Academic literature on the topic 'Information systems for sustainable development and the public good'

Sustainability issues have been seen as a promising paradigm for achieving a better future. Firms in the logistics service sector are still lacking clear value propositions on sustainable development. While many organizations publish their mission statements publicly as kinds of public information, reviewing mission statements is an appropriate means to evaluate an organization's strategy. This study focuses on the public information such as mission statements of the top 50 global 3-PL companies and the relevant sustainable development. A comprehensive content analysis identified four major content dimensions of mission statements relating to sustainability development. The dimensions are driving forces, approaches, responsibility to stakeholders, and competitive values. This paper offers a good methodological reference for researchers or practitioners managing the public information of organizations. Network analysis reveals that the location of companies has a limited effect on their mission and strategy as they all provide global service.

In Brazil, the process of localizing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) using public databases faces technical, institutional and political challenges. There are essentially no comprehensive current studies regarding the downscaling of the SDG indicators at the smallest territorial levels (e.g., the municipal level). In the context of unprecedented health emergencies, such as the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, this paper discusses the capacity of the Brazilian public information system to support the localization of SDG 3 (good health and well-being) indicators at the municipal level. This study evaluates the proposed indicators for SDG 3 and databases that underpin these indicators. The results and discussion cover central data and process deficiencies in the public health information systems that hinder SDG 3 localization efforts, the 2030 Agenda and its goal of universality.

Economic globalization results in unbalanced development and growing inequality between the centre and the periphery of the global economic map. This process is driven by the expansionist policies of the corporations and the financial capital, being in collision with the social protection system. Markets are good for wealth creation, but they fail to take care of the citizens’ social needs. Social justice is a public good that can be provided for only by means of the political process. Globalization fails to meet the needs of the ultimate beneficiary of the development processes - the citizen. The modality in which economic localization foundations were set in the development and transitional economies, did not exhibit clear development capacities in order to improve the global position of these countries. Alternative development strategies are required in order to keep the territorial integrity of the nation-state and radical reforming of the central government role in the process is a prerequisite. The main driving force of the sustainable governance concept refers to the participation, knowledge and information distribution and cooperation among stakeholders. Economic prosperity is dependent on the effectiveness in production, collection and use of knowledge in the economic processes. Economy converts into a hierarchy of networks and what comes out as a result is a network society in which individual or corporative capacity for participation and networking determines the socio-economic position. Knowledge - Based Economy (KBE) refers to an economy that applies information resources, technology and knowledge into the economic development processes. Innovations entail increased communication intensity and feedback among companies, academic institutions, laboratories, consumers. They are a result of a number of interactions and synergies of specific innovative systems that tend to expand outside national borders, ideally becoming global, incorporating numerous global-local connections. (JEL Q01, F60, F00)

The modern world is bound not only by global flows of information, capital, services, and movement of goods and people but also by the wide range of opportunities to exert both positive and negative effects on these flows. Already, most of the aforementioned global flows, stationary and variable objects are protected (organized, coordinated, controlled) by digital technology and in the foreseeable future digitization will encompass the most diverse aspects and processes of existence. Access to the development, deployment, management and use of relevant digital technologies has expanded to such an extent that it has become virtually difficult and even impossible to provide timely protection against a wide range of actors, ranging from unauthorized specialized gathering to varying degrees of security. The development of information technology, which increasingly embraces various aspects of the existence of different security entities, calls for a new rethink of the philosophical - ideological, political, economic, social and cultural foundations of public security. In recent decades human rights have dominated in the discourse of legal and political systems. Now the balance between protection of human rights and public safety in the context of digitalization imposes necessity to reflect the concept of fundamental rights once again. Keywords: Sustainable digitalization, public and private security, human rights

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the development of good governance research worldwide covering the practices by the public and private institutions. Design/methodology/approach – A bibliometric study on 3,375 scientific papers from 1990 to 2018 was conducted, and the data was analyzed to examine the trends and challenges in the worldwide scientific productions for good governance. Findings – Most research comes from scholars in the high-income countries (70%) and has moved from classical socio-economic topics of good public governance to sustainable environmental development. Post-colonial politics and economy remain unending discussion on good governance in Africa and Asia. Exporting the implementation of good governance from wealthier countries attracts critics and arguments from the third countries. Practical implications – 3,375 scientific papers used in this research was collected from Scopus database. While it was not the only existing scientific research database, the collection could not guarantee the sample adequacy of the worldwide scientific knowledge on good governance. There are papers that are not Open Access (OA), written in other languages, published in regional/national journals, nor have significant academic impact. Originality/value – The authors recognize that this study is the first evaluation ever. The result provides the first scientific reference for probing the worldwide practices of good governance for public and private sectors. Under the changing world environment in the form of digital transformation, the rise of intangible economy, and the worldwide trend of co-existence between nationalism and globalism; this paper can provoke the policymakers to rethink good governance both for public and private institutions.

This research explores transdisciplinary knowledge, skills, motivations, values, deep expectations of all members of Society interested in Dance, in order to integrate established knowledge on development of services and information systems with the exploration of the progression of Dance in an open environment of digital innovation, initiatives management, social networking, crowdsourcing and public engagement. This leads to identifying the innovative ideas for resilient and sustainable progression of Dance in the situation of pandemic and to developing a myriad of services assisting this progression. This research is oriented towards service development, by identifying innovative ideas aiming at the progression of Dance in the situation of pandemic, concretising them as information common goods and organising them as informational commons, in order to actionalise them as contributory services. To support the development of services in a sustainable and responsible way, it suggests to develop a protected place adapted to co-construction of information services, Tiers-Lieux for Services (TLS), which allows identifying added value of all initiatives, so that responsible and interested persons could all actively participate in actionalising the created added value for the development of dance-related services.

Seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) were adopted by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2015 for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG3) is ‘Better health and well-being by 2030’. According to WHO, good health in the context of SDG3 is assessed with respect to the level and distribution of individuals’ and communities’ healthy life, conditions that affect health and well-being and risk factors whose presence would affect health and well-being. The overall aim is that each SDG target is achieved by 2030. In 2018 the WHO used statistical methods to assess the state of health in Africa in the context of SDG3. Their analysis revealed successes and shortfalls towards attaining SDG3. Backed by public health and other activities, statistics play an important role in improving the health and well-being of Africa. This paper explains how statistics can be used to help African countries to attain SDG3, in its role in modeling event histories, diagnosis, evidence-based medicine, determination of risk factors of exposures of morbidity and mortality, determination of risk factors of morbidity and mortality, the computation of the level and distribution of vital events, measuring disease frequency and progress, quantification of life expectancy and monitoring and evaluation.

Public procurement accounts for almost 20% of Spain’s gross domestic product (GDP). The current legislation allows for the inclusion of social considerations in contracting processes, hence the interest of this study, which defines the procedures and improvement actions for socially efficient public procurement. The Delphi technique has been used, based on online surveys completed by 71 Spanish experts. The universe includes the set of nomenclature of territorial units for statistics (NUTs), as well as a number of agents with the potential to intervene in the analysis process, namely, academia, the business sector, and public administrations. There is an increasing call for the inclusion of social considerations in tender procedures. However, to date, few studies have provided detailed insight into the inclusion of these social aspects. This study contributes to the scientific literature by identifying six possible strategies for including social considerations into public tenders, namely: objectivizing procedures, generating monitoring tools, developing information and training actions for decision-makers, incorporating awareness-raising initiatives, creating transparency systems, and including information and communication technologies (ICTs). The following four key action areas were also detected: social clauses, reserved markets, social impact assessment, and innovation in public procurement. A consensus was reached on four frames for incorporating the strategies and action areas, namely: socio-economic, procedural, competence, and conceptual. This allows for the efficient inclusion of social considerations into public tenders, thereby generating a twofold impact—one via the goods or services acquired, and the second via the impact on the process of producing said goods or services.

Topicality. Actual is the improvement of marketing technologies in the field of economics of experience in the conditions of sustainable development. Social innovations are of great importance for economic development, through the improvement of equipment and technologies, new business models to improve the quality of life of people and social infrastructure in accordance with global trends. The goal is to achieve sustainable development of society in which the satisfaction of environmental, economic and social needs is carried out in a balanced way. The current stage of development of the world economy has a tendency to transition to an information and communication society, where information is a commodity, but such a transition is possible only in conditions of sufficient provision of society with material goods. Marketing the economy of experience (impressions) is an additional human activity that relates to the market in the conditions of fierce competition and a saturated market, when its principles serve as the only possible way to ensure profitability and plus additional profitability of production, growth and development of the enterprise. Market orientation determines the main areas of economic activity and evaluates its results by the value of the final income.Thus, social innovations include new strategies, concepts, ideas and organizations that satisfy any social needs - from working conditions and education to the development of communities and health care, contributing to the expansion and consolidation of civil society. The concept of social innovation includes goods and services that will combine the intellectual and environmental needs of society, and this is one of the main directions of the economy of experience.An analysis of the existing experience in the field of marketing the economy of impressions gives reason to say that the problem of managing marketing experience (impressions) in promoting an environmentally balanced business and its implementation in both domestic and international markets has not been developed.Aim and tasks. The aim of the article is to determine, in the context of sustainable development, the basic directions of marketing the economy of experience by substantiating the theoretical and practical foundations of the formation of the mechanism of innovative and ecological development of society.Research results. The priority area for improving the mechanism for implementing the state economic and environmental policy is the reform of the legislative and regulatory framework for environmental management. For the effective solution of economic and environmental problems, a set of certain methods, techniques, technologies for the organization and management of industrial and economic activities is required. To manage events, it is necessary to form public opinion and mood, purposefully establish communication with various groups of the public, that is, changing the existing concept of socio-economic development can change the existing order. Sustainable socio-economic development of Ukraine is largely determined by the state of the environment and the level of use of natural resource potential. The need for a balance between the economy and the environment has led to the fact that marketing experience economics began to appear and stand out in the marketing system. Sustainable development targets are a high quality of life and a level of economic development, as well as environmental stability.The current stage of development of the global economy has a tendency to transition to the information society, where information is a commodity, but such a transition is possible only in conditions of sufficient provision of society with material goods. Thus, social innovations include new strategies, concepts, ideas and organizations that satisfy any social needs - from working conditions and education to the development of communities and health care, contributing to the expansion and consolidation of civil society. The concept of social innovation includes goods and services that will combine the intellectual and environmental needs of society, and this is one of the main directions of the economy of experience.Marketing experience economics in the conditions of sustainable development, that is, marketing changes in the sphere of economic and environmental relations, could become a lever for enhancing economic development. In modern theories of social development, there is a tendency to consider social innovation as economic, environmental, political, emotional, ethical innovation. This is argued by the fact that it is these structures that are the mechanisms for implementing changes that have matured in the depths of society, and without their help they simply cannot be implemented. The economics of experience is associated with the changes, so marketing approaches will reflect all the socio-economic-environmental changes in the interests of consumers and real estimates or assortment, quality and other parameters of products and services being produced and sold.Conclusion. The basis of the strategy of the economy of impressions (in particular, when developing the strategy of the “blue ocean”) is the innovation of value - this is not a competitive advantage, but what makes competition simply unnecessary due to the company reaching a whole new level. In contrast to the classical competitive approach, in order to use the strategy of innovation of value, it is not necessary to choose between low costs and high value. This strategy allows you to simultaneously create high value at low cost. The convergence of technologies, industries, markets, products, will expand the traditional boundaries of industries. In this regard, multidimensional studies of marketing systems that are part of integrated socio-ecological-economic systems, combined by information flows, are necessary. In the process of formation of market structures of the economics of experience, the task is to combine the interests of the economy, society and improve the natural environment. Reducing pollution and preserving natural resources becomes beneficial for the economy of impressions (experience, skill). The globalization of the world economy, facilitating the economic interaction between states, stimulates the growth of the economy of impressions, accelerates and increases the scale of the exchange of advanced achievements of mankind in the economic, scientific, technical and intellectual sphere, which, of course, contributes to the general progress of mankind.

The application of institutional theory in the development of land management and land surveying to solve land problems in the period of globalization is due to the problems of human security and sustainable development. Institutional theory must justify the use and protection of land not only as a material but also as a public good. Four scientific positions were highlighted, which characterize the international institutionalization of land organization and land planning and related processes: 1) international institutionalization of land organization and land planning as a process of transition to international principles and standards of sustainable land management; 2) international institutionalization of land organization and land planning as a process of creating information on land ownership to ensure comparability of land statistics in the field of land resources and geospatial database and statistical reporting of different countries; 3) international institutionalization of land organization and land planning as a process of unification and harmonization of information systems for land accounting at the international level; 4) international standardization as a process of bringing national norms of territorial and spatial planning of land use development to international level while preserving essential national peculiarities. The relationship between the components of the process of globalization of land management and land surveying is characterized by the impact of globalization on the development of land management and land management. Implementation of institutions and institutes of land management and land surveying is carried out through coordination, redistribution, transactional and capitalization functions for the formation of sustainable (balanced) land use.

The objective of this study is to develop a quantifying model that predicts the appraised unit value of parcels in San Francisco County based on number of LEED-NC Public Transportation Access (PTA) qualified bus, light rail and commuter rail stops, distance to closest bus, light rail and commuter rail stops, zoning class and parcel size. As a population of interest, San Francisco County was chosen since it is known as a region having well-organized transportation systems including bus, light rail and commuter rail systems. According to the correlation results, for mixed zone, an appraised unit value increases as the number of LEED qualified transit stops increases (bus, light rail, and commuter rail). In addition, the appraised unit value increases as the distance to LEED qualified bus stops light rail stops decreases. For residential zone, the appraised unit value increases as the number of LEED qualified bus and light rail stations increases. Furthermore, the appraised unit value increases as the distance to LEED qualified bus stops decreases. When it comes to the predictive regression model for mixed zone, the adjusted R-square of the transformed model was 0.713, which indicates that 71.3 percent variability in transformed unit value of parcels could be explained by these variables. In addition, for the predictive model of residential zone, the adjusted R-square for the model was 0.622 thus the independent variables together accounted for 62.2 percent variability in the transformed unit value of parcels. The predicting models for mixed and residential zones were significant that suggests that the components of LEED-NC PTA criteria, number and distance from parcels, this could affect land development strategies. In addition, an appraised unit value of parcels in San Francisco County can be estimated by using the predictive models developed in this study. Therefore, the findings of this study could encourage real-estate developers to site their projects according to the LEED-NC PTA criteria.

International development agencies and developed countries are demanding participatory good governance in local government bodies in developing countries to maximise outcomes from development plan implementations. To comply with this demand, the Government of Bangladesh introduced decentralisation, reforms and deregulation measures to use local government bodies to implement most development programs in rural areas with the engagement of local people. However, many researchers argue that there is little scope for the people to be effectively engaged in the affairs of Bangladesh local government. One of the major reasons for this ineffectiveness is the barrier caused by government bureaucrats and politicians. Unfortunately, none of the research studies to date have revealed precisely how these localised political and bureaucratic arrangements create barriers to participation. Considering these circumstances, this study has been designed to investigate the specific circumstances at the local level and the barriers to the process of people’s participation in local government bodies. The research also seeks to find possible ways to increase people’s participation in development programs which can contribute to good governance. The nature of the research is, therefore, to track both the subjective (attitude of government and elected local government officials and local people), and objective factors (administrative and legal systems for people’s participation), which are causing barriers to participation.

Establishment of health information systems has been a central objective of health sector reform in nearly all LMICs over the last two to three decades. Historically, reform processes have taken introduction of health information systems as inhertently strengthening health sector performance. But today it is more appropriate to talk of health sector strengthening as co-evolving with health information systems strengthening, each reinforcing the performance and reform agendas of the other. The need to build synergies is heightened as there are a multitude of global and national health reform processes underway, like those assoicated with the sustainable development goals or with universal health coverage and each of these have expanded informational needs, requiring robust, flexible, and evolving health information systems. An understanding of the challenges faced by efforts at health systems strengthening helps provide meaningful inputs into health information systems design and vice versa. Such an understanding will enrich public health informatics as an academic discipline, as an area of practice, and as a policy domain.

Rapid and unpredictable developments in health policies, technologies, disease profiles, institutional environments, and their inter-connections have significant implications on how we design, develop, implement, and use health information systems (HIS) in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). Our current systems have heightened expectations but have proven largely incapable of meeting these new challenges. Nor have they been able to effectively leverage upon the new opportunities that are emerging, such as through the cloud, big data, the proliferation of mobile devices and the Internet of Things, and also the increasing array of new open source software solutions being made available through global development communities. What is required to try and address these challenges and opportunities? This book proposes the ‘Expanded PHI’ (public health informatics) perspective as a way forward, and through the various chapters first seeks to define it, and then apply it to analyse the following key problematics facing public health informatics in the domains of research, practice, and policy: use of information; integration of systems; leveraging cloud computing and big data; design and building of institutions that facilitate; managing complexity; evolving governance mechanisms and standards; responding to the new challenges thrown up by universal health coverage and Sustainable Development Goals; and building synergies between health systems strengthening and health information strengthening efforts. In defining the scope of Expanded PHI, the field of public health informatics is first situated within an informatics context, and then within public health and finally within the context of changing global health policies. Drawing from these contextualizations, the design principles for Expanded PHI are elucidated, based primarily on a social systems perspective, where the health of populations is kept as the central purpose and a participatory and incremental nature of change as the primary strategy.

This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Climate Science. Please check back later for the full article.Africa, a continent with the largest number of countries falling under the category of Least Developed Countries (LDCs), remains highly dependent on rain-fed agriculture that suffers from low intake of water, exacerbating the vulnerability to climate variability and anthropogenic climate change. The increasing frequency and severity of climate extremes impose major strains on the economies of these countries. The loss of livelihoods due to interaction of climate change with existing stressors is elevating internal and cross-border migration. The continent is experiencing rapid urbanization, and its cities represent the most vulnerable locations to climate change due in part to incapacitated local governance. Overall, the institutional capacity to coordinate, regulate, and facilitate development in Africa is weak. The general public is less empowered to hold government accountable. The rule of law, media, and other watchdog organizations, and systems of checks and balances are constrained in different ways, contributing to poor governance and resulting in low capacity to respond to climate risks.As a result, climate policy and governance are inseparable in Africa, and capacitating the government is as essential as establishing climate policy. With the highest level of vulnerability to climate change compared with the rest of the world, governance in Africa is pivotal in crafting and implementing viable climate policies.It is indisputable that African climate policy should focus first and foremost on adaptation to climate change. It is pertinent, therefore, to assess Africa’s governance ability to identify and address the continent’s needs for adaptation. One key aspect of effective climate policy is access to up-to-date and contextually relevant information that encompasses indigenous knowledge. African countries have endeavored to meet international requirements for reports such as the National Communications on Climate Change Impacts and Vulnerabilities and the National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs). However, the capacity to deliver on-time quality reports is lacking; also the implementation, in particular integration of adaptation plans into the overall development agenda, remains a challenge. There are a few successes, but overall adaptation operates mainly at project level. Furthermore, the capacity to access and effectively utilize availed international resources, such as extra funding or technology transfer, is limited in Africa.While the continent is an insignificant source of emissions on a global scale, a more forward looking climate policy would require integrating adaptation with mitigation to put in place a foundation for transformation of the development agenda, towards a low carbon driven economy. Such a futuristic approach calls for a comprehensive and robust climate policy governance that goes beyond climate to embrace the Sustainable Development Goals Agenda 2030. Both governance and climate policy in Africa will need to be viewed broadly, encompassing the process of globalization, which has paved the way to a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene. The question is, what should be the focus of climate policy and governance across Africa under the Anthropocene era?

On 9 November 2021, 9th International Scientific-Practical Conference “Managerial Sciences in the Modern World” was opened. This year, the event took place in the online format because of the strained epidemiological situation. A total of about 450 specialists took part in the conference. “Managerial Sciences” has already become a kind of brand, with more than half a dozen different round table discussions, sections”, said Arkady Trachuk, Dean of the Faculty “Higher School of Management” at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, who moderated the plenary session. He said that the 2021 conference participants included representatives from Latvia, Republic of Fiji, Kuwait, India, Uzbekistan, and Russia. Russia was represented by seven regions: Moscow and Moscow Region, Bryansk-, Tver-, Saratov-, Arkhangelsk regions, Republic of Tatarstan and Krasnodar Territory. Delegates from 25 universities, including 6 foreign higher educational establishments, took part in the sections’ work. The central event of the first day of the conference was a plenary session during which presentations were delivered by representatives of Germany, Slovenia, Uzbekistan and Russia. The plenary session was opened by Arkady Trachuk. His presentation focused on the goals of introducing digital technologies in the Russian industry. The speaker presented the results of the research implemented by a team of scholars from the Department of Management and Innovation at the Faculty “Higher School of Management”. Alexander Brem, Head of Technological Entrepreneurship and Digitalisation at Stifterverband Consulting Company funded by Daimler Foundation (Germany), talked about artificial intelligence as an innovation management technology. The expert is convinced that artificial intelligence will become the core technology to drive the technological development in the 21st century. Jörg Geisler, head of Finance and Risk Management at S-Kreditpartner GmbH, expert on consumer lending at savings banks (Germany), dwelled on an important subject – “Risk management at times of digital innovation” by the example of the banking industry. Samo Bobek, Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) at the University of Maribor, Professor of e-business and information management (Slovenia), delivered a presentation on “Digital transformation impact on business models”. His presentation dealt with digital transformation of business models. Azizjon Bobojonov, Head of International Project Office, Associate Professor of the Department “Digital Economy and Information Technologies” at Tashkent State University of Economics (Republic of Uzbekistan), talked in his presentation “Reinventing the services in the digital age” about new discoveries in the service industry in the epoch of digital transformation. The plenary session was followed by thematic sessions in the following areas: • Change management and leadership • Business strategies and sustainable development • International management and business • Theoretical issues of management • Theory and practice of project management • Corporate governance and corporate social responsibility • Operations and business process management • Strategic financial management • Public sector management and efficiency problems • Major cities and urban agglomerations management • Real sector investment management • Crisis and business continuity management • Systems analysis in management • Knowledge and talent management • Sports digitalisation management • Digital marketing and marketing communications • Shaping innovation strategy in the conditions of the fourth industrial revolution.

Economy and mankind are inextricably interlinked. Just as the economy or the production of material wealth is unimaginable without a man, so human existence and development are impossible without the wealth created in the economy. Shortly, both the goal and the means of achieving and realization of the economy are still the human resources. People have long ago noticed that it was the economy that created livelihoods, and the delays in their production led to the catastrophic events such as hunger, poverty, civil wars, social upheavals, revolutions, moral degeneration, and more. Therefore, the special interest of people in understanding the regulatory framework of the functioning of the economy has existed and exists in all historical epochs [A. Sisvadze. Economic theory. Part One. 2006y. p. 22]. The system of economic disciplines studies economy or economic activities of a society. All of them are based on science, which is currently called economic theory in the post-socialist space (the science of economics, the principles of economics or modern economics), and in most countries of the world - predominantly in the Greek-Latin manner - economics. The title of the present book is also Modern Economics. Economics (economic theory) is the science that studies the efficient use of limited resources to produce and distribute goods and services in order to satisfy as much as possible the unlimited needs and demands of the society. More simply, economics is the science of choice and how society manages its limited resources. Moreover, it should be emphasized that economics (economic theory) studies only the distribution, exchange and consumption of the economic wealth (food, beverages, clothing, housing, machine tools, computers, services, etc.), the production of which is possible and limited. And the wealth that exists indefinitely: no economic relations are formed in the production and distribution of solar energy, air, and the like. This current book is the second complete updated edition of the challenges of the modern global economy in the context of the coronary crisis, taking into account some of the priority directions of the country's development. Its purpose is to help students and interested readers gain a thorough knowledge of economics and show them how this knowledge can be applied pragmatically (professionally) in professional activities or in everyday life. To achieve this goal, this textbook, which consists of two parts and tests, discusses in simple and clear language issues such as: the essence of economics as a science, reasons for origin, purpose, tasks, usefulness and functions; Basic principles, problems and peculiarities of economics in different economic systems; Needs and demand, the essence of economic resources, types and limitations; Interaction, mobility, interchangeability and efficient use of economic resources. The essence and types of wealth; The essence, types and models of the economic system; The interaction of households and firms in the market of resources and products; Market mechanism and its elements - demand, supply and price; Demand and supply elasticity; Production costs and the ways to reduce them; Forms of the market - perfect and incomplete competition markets and their peculiarities; Markets for Production Factors and factor incomes; The essence of macroeconomics, causes and importance of origin; The essence and calculation of key macroeconomic indicators (gross national product, gross domestic product, net national product, national income, etc.); Macroeconomic stability and instability, unemployment, inflation and anti-inflationary policies; State regulation of the economy and economic policy; Monetary and fiscal policy; Income and standard of living; Economic Growth; The Corona Pandemic as a Defect and Effect of Globalization; National Economic Problems and New Opportunities for Development in the conditions of the Coronary Crisis; The Socio-economic problems of moral obsolescence in digital technologies; Education and creativity are the main solution way to overcome the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus; Positive and negative effects of tourism in Georgia; Formation of the middle class as a contributing factor to the development of tourism in Georgia; Corporate culture in Georgian travel companies, etc. The axiomatic truth is that economics is the union of people in constant interaction. Given that the behavior of the economy reflects the behavior of the people who make up the economy, after clarifying the essence of the economy, we move on to the analysis of the four principles of individual decision-making. Furtermore, the book describes how people make independent decisions. The key to making an individual decision is that people have to choose from alternative options, that the value of any action is measured by the value of what must be given or what must be given up to get something, that the rational, smart people make decisions based on the comparison of the marginal costs and marginal returns (benefits), and that people behave accordingly to stimuli. Afterwards, the need for human interaction is then analyzed and substantiated. If a person is isolated, he will have to take care of his own food, clothes, shoes, his own house and so on. In the case of such a closed economy and universalization of labor, firstly, its productivity will be low and, secondly, it will be able to consume only what it produces. It is clear that human productivity will be higher and more profitable as a result of labor specialization and the opportunity to trade with others. Indeed, trade allows each person to specialize, to engage in the activities that are most successful, be it agriculture, sewing or construction, and to buy more diverse goods and services from others at a relatively lower price. The key to such human interactions is that trade is mutually beneficial; That markets are usually the good means of coordination between people and that the government can improve the results of market functioning if the market reveals weakness or the results of market functioning are not fair. Moroever, it also shows how the economy works as a whole. In particular, it is argued that productivity is a key determinant of living standards, that an increase in the money supply is a major source of inflation, and that one of the main impediments to avoiding inflation is the existence of an alternative between inflation and unemployment in the short term, that the inflation decrease causes the temporary decline in unemployement and vice versa. The Understanding creatively of all above mentioned issues, we think, will help the reader to develop market economy-appropriate thinking and rational economic-commercial-financial behaviors, to be more competitive in the domestic and international labor markets, and thus to ensure both their own prosperity and the functioning of the country's economy. How he/she copes with the tasks, it is up to the individual reader to decide. At the same time, we will receive all the smart useful advices with a sense of gratitude and will take it into account in the further work. We also would like to thank the editor and reviewers of the books. Finally, there are many things changing, so it is very important to realize that the XXI century has come: 1. The century of the new economy; 2. Age of Knowledge; 3. Age of Information and economic activities are changing in term of innovations. 1. Why is the 21st century the century of the new economy? Because for this period the economic resources, especially non-productive, non-recoverable ones (oil, natural gas, coal, etc.) are becoming increasingly limited. According to the World Energy Council, there are currently 43 years of gas and oil reserves left in the world (see “New Commersant 2007 # 2, p. 16). Under such conditions, sustainable growth of real gross domestic product (GDP) and maximum satisfaction of uncertain needs should be achieved not through the use of more land, labor and capital (extensification), but through more efficient use of available resources (intensification) or innovative economy. And economics, as it was said, is the science of finding the ways about the more effective usage of the limited resources. At the same time, with the sustainable growth and development of the economy, the present needs must be met in a way that does not deprive future generations of the opportunity to meet their needs; 2. Why is the 21st century the age of knowledge? Because in a modern economy, it is not land (natural resources), labor and capital that is crucial, but knowledge. Modern production, its factors and products are not time-consuming and capital-intensive, but science-intensive, knowledge-intensive. The good example of this is a Japanese enterprise (firm) where the production process is going on but people are almost invisible, also, the result of such production (Japanese product) is a miniature or a sample of how to get the maximum result at the lowest cost; 3. Why is the 21st century the age of information? Because the efficient functioning of the modern economy, the effective organization of the material and personal factors of production largely depend on the right governance decision. The right governance decision requires prompt and accurate information. Gone are the days when the main means of transport was a sailing ship, the main form of data processing was pencil and paper, and the main means of transmitting information was sending letters through a postman on horseback. By the modern transport infrastructure (highways, railways, ships, regular domestic and international flights, oil and gas pipelines, etc.), the movement of goods, services and labor resoucres has been significantly accelerated, while through the modern means of communication (mobile phone, internet, other) the information is spreading rapidly globally, which seems to have "shrunk" the world and made it a single large country. The Authors of the book: Ushangi Samadashvili, Doctor of Economic Sciences, Associate Professor of Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University - Introduction, Chapters - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11,12, 15,16, 17.1,18 , Tests, Revaz Shengelia, Doctor of Economics, Professor of Georgian Technical University, Chapters_7, 8, 13. 14, 17.2, 17.4; Zhuzhuna Tsiklauri - Doctor of Economics, Professor of Georgian Technical University - Chapters 13.6, 13.7,17.2, 17.3, 18. We also thank the editor and reviewers of the book.

Nationalism: Past as Prologue began as a single volume being compiled by Ad Akande, a scholar from South Africa, who proposed it to me as co-author about two years ago. The original idea was to examine how the damaging roots of nationalism have been corroding political systems around the world, and creating dangerous obstacles for necessary international cooperation. Since I (Bruce E. Johansen) has written profusely about climate change (global warming, a.k.a. infrared forcing), I suggested a concerted effort in that direction. This is a worldwide existential threat that affects every living thing on Earth. It often compounds upon itself, so delays in reducing emissions of fossil fuels are shortening the amount of time remaining to eliminate the use of fossil fuels to preserve a livable planet. Nationalism often impedes solutions to this problem (among many others), as nations place their singular needs above the common good. Our initial proposal got around, and abstracts on many subjects arrived. Within a few weeks, we had enough good material for a 100,000-word book. The book then fattened to two moderate volumes and then to four two very hefty tomes. We tried several different titles as good submissions swelled. We also discovered that our best contributors were experts in their fields, which ranged the world. We settled on three stand-alone books:” 1/ nationalism and racial justice. Our first volume grew as the growth of Black Lives Matter following the brutal killing of George Floyd ignited protests over police brutality and other issues during 2020, following the police assassination of Floyd in Minneapolis. It is estimated that more people took part in protests of police brutality during the summer of 2020 than any other series of marches in United States history. This includes upheavals during the 1960s over racial issues and against the war in Southeast Asia (notably Vietnam). We choose a volume on racism because it is one of nationalism’s main motive forces. This volume provides a worldwide array of work on nationalism’s growth in various countries, usually by authors residing in them, or in the United States with ethnic ties to the nation being examined, often recent immigrants to the United States from them. Our roster of contributors comprises a small United Nations of insightful, well-written research and commentary from Indonesia, New Zealand, Australia, China, India, South Africa, France, Portugal, Estonia, Hungary, Russia, Poland, Kazakhstan, Georgia, and the United States. Volume 2 (this one) describes and analyzes nationalism, by country, around the world, except for the United States; and 3/material directly related to President Donald Trump, and the United States. The first volume is under consideration at the Texas A & M University Press. The other two are under contract to Nova Science Publishers (which includes social sciences). These three volumes may be used individually or as a set. Environmental material is taken up in appropriate places in each of the three books. * * * * * What became the United States of America has been strongly nationalist since the English of present-day Massachusetts and Jamestown first hit North America’s eastern shores. The country propelled itself across North America with the self-serving ideology of “manifest destiny” for four centuries before Donald Trump came along. Anyone who believes that a Trumpian affection for deportation of “illegals” is a new thing ought to take a look at immigration and deportation statistics in Adam Goodman’s The Deportation Machine: America’s Long History of Deporting Immigrants (Princeton University Press, 2020). Between 1920 and 2018, the United States deported 56.3 million people, compared with 51.7 million who were granted legal immigration status during the same dates. Nearly nine of ten deportees were Mexican (Nolan, 2020, 83). This kind of nationalism, has become an assassin of democracy as well as an impediment to solving global problems. Paul Krugman wrote in the New York Times (2019:A-25): that “In their 2018 book, How Democracies Die, the political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt documented how this process has played out in many countries, from Vladimir Putin’s Russia, to Recep Erdogan’s Turkey, to Viktor Orban’s Hungary. Add to these India’s Narendra Modi, China’s Xi Jinping, and the United States’ Donald Trump, among others. Bit by bit, the guardrails of democracy have been torn down, as institutions meant to serve the public became tools of ruling parties and self-serving ideologies, weaponized to punish and intimidate opposition parties’ opponents. On paper, these countries are still democracies; in practice, they have become one-party regimes….And it’s happening here [the United States] as we speak. If you are not worried about the future of American democracy, you aren’t paying attention” (Krugmam, 2019, A-25). We are reminded continuously that the late Carl Sagan, one of our most insightful scientific public intellectuals, had an interesting theory about highly developed civilizations. Given the number of stars and planets that must exist in the vast reaches of the universe, he said, there must be other highly developed and organized forms of life. Distance may keep us from making physical contact, but Sagan said that another reason we may never be on speaking terms with another intelligent race is (judging from our own example) could be their penchant for destroying themselves in relatively short order after reaching technological complexity. This book’s chapters, introduction, and conclusion examine the worldwide rise of partisan nationalism and the damage it has wrought on the worldwide pursuit of solutions for issues requiring worldwide scope, such scientific co-operation public health and others, mixing analysis of both. We use both historical description and analysis. This analysis concludes with a description of why we must avoid the isolating nature of nationalism that isolates people and encourages separation if we are to deal with issues of world-wide concern, and to maintain a sustainable, survivable Earth, placing the dominant political movement of our time against the Earth’s existential crises. Our contributors, all experts in their fields, each have assumed responsibility for a country, or two if they are related. This work entwines themes of worldwide concern with the political growth of nationalism because leaders with such a worldview are disinclined to co-operate internationally at a time when nations must find ways to solve common problems, such as the climate crisis. Inability to cooperate at this stage may doom everyone, eventually, to an overheated, stormy future plagued by droughts and deluges portending shortages of food and other essential commodities, meanwhile destroying large coastal urban areas because of rising sea levels. Future historians may look back at our time and wonder why as well as how our world succumbed to isolating nationalism at a time when time was so short for cooperative intervention which is crucial for survival of a sustainable earth. Pride in language and culture is salubrious to individuals’ sense of history and identity. Excess nationalism that prevents international co-operation on harmful worldwide maladies is quite another. As Pope Francis has pointed out: For all of our connectivity due to expansion of social media, ability to communicate can breed contempt as well as mutual trust. “For all our hyper-connectivity,” said Francis, “We witnessed a fragmentation that made it more difficult to resolve problems that affect us all” (Horowitz, 2020, A-12). The pope’s encyclical, titled “Brothers All,” also said: “The forces of myopic, extremist, resentful, and aggressive nationalism are on the rise.” The pope’s document also advocates support for migrants, as well as resistance to nationalist and tribal populism. Francis broadened his critique to the role of market capitalism, as well as nationalism has failed the peoples of the world when they need co-operation and solidarity in the face of the world-wide corona virus pandemic. Humankind needs to unite into “a new sense of the human family [Fratelli Tutti, “Brothers All”], that rejects war at all costs” (Pope, 2020, 6-A). Our journey takes us first to Russia, with the able eye and honed expertise of Richard D. Anderson, Jr. who teaches as UCLA and publishes on the subject of his chapter: “Putin, Russian identity, and Russia’s conduct at home and abroad.” Readers should find Dr. Anderson’s analysis fascinating because Vladimir Putin, the singular leader of Russian foreign and domestic policy these days (and perhaps for the rest of his life, given how malleable Russia’s Constitution has become) may be a short man physically, but has high ambitions. One of these involves restoring the old Russian (and Soviet) empire, which would involve re-subjugating a number of nations that broke off as the old order dissolved about 30 years ago. President (shall we say czar?) Putin also has international ambitions, notably by destabilizing the United States, where election meddling has become a specialty. The sight of Putin and U.S. president Donald Trump, two very rich men (Putin $70-$200 billion; Trump $2.5 billion), nuzzling in friendship would probably set Thomas Jefferson and Vladimir Lenin spinning in their graves. The road of history can take some unanticipated twists and turns. Consider Poland, from which we have an expert native analysis in chapter 2, Bartosz Hlebowicz, who is a Polish anthropologist and journalist. His piece is titled “Lawless and Unjust: How to Quickly Make Your Own Country a Puppet State Run by a Group of Hoodlums – the Hopeless Case of Poland (2015–2020).” When I visited Poland to teach and lecture twice between 2006 and 2008, most people seemed to be walking on air induced by freedom to conduct their own affairs to an unusual degree for a state usually squeezed between nationalists in Germany and Russia. What did the Poles then do in a couple of decades? Read Hlebowicz’ chapter and decide. It certainly isn’t soft-bellied liberalism. In Chapter 3, with Bruce E. Johansen, we visit China’s western provinces, the lands of Tibet as well as the Uighurs and other Muslims in the Xinjiang region, who would most assuredly resent being characterized as being possessed by the Chinese of the Han to the east. As a student of Native American history, I had never before thought of the Tibetans and Uighurs as Native peoples struggling against the Independence-minded peoples of a land that is called an adjunct of China on most of our maps. The random act of sitting next to a young woman on an Air India flight out of Hyderabad, bound for New Delhi taught me that the Tibetans had something to share with the Lakota, the Iroquois, and hundreds of other Native American states and nations in North America. Active resistance to Chinese rule lasted into the mid-nineteenth century, and continues today in a subversive manner, even in song, as I learned in 2018 when I acted as a foreign adjudicator on a Ph.D. dissertation by a Tibetan student at the University of Madras (in what is now in a city called Chennai), in southwestern India on resistance in song during Tibet’s recent history. Tibet is one of very few places on Earth where a young dissident can get shot to death for singing a song that troubles China’s Quest for Lebensraum. The situation in Xinjiang region, where close to a million Muslims have been interned in “reeducation” camps surrounded with brick walls and barbed wire. They sing, too. Come with us and hear the music. Back to Europe now, in Chapter 4, to Portugal and Spain, we find a break in the general pattern of nationalism. Portugal has been more progressive governmentally than most. Spain varies from a liberal majority to military coups, a pattern which has been exported to Latin America. A situation such as this can make use of the term “populism” problematic, because general usage in our time usually ties the word into a right-wing connotative straightjacket. “Populism” can be used to describe progressive (left-wing) insurgencies as well. José Pinto, who is native to Portugal and also researches and writes in Spanish as well as English, in “Populism in Portugal and Spain: a Real Neighbourhood?” provides insight into these historical paradoxes. Hungary shares some historical inclinations with Poland (above). Both emerged from Soviet dominance in an air of developing freedom and multicultural diversity after the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union collapsed. Then, gradually at first, right wing-forces began to tighten up, stripping structures supporting popular freedom, from the courts, mass media, and other institutions. In Chapter 5, Bernard Tamas, in “From Youth Movement to Right-Liberal Wing Authoritarianism: The Rise of Fidesz and the Decline of Hungarian Democracy” puts the renewed growth of political and social repression into a context of worldwide nationalism. Tamas, an associate professor of political science at Valdosta State University, has been a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University and a Fulbright scholar at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. His books include From Dissident to Party Politics: The Struggle for Democracy in Post-Communist Hungary (2007). Bear in mind that not everyone shares Orbán’s vision of what will make this nation great, again. On graffiti-covered walls in Budapest, Runes (traditional Hungarian script) has been found that read “Orbán is a motherfucker” (Mikanowski, 2019, 58). Also in Europe, in Chapter 6, Professor Ronan Le Coadic, of the University of Rennes, Rennes, France, in “Is There a Revival of French Nationalism?” Stating this title in the form of a question is quite appropriate because France’s nationalistic shift has built and ebbed several times during the last few decades. For a time after 2000, it came close to assuming the role of a substantial minority, only to ebb after that. In 2017, the candidate of the National Front reached the second round of the French presidential election. This was the second time this nationalist party reached the second round of the presidential election in the history of the Fifth Republic. In 2002, however, Jean-Marie Le Pen had only obtained 17.79% of the votes, while fifteen years later his daughter, Marine Le Pen, almost doubled her father's record, reaching 33.90% of the votes cast. Moreover, in the 2019 European elections, re-named Rassemblement National obtained the largest number of votes of all French political formations and can therefore boast of being "the leading party in France.” The brutality of oppressive nationalism may be expressed in personal relationships, such as child abuse. While Indonesia and Aotearoa [the Maoris’ name for New Zealand] hold very different ranks in the United Nations Human Development Programme assessments, where Indonesia is classified as a medium development country and Aotearoa New Zealand as a very high development country. In Chapter 7, “Domestic Violence Against Women in Indonesia and Aotearoa New Zealand: Making Sense of Differences and Similarities” co-authors, in Chapter 8, Mandy Morgan and Dr. Elli N. Hayati, from New Zealand and Indonesia respectively, found that despite their socio-economic differences, one in three women in each country experience physical or sexual intimate partner violence over their lifetime. In this chapter ther authors aim to deepen understandings of domestic violence through discussion of the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of theit countries to address domestic violence alongside studies of women’s attitudes to gender norms and experiences of intimate partner violence. One of the most surprising and upsetting scholarly journeys that a North American student may take involves Adolf Hitler’s comments on oppression of American Indians and Blacks as he imagined the construction of the Nazi state, a genesis of nationalism that is all but unknown in the United States of America, traced in this volume (Chapter 8) by co-editor Johansen. Beginning in Mein Kampf, during the 1920s, Hitler explicitly used the westward expansion of the United States across North America as a model and justification for Nazi conquest and anticipated colonization by Germans of what the Nazis called the “wild East” – the Slavic nations of Poland, the Baltic states, Ukraine, and Russia, most of which were under control of the Soviet Union. The Volga River (in Russia) was styled by Hitler as the Germans’ Mississippi, and covered wagons were readied for the German “manifest destiny” of imprisoning, eradicating, and replacing peoples the Nazis deemed inferior, all with direct references to events in North America during the previous century. At the same time, with no sense of contradiction, the Nazis partook of a long-standing German romanticism of Native Americans. One of Goebbels’ less propitious schemes was to confer honorary Aryan status on Native American tribes, in the hope that they would rise up against their oppressors. U.S. racial attitudes were “evidence [to the Nazis] that America was evolving in the right direction, despite its specious rhetoric about equality.” Ming Xie, originally from Beijing, in the People’s Republic of China, in Chapter 9, “News Coverage and Public Perceptions of the Social Credit System in China,” writes that The State Council of China in 2014 announced “that a nationwide social credit system would be established” in China. “Under this system, individuals, private companies, social organizations, and governmental agencies are assigned a score which will be calculated based on their trustworthiness and daily actions such as transaction history, professional conduct, obedience to law, corruption, tax evasion, and academic plagiarism.” The “nationalism” in this case is that of the state over the individual. China has 1.4 billion people; this system takes their measure for the purpose of state control. Once fully operational, control will be more subtle. People who are subject to it, through modern technology (most often smart phones) will prompt many people to self-censor. Orwell, modernized, might write: “Your smart phone is watching you.” Ming Xie holds two Ph.Ds, one in Public Administration from University of Nebraska at Omaha and another in Cultural Anthropology from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, where she also worked for more than 10 years at a national think tank in the same institution. While there she summarized news from non-Chinese sources for senior members of the Chinese Communist Party. Ming is presently an assistant professor at the Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice, West Texas A&M University. In Chapter 10, analyzing native peoples and nationhood, Barbara Alice Mann, Professor of Honours at the University of Toledo, in “Divide, et Impera: The Self-Genocide Game” details ways in which European-American invaders deprive the conquered of their sense of nationhood as part of a subjugation system that amounts to genocide, rubbing out their languages and cultures -- and ultimately forcing the native peoples to assimilate on their own, for survival in a culture that is foreign to them. Mann is one of Native American Studies’ most acute critics of conquests’ contradictions, and an author who retrieves Native history with a powerful sense of voice and purpose, having authored roughly a dozen books and numerous book chapters, among many other works, who has traveled around the world lecturing and publishing on many subjects. Nalanda Roy and S. Mae Pedron in Chapter 11, “Understanding the Face of Humanity: The Rohingya Genocide.” describe one of the largest forced migrations in the history of the human race, the removal of 700,000 to 800,000 Muslims from Buddhist Myanmar to Bangladesh, which itself is already one of the most crowded and impoverished nations on Earth. With about 150 million people packed into an area the size of Nebraska and Iowa (population less than a tenth that of Bangladesh, a country that is losing land steadily to rising sea levels and erosion of the Ganges river delta. The Rohingyas’ refugee camp has been squeezed onto a gigantic, eroding, muddy slope that contains nearly no vegetation. However, Bangladesh is majority Muslim, so while the Rohingya may starve, they won’t be shot to death by marauding armies. Both authors of this exquisite (and excruciating) account teach at Georgia Southern University in Savannah, Georgia, Roy as an associate professor of International Studies and Asian politics, and Pedron as a graduate student; Roy originally hails from very eastern India, close to both Myanmar and Bangladesh, so he has special insight into the context of one of the most brutal genocides of our time, or any other. This is our case describing the problems that nationalism has and will pose for the sustainability of the Earth as our little blue-and-green orb becomes more crowded over time. The old ways, in which national arguments often end in devastating wars, are obsolete, given that the Earth and all the people, plants, and other animals that it sustains are faced with the existential threat of a climate crisis that within two centuries, more or less, will flood large parts of coastal cities, and endanger many species of plants and animals. To survive, we must listen to the Earth, and observe her travails, because they are increasingly our own.

Abstract To confront the situations of climate crisis, natural resource degradation and rising populations, farmers need access to modern sustainable agricultural technologies, especially Conservation Agriculture (CA) and sustainable agricultural mechanization (SAM). Without such access, the UN's SDGs will not be met in their entirety. The implications of mechanizing CA are discussed for both smallholder and larger-scale farmers. Constraints, issues and options are reviewed and the need for commercial, private sector, CA mechanization service provision for smallholders is identified. The Framework for Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization for Africa (SAMA) is a key pillar for achieving Aspiration 1 (a prosperous Africa based on inclusive growth and sustainable development) of the African Union's (AU) Agenda 2063; and SDG 2 (ending hunger and achieving food security). The move towards commercialization of smallholder agriculture in Africa is seen as an inevitable reality in the medium term. It is also a necessary prerequisite for the adoption of SAM, which is being actively promoted in Africa, both at the level of the AU and by national governments, research centres, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and private-sector agricultural machinery companies. The policy dimensions of promoting SAM are discussed from the public and private-sector perspectives. A forward look identifies novel business models for sustainable mechanization services, an increasing application of information technology (IT) and the (longer term) potential for drones and robotics. The conclusion is that CA and SAM are essential ways forward to answer Africa's needs for sustainable food production while engaging young entrepreneurs in the provision of mechanization services using IT, digital tools and precision equipment.

AbstractThis introductory chapter explains why organic waste composting is considered as one of the best examples to demonstrate the benefits of nexus thinking. Current literature is rich with information covering various aspects of composting process. However, it mainly represents two distinct fields: waste from the management point of view and soil/agriculture from the nutrient recycling point of view. It is hard to find information on how these two fields can benefit from each other, except for a few examples found within large agricultural fields/businesses. A policy/institutional framework that supports a broader integration of management of such resources is lacking: a structure that goes beyond the typical municipal or ministerial boundaries. There is a clear need to address this gap, and nexus thinking can help immensely close the gap by facilitating the mindset needed for policy integration. Good intention of being sustainable is not enough if there is no comprehensive plan to find a stable market for the compost as a product. Therefore, the chapter also discusses the strong need to have a good business case for composting projects. Composting can also support achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) proposed by the United Nations. While directly supporting SDG 2 (Zero hunger), SDG 12 (Responsible consumption and production), and SDG 13 (Climate action), enhanced composting practices may also assist us reach several other targets specified in other SDGs. While encouraging waste composting as a sustainable method of waste and soil management, we should also be cautious about the possible adverse effects compost can have on the environment and public health, especially due to some non-traditional raw materials that we use nowadays such as wastewater sludge and farm manure. Towards the end, we urge for the improvement of the entire chain ranging from waste generation to waste collection/separation to compost formation and, finally, application to soil to ensure society receives the maximum benefit from composting.

Abstract Economics is concerned with the analysis of choice and the efficient use of resources. Markets for antibiotics are heavily affected by their ‘public good’ nature and the externality that results from their consumption in terms of resistance. The non-excludability and non-rivalry associated with knowledge production in antibiotic development also has implications for the supply of antibiotics. On the demand side there are ethical issues associated with free-riding by consumers, free-riding across nations and free-riding across time. On the supply side, the lack of a pipeline for new antibiotics for the future causes both ethical and economic issues – and from both perspectives, efforts should perhaps focus more on alternatives to antibiotics and adjustments to heath care systems to reduce reliance on antibiotics. Indeed, unlike many areas of health care, where economics and ethical perspectives may differ, antimicrobial resistance is a case where the two perspectives align in terms of ensuring efficient and sustainable development and use of this precious resources. All strategies for dealing with resistance should share the same goals of achieving an optimal balance in the use of antimicrobial agents and explicit consideration of the distributional implications.

Abstract This book chapter discusses all the information collected has been grouped together into eight categories: (i) aligning with and supporting UN Sustainable Development Goals; (ii) focusing on public health needs and key theme areas for further research; (iii) accessing and developing Earth Observation (EO) and geospatial evidence-based data and products leveraging public health capacities; (iv) developing a sustainable community of practice; (v) developing knowledge and know-how; (vi) developing solutions: methods, tools, and systems; (vii) implementing technical infrastructures and technologies; and (viii) participating in EO satellite mission development for monitoring disease risks. One such advancement attributable to Landsat data is the ability to monitor changing patterns in forest cover loss and human encroachment on previously wild areas that allows for better prediction of zoonotic disease emergence. For example, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensors onboard the US Aqua and Terra satellites offer atmosphere, land, cryosphere, and ocean products that are used in several user communities. MODIS indicator data sets have been so successful that they do not require additional remote sensing analysis; they can be used directly in predictive models. Some EO satellite systems offer ARD (i.e. pre-processed images) and related information products derived from the raw data stream generated by the satellite instruments and the use of algorithms.

AbstractThe Once-Only Principle (OOP) enables public administrations to support citizen and business life-cycle oriented issues as opposed to mere integration of administrative systems designed to serve bureaucratic ends. The Once-Only Principle project (TOOP) was funded by the EU Program Horizon 2020, with the aim to explore and demonstrate the OOP through multiple sustainable pilots in different domains, using a federated architecture on a cross-border collaborative pan-European scale, enabling the connection of different registries and architectures in different countries for better exchange of information across public administrations. The different pilot domains (eProcurement, Maritime and General Business Mobility) identified potential use cases suitable to show the OOP, defined the goals and expected benefits of TOOP based on motivational scenarios and process analyses and provided requirements to the TOOP Reference and Solution Architectures. Especially for the General Business Mobility domain requirements were provided also from the Single Digital Gateway Regulation. These requirements guided the development of the TOOP specifications and the TOOP components, the Member States deployed the TOOP specifications and components and participated in different connectathons demonstrating the OOP.

AbstractThe paper uses the case study of Limpopo province to discuss technology innovations in green transport in South Africa with respect to the reduction of global greenhouse emission through technology innovation. South Africa’s emission from fuel combustion is the world’s 15th largest in forms of CO emission because it contributes about 1.2% of global emissions. In a submission from the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) on the impact of greenhouse emissions stated that companies are required to be innovative to reduce the carbon emission levels in South Africa. Literature on road transport in South Africa shows that road transport is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for 19% of global energy consumption. The policy to promote an integrated public transport in municipalities is in line with the National Development Plan and the White Paper on National Climate Change Response. This requires innovative technology that promotes carbon trading markets such as taxi recapitalisation programmes and carbon tax on new vehicles. The study analysed the factors influencing green technology innovations in South Africa with specific reference to Limpopo province green transportation study. The methodology used to unpack innovative technology in South Africa discusses green technology in Limpopo province in the context of greenhouse gases emission reduction innovative technologies in the transport sector with respect to sustainable fuels, energy efficient systems and smart information as well as hybrid technologies. The study advances arguments on technologies for engine and propulsion systems, alternative energy sources, navigation technologies, cargo handling systems, heating and cooling vehicles, road and rail vehicles and maritime transportation with respect to innovations as well as battery charging systems, engine oil disposal etc. The findings shows that no single trajectory of technology innovation in green transport will suffice but technological innovations that improve fuel economy and transition from fossil fuels to cleaner fuel alternatives. The study in Limpopo province showed that green transport innovations must not obscure the role of non-technological innovations in reducing emissions, but the two should be tackled with green transport value chain as a whole.

The speed and outreach enabled by information and communication technologies (ICT) have improved mechanisms of delivery of information, services and products to the public. ICT as an enabler of governance, christened as e-governance, is seen as means of attaining good governance. The millennium development goals (MDG) of targeting the poor, listening to the poor and learning from the poor seem to be more within the reach through the use of ICT. However the sustainability of majority of rural ICT interventions has not been very encouraging. The study of literature attributes this negligible success rate to several factors including neglect of traditional indigenous knowledge in the projects designed for rural masses. Authors of this study propose that by defining a proper framework and by use of proper methodologies, community knowledge systems (CKS) of a rural region, when incorporated in an e-governance initiative can assist various actors and processes of governance to attain good governance. Projects based on the proposed CKS based G2C2G framework are expected to be more sustainable and effective for ushering development in the rural areas. However, implementation of such projects would however require synergistic efforts between the government functionaries, aid agencies, non-profit organizations and the rural citizens. The prime hypothesis is that the assimilation, improvisation and dissemination of the traditional community knowledge systems (CKS) using ICT initiatives for rural governance, would help to liberate local ingenuity to catalyse sustainable rural development.

This chapter highlights the importance that the Environment Agency places on the provision of information and the key part it plays in achieving environmental goals, an importance that is recognised in a range of national, European and international laws and agreements. The Agency is seeking to ensure that it meets the “letter” and, importantly, the spirit of all relevant legislation. To this end, our vision is environmental information freely available to all – quickly and easily, where and when people want it, and in a format to meet particular needs. The opportunities that present themselves in today’s “Information Age” are exciting and the potential to lever environmental benefit is great. The Agency’s track record in this field is already considerable, with five years’ experience of providing key environmental datasets through “What’s in Your Backyard?” – a GIS, Internet based national portal (www.environment-agency.gov.uk). This system has been developed and extended to include a pollution inventory, flood plain maps, landfill sites and a range of other data layers. Members of the public can find information from a national level, right down to their local environment: locating areas of interest by postcode or place name, displaying data to a chosen scale, formulating individual queries on the datasets, gaining background on information of interest, and downloading data for their own use off-line. The key components in establishing such services are people, data and technical infrastructure. The Environment Agency’s National Centre for Environmental Data & Surveillance has developed a conceptual architecture within which these components can be effectively managed and brought to bear on the processes of delivering timely data and information products. This is a challenging task within large administrations where data collection, management and storage are widely distributed both geographically and organisationally. Experience to date has shown the approach to be flexible, reliable and scalable. We have also developed our understanding of why people want information and how they want to access it – and importantly why some people do not see the relevance of environmental information to them. We have therefore formulated a strategy to improve the flexibility and response of the services we provide. This strategy also includes developing highly tailored information services that feed off the same base datasets. The Agency has recently piloted just such a service aimed at residential house purchasers. This is an e-business service accessible by solicitors over the Internet, with individually tailored environmental reports generated and delivered in real time. There is the potential to develop similar tailored services wherever environmental information is, or should be, a key part of business activities and decisions. Future development will therefore not solely be making more information available in an electronic format. Information must be made relevant to particular needs at particular times. Citizens must be made aware of the wider environmental impacts of their consumer choices and the implications to themselves and others. They must also understand the real effect of the environment on their daily lives and why it is in their interest to be interested.

The chapter justifies the increased interest in public sector financial management (PFM) through its scaling up in the economy. The paper reveals the essence of the PFM system, through an analysis of the definitions of the PFM, the role of the public sector in the economy, the key elements of the PFM system, and a comparative analysis of financial management systems in the public and the private sectors of the economy. The problematic issues of the functioning of the PFM system, which include the issues of assessing the quality of the PFM, are analyzed. The quality of the PFM is understood as its effectiveness, efficiency, and achievement of the goals of the PFM, the main of which is the growth of the well-being of society. The statement proved that the amount of public spending is not evidence of the effectiveness of the PFM system. The factors influencing the efficiency of the PFM system functioning are revealed. The importance of financial information formed in the system of state accounting on an accrual basis on the basis of IPSAS for making government decisions is revealed. An alternative point of view on the formation of financial information is given.

Public health systems have adopted computer health and information technology as a dynamic transformational tool both to improve real-time surveillance systems and to communicate and exchange information between different organizations. Health information systems (HIS) incorporate data collection, processing, report creation, and the use of information necessary to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of health services through better management of these services at every level. The sustainable development of these systems depends on their interoperability, the combination of the “three pillars of sustainability” (economic, social, environmental). At the global health level, there are variations between countries in terms of the application and implementation of sustainable systems. However, taking advantage of the available knowledge and technology, and with proper management of the economy, the viability of health information systems can be sustainable.

In the county of Leiria, Portugal, part of the population is known to have morbidity diagnoses (metabolic illnesses and more) and poor health habits on a big enough scale to bring the idea of how low health literacy can affect people's lives and health services, such as a flood of the emergency systems caused by people attending the emergency room with minor issues. To address it, institutions in Leiria such as the City Hall and Polytechnic of Leiria decided to conduct a longitudinal and prospective cohort study, where a sample of the population will be followed throughout time to understand if their choices regarding health and sustainable habits are indeed affected by their health literacy levels.This project will contribute to the initial stage of this cohort study, by developing a recognizable brand, whose identity can be maintained throughout all its communication and dissemination media, so that the population can identify, without equivocation, the cohort study to which it refers, and awaken their curiosity to participate. This stage also includes the presentation and dissemination of the cohort study itself to the population under study, followed by a randomized inquiry done by pre-selected interviewers.This project relies on Service Design and Participatory Design methodologies to streamline the development of the study’s elements and to solve common cohort issues, such as: 1) gathering a suitable number of participants that can represent the population; 2) follow-up maintenance of participants; 3) keeping the interviewers and participants engaged with the study, after the first contact. Informal interviews and user group definition will help the comprehension of the study and allow to create personas to characterize the interviewers of the cohort study. These aforementioned methodologies will be supported by the workshop methodology under Participatory Design, acting as a testing ground for the previously developed processes, preparing interviewers to adapt their communication when facing people from different generations, education, and social backgrounds.By carrying out this project simultaneously with the cohort study, it’s possible to evaluate, over time, how the design methodologies can empower and facilitate communication and intervene, changing tactics in case it’s needed. The creation of a replicable experience is proposed allowing the betterment of the overall health of the population. Additionally, assuming the lack of information on how the preparatory phases of cohort studies are designed, it’s also envisaged the creation of guidelines and a good practice manual. It is also of great importance to point out the bridge established between the health and design fields, where design becomes the interface between science and the public.

Transportation systems play a central role in a sustainable society by providing mobility for people, goods, and services. Significant sustainability benefits are being derived through the improvements in transportation network efficiency, use of alternative modes and multimodality, integration of sustainable design, better integration of land use and transportation systems. Sustainable transportation system usually refers to any means of transportation which has low impact on the environment, affordable to users and can balance the current and future needs. This work covers the implementation of surveying techniques in the route selection for Baghdad Metro Tube. The travel demand has been assessed through an extensive travel potential survey. The public bus terminals were considered as a major source of data. The number of passengers using the present public transportation system from each bus terminal and for each route to various destinations has been recorded. The passenger supply points have been indicated by latitude and longitude that define the bus stop and the proposed metro route using global positioning system GPS. A passenger counting data was collected concerning the present use of public transport. A line indicates travel from one area to another and a grid was constructed. The present bus routes were identified, and the 28 major and minor public transportation terminals, which represent the passenger trip origin and destination nodes, were detected using GPS. The bus terminals were also positioned by the GPS and affixed. The recent land use of Baghdad urban area and the existing transportation network as obtained from Google earth were utilized in the geographic information system GIS environment. Travel corridors are identified and analyzed according to their existing right-of-way conditions, transit services, land use, and demographics.The positive and negative attributes of each corridor with regards to their potential for supporting transitoriented development TOD and higher capacity transit services have been determined through optimization process in the GIS. Finally, five corridors of the highest trip potential have been selected and proposed.

The design of the bus network is a complex problem in modern cities, since different conflicting objectives have to be considered, from both the perspective of bus companies and the citizens. This article presents a multiobjective model for designing a sustainable public transportation network that simultaneously optimizes the covered travel demands by passengers, the total travel time, and the generated pollution. The proposed model is solved using exact weighted sum and a heuristic procedure based on the standard shortest path problem. Preliminary tests were performed in small real-world instances of Montevideo, Uruguay. Experiments allowed obtaining a set of compromising solutions that in turn allow exploring different trade-off among the optimization criteria. The proposed heuristic was competitive, being able to find a good compromising solution in short computing times.

The development of traffic that is conditioned by the high mobility of people, goods and services must be in line with the principles of sustainable development, but it is only possible if the consumption of renewable resources is less than natural renewal opportunities. The future is in implementation of innovative technologies such as telematics systems that offer not only technical solutions but also a new way of life, a new business approach and a new cultural aspect of living for all traffic participants. Advanced telematics solutions such as inflow management and speed limit management greatly help to solve traffic problems, like incidents, environmental pollution, traffic congestion, fuel consumption, etc. Impact of telematics can increase safety but can also introduce new risks for drivers that pose special challenges to traffic psychology and public health. In order to reduce traffic congestion, longer waiting times, environmental pollution, reduce fuel consumption in incident situation various advanced grammatical solutions have been implemented in order to reduce these problems. Telematics, using techniques such as informatics, optoelectronics, automatics and telecommunications, helps to reduce costs of transportation potential management, improves the security and reliability of the transportation service.

There is no doubt that digitalization processes make positive effects on the development of a company as emphasized and evidenced by many research papers and studies. However, there are a few empirical research studies on digitalization in the public sector, particularly in public administration institutions. Therefore, the present research aims to identify and compare the level of digitalization in four national public administration institutions: the State Revenue Service, the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs, the State Social Insurance Agency and the State Employment Agency. In Latvia, very good technical solutions and a broadband mobile Internet network are available, the number of Internet users increases all over the world every year, but are they widely used by public administration institutions to provide consumers with appropriate digital services? The State Revenue Service has reached the highest level of maturity in digitalization, and the institution has also allocated the most funds from its budget to information technologies and the maintenance of their systems. The level of digitalization is low in the State Employment Agency and the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs. The public requires public administration services to be available digitally on a 24-hour/7day basis.

Persuasion is a marketing technique used by companies that encourages a potential customer to take action in favor of the company. Persuasive content promotion relies on the creation and distribution of online materials, such as videos, blog articles, and social media posts, that are designed to generate interest in a company's products or services. Also, the content must be relevant to search engines, so that the company is displayed as high as possible in the list of search results when someone searches for certain keywords. This will lead to increased sales, attracting traffic to the site, increasing brand recognition and strengthening public presence and trust. Successful content doesn't necessarily have to go viral or be seen by millions of users. It needs to be adapted to the audience and encourage customers to take certain actions. Content must not only attract customers, but also solve problems. Content marketing must help the potential buyer choose from all the offers available to him, the goods or services that best meet the consumer's needs. To write a persuasive text it is necessary to take into account the writing process and the structure of the text. The writing process includes several important stages: research, organization of ideas, actual writing process and editing. The structure of the text should follow the formula: Attention-Emotion-Information. The main condition when persuasive writing techniques are used is that the "good" product, is the one suitable for the consumer in question. If persuasion techniques are used, and the product does not meet the requirements that the consumer has, then the manipulation of people occurs. This will lead to a disappointed customer who will leave negative feedback. That is why persuasion techniques must be used very carefully, so that they work both for the benefit of the company and the client.

Today almost all organizations, according with their business specificities, support their business activity within the Information Systems. In this sense, the most common business processes of organizations are supported by generic software products, also called Enterprise Resource Planning. In this paper are referred a set of good practices for the implementation/configuration of generic software products, in international projects. The methodology adopted focuses on the literature review in the thematic of Sustainability factors in International Project Teams, as well as on the presentation of good practices based on the lessons learnt from proven methodology. The contributions of this work focus on considerations in the area of project implementation procedures, and requirements of the business processes, the system configuration, as well as training. The paper’s conclusions emphasize the importance of applying good support management in international project teams, including concerns of sustainable development objectives in the economic, technical, social, human/individual and environmental aspects.

The use of information technology over the last two decades has been growing in different sectors and industries tackling many issues in the economy and penetrating many aspects of decision-making and organizational development. Information and communication technologies are also seen as a building block that can support socioeconomic development. Therefore, nations around the world have been attempting to capitalize on the capacities of various information and communication technologies to support their planning, development and growth processes. Egypt, as a developing country, attempted since the mid 1980s to invest in its information infrastructure and focus on the development of information and management support systems to leverage the decision making process in the government and the public sector with an emphasis on its local administration using management support systems such as decision support systems and executive information systems for socioeconomic development objectives. Following is the outcome of a research conducted covering the GIDSC project, sponsored by the government, and aiming to leverage the decision making process for governors. This paper is partially based on a research conducted in 2001 by Yosra Gadallah on the use of advanced information systems applications in the decision making process at the public administration level in Egypt.

Abstract Empathy plays an important role in designers’ ability to relate to problems faced by others. Several researchers have studied empathy development in engineering design education; however, a majority of this work has focused on teaching designers to empathize with primary users. Little attention in empathy development research is given to empathizing with those affected in a secondary and tertiary capacity. Moreover, little research has investigated the role of students’ empathy in influencing their emphasis on sustainability, especially in the concept evaluation stage. Our aim in this paper is to explore this research gap through an experimental study with engineering students. Specifically, we introduced first-year engineering students at a large public university in the northeastern United States to a short workshop on sustainable design. We compared changes in their trait empathy and attitudes towards sustainability from before to after participating in the workshop. We also compared the relationship between students’ trait empathy, attitudes towards sustainability, and the self-perceived sustainability of their solutions in a design task. From our results, we see that students reported an increase in their beliefs and intentions towards sustainability and a decrease in their personal distress from before to after participating in the workshop. Furthermore, students’ trait empathy correlated negatively with the self-perceived sustainability of their solutions. These findings highlight the need for future work studying the role of empathy in encouraging a sustainable design mindset among designers.

This study provides useful information and insights on strengthening the public health infrastructure of Maharashtra, the largest state economy, second most populous, and third most urbanized state in India. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of strong and resilient health systems for sustainable development. The national health system in India is the conglomeration of state health systems operates within the country’s federal structure. Although focusing on Maharashtra, this study presents a state health system assessment and sources of information that may also be useful to other states in India.

Global migration has been increasing since the 1990s. People are forced to leave their homes in search of safety, a better livelihood, or for more economic opportunities. Environmental drivers of migration, such as land degradation, water pollution, or changing climate, are acting as stronger phenomena with time. As millions of people are exposed to multiple water crises, daily needs related to water quality, lack of provisioning, excess or shortage of water become vital for survival as well for livelihood support. In turn, the crisis can transform into conflict and act as a trigger for migration, both voluntary and forced, depending on the conditions. Current interventions related to migration, including funding to manage migration remain focused on response mechanisms, whereas an understanding of drivers or so-called ‘push factors’ of migration is limited. Accurate and well-documented evidence, as well as quantitative information on these phenomena, are either missing or under-reflected in the literature and policy discourse. The report aims to start unpacking relationships between water and migration. The data used in this Report are collected from available public sources and reviewed in the context of water and climate. A three-dimensional (3D) framework is outlined for water-related migration assessment. The framework may be useful to aggerate water-related causes and consequences of migration and interpret them in various socioecological, socioeconomic, and sociopolitical settings. A case study approach is adopted to illustrate the various applications of the framework to dynamics of migration in various geographic and hydrological scenarios. The case studies reflect on well-known examples of environmental and water degradation, but with a focus on displacement /migration and socioeconomic challenges that apply. The relevance of proxy measures such as the Global Conflict Risk Index, which helps quantify water and migration interconnections, is discussed in relation to geographic, political, environmental, and economic parameters. The narratives presented in the Report also point to the existing governance mechanisms on migration, stating that they are fragmented. The report examines global agreements, institutions, and policies on migration to provide an aggerated outlook as to how international and inter-agency cooperation agreements and policies either reflected or are missing on water and climate crises as direct or indirect triggers to migration. Concerning this, the new directives related to migration governance, i.e., the New York Declaration and the Global Compact for Migration, are discussed. The Report recommends an enhanced focus on migration as an adaptation strategy to maximize the interconnectedness with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It calls for the migration discourse to look beyond from a preventative and problematic approach to a perspective emphasizing migration as a contributor towards achieving sustainable development, particularly SDGs 5, 6, 13, and 16 that aim strengthening capacities related to water, gender, climate, and institutions. Overall, the synthesis offers a global overview of water and migration for researchers and professionals engaged in migration-related work. For international agencies and government organizations and policymakers dealing with the assessment of and response to migration, the report aims to support the work on migration assessment and the implementation of the SDGs. The Report may serve as a public good towards understanding the drivers, impacts, and challenges of migration, for designing long-term solutions and for advancing migration management capabilities through improved knowledge and a pitch for consensus-building.

The report provides a review of how risk is conceived of, modelled, and mapped in studies of infectious water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) related diseases. It focuses on spatial epidemiology of cholera, malaria and dengue to offer recommendations for the field of WASH-related disease risk mapping. The report notes a lack of consensus on the definition of disease risk in the literature, which limits the interpretability of the resulting analyses and could affect the quality of the design and direction of public health interventions. In addition, existing risk frameworks that consider disease incidence separately from community vulnerability have conceptual overlap in their components and conflate the probability and severity of disease risk into a single component. The report identifies four methods used to develop risk maps, i) observational, ii) index-based, iii) associative modelling and iv) mechanistic modelling. Observational methods are limited by a lack of historical data sets and their assumption that historical outcomes are representative of current and future risks. The more general index-based methods offer a highly flexible approach based on observed and modelled risks and can be used for partially qualitative or difficult-to-measure indicators, such as socioeconomic vulnerability. For multidimensional risk measures, indices representing different dimensions can be aggregated to form a composite index or be considered jointly without aggregation. The latter approach can distinguish between different types of disease risk such as outbreaks of high frequency/low intensity and low frequency/high intensity. Associative models, including machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), are commonly used to measure current risk, future risk (short-term for early warning systems) or risk in areas with low data availability, but concerns about bias, privacy, trust, and accountability in algorithms can limit their application. In addition, they typically do not account for gender and demographic variables that allow risk analyses for different vulnerable groups. As an alternative, mechanistic models can be used for similar purposes as well as to create spatial measures of disease transmission efficiency or to model risk outcomes from hypothetical scenarios. Mechanistic models, however, are limited by their inability to capture locally specific transmission dynamics. The report recommends that future WASH-related disease risk mapping research: - Conceptualise risk as a function of the probability and severity of a disease risk event. Probability and severity can be disaggregated into sub-components. For outbreak-prone diseases, probability can be represented by a likelihood component while severity can be disaggregated into transmission and sensitivity sub-components, where sensitivity represents factors affecting health and socioeconomic outcomes of infection. -Employ jointly considered unaggregated indices to map multidimensional risk. Individual indices representing multiple dimensions of risk should be developed using a range of methods to take advantage of their relative strengths. -Develop and apply collaborative approaches with public health officials, development organizations and relevant stakeholders to identify appropriate interventions and priority levels for different types of risk, while ensuring the needs and values of users are met in an ethical and socially responsible manner. -Enhance identification of vulnerable populations by further disaggregating risk estimates and accounting for demographic and behavioural variables and using novel data sources such as big data and citizen science. This review is the first to focus solely on WASH-related disease risk mapping and modelling. The recommendations can be used as a guide for developing spatial epidemiology models in tandem with public health officials and to help detect and develop tailored responses to WASH-related disease outbreaks that meet the needs of vulnerable populations. The report’s main target audience is modellers, public health authorities and partners responsible for co-designing and implementing multi-sectoral health interventions, with a particular emphasis on facilitating the integration of health and WASH services delivery contributing to Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 3 (good health and well-being) and 6 (clean water and sanitation).

Expanding access to and use of voluntary family planning (FP) services is a well-established global health goal–it is a specific target under the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of good health and well-being, an integral component of Every Woman Every Child (EWEC), and the overall objective of the Family Planning 2020 (FP2020) partnership, among other initiatives. | One promising approach for achieving global voluntary FP goals is performance-based financing (PBF), which deploys financial incentives to the health system to improve service availability, utilization, and quality as well as addressing some public financial management bottlenecks by directly targeting resources to facilities based on performance. | Setting global voluntary FP goals implies following a rights-based approach to family planning, which uses a set of standards and principles to guide program assessment, planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation that enables individuals and couples to decide freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their children, to have the information and services to do so, and to be treated equitably and free of discrimination. | While both PBF, which uses financial disbursements to incentivize health service delivery and quality, and rights-based programming have informed efforts to strengthen and scale FP services, there are gaps in understanding the linkages between PBF and a rights-based approach (RBA) to FP services. To address this gap, a review of PBF operations manuals was undertaken together with an analysis of PBF indicators relevant to FP services. This and another report (Mapping the extent to which performance-based financing (PBF) programs reflect quality, informed choice, and voluntarism and implications for family planning services: A review of PBF operational manuals) assess whether existing FP indicators are sensitive to the principles associated with an RBA.

Expanding access to and use of voluntary family planning (FP) services is a well-established global health goal- it is a specific target under the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of good health and well-being, an integral component of Every Woman Every Child (EWEC), and the overall objective of the Family Planning 2020 (FP2020) partnership, among other initiatives. | One promising approach for achieving global voluntary FP goals is performance-based financing (PBF), which deploys financial incentives to the health system to improve service availability, utilization, and quality as well as addressing some public financial management bottlenecks by directly targeting resources to facilities based on performance. | Setting global voluntary FP goals implies following a rights-based approach to family planning, which uses a set of standards and principles to guide program assessment, planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation that enables individuals and couples to decide freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their children, to have the information and services to do so, and to be treated equitably and free of discrimination. | While both PBF, which uses financial disbursements to incentivize health service delivery and quality, and rights-based programming have informed efforts to strengthen and scale FP services, there are gaps in understanding the linkages between PBF and a rights-based approach (RBA) to FP services. To address this gap, a review of performance-based financing (PBF) operations manuals was undertaken together with an analysis of PBF indicators relevant to FP services. This and another report (Mapping the extent to which performance-based financing (PBF) programs reflect quality, informed choice and voluntarism and implications for family planning services: A review of indicators) assess whether existing FP indicators are sensitive to the principles associated with an RBA.