Development specialists often overlook the feet that the towns of a rural region play as essential a role in the region's economy as does agriculture, and they design and implement broad strategies without due recognition of the unique and dynamic character of each individual region. Proper analysis requires consideration of the changing nature of rural regions and the principal agents of change. The contributors to this volume argue that development strategists should focus on processes r...

Used across the public health field, this is the leading text in the area, focusing on the context, participants and processes of making health policy.

Developing countries commonly adopt reforms to improve their governments yet they usually fail to produce more functional and effective governments. Andrews argues that reforms often fail to make governments better because they are introduced as signals to gain short-term support. These signals introduce unrealistic best practices that do not fit developing country contexts and are not considered relevant by implementing agents. The result is a set of new forms that do not function. Howeve...

A call to reconnect the fields of urban planning and public health that offers a new decision-making framework for healthy city planning.In distressed urban neighborhoods where residential segregation concentrates poverty, liquor stores outnumber supermarkets, toxic sites are next to playgrounds, and more money is spent on prisons than schools, residents also suffer disproportionately from disease and premature death. Recognizing that city environments and the plan...

The premise of this book is that 400 million childrenone in five children aliveare abused and neglected in ways that could affect their entire lives, and that greater progress in protecting those children is both urgent and possible.The book reviews the long history of child maltreatment from prehistoric times to the present, contrasting statements about precious, innocent children with the realities of child maltreatment around the world. Child protection is defined using the sixt...

This new edition of The SAGE Handbook of International Corporate and Public Affairs builds on the success of the first edition (2005) by comprehensively updating and enhancing the material and structure, setting a new standard for the practitioner and student of the global public affairs discipline. The new edition includes increased international coverage of the field, and a strong focus on emerging trends, as well as providing a comprehensive overview of the foundations ...

Environmentally and socially sustainable policies are essential for good governance. Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is the key tool for integrating environmental considerations into policies, programs and plans. This book focuses on SEA applied to policies. Through lessons learned from previous use of SEA on policies, it draws lessons on the strengths and weaknesses of current SEA methodology. It then goes on to analyze how policies are formulated and implemented and proposes a new ...

This open access book presents a nuanced and accessible synthesis of the relationship between land tenure security and sustainable development. Contributing authors have collectively worked for decades on land tenure as connected with conservation and development across all major regions of the globe. The first section of this volume is intended as a standalone primer on land tenure security and its connections with sustainable development. The book then explores key thematic challenges th...

Drawing on in-depth empirical research spanning a number of countries in Africa, Booth and Cammack's path-breaking book offers both an accessible overview of issues surrounding governance for development on the continent, whilst also offering a bold new alternative. In doing so, they controversially argue that externally imposed 'good governance' approaches make unrealistic assumptions about the choices leaders and officials are, in practice, able to make. As a result, reform initiatives a...

How does the social and political context in which decision-makers find themselves in affect their ability to realize their reform goals? How does this context facilitate or inhibit specific reform agendas and projects? How can we operationalize and evaluate these risks and opportunities in order to decide what reforms and projects are feasible given the circumstances? This book provides the reader with the full panoply of political economy tools and concepts necessary to understand, analyze,...

This open access edited book brings together a number of theories under the umbrella of humanistic governance to develop a persuasive alternative perspective on governance, particularly for democratic organisations such as co-operatives. It examines how we can move beyond a profit-first approach to governance, into a framework that prioritises human dignity in all aspects of an operation. This book also discusses key issues for different types of cooperatives and how these might be address...

This open access book responds to the need for a specifically African focus on public policy. It outlines the fundamental principles of public policy research, and engages with major issues in the study of public policy from an African perspective, covering essential topics such as the location and centrality of social sciences in relation to public policy, leadership, methodology, institutions, governance, and gender. This book is essential for understanding the various aspects and dimens...