security for investors, and sufficient flexibility to adapt to new information. This paper examines implications of economic theory for handling cost and benefit uncertainty in bioelectricity policy design, focussing on choices between price and quantity instruments, technology differentiation, and policy adjustment. Findings are applied to two case studies, the UK's Renewables Obligation and the German feed-in tariff/feed-in premium scheme. Case study results show the trade-offs that are involved in instrument choice and design – depending on political priorities and a country's specific context, different options can prove more adequate. Combining market-based remuneration with sustainability criteria results in strong incentives for bioenergy producers to search for low-cost solutions; whereas cost-based price instruments with centrally steered technology and feedstock choices offer higher planning security for investors and more direct control for policy makers over what pathways are implemented. Independent of the choice of instrument type and technology differentiation mechanism, findings emphasise the importance of a careful policy design, which determines the exact balance between performance criteria such as cost control, incentive intensity, planning security and adaptive efficiency. - Highlights: • Bioelectricity policy design must deal with simultaneous cost and benefit uncertainty.

  17. Outcome Reporting Bias in Government-Sponsored Policy Evaluations: A Qualitative Content Analysis of 13 Studies.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Arnaud Vaganay

    Full Text Available The reporting of evaluation outcomes can be a point of contention between evaluators and policy-makers when a given reform fails to fulfil its promises. Whereas evaluators are required to report outcomes in full, policy-makers have a vested interest in framing these outcomes in a positive light-especially when they previously expressed a commitment to the reform. The current evidence base is limited to a survey of policy evaluators, a study on reporting bias in education research and several studies investigating the influence of industry sponsorship on the reporting of clinical trials. The objective of this study was twofold. Firstly, it aimed to assess the risk of outcome reporting bias (ORB or 'spin' in pilot evaluation reports, using seven indicators developed by clinicians. Secondly, it sought to examine how the government's commitment to a given reform may affect the level of ORB found in the corresponding evaluation report. To answer these questions, 13 evaluation reports were content-analysed, all of which found a non-significant effect of the intervention on its stated primary outcome. These reports were systematically selected from a dataset of 233 pilot and experimental evaluations spanning three policy areas and 13 years of government-commissioned research in the UK. The results show that the risk of ORB is real. Indeed, all studies reviewed here resorted to at least one of the presentational strategies associated with a risk of spin. This study also found a small, negative association between the seniority of the reform's champion and the risk of ORB in the evaluation of that reform. The publication of protocols and the use of reporting guidelines are recommended.

  18. Increasing Use of Research Findings in Improving Evidence-Based Health Policy at the National Level

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Meiwita Budiharsana

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available In February 2016, the Minister of Health decided to increase the use of research findings in improving the quality of the national health policy and planning. The Ministry of Health has instructed the National Institute of Health Research and Development or NIHRD to play a stronger role of monitoring and evaluating all health programs, because “their opinion and research findings should be the basis for changes in national health policies and planning”. Compared to the past, the Ministry of Health has increased the research budget for evidence-based research tremendously. However, there is a gap between the information needs of program and policy-makers and the information offered by researchers. A close dialogue is needed between the users (program managers, policy makers and planners and the suppliers (researchers and evaluators to ensure that the evidence-based supplied by research is useful for programs, planning and health policy.

  19. Developing effective policy strategies to retain health workers in rural Bangladesh: a policy analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rawal, Lal B; Joarder, Taufique; Islam, Sheikh Md Shariful; Uddin, Aftab; Ahmed, Syed Masud

    2015-05-20

    Retention of human resources for health (HRH), particularly physicians and nurses in rural and remote areas, is a major problem in Bangladesh. We reviewed relevant policies and provisions in relation to HRH aiming to develop appropriate rural retention strategies in Bangladesh. We conducted a document review, thorough search and review of relevant literature published from 1971 through May 2013, key informant interviews with policy elites (health policy makers, managers, researchers, etc.), and a roundtable discussion with key stakeholders and policy makers. We used the World Health Organization's (WHO's) guidelines as an analytical matrix to examine the rural retention policies under 4 domains, i) educational, ii) regulatory, iii) financial, and iv) professional and personal development, and 16 sub-domains. Over the past four decades, Bangladesh has developed and implemented a number of health-related policies and provisions concerning retention of HRH. The district quota system in admissions is in practice to improve geographical representation of the students. Students of special background including children of freedom fighters and tribal population have allocated quotas. In private medical and nursing schools, at least 5% of seats are allocated for scholarships. Medical education has a provision for clinical rotation in rural health facilities. Further, in the public sector, every newly recruited medical doctor must serve at least 2 years at the upazila level. To encourage serving in hard-to-reach areas, particularly in three Hill Tract districts of Chittagong division, the government provides an additional 33% of the basic salary, but not exceeding US$ 38 per month. This amount is not attractive enough, and such provision is absent for those working in other rural areas. Although the government has career development and promotion plans for doctors and nurses, these plans are often not clearly specified and not implemented effectively. The government is

  20. Framing mechanisms : the interpretive policy entrepreneur’s toolbox

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Aukes, Ewert; Lulofs, Kristiaan R.D.; Bressers, Johannes T.A.

    2017-01-01

    Policy entrepreneurs were, originally, neither conceived to be active meaning-makers nor did they interact with other actors. They invested other resources such as time, energy, reputation and money in coupling problems, solutions and politics. Adding the interpretive dimension of interactional

  1. Using Knowledge of the Past to Improve Education Today: US Education History and Policy-Making

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vinovskis, Maris A.

    2015-01-01

    Early American historians provided the public and policy-makers with information about US history that provided both entertainment and policy suggestions. As American historians became more professionalised in the early twentieth century, they concentrated more on their own scholarly concerns and less on policy-relevant writings. In recent…

  2. The female community health volunteer programme in Nepal: decision makers' perceptions of volunteerism, payment and other incentives.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Glenton, Claire; Scheel, Inger B; Pradhan, Sabina; Lewin, Simon; Hodgins, Stephen; Shrestha, Vijaya

    2010-06-01

    The Female Community Health Volunteer (FCHV) Programme in Nepal has existed since the late 1980s and includes almost 50,000 volunteers. Although volunteer programmes are widely thought to be characterised by high attrition levels, the FCHV Programme loses fewer than 5% of its volunteers annually. The degree to which decision makers understand community health worker motivations and match these with appropriate incentives is likely to influence programme sustainability. The purpose of this study was to explore the views of stakeholders who have participated in the design and implementation of the Female Community Health Volunteer regarding Volunteer motivation and appropriate incentives, and to compare these views with the views and expectations of Volunteers. Semi-structured interviews were carried out in 2009 with 19 purposively selected non-Volunteer stakeholders, including policy makers and programme managers. Results were compared with data from previous studies of Female Community Health Volunteers and from interviews with four Volunteers and two Volunteer activists. Stakeholders saw Volunteers as motivated primarily by social respect, religious and moral duty. The freedom to deliver services at their leisure was seen as central to the volunteer concept. While stakeholders also saw the need for extrinsic incentives such as micro-credit, regular wages were regarded not only as financially unfeasible, but as a potential threat to the Volunteers' social respect, and thereby to their motivation. These views were reflected in interviews with and previous studies of Female Community Health Volunteers, and appear to be influenced by a tradition of volunteering as moral behaviour, a lack of respect for paid government workers, and the Programme's community embeddedness. Our study suggests that it may not be useful to promote a generic range of incentives, such as wages, to improve community health worker programme sustainability. Instead, programmes should ensure that

  3. On the theory of interest rate policy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Heinz-Peter Spahn

    2001-12-01

    Full Text Available A new consensus in the theory of monetary policy has been reached pointing to the pivotal role of interest rates that are set in accordance with central banks' reaction functions. The decisive criterion of assessing the Taylor rule, inflation and monetary targeting is not the macrotheoretic foundation of these concepts. They serve as "languages" coordinating heterogeneous beliefs among policy makers and private agents, and should also allow rule-based discretionary policies when markets are in need of leadership. Contrary to the ECB dogma, the Fed is right to have an eye on the risks of inflation and unemployment.

  4. Turning the big knob: an evaluation of the use of energy policy to modulate future climate impacts

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pielke, R.A. Jnr.; Klein, R.; Sarewitz, D.

    2000-01-01

    Conventional wisdom on climate change policy is straightforward: reducing greenhouse gas emissions will avoid the increased frequency and magnitude of climate impacts on environment and society that might occur if emissions are not controlled. The proponents of conventional wisdom widely consider energy policy to be the main policy tool available to decision makers to intentionally modulate future climate impacts. In this paper we challenge the notion that policy makers should intentionally use energy policy to modulate future climate impacts. The paper argues that policy makers may well make large changes in energy policy (and future emissions) without significantly affecting future climate impacts. In other words, even if a theoretical case could be made that energy policy could be used intentionally to modulate future climate, other factors will play a larger role in creating future impact.y and are arguably more amenable to policy change. To illustrate this conclusion, the paper presents a sensitivity analysis under the assumptions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for the case of tropical cyclones. One implication of the paper's conclusions is that policy responses to extreme weather events should be decoupled from considerations of energy policy. This decoupling is not intended to diminish either the importance of responding to climate change or of energy policy. Rather, it is to emphasise that there are many responses under the rubric of adaptation that could play a much greater role in reducing societal vulnerability to losses. One of the implications of this change is that scientific uncertainty need not stand in the way of effective action because the measures proposed make sense under any future climate scenario. (author)

  5. Two logics of NGO advocacy: understanding inside and outside lobbying on EU environmental policies

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Junk, Wiebke Marie

    2016-01-01

    Contributions by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to European governance supposedly enhance participatory democracy. It matters for this democratic surplus how NGOs foster relationships to both policy-makers and publics by engaging in inside and outside lobbying on European Union policies...

  6. Environmental potentials of policy instruments to mitigate nutrient emissions in Chinese livestock production

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Zheng, C.; Liu, Y.; Bluemling, B.; Mol, A.P.J.; Chen, J.

    2015-01-01

    To minimize negative environmental impact of livestock production, policy-makers face a challenge to design and implement more effective policy instruments for livestock farmers at different scales. This research builds an assessment framework on the basis of an agent-based model, named ANEM, to

  7. The impact of foresight on environmental science and technology policy in the Netherlands

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van der Meulen, Barend

    1999-01-01

    Globalisation, high tech development and environmental issues have made policy makers aware again of the possibilities of future studies for policy making. However, the lack of systematic knowledge about their impact is a major obstruction to a proper use of future studies. Especially since future

  8. Maker Movement Spreads Innovation One Project at a Time

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peppler, Kylie; Bender, Sophia

    2013-01-01

    The maker movement consists of a growing culture of hands-on making, creating, designing, and innovating. A hallmark of the maker movement is its do-it-yourself (or do-it-with-others) mindset that brings individuals together around a range of activities, both high- and low-tech, all involving some form of creation or repair. The movement's…

  9. Nuclear policies in Central Europe. Environmental policy and enlargement of the European Union: Austria's policies towards Nuclear Reactors in neighboring countries

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Getzner, M.

    2003-01-01

    Austria's anti-nuclear policies are rooted in the successful anti-nuclear referendum on the Zwentendorf nuclear power plant (Lower Austria) in 1978 and the great impact of the Chernobyl catastrophe on Austria in 1986. Since about 1990, official Austria has pursued anti-nuclear policies not only at home but also abroad. In particular, reactors in Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) are the focal points of Austria's foreign anti-nuclear policies. Strategies include increasing nuclear safety, promoting energy efficiency and sustainable energy sources (such as renewable resources), and extending international legal frameworks to account for nuclear safety. Involvement in domestic energy issues in other countries is not an easy task, and while Austrian policy makers have had some success in increasing awareness of nuclear safety in Europe, they have also made a number of strategic mistakes. Notwithstanding real and substantiated concerns regarding nuclear safety, Austrian policies have lost credibility during recent years. This book explores the history and the development of Austrian anti-nuclear policies, and discusses the political economy of such policies. Particular emphasis is laid on the 2002 referendum against the Temelin reactor in the neighboring Czech Republic. (orig.)

  10. Does the EU meet its policy objective of 'promoting sustainable use of arctic resources'? An analysis from the viewpoint of arctic energy resources

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Neumann, A.; Hossain, Kamrul

    2014-01-01

    The EU started to develop its own Arctic policy in 2008. One of the three main objectives of this policy is the promotion of sustainable use of Arctic resources. "Sustainability" was also a focus of the 2011 resolution of the European Parliament as a guiding principle in developing European policies

  11. Policy planning for nuclear power: An overview of the main issues and requirements

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1993-08-01

    This special report, Policy Planning for Nuclear Power: An Overview of the Main Issues and Requirements, has been prepared in response to the express request of a number of IAEA Member States for a document to assist makers in developing countries on the introduction of nuclear power. The report contains information on the political, governmental, economic, financial and technical issues and requirements associated with planning and implementing a safe, economic and reliable nuclear power programme. It highlights the main areas in which policies must be developed and decisions taken, as well as the role and responsibilities of government, the plant owner and national industry. Also presented are the main criteria to assist policy planners in defining options and strategies which can achieve a balance among such objectives as cost effective and efficient electricity production, realistic and acceptable financing arrangements, national development requirements, safety and environmental protection. Further information and details on the technical and other issues presented in this report are given in the list of related IAEA publications and documents at the end of this report

  12. Sustainable diet policy development: implications of multi-criteria and other approaches, 2008-2017.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lang, Tim; Mason, Pamela

    2017-12-04

    The objective of the present paper is to draw lessons from policy development on sustainable diets. It considers the emergence of sustainable diets as a policy issue and reviews the environmental challenge to nutrition science as to what a 'good' diet is for contemporary policy. It explores the variations in how sustainable diets have been approached by policy-makers. The paper considers how international United Nations and European Union (EU) policy engagement now centres on the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals and Paris Climate Change Accord, which require changes across food systems. The paper outlines national sustainable diet policy in various countries: Australia, Brazil, France, the Netherlands, Qatar, Sweden, UK and USA. While no overarching common framework for sustainable diets has appeared, a policy typology of lessons for sustainable diets is proposed, differentiating (a) orientation and focus, (b) engagement styles and (c) modes of leadership. The paper considers the particularly tortuous rise and fall of UK governmental interest in sustainable diet advice. Initial engagement in the 2000s turned to disengagement in the 2010s, yet some advice has emerged. The 2016 referendum to leave the EU has created a new period of policy uncertainty for the UK food system. This might marginalise attempts to generate sustainable diet advice, but could also be an opportunity for sustainable diets to be a goal for a sustainable UK food system. The role of nutritionists and other food science professions will be significant in this period of policy flux.

  13. New institutional mechanisms to bridge the information gap between climate science and public policy decisions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rogers, W.; Gulledge, J. M.

    2010-12-01

    Many decision makers lack actionable scientific information needed to prepare for future challenges associated with climate change. Although the scope and quality of available scientific information has increased dramatically in recent years, this information does not always reach - or is not presented in a form that is useful to - decision makers who need it. The producer (i.e. scientists) community tends to be stovepiped, even though consumers (i.e. decision makers) often need interdisciplinary science and analysis. Consumers, who may also be stovepiped in various agencies or subject areas, may lack familiarity with or access to these separate communities, as well as the tools or time to navigate scientific information and disciplines. Closing the communication gap between these communities could be facilitated by institutionalizing processes designed for this purpose. We recommend a variety of mainstreaming policies within the consumer community, as well as mechanisms to generate a strong demand signal that will resonate more strongly with the producer community. We also recommend institutional reforms and methods of incentivizing policy-oriented scientific analysis within the producer community. Our recommendations focus on improving information flow to national security and foreign policy decision makers, but many are relevant to public policy writ large. Recommendations for Producers 1. The scientific community should formally encourage collaborations between natural and social scientists and reward publications in interdisciplinary outlets Incentives could include research funding and honorary awards recognizing service to public policy. 2. Academic merit review should reward research grants and publications targeted at interdisciplinary and/or policy-oriented audiences. Reforms of merit review may require new policies and engaged institutional leadership. Recommendations for Consumers 1. Congress should amend Title VI of the National Defense Education Act

  14. Smart Grid: Smart Customer Policy Needs

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2011-07-01

    In September 2010, the International Energy Agency (IEA) held a workshop on the regulatory, market and consumer policies necessary to ensure that smart grids are deployed with adequate consideration of their risks and benefits to all stakeholders. This was one of several workshops that brought together energy providers, network operators, technology developers, regulators, customers and government policy makers to discuss smart grid technology and policy. The Smart Grid - Smart Customer Policies workshop allowed stakeholders to: gain a perspective on key issues and barriers facing early deployment of smart grids; hear expert opinion on regulatory, consumer and market challenges to smart grids; discuss smart grid-smart customer policy priorities; and build consensus on the technology and policy ingredients needed for customer-friendly smart grid deployments. Drawing on workshop discussions, the following paper lays out a logical framework to maximise the benefits and minimise the risks that smart grids pose for customers. The paper also describes key policy research questions that will guide future IEA research on this topic.

  15. Frames of Reference: A Metaphor for Analyzing and Interpreting Attitudes of Environmental Policy Makers and Policy Influencers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Swaffield

    1998-07-01

    / The concept of frame of reference offers a potentially useful analytical metaphor in environmental management. This is illustrated by a case study in which attitudes of individuals involved in the management of trees in the New Zealand high country are classified into seven distinctive frames of reference. Some practical and theoretical implications of the use of the frame metaphor are explored, including its potential contribution to the emerg- ing field of communicative planning. KEY WORDS: Frames of reference; Environmental policy analysis; Metaphor; New Zealand high country

  16. Fighting against Academic Corruption: A Critique of Recent Policy Developments in China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ren, Kai

    2012-01-01

    Academic corruption in China's higher education institutions has become a serious issue in the last decade. This paper provides a critical discussion of the Chinese Ministry of Education's policy developments aimed to strengthen academic ethics and control academic corruption. It suggests that while the reactions of policy-makers to the apparent…

  17. Policy objectives for conserving freshwater ecosystems: How many rivers, which ones, and what level of protection are required

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Roux, D

    2006-05-01

    Full Text Available A current initiative aims to develop a set of operational policy objectives for facilitating national-level coordination in the conservation of freshwater ecosystems and their associated biodiversity. This initiative draws from the relatively new...

  18. Foxes, hedgehogs, and greenhouse governance: Knowledge, uncertainty, and international policy-making in a warming World

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Michel, David

    2009-01-01

    Global environmental challenges like greenhouse warming are characterized by profound uncertainties about the workings of complex systems, high stakes as to the costs and benefits of various possible actions, and important differences concerning the values that should shape public choices, confounding ready resolution by conventional decision-making procedures. So-called adaptive or reflexive governance strategies provide policy-makers an alternative framework for tackling the greenhouse problem. Adaptive governance employs deliberate experimentation and continuous learning-by-doing to test and adjust ongoing policy responses. Yet pursuing such approaches poses particular challenges to global climate cooperation. In an increasingly interdependent world, coordinating multiple parties experimentally adopting different climate measures could prove contentious. Unequivocal policy lessons may be difficult to draw and apply. Timely collective revisions to ongoing policies may prove more difficult still to define and agree. Advocates must engage these issues directly and develop means of addressing them if adaptive governance approaches are to allow policy-makers to formulate better strategies for combating climate change. (author)

  19. Practical solutions for multi-objective optimization: An application to system reliability design problems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Taboada, Heidi A.; Baheranwala, Fatema; Coit, David W.; Wattanapongsakorn, Naruemon

    2007-01-01

    For multiple-objective optimization problems, a common solution methodology is to determine a Pareto optimal set. Unfortunately, these sets are often large and can become difficult to comprehend and consider. Two methods are presented as practical approaches to reduce the size of the Pareto optimal set for multiple-objective system reliability design problems. The first method is a pseudo-ranking scheme that helps the decision maker select solutions that reflect his/her objective function priorities. In the second approach, we used data mining clustering techniques to group the data by using the k-means algorithm to find clusters of similar solutions. This provides the decision maker with just k general solutions to choose from. With this second method, from the clustered Pareto optimal set, we attempted to find solutions which are likely to be more relevant to the decision maker. These are solutions where a small improvement in one objective would lead to a large deterioration in at least one other objective. To demonstrate how these methods work, the well-known redundancy allocation problem was solved as a multiple objective problem by using the NSGA genetic algorithm to initially find the Pareto optimal solutions, and then, the two proposed methods are applied to prune the Pareto set

  20. The Roles of Science in Local Resilience Policy Development: A Case Study of Three U.S. Cities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clavin, C.; Gupta, N.

    2015-12-01

    The development and deployment of resilience policies within communities in the United States often respond to the place-based, hazard-specific nature of disasters. Prior to the onset of a disaster, municipal and regional decision makers establish long-term development policies, such as land use planning, infrastructure investment, and economic development policies. Despite the importance of incorporating disaster risk within community decision making, resilience and disaster risk are only one consideration community decision makers weigh when choosing how and whether to establish resilience policy. Using a case study approach, we examine the governance, organizational, management, and policy making processes and the involvement of scientific advice in designing and implementing resilience policy in three U.S. communities: Los Angeles, CA; Norfolk, VA; and Flagstaff, AZ. Disaster mitigation or resilience initiatives were developed and deployed in each community with differing levels and types of scientific engagement. Engagement spanned from providing technical support with traditional risk assessment to direct engagement with community decision makers and design of community resilience outreach. Best practices observed include embedding trusted, independent scientific advisors with strong community credibility within local government agencies, use of interdisciplinary and interdepartmental expert teams with management and technical skillsets, and establishing scientifically-informed disaster and hazard scenarios to enable community outreach. Case study evidence suggest science communication and engagement within and across municipal government agencies and scientifically-informed direct engagement with community stakeholders are effective approaches and roles that disaster risk scientists can fill to support resilience policy development.

  1. How to decide on the scope, priorities and coordination of information society policy? Analytical framework and three case studies

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Poel, M.; Kool, L.; Giessen, A. van der

    2010-01-01

    Purpose: ICT is everywhere, but information society policy cannot address all the sectors and policy issues in which ICT plays a role. This paper's aim is to develop an analytical framework to assist policy makers in deciding on the priorities and coordination of information society policy.

  2. Implementing Health Policy: Lessons from the Scottish Well Men's Policy Initiative.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Douglas, Flora; van Teijlingen, Edwin; Smith, Cairns; Moffat, Mandy

    2015-01-01

    Little is known about how health professionals translate national government health policy directives into action. This paper examines that process using the so-called Well Men's Services (WMS) policy initiative as a 'real world' case study. The WMS were launched by the Scottish Government to address men's health inequalities. Our analysis aimed to develop a deeper understanding of policy implementation as it naturally occurred, used an analytical framework that was developed to reflect the 'rational planning' principles health professionals are commonly encouraged to use for implementation purposes. A mixed-methods qualitative enquiry using a data archive generated during the WMS policy evaluation was used to critically analyze (post hoc) the perspectives of national policy makers, and local health and social care professionals about the: (a) 'policy problem', (b) interventions intended to address the problem, and (c) anticipated policy outcomes. This analysis revealed four key themes: (1) ambiguity regarding the policy problem and means of intervention; (2) behavioral framing of the policy problem and intervention; (3) uncertainty about the policy evidence base and outcomes, and; (4) a focus on intervention as outcome . This study found that mechanistic planning heuristics (as a means of supporting implementation) fails to grapple with the indeterminate nature of population health problems. A new approach to planning and implementing public health interventions is required that recognises the complex and political nature of health problems; the inevitability of imperfect and contested evidence regarding intervention, and, future associated uncertainties.

  3. Forest economics and policy in a changing environment: how market, policy, and climate transformations affect forests -- Proceedings of the 2016 Meeting of the International Society of Forest Resource Economics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gregory E. Frey; Prakash Nepal

    2016-01-01

    Economics can affect decisions about forest resource management and utilization, and in turn, the ecosystem benefits received. In a time of market, policy, and climate transformations, economic analyses are critical to help policy-makers and resource managers make appropriate decisions. At the 2016 Meeting of the International Society of Forest Resource Economics (...

  4. Developing national obesity policy in middle-income countries: a case study from North Africa.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Holdsworth, Michelle; El Ati, Jalila; Bour, Abdellatif; Kameli, Yves; Derouiche, Abdelfettah; Millstone, Erik; Delpeuch, Francis

    2013-12-01

    The prevalence of overweight and obesity is a rapidly growing threat to public health in both Morocco and Tunisia, where it is reaching similar proportions to high-income countries. Despite this, a national strategy for obesity does not exist in either country. The aim of this study was to explore the views of key stakeholders towards a range of policies to prevent obesity, and thus guide policy makers in their decision making on a national level. Using Multicriteria Mapping, data were gathered from 82 stakeholders (from 33 categories in Morocco and 36 in Tunisia) who appraised 12 obesity policy options by reference to criteria of their own choosing. The feasibility of policies in practical or political terms and their cost were perceived as more important than how effective they would be in reducing obesity. There was most consensus and preference for options targeting individuals through health education, compared with options that aimed at changing the environment, i.e. modifying food supply and demand (providing healthier menus/changing food composition/food sold in schools); controlling information (advertising controls/mandatory labelling) or improving access to physical activity. In Tunisia, there was almost universal consensus that at least some environmental-level options are required, but in Morocco, participants highlighted the need to raise awareness within the population and policy makers that obesity is a public health problem, accompanied by improving literacy before such measures would be accepted. Whilst there is broad interest in a range of policy options, those measures targeting behaviour change through education were most valued. The different socioeconomic, political and cultural contexts of countries need to be accounted for when prioritizing obesity policy. Obesity was not recognized as a major public health priority; therefore, convincing policy makers about the need to prioritize action to prevent obesity, particularly in Morocco, will be

  5. Developing national obesity policy in middle-income countries: a case study from North Africa

    Science.gov (United States)

    Holdsworth, Michelle; El Ati, Jalila; Bour, Abdellatif; Kameli, Yves; Derouiche, Abdelfettah; Millstone, Erik; Delpeuch, Francis

    2013-01-01

    Background The prevalence of overweight and obesity is a rapidly growing threat to public health in both Morocco and Tunisia, where it is reaching similar proportions to high-income countries. Despite this, a national strategy for obesity does not exist in either country. The aim of this study was to explore the views of key stakeholders towards a range of policies to prevent obesity, and thus guide policy makers in their decision making on a national level. Methods Using Multicriteria Mapping, data were gathered from 82 stakeholders (from 33 categories in Morocco and 36 in Tunisia) who appraised 12 obesity policy options by reference to criteria of their own choosing. Results The feasibility of policies in practical or political terms and their cost were perceived as more important than how effective they would be in reducing obesity. There was most consensus and preference for options targeting individuals through health education, compared with options that aimed at changing the environment, i.e. modifying food supply and demand (providing healthier menus/changing food composition/food sold in schools); controlling information (advertising controls/mandatory labelling) or improving access to physical activity. In Tunisia, there was almost universal consensus that at least some environmental-level options are required, but in Morocco, participants highlighted the need to raise awareness within the population and policy makers that obesity is a public health problem, accompanied by improving literacy before such measures would be accepted. Conclusion Whilst there is broad interest in a range of policy options, those measures targeting behaviour change through education were most valued. The different socioeconomic, political and cultural contexts of countries need to be accounted for when prioritizing obesity policy. Obesity was not recognized as a major public health priority; therefore, convincing policy makers about the need to prioritize action to prevent

  6. Considering Materiality in Educational Policy: Messy Objects and Multiple Reals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fenwick, Tara; Edwards, Richard

    2011-01-01

    Educational analysts need new ways to engage with policy processes in a networked world of complex transnational connections. In this discussion, Tara Fenwick and Richard Edwards argue for a greater focus on materiality in educational policy as a way to trace the heterogeneous interactions and precarious linkages that enact policy as complex…

  7. Taking power, politics, and policy problems seriously: the limits of knowledge translation for urban health research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murphy, Kelly; Fafard, Patrick

    2012-08-01

    Knowledge translation (KT) is a growing movement in clinical and health services research, aimed to help make research more relevant and to move research into practice and policy. This paper examines the conventional model of policy change presented in KT and assesses its applicability for increasing the impact of urban health research on urban health policy. In general, KT conceptualizes research utilization in terms of the technical implementation of scientific findings, on the part of individual decision-makers who can be "targeted" for a KT intervention, in a context that is absent of political interests. However, complex urban health problems and interventions infrequently resemble this single decision, single decision-maker model posited by KT. In order to clarify the conditions under which urban health research is more likely or not to have an influence on public policy development, we propose to supplement the conventional model with three concepts drawn from the social science: policy stages, policy networks, and a discourse analysis approach for theorizing power in policy-making.

  8. A Policy Analysis Perspective on Ecological Restoration

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Susan Baker

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available Using a simple stages model of the policy process, we explore the politics of ecological restoration using an array of examples drawn across sector, different size and scale, and from different countries. A policy analysis perspective reveals how, at both the program and project levels, ecological restoration operates within a complex and dynamic interplay between technical decision making, ideologies, and interest politics. Viewed through the stages model, restoration policy involves negotiating nature across stages in the policy making process, including agenda setting, policy formulation, implementation, and evaluation. The stages model is a useful heuristic devise; however, this linear model assumes that policy makers approach the issue rationally. In practice, ecological restoration policy takes place in the context of different distributions of power between the various public and private actors involved at the different stages of restoration policy making. This allows us to reiterate the point that ecological restoration is best seen not only as a technical task but as a social and political project.

  9. Education Policy in Poland: The Impact of PISA (and Other International Studies)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bialecki, Ireneusz; Jakubowski, Maciej; Wisniewski, Jerzy

    2017-01-01

    The impact of the PISA study on Polish education policy has been significant, but probably different from any other country. Poland has not experienced the so-called "PISA shock," but its education system has been benefiting considerably from PISA. For experts and policy makers, it has been a useful and reliable instrument that has made…

  10. Uncertainty as Information: Narrowing the Science-policy Gap

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    G. A. Bradshaw

    2000-07-01

    Full Text Available Conflict and indecision are hallmarks of environmental policy formulation. Some argue that the requisite information and certainty fall short of scientific standards for decision making; others argue that science is not the issue and that indecisiveness reflects a lack of political willpower. One of the most difficult aspects of translating science into policy is scientific uncertainty. Whereas scientists are familiar with uncertainty and complexity, the public and policy makers often seek certainty and deterministic solutions. We assert that environmental policy is most effective if scientific uncertainty is incorporated into a rigorous decision-theoretic framework as knowledge, not ignorance. The policies that best utilize scientific findings are defined here as those that accommodate the full scope of scientifically based predictions.

  11. Energy sector assistance in developing countries: Current trends and policy recommendations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tharakan, Pradeep J.; Castro, Julio de; Kroeger, Timm

    2007-01-01

    An estimated 2.5 billion people remain without access to modern energy supplies. This shortfall is expected to grow as the population in developing countries continues to grow rapidly and the existing infrastructure ages. The United Nations' goal of lowering poverty by half by 2015 will not be attained unless the poor in developing countries gain greater access to basic infrastructure and services, including energy services. The key objective of this paper is to analyze trends in overseas development assistance (ODA) to the energy sector in developing countries during the period 1990-2003, relative to realized private sector investments. This analysis then forms the basis for policy recommendations for consideration by decision makers within countries that are major contributors to ODA

  12. The role of organizational culture in policy mobilities – the case of South Korean climate change adaptation policies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. Schäfer

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available The conceptualization of policies as mobile and mutable knowledge is the key feature of the recent debate on policy mobilities. Policy mobility studies have focused on the movement and translation of policies as well as on the impact of mobile policies on policy-making processes and governed spaces. Given that policy mobilities have mainly been examined in comparable institutional contexts, the current debate has neglected the role of organizational culture in the translation of policies. Organizational culture is understood as a set of shared assumptions that guide what happens in organizations by defining appropriate practices of policy making. The case study, South Korean adaptation policy, illustrates that organizational culture has a significant impact on the translation of mobile adaptation policy. Besides the claim to consider organizational culture more prominently in the field of policy mobility studies, this paper illustrates the translation process of adaptation policy in the South Korean political system. The practices in South Korean political institutions dealing with climate change adaptation are highly characterized by the avoidance of risks. The propensity to avoid risks leads policy makers to focus on technical solutions to climate change adaptation and to neglect the participation of civil society.

  13. Turning Around Failing Schools: Policy Insights from the Corporate, Government, and Nonprofit Sectors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murphy, Joseph

    2009-01-01

    In this article, the author reviews research from the organizational sciences to develop turnaround policy guidelines that may prove useful for policy makers and educators. The approach is an integrative review of the literature. The author employs a comprehensive process to unpack and make sense of the turnaround literature from the…

  14. Administrative Management by Objectives. Policy 2100.

    Science.gov (United States)

    East Allen County Schools, New Haven, IN.

    Management-by-objectives (MBO) focuses attention on objectives stated as end accomplishments rather than the activities which bring about those accomplishments. MBO identifies eight major areas of management which become involved in the process: (1) planning, (2) performance appraisal, (3) individual motivation, (4) coordination, (5) control, (6)…

  15. Factors that affect general practice as a choice of medical speciality: implications for policy development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vohra, Amit; Ladyshewsky, Richard; Trumble, Stephen

    2017-11-28

    Objective This article critically appraises the range of personal, professional and social factors that affect the choice of speciality across medical students, prevocational doctors, general practice registrars and general practitioners. Methods This qualitative study applied constructs from the fields of decision theory and career theory to better understand the complex nature of choosing a speciality. In all, 47 in-depth interviews were conducted with participants at different stages of their career cycle. The data was codified and analysed using NVivo to identify key factors that influenced speciality choice. Results The research identified 77 individual findings influencing general practice as a choice of medical speciality. These were distilled into a matrix to show that factors such as money, prestige and peer interaction did not have a compelling effect, whereas clinical and academic role models, flexibility, work-life balance, scope of practice, connection with patients, training environment and practical opportunities did. Conclusion The findings indicate that the decision in relation to the choice of medical speciality is a complex cognitive process that is undertaken within a personal, social and professional context particular to each individual. What is known about the topic? Current literature aims to quantify changes in attitudes towards choice of speciality or the effect of particular variables in isolation while ignoring the complexity of this decision process and how the numerous variables compare with each other. What does this paper add? The present study is the first intergenerational research on this topic in the Australian context and the paper dismisses the role of prestige and remuneration as key drivers of choice in picking general practice as a speciality, noting that money is merely a 'hygiene factor'. What are the implications for policy makers? A policy framework outlining 10 key principles is presented to assist policy makers seeking

  16. Critical loads as a policy tool for protecting ecosystems from the effects of air pollutants

    Science.gov (United States)

    Douglas A. Burns; Tamara Blett; Richard Haeuber; Linda H. Pardo

    2008-01-01

    Framing the effects of air pollutants on ecosystems in terms of a "critical load" provides a meaningful approach for research scientists to communicate policy-relevant science to air-quality policy makers and natural resource managers. A critical-loads approach has been widely used to shape air-pollutant control policy in Europe since the 1980s, yet has only...

  17. A microeconomic perspective on the role of efficiency and equity criteria in designing natural resource policy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Geoff Kaine

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Deliberating on policy design to manage natural resources with clarity and precision is a difficult task, even for professional and highly experienced policy practitioners. These difficulties are exacerbated by confounding the crafting of policy instruments to change resource use (a behavioral matter related to resource management with the consequential issue of who bears the cost of changing resource use (an equity matter. The confounding of behavioral and equity issues is not surprising because equity is commonly suggested as a criterion in the literature on policy instrument choice, and inequity in access to resources may also be one of the initial drivers of policy intervention. Here, we restate the microeconomic analysis of "open access" resources and highlight the fundamental difference between efficiency (including allocative inefficiency and equity that emerges from that analysis. We then discuss the implications of this difference for the choice of policy instruments to resolve problems in natural resource management, at least for instruments that entail changing the behavior of primary producers. This discussion is centered on three key decisions for formulating policy: (1 choosing the preferred portfolio of uses for a natural resource, (2 choosing a policy instrument to change that portfolio, and (3 choosing a mechanism to distribute the costs of change fairly. To illustrate how these decisions may play out in a real-world example, we apply the decisions to a freshwater policy process in New Zealand. By articulating the distinction, microeconomics draws distinctions between efficiency and equity as policy objectives. Linking that distinction with the Tinbergen's principle regarding the matching of instruments to objectives, we aim to reduce the conflation of the decision-making criteria employed in policy formulation decisions. In doing so, we hope to assist policy makers to avoid policy failure by reducing the potential for the

  18. Irrigation water policy analysis using a business simulation game

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buchholz, M.; Holst, G.; Musshoff, O.

    2016-10-01

    Despite numerous studies on farmers' responses to changing irrigation water policies, uncertainties remain about the potential of water pricing schemes and water quotas to reduce irrigation. Thus far, policy impact analysis is predominantly based upon rational choice models that assume behavioral assumptions, such as a perfectly rational profit-maximizing decision maker. Also, econometric techniques are applied which could lack internal validity due to uncontrolled field data. Furthermore, such techniques are not capable of identifying ill-designed policies prior to their implementation. With this in mind, we apply a business simulation game for ex ante policy impact analysis of irrigation water policies at the farm level. Our approach has the potential to reveal the policy-induced behavioral change of the participants in a controlled environment. To do so, we investigate how real farmers from Germany, in an economic experiment, respond to a water pricing scheme and a water quota intending to reduce irrigation. In the business simulation game, the participants manage a "virtual" cash-crop farm for which they make crop allocation and irrigation decisions during several production periods, while facing uncertain product prices and weather conditions. The results reveal that a water quota is able to reduce mean irrigation applications, while a water pricing scheme does not have an impact, even though both policies exhibit equal income effects for the farmers. However, both policies appear to increase the variation of irrigation applications. Compared to a perfectly rational profit-maximizing decision maker, the participants apply less irrigation on average, both when irrigation is not restricted and when a water pricing scheme applies. Moreover, the participants' risk attitude affects the irrigation decisions.

  19. Social Science Research and School Diversity Policy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Williams, Sheneka M.; McDermott, Kathryn A.

    2014-01-01

    For decades, policy makers, advocates, and researchers have been engaged in efforts to make educational opportunity more equal for students from different racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups. A great deal of research has been conducted on their efforts; however, there is some disagreement on the extent to which the research has been…

  20. An exploration of potential directions for climate change policy in Northern Canada

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Newton, J.

    2001-01-01

    The challenges facing decision and policy makers for climate change actions in the Canadian North were described. While Northern Canada contributes only a small fraction of the world's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the impacts are already being felt there, and scientists forecast changes in average annual temperatures to be among the highest in the world. Canada is well positioned to take a lead role in addressing climate change in northern regions. This paper examined the policy choices in the North and outlined the policy directions worthy of further consideration and development. The objective of the paper is to provide a catalyst for on-going discussion and deliberation on climate change actions and policy options in Northern Canada. The paper also addressed the global context that influences national framework and local initiatives. Some tentative policy choices were proposed and described within the general context of the global challenge that climate change presents for the design of coherent regional public policy. It was suggested that integration and mitigation measures should not be approached in isolation from other environmental and socio-economic changes, such as pollution abatement and economic and social development. It was emphasized that building on the sound foundation of current policy frameworks in these areas is essential to the integration of climate change initiatives within established and complementary processes. It was concluded that the evolution of policy options for climate change in the North will be driven by a political willingness to take deliberate actions. 13 refs., 2 tabs., 1 fig

  1. Agenda Setting and Evidence in Maternal Health: Connecting Research and Policy in Timor-Leste.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wild, Kayli; Kelly, Paul; Barclay, Lesley; Martins, Nelson

    2015-01-01

    The evidence-based policy (EBP) movement has received significant attention in the scientific literature; however, there is still very little empirical research to provide insight into how policy decisions are made and how evidence is used. The lack of research on this topic in low- and middle-income countries is of particular note. We examine the maternity waiting home policy in Timor-Leste to understand the role of context, policy characteristics, individual actors, and how evidence is used to influence the policy agenda. The research tracked the maternity waiting home policy from 2005 to 2009 and is based on in-depth interviews with 31 senior policy-makers, department managers, non-government organization representatives, and United Nations advisors. It is also informed by direct observation, attendance at meetings and workshops, and analysis of policy documents. The findings from this ethnographic case study demonstrate that although the post-conflict context opened up space for new policy ideas senior Ministry of Health officials rather than donors had the most power in setting the policy agenda. Maternity waiting homes were appealing because they were a visible, non-controversial, and logical solution to the problem of accessing maternal health services. Evidence was used in a variety of ways, from supporting pre-determined agendas to informing new policy directions. In the pursuit of EBP, we conclude that the power of research to inform policy lies in its timeliness and relevance, and is facilitated by the connection between researchers and policy-makers.

  2. The use of evidence in maternal health: Connecting research and policy in Timor-Leste

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kayli Janine Wild

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available The evidence-based policy (EBP movement has received significant attention in the scientific literature, however, there is still very little empirical research to provide insight into how policy decisions are made and how evidence is used. The lack of research on this topic in low and middle-income countries is of particular note. We examine the maternity waiting home policy in Timor-Leste to understand the role of context, policy characteristics, individual actors and how evidence is used to influence the policy agenda. The research tracked the maternity waiting home policy from 2005 to 2009 and is based on in-depth interviews with 31 senior policy-makers, department managers, non-government organisation (NGO representatives and United Nations (UN advisors. It is also informed by direct observation, attendance at meetings and workshops and analysis of policy documents. The findings from this case study demonstrate the importance of political context, policy characteristics and the power of senior Ministry of Health officials rather than donors in setting the policy agenda. Maternity waiting homes were appealing because they were a visible, non-controversial and logical solution to the problem of accessing maternal health services. Evidence was used in a variety of ways, from supporting pre-determined agendas to informing new policy directions. In the pursuit of EBP, we conclude that the power of research to inform policy lies in its timeliness and relevance, and is facilitated by the connection between researchers and policy-makers.

  3. Enhancing the contribution of research to health care policy-making: a case study of the Dutch Health Care Performance Report.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hegger, Ingrid; Marks, Lisanne K; Janssen, Susan W J; Schuit, Albertine J; van Oers, Hans A M

    2016-01-01

    The Dutch Health Care Performance Report, issued by the National Institute of Public Health and the Environment, aims to monitor health care performance in The Netherlands. Both the National Institute and the Ministry of Health wish to increase the contribution of the Report to health care policy-making. Our aim was to identify ways to achieve that. We used contribution mapping as a theoretical framework that recognizes alignment of research as crucial to managing contributions to policy-making. To investigate which areas need alignment efforts by researchers and/or policy-makers, we interviewed National Institute researchers and policy-makers from the Ministry of Health and assessed the process for developing the 2010 Report. We identified six areas where alignment is specifically relevant for enhancing the contributions of future versions of the Dutch Health Care Performance Report: well-balanced information for different ministerial directorates; backstage work; double role actors; reports of other knowledge institutes; data collection/generation and presentation forms. The contribution of health care performance reporting to policy-making is complex and requires continuous alignment efforts between researchers and policy-makers. These efforts should form an inseparable part of health care performance reporting and although this demands considerable resources, it is worth considering since it may pay back in better contributions to policy-making. © The Author(s) 2015.

  4. Enhancing the Resilience of the Australian National Electricity Market: Taking a Systems Approach in Policy Development

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Barry Newell

    2011-06-01

    Full Text Available As the complexity and interconnectedness of present-day social-ecological systems become steadily more apparent, there is increasing pressure on governments, policy makers, and managers to take a systems approach to the challenges facing humanity. However, how can this be done in the face of system complexity and uncertainties? In this paper we briefly discuss practical ways that policy makers can take up the systems challenge. We focus on resilience thinking, and the use of influence diagrams, causal-loop diagrams, and system archetypes. As a case study, set in the context of the climate-energy-water nexus, we use some of these system concepts and tools to carry out an initial exploration of factors that can affect the resilience of the Australian National Electricity Market. We stress the need for the electricity sector to prepare for the impacts of global change by encouraging innovation and diversity, supporting modularity and redundancy, and embracing the need for a policy making approach that takes account of the dynamics of the wider social-ecological system. Finally, taking a longer term view, we conclude by recommending that policy makers work to reduce reliance on conventional market mechanisms, institute continuing cross-sector dialogue, and promote basic education in system dynamics.

  5. Commodities and Switzerland: Development Policy Challenges and Policy Options

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Werner Thut

    2013-09-01

    Full Text Available EDITOR’S NOTEThis paper, written in December 2012, is a contribution to the ‘Policy Debate’ section of the International Development Policy. In this section, academics, policy makers and practitioners engage in a dialogue on global development challenges. Papers are copy-edited but not peer-reviewed. Instead, an initial thematic contribution is followed by critical comments and reactions from different stakeholders. This paper by Werner Thut is followed by reactions and analysis from a non-profit policy institute (Alexandra Gillies, Revenue Watch Institute, New York, ‘Crafting a Strategic Response to the Commodity-Development Conundrum’, a Southern scholar (Prof. Humberto Campodonico, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima ‘Going Beyond Transparency and Good Governance’ | ‘Más allá de la transparencia y una buena gobernanza’ and a representative of the trading sector (Stéphane Graber, Secretary General of Geneva Trading & Shipping Association – ‘Reassessing the Merchants’ Role in a Globalized Economy’.PAPER’S ABSTRACTSwitzerland is one of the world’s largest commodity trading hub. The author, senior policy adviser at the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC, reviews experiences and policy options related to commodity trading from a development policy perspective. While this sector has become of strategic importance to Switzerland’s economy, it also entails a number of risks. On the other hand, Swiss development cooperation efforts focus on several resource-rich countries, whose mineral and agricultural commodities are traded via Switzerland. How can Switzerland assist these countries to reap the benefits of their natural resource wealth? This paper looks at development policy aspects of commodity trading in relation to Swiss foreign and domestic policy. It examines ongoing policy debates in Switzerland and discusses development policy options.

  6. Biomedical engineering and society: policy and ethics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Flexman, J A; Lazareck, L

    2007-01-01

    Biomedical engineering impacts health care and contributes to fundamental knowledge in medicine and biology. Policy, such as through regulation and research funding, has the potential to dramatically affect biomedical engineering research and commercialization. New developments, in turn, may affect society in new ways. The intersection of biomedical engineering and society and related policy issues must be discussed between scientists and engineers, policy-makers and the public. As a student, there are many ways to become engaged in the issues surrounding science and technology policy. At the University of Washington in Seattle, the Forum on Science Ethics and Policy (FOSEP, www.fosep.org) was started by graduate students and post-doctoral fellows interested in improving the dialogue between scientists, policymakers and the public and has received support from upper-level administration. This is just one example of how students can start thinking about science policy and ethics early in their careers.

  7. The Art of Influencing Decision Makers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Diegmueller, Karen

    1992-01-01

    Influencing educational decision makers requires creating ongoing relationships, keeping everyone informed, and developing persuasive skills. Persuasion requires preparation, refinement, hard work, and a sound understanding of the people being lobbied. Lobbying must be factual and relevant to the audience. The article looks at influence from the…

  8. Policy-Relevant Systematic Reviews to Strengthen Health Systems: Models and Mechanisms to Support Their Production

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oliver, Sandra; Dickson, Kelly

    2016-01-01

    Support for producing systematic reviews about health systems is less well developed than for those about clinical practice. From interviewing policy makers and systematic reviewers we identified institutional mechanisms which bring systematic reviews and policy priorities closer by harnessing organisational and individual motivations, emphasising…

  9. Pilot Study: Impact of Computer Simulation on Students' Economic Policy Performance. Pilot Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Domazlicky, Bruce; France, Judith

    Fiscal and monetary policies taught in macroeconomic principles courses are concepts that might require both lecture and simulation methods. The simulation models, which apply the principles gleened from comparative statistics to a dynamic world, may give students an appreciation for the problems facing policy makers. This paper is a report of a…

  10. Gender Equality in Media Content and Operations: Articulating Academic Studies and Policy--A Presentation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lourenço, Mirta Edith

    2016-01-01

    In this article, Mirta Lourenço explains the prospects when higher education studies interface with UNESCO for policy change. The baseline is that education institutions' articulation with media organizations, media professionals, policy-makers, and civil society groups is essential to achieve gender equality in and through media.

  11. Articulations on form properties and action-function couplings of maker technologies in children’s education

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Christensen, Kasper Skov; Iversen, Ole Sejer

    2016-01-01

    In this paper, we present a framework to expand the design language used to articulate form properties and types of feedback that happen between children’s actions and the intended functionality of maker technologies. Based on field observations in Danish schools we analyze children’s (aged 11......-14 years old) interactions with three maker technologies used to work through design processes in school maker settings. Our findings are beneficial on three factors for designers, researchers and teachers involved in work within maker contexts. (1) reflections on form properties of maker technologies, (2....... Researchers can use the expanded design language to analyze maker technologies in the context of school maker settings. Finally, teachers can make better decisions on how and when to use different maker technologies when school children work through design processes....

  12. Social Science Research Findings and Educational Policy Dilemmas

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Steven I. Miller

    2000-01-01

    Full Text Available The article attempts to raise several distinctions regarding the presumed relationship of social science research findings to social policy making. The distinctions are made using Glymour's critique of the Bell Curve. An argument is made that (1 social science models and research findings are largely irrelevant to the actual concerns of policy makers and (2 what is relevant, but overlooked by Glymour, is how ideological factors mediate the process. The forms that ideological mediation may take are indicated.

  13. Policies towards a more efficient car fleet

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mandell, Svante

    2009-01-01

    Transportation within the EU, as in most of the industrialized world, shows an increasing trend in CO 2 emissions. This calls for measures to decrease the amount of transportation but also to increase the efficiency in the vehicle fleet. To achieve this, numerous policy measures are available, all of which targets the agents in the economy in various ways. Policy makers thus face a highly complex task. The present paper aims at providing a simple and transparent analytical model that illustrates how different policy measures address different parts of an interlinked system, which determines the composition of the future car fleet. Apart from being simple, and thereby providing an intuitive framework, the model provides important lessons for policy design, e.g., through highlighting the difference between initial responses to policies and the outcome in equilibrium both in the short and the long run.

  14. China-U.S. Relations: Current Issues and Implications for U.S. Policy

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Dumbaugh, Kerry

    2007-01-01

    .... policy makers have adopted tougher stances on issues involving China and U.S.-China relations, concerned about the impact of the PRC's strong economic growth and a more assertive international diplomacy...

  15. A policy-oriented cost model for shipping commodities by truck.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2009-12-01

    Surprisingly, transportation planners and policy makers do not have the ability to estimate the cost of shipping a quantity of a commodity between two : locations for broad categories of goods. Costs of shipping are important components in mode, rout...

  16. African Journal of Political Science: Editorial Policies

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The AJPS is published by the African Association of Political Science (AAPS), with the aim of providing a platform for African perspectives on issues of politics, economy and society in Africa. It is published 2 times a year - in June and December, and targeted at the social science community, policy-makers, and university ...

  17. An Improved Multi-Objective Programming with Augmented ε-Constraint Method for Hazardous Waste Location-Routing Problems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yu, Hao; Solvang, Wei Deng

    2016-05-31

    Hazardous waste location-routing problems are of importance due to the potential risk for nearby residents and the environment. In this paper, an improved mathematical formulation is developed based upon a multi-objective mixed integer programming approach. The model aims at assisting decision makers in selecting locations for different facilities including treatment plants, recycling plants and disposal sites, providing appropriate technologies for hazardous waste treatment, and routing transportation. In the model, two critical factors are taken into account: system operating costs and risk imposed on local residents, and a compensation factor is introduced to the risk objective function in order to account for the fact that the risk level imposed by one type of hazardous waste or treatment technology may significantly vary from that of other types. Besides, the policy instruments for promoting waste recycling are considered, and their influence on the costs and risk of hazardous waste management is also discussed. The model is coded and calculated in Lingo optimization solver, and the augmented ε-constraint method is employed to generate the Pareto optimal curve of the multi-objective optimization problem. The trade-off between different objectives is illustrated in the numerical experiment.

  18. An Improved Multi-Objective Programming with Augmented ε-Constraint Method for Hazardous Waste Location-Routing Problems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hao Yu

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available Hazardous waste location-routing problems are of importance due to the potential risk for nearby residents and the environment. In this paper, an improved mathematical formulation is developed based upon a multi-objective mixed integer programming approach. The model aims at assisting decision makers in selecting locations for different facilities including treatment plants, recycling plants and disposal sites, providing appropriate technologies for hazardous waste treatment, and routing transportation. In the model, two critical factors are taken into account: system operating costs and risk imposed on local residents, and a compensation factor is introduced to the risk objective function in order to account for the fact that the risk level imposed by one type of hazardous waste or treatment technology may significantly vary from that of other types. Besides, the policy instruments for promoting waste recycling are considered, and their influence on the costs and risk of hazardous waste management is also discussed. The model is coded and calculated in Lingo optimization solver, and the augmented ε-constraint method is employed to generate the Pareto optimal curve of the multi-objective optimization problem. The trade-off between different objectives is illustrated in the numerical experiment.

  19. Gun policy and serious mental illness: priorities for future research and policy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McGinty, Emma Elizabeth; Webster, Daniel W; Barry, Colleen L

    2014-01-01

    In response to recent mass shootings, policy makers have proposed multiple policies to prevent persons with serious mental illness from having guns. The political debate about these proposals is often uninformed by research. To address this gap, this review article summarizes the research related to gun restriction policies that focus on serious mental illness. Gun restriction policies were identified by researching the THOMAS legislative database, state legislative databases, prior review articles, and the news media. PubMed, PsycINFO, and Web of Science databases were searched for publications between 1970 and 2013 that addressed the relationship between serious mental illness and violence, the effectiveness of gun policies focused on serious mental illness, the potential for such policies to exacerbate negative public attitudes, and the potential for gun restriction policies to deter mental health treatment seeking. Limited research suggests that federal law restricting gun possession by persons with serious mental illness may prevent gun violence from this population. Promotion of policies to prevent persons with serious mental illness from having guns does not seem to exacerbate negative public attitudes toward this group. Little is known about how restricting gun possession among persons with serious mental illness affects suicide risk or mental health treatment seeking. Future studies should examine how gun restriction policies for serious mental illness affect suicide, how such policies are implemented by states, how persons with serious mental illness perceive policies that restrict their possession of guns, and how gun restriction policies influence mental health treatment seeking among persons with serious mental illness.

  20. Trouble makers : Laura Poitras and the problem of dissent

    OpenAIRE

    Danchev, Alex

    2015-01-01

    This review article considers three works by the distinguished documentary film-maker Laura Poitras: My country, my country (2006); The oath (2010); and the recently released Citizenfour (2014), focusing on the whistle-blower Edward Snowden. Poitras describes these works as a trilogy about American power after 9/11, but they are also about disobedience and resistance, or the problem of dissent. The article argues for the significance (and the virtue) of Poitras's project, as film maker and tr...