Institutional fragmentation and coordination initiatives in western European welfare states

As a result of recent welfare state transformations, and most notably the reorientation of welfare states towards activation, the internal fragmentation of social security systems has emerged as a key policy problem in many western European countries. The types of response that have been adopted, however, vary substantially across countries, ranging from the encouragement of inter-agency collaboration to the outright merger of agencies. The purpose of this exploratory article is twofold. First, by proposing the concept of coordination initiatives, it tries to develop a better conceptualization of the cross-national diversity in responses to the fragmentation problem. Second, starting from existing theories of welfare state development and policy change, it presents first hypotheses accounting for the variation observed in coordination initiatives.

A Five Year Tobacco Action Plan (PDF 109 KB)

Summary of Responses to the Consultation ‘A Five Year Tobacco Action Plan’ document was issued for public consultation in August 2002. The Plan, which was developed by an inter-sectoral Working Group, provides a framework for collaborative working across Government departments, the statutory and voluntary sectors, as well as with business and in local communities. It seeks to combine an overview of the background, scale and nature of the problem with a comprehensive programme of action to reduce the harm caused by tobacco use. åÊ

Report Against Drugs- an action plan to combat substance abuse in Longford.

The Forum for Longford was started in 1997 to provide a co-ordinated inter-agency approach to identify and help tackle social problems in Longford. A survey was carried out with 1,331 post-primary students to ascertain attitudes and behaviours towards alcohol, smoking and drug use. Of the pupils interviewed, 64% had taken an alcoholic drink at age 15 or younger; of these 73% had their first drink between the ages of 12 to 15. Of those that had experience of alcohol, 51% drank several times a week or daily. For smoking, 67% had smoked a cigarette; of these 8% smoked 5 or more daily. Of those that smoked, 47% began between the ages of 11 to 14. With regard to illegal drugs 27% had used cannabis, 20% had used inhalants, 10% hallucinogens, 9% amphetamines and 7.4% had used ecstasy. Following on form these findings, the report makes several recommendations, including the formation of a community task force, Garda/ neighbourhood watch response, schools prevention and information. Also among these key areas are the role of parents, the needs of young people and facilities for young people.This resource was contributed by The National Documentation Centre on Drug Use.

Community Partnerships Evaluation: The Story so Far..., August 2008

Community Partnerships for Protecting Children (CPPC) is an approach that neighborhoods, towns, cities and states can adopt to improve how children are protected from abuse and/or neglect. The State of Iowa recognizes that the child protection agency, working alone, cannot keep children safe from abuse and neglect. It aims to blend the work and expertise of professionals and community members to bolster supports for vulnerable families and children. Community Partnerships is not a “program” – rather, it is a way of working with families to help services and supports to be more inviting, need-based, accessible and relevant. It incorporates prevention strategies as well as those interventions needed to address abuse, once identified.

La sinergia institucional en la gerencia de la explotación minera en Colombia

El interés de este trabajo de grado es analizar el concepto de coordinación inter-agencial y trasladarlo a la práctica, para entender el funcionamiento de dos grandes agencias que gerencian el tema minero en el país: la Agencia Nacional de Minería y la Agencia Nacional de Licencias Ambientales. A partir de lo anterior, se demostrará que la falta de sinergia entre estas agencias es producto de la improvisación en la creación institucional; de la inestabilidad de las normas que las regulan y su falta de cumplimiento; de problemas estructurales al interior de cada una y de la ausencia de una mirada integral, en la que todos los elementos se relacionan y tienen efectos sobre sí. El diseño metodológico es cualitativo-descriptivo y el enfoque es el jurídico-institucional, ya que el propósito fue describir el funcionamiento de estas dos agencias, teniendo como fundamento el rol del Estado, el papel de las instituciones y el derecho que las regula.

Partial decentralization as a safeguard against favoritism

In this paper I investigate the optimal level of decentralization of tasks for the provision of a local public good. I enrich the well-known trade-off between internalization of spillovers (that favors centralization) and accountability (that favors decentralization) by considering that public goods are produced through multiple tasks. This adds an additional institutional setting, partial decentralization, to the classical choice between full decentralization and full centralization. The main results are that partial decentralization is optimal when both the variance of exogenous shocks to electorate’s utility is large and the electorate expects high performance from politicians. I also show that the optimal institutional setting depends on the degree of substitutability / complementarity between tasks. In particular, I show that a large degree of substitutability between tasks makes favoritism more likely, which increases the desirability of partial decentralization as a safeguard against favoritism.

Social Panorama of Latin America 2005

Includes bibliography

The outlook for agriculture and rural development in the Americas: a perspective on Latin America and the Caribbean, 2009

Includes bibliography

Sustainable development: Latin American and Caribbean perspectives

Includes bibliography

Millennium Development Goals. Achieving the millennium development goals with equality in Latin America and the Caribbean: Progress and challenges. Summary

Includes bibliography

Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean. Follow-up to the United Nations development agenda beyond 2015 and to Rio+20

Includes bibliography

The millennium development goals: a Latin American and Caribbean Perspective

Includes bibliography

From industrial economics to digital economics: an introduction to the transition

Includes bibliography

Good practices in monitoring and reporting on the Millennium Development Goals: National lessons from Latin America

Includes bibliography

Land degradation

Includes bibliography