Books on the topic 'COVID-19 outcomes'

Despite the narratives of authoritarian states, the concerns of journalists and public intellectuals in democracies, and the results of some early studies, this paper shows that democracies fare no worse than authoritarian regimes in combating the Covid-19 pandemic. Democracy is not associated with higher Covid-19 death rates, nor is it associated with lower vaccination rates. Moreover, among many democratic countries, high levels of key democratic components -such as fundamental rights and impartial administration—seem to help prevent deaths and boost vaccination rates. These conclusions are based on statistical analyses of democracy components, as measured by International IDEA’s Global State of Democracy (GSoD) Indices, and the reported Covid-19 death rates and Covid-19 vaccination rates in all countries of the world with a population of at least one million people.

A Global Pandemic: Ripple Effects of COVID-19 contains a selection of articles, carefully edited by Mansoureh Ebrahimi and Uygar Aydemir, to offer a comprehensive viewpoint and a dynamic look at the challenges and endeavours that involve various social, governmental, financial, and technological sectors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Brilliantly collected to reflect the cutting-edge research on the social, technological, economic and political dimensions of the COVID-19 pandemic, this volume equips the professionals, academicians and students with the means and content to keep pace with the latest research questions, materials, and outcomes in the field. The volume’s extensive scope and original approach will make it vital reading for a wide array of readers, including social scientists, political scientists, historians, and experts who aspire to integrate the advances in digital technology with daily life.

Prisons in Ireland and the United Kingdom went into lockdown as the risk of mass transmission of COVID-19 became apparent in early 2020. A health catastrophe was averted, but at considerable human cost: prisoners were confined to their cells for most of the day and communal activity and visits ceased. It is tempting to think that the pandemic has impacted indiscriminately but community outcomes have revealed significant variance. This book tests the hypothesis that this was also the case in prisons by reviewing how male adult prisoners from Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, Irish Travelling and Roma communities and foreign national prisoners experienced lockdown in Irish and United Kingdom prisons. Drawing primarily on inspection reports and a series of interviews with those working with these prisoners, the book details how particular aspects of lockdown were especially harsh for prisoners from these groups. Innovative measures were introduced to mitigate the worst effects of

In this paper, we provide causal evidence of the impact of stringent lockdown policies on labour market outcomes at both the extensive and intensive margins, using Ghana as a case study. We take advantage of a specific policy setting, in which strict stay-at-home orders were issued and enforced in two spatially delimited areas, bringing Ghana’s major metropolitan centres to a standstill, while in the rest of the country less stringent regulations were in place. Using a difference-in-differences design, we find that the three-week lockdown had a large and significant immediate negative impact on employment in the treated districts, particularly among workers in informal self-employment. While the gap in employment between the treated and control districts had narrowed four months after the lockdown was lifted, we detect a persistent nationwide impact on labour market outcomes, jeopardizing particularly the livelihoods of small business owners mainly operating in the informal economy.

This book compares the health systems of 11 countries to find out what the most successful, in terms of health outcomes, health equity and other measures, having in common. It considers patterns of social determinants, health funding and health expenditure, as well as the ‘first wave’ COVID-19 response of a wider sample 25 countries. Making use of Qualitative Comparative Analysis, it combines detailed studies of its eleven countries with robust, comparative analysis of them.

The Global Informal Workforce is a fresh look at the informal economy around the world and its impact on the macroeconomy. The book covers interactions between the informal economy, labor and product markets, gender equality, fiscal institutions and outcomes, social protection, and financial inclusion. Informality is a widespread and persistent phenomenon that affects how fast economies can grow, develop, and provide decent economic opportunities for their populations. The COVID-19 pandemic has helped to uncover the vulnerabilities of the informal workforce.

The book on “Innovative Teaching and Learning Process during COVID 19” is a very good effort in bringing novel ideas at the time of pandemic. The engagement with academic fraternity leading to this wonderful outcome is laudable. As the editors of this book, we are fortunate to go through every article and found few interesting aspects in teaching and learning process. Innovation has been the most buzzed word in the world today. In fact, academia across the globe are potentially involved in INNOVATION at every possible level. We wish this race with this pace towards innovation in teaching and learning mechanism drives us to “INNOVATION 5.0” in near future. This book will be instrumental in polarizing the thoughts of reader towards this process of innovation, particularly, in delivering lectures using online platforms and e-resources. Congratulations the authors in this book touched upon diverse topics related to the paradigm shift in teaching and learning process. Various tools, innovative practices were presented vividly in the articles of this book. Congratulations and wishes to authors and publishers for bringing out this productive outcome in the most critical transition time of educational reforms.

The book on “Innovative Teaching and Learning Process during COVID 19” is a very good effort in bringing novel ideas at the time of pandemic. The engagement with academic fraternity leading to this wonderful outcome is laudable. As the editors of this book, we are fortunate to go through every article and found few interesting aspects in teaching and learning process. Innovation has been the most buzzed word in the world today. In fact, academia across the globe are potentially involved in INNOVATION at every possible level. We wish this race with this pace towards innovation in teaching and learning mechanism drives us to “INNOVATION 5.0” in near future. This book will be instrumental in polarizing the thoughts of reader towards this process of innovation, particularly, in delivering lectures using online platforms and e-resources. The authors in this book touched upon diverse topics related to the paradigm shift in teaching and learning process. Various tools, innovative practices were presented vividly in the articles of this book. Congratulations and wishes to authors and publishers for bringing out this productive outcome in the most critical transition time of educational reforms.

The significant prevalence of healthcare associated infections (HAIs) in medical organizations of various profiles, its negative impact on the health of patients and the outcomes of the underlying disease, the increasing duration of treatment with the addition of HAIs have determined their relevance at all times. Ensuring the epidemiological safety of healthcare activities requires the introduction of new methods of prevention into epidemiological practice, which can only be implemented from the standpoint of an interdisciplinary approach, the joint participation of professionals of various specialties. An interdisciplinary approach to the prevention of HAIs during a pandemic of a new coronavirus infection has made it possible to successfully implement clinical and epidemiological practices, to form a new regulatory and legislative framework for the control of HAIs. This book of proceedings contains abstracts of reports prepared by leading experts: epidemiologists, disinfectologists, clinicians, scientists and medical practitioners. The published materials contain data on the professional risks of infection with the new coronavirus in medical workers, the development of post-COVID-19 syndrome, the resistance to antimicrobial drugs of the main pathogens of HAIs, including fungi, recommendations on the effective use of skin antiseptics and modern technology for air disinfection, as well as issues of improving the specific and non-specific prevention of the most socially significant infections, including COVID-19. The proceedings of the Congress are of interest to specialists from the institutions of Rospotrebnadzor, doctors of clinical specialties, epidemiologists, disinfectologists, as well as teachers of medical colleges and universities.

Covid-19 has highlighted limitations in our democratic politics – but also lessons for how to deepen our democracy and more effectively respond to future crises. In the face of an emergency, the working assumption all too often is that only a centralised, top-down response is possible. This book exposes the weakness of this assumption, making the case for deeper participation and deliberation in times of crises. During the pandemic, mutual aid and self-help groups have realised unmet needs. And forward-thinking organisations have shown that listening to and working with diverse social groups leads to more inclusive outcomes. Participation and deliberation are not just possible in an emergency. They are valuable, perhaps even indispensable. This book draws together a diverse range of voices of activists, practitioners, policy makers, researchers and writers. Together they make visible the critical role played by participation and deliberation during the pandemic and make the case for enhanced engagement during and beyond emergency contexts. Another, more democratic world can be realised in the face of a crisis. The contributors to this book offer us meaningful insights into what this could look like.

The Program Budget of the Pan American Health Organization 2022–2023 is the second to be developed and implemented under the Strategic Plan of the Pan American Health Organization 2020–2025. It sets out the corporate results and targets for the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) for the next two years. It presents the budget that the Pan American Sanitary Bureau will require in order to deliver on these biennial results and support Member States in improving health outcomes while contributing to the achievement of health targets set out in existing regional and global frameworks. The results framework of the Program Budget responds to the main strategic mandates for the period: the Thirteenth General Programme of Work of the World Health Organization (WHO), the WHO Programme Budget 2022–2023, the Sustainable Health Agenda for the Americas 2018–2030, and the PAHO Strategic Plan 2020–2025. Its implementation will also contribute to progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals. Moreover, this is the first Program Budget to be developed during the COVID-19 period, and many aspects of it have been shaped by the consequences and lessons learned from the protracted emergency.

Abstract The number of severe, sometimes catastrophic disruptive events has been rapidly increasing. Extreme weather events including floods, wildfires and hurricanes, and other natural disasters have become both more frequent and more severe. At the same time the COVID-19 pandemic has created a global threat to public health with huge economic effects that recovery packages tried to address. These disruptive events, alone and in combination, have dramatic consequences on nature, human life, and the economy, calling for urgent action to mitigate their causes and adapt to their impacts. In response to discourses of collapsology and end-of-growth theories, this book offers an analytical approach to developing legal responses that can help assure that needs of present and future generations can be met through energy systems, infrastructure development, and natural resources management in times of more frequent and intense disruption. ‘Resilience’ is therefore seen as a common framework for the interpretation and development of energy, infrastructure, and natural resources law. With a mix of thematic chapters and case studies from multiple jurisdictions, the book maps and assesses legal responses to disruptive nature-based events, and examines possible legal pathways for more sustainable outcomes, based on its engagement with the concept of ‘resilience’ and a social-ecological thinking.

Colleges and universities in the United States play a profoundly important role in American society. Currently, that role is being hampered by a climate that constrains teaching, research, hiring, and overall discourse. There are three core beliefs that define this climate. First, any initiative framed as an antidote to historical societal ills is automatically deemed meritorious, and thus exempted from objective scrutiny of its potential effectiveness. However, to use a medical analogy, not all proposed cures for a disease are good cures. Second, all differences in group-level outcomes are assumed to be due entirely to discrimination, with little tolerance given to exploring the potential role of factors such as culture or preferences. Third, everything must be interpreted through the lens of identity. Non-identity-centered perspectives, regardless of how worthy they might be, are viewed as less legitimate or even illegitimate. All of these beliefs are well intentioned and have arisen in response to important historical and continuing injustices. However, they are enforced in uncompromising terms through the use of social media, which has gained an ascendant role in shaping the culture of American campuses. The result is a climate that forecloses entire lines of research, entire discussions, and entire ways of conducting classroom teaching. The book explains these three beliefs in detail and provides an extensive list of case studies illustrating how they are impacting education and knowledge creation—and increasingly the world beyond campus. The book also provides a detailed set of recommendations on ways to help foster an environment on American campuses that would be more tolerant of diverse perspectives and open inquiry. A note about Covid-19: While the production of this book was done in spring and summer of 2020, we completed the manuscript in 2019, well before the Covid-19 pandemic shuttered American college campuses in March 2020. To put it mildly, the dynamics of campus discourse are very different when dorms have been largely emptied and instruction has been moved to Zoom. Of course, at present we cannot know when students will be able to return to campus in significant numbers. That said, we are confident that our call for a culture of more open discourse in higher education will remain relevant both during the pandemic and after it has passed.

This book is a historical review of international food and agriculture since the founding of the international organizations following the Second World War, including the World Bank and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP) and into the 1970s, when CGIAR was established and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) was created to recycle petrodollars. The book concurrently focuses on the structural transformation of developing countries in Asia and Africa, with some making great strides in small farmer development and in achieving structural transformation of their economies. Some have also achieved Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG2, but most have not. Not only are some countries, particularly in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, lagging behind, but they face new challenges of climate change, competition from emerging countries, population pressure, urbanization, environmental decay, dietary transition, and now pandemics. Lagging developing countries need huge investments in human capital, and physical and institutional infrastructure, to take advantage of rapid change in technologies, but the role of international assistance in financial transfers has diminished. The COVID-19 pandemic has not only set many poorer countries back but starkly revealed the weaknesses of past strategies. Transformative changes are needed in developing countries with international cooperation to achieve better outcomes. Will the change in US leadership bring new opportunities for multilateral cooperation?

Government is a major player in the development of an economy. Government’s public financial operations involving raising of revenue and its spending have considerable implications on the growth, distribution, and stability, necessitating a careful study to enable informed mid-course policy corrections to the macroeconomic developments. A critical review of public expenditure is imperative in ensuring optimal use of public resources for the maximization of welfare. The present book provides an empirical understanding of historical trends and composition of public expenditure at the central and the sub-national levels; the effectiveness of public expenditure control systems and accountability issues; the political economy of spending decisions; public expenditure reforms undertaken in India; and international best options that can guide the corrective process in India. Given the global shift in focus from ‘outlays’ to ‘outcomes’, it is important to put in place a sound framework to track the results of government expenditure programs to guide the informed expenditure decision-making process. The book documents the features of useful frameworks and steps involved in adopting a robust results framework. Fiscal management of Covid-19 is an important component of the book. The purpose of this volume is to reach out a comprehensive and updated understanding of empirical issues in public expenditure and its management in India to the students of public finance.

These Guidelines are one of the results of the four-year research project “Open Online Learning for Digital and Networked Society” (2017-2021). The project objective was to enable university teachers to design open and online learning through open and online learning curriculum and environment applying learning analytics as a metacognitive tool and creating open and online learning assessment and recognition practices, responding to the needs of digital and networked society. The research of the project resulted in 10 scientific publications and 2 studies prepared by Vytautas Magnus university Institute of Innovative Studies research team in collaboration with their international research partners from Germany, Spain and Portugal. The final stage of the research attempted creating open and online learning assessment and recognition practices, responding to the learner needs in contemporary digital and networked society. The need for open learning recognition has been increasing during the recent decade while the developments of open learning related to the Covid 19 pandemics have dramatically increased the need for systematic and high-quality assessment and recognition of learning acquired online. The given time also relates to the increased need to offer micro-credentials to learners, as well as a rising need for universities to prepare for micro-credentialization and issue new digital credentials to learners who are regular students, as well as adult learners joining for single courses. The increased need of all labour - market participants for frequent and fast renewal of competences requires a well working and easy to use system of open learning assessment and recognition. For learners, it is critical that the micro-credentials are well linked to national and European qualification frameworks, as well as European digital credential infrastructures (e.g., Europass and similar). For employers, it is important to receive requested quality information that is encrypted in the metadata of the credential. While for universities, there is the need to properly prepare institutional digital infrastructure, organizational procedures, descriptions of open learning opportunities and virtual learning environments to share, import and export the meta-data easily and seamlessly through European Digital Hub service infrastructures, as well as ensure that academic and administrative staff has digital competencies to design, issue and recognise open learning through digital and micro-credentials. The first chapter of the Guidelines provides a background view of the European Qualification Framework and National Qualification frameworks for the further system of gaining, stacking and modelling further qualifications through open online learning. The second chapter suggests the review of current European policy papers and consultations on the establishment of micro-credentials in European higher education. The findings of the report of micro-credentials higher education consultation group “European Approach to Micro-credentials” is shortly introduced, as well as important policy discussions taking place. Responding to the Rome Bologna Comunique 2020, where the ministers responsible for higher education agreed to support lifelong learning through issuing micro-credentials, a joint endeavour of DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion and DG Research and Innovation resulted in one of the most important political documents highlighting the potential of micro-credentials towards economic, social and education innovations. The consultation group of experts from the Member States defined the approach to micro-credentials to facilitate their validation, recognition and portability, as well as to foster a larger uptake to support individual learning in any subject area and at any stage of life or career. The Consultation Group also suggested further urgent topics to be discussed, including the storage, data exchange, portability, and data standards of micro-credentials and proposed EU Standard of constitutive elements of micro-credentials. The third chapter is devoted to the institutional readiness to issue and to recognize digital and micro-credentials. Universities need strategic decisions and procedures ready to be enacted for assessment of open learning and issuing micro-credentials. The administrative and academic staff needs to be aware and confident to follow these procedures while keeping the quality assurance procedures in place, as well. The process needs to include increasing teacher awareness in the processes of open learning assessment and the role of micro-credentials for the competitiveness of lifelong learners in general. When the strategic documents and procedures to assess open learning are in place and the staff is ready and well aware of the processes, the description of the courses and the virtual learning environment needs to be prepared to provide the necessary metadata for the assessment of open learning and issuing of micro-credentials. Different innovation-driven projects offer solutions: OEPass developed a pilot Learning Passport, based on European Diploma Supplement, MicroHE developed a portal Credentify for displaying, verifying and sharing micro-credential data. Credentify platform is using Blockchain technology and is developed to comply with European Qualifications Framework. Institutions, willing to join Credentify platform, should make strategic discussions to apply micro-credential metadata standards. The ECCOE project building on outcomes of OEPass and MicroHE offers an all-encompassing set of quality descriptors for credentials and the descriptions of learning opportunities in higher education. The third chapter also describes the requirements for university structures to interact with the Europass digital credentials infrastructure. In 2020, European Commission launched a new Europass platform with Digital Credential Infrastructure in place. Higher education institutions issuing micro-credentials linked to Europass digital credentials infrastructure may offer added value for the learners and can increase reliability and fraud-resistant information for the employers. However, before using Europass Digital Credentials, universities should fulfil the necessary preconditions that include obtaining a qualified electronic seal, installing additional software and preparing the necessary data templates. Moreover, the virtual learning environment needs to be prepared to export learning outcomes to a digital credential, maintaining and securing learner authentication. Open learning opportunity descriptions also need to be adjusted to transfer and match information for the credential meta-data. The Fourth chapter illustrates how digital badges as a type of micro-credentials in open online learning assessment may be used in higher education to create added value for the learners and employers. An adequately provided metadata allows using digital badges as a valuable tool for recognition in all learning settings, including formal, non-formal and informal.