Gender budgeting: a vital element for ensuring sustainable development

The article aims to highlight the latest approaches to the introduction of countries gender budgeting. The authors propose the application of the method of ranking countries based on 4 key indicators related to the gender gap (Economic participation and opportunity, Educational attainment, Health and survival, Political empowerment) of the Global gender gap index and then analyse the result considering the level of socio-economic development of each country. Ten sample countries were randomly chosen. The results of the study confirmed the mutual influence between the gender gap and socio-economic development. The proposed method of ranking countries compared to socio-economic, political and environmental development allows countries with a high value of the gender gap index to offer specific tools to reduce it. The research conducted can help improve existing practices, facilitate initiatives to develop gender parity and further work on geographical and sectoral orientation.

Assessing the Competitiveness in Regional Marketing

Increasing market competition requires the examination of marketing methods and tools in territorial management. Place marketing has been developing with some delay compared to value marketing, as it emerged later, shaping its theoretical and practical basis accordingly. We analyse methods for assessing territorial competitiveness in the context of place marketing. The research methodology includes methods of monitoring, comparison, analysis, synthesis, and benchmarking. The study of the evolution of ideas concerning competitiveness and place marketing revealed three important marketing concepts: production, product and selling. We analysed methods for assessing the competitiveness at the local territory, city, region, and country levels. These methods form the basis for ratings. Th e dat a o n th e competitivenes s o f territorie s allo w stat e an d loca l authoritie s to choose a marketing (demarketing) strategy depending on the desired level of influence. We propose a model of competitiveness of the state identifying the Porter diamond at the country level. This model complies with modern marketing concepts and indicates that the effectiveness of place marketing depends on public administration, the position of the country in the system of international relations, and international influence on the socio-economic processes in the state. The development of global digital economy should enable data collection to improve the decision-making process. Thus, it will be possible to regulate the administrative staff, coordinate and use data on the functioning of territories, create additional opportunities for ranking countries in accordance with available resources, socio-economic development and relationships with the population. These measures would ensure permanent competition in the field of place marketing.

Methodological Aspects of Compiling Open Budget Rankings

Budget transparency is an effective tool in improving the quality of public budget executions. Ranking countries, regions and municipalities based on budget transparency is of interest for scientists and professionals in the whole world, including Russia. Methodologies behind budget transparency are a rather complex tool, the quality of which largely affects the results. This paper analyzes the available and applied ranking methodologies — in particular, the Open Budget Index (OBI) by the International Budget Partnership (IBP), transparency indices of local budgets in Kazakhstan and Croatia, and the ranking of the Russian Federation’s constituent territories by the level of budget data openness. During the analysis we identified the methodological principles of each of the considered approaches, their differences and similarities. Special attention was paid to problematic issues of the International Budget Partnership’s methodology. It is especially important to specify these problems, as the IBP methodology is a model in measuring the level of budget transparency. By using the ranking of Russian regions in terms of budget transparency levels, we demonstrate how to use special techniques and methods targeted at improving the quality of managing public fiscal performance.

I want to export but where to? A proposed method for selecting international markets

Objective of the study: to develop a method for the selection of international markets, in order to answer: how to select the most appropriate foreign market to the company's needs? Methodology / approach: This is a technological article whose intervention was to establish a target market in Africa that presented the greatest potential for attractiveness and accessibility. The ranking method was applied, preceded by a cut line (by clustering) of countries without the minimum requirements and the most attractive and accessible market was established through the decision matrix tool. Main results: The market selection started by defining the African continent and 49 countries were clustered, excluding unattractive ones, resulting in: South Africa, Angola, Algeria, Egypt and Morocco. Subsequently, ranking was applied and Angola was the target market selected for export. Theoretical / methodological contributions: Contributes methodologically using a blend of methods, clustering and ranking, which allows you to select the target market according to objective criteria. Relevance / originality: In view of the existing international market selection models, this method proposal is positioned as an improvement, as it brings two differentials, clustering as the cut line, and the decision matrix as a tool for ranking countries. Managerial contributions: The business contribution is to have a simple and accessible method, which takes into account the specificities of attractiveness and accessibility for a specific product, so that the selection of international markets is based on objective and not merely intuitive criteria, thus increasing the assertiveness in choosing the target market.

Judiciary in Democracy: Alignment and Disconnect

In this last Chapter, the consequences of differences in perceptions are examined. Two concepts are used: the lack of alignment and—more extreme—the disconnect between judiciary and society. Ranking countries by trust in the judiciary, in the lowest 20% there is a disconnect of judiciary and society, in the 20% around the median and in the highest 20% there is lack of alignment. Disconnect and lack of alignment seem to be self-perpetuating, as judges do not perceive the state of independence as problematic. Indications are that even a disconnect does not reduce the use of the civil courts, but that it leads citizens to avoid administrative law procedures. A disconnect weakens the position of the judiciary within the trias politica. This reinforces the complicated relationship between the judiciary and the other state powers. Where the other state powers see an increasing influence of the judiciary, the judiciary sees its own independence endangered. These perspectives clash. For the judiciary the way out is to focus on access to justice as an alternative perspective. By addressing the urgent legal needs of citizens, the judiciary has the potential to improve its alignment with society and its position within the trias politica.

The value proposition of the Global Health Security Index

Infectious disease outbreaks pose major threats to human health and security. Countries with robust capacities for preventing, detecting and responding to outbreaks can avert many of the social, political, economic and health system costs of such crises. The Global Health Security Index (GHS Index)—the first comprehensive assessment and benchmarking of health security and related capabilities across 195 countries—recently found that no country is sufficiently prepared for epidemics or pandemics. The GHS Index can help health security stakeholders identify areas of weakness, as well as opportunities to collaborate across sectors, collectively strengthen health systems and achieve shared public health goals. Some scholars have recently offered constructive critiques of the GHS Index’s approach to scoring and ranking countries; its weighting of select indicators; its emphasis on transparency; its focus on biosecurity and biosafety capacities; and divergence between select country scores and corresponding COVID-19-associated caseloads, morbidity, and mortality. Here, we (1) describe the practical value of the GHS Index; (2) present potential use cases to help policymakers and practitioners maximise the utility of the tool; (3) discuss the importance of scoring and ranking; (4) describe the robust methodology underpinning country scores and ranks; (5) highlight the GHS Index’s emphasis on transparency and (6) articulate caveats for users wishing to use GHS Index data in health security research, policymaking and practice.

eHealth in the European Union – Comparative Study

eHealth is one of the global modern trends in IT, medicine and politics. It is a broad term that refers to electronization of healthcare and health services and mainly describes the use of information and communication technologies in healthcare. In practice, the evaluation of eHealth is an important matter because it leads to selection of appropriate measures for further progress in the field of electronic healthcare. What is more, it proposes recommendations for the development of eHealth in the EU countries. The article is focused on the comparison of eHealth implementation in the European Union member states. The analysis is performed by means of ELECTRE III method. The results of the empirical research further evaluate the state of eHealth implementation in all European Union member states by selected criteria and enable the comparison of the eHealth implementation in the international context. The results are verified by application of MAPPAC method. It has been acknowledged that the best ranking countries in this area has been obtained by Denmark, Finland, Estonia and Sweden.

To Rank or Not to Rank with Indices? That Is the Question

Ranking countries via index-based league tables is now commonplace and is said by its proponents to provide countries with an ability to compare performance with their peers, spurring them to learn from others and make improvements. The Human Development Index (HDI) is arguably one of the most influential indices of its type in terms of reporting within the media and influence on development policy and funding allocation. It is often used as part of a suite of indices to assess sustainability. The index was first published in the Human Development Report (HDR) of 1990 and has appeared in each of the HDRs published since then. This paper reports the first research of its type designed to explore the impacts of methodological changes over 28 years (1991 to 2018) on the ranks of a sample of 135 countries appearing in the HDRs. Results suggest that methodological changes in the HDI have had a statistically significant impact on the ranking of the majority (82%) of countries in the sample, and the ranks of countries that tend to appear towards the top, middle, or bottom of the HDI league table are just as likely to be influenced by changes in HDI methodology. The paper suggests that after nearly 30 years of the HDI, there is an urgent need for independent and empirical research on the changes that it has helped bring about.