Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies最新文献

This study uses a unique data set of 106 cocoa-growing households in Epi, Vanuatu, to study menʼs and womenʼs participation in decision-making concerning 17 agricultural activities. Women participate in many aspects of the production and postharvest activities of food and cash crops. However, women are disempowered when it comes to participating in, influencing, and having autonomy over decisions about agricultural activities and income from crop sales. This article also presents an index summarising the decision-making data. The findings do not suggest associations between the index and variables expected to correlate with womenʼs empowerment (e.g., education, household assets). The study does find that participation in community activities correlates with the decision-making index for both men and women. The data presented in this article provides useful sex-disaggregated data capturing intra-household agricultural decision-making, and a solid platform for further work on understanding intra-household decision-making processes concerning cash and food crops in Vanuatu.

Donor-led post-conflict interventions often involve the transfer of anti-corruption institutions and approaches. However, some question the sustainability of these efforts. This article examines the sustainability of anti-corruption funding during and after the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) intervention (2003–2017), an international peace- and state-building mission. It focuses on allocations for and spending on Solomon Islands anti-corruption organisations during and after the RAMSI-led intervention for the period 2010 to 2020. It shows that while political elites have occasionally resisted anti-corruption reforms, post-RAMSI governments have maintained levels of funding to key anti-corruption agencies above that of its nearest neighbour, Papua New Guinea, while passing new anti-corruption legislation. The article argues that while concerns about corruption remain, political elites have, initially at least, maintained their commitment to anti-corruption policy transfer in the post-RAMSI era. The findings have implications for evaluating donor-led anti-corruption efforts in Solomon Islands and other post-conflict situations.

The Chinese Communist Party is consolidating one party rule under the leadership of Xi Jinping. Beijing seeks to rule by central mandate while limiting local autonomy. The central government response to the COVID-19 public health emergency reinforces this view. In January 2020 Beijing established the Central Epidemic Response Leading Group to mobilise a comprehensive nationwide policy effort to contain the virus. The exceptional nature of the COVID-19 national emergency allows the central government to project power over local authorities and leverage over citizens, but we argue that this is a short-term phenomenon because local disease control initiatives remain important, with local authorities adapting national policies to meet constituent needs. There are degrees of policy discretion and divergence at the subnational level that enable context-specific responses to the virus within China’s strict bureaucratic hierarchy. Primary data derives from interviews and observations in Nancun village, Hebei Province, conducted from January to April 2020. Evidence from Nancun explains how local authorities interpret the edicts and mandates of the central government.

Networks play a vital role in the delivery of public services, especially in countries where governments are constrained by capacity and funds. This study develops a framework of governance networks based on two dimensions: at the national and community levels, and within the governmental and non-governmental sectors. Based on the framework, this article analyses the governance networks of the Bougainville Healthy Communities Programme (BHCP) and their nature of integration and collaboration. BHCP mainly operates as a public healthcare advocacy program in Bougainville, an underdeveloped autonomous region of Papua New Guinea. BHCP’s success reveals that the nature of interaction among the various actors is key to making governance networks work. Its experience demonstrates that governance networks are important in the effective delivery of services, particularly in countries where the governments face financial and human resources shortages.

The costs of sending remittances to Pacific small island developing states (SIDS) are among the highest in the world. Tackling this issue is crucial not only for economic and social development, but also for improving financial inclusion. This article analyses fintech adoption in remittance services, namely the adoption of alternative payment methods in transferring money by using the internet or mobile phones, in the Pacific. It introduces an original framework to assess the current landscape of fintech in the remittance sector and draws tailored policy recommendations. The framework is conceptualised through a ladder with five rungs: availability, accessibility, awareness, literacy and trust. Based on the ladder analysis, the authors observe the lack of basic digital infrastructure and digital platforms in many Pacific SIDS. Where the technological landscape is better developed, fintech services have established strong footholds, but there is a need for greater awareness to broaden its appeal and customer base. The benefits of fintech platforms are high, especially in the context of lower remittance costs which constitute an unduly large share of GDP in Pacific SIDS. The basic infrastructure needed to develop fintech services are equally important for the overall sustainable development of Pacific SIDS. The article observes fintech services in the Pacific are a means for financial inclusion of the unbanked, that can accelerate the economic and social development of the SIDS, and countries in the Pacific region are at different stages in their readiness for fintech adoption.

Around the world, policymakers have found it difficult to sustain fee-free education policies. This article shows how politicians can significantly undermine national fee-free education policies by redirecting resources to subnational administrations, where funds can be used to shore up political support. To do so it examines changes to political support towards Papua New Guinea’s longest running fee-free education policy. The Tuition Fee Free (TFF) policy was introduced in 2012 under the government of Prime Minister Peter O’Neill before the policy was abolished, and the subsidy supporting it reduced, in 2019 by a new government led by Prime Minister James Marape. Following the introduction of the TFF policy in 2012, national politicians empowered subnational governments to control TFF subsidies, while education and other funding had started to flow to newly created district administrations. This paved the way for politicians to maintain fee-free education policy in some subnational administrations when the Marape government cut the TFF subsidy. This article suggests that in Papua New Guinea, as in some other developing countries, politicians are incentivised to administer fee-free education policies at subnational rather than national administrative scales. Sustaining universal fee-free education policies will require changing these incentives.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Australian Government has been ambiguous in the way it has communicated the aid budget. On some occasions, it has sought to downplay increases in aid spending, while at other times it has sought to downplay cuts to aid spending. We draw on interviews with federal parliamentarians and key informants to understand these dynamics, in the context of obtaining their views on changes to Australia's post-COVID-19 aid policy. We find evidence that a new political consensus is forming around Australian aid. While this ‘cautious consensus’ countenances aid spending increases, motivated in part by humanitarian concerns but especially by anxiety about increasing Chinese influence in the region, these priorities are tempered by considerable concern about public backlash at a time of significant economic challenges for Australian citizens. Based on this evidence, we define the contours of an emerging ‘cautious consensus’ by showing how it will differ from the earlier ‘golden consensus’ era of Australian aid.

Using cross-country data, we find little evidence that economic openness has an impact on the level of nationalism in countries. We use three waves of the World Values Survey from 1999 through 2014 combined with data on economic openness from the Penn World Tables. Across all three waves, we find no statistically significant relationship between economic openness and nationalism. However, there is evidence for a negative association between economic openness and nationalism from 2001 to 2007 and a positive association between 2007 and 2014. This corresponds to the rising nationalistic and anti-trade sentiment evident throughout the world despite the general trend of increasing economic openness.

As Timor-Leste nears the end of its petroleum-exporting era, the transition to a sustainable economy has become even more challenging due to partisan political competition, disastrous flooding and the pandemic. This article describes the current economic context, and deteriorating trends. After a brief discussion of the political situation and the impacts of COVID-19, it explores expenditure and income trends in recent state budgets, with a particular focus on dependency on oil and gas revenues and their investments, which pay for 80% of state spending and may run out within a decade. It then assesses in detail revenue prospects from current and future oil and gas activities, including Greater Sunrise and the planned Tasi Mane petroleum infrastructure project. The analysis shows that it is highly likely that resource revenue will continue to decline. Diversification is not an option; it is the only way forward.