Africa's Air Transport Infrastructure: Challenges, Complexities and Opportunities

African aviation has witnessed steady growth pre-COVID and as result of increased demand for air travel, there is an urgent need to improve the air transport infrastructure. This chapter examines the underlining complexities and challenges that are undermining the African region's propensity to exploit its growth trajectory. The chapter explores multiple differences in regional airport infrastructure. Infrastructure is considered a key component of the investment climate, reducing costs of doing business and enabling people to access markets. In general, Africa, by every measure of infrastructure coverage, lags behind their peers in other parts of the developing world. Poor infrastructure of most African airports is seen as a principal reason why the region continues to struggle to fulfil its undoubtedly economic potential. These infrastructure problems can hardly be solved due to limited financial resources and will therefore consequently lead to retaining infrastructure problems. The chapter proposes a series of blueprint measures in order to galvanize Africa's growth potential within air transport development. This calls for speeding up privatization and allowing more private equity investments to support air infrastructure improvements. The most desired option to finance airport infrastructure would be the Public–Private Partnership (PP). However, on the local level, banks have relative weak capital coffers, which also limit access to infrastructure capital loans. Investors see some underlining risks in financing airport projects in Africa, namely uncertainty related to forecasts of passenger growth numbers. Other risks are embedded in currency markets, whereby most domestic airport infrastructure with project revenues is generated in local currencies, but servicing foreign debt and equity involves payment in foreign currency. The chapter finally examines the impact of COVID-19 on airport operations. From 2019 to 2021, airports were severely affected by the global pandemic causing massive loss of revenues for both airport operators and airlines. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Lessons for strengthening childhood immunization in low- and middle-income countries from a successful public-private partnership in rural Nigeria.

BACKGROUND: Immunization is a cost-effective public health strategy to reduce vaccine preventable disease, especially in childhood. METHODS: This paper reports the philosophy, service delivery, achievements and lessons learned from an immunization program in rural Nigeria privately financed via a corporate social responsibility initiative from GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals. RESULTS: The immunization program served the community for a 16-y period extending from 1998 until 2015, resulting in an increase in age-appropriate immunization coverage from 43% to 78%. CONCLUSION: In its success, this immunization program exemplified the importance of early and sustained community engagement, integration of strategies to optimize implementation outcomes and effective team building well before some of these principles were accepted and codified in the literature. The project also underscores the important role that the private sector can bring to achieving critical immunization goals, especially among underserved populations and provides a model for successful public-private partnership.

The global distribution of COVID-19 vaccines by the public-private partnership COVAX from a public-law perspective

This article examines COVAX, a public private partnership, from a public law perspective. It asks whether COVAX is a legitimate and appropriate instrument with regard to the goal of distributing COVID-19 vaccines in a globally equitable manner and enabling equal access to vaccination worldwide. By developing public-legal legitimacy standards for this purpose, the article critically distances itself from the outset from considering the use of private actors and forms of action in public functions ('privatization') essentially as a release of market economy rationality, which enables efficiency and effectiveness gains and relieves the public sector. With the public law perspective, the article questions precisely whether private-law, market-based action is appropriate with respect to the global distribution of vaccines in the pandemic.

The possibilities and limits of insurance as governance in insuring pandemics.

Insurance can, as has clearly been indicated in the literature, play an important role in dealing with catastrophe risks, not only as a compensation mechanism but also as a mechanism to influence the behaviour of the insured. It is the concept known as 'insurance as governance'. However, we argue that there are limited possibilities for this role as far as the insurance of pandemics is concerned. The traditional technical tools, such as risk-based pricing, are difficult to apply. In addition, there may, ab initio, be serious problems in insuring pandemics within one of the main conditions of insurability (controlling moral hazard through an effective risk differentiation). One remedy that is traditionally applied, more particularly for natural catastrophes, is mandatory coverage. Furthermore, the capacity problem might potentially be solved through a multilayered approach in which, in addition to insurance and reinsurance, the government could also take up a role as reinsurer of last resort. That would also have the major advantage of stimulating market solution (and potentially providing incentives for the mitigation of damages), which clearly fails in a model where the government simply bails out operators. Finally, one important regulatory intervention is that insurers should be better informed than was apparently the case during the last pandemic about exactly which type of risks are covered and which are not.

Role of monetary policy in economic growth and development: from theory to empirical evidence

PurposeThis article examines the effects of credit to private sector on the business and trade activities. The effectiveness of rapid expansion in public and private borrowing through state's intervention after COVID-19 pandemic has been assessed in this study.Design/methodology/approachThe model to determine the role of credit expansion is based on four equations estimated through panel least square technique on 18 years data of 186 countries.FindingsIt is concluded that credit to private sector and external debt improve the investment in infrastructure, which is a significant determinant of gross domestic product growth. Empirical evidences corroborate that higher number of firms using banks to finance their investment and the volume of broad money determine the magnitude of credit to private sector.Originality/valueThis study explores some new evidences and aspects of the credit financing which have not been discussed in this way before.

The Trends Changing the Economies of Latin America

Abstract: At the turn of the second and third decades of the 21st century, new trends began to form in the economies of Latin America, which had experienced deep crisis shocks. In the future the development of these trends can adjust and strengthen the place and role of the region in the system of world economic relations. One of these trends is the rapid growth of the technology sector based on innovation and digitalization, which is able to ensure the transition of the region to a "new business normal,” understanding by this term consistent structural modernization and organic adaptation of the economies of Latin American countries to post-Covid realities. The main actors in this transition to the new economy are Latin American transnational corporations, the so-called multilatinas, and their avant-garde form, technolatinas, which are associated with innovations and high technology. At the same time, it is critically important to achieve a systemic relationship between the economic policy of the state and the business strategy of technologically advanced private companies. An effective public–private partnership seems to be a necessary condition for long-overdue institutional and structural reforms, the purpose of which should be to turn Latin America into a "region of start-ups” and a space of high-tech ecosystems. This article shows that the strategic task at the stage of a macroeconomic transition is to expand the domestic and foreign markets of the countries of the region for all types of Latin American goods and services, including technological and high-tech. According to the author, the best way to achieve this goal lies in the formation of a triple circulation economy or, in other words, the parallel and balanced development of national and regional markets with the simultaneous activation and diversification of foreign economic relations far beyond Latin America. It goes without saying that it is a long process, and the countries of the region are only at the very beginning of a marked transformation. © 2022, Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.

Forging clinical collaborations and cooperation in overcoming challenges for non-COVID-19 patients during COVID-19 times: Surgical case studies requiring a multidisciplinary and inter-agency approach in Malaysia

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought global health services to a standstill. National healthcare systems and medical staffing in many countries have reached crisis levels due to the phenomenal outbreak. Healthcare resources have been strained to meet the unprecedented numbers of patient admissions with a significant amount of funding and manpower being channelled towards tackling this global pandemic. Despite the rollout of vaccinations, the development of new viral strains has now presented a new challenge. With the inevitable conversion of tertiary public hospitals to specialized COVID-19 centres with 'Full Covid Status' and the mobilization of its doctors from all specialities to care for these patients, the non-COVID-19 patients are becoming more neglected. The lack of elective surgeries performed and non-emergent admissions due to the unavailability of beds and personnel to care for this group of patients are concerning. As most of the focus and resources are now aimed at COVID-19 patients, the need to forge collaborations and cooperation between hospitals, agencies and healthcare systems are pertinent to ensure the provision of quality treatment for those suffering from non-COVID-19 diseases. To highlight this effort in Malaysia, we would like to present 2 case studies of non-COVID-19 patients undergoing elective surgeries through intergovernmental ministerial collaborations and a public-private partnership.Copyright © The Author(s) 2022.

Public-private partnership to rapidly strengthen and scale COVID-19 response in Western Kenya.

Introduction: In Africa almost half of healthcare services are delivered through private sector providers. These are often underused in national public health responses. To support and accelerate the public sector's COVID-19 response, we facilitated recruitment of additional private sector capacity by initiating a public-private partnership (PPP) in Kisumu County, Kenya. In this manuscript we demonstrate this PPP's performance. Methods: COVID-19 diagnostic testing formed the basis for a PPP between Kenyan Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), Department of Health Kisumu County, PharmAccess Foundation, and local faith-based and private healthcare facilities: COVID-Dx. First phase COVID-Dx was implemented from June 01, 2020, to March 31, 2021 in Kisumu County, Kenya. Trained laboratory technologists in participating healthcare facilities collected nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal samples from patients meeting the Kenyan MoH COVID-19 case definition. Healthcare workers in participating facilities collected patient clinical data using a digitized MoH COVID-19 Case Identification Form. We shared aggregated results from these data via (semi-) live dashboards with all relevant stakeholders through their mobile phones and tablets. Statistical analyses were performed using Stata 16 to inform project processes. Results: Nine private facilities participated in the project. A patient trajectory was developed from case identification to result reporting, all steps supported by a semi-real time digital dashboard. A total of 4,324 PCR tests for SARS-CoV-2 were added to the public response, identifying 425 positives, accounting for 16% of all COVID-19 tests performed in the County over the given time-period. Geo-mapped and time-tagged information on incident cases was depicted on Google maps through PowerBI-dashboards and fed back to policymakers for informed rapid decision making. Preferential COVID-19 testing was performed on health workers at risk, with 1,009 tests performed (up to 43% of all County health workforce). Conclusion: We demonstrate feasibility of rapidly increasing the public health sector COVID-19 response through coordinated private sector efforts in an African setting. Our PPP intervention in Kisumu, Kenya was based on a joint testing strategy and demonstrated that semi-real time digitalization of patient trajectories can gain significant efficiencies, linking public and private healthcare efforts, increasing transparency, support better quality health services and informing policy makers to target interventions.

A selectivity index for public-private partnership projects in the urban water and sanitation sector in Latin America and the caribbean.

The rapid urban development, the Agenda 2030, the climate change adaptation and the COVID 19 crisis highlight the need to increase investment in public infrastructure and improve water supply and sanitation services. For this, an alternative to traditional public procurement is the participation of the private sector under the public-private partnership (PPP) model. The objective of this article is to develop a tool based on critical success factors (CSFs) that allows for evaluation during early stages of the convenience of developing a PPP project for W&S in urban areas of Latin America and the Caribbean. The index was developed based on literature review (779 variables), review of cases (20 variables) and expert opinion to assign them an estimated value of importance. The results were analysed by exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, selecting 17 main variables grouped into 6 CSFs, the most relevant of which are Convenience, Certainty, Leadership, Attraction, Performance and Reliability. The application of this index allows an early assessment of the feasibility of a PPP project and/or the selection of the alternatives with the best chances of success. On the other hand, this study contributes to the international discussion on the most relevant elements related to the success of PPP in W&S projects.

Partnerships supporting policies: A social marketing case study of mask supply solutions in South Korea during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: South Korea was one of the first countries to experience a large outbreak of COVID-19. Early on, public health authorities recommended mask wearing as one of the main preventive measures against the virus. Compared to people in other countries, most South Koreans were willing to follow this recommendation. However, during the early stages of the pandemic, panic buying and vendor hoarding led to a nationwide mask shortage. The problem that needed to be solved was not to change the public's behavior but rather to make masks more available to them. Case description: To stabilize mask supply and demand, the South Korean government implemented a distribution system that limited mask purchases to two per person per week, in a 5-day rotation determined by birth year. The places designated for selling masks included pharmacies, post offices, and marts that had access to data about registered South Korea residents who had and had not bought their allotted masks. Despite this system, supply problems persisted. In different regions of the country, population density and demand varied, and some pharmacies sold out their stocks of masks earlier than others. Recognizing that people needed a more effective system for finding masks, the government made mask inventory data available to companies and the general public. Three weeks later, about 200 mask apps and web services had been launched. Supplies of masks quickly stabilized, and people could more easily find and buy them. In addition, pharmacies were able to sell out their stocks of masks more efficiently. Conclusion: The South Korean case of mask demand and distribution during COVID-19 illustrates how all six of the social marketing components (policy, supplemented by products, price, place, promotion, and partnerships) need to be coordinated for effective mitigation of infectious disease. In particular, this case highlights the importance of public-private partnerships among the government, production companies, retailers, and members of the general public.

An intra-action review conducted by the CDC Foundation during COVID-19 to evaluate emergency response procedures.

OBJECTIVES: During times of emergency response, the CDC Foundation leverages partnerships and relationships to better understand the situation and respond rapidly to save lives. As the COVID-19 pandemic began to unfold, an opportunity became clear to improve our work in emergency response through documentation of lessons learned and incorporating them into best practices. STUDY DESIGN: This was a mixed methods study. METHODS: The CDC Foundation Response, Crisis and Preparedness Unit conducted an internal evaluation via an intra-action review to evaluate and rapidly improve emergency response activities to provide effective and efficient response-related program management. RESULTS: The processes developed during the COVID-19 response to conduct timely and actionable reviews of the CDC Foundation's operations led to the identification of gaps in the work and management processes and to creation of subsequent actions to address these issues. Such solutions include surge hiring, establishing standard operating procedures for processes not yet documented, and creating tools and templates to streamline emergency response operations. CONCLUSIONS: The creation of manuals and handbooks, intra-action reviews, and impact sharing for emergency response projects led to actionable items meant to improve processes and procedures and the ability of the Response, Crisis and Preparedness Unit to quickly mobilize resources directed toward saving lives. These products are now open-source resources that can be used by other organizations to improve their own emergency response management systems.

Governing digital crisis responses: platform standards and the dilemma of COVID-19 contact tracing

In response to the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic, various developers turned to smartphone-based contact tracing to address the challenges of manual tracing. Due to the presence of network effects, i.e., the effectiveness of contact tracing applications increases with the number of users, information technology standards were critical to the technology's success. The standardization efforts in Europe led to a variety of trade-offs concerning the choice of an appropriate technological architecture due to the contradictory tensions resulting from the dualism between the need for contact tracing data to contain the pandemic and the need for data minimization to preserve user privacy. Drawing predominantly on the software platform and standards literature, we conduct an interpretive case study to examine the emergence and consequences of this multi-layered decision situation. Our findings reveal how Google and Apple were able to limit the individual leeway of external developers, thereby effectively resolving the European standards war. Furthermore, we identify and discuss the various short-term and long-term trade-offs associated with the standardization of contact tracing applications and translate our findings into recommendations for policy makers with respect to future crisis situations. Specifically, we propose a strategy grounded in our data that enables responsible actors to make goal-oriented and rapid decisions under time constraints.

Addressing immediate public health needs as part of Afghan evacuees' resettlement to the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic.

OBJECTIVES: Since the removal of US troops from Afghanistan in 2021, the United States welcomed Afghan evacuees through Operation Allies Welcome. Using cell phone accessibility, the CDC Foundation worked with public-private partners to protect evacuees from the spread of COVID-19 and provide accessibility to resources. STUDY DESIGN: This was a mixed methods study. METHODS: The CDC Foundation activated its Emergency Response Fund to accelerate public health components of Operation Allies Welcome, including testing, vaccination, and COVID-19 mitigation and prevention. The CDC Foundation began the provision of cell phones to evacuees to ensure access to public health and resettlement resources. RESULTS: The provision of cell phones provided connections between individuals and access to public health resources. Cell phones provided means to supplement in-person health education sessions, capture and store medical records, maintain official resettlement documents, and assist in registration for state-administered benefits. CONCLUSIONS: Phones provided necessary connectivity to friends and family for displaced Afghan evacuees and higher accessibility to public health and resettlement resources. As many evacuees did not have access to US-based phone services upon entry, provision of cell phones and plans for a fixed amount of service time provided a helpful start in resettlement while also being a mechanism to easily share resources. Such connectivity solutions helped to minimize disparities among Afghan evacuees seeking asylum in the United States. Provision of cell phones by public health or governmental agencies can help to provide equitable resources to evacuees entering the United States for social connection, healthcare resources, and resources to assist in the process of resettlement. Further research is needed to understand the generalizability of these findings to other displaced populations.

Impact of Medical Fair Price Shops (Mfps) in the Premises of Government Hospital: An Empirical Study on Selected Govt. Medical College Hospitals in West Bengal

Health is an essential issue in all countries. It has further come into limelight on account of covid pandemic. Under the global impact of Covid pandemic public investment in health care is in the centre stage of discussion in recent past. This empirical study has attempted to understand the impact of public health care system under Government investment through the model of Fair price shop (FPS) situated in the government hospitals in West Bengal. Catastrophic Health Expenditure (CHE) has further augmented the burden of income in the most of the house hold ion India under the deadliest impact of Covid. This study has found the Public-private-partnership (PPP) model is the robust application in reducing the burden of the lower-level income group in terms of health-related expenditure. Accessibility of medical care has created an substantial impact on middle class and lower middle class people in West Bengal with the introduction of Fare Price Shop (FPS) initiated by Government of West Bengal. This empirical research has proposed a model to makes health care more accessible among mass section of beneficiaries in order to makes a social inclusion for health care. Copyright © 2022 Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications. All rights reserved.

MANUFACTURING SOLUTIONS - Sterile Drug Product Manufacturing During a Global Pandemic

With vaccines and treatments now available and yet more on the horizon, the first major manufacturing hurdles have been crossed. However, the finish line is still in the distance. As organizations such as drug manufacturers around the world continuously evaluate how to effectively operate, the pandemic has provided a hard reality check. Companies have seen the necessity of strong sourcing/procurement functions to enable business operations. For at least the next few years, we anticipate constraints on aseptic fill/finish and potentially API manufacturing capacity. These constraints can be mitigated by having staffing flexibility when needs arise, enabling rapid technology transfers and adding surge capacity utilization. In addition, truly partnered approaches of pharmaceutical companies and their CDMO suppliers need to be the standard for managing and operating with speed, quality, and safety rigor to meet the needs of the global impact of the pandemic and to ensure focus on the end goal. Finally, maintaining strong relationships with regulatory bodies around the world enables a strong public-private partnership both during and post pandemic, with patients as the shared motivational force to execute and deliver. Copyright © 2021, Drug Delivery Technology. All rights reserved.

Crisis Driven Literature in PPPs: A Network Analysis

COVID-19 crisis has simultaneously triggered a global economic crisis whose consequences will lead to a dichotomy where several governments’ debt has grown to unprecedented levels and simultaneously is required to promote new infrastructure supply. This global economic crisis scenario endangers current Public-Private Partnership (PPP) programs given their dependence on payment from the user and/or government subsidies in long-term lifecycles. This study aims for unravelling the PPP research agenda derived from the last global economic crisis in 2008 and the current one for understanding the trends developed as a tool for building a post-pandemic PPP research agenda. For understanding the last global financial crisis PPP literature review and its time and geographic evolution since 2008, this study developed a literature review employing Network Analysis. Therefore, crisis- and PPP-related keywords were combined for establishing the search in the Web of Science database. After removing duplicate papers, 67 peer-reviewed articles were identified for recognizing underpinning topics, potential gaps, and time evolution. The network analysis revealed seven clusters driven by payment sources (i.e., public financial aspects, user payments, and demand), contract mechanisms (i.e., contractual governance, and risk valuation), and project performance (i.e., project performance under crisis and project efficiency). This paper contributes to the PPP body of knowledge by unraveling the post-global economic crisis agenda and its gaps in proposing a new research agenda for overcoming the consequences of the global economic crisis derived from the COVD-19 pandemic.

Public-Private Partnership: High-Impact Alliance for Sustainability Targets

Efficient organization of public-private partnership (PPP) has become espe-cially urgent amid the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and numer-ous sanctions imposed on the Russian Federation. The importance of this issue stems from the fact that the Russian economy has found itself at a crossing of at least two fundamental systemic transformations. On the one hand, all economic systems of the world, to a greater or lesser degree, have experienced limits to the development of a static economy. On the other hand, companies that have suffered the most from sanctions against Russia have leading-edge practices in organizing and participating in technological platforms and corporate eco-systems using B2C and B2B strategies. Therefore, a qualitative change in the economy to resolve the societal crisis is a universal challenge, and Russia is not the only country facing it. In this light, the transformation of the static economic system into a dynamic one moves up the agenda. Such change usually starts with building new structural ties by sustainable big companies that must conform to the dynamic reality. Dynamics for an economy mean new development perspectives and enormous expansion potential. This new status bases on the principles of human-centrism and an important new role for talented, intellectually autonomous individuals in corporate and other structures. This article outlines the author's interdisciplinary perspective on innovative and emerging evaluation knowledge and practice related to the environment, natural resources management, climate change, and development. In recent years, evaluation has emerged as an increasingly important function in determining the worth and value of development interventions in terms of their relevance, impact, performance, effec-tiveness, efficiency, and sustainability. We aspire to prove that PPP for Russia, following the pandemic-caused economic crisis and under Western sanctions, may perform a fundamental mission far more important than participation in producing public goods for budget funds. It could help the country to ensure a leap in its economy from statics to dynamics. This leap and respective transformations in corporate and social structures based on the human-centric principles could bring a multiplicative effect to the economy, quality of life, public policy, governance, and other spheres. © 2022, MGIMO Universty Press. All rights reserved.

Governing digital crisis responses: platform standards and the dilemma of COVID-19 contact tracing

In response to the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic, various developers turned to smartphone-based contact tracing to address the challenges of manual tracing. Due to the presence of network effects, i.e., the effectiveness of contact tracing applications increases with the number of users, information technology standards were critical to the technology’s success. The standardization efforts in Europe led to a variety of trade-offs concerning the choice of an appropriate technological architecture due to the contradictory tensions resulting from the dualism between the need for contact tracing data to contain the pandemic and the need for data minimization to preserve user privacy. Drawing predominantly on the software platform and standards literature, we conduct an interpretive case study to examine the emergence and consequences of this multi-layered decision situation. Our findings reveal how Google and Apple were able to limit the individual leeway of external developers, thereby effectively resolving the European standards war. Furthermore, we identify and discuss the various short-term and long-term trade-offs associated with the standardization of contact tracing applications and translate our findings into recommendations for policy makers with respect to future crisis situations. Specifically, we propose a strategy grounded in our data that enables responsible actors to make goal-oriented and rapid decisions under time constraints. © 2022, The Author(s).