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Educational governance is the focus of much discussion among both academics and development practitioners internationally. Decentralisation is seen as a core tool for promoting democracy, good governance and economic development. However, although education decentralisation and trust are interrelated dimensions of governance and democracy, they are seldom considered together and rarely contextualised within educational governance and policy studies. The qualitative study described here used interview data from stakeholders to investigate the relationship between the social dimension of trust and the structural concept of decentralisation in Benin (West Africa). The findings suggest that trust in local government officials is a precondition for the effective devolution of education responsibilities. However, parents and teachers remain sceptical about devolution, partly as a consequence of Benin's pre-colonial and colonial history. The paper outlines the implications for governance systems seeking to link decentralisation to trust in order to both mediate and enact policy choices and decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Widespread neoliberal approaches to education consider schools increasingly accountable for self-management and 'client' recruitment, encapsulating economic ideologies that assume privatisation is essential for social progress. With an ever-shifting landscape of market-driven policies and the increasing growth of private education settings, more research is needed to cast light on emerging or under-researched aspects of autonomous schools. Located within a U.S. state that has strict constraints on tax subsidies for religious K-12 education, this paper investigates how an extensive form of decentralisation corresponds with schools' discipline and ethical environment. It analyses teacher interviews and web documents from faith-based, autonomous schools in a state that has devolved power and authority for decision-making to parents and other independent 'agents', having a distanced relationship with its nonstate 'actors'. The paper follows Foucault's use of the metaphor of the panopticon and adopts his power analysis to examine the nature of parental control and its influence on disciplinary and ethical practices. Evidence suggests that these autonomous schools are driven by a 'mini-public' ideology that constrains educators' autonomy and generates particular disciplinary norms; entangling ethical, educational, and social ramifications, including teacher resistance and teacher demoralisation. Implications for policy are discussed in this context of control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the workload and lack of a critical mass of trained operational researchers within their ranks, health systems and programmes may not be able to dedicate sufficient time to conducting operational research (OR). Hence, they may need the technical support of operational researchers from research/academic organisations. Additionally, there is a knowledge gap regarding implementing differentiated tuberculosis (TB) care in programme settings. In this 'how we did it' paper, we share our experience of implementing a differentiated TB care model along with an inbuilt OR component in Tamil Nadu, a southern state in India. This was a health system initiative through a collaboration of the State TB cell with the Indian Council of Medical Research institutes and the World Health Organisation country office in India. The learnings are in the form of eleven tips: four broad principles (OR on priority areas and make it a health system initiative, implement simple and holistic ideas, embed OR within routine programme settings, aim for long-term engagement), four related to strategic planning (big team of investigators, joint leadership, decentralised decision-making, working in advance) and three about implementation planning (conducting pilots, smart use of e-tools and operational research publications at frequent intervals). These may act as a guide for other Indian states, high TB burden countries that want to implement differentiated care, and for operational researchers in providing technical assistance for strengthening implementation and conducting OR in health systems and programmes (TB or other health programmes). Following these tips may increase the chances of i) an enriching engagement, ii) policy/practice change, and iii) sustainable implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During China's reform era, dominant narratives described a transition away from centralised planning in favour of mutually reinforcing processes of liberalisation and decentralisation. Under Xi Jinping, the talk has increasingly been of the recentralisation of authoritarian-state powers and party discipline. Questioning both reform-era transition narratives and equally simplifying claims about their recent reversal, the paper argues for an enriched treatment of party–state spatiality, understood as a polymorphic and multi-scalar process, rather than simply a more complex one. In the emergent Greater Bay Area megaregion, 'new era' zoning strategies are being repurposed as drivers of pathfinding reforms animated by the party–state, in contrast to received readings of zones as single-purpose instruments of liberalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To achieve Sustainable Development Goal 5 for gender equality by 2030, it is crucial for health and development professionals and governmental officials to understand how legal systems empower or oppress populations on the basis of gender worldwide, including opportunities and challenges of statutory provisions created by legal pluralism. Using Ethiopia as a case study, this paper examines how local laws applied in Sharia and Customary Dispute Resolution courts impact gender equality and the health of women and girls inspite of the inculcation of human rights statutes into national legislation, including the Constitution. We identify several key issues with the substantive law and its enforcement. First, laws which have been instituted at the national level to improve gender equally have been poorly enforced at the local level. Second, there is a sustained enforcement of laws that oppress women and that protect male perpetrators of gender-based violations. Third, local courts limit female representation and uphold patriarchy. To improve the health of women and girls, stakeholders must take into consideration the ways in which legal systems uphold harmful gender norms and obstruct and/or advance progress towards equal representation, opportunities, and constitutionally-mandated protections for all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the effects of public agency relocation on the growth of local employment. The South Korean government has recently relocated 154 public agencies from the Seoul Metropolitan Area to local cities, called "Innovation Cities." This policy was formulated to foster decentralization and regional development. However, only a few studies have examined the impact of this relocation. The innovation cities seem to be suffering from a lack of innovation, and the effects of decentralization. In this study, we evaluated the effects of relocation by using the synthetic control method and applying panel data gathered from 2006 to 2018. The unit of analysis is the small tier of local authority, and the outcome variable is the number of workers within each regional jurisdiction. To investigate counterfactuals, we determined control groups by selecting specific covariates of local employment. The results show that the increase in local employment was mostly caused by the migration of public agency employees to the destination areas. Spillovers are limited and influenced by regional characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The decentralization of funding management poses a conceptual challenge to the study of political criteria in the allocation of funding in the EU Cohesion Policy, as existing research often assumes unidimensional actor constellations and motivations. Combining insights from distributive politics and multilevel party politics, this article uses a unique data set of beneficiary data at the local level from Polish Regional Operational Programs (2007–2013) to explore the ability of regional authorities to engage in vote-seeking and explores how institutional and political multilevel structures affect these strategies. We demonstrate that the vote-seeking of sub-national authorities is constrained in two ways. Competition between regional and national authorities limits the possibility of regional governments that are politically opposed to the national government targeting their electoral strongholds. In contrast, partisan harmony between different institutional levels incentivizes a vote-seeking strategy that takes into consideration electoral dynamics at both the regional and national level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustainable, integrated, and representative management of water is one of the main challenges faced by governments worldwide, especially where water resources are not abundant, such as the Ebro River basin in Spain. The Spanish state has granted powers in matters related to water that has adhered river basins. The main objective of this study is to examine the specific case of water management in Catalonia, a region within the Ebro basin, through literature review and interviews conducted with key informants in water organizations operating in Catalonia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mobilization of teacher leadership, simultaneous decentralization of power, and centralization of support for teacher-led initiatives is seen as important to educational improvement in post-Soviet Kazakhstan where hierarchical cultures and structures still prevail. The current study reports on results from the Teacher Leadership in Kazakhstan (TLK) initiative, which was based on the internationally recognized Teacher-led development work strategy that enabled teachers to lead individual development projects throughout one academic school year. The TLK initiative involved 16 principals, 32 school-based facilitators, and 150 teachers. Using a mixed-methods design, research for the initiative was conducted over one academic year and collected a wide range of data through questionnaire surveys, interviews, and focus groups. Analysis using structural equation modeling suggested that improved teacher program experience resulted in enhanced teacher leadership capacity, and that teachers from more collaborative school cultures enjoy more impactful initiatives. Semi-structured interviews and focus groups provide further insights into these findings. Implications for policy and practice and future directions are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to explore how Swedish principals experienced the decentralisation and re-centralisation reforms and how they affected principals' autonomy and decision-making capacity. Data were obtained from three surveys of Swedish principals, carried out in 2005, 2012 and 2019. The results show that principals experienced a high degree of autonomy in their decision-making in 2005 and 2012 and also a balanced control from state and municipalities. At the time of the third study in 2019, principals continue to express a rather high degree of autonomy, but this autonomy is now combined with an increased degree of control. However, given the high degree of autonomy, in combination with low degree of conflicts between different stakeholders, the article concludes that the expression 'in the eye of the storm there is calm' appears to suit Swedish principals' decision-making, at least, in the development of decentralisation and re-centralisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tuberculosis (TB) is a major public health issue in Papua New Guinea, with incidence rates particularly high in the South Fly District of Western Province. We present three case studies, along with additional vignettes, that were derived from interviews and focus groups carried out between July 2019 and July 2020 of people living in rural areas of the remote South Fly District depicting their challenges accessing timely TB diagnosis and care; most services within the district are only offered offshore on Daru Island. The findings detail that rather than 'patient delay' attributed to poor health seeking behaviours and inadequate knowledge of TB symptoms, many people were actively trying to navigate structural barriers hindering access to and utilisation of limited local TB services. The findings highlight a fragile and fragmented health system, a lack of attention given to primary health services, and undue financial burdens placed on people living in rural and remote areas associated with costly transportation to access functioning health services. We conclude that a person-centred and effective decentralised model of TB care as outlined in health policies is imperative for equitable access to essential health care services in Papua New Guinea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Governance reforms like decentralization and performance-based management aim to improve public services by increasing accountability among street-level bureaucrats: bureaucrats may be held to account by communities, supervisors, intermediary organizations, or all of these. To assess the relationship between accountability and bureaucratic effort, we utilize data from a lab-in-the-field behavioral experiment conducted with Honduran health workers across decentralized and centrally administered municipalities. We presented health workers with an incentivized effort task that included instructions that were neutral, had a bottom-up political accountability prompt, or a top-down bureaucratic accountability prompt. Our results show that administrative context moderates the accountability-to-effort relationship. With neutral instructions, civil servants in decentralized systems exert greater quality effort than their counterparts under centralized administration. Importantly, both accountability prompts increase quality effort in centrally administered settings to levels comparable with those in decentralized settings. These findings support multiple accountability as a potentially important mechanism linking decentralization reform to improved service delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are among the leading causes of morbidity and mortality globally. While international strategies for their prevention and control call for greater civil society participation, many observers regret the lack of a broad social movement to address these diseases. This study focuses on diabetes patients' associations engaged from 1991 to 2014 in Bamako, Mali, and explores what factors influenced their capacity to build a collective national movement to address this disease and shape policy reforms in this area. Our findings show that the emergence of such a movement was limited by several constraints. The focus of diabetes patients' associations on technical biomedical issues silenced the daily embodied experience of patients and reduced the use of human-rights approaches. Moreover, few financial, material and social resources coupled with a fragmented base limited the scope and strength of claims made by patients' associations to obtain treatment at reduced coasts. Finally, modes of actions performed failed to challenge more structural inequalities and imbalances of power. Exacerbated by limited political opportunities, these constraints weakened the associations' ability to drive policy change on diabetes. They reflect some of the current weaknesses of the global mobilisation to address diabetes and NCDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tools for Smart Specialisation Strategy (RIS3) development to assess at which territorial level innovation is concentrated and how innovation systems compare across regions and sectors remain scarce. The triple helix indicator is a data-driven tool that can serve in RIS3 development to assess synergy in innovation systems based on readily available data sets. For Germany, we find strong decentralization with innovation system synergy concentrated at regional and local levels. Innovation systems in manufacturing are less regionalized than in knowledge-intensive services. An East–West divide persists. RIS3 policy-making should account for decentralization by building capacity for region-specific RIS3 development at lower governance levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We construct an environmental decentralization index and use spatial econometric modeling to test the government's role in promoting environmental technology innovation at the enterprise level. The results show that a moderate increase in the degree of environmental decentralization is conducive to promoting local enterprises' environmental innovation and avoiding excessive distortions caused by externalities. Further investigation reveals that the effect is more pronounced when local tax competition is taken into account. However, administrative decentralization and supervision decentralization have different effects on enterprises' environmental innovation. An increase in administrative decentralization has a negative impact on enterprise innovation, and environmental supervision should be more focused on the central government, which can help avoid excessive distortion caused by externalities. Our analysis is of certain reference value for understanding the influence of rational allocation of environmental protection functions among different levels of government on enterprises' environmental innovation activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health facility governing committees (HFGCs) were established by lower and middle-income countries (LMICs) to facilitate community participation at the primary facility level to improve health system performance. However, empirical evidence on their effects under decentralization reform on the functionality of HFGCs is scant and inconclusive. This article reviews the effects of decentralization on the functionality of HFGCs in LMICs. A systematic literature review was conducted using various search engines to obtain a total number of 24 relevant articles from 14 countries published between 2000 and 2020. Inclusion criteria include studies must be on community health committees, carried out under decentralization, HFGCs operating at the individual facility, effects of HFGCs on health performance or health outcomes and peer-reviewed empirical studies conducted in LMICs. The study has found varied functionality of HFGCs under a decentralization context. The study has found many HFGCs to have very low functionality, while a few HFGCs in other LMICs countries are performing very well. The context and decentralization type, members' awareness of their roles, membership allowance and availability of resource to the facility in which HFGCs operate to produce the desired outcomes play a significant role in facilitating/limiting them to effectively carry out the devolved duties and responsibilities. Fiscal decentralization has largely been seen as important in making health committees more autonomous, even though it does not guarantee the performance of HFGCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the sexuality education curriculum in primary and lower secondary schools in Denmark. Taking inspiration from the 'what is the problem represented to be?' approach to policy analysis, we explore how discourses of risk, health, quality of life, sexual diversity and critical pedagogy simultaneously permeate curriculum policy and contribute to the production of particular subjectivities among pupils and teachers. Over time, changing national curricula have moved towards greater centralisation with increased attention paid to learning outcomes rather than to wider educational ideals. An analysis of the current curriculum reveals three sidelined discourses: discourses on pleasure and erogeneity; discourses on LGBTQ+ issues; and discourses on ethnic, cultural and religious diversity. The Danish national curriculum on sexuality education produces two contrasting subject positions: on the one hand, the uninformed pupil in need of protection and, on the other hand, the empowered, responsible and agentic student. Postmodern and critical approaches to sexuality education risk eliminating room for certain subjectivities while opening up space for new forms of agentic norm critical subjectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collaborative watershed institutions (CWIs) have been promoted as effective vehicles for facilitating decentralization and collaboration between government and local stakeholders in both developed and less developed nations. While governmental actors may see CWIs as a means to increase stakeholder participation, they may also use a variety of mechanisms to influence these institutions to advance agency policies. This article describes the authors' experiences with CWIs in two very different contexts: the state of Ohio (USA) and the Caribbean nation of the Dominican Republic. Using the Government Impacts Framework, the authors identify mechanisms by which government institutions influence CWI form and function. The degree and nature of impacts of governmental influence varies across CWIs, but, in general, CWIs that are closely aligned with government agency priorities experience fewer and less disruptive impacts. This influence can, in some instances, hinder efforts to decentralize water resource management, and instead reinforce existing centralized power structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regions are often viewed like businesses that compete with each other for people, investments and jobs. Private-sector instruments are being adopted in this context without providing evidence for positive management outcomes and clarifying the conditions under which their application is meaningful. Against this background, the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) tested three instruments as part of a pilot programme: the selection of regions eligible for financial assistance through a competitive process, management based on quantifiable targets and the comprehensive decentralization of decision-making, including the administration of those funds that BMEL allocated to the regions. Based on 124 interviews, 61 participant observations and documentary research, we contribute to the literature on rural governance and entrepreneurial regions in showing that these instruments are less effective, efficient and legitimate than New Public Management theory purports. We argue that these deficits do not result essentially from an inappropriate use of the instruments as often proposed but from general problems associated with actor constellations, institutions and the policy context. Therefore, we suggest not to use the instruments tested and recommend instruments focusing on regional needs, mutual learning and democratically legitimized institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The youth sport system in the United States is not achieving its full potential. There is a need to reimagine this system in ways that are evidence-based, innovative, and coordinated to best safeguard and promote the well-being of young people. The purpose of this expert commentary, composed by the President's Council on Sports, Fitness & Nutrition Science Board, is to propose a set of changes across multiple levels of influence (e.g., individual, family, school, organization) that could cultivate a more developmentally sound youth sport system. By advancing the vision of the National Youth Sports Strategy to provide quality youth sport to all young people in the country, these changes have substantial potential to benefit young people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]