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This article discusses the importance and the implications of Australia's defense policy as described in its 2009 defense white paper, the first statement of its defense policy in nine years. The policy is important because of Australia's strategic prominence in an area that is developing rapidly and has increasing interstate conflict. The article notes that Australia and other nations in the Asia-Pacific area rely heavily on unimpeded maritime activity for their success and development. The article discusses the white paper in detail and presents information about its implications.

Abstract: Since 2013, Australian aid has been reduced and increasingly focused on delivering benefits to Australia. Motivated by these changes, this paper fills three gaps in the existing literature on public opinion about aid. It provides the only recent detailed study of Australians' opinions about aid. It studies specific policy questions in addition to the broader questions typical of international research. And it studies views on the purpose of aid, an area not previously researched. Although Australians are generally supportive of aid, most backed major aid cuts in 2015. However, most Australians think the purpose of Australian aid should be helping people in poor countries, not bringing benefits to Australia. There is a clear left–right divide in responses to all questions; however, some variables correlated with support for aid fail to explain variation in views about aid's purpose. The paper concludes by discussing ramifications for those who seek to change aid policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Counting poverty measures have gained prominence in the analysis of multidimensional poverty in recent decades. Poverty orderings based on these measures typically depend on methodological choices regarding individual poverty functions, poverty cut-offs, and dimensional weights whose impact on poverty rankings is often not well understood. In this paper we propose new dominance conditions that allow the analyst to evaluate the robustness of poverty comparisons to those choices. These conditions provide an approach to evaluating the sensitivity of poverty orderings superior to the common approach of considering a restricted and arbitrary set of indices, cut-offs, and weights. The new criteria apply to a broad class of counting poverty measures widely used in empirical analysis of poverty in developed and developing countries including the multidimensional headcount and the adjusted headcount ratios. We illustrate these methods with an application to time-trends in poverty in Australia and cross-regional poverty in Peru. Our results highlight the potentially large sensitivity of poverty orderings based on counting measures and the importance of evaluating the robustness of results when performing poverty comparisons across time and regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poor safety is a perennial problem for the construction industry worldwide. The concept of safety climate has been strongly linked to safety performance, yet inconsistent methodologies make international comparisons problematic. In addressing this gap in research, a comparative safety climate survey of 515 construction operatives and managers in Australia, Indonesia, and China is presented using a standardized tool. The results highlight interesting similarities and differences between safety climate in each country and question taken–for–granted assumptions that safety climate in countries with relatively mature regulatory structures like Australia are more positive than in less developed countries like Indonesia and China. Results also highlight the intermediating effects of factors such as management commitment and cultural differences in shaping safety climate. Highlighting the potential value of theories of new institutionalism and cultural and ethical relativism, the paper concludes by raising important new practical, theoretical, and methodological questions about the merits and challenges of making international comparisons of safety climate, even when using standardized measurement tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: At present, over 215 million people live outside their countries of birth, many of which are referred to as diaspora-those that live in host countries but maintain strong sentimental and material links with their countries of origin, their homelands. The critical shortage of Human Resources for Health (HRH) in many developing countries remains a barrier to attaining their health system goals. Usage of medical diaspora can be one way to meet this need. A growing number of policy-makers have come to acknowledge that medical diaspora can play a vital role in the development of their homeland's health workforce capacity. To date, no inventory of low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) medical diaspora organizations has been done. This paper intends to develop an inventory that is as complete as possible, of the names of the LMIC medical diaspora organizations in the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia and addresses their interests and roles in building the health system of their country of origin., Methods: The researchers utilized six steps for their research methodology: (1) development of rationale for choosing the four destination countries (the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia); (2) identification of low- and middle-income countries (LMIC); (3) web search for the name of LMIC medical diaspora organization in the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia through the search engines of PubMed, Scopus, Google, Google Scholar, and LexisNexis; (4) development of inclusion and exclusion criteria and creation of a medical diaspora organizations' inventory list (Table 1) and corresponding maps (Figures 1, 2, and 3). Using decision criteria, reviewers narrowed the number to a final 89 organizations; (5) synthesis of information to collect the general as well as the unique roles the medical diaspora organizations play in building health systems; and (6) developing inventory of respective LMIC governments' diaspora offices (Table 2) to identify units/departments that facilitate diaspora's work., Result: In total, the authors found 89 medical diaspora organizations in 4 main countries: in the United States of America 60, in the United Kingdom 24, in Australia 3, and in Canada 2. These medical diaspora organizations tend to have three focuses: providing healthcare services, training, and when needed humanitarian aid to their home country; creating a social or professional network of migrant physicians (i.e., simply to bring together people with an ethnic and professional commonality) and; supplying improved and culturally sensitive healthcare to the migrant population within the host country. Sixty-eight LMIC countries have established a diaspora office within their government office. It is also equally important to note that many policy-makers may lack knowledge of models for medical diaspora engagement or of valuable lessons learned by other governments about working with diaspora., Conclusions: The medical diaspora remains an underutilized resource in both health systems policy formulation and program implementation.

Citizen science is growing rapidly with positive outcomes documented for ecological research, conservation, policy, innovation, and increased citizen stewardship. This rapid increase provides an opportunity to reflect on the characteristics of citizen science projects and determine their diverse goals, practices and outcomes. This paper focuses on the perspective of those initiating and leading citizen science projects in the third largest growing citizen science landscape – Australia, discussing the varying goals, outcomes and impacts. Findings from the statistical and thematic analysis of an online questionnaire (for multiple-choice and open-ended questions respectively), demonstrate the Australian citizen science landscape as growing exponentially, dominated by ecological and biodiversity projects, yet mostly local in scope and limited in numbers of participants. Individual and community goals such as education, raising awareness and public engagement, were found to be the focus of most citizen science projects, whilst scientific developments and policy advancement were often considered secondary goals. Projects leaders describe inherent tensions in managing projects and balancing their many goals. For example, public engagement was concurrently considered a benefit of citizen science enabling non-scientists participation in science discourse and research, and a challenge in recruitment, retention and ongoing communication with citizens scientists. The findings underscore the imperative of striking a balance between scientific rigor, policy objectives and societal aims, for advancing the vision of citizen science and maximizing its effectiveness and ecological impact. This relevance extends globally, urging nations from the Global North to the Global South, to consider replicating and adapting these approaches for broader societal benefit. • Australian citizen science is dominated by biodiversity projects with a local scope and limited participant numbers. • Individual and community goals are prioritized, scientific advancements and policy development are secondary objectives. • Tensions observed in managing multiple project objectives, particularly regarding participant recruitment and communication. • Citizen science would benefit from striking a balance between multiple goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents abstracts of articles on economics published in the January-March 1965 issue of The Indian Economic Journal. In the paper An Activity Analysis Approach to Measure Productive Efficiency in Agriculture: A Case Study of Ahmednagar and Nasik Districts, by K. R. Bharadwaj and R. Bharadwaj, the authors have made an attempt to employ the activity analysis technique to measure productive efficiency of agriculture in India. This technique enables the authors to handle more efficiently multiple inputs without varying the usual index number problems. The approach requires only the more general convexity condition on the production set and the non-positivity of the slope of the isoquant. In the first two sections the methodological issues and the empirical procedure have been discussed. In the final section the results of an empirical enquiry using the farm management data pertaining to the Ahmednagar and Nasik districts have been presented. Furthermore, the article Central Banking in Developing Countries: Some Lessons of Australian Experience, by H. W. Arndt considers each of the major central banking functions such as foreign exchange policy, control of money supply, selective control of credit and development of capital market in order to show how they have come to be exercised by Australia's Central Bank, what problems have arisen and what lessons the Australian experience may hold for central banking in the developing countries. Moreover, the purpose of the paper Production Function for Indian Steel Industry, by A. K. Sarkar is to study the functional relationship of output in the Indian steel industry with that of different inputs. The modified Cobb-Douglas type regression equation has been fitted to the time-series data by the method of least squares in the multiple regression equation with a linear relationship.

The developed world continues to face a critical shortage of nurses that is yet to become more acute with an ageing population, and as a consequence the chain effect of the brain drain or brain circulation will continue. Brain drain is a thoroughly researched and documented phenomenon where source countries such as the Philippines supply nurses to the world, thereby losing their best qualified nurses to developed countries. This creates losses to the source country that trained them, given many leave soon after gaining qualifications and preliminary experience for more lucrative salaries and better lifestyles in the developed world. The situation is particularly complicated in relation to the Philippines, which has positioned itself as a global supplier of nurses, making human resource export a national government strategy. This paper explores fundamental issues surrounding health professional migration in order to assess ways of creating a win-win situation for both source and receiving countries and individual workers, taking the Philippines as a case study. The purpose of this paper is to provide background information on Filipino nurses in Australia within the context of the Philippines as a global supplier of nurses. This paper formed the foundation of an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant with Partner Organisations; Queensland Health and the University of Sydney, Griffith University, Queensland University of Technology and The University of Melbourne. Key collaborators also include York University and Queen Margaret University. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports our experiences with the application of a number of alternative approaches to a study of women's economic circumstances and quality of life in a typical western city. The important work of, especially, Martha Nussbaum on the capabilities approach to evaluations of “quality of life” has highlighted pitfalls associated with the use of a narrow informational base in studies of women's lives and has emphasized the value of qualitative methods in these evaluations. However, to date, most discussions of the relevance of plural approaches to studies of women's lives have been conducted in the context of developing countries. This paper contributes a practical, current example of the relevance of such approaches to assessments of the lives of women in western countries as well. The research findings reported in the paper also cast further light on the importance of several, related themes in the literature on the capabilities approach, namely the importance of understanding how women's aspirations and expectations change with their economic and social experiences; and the importance of appreciating the social uses of language and how this affects the way in which women describe their lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article questions the assumption that increasing competition among higher education institutions is the best method of achieving a strong higher education sector in developing countries. It notes that there has been increasing emphasis on the importance of higher education institutions for sustainable development, particularly because of their importance to the global knowledge economy. For the same reason, the appropriate management of the relationship between the state and higher education institutions is vital to a strong and dynamic future for these institutions. This paper proposes a menu of options for higher education governance, grouped around ‘state-centric’ and ‘neo-liberal’ models of development. The ‘state-centric’ model proposed is based on a variety of examples of high performing Asian economies, in particular, while the ‘neo-liberal’ model is based on emerging trends in higher education management in countries such as Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom. The paper suggests that despite pressure across the globe to encourage a market among universities, this may not always be the most efficient use of resources, or the best way to integrate universities in a country’s drive for economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Medical tourism - travel across international borders for health care - appears to be growing globally, with patients from high-income nations increasingly visiting low- and middle-income countries to access such services. This paper analyses Australian television and newspaper news and current affairs coverage to examine how medical tourism and these destinations for the practice are represented to media audiences., Methods: Electronic copies of Australian television (n = 66) and newspaper (n = 65) items from 2005-2011 about medical care overseas were coded for patterns of reporting (year, format and type) and story characteristics (geographic and medical foci in the coverage, news actors featured and appeals, credibility and risks of the practice mentioned)., Results: Australian media coverage of medical tourism was largely focused on Asia, featuring cosmetic surgery procedures and therapies unavailable domestically. Experts were the most frequently-appearing news actors, followed by patients. Common among the types of appeals mentioned were access to services and low cost. Factors lending credibility included personal testimony, while uncertainty and ethical dilemmas featured strongly among potential risks mentioned from medical tourism., Conclusions: The Australian media coverage of medical tourism was characterised by a narrow range of medical, geographic and ethical concerns, a focus on individual Australian patients and on content presented as being personally relevant for domestic audiences. Medical tourism was portrayed as an exercise of economically-rational consumer choice, but with no attention given to its consequences for the commodification of health or broader political, medical and ethical implications. In this picture, LMICs were no longer passive recipients of aid but providers of a beneficial service to Australian patients.

There is increasing evidence that the functional state of the immune system at birth is predictive of the kinetics of immune maturation in early infancy. Moreover, this maturation process can have a major impact on early vaccine responses and can be a key determinant of risk for communicable and non-communicable diseases in later life. We hypothesize that environmental and genetic factors that are often typical for poor-resource countries may have an important impact on prenatal immune development and predispose populations in low-income settings to different vaccine responses and disease risks, compared to those living in high-income countries. In this paper we aimed to summarize the major differences between neonatal and adult immune function and describe what is known so far about discrepancies in immune function between newborns in high- and low-income settings. Further, we discuss the need to test the immunological feasibility of accelerated vaccination schedules in high-risk populations and the potential of variation in disease specific and non-specific vaccine effects.

Background: It is widely acknowledged that there is a global divide on health care and health research known as the 10/90 divide., Methods: A retrospective survey of articles published in the BMJ, Lancet, NEJM, Annals of Internal Medicine & JAMA in a calendar year to examine the contribution of the developing world to medical literature. We categorized countries into four regions: UK, USA, Other Euro-American countries (OEAC) and (RoW). OEAC were European countries other than the UK but including Australia, New Zealand and Canada. RoW comprised all other countries., Results: The average contribution of the RoW to the research literature in the five journals was 6.5%. In the two British journals 7.6% of the articles were from the RoW; in the three American journals 4.8% of articles were from RoW. The highest proportion of papers from the RoW was in the Lancet (12%). An analysis of the authorship of 151 articles from RoW showed that 104 (68.9%) involved authorship with developed countries in Europe or North America. There were 15 original papers in these journals with data from RoW but without any authors from RoW., Conclusions: There is a marked under-representation of countries in high-impact general medical journals. The ethical implications of this inequity and ways of reducing it are discussed.

The proposal made in this paper is a modest one: that high-income countries should further the cause of reducing global inequality by ensuring that in their tax treaties with low-income countries they do not usurp needed revenues by reducing low-income countries' ability to collect tax on income with a source in the low-income country. This argument is made in the specific context of the taxation of royalty payments, which present one of the most extreme examples of high-income countries unfairly confiscating revenues that appropriately belong to their low-income treaty partners. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) model tax treaty, which most high-income countries in the world closely follow in negotiating their own tax treaties, provides that to avoid double taxation, source countries (invariably low-income countries) should reduce their rate of withholding tax on royalty payments to zero. Thus low-income countries that enter into tax treaties modelled on the OECD model convention are unable to levy a tax on royalty payments that have a source in their jurisdiction. In many cases, this simply results in a net transfer of revenue from the low-income country's treasury to the treasury of the high-income country. In making the general case for source taxation of royalty payments, the paper examines and compares Canadian and Australian tax treaty policies to see to what extent those countries have followed the OECD model convention in negotiating with low-income countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although planning and policy instruments are important for climate change adaptation, the implementation of these measures is critical for success. This paper studies different climate change adaptation strategies by analysing the measures adopted by stakeholders in charge of government policy development and implementation to minimise the impacts of climate change in the northern tropical region of Queensland, Australia. Local government organisations are responsible for taking a leading role in climate change adaptation. State and commonwealth government agencies are primarily responsible for developing climate transition policies and guidelines, as well as providing limited financial aid to help support the local government. Interviews were conducted with local government practitioners identified from different local government authorities in the study region. Although all the government bodies made some progress in developing better climate change adaptation policies, the interview participants identified that a lot more needs to be done, especially in implementation, including devising and the application of relevant action plans, economic assessments, stakeholder participations and engagement. From a local government practitioners' viewpoint, both the water sector and local economy will face the highest immediate impacts if climate change adaptation actions are not adequately implemented at local government level in the study region. There are currently no notable legal bindings to address climate change risks in the region. In addition, financial liability assessments due to climate risks and cost-share mechanisms among different levels of stakeholders and government authorities to face and prepare for climate change impacts hardly exist. Although the interview respondents recognise their high importance. As there are uncertainties in the achievements of climate change adaptation plans, from a local government practitioners' standpoint, the local authorities should take appropriate actions to integrate adaptation and mitigation works to face and prepare for climate risks rather than focusing only on adaptation. The respondents informed that some work has been done to identify flood prone areas and a few policy documents exist that accommodate sea level rise in planning practice, but these are done in fragments with no holistic implementation, monitoring or evaluation plans put in place. • Climate change adaptation actions are urgently needed. • The priorities and perceptions of government professionals are key to success. • Stakeholders needs to be engaged to formulate adaptation strategies. • Holistic implementation, monitoring or evaluation plans are important for success. • Climate change adaptation and mitigation measures are suggested to be integrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia is a sought-after destination for international students, including from countries of the Global South such as Indonesia. Prior to the pandemic, the tertiary education of international students was its second largest export. At the onset of the pandemic, Australia's Prime Minister told international students they should return home immediately, warning them that they would not be supported by the government if they chose to stay. Throughout 2020 and 2021, Australian media outlets offered shocking reports and images of international students who had lost their homes and were queuing at soup kitchens. Experts feared that these images and the overall treatment of international students would do long-lasting damage not only to the education sector but also to Australia's people-to-people relations overseas. In this article, we explore the destinies of postgraduate students from Indonesia during the pandemic in Australia. As Indonesia's closest neighbor, Australia is the preferred destination for Indonesian students studying abroad and Australia has targeted Indonesia as a growth market in recent years. Based on qualitative interview data, we offer a picture of how this cohort of international students "muddled through" the pandemic. We ask what damage may have been done by the Australian government's closure of its international borders and strict pandemic restrictions to its reputation as a welcoming country and center of educational excellence. What consequences might there be for this vital Indonesia-Australia relationship, in particular, and for the future of student and broader university engagement between the two countries? Our findings show a much more optimistic outlook than expected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: While the relationship between school socioeconomic composition and student academic outcomes is well established, knowledge about differential effects is not extensive. In particular, little is known whether the relationship differs for students with varying levels of academic performance. We examined whether the school socioeconomic composition effect on academic achievement is stronger or weaker for high-performing students than for average- and low-performing students. Australia is a theoretically interesting case study as it has high levels of school socioeconomic segregation compared to other economically developed countries. Methods: We conducted quantile regression analysis using data from the Australia PISA 2018 sample (N = 14,273 15-year-old students). We examined the effect of school socioeconomic status (school SES) on student performance in reading, mathematical and scientific literacy. Results: We found that the school socioeconomic composition effect is substantial and is similar for all students, regardless of their level of academic performance. The findings also show that school SES is a stronger predictor than student SES for all student performance quintiles, and the size of the school SES effect relative to the size of student SES effect is larger in lower performance quintiles. Conclusions: These results indicate no differential effect of school SES on reading, mathematical or scientific literacy for students of varying levels of academic performance. The relationship is similarly strong and positive for high-performing students as it is for their lower performing peers. As school SES is a strong predictor for all students regardless of their level of academic performance, we argue that equity of educational outcomes can be best achieved by policies and structures that promote socioeconomically mixed rather than segregated schools. We also call for more research that seeks to identify and understand possible differential effects of school socioeconomic composition on a range of academic and non-cognitive student outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the role of the Australian Modern Slavery Act 2018 as a reporting mechanism aimed at preventing the use of forced labour in global supply chains. In the fashion industry, modern slavery legislation pursues the ambitions of activist movements that have long campaigned for increased knowledge about supply chain practices to improve the labour conditions of garment workers, especially for those in the Global South. In recent years, such campaigns against the entrenched opacity of the global fashion system have given rise to a transparency industry built on practices of auditing and supply chain management, including in relation to modern slavery legislation. This article analyses 10 modern slavery statements submitted to the online Modern Slavery Register by fashion brands operating in Australia in the 2019-2020 reporting period to explore how the Modern Slavery Act 2018 participates in colonial relations of power. It focuses on three aspects of the statements: factory reporting and third-party auditing, corporate grievance mechanisms, and risks associated with COVID-19. Finally, the article argues that while improved transparency can generate positive outcomes for workers, the reporting required by modern slavery legislation is often more concerned with providing assurances about labour standards to consumers and stakeholders in the Global North than with the needs or experiences of workers in the Global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lazarow, N., 2007. The value of coastal recreational resources: a case study approach to examine the value of recreational surfing to specific locales. Journal of Coastal Research, SI 50 (Proceedings of the 9th International Coastal Symposium), 12 – 20. Gold Coast, Australia, ISSN 0749.0208 Surfing is a major recreational and economic activity involving intimate human interaction with diverse coastal environments and is expanding both in intensity in traditional locations, as well as in reach into new environments often in the developing world. The value of surfing to both Australia's and the global economy has grown significantly over the past three decades. This combined with the significant growth in participation and rising popularity of surfing and surfing culture in many countries, means that the importance of the economic and social value of surfing to various regions cannot be understated. While there is a growing literature on the value of surfing tourism, especially in the South-East Asian region and of proposed artificial surfing reefs, there is little documented evidence of the value of recreational surfing in more traditional locations such as Australia and the USA, where it has been estimated that over two-million Australians and two-and-a-half million Americans surf on a regular basis. This paper presents findings from a three-year study using proven economic methodologies as well as those from the other social sciences to collect data on the market and non-market value of surfing at two locations in Australia. The findings demonstrate the significant economic, social and cultural importance of surfing amenity to specific locales, including the need to consider any negative impacts on surf breaks and the environment that may occur as a result of development, coastal planning and protection works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asbestos is responsible for an ongoing epidemic of asbestos-related diseases (ARDs). While banned in many Western countries asbestos is still being exported to new target markets in the developing world. Asbestos is therefore not an issue of yesterday -in Australia the epidemic of asbestos-related disease through past exposure is not due to peak until at least 2020. However public awareness of the risks from exposure is low. Often companies and governments have been less than forthcoming with information about risks and how to avoid them. This paper describes a unique collaboration involving journalists, doctors and public health researchers which aims to improve access to public health information about asbestos. The outcome is a website serving first, as an historical archive of asbestos stories through interviews with asbestos sufferers and their families; second, as a one-stop-shop for public health information about asbestos risk where journalism skills are employed to translate often complex information into accessible language and formats; and third, as an online community where patients and doctors can interact and experiment with more collaborative models of medical and public health interventions. The project demonstrates how journalistic activity can be the subject of legitimate academic research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to evaluate the cost efficiency of banks in the Asia-Pacific region and test whether the operating performance of banks in poorer economies improves with the inclusion of environmental proxies. Our basic cost efficiency model finds that Australia and Singapore are the most cost efficient banking economies. With the inclusion of environmental factors into our model, the relative cost performance of banks from poorer economies does not improve, perhaps suggesting that their weaker operating environment is not the cause of the banks' lower results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the policy context of the rise in the international mobility and migration of nurses. It describes the profile of the migration of nurses and the policy context governing the international recruitment of nurses to five countries: Australia, Ireland, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States. We also examine the policy challenges for workforce planning and the design of health systems infrastructure. Data are derived from registries of professional nurses, censuses, interviews with key informants, case studies in source and destination countries, focus groups, and empirical modelling to examine the patterns and implications of the movement of nurses across borders. The flow of nurses to these destination countries has risen, in some cases quite substantially. Recruitment from lower-middle income countries and low-income countries, as defined by The World Bank, dominate trends in nurse migration to the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the United States, while Norway and Australia, primarily register nurses from other high-income countries. Inadequate data systems in many countries prevent effective monitoring of these workforce flows. Policy options to manage nurse migration include: improving working conditions in both source and destination countries, instituting multilateral agreements to manage the flow more effectively, and developing compensation arrangements between source and destination countries. Recommendations for enhancements to workforce data systems are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In light of the dramatic increase in economic impacts due to wildfires over recent years, the need for globally consistent impact modelling of wildfire damages is ever increasing. Insurance companies, individual households, humanitarian organizations, governmental authorities, and investors and portfolio owners are increasingly required to account for climate-related physical risks. In response to these societal challenges, we present an extension to the open-source and open-access risk modelling platform CLIMADA (CLImate ADAptation) for modelling economic impacts of wildfires in a globally consistent and spatially explicit approach. All input data are free, public and globally available, ensuring applicability in data-scarce regions of the Global South. The model was calibrated at resolutions of 1, 4 and 10 km using information on past wildfire damage reported by the disaster database EM-DAT. Despite the large remaining uncertainties, the model yields sound damage estimates with a model performance well in line with the results of other natural catastrophe impact models, such as for tropical cyclones. To complement the global perspective of this study, we conducted two case studies on the recent megafires in Chile (2017) and Australia (2020). The model is made available online as part of a Python package, ready for application in practical contexts such as disaster risk assessment, near-real-time impact estimates or physical climate risk disclosure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although critical for understanding health labour market trends in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), longitudinal LMIC health worker emigration and return migration trends are not routinely documented. This article seeks to better understand SA's trends in physician emigration and return migration and whether economic growth and related policies affect migration patterns. This study used physician registry data to analyse patterns of emigration and return migration only among SA-trained physicians registered to practice in top destination countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the USA or the UK between 1991 and 2017, which represent the top five emigration destinations for this group. A linear regression model analysed the relationship between migration trends (as dependent variables) and SA's economic growth, health financing and HIV prevalence (as independent variables). There has been a 6-fold decline in emigration rates from SA between 1991 and 2017 (from 1.8% to 0.3%/year), with declines in emigration to all five destination countries. About one in three (31.8% or 5095) SA physicians returned from destination countries as of 2017. Annual physician emigration fell by 0.16% for every $100 rise in SA GDP per capita (2011 international dollars) (95% confidence interval -0.60% to -0.086%). As of 2017, 21.6% (11 224) of all SA physicians had active registration in destination nations, down from a peak of 33.5% (16 366) in 2005, a decline largely due to return migration. Changes to the UK's licensing regulations likely affected migration patterns while the Global Code of Practice on International Recruitment contributed little to changes. A country's economic growth might influence physician emigration, with significant contribution from health workforce policy interventions. Return migration monitoring should be incorporated into health workforce planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Savanna fires produce significant emissions globally, but if managed effectively could provide an important mitigation opportunity, particularly in African least developed countries. Here we show global opportunities for emissions reductions through early dry season burning for 37 countries including: 29 countries in Africa (69.1 MtCO2-e yr-1), six countries in South America (13.3 MtCO2-e yr-1), and Australia and Papua New Guinea (6.9 MtCO2-e yr-1). Emissions reduction estimates are based on the successful approach developed in Australia to reduce emissions from savanna fires using global-scale, remotely sensed estimates of monthly emissions. Importantly, 20 least developed countries in Africa account for 74% of the mitigation potential (60.2 MtCO2-e yr-1). More than 1.02 million km2 of savanna dominated protected areas within these countries could be used as pilot sites to test and advance a regional approach to mitigation efforts for savanna fires in Africa. Potential versus actual abatement opportunities are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Identifying the housing preferences of people with complex disabilities is a much needed, but under-developed area of practice and scholarship. Despite the recognition that housing is a social determinant of health and quality of life, there is an absence of empirical methodologies that can practically and systematically involve consumers in this complex service delivery and housing design market. A rigorous process for making effective and consistent development decisions is needed to ensure resources are used effectively and the needs of consumers with complex disability are properly met.Methods/design: This 3-year project aims to identify how the public and private housing market in Australia can better respond to the needs of people with complex disabilities whilst simultaneously achieving key corporate objectives. First, using the Customer Relationship Management framework, qualitative (Nominal Group Technique) and quantitative (Discrete Choice Experiment) methods will be used to quantify the housing preferences of consumers and their carers. A systematic mixed-method, quasi-experimental design will then be used to quantify the development priorities of other key stakeholders (e.g., architects, developers, Government housing services etc.) in relation to inclusive housing for people with complex disabilities. Stakeholders randomly assigned to Group 1 (experimental group) will participate in a series of focus groups employing Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) methodology. Stakeholders randomly assigned to Group 2 (control group) will participate in focus groups employing existing decision making processes to inclusive housing development (e.g., Risk, Opportunity, Cost, Benefit considerations). Using comparative stakeholder analysis, this research design will enable the AHP methodology (a proposed tool to guide inclusive housing development decisions) to be tested.Discussion: It is anticipated that the findings of this study will enable stakeholders to incorporate consumer housing preferences into commercial decisions. Housing designers and developers will benefit from the creation of a parsimonious set of consumer-led housing preferences by which to make informed investments in future housing and contribute to future housing policy. The research design has not been applied in the Australian research context or elsewhere, and will provide a much needed blueprint for market investment to develop viable, consumer directed inclusive housing options for people with complex disability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study focusing on teledermatology research publication between 1975 and 2017 and its bibliometric evaluation. Topics discussed include the use of data from Thomson Reuters Web of Science in this study; the use of teledermatology keyword in the research; and the publication of teledermatology research in the U.S. and Great Britain.

Domestic dog rabies is an endemic disease in large parts of the developing world and also epidemic in previously free regions. For example, it continues to spread in eastern Indonesia and currently threatens adjacent rabies-free regions with high densities of free-roaming dogs, including remote northern Australia. Mathematical and simulation disease models are useful tools to provide insights on the most effective control strategies and to inform policy decisions. Existing rabies models typically focus on long-term control programs in endemic countries. However, simulation models describing the dog rabies incursion scenario in regions where rabies is still exotic are lacking. We here describe such a stochastic, spatially explicit rabies simulation model that is based on individual dog information collected in two remote regions in northern Australia. Illustrative simulations produced plausible results with epidemic characteristics expected for rabies outbreaks in disease free regions (mean R0 1.7, epidemic peak 97 days post-incursion, vaccination as the most effective response strategy). Systematic sensitivity analysis identified that model outcomes were most sensitive to seven of the 30 model parameters tested. This model is suitable for exploring rabies spread and control before an incursion in populations of largely free-roaming dogs that live close together with their owners. It can be used for ad-hoc contingency or response planning prior to and shortly after incursion of dog rabies in previously free regions. One challenge that remains is model parameterisation, particularly how dogs' roaming and contacts and biting behaviours change following a rabies incursion in a previously rabies free population. Author Summary: Rabies in domestic dog populations still causes >50,000 human deaths worldwide each year. While its eradication by vaccination of the reservoir population (dogs and wildlife) was successful in many parts of the world, it is still present in the developing world and continues to spread to new regions. Theoretical rabies models supporting control plans do exist for rabies endemic regions; however these models usually provide information for long-term programs. Here, we describe a novel rabies simulation model for application in rabies-free regions experiencing an incursion. The model simulates a rabies outbreak in the free-ranging dog population in remote indigenous communities in northern Australia. Vaccination, dog density reduction and dog confinement are implemented as control strategies. Model outputs suggest that the outbreak lasts for an average of 7 months and typically spreads through all communities of the region. Dog vaccination was found to be the most effective response strategy. The model produces plausible results and can be used to provide information for ad-hoc response planning before and shortly after rabies incursion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of the capability approach as an evaluative tool for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) policy and programs in developing countries, in particular at a grass-roots community level, is an emerging field of application. However, one of the difficulties with ICT for development (ICT4D) evaluations is in linking what is often no more than a resource, for example basic access, to actual outcomes, or means to end. This article argues that the capability approach provides a framework for evaluating the strength of this linkage and that the latter is a key determinant of whether or not communities sustain ICT4D programs beyond the initial start-up phase. The argument is made by describing an evaluative application of the capabilities approach to community ICT4D programs using two Indigenous community case studies conducted in Cape York, in the far north-east of Australia. Key to the evaluative approach is the identification of community defined, context specific concepts of well-being and constitutive valued functionings and the derivation from this of required capabilities. This move away from normative definitions of capabilities or capability types to a definition that reflects the Indigenous culture, history, circumstances, and well-being aspirations of each community is intended to give a voice to the people and at the same time provide a deeper informational base-through narrative-for policy and program design than has previously been available. The article concludes that by operationalising the capability approach in a context and purpose specific way, policy and program design can be improved so as to include more communities on the margin and thereby achieve more socially inclusive ICT based development. A process is also outlined for using the evaluative application of the capability approach for community ICT4D within a policy feedback loop. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Doha ministerial declaration commits WTO members to liberalising access to their markets for least-developed countries (LDCs). Preferential trade policies have diverse impacts on the initiating country and its trading partners. These effects are of concern to scholars and policy makers. We use Australia as a case study to quantify the direct and indirect effects of providing preferential access to LDC imports entering Australian markets, using a general equilibrium model of the world economy. LDCs are projected to benefit and Australia is predicted to lose, reflecting adverse terms of trade effects. However, the magnitude of the adverse effect on Australia is small. If one was to view this initiative as an exercise in foreign aid, it suggests that Australia can provide a significant benefit to the poorest nations with which it trades, at almost no cost to itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In 2018, the Australian Government, through a Senate-led Parliamentary Inquiry, sought the views of diverse stakeholders on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) implementation both domestically and as part of Australia's Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) program. One hundred and sixty-four written submissions were received. The submissions offered perspective and guidance from a rich cross-section of those involved, and with keen interest in, Australia's ODA-SDG commitment. This article identifies and explores the submissions to that Inquiry which placed impetus on Australia's ODA-SDG and health and development nexus. It then compares how the synthesized views, concerns and priorities of selected Inquiry stakeholders align with and reflect the Australian Government's treatment of SDG 3 in its SDG Voluntary National Review (VNR), as well as with the final Inquiry report summarizing submission content.Results: Four key themes were synthesized and drawn from the thirty-one stakeholder submissions included in our analysis. Disconnect was then found to exist between the selected stakeholder views and the Australian Government's SDG-VNR's treatment of SDG 3, as well as with the content of the Parliamentary Inquiry's final report with respect to the ODA-SDG and health and development nexus.Conclusions: We situate the findings of our analysis within the wider strategic context of the Australian Government's policy commitment to "step up" in the Pacific region. This research provides an insight into both multi-stakeholder and Federal Government views on ODA in the Indo-Pacific region, especially at a time when Australia's Pacific engagement has come to the forefront of both foreign and security policy. We conclude that the SDG agenda, including the SDG health and development agenda, could offer a unique vehicle for enabling a paradigm shift in the Australian Government's development approach toward the Pacific region and its diverse peoples. This potential is strongly reflected in stakeholder perspectives included in our analysis. However, study findings remind that the political determinants of health, and overlapping political determinants of SDG achievement, will be instrumental in the coming decade, and that stakeholders from different sectors need to be genuinely engaged in SDG-ODA policy-related decision-making and planning by governments in both developed and developing countries alike. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This commentary is on the original article by Sellier et al. on pages 85–92 of this issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]