Epidemics and the Military: Responding to COVID-19 in Uganda.

The UN Security Council's response to Ebola in 2014 legitimised militarised responses. It also influenced responses to COVID-19 in some African countries. Yet, little is known about the day-to-day impacts for ordinary citizens of mobilising armies for epidemic control. Drawing on 18 months ethnographic research, this article analyses militarised responses to COVID-19 during, and following, two lockdowns at contrasting sites in Uganda: a small town in Pakwach district and a village in Kasese district. Both field sites lie close to the border of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Although the practice of health security varied between sites, the militarised response had more impact than the disease in these two places. The armed forces scaled back movement from urban conurbations to rural and peri-urban areas; while simultaneously enabling locally based official public authorities to use the proclaimed priorities of President Museveni's government to enhance their position and power. This led to a situation whereby inhabitants created new modes of mutuality to resist or subvert the regulations being enforced, including the establishment of new forms of cross-border movement. These findings problematise the widely held view that Uganda's response to COVID-19 was successful. Overall, it is argued that the on-going securitisation of global health has helped to create the political space to militarise the response. While this has had unknown effects on the prevalence of COVID-19, it has entrenched unaccountable modes of public authority and created a heightened sense of insecurity on the ground. The tendency to condone the violent practice of militarised public health programmes by international and national actors reflects a broader shift in the acceptance of more authoritarian forms of governance.

Assessing Urban Policies in a COVID-19 World.

The aim of this study was to identify how the literature analyzes (identifies, evaluates, forecasts, etc.) the relationship between health issues and urban policy in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. Four main levels were identified in these cases: (1) direct demands for changes in health care, (2) social issues, (3) spatial organization and (4) redefining the tasks of public authority in the face of identified challenges. The basic working method used in the study assumed a critical analysis of the literature on the subject. The time scope of the search covered articles from January 2020 to the end of August 2021 (thus covering the period of three pandemic waves). Combinations of keywords in the titles were used to search for articles. The health perspective pointed to the need for urban policies to develop a balance between health and economic costs and for coordination between different professionals/areas. A prerequisite for such a balance in cities is the carrying out of social and spatial analyses. These should illustrate the diversity of the social situations in individual cities (and more broadly in urban areas, including, sometimes, large suburbs) and the diversity's relationship (both in terms of causes and consequences) to the severity of pandemics and other health threats.

Keeping Ebola at bay: public authority and ceremonial competence in rural Sierra Leone

Ebola Virus Disease struck Sierra Leone in May 2014. An international response was instrumental in ending the epidemic by December 2015 and has been extensively documented. Less attention has been paid to local responses. Here, we focus on a case in which there was no infection despite high infection in neighbouring areas. This brings into focus the role of customary public authority in implementing successful controls. We pay particular attention to the activities of a chiefdom Ebola Task force committee chaired by the Paramount Chief. Meetings were characterised by protocol and ceremony, but ‘face time’ served to reinforce, in ritual terms, important messages about quarantine and social distancing. The committee's pronouncements had illocutionary force. Local volunteers translated this ceremonial message into practical action to block imported cases. The analysis of ceremonial competence, we conclude, opens a window into how public authority addresses developmental shocks in Africa.

[PRACTICAL AND FUNCTIONAL RESEARCH OF THE INTERACTION OF LEVELS OF PUBLIC AUTHORITY IN FEDERAL STATES IN THE CONTEXT OF THE NEW CORONAVIRUS INFECTION (COVID-19) PANDEMIC: ASSESSMENTS AND PROSPECTS].

The objectives of this research are to explore foreign experience of interaction of various levels of public authority in federal states in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, to determine the prospects for the development and improvement of the activities of the public authority system in Russia in this part. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The regulatory legal acts and the practice of interaction of various levels of public authority during the COVID-19 pandemic in federations (Australia, India, Canada, USA) were research. RESULTS: It has been established that a dual federal system with strict rules for the distribution of powers and responsibilities between the federation and its regions impedes a coordinated national response in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, while various forms of executive federalism serve as the key to successfully countering this threat. The latter can be based on historically strong centralist tendencies, the existing negotiating practices of interaction between the executive branch at all levels, the experience of implementing federal programs and the work of emergency intergovernmental mechanisms. CONCLUSIONS: It has been substantiated that the optimal organization of managerial decision-making in the context of countering a pandemic presupposes a complex interagency approach with a strong federal presence.

Electronic Communication with Public Administration in the Time of COVID-19-Poland's Experience.

The situation associated with the growing number of Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections forced ongoing monitoring of the epidemic situation, which entailed an introduction of a number of restrictions and solutions intended to isolate the infected persons on the one hand, and to minimize the risk of development of an epidemic in Poland on the other. Activity of the Polish legislator is also essential, which tried to introduce solutions that would correspond with current expectations and needs. Given the multiplicity of the introduced regulations, interpretation of provisions of statutes has not always been easy. In this paper, the author points to the issues of communication with a public authority by specific reflections on the principles of serving documents on beneficiaries of EU programs under which they were awarded funding for their implementation on the basis of EU regulations addressing the use of the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund and the Cohesion Fund for programs implemented as part of the cohesion policy (Regulations of the European Parliament and of the Council (EU) of 17 December 2013: no. 1303/2013, no. 1301/2013, no. 1304/2013, no 1300/2013, and no. 1299/2013). The author focuses on the issues of communication with an authority in a situation where administrative proceedings are initiated against a beneficiary of EU funds, e.g., for returning the granted funding. The author points to the dynamics of the legislator's work in this respect by analyzing the rules for serving documents by a public authority on beneficiaries who are public entities and those who are not. The author's main research aim is to analyze existing provisions establishing the possibility of electronic communication with a public authority, and also to assess them critically due to the extraordinary situation caused by Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). This is intended to verify the main research hypothesis focusing on the attempt to answer a question whether existing regulations, and those created at the time of the epidemic threat and the state of epidemic in Poland facilitate citizens' electronic communication with a public authority. The author aims to answer a question about whether the Polish legislator responds appropriately to the numerous emerging challenges associated with the pandemic and whether it created regulations that effectively ensure the possibility of continuity of contact with a public authority for citizens who are the beneficiaries of public funds. This analysis may contribute to the understanding of whether and how it is possible to improve citizens' contact with public authorities, which in the future may eliminate barriers and obstacles arising in this regard. The author bases her reflections on the experience resulting from providing legal services for one of the Polish Managing Authorities of the Regional Operational Programme using at the same time a number of research methods (i.e., the method of interpretation of applicable laws to establish applicable provisions of the law that regulate admissibility of electronic communication with a public authority and to establish efficiency of such communication, the analytical method, applied in reference to the relevant state of the art in the achievements of legal scholarship, and the empirical method, based on observation and analysis of practical issues resulting from the author's cooperation with a Polish managing authority). In her conclusions, the author points to the lack of introduction of comprehensive regulations (also at the EU level-for all EU Member States) in terms of de-formalizing the principles of communication in the course of pending administrative proceedings. The author notices an absence of unambiguous regulations that allow for a scanned document signed by hand and sent my email to be qualified into the category of documents served by electronic means, through use of means of electronic communication. The author assesses this absence negatively due to the fact that such action seems the simplest in a situation caused by COVID-19.