scholarly journals Dialectical Tensions of Sustainability and Health during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Tale from Latin America

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 7387
Author(s):  
Adriana Angel ◽  
Lissette Marroquín Velásquez ◽  
Sandra Idrovo

The purpose of this article is to discuss the relationship between sustainability and health in the context of the coronavirus pandemic in Latin America, the region with the second highest number of deaths due to COVID-19. After performing a dialectical analysis on mass media discourses about the pandemic, we argue that sustainability must be understood in relation to tensions such as (a) health and economy, (b) isolation and interconnectedness of health management, and (c) access to and excess of information about the pandemic. Based on this analysis, we suggest that if health is to be considered a fourth pillar of sustainability, it needs to be approached in close connection with these inseparable and irreducible tensions in order to broaden the way in which it has been approached in global sustainable development agendas and to recognize the role of individuals and communities in health issues.

2021 ◽  
pp. 639-658
Author(s):  
Yasmin E.R. von Schirnding ◽  
Lynn R. Goldman

Environmental health practice is concerned with assessing, controlling, and preventing factors in the environment that can potentially affect human health. This chapter briefly discusses the roots and origins of environmental health practice from earliest times to the present day, against a backdrop of current international initiatives highlighting health, environment, and sustainable development issues of global concern. The concept and scope of environmental health is discussed, before highlighting environmental health issues and the burden of environmentally related disease, which are of importance in directing the work of the environmental health practitioner. It then addresses the multifactorial nature of environmental health effects, the role of epidemiology and toxicology, and the basic elements of the risk assessment process. Next, tools to aid decision-making are introduced followed by a discussion on the role of intersectoral action and partnerships. The final section of the chapter addresses policy elements and actions which can be taken to address environmental health issues, and the implications for environmental health management and service delivery. A greater capacity to influence policy agendas outside of the health sector will be needed in future.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Malin Song ◽  
Chenbin Zheng ◽  
Jiangquan Wang

PurposeThe COVID-19 pandemic is still raging, which calls for an exploration of how to prevent and control pandemics to promote sustainable development. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of the digital economy in sustainable development, the relationship between the two, the impacts of the outbreak on economic and social development, and changes in China's digital economy.Design/methodology/approachThe study used the time-series data from 2002 to 2019 and an unconstrained VAR model to examine the relationship between the digital economy and sustainable development before the pandemic.FindingsChina's digital economy has promoted the country's sustainable economic and social development; it has advanced rapid economic growth, improved people's living standards, increased efficient utilization of resources, and strengthened environmental protection.Research limitations/implicationsAmid the pandemic, China's digital economy developed effectively; it showed strong resilience because of its unique advantages. The digital economy in China has helped the country to control the pandemic in a short period, reduced the risk of supply chain disruption, promoted China's economic growth, and ensured the orderly operation of society. Therefore, countries worldwide are encouraged to prioritize their digital economies.Originality/valueCompared with the extant literature, this study explores the sustainable supply chain in a broader sense in the context of a pandemic, and how the supply chain is influenced by the digital economy. It not only includes the stability, resilience, and viability of the supply chain in economic development but also involves aspects of people's life, resource utilization, and environmental protection.


2021 ◽  
pp. 83
Author(s):  
Yakov Shemyakin

The article substantiates the thesis that modern Native American cultures of Latin America reveal all the main features of "borderland" as a special state of the socio-cultural system (the dominant of diversity while preserving the unity sui generis, embodied in the very process of interaction of heterogeneous traditions, structuring linguistic reality in accordance with this dominant, the predominance of localism in the framework of the relationship between the universal and local dimensions of the life of Latin American societies, the key role of archaism in the system of interaction with the heritage of the 1st "axial time», first of all, with Christianity, and with the realities of the "second axial time" - the era of modernization. The author concludes that modern Indian cultures are isomorphic in their structure to the "borderline" Latin American civilization, considered as a "coalition of cultures" (K. Levi-Strauss), which differ significantly from each other, but are united at the deepest level by an extremely contradictory relationship of its participants.


Author(s):  
Nur Farhah Mahadi ◽  
Nor Razinah Mohd. Zain ◽  
Shamsuddeen Muhammad Ahmad

The purpose of this study is to explore the role of Islamic social finance towards realising financial inclusion in achieving nine of the seventeen goals of sustainable development goals (SDGs) which are SDG1, SDG2, SDG3, SDG4, SDG5, SDG8, SDG9, SDG10, and SDG17 in the 2030 agenda for SDGs, as propagated by United Nations Member States in 2015. Then, a critical analysis is made to explain the possible contribution of Islamic social finance in achieving financial inclusion which is aligned with SDGs that brings balanced to the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual of the community in supporting overall economic growth which finally combats the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Further research and empirical studies can be conducted to explore the relationship between Islamic social finance, financial inclusion, and SDGs which in tandem with Maqᾱṣid al-Sharῑ῾ah to equip ourselves in unpredictable economic hiccups during COVID-19. The results may also motivate the financial industries to promote Islamic social finance products and corporate social responsibilities as well as enhance the development of Islamic social finance towards achieving financial inclusion in fulfilling SDGs which soon will provide significant social impacts as the results will enable new initiatives by industries and policy makers to develop Islamic social finance in attaining financial inclusion to achieve SDGs which is seen as being parallel with Maqᾱṣid al-Sharῑ῾ah especially in resolving economic issues of COVID-19.


2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (7) ◽  
pp. 1689-1710
Author(s):  
Eric Akobeng

PurposeThis paper examines the relationship between foreign aid, institutional democracy and poverty. The paper explores the direct effect of foreign aid on poverty and quantifies the facilitating role of democracy in harnessing foreign aid for poverty reduction in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).Design/methodology/approachThe paper attempts to address the endogenous relationship between foreign aid and poverty by employing the two-stage least squares instrumental variable (2SLS-IV) estimator by using GDP per capita of the top five Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries sending foreign aid to SSA countries scaled by the inverse of the land area of the SSA countries to stimulate an exogenous variation in foreign aid and its components. The initial level of democracy is interacted with the senders’ GDP per capita to also instrument for the interaction terms of democracy, foreign aid and its components.FindingsThe results suggest that foreign aid reduces poverty and different components of foreign aid have different effects on poverty. In particular, multilateral source and grant type seem to be more significant in reducing poverty than bilateral source and loan type. The study further reveals that democratic attributes of free expression, institutional constraints on the executive, guarantee of civil liberties to citizens and political participation reinforce the poverty-reducing effects of aggregate foreign aid and its components after controlling for mean household income, GDP per capita and inequality.Research limitations/implicationsThe methodological concern related to modeling the effects of foreign aid on poverty is endogeneity bias. To estimate the relationship between foreign aid, democracy and poverty in SSA, this paper relies on a 2SLS-IV estimator with GDP per capita of the top five aid-sending OECD countries scaled by the inverse of land area of the SSA countries as an external instrument for foreign aid. The use of the five top OECD's Development Assistance Committee (OECD-DAC) countries is due to the availability of foreign aid data for these countries. However, non-OECD-DAC countries such as China and South Africa may be important source of foreign aid to some SSA countries.Practical implicationsThe findings further suggest that the marginal effect of foreign aid in reducing poverty is increasing with the level of institutional democracy. In other words, foreign aid contributes more to poverty reduction in countries with democratic dispensation. This investigation has vital implications for future foreign aid policy, because it alerts policymakers that the effectiveness of foreign aid can be strengthened by considering the type and source of aid. Foreign aid and quality political institution may serve as an important mix toward the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 and the Africa Union Agenda 2063.Social implicationsAs the global economy faces economic and social challenges, SSA may not be able to depend heavily on foreign partners to finance the region's budget. There is the need for African governments to also come out with innovative ways to mobilize own resources to develop and confront some of the economic challenges to achieve the required reduction in poverty. This is a vision that every country in Africa must work toward. Africa must think of new ways of generating wealth internally for development so as to complement foreign aid flows and also build strong foundation for welfare improvement, self-reliance and sustainable development.Originality/valueThis existing literature does not consider how democracy enhances the foreign aid and poverty relationship. The existing literature does not explore how democracy enhances grants, loans, multilateral and bilateral aid effectiveness in reducing poverty. This paper provides the first-hand evidence of how institutional democracy enhances the poverty-reducing effects of foreign aid and its components. The paper uses exogenous variation in foreign aid to quantify the direct effect of foreign aid and its components on poverty.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (22) ◽  
pp. 6445 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhou ◽  
Li ◽  
Gong

In the rapidly changing business world, improving employee’s self-development level is of great importance for organizations to pursue sustainable development. The purpose of this study is to examine how and when job autonomy promotes employee’s self-development. Drawing from self-determination theory, we examined the effect of job autonomy on employee’s self-development, and the mediation role of intrinsic motivation in this relationship. Moreover, we argued that team connectivity strengthened the relationship between job autonomy and intrinsic motivation, and further moderated the indirect effect of job autonomy and self-employment via intrinsic motivation. Using a two-wave panel design, we collected data from a sample of 473 employees in China. The results indicated that job autonomy predicted employee’s self-development, and employee’s intrinsic motivation fully mediated this relationship. Team connectivity positively moderated the relationship between job autonomy and intrinsic motivation, and further moderated the mediation effect of intrinsic motivation. The theoretical and practical implications of this research are discussed along with the limitations and further research directions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 35
Author(s):  
Christine Jeptoo Cherutich ◽  
Dr. Charles Nyiro

Purpose: The objectives of the study which were to determine the effects of leadership, technology, culture, people and knowledge management success as enabler factors in ensuring success of knowledge management in Kenya Wildlife Service. The research also draws on existing studies, frameworks and models that have already identified the factors that potentially affect the success of KM. Meeting the challenges of sustainable development in the 21st century necessitates utilization of vital disciplines like KM in the management of state corporations. The use of KM for sustainable development has shown that effectiveness depends on strategic planning and use of tested models.Methodology: A review of the literature shows that most models point to enablers that are necessary. Questionnaires were administered through both e- mails and hand delivery. Secondary data was obtained from both published and unpublished records. Questionnaires were tested for both reliability and validity. Qualitative and quantitative techniques were used to analyze data with the assistance of SPSS software program version 21.Results: A good response rate of 94% was realized. It was established that most of the enabler’s factors indicators have positive impact on success of knowledge management. The study further adopted a regression analysis to determine the relationship between the variables at 5% confidence level of significance. The study findings showed that the four variables had a significant influence on performance of the firm.Contribution to policy and practice: The study recommended that a similar research should be conducted in a different fields. The findings showed that 74.7 % of the knowledge management success is explained by the four variables that are leadership, culture, technology and people and the remaining 25.3 % can be accounted by the standard error.


2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (10) ◽  
pp. 313-318
Author(s):  
Ivan Siqueira

The 21st Century has observed an increase transformation based on economy and social patterns. The challenging of education is now prepared for the future, not for the present. The changing environment of learning is related to competencies and skills rather than in particular subjects and theories. How to teach what is not present yet? Why education must be profoundly related to both Information and Communication Technology and human ethnic? This paper is dedicated to highlight some of these points, bringing some reflections regarding these topics about the relationship between Africa and Latin America, especially Brazil.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document