Disentangling services in developing regions: A test of Kaldor's first and second laws

AbstractWith respect to the tremendous deficit in surgical care plaguing developing nations, it is critical that medical outreach models be organized in such a fashion that sustainable advancements can be durably imparted beyond the duration of targeted missions. Using a didactic framework focused on empowering host neurosurgeons with an enhanced surgical skillset, a mission was launched in Managua, Nicaragua, after previous success in Kiev, Ukraine, and Lima, Peru. Unfortunately, the failure to critically assess the internal and external state of affairs of the region’s medical center compromised the outreach mission. Herein lies the visiting team’s lessons from failure and insights on facilitating effective communication with host institutions, circumventing geopolitical instability, and utilizing digital collaboration and video-conferencing tools in the post-COVID-19 era to advance the surgical care of developing regions in a fashion that can be generationally felt.

Download Full-text

Reframing refugee crisis: A “European crisis of migration” or a “crisis of protection”?

Environment and Planning C Politics and Space ◽

10.1177/2399654421989705 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 239965442198970

Author(s):

Maissaa Almustafa

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Global South ◽

Global Media ◽

Developing Regions ◽

International Protection ◽

High Commissioner ◽

The Face ◽

Global North ◽

Displaced People ◽

Resettlement Programs

The end of 2015 witnessed a global record in the number of forcibly displaced people fleeing because of wars and persecution. The unprecedented total of 65.3 million displaced individuals, out of which 21.3 million were refugees, was the highest number that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has recorded since its establishment in 1950. During the same year and in the face of this large-scale crisis, only 107,100 refugees were admitted for resettlement through official resettlement programs, whereas 3.2 million people applied for asylum globally. And in spite of the fact that the majority of the world refugees are hosted in ten developing regions, the dominant narrative in the global media was about the “unauthorized” arrival of more than one million asylum seekers in Europe by sea during 2015. This paper argues that the unexpected nature of refugees’ arrivals has proven that refugees were supposed to be contained in their camps in the Global South, deterred from reaching the territories of the Global North, represented here by Europe. Thus, the paper proposes that these arrivals are rather reflections of a crisis of protection that developed in the Global South where containment and deterrence strategies against refugees from the Global South exacerbate their inhumane displacement conditions in home regions. In the same context, the paper discusses how international protection structures have been reconstructed to serve the same goals of containment and deterrence, with the ultimate aim of putting people ‘back in place’ with minimal access to protection and rights.

Download Full-text

Barriers to the Use of Neurologic Criteria to Declare Death in Africa

American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine® ◽

10.1177/10499091211006921 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 104990912110069

Author(s):

Ariane Lewis ◽

Andrew Kumpfbeck ◽

Jordan Liebman ◽

Sam D. Shemie ◽

Gene Sung ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Brain Death ◽

Legal Framework ◽

Developing Regions ◽

Healthcare Facilities ◽

Life And Death ◽

The World ◽

Religious Perspectives ◽

World Brain ◽

The Creation ◽

Death By Neurologic Criteria

There are varying medical, legal, social, religious and philosophical perspectives about the distinction between life and death. Death can be declared using cardiopulmonary or neurologic criteria throughout much of the world. After solicitation of brain death/death by neurologic criteria (BD/DNC) protocols from contacts around the world, we found that the percentage of countries with BD/DNC protocols is much lower in Africa than other developing regions. We performed an informal review of the literature to identify barriers to declaration of BD/DNC in Africa. We found that there are numerous medical, legal, social and religious barriers to the creation of BD/DNC protocols in Africa including 1) limited number of healthcare facilities, critical care resources and clinicians with relevant expertise; 2) absence of a political and legal framework codifying death; and 3) cultural and religious perspectives that present ideological conflict with the idea of BD/DNC, in particular, and between traditional and Western medicine, in general. Because there are a number of unique barriers to the creation of BD/DNC protocols in Africa, it remains to be seen how the World Brain Death Project, which is intended to create minimum standards for BD/DNC around the world, will impact BD/DNC determination in Africa.

Download Full-text

Exploring the Traveler’s Intentions to Use Public Transport during the COVID-19 Pandemic While Complying with Precautionary Measures

Applied Sciences ◽

10.3390/app11083630 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (8) ◽

pp. 3630

Author(s):

Muhammad Abdullah ◽

Nazam Ali ◽

Charitha Dias ◽

Tiziana Campisi ◽

Muhammad Ashraf Javid

Keyword(s):

Public Transport ◽

Close Contact ◽

Policy Implications ◽

Developing Regions ◽

Infected People ◽

The Public ◽

Policy Interventions ◽

Study Results ◽

Precautionary Measures ◽

Safety Guidelines

Public transport use has drastically declined during the COVID-19 pandemic because the virus spreads through close contact with infected people and contaminated surfaces, especially in closed-environments. Evidence suggests that following the necessary safety guidelines can limit the spread of the virus, however, non-compliance to precautionary measures has been reported widely. Ignoring the precautionary measures may lead to quick transmission of the virus since public transport vehicles generally resemble closed-environments. This study explores people’s intentions to use public transport during the COVID-19 pandemic while adhering to precautionary measures. For this purpose, a total of 1516 useable responses were collected through a questionnaire survey conducted in Lahore, Pakistan. Regression models were developed to model the intentions to use public transport during the pandemic, to adhere to the precautionary measures while using public transport during the pandemic, and to use public transport while suffering from COVID-19 disease. The results of this study will help in understanding the intentions of the public transport users during the COVID-19 pandemic. It will also provide insights for policymakers and public transport operators about further necessary actions to promote safe public transport use during the current and any possible future pandemics. As public transport use declined during the pandemic, policy implications for alternative mobility options such as demand-responsive-transport (DRT) are also presented. Considering the study results, a policy interventions framework is proposed to promote the safe use of various public transport modes, particularly in developing regions.

Download Full-text

Demystifying the Barriers to Transport Infrastructure Project Development in Fast Developing Regions: The Case of China

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su9101915 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 9 (10) ◽

pp. 1915 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Tianyi Nie ◽

Kunhui Ye

Keyword(s):

Transport Infrastructure ◽

Project Development ◽

Developing Regions ◽

Infrastructure Project

Download Full-text

“Documents, Please”

World Politics ◽

10.1017/s0043887115000465 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 68 (2) ◽

pp. 191-228 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Wendy Hunter ◽

Robert Brill

Keyword(s):

Developing Countries ◽

Social Protection ◽

Birth Certificate ◽

Welfare States ◽

Poor People ◽

Birth Registration ◽

Developing Regions ◽

Life Chances ◽

The Poor ◽

State Infrastructure

A birth certificate is essential to exercising citizenship, yet vast numbers of poor people in developing countries have no official record of their existence. Few academic studies analyze the conditions under which governments come to document and certify births routinely, and those that do leave much to be explained, including why nontotalitarian governments at low to middle levels of economic development come to prioritize birth registration. This article draws attention to the impetus that welfare-building initiatives give to identity documentation. The empirical focus is on contemporary Latin America, where extensions in institutionalized social protection since the 1990s have increased the demand for and supply of birth registration, raising the life chances of the poor and building state infrastructure in the process. The authors' argument promises to have broader applicability as welfare states form in other developing regions.

Download Full-text