Suchergebnisse

AbstractFew would contest that teachers are a very important determinant of how much students learn in school, and how to improve teacher performance has been the focus of lively policy debate in both rich and poor countries. This paper examines how teacher incentives, both pecuniary and non‐pecuniary, correlate with teacher effort. Using school survey data from Lao PDR, we estimate measures of teacher effort, including the number of hours that teachers spend preparing for classes and teacher provision of private tutoring outside of class hours, which are not the typical measures used in previous research. Estimation results fit well under the standard labour supply framework and indicate that greater teacher effort is associated with non‐pecuniary incentives such as more teacher autonomy over teaching materials and monitoring as measured by the existence of an active parent–teacher association and the ability of school principals to dismiss teachers. Methodologically, this paper provides a detailed derivation of a simultaneous OLS‐probit model with school random effects that can jointly estimate teacher work hours and tutoring provision.

Background Harm reduction services to people who use drugs (PWUD) in Russia are insufficient in terms of quantity, government endorsement, and accessibility. The situation has recently deteriorated even further because of social distancing measures of the COVID-19 pandemic. Recently several harm reduction organizations have started to provide some harm reduction services via online platforms by web outreach. However, little is known on how online outreach services are organized and implemented. Drawing on the example of St. Petersburg-based NGO "Humanitarian Action" we explored web outreach work in Telegram instant messenger. Methods 4 semi-structured interviews with the NGO staff and 301 cases of web outreach work with PWUD comprised the dataset. The process of web outreach, service provision to PWUD, and PWUD's needs were thematically analyzed. Results Three stages of the process of web outreach work were determined: clients initiating communication, NGO workers addressing clients' needs, and NGO workers receiving clients' feedback. Communication proceeded either in group chat or in direct messages. Challenges in addressing clients' needs happened when clients turned for help in nighttime, sent recorded voice messages, sent unclear messages, and/or were unwilling to transition to telephone communication. All web outreach workers reported receiving only positive feedback on their work. PWUD's needs were categorized into two major themes, depending on whether they can be addressed fully or partially online. In cases of online only provision of services, web outreach workers helped PWUD treat minor injection drug use complications, obtain verified harm reduction information and receive general psychological support. In instances of partial online services provision, PWUD were assisted in getting treatment of severe injection drug use complications, overdoses, and in accessing offline medical, psychological, social, legal and harm reduction services. Conclusions Our research demonstrated that web outreach work is ...

BACKGROUND: Harm reduction services to people who use drugs (PWUD) in Russia are insufficient in terms of quantity, government endorsement, and accessibility. The situation has recently deteriorated even further because of social distancing measures of the COVID-19 pandemic. Several organizations have started to provide some harm reduction services via online platforms by web outreach. However, little is known on how online outreach services are organized and implemented. Drawing on the example of St. Petersburg-based NGO "Humanitarian Action," we explored web outreach work in Telegram instant messenger. METHODS: Our data were comprised of 4 semi-structured interviews with the NGO staff and 301 cases of web outreach work with PWUD. We used thematic analysis to study the process of web outreach, harm reduction service provision, and needs of PWUD. RESULTS: Three stages of the process of web outreach work were identified: clients initiating communication, NGO workers addressing clients' needs, and NGO workers receiving clients' feedback. Communication proceeded in group chat or direct messages. Challenges in addressing clients' needs happened when clients turned for help after hours, sent recorded voice messages, sent unclear messages, and/or were unwilling to transition to telephone communication. All web outreach workers reported receiving only positive feedback on their work. The needs of PWUD were categorized into two major themes, depending on whether they can be addressed fully or partially online. In cases of online only provision of services, web outreach workers helped PWUD treat minor injection drug use complications, obtain verified harm reduction information and receive general psychological support. In instances of partial online services provision, PWUD were assisted in getting treatment of severe injection drug use complications, overdoses, and in accessing offline medical, psychological, social, legal and harm reduction services. CONCLUSIONS: Our research demonstrated that web outreach work is a ...

COVID-19 has created a ramifying public health, economic, and political crisis throughout many countries in the world. While globally the pandemic is at different stages and far from under control in some countries, now is the time for public health researchers and political scientists to start understanding how and why governments responded the way they have, explore how effective these responses appear to be, and what lessons we can draw about effective public health policymaking in preparation of the next wave of COVID-19 or the next infectious disease pandemic. We argue that there will be no way to understand the different responses to COVID-19 and their effects without understanding policy and politics. We propose four key focuses to understand the reasons for COVID-19 responses: social policies to crisis management as well as recovery, regime type (democracy or autocracy), formal political institutions (federalism, presidentialism), and state capacity (control over health care systems and public administration). A research agenda to address the COVID-19 pandemic that takes politics as a serious focus can enable the development of more realistic, sustainable interventions in policies and shape our broader understanding of the politics of public health.