Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies最新文献

Malaria elimination has been a recurring policy goal in Solomon Islands and has historically succeeded in attracting substantial donor support. Drawing on literature review and key informant interviews, we examine the influence of foreign aid on malaria control and elimination efforts in Solomon Islands between 2002 and 2016, as a unique case study of an Asia-Pacific country with high malaria burden and high donor funding. While aid appears to have contributed to reduced malaria prevalence, the ways in which aid was delivered in the short term had health systems impacts with implications for the elimination agenda. Key areas that will be critical to the future pursuit of malaria elimination in Solomon Islands include: integration of the vertical malaria program, while strengthening provincial-level service delivery; maximising incentives of performance-based financing modalities; and policy alignment between donors and domestic actors. We conclude by discussing principles exemplified in the case study of broader relevance to malaria-endemic countries.

Lao PDR's push for large infrastructure-led economic growth has been delivered through a significant amount of financial leverage and a build-up of sovereign debt obligations. The government now finds itself in danger of a sovereign default. This article traces the roots of this debt crisis over the past decade, focusing particularly on the role of hydropower. A significant share of infrastructure lending to Laos has been through Chinese policy banks. We argue that over-lending to dam projects focused on the domestic energy market has been at the core of Laos' debt situation. Through 2020 the Lao Government has undertaken a series of restructuring measures, including privatisation of state assets, engaging in debt renegotiations with China, and attempts to secure new short-term credit. We outline a range of other options Laos has to reschedule or restructure their sovereign debt, and offer policy targeted recommendations focusing on reforms in the energy sector.

This article examines how people's confidence in their governments changed in the context of South Korean decentralisation. South Korea provides a unique case to answer the question because it is one of the world's most rapid modernisers and has maintained autonomous local systems across three decades of decentralisation. Analysing data from the first and fourth wave of the Asian Barometer Survey in a seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) model, we find that the trust function of the local governments correlates with the trust function of the national government in 2003 and then disappears in 2015. We understand this finding as a piece of indirect evidence that South Korean local autonomy encourages local government trust, which does not reflect merely trust in the national government. This article also discusses the need for normalisation of the National Assembly, the creation of regional political parties and the dispersion of presidential power.

Does decentralisation lead to higher citizens' satisfaction with the public services that local governments provide? Despite arguments that decentralisation improves public service delivery, studies have not successfully verified the effects of decentralisation on citizen evaluations of local government services. Given the importance of increased local empowerment in promoting desired public goods, we examine whether the hypothesised advantages of decentralisation on public service delivery still hold when applied to citizens' satisfaction with public services. Specifically, we explore both the direct and indirect impacts of decentralisation on citizens' satisfaction through the mediating impact of the local management capacity in Korea. Based on structural equation modelling, the results indicate that decentralisation has a direct negative impact on public service satisfaction, but its impact is not mediated by local management capacity. Due to Korean citizens' lower expectations regarding decentralisation, citizens' satisfaction is not improved even when local management capacity is increased via higher decentralisation.

Member countries of the Asia Pacific Malaria Elimination Network are pursuing the regional goal of malaria elimination by 2030. The countries are in different phases of malaria elimination, but most have demonstrated success in shrinking the malaria map in the region. However, continued transmission in hard-to-reach populations, including border and forest malaria, remains an important challenge. In this article, we review strategies for improving intervention coverage in hard-to-reach populations. Currently available preventive measures, including long-lasting insecticidal nets and long-lasting insecticidal hammocks, and prompt diagnosis and treatment need to be expanded to hard-to-reach populations. This can be done through mobile malaria clinics, village volunteer malaria workers and screening posts. Malaria surveillance in the hard-to-reach areas can be enhanced through tools such as spatial decision support systems. Policy changes by the malaria programs will be required for implementing the strategies outlined in this article. However, strategies or tools may be suitable for some population groups but difficult to implement in other groups.

New diagnostics and treatment options for the radical cure of Plasmodium vivax malaria are now available. At the 2019 annual meeting of the Vivax Working Group of the Asia Pacific Malaria Elimination Network, participants took part in a roundtable discussion to identify further evidence required to introduce these new tools into policy and practice. Key gaps identified were accuracy and reliability of glucose-6-phosphate-dehydrogenase deficiency tests, health system capacity, and feasibility and cost effectiveness of novel treatment strategies in routine clinical practice. As expected, there were differences in the priorities between country partners and researcher partners. To achieve the 2030 target for the regional elimination of malaria, evidence to address these issues should be generated as a matter of priority. Review of global guidelines alongside locally generated data will help to ensure the timely revision and optimisation of national treatment guidelines that will be vital to meet regional elimination goals.

This article examines use of a Papua New Guinea (PNG) Facebook group, Fly River Forum, with reference to the COVID-19 global pandemic. From about mid-March 2020, when the PNG Government declared a State of Emergency, to early May, members of that forum shared an intense interest in the pandemic and were deeply concerned with its possible implications for the country. The great majority of COVID-related posts, and associated comments, combined delivery of relevant information with scepticism about some of that information. Most participants did not take either religious tropes or conspiracy theories as primary sources of comfort or explanation. We argue that Fly River Forum played a positive role in the ways that people engaged with what could have emerged as a health disaster. More generally, geographically focused sites such as this provide a valuable barometer of local opinion and deserve close attention by politicians and policymakers in PNG.

While there have been several attempts to measure the investment climate, by far the most widely recognised measure is the World Bank's Doing Business indicators (DBIs), ranking some 200 countries on their ease of doing business. Methodological criticisms have failed to dent their stature. This article is based on case studies of Pacific Island countries that demonstrate that identical reforms in different countries are assigned rankings so widely divergent that they call into question the validity of the DBIs. The findings cast doubt on targeting improved DBI rankings as a policy goal. Our case studies are the first to provide detailed country evidence supporting the criticisms levelled against the DBIs on conceptual grounds.

East Rennell was placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger in 2013. Threats to the site's Outstanding Universal Value include logging, mining, invasive species, and climate change. The site is unlikely to be removed unless actions identified in the 2015 Desired state of conservation for removal of the property from the List of World Heritage in Danger (DSOCR) are implemented. While the Solomon Islands Government has taken some steps towards implementing the DSOCR, overall progress has been minimal, partly due to competing priorities and lack of resources. Consequently, it is unlikely that the DSOCR will be achieved by the target date of 2021. East Rennellese have received little financial benefit from the site's listing and their support for World Heritage may be wavering. To be effective, World Heritage conservation measures must be aligned with local peoples' aspirations and priorities, which include improving livelihoods and preserving culture.

Based on data from the China Education Panel Survey, which covers 28 counties/districts of China, this study applies a difference-in-differences method (combined with propensity score matching in some analyses) to estimate the impacts of private tutoring on students' learning outcomes. Our analyses yield three important findings. First, subject-specific tutoring has a statistically significant and positive effect on Grade 8 students' scores on Chinese and mathematics tests, although the effects are modest in size. Second, private tutoring improves students' academic performance mainly through enhancing their test-taking skills or deepening their understanding of subject-specific knowledge, rather than improving their general cognitive skills. Finally, the effect of private tutoring is heterogenous across different subsamples: it is larger for female students, low-performing students, and students with better-educated and wealthier parents.