The use of technology and leadership in enhancing strategic cooperative policing within the SADC region

ABSTRACT

The globalisation processes driving development and the transnational nature of crime require the collaboration of police within regions using sophisticated technology to combat crime. This article examines the role of technology and leadership in enhancing cooperative policing. Following a successful safety strategy during the 2010 Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) Soccer World Cup (SWC) tournament in South Africa, the aim of the article is to demonstrate how technology and strategic leadership contributed to the success of this event. The research conducted consisted of an extensive review of existing research publications on the state of policing in southern Africa; and a conference presentation by Lieutenant-General Pruis about policing the SWC from which key policing lessons have been extracted. The literature survey revealed the challenges of police forces and policing in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) as being primarily resource constraints, and socio-political environments that are not always conducive to effective policing. Conclusions drawn are that some of the lessons from the SWC, such as planning, budgeting, strategic leadership, regional and international cooperation of security personnel, community involvement, an informed media strategy and the use of technology to support these processes, can be replicated in regional policing operations.     

Voting rights for nationals of the Southern African Development Community countries living in member states

ABSTRACT

The right to vote remains one of the most critical ways in which individuals influence government. However, the disenfranchisement of certain classes of people – notably non-citizen residents – is the norm in Africa, whereas many countries in Europe recognise the right of non-citizen residents to vote as a key element in the continent's political integration. In the Southern African Development Community (SADC), where the political integration of the region is recognised as an essential contributor to economic integration, the question of extra-national forms of regional citizenship and voting rights does not receive sufficient attention. This article looks at SADC and selected countries within SADC, to determine whether laws and treaties can be amended and developed to broaden the scope of citizenship and extend the right to vote to non-citizen residents.     

Planning,Budgeting, and Health Care Performance in Ukraine

Abstract

The Government of Ukraine has not pursued health care reforms now commonplace in the rest of Europe and Central/Eastern Europe that rely less upon centralized, state delivery of services and more on decentralized operational responsibilities and competition for services that increase patient choice. The Ukrainian health sector suffers from personnel overspecialization and facility overcapacity, resulting in high-cost, low productivity services. Budget funds are unavailable for operations and maintenance resulting in poor quality services. The state provides health care as a constitutionally-protected monopoly, relying on the traditional command and control model which ignores cost/quality competition options and responsibilities to patients. Overall, the system which produces these results is over-centralized, requiring achievement of physical service norms without providing sufficient funds. The centralized system does not monitor or evaluate services beyond narrow financial accountability and control requirements. The health care system is paradoxically over-centralized but unable to regulate or control local health care official decisions to ensure compliance with national standards. Needed are reforms in the health care policy and operational areas to produce the supply of services needed for national economic recovery. In the short-term, the budgetary framework can be improved as an operational/management guide through development of comparative information on results. Most of this information can be based on the economic classification consistent with the chart of accounts. Funding stability can be increased to improve expenditure control by implementing a new fiscal transfer formula that provides discretion (i.e., block grants) and performance criteria (i.e., outcome measures). In the medium-term, building on the technical foundation of physical norms and statistical reporting, the health care budgeting and financial management system should shift emphasis to: program planning, policy and management analysis, and public communications. The results of these reforms should lead to decentralized health care operations, service analysis, and delivery responsibilities. At the same time, the reforms should lead to proper centralization of responsibilities for strategic policy decisions, safety regulation, national standards, and program evaluation.     

Measuring Progress: Community Indicators and the Quality of Life

Abstract

As communities and local governments increasingly have become concerned about quality‐of‐life issues, community indicators have become a widely used tool to measure the status of the quality of life and progress being made toward improving it. Indicators provide a vehicle for understanding and addressing community issues from a holistic and outcomes‐oriented perspective. They are useful, within the context of an overall community‐improvement process, both as a planning tool, based on a community's vision, and as an evaluation tool to measure progress on steps taken toward improvement. Their usefulness is maximized when they are both directly tied to public‐policy and budget decision making and when the community feels a sense of ownership of the indicators through direct citizen involvement with them. This article briefly describes four major approaches to community‐indicators work, and then in more detail, illustrates one of the approaches called “quality of life.” This approach is illustrated with experiences of the Jacksonville (Florida) Community Council Inc. (JCCI), a pioneer and leader in the community‐indicators movement.     

Notes

This article examines the evolution of the inter-territorial university policy in East Africa that culminated in the establishment of the regional University of East Africa (UEA) serving Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania; it further explores the causes of the collapse of the regional university in the late 1960s. The inauguration of the UEA in June 1963 exemplified the determination by Britain to maintain its influence in East Africa as the region entered the independence era. Britain sought to use the UEA as a centre for intellectual and ideological indoctrination of the regional elites that it had started to forge in 1949 following the establishment of Makerere University College in Uganda as an inter-territorial institution for East Africa. Unlike the Makerere elites who were to serve as agents of the British in the colonial era, the products of UEA would become allies of Britain in the independence era and thus serve as crucial cogs in the emerging neocolonial relations between Britain and the East African nations. This article demonstrates how the transformed political landscape after independence undermined the UEA, signalling not only the weakening of the bonds of cohesion among the East African states but also the waning fortunes of Britain in the region.     

Short notices

Eastern Asia: An Introductory History, edited by Colin Mackerras. Longman Cheshire Pty Ltd., Melbourne, 1992. xiv + 639 pp., illus., tables, maps. Aus $18.99. ISBN 0–582–87005–4.

Asia Pacific: A view of its role in the New World Order, by M.S. Dobbs‐Higginson. Longman Asia Ltd., Hong Kong, 1993. xxviii + 422 pp., maps. £25.00. ISBN 962–000105–2

Korea Briefing 1993: Festival of Korea, edited by Donald N. Clark. Westview Press, Boulder CO, San Francisco and Oxford, in cooperation with The Asia Society, 1993. x + 249 pp. £9.95 paperback. ISBN 0–8133–8770–1.

Southeast Asian Affairs 1992, edited by Daljit Singh. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, 1992. x + 364 pp. S$ 26.00. ISSN 0377–5437.     

ASEAN and regional governance after the Cold War: from regional order to regional community?

Abstract

This paper first reviews and critiques the dominant realist and constructivist accounts of ASEAN, which have enjoyed much prominence in The Pacific Review since the journal's founding in 1988. ASEAN behaviour and outcomes cannot be fitted into neat theoretical categories that emphasize either material or ideational variables in explanation. Instead, ASEAN displays complexities in behaviour that are the product of the contingent interaction between the material (power, territory, wealth) and the ideational (norms, ideas, identity) as member states actively seek to manage domestic order as well as regional order within and beyond ASEAN. In all of this, state interests and identities remain paramount, which means that the long-standing ASEAN norms of sovereignty/non-interference remain central to regional governance. Under these conditions, and despite the Charter's newly articulated political norms of democratization, human rights, and the rule of law, the prospects seem doubtful for building a people-centred ASEAN Community in which regional governance displays inclusiveness, seeking to address the interests and needs of the region's ordinary people as opposed to what its elites deem appropriate. The final portion of the paper explores what a critical approach to studying ASEAN might reveal. In particular, the paper attempts to identify whether there may be any political spaces opening up within existing structures and practices from which progressive change could emerge, even if slowly, particularly in the area of human rights and social justice, key elements in building an inclusive, ASEAN Community.     

Economies of scale in Danish municipalities: Expenditure effects versus quality effects

A change in the cost structure in the Danish municipalities seems to have occurred bringing in a larger fixed element in the cost function and making unit costs higher in small municipalities than in large. The paper examines the hypothesis that small municipalities in their reaction to their higher unit costs for management make a trade-off between raising expenditures and the tax level, on the one hand, and reducing the quality of the production, on the other. Using accounting data for 1980, 1990 and 2000 it is shown that the expenditure structure has shifted since 1980 so that small municipalities now exhibit higher unit expenditures than larger municipalities. However, there also seems to be a quality substituting effect in the small municipalities as a reaction to the higher unit costs. From data based on a questionnaire to the chief executives in all municipalities indications of weak political and administrative leadership in the small municipalities are demonstrated. We find that population size and administrative capacity explain significant differences in municipal understanding of the consequences of the central government regulation defining the conditions for the local production of services.     

Are healthier people happier? Evidence from Chile and Uruguay

Based on data from the Latinobarómetro, this study analyses data on happiness to establish the probability that an individual is happy. The focus is put on self-reported health status as a key aspect in increasing levels of happiness. The probability of being happy is econometrically estimated by probit models for each country. Results show that the main relationship is between happiness and health status. Whether this is a causal effect or only a correlation, is not clear. This issue is explored by using propensity score matching methods. These show that good health status increases the probability of being satisfied with life by between 13 and 17 percentage points. In line with the literature, we find that the relationship between age and happiness is U-shaped, with happiness at its lowest point at the age of 48.2.

Les personnes en bonne santé sont-elles plus heureuses ? Données concrètes en provenance du Chili et de l'Uruguay

Sur la base de données tirées du Latinobarómetro, cette étude analyse des données sur le bonheur afin d'établir la probabilité du bonheur de personnes données. L'accent est mis sur l'état de santé présenté par la personne elle-même comme aspect clé du niveau croissant de bonheur. La probabilité de bonheur est estimée économétriquement au moyen de modèles probit pour chaque pays. Les résultats indiquent que le principal rapport est celui qui relie le bonheur et l'état de santé. Quant à savoir si c'est là une relation de cause à effet ou seulement une corrélation, ce n'est pas évident. Cette question est traitée au moyen de méthodes d'appariement par score de propension, qui montrent qu'un bon état de santé accroît la probabilité de se sentir satisfait de sa vie de 13 à 17 pour cent. Conformément aux documents écrits sur ce thème, nous constatons que le rapport entre l'âge et le bonheur est en forme de U, le bonheur atteignant son niveau le plus bas à l'âge de 48,2 ans.

¿Son más felices las personas sanas? Hallazgos en Chile y Uruguay

A través del Latinobarómetro para Chile y Uruguay 2007, se estima a través de modelos probit la probabilidad de que un individuo sea feliz. La principal correlación positiva se da entre la felicidad y el buen estado de salud. A efectos de controlar la potencial heterogeneidad observable de esta variable, se utilizan técnicas de correspondencia encontrando que tener buena salud aumenta entre 13 y 17 puntos porcentuales la probabilidad de ser feliz para los datos agrupados regionales. Consecuentemente con la literatura, se encuentra una forma convexa con respecto a la edad, siendo los 48.2 años la edad de mínima felicidad.

As pessoas mais saudáveis são mais felizes? Evidências do Chile e Uruguai

Baseado em dados do Latinobarómetro, este estudo analisa dados sobre felicidade para estabelecer a probabilidade de um indivíduo ser feliz. O enfoque é dado na condição de saúde auto-relatada como aspecto-chave para aumentar os níveis de felicidade. A probabilidade de ser feliz é econometricamente estimada por modelos probit para cada país. Resultados mostram que a principal relação é entre felicidade e condição de saúde. Se isto é um efeito causal ou apenas uma correlação, não está claro. Esta questão é explorada utilizando-se métodos PSM (Propensity Score Matching). Estes métodos mostram que boas condições de saúde aumentam a probabilidade de satisfação com a vida em cerca de 13 a 17 pontos percentuais. Em sintonia com a literatura, constatamos que a relação entre idade e alegria tem a forma de U, com a alegria em seu ponto mais baixo na idade de 48.2.     

试论卫生应急“机制”建设中不容忽视的几个问题

卫生应急工作要迈上科学发展轨道,应多关注从"机制"建设上找寻亟待解决的问题。本文拟从突发公共卫生事件特点及应急机制建设重要性入手,探究卫生应急机制建设过程中尚存的"拦路虎",找寻卫生应急机制建设应对之策,即:关口前移,建立应急预案动态更新机制;瞄准实战,建立突发疫情应对处置机制;筑牢"后墙",建立突发事件储备保障机制;紧盯"重心",建立医院危机攻关应急机制。