1,721,252 research outputs found
From theory to analysis:H-AID methodology
Full text linkThis chapter discusses some practical issues related to the collection of data in humanitarian contexts, and the assessment of its reliability and validity. Since space limitations prohibit an extensive treatment of these methodological issues in this book, this chapter can only provide a fairly brief and superficial sketch of some of the most important issues. The interested reader may consult the relevant literature for more detailed introductions. There are many excellent textbooks and guides on these topics, e.g. Bernard (2011). The next section sketches the general purpose of our evidence-based H-AID framework, i.e. to move from an abstract and general understanding of the omnibus context to more domain or security specific theoretical constructs that can be subjected to empirical proof. The second section of the chapter describes the steps that are necessary to translate the theoretical context dimensions into valid indicators. The third section addresses the question how to identify trustworthy sources for these indicators. Finally, the fourth section discusses the question how to arrive at accurate estimates from trustworthy sources
Decentralization and Primary Health Care Innovations in Indonesia
Full text linkA well-functioning primary health care system (PHCS) is a fundamental precondition for a nation’s overall health performance. PHCSs are designed to improve universal access to health care, which in turn leads to healthier communities, higher quality of care, and a more effective and efficient health care system. The present chapter investigates how the two large-scale decentralization waves in Indonesia affected one specific aspect of the country’s health sector performance: its potential to introduce process, product, and structural innovations in its primary health care system. We argue that local level innovations are a major requirement to improve the performance of a PHCS. Drawing on an in-depth analysis of institutional changes between the two phases of decentralization, and selected case studies, we show that the first wave of decentralization in Indonesia actually resulted in institutional changes that were detrimental for innovation. Whereas discretion for local level decision makers increased compared to the situation in the centralized system, requirements for accountability did not. This pattern was reversed during the second wave of decentralization, suggesting that the conditions for innovation improved. The rare cases of innovation that did occur share a specific combination of initiative, commitment and social capital of a key decision maker
The Impact of Decentralization on Educational Attainment in Indonesia
Full text linkThis study contributes to our knowledge on the impact of decentralization of the education sector in Indonesia. We extend existing research by examining the influence of both municipal factors and other explanatory variables on educational attainment in Indonesia. We focus on mean years of schooling as an indicator of educational attainment. We hypothesize that after decentralization 1) educational attainment is higher compared to the pre-decentralization era, 2) regional variations in educational attainment have increased and 3) the higher the fiscal capacity, degree of urbanization and development; the higher the municipality’s mean year of schooling. The latter is also expected for municipalities that have been newly created in past years. We test the hypotheses with panel data on 5,541,983 respondents aggregated to 3,880 observations nested in 491 districts/cities nested in 32 provinces for the pre and post-decentralization era. The results reveal the following. First, after decentralization, the length of schooling slightly increased but progress in the length of schooling has slowed down a bit. Second, educational attainment variation between provinces slightly decreased but the variation among municipalities increased. Third, the degree of municipalities’ development and urbanization have a significantly positive impact on improving educational attainment while the fiscal capacity and the status of being a new municipality do not have a significant effect on extending the length of schooling. Our findings suggest that especially rural areas and less developed municipalities have lagged behind in the attempt to improve Indonesia’s educational attainment
Institutional change and corruption of public leaders:A social capital perspective on Indonesia
Full text linkIncidents of corruption by local public leaders have increased in Indonesia in the era of a decentralized democratic regime, in which regional governments enjoy greater power and autonomy to manage regional resources. Previous research suggests that the shift of formal power from the central government to regional governments resulted in new actors at the local level becoming involved in corruption. Building on ideas from social capital theory, the current study attempts to complement previous work by analyzing the shifts of public leaders’ corruption behavior under the decentralized democratic government. We suggest that besides formal power relations, informal relations are important for initiating and sustaining corruptive transactions, and corruption requires a different social capital base in different institutional settings. The objectives of this paper are (1) to organize current knowledge on institutional change and corruption, (2) to extend current thinking on public leaders’ corruption in Indonesia and beyond, and (3) to suggest a framework for future empirical study. We present an empirical study on the link between institutional change and corruption, based on a unique data set of real corruption cases as they were reported in Indonesian public newspapers. Based on this first exploration—which indicates that indeed the nature of corruption networks in Indonesia has altered since decentralization—the proposed theoretical framework is deemed of value for further empirical investigation.<br/
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