Water quality information is important for guiding water safety management and preventing water-related diseases. To assess the current status of regulated water quality monitoring in sub-Saharan Africa, we evaluated testing programs for fecal contamination in 72 institutions (water suppliers and public health agencies) across 10 countries. Data were collected through written surveys, in-person...

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the nature of bureaucratization within public research bodies and its relationship to scientific performance, focusing on an Italian case-study. The main finding is that the bureaucratization of the research sector has two dimensions: public research labs have academic bureaucratization since researchers spend an increasing part of their time in administr...

Many government officials and policy-makers in developing countries support the adoption of non-traditional export crops among peasant farmers as a way of promoting economic development in the rural sector and providing new production alternatives for the rural poor. Nonetheless, these policy initiatives many times fail because the small producers are not able to adapt to the new technologies, ...

BACKGROUND Poor distribution of essential medicines to primary care institutions has attracted criticism since China adopted provincial centralized regional tendering and procurement systems. This study evaluated the impact of new procurement arrangements that limit the number of distributors at the county level in Hubei province, China. METHODS Procurement ordering and distribution data were...

OBJECTIVE(S) To assess how willing people would be to join a voluntary health insurance scheme and to see how they respond to changes in the benefit package. We also examined willingness to cross-subsidise the poor. DESIGN Cross-sectional study. SUBJECTS Two thousand two hundread and twenty four households comprising of 1,163 uninsured household heads asked about their willingness to pay fo...

The rural finance of China is still weak in the Chinese financial system. Without the support of the capital factor, the new rural construction of socialism could not be realized, but the investment of the capital factor and the enhancement of the humanistic morality must be based on the good credit information resource. The rural financial departments should fully support the construction of t...

In communities with low standard of living and literacy level, access to justice is challenging; for rural who are under-served by the system, a nightmare. These rely on traditional institutions family, clergy village councils administer resolve disputes. Law clinics may fill in gaps absence regular courts, serve as legal education students wish join profession. Through practical application cl...

BACKGROUND The Accountable Care Organization (ACO) is one of the new models of health care delivery in the U.S. To date, little is known about the characteristics of health care organizations that have joined ACOs. We report on the findings of a survey of primary care clinics, the objective of which was to investigate the opinions of clinic management about participation in ACOs, and the charac...