Pandemic Preparedness of Countries to Cope With COVID-19

One of the problems hardly clarified in COVID-19 pandemic crisis is the effective of the pandemic preparedness of countries to cope with COVID-19 and reduce negative effects in society. The study here confronts this problem by proponing the Index of resilience that detects which countries have had the best performance to reduce the negative impact of mortality related to COVID-19 pandemic and the Index of preparedness that assesses performance of countries to support COVID-19 vaccinations and prevent future waves of COVID-19. The application of these indexes on selected European countries suggests that, in average, best-performer countries to cope with COVID-19 pandemic crisis have a smaller size of population and high level of health expenditures. However, lessons learned from this study are that manifold countries have several biological security weaknesses and low pandemic preparedness. The policy implications are that governments should revise and reinforce, planning, institutions and overall organization devoted to face pandemic threats.

Improving the Tools for Strategic Economic Planning at the Regional Level: Main Directions of the Search for New Solutions

The article deals with the issues of improving the system of strategic planning of the economy in the regions (Russian Federation entities) in the context of contemporary national problems and world challenges. The authors summarize regional practice of socio-economic planning and assess the hierarchy and composition of existing strategic planning documents in the regions of the Russian Federation, as well as propose new types of prearranged documents as the most important planning institutions. The authors consider also the feasibility of forming regional and interregional coordination structures that perform the strategic planning functions, as well as note the importance and prospects of using information technologies in regional strategic goal setting, forecasting, and programming.

Islamic Estate Planning in Malaysia: The Dilemma (The Dilemma Perancangan Harta Islam di Malaysia: Satu Dilema)

Islamic estate planning is very important in the life of any Muslims. Indeed, those Muslims who pass away and do not have proper planning on their estate indirectly breaching the bequest guidance as stated in the Qur’an which are the main source of reference for a Muslim life. Regrettably, the noble spirit of Islam is not well accepted, and many are not concerned with arranging their estate thus triggering enormous family debates and increase the unclaimed property after the deceased’s death. The present-day affairs of Islamic estate planning in Malaysia is still not encouraging despite the efforts by relevant institutions and industry players to expand the industry. The initiative was undertaken by the government to form a national institution known as Amanah Raya Berhad and followed by participation of private Islamic estate planning companies to provide estates planning related services. However, thus far only 700,000 individuals have declared wasiyyah as compared to the majority of Muslims among the 30 million Malaysians. The outstanding differences among subscribers of the services and who do not subscribe, open up to a real dilemma within the area of Islamic estate planning. This is the subject that motivates the researcher to study the issues in Islamic estate planning in Malaysia. The purpose of this study is to examine the dilemma faced by the industry practitioners. This research is qualitative in nature relying on the existing literatures from internet website, document analysis and library literature. The scope of this study is relevant and pertinent to the overall Islamic estate planning industry development thus, intended to put forward recommendations for enhancement of Islamic estate planning in Malaysia including the possibility of establishing Shari’ah advisory framework for the Islamic estate planning institutions. Keywords: Islamic estate planning, Dilemma, Issues, Inheritance, Malaysia. Abstrak Perancangan harta Islam adalah sangat penting dalam kehidupan orang Islam. Bagi orang Islam yang meninggal dunia dan tidak merancang sebaiknya harta peninggalan mereka, dalam erti kata lain individu terbabit telah melanggar garis panduan yang telah ditetapkan di dalam Qur’an yang merupakan panduan utama bagi kehidupan seseorang yang beragama Islam. Prinsip utama panduan kehidupan sehingga peringkat kematian yang bersifat menyeluruh yang ditekankan oleh agama Islam nyata gagal diterima sepenuhnya oleh umat Islam yang akhirnya menyebabkan sebahagian dari mereka tidak merancang pengagihan harta setelah kematian. Situasi ini menyebabkan wujudnya perdebatan antara ahli keluarga atau waris yang berhak dan ini menjadi faktor kepada harta tidak dituntut setelah kematian seseorang individu. Perkembangan semasa pengurusan harta pusaka di Malaysia masih tidak menggalakkan walaupun pelbagai usaha telah dilaksanakan oleh pihak berwajib dan pemain industri. Inisiatif awal telah dibuat oleh pihak Kerajaan Malaysia dengan menubuhkan institusi dikenali sebagai Amanah Raya Berhad serta seterusnya kemunculan pelbagai pemain industri swasta dalam menyediakan khidmat pengurusan harta pusaka serta yang berkaitan. Namun demikian, sehingga kini, sejumlah 700,000 individu sahaja telah melaksanakan deklarasi wasiat berbanding bilangan umat Islam di Malaysia yang mencecah 30 juta orang. Perbezaan yang amat ketara ini berhubung individu beragama Islam yang mempunyai wasiat dan yang tidak berwasiat membuka kepada persoalan apakah dilema yang dihadapi dalam pengurusan harta Islam di Malaysia. Objektif kajian adalah untuk mengenalpasti dilema yang dilalui para pengamal industri. Kajian ini bersifat kualitatif dan bersumberkan literatur sedia ada yang dirujuk menerusi laman internet, analisis dokumen dan carian di perpustakaan. Skop kajian ini adalah sangat relevan dan bertepatan dengan keperluan dan perkembangan industri pengurusan harta pusaka. Kajian ini juga bertujuan untuk menyediakan cadangan bersesuaian bagi kemajuan pengurusan harta pusaka berdasarkan kaedah Islam dengan kemungkinan mewujudkan kerangka khidmat nasihat berlandaskan Shari’ah bagi institusi pengurusan harta pusaka Islam. Kata kunci: Perancangan harta pusaka, dilema, isu, harta warisan, Malaysia.

Energy Vision Strategies for the EU Green New Deal: A Case Study of European Cities

There are three strategic levels for successful energy planning in cities: 1) Integration strategy for integrating energy planning into urban planning institutions; 2) Practice strategy for developing suitable energy planning practices in urban planning institutions, and 3) Vision strategy for the creation and integration of energy visions and scenarios required for long-term decarbonisation. The vision strategy is critical but not well researched and is the focus of this article. Using Strategic Energy Planning (SEP) as an analytical framework, the vision strategy of eight forerunner European cities are analysed. Some critical elements of SEP include the use of long-term targets, holistic energy system thinking, and retention of scenarios. The results indicate that the level of understanding and practice of the vision strategy is still deficient in the cities. Cities often use the practice of urban planning, which does not fit very well with energy planning, particularly with the vision strategy. The energy planning in the cities mostly focuses on shorter-term goals and actions, and they often abandon energy scenarios once extracted. However, through trial and error, some cities are finding ways forward. The article concludes with several recommendations, particularly that cities need to see scenarios as retainable long-term servants providing information desired by the planner, rather than serving as a guide to the planner.

From Revanchism to Inclusion: Institutional Forms of Planning and Police in Hyde Park, Chicago

Planning and policing are two critical racial projects in the racial state. Planning scholars’ understanding of the police usually focuses on the police violently removing people from urban space, yet critical criminology literature shows their function to be more diverse. I employ an exploratory case study, centered in the South Side of Chicago, to develop propositions to guide emergent research that centralizes the police within planning. The propositions (1) impel further investigation into how police not only exclude people but also define who belongs and (2) draw attention to how planning institutions can create new forms of police.

Pathways to legitimacy

Planners are centrally concerned with the legitimacy of planning institutions and practices. In a democratic society, governments depend on the voluntary compliance of external actors for the implementation of their policies. Planning theorists have largely focused on the inclusiveness and quality of deliberation in goal-setting. This article expands this focus using Scharpf’s and Schmidt’s distinction between three domains of legitimation—input, throughput, and output—each of which affords a distinct pathway to legitimacy. These legitimation processes are examined through a comparison of the postwar development of American regional planning institutions in Minneapolis–St Paul, Minnesota, and Portland, Oregon. The input-throughput-output distinction can be used to interpret the operation and impacts of historical planning activities, or prospectively to evaluate the potential impacts of institutional reforms.