This study takes the limits and failures of policy reforms based on the so-called Washington Consensus as a starting point and argues that effective and feasible economic reforms need a politico-institutional foundation. Since failures in policy reform, poor public management, and rent seeking are interpreted as instances of institutional failure, effective governance structures are required, w...

Successive Governments of India have promised to transform India's unsatisfactory health-care system, culminating in the present government's promise to expand health assurance for all. Despite substantial improvements in some health indicators in the past decade, India contributes disproportionately to the global burden of disease, with health indicators that compare unfavourably with other mi...

Increasingly developing world governments are being re-structured to improve governance and to alleviate poverty, and this also applies to government departments associated with the registration and cadastral systems. The link between cadastral reform, good governance and poverty alleviation will be explored by reviewing some of the recent thinking in this area, and by drawing on experience wit...

BACKGROUND It is unknown whether inequalities in under-5 mortality by wealth in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are growing or declining. METHODS All Demographic and Health Surveys conducted between 2002 and 2012 were used to measure under-5 mortality trends in 3 wealth tertiles. Two approaches were used to estimate changes in under-5 mortality: within-survey changes from all 54 coun...

n his article on fragmentation of authority, Vladimir Brovkin reviews the general character of government and property relations in contemporary Russia and draws some strong conclusions. If his conclusions are correct, the prospects for the Russian economy are poor. In this note, I shall review some of the governance issues that bear on Russian economic prospects and offer not a Panglossian vie...

OBJECTIVE The objectives of this study were to examine differences in nurse engagement in shared governance across hospitals and to determine the relationship between nurse engagement and patient and nurse outcomes. BACKGROUND There is little empirical evidence examining the relationship between shared governance and patient outcomes. METHODS A secondary analysis of linked cross-sectional d...

BACKGROUND Maternal mortality and morbidity are public health problems in Nepal. In rural communities, many women give birth at home without the support of a skilled birth attendant, despite the existence of rural birthing centers. The aim of this study was to explore the barriers and provide pragmatic recommendations for better service delivery and use of rural birthing centers. METHODS We c...

Abstract Donors have strongly advocated decentralization on the grounds that it broadens participation of citizens in development processes, thereby increasing government responsiveness to their needs. Although there been studies seeking establish veracity this claim, they remain weak two fronts. One, while wealth differentials affect citizen participation, these approach as a homogenous group....

INTRODUCTION Responsible governance is crucial to national development and a catalyst for achieving the Millennium Development Goals. To date, governance seems to have been a neglected issue in the field of human resources for health (HRH), which could be an important reason why HRH policy formulation and implementation is often poor. This article aims to describe how governance issues have inf...