The public health (PH) sector is ideally situated to take a lead advocacy role in catalysing and guiding multi‐sectoral action to address social determinants of health inequities, but evidence ...suggests that PH's advocacy role has not been fully realised. The purpose of this review was to determine the extent to which the PH advocacy literature addresses the goal of reducing health and social inequities, and to increase understanding of contextual factors shaping the discourse and practice of PH advocacy. We employed scoping review methods to systematically examine and chart peer‐reviewed and grey literature on PH advocacy published from January 1, 2000 to June 30, 2015. Databases and search engines used included: PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Social Sciences Citation Index, Google Scholar, Google, Google Books, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, Grey Literature Report. A total of 183 documents were charted, and included in the final analysis. Thematic analysis was both inductive and deductive according to the objectives. Although PH advocacy to address root causes of health inequities is supported theoretically and through professional practice standards, the empirical literature does not reflect that this is occurring widely in PH practice. Tensions within the discourse were noted and multiple barriers to engaging in PH advocacy for health equity were identified, including a preoccupation with individual responsibilities for healthy lifestyles and behaviours, consistent with the emergence of neoliberal governance. If the PH sector is to fulfil its advocacy role in catalysing action to reduce health inequities, it will be necessary to address advocacy barriers at multiple levels, promote multi‐sectoral efforts that implicate the state and corporations in the production of health inequities, and rally state involvement to redress these injustices.
Canada’s federal drug policy under the Harper government (2006 to present) is “tough on crime” and dismissive of public health and harm reduction approaches to problematic drug use. Drawing on ...insights from discourse and critical race theories, and Bacchi’s (2009) poststructural policy analysis framework, problematic representations in Canada’s federal drug policy discourse are examined through proposed and passed legislation, government documents, and parliamentary speaker notes. These problem representations are situated within their social, historical, and colonial context to demonstrate how this policy is poised to intersect with persistent racial inequalities that position Indigenous peoples for involvement with illicit substances and markets, and racialized discourses and practices within law and law enforcement that perpetuate Indigenous over-representation in the criminal justice system.
In 2018, the Australian Parliament passed the Australian Modern Slavery Act (AMSA), which requires the approximately 3,000 businesses in Australia earning over AUD$100m p.a. to report on the risks of ...modern slavery in their operations and global supply chains, and on their actions to reduce those risks. The Australian Government hopes that AMSA's disclosure-based reporting model will spur businesses to race to the top; by conducting human rights due diligence. We will not know how useful reporting under AMSA is until businesses begin to report. Because AMSA is modelled on the UK's 2015 Modern Slavery Act (UKMSA), reporting under UKMSA gives an indication of the likely trajectory of reporting under AMSA. How the Australian finance sector (which contributes AUD$140b p.a. to Australia's GDP-more than the mining sector) responds to AMSA will significantly determine its effectiveness. This paper assesses reporting submitted by ANZ, CBA, NAB, Westpac, Macquarie, AMP Capital, IFM and QBE under UKMSA, to predict the quality of their eventual reporting under AMSA, including how that reporting may change over time. Our analysis suggests that a race to the middle of the pack has occurred over the three UKMSA reporting cycles.
Australia is following in the footsteps of the UK and US and embracing the discourse and regulatory technologies associated with modern slavery regulation. This paper offers a critical perspective on ...this development. It begins with a brief account of the concept's rise to prominence, and discusses the political economy in which it is embedded. It then explores some of the advantages, as well as the pitfalls, associated with the frame, and its associated regulatory approaches, techniques and discourse. The authors raise three broad sets of concerns. The first goes to the danger of exclusively focusing on criminal justice responses to penalise and deter those who practice modern slavery while neglecting other approaches that may help address the causes of the phenomenon. The second set of concerns goes to the tendency to exaggerate the transformative potential of one of the dominant regulatory responses in this area: the mandatory corporate supply chain reporting provision. The third set of concerns relate to the implications of addressing issues of worker exploitation and mistreatment through a modern slavery and human trafficking approach rather than through other well established and newer regulatory means. To support the third argument, the authors compare the modern slavery approach with two alternate approaches: labour regulation and human rights due diligence. The authors emphasise the need for vigilance to ensure that the embracement of a modern slavery frame does not shift attention (and resources) away from more thorough and effective means of securing greater corporate accountability for labour standards in supply chains.
Abstract
Predator search efficiency can be enhanced by anthropogenic landscape change, leading to increased predator–prey encounters and subsequent prey population declines. Logging increases early ...successional vegetation, providing ungulate forage. This increased forage, however, is accompanied by linear feature networks that increase predator hunting efficiency by facilitating predator movement and increasing prey vulnerability. We used integrated step selection analyses to weigh support for multiple hypotheses representing the combined impact of logging features (cutblocks and linear features) on wolf (
Canis lupus
) movement and habitat selection in interior British Columbia. Further, we examine the relationship between logging and wolf kill-sites of moose (
Alces alces
) identified using spatiotemporal wolf location cluster analysis. Wolves selected for linear features, which increased their movement rates. New (0–8 years since harvest) cutblocks were selected by wolves. Moose kill-sites had a higher probability of occurring in areas with higher proportions of new and regenerating (9–24 years since harvest) cutblocks. The combined selection and movement responses by wolves to logging features, coupled with increased moose mortality sites associated with cutblocks, indicate that landscape change increases risk for moose. Cumulative effects of landscape change contribute to moose population declines, stressing the importance of cohesive management and restoration of anthropogenic features.
Cross-border surrogacy is a global industry that offers intended parents options for family formation by providing foreign surrogate mothers remuneration, directly or via an intermediary, in excess ...of their actual out-of-pocket expenses. It is a multi-million-dollar business with no international regulation.1 In most countries, limited domestic regulation or oversight is in place. Many countries − such as Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Canada, Hong Kong and South Africa − only permit altruistic surrogacy, while Germany and France ban surrogacy entirely.2 Fully legalized commercial surrogacy is the model followed in some states in the United States of America (USA), as well as Georgia and Ukraine.3 This unregulated cross-border market has produced a lucrative business, with surrogacy arrangements growing by nearly 1,000 per cent between 2006 and 2010.4 The for-profit surrogacy sector has expanded and fertility not-for-profit organizations have also entered the market.5
Climate change is predicted to increase the frequency and size of wildfires. Wildfire burns can influence wildlife space use, but prior to understanding the relationship between wildlife and burns, ...the extent of wildfires and the regrowth of burned areas must be determined. We used remotely sensed, multispectral satellite imagery to calculate differenced normalized burn ratios (NBRs) to define areas burned by wildfire and assess temporal trends in burn frequency and extent in central British Columbia. We then used NBRs as an index of vegetation regrowth to model regrowth trajectories within burns. Next, we examined spatial responses to burns by a moose (Alces alces) population that recently declined in abundance. We utilized locations used by and available to collared moose to determine spatial responses as a function of years since wildfire and vegetation regrowth. We also assessed functional responses to burns by moose, dependent upon the proportion of burned areas available to each individual. We hypothesized that (h1) wildfire burns within our study area increased from 1985 to 2017, (h2) that moose increase their use of burns in comparison with availability as burns age as a result of vegetation regrowth, and (h3) that moose demonstrate functional responses to burns (i.e., selection of burns by individual moose declines as the amount of burned areas increases). We observed that the frequency and extent of burns are increasing within our study area. In contrast to h2, moose in summer and fall decreased the selection of burns as burns aged. We, however, observed that moose responded most positively to locations with intermediate vegetation regrowth (i.e., NBR values), which according to burn regrowth trajectories were most likely to be achieved 13 or more years post‐wildfire; given that most burns within our study area were ≤13 years of age, we predict that the use of burns will likely increase as vegetation regrows. Moose only selected for burns in fall, and we did not find support for the presence of a functional response. Our research demonstrated the utility of remotely sensed imagery and NBRs to define burn locations and to reveal current and probable future spatial responses to burns by a wildlife population of concern.
The Government of Manitoba launched the provincial Take-Home Naloxone Program in January 2017. By the end of September 2017, there were over 60 sites operating in Manitoba. These sites distributed ...765 kits to people at risk of opioid overdose, and 93 of these kits were replacement kits used in overdose events. Most of these events occurred among males (60.2%) and in a private residence (72.0%). Fentanyl and carfentanil were the most common substances reported during overdose events. Take-Home Naloxone Program data provide important information about the unique context of the opioid crisis in Manitoba.
This book is an exploration of arguments about the economic and social effects of the regulation of labour, and whether it is likely to be helpful or harmful to development. Authored by contributors ...from a variety of fields, primarily legal as well as development studies, economics and regulatory studies, the book presents both empirical and theoretical analyses of the issues. With authors from several continents, this collection is unique in that it focuses on labour regulation in poor and middle-income countries rather than industrialised ones, therefore making it a significant contribution to the field.
The aim of this article was to demonstrate how the application of mixed methods over a period of time can enrich the study of a labour market institution. The article shows how the adoption of an ...historical institutionalist approach, combined with repeated fieldwork, can provide novel insights into the reasons why an institution operates in particular ways: its potentialities and limitations. The article shows how this methodology is being applied in ongoing research focused upon the International Labour Organization (ILO)’s Better Factories Cambodia (BFC). Since the early 2000s, the ILO has been providing ‘hands-on’ assistance in a number of poor countries though its Better Work programme. Cambodia was the first country in which an institution of a ‘monitoring and advice’ nature was set up, and BFC has since provided the model for the expansion of such bodies to other jurisdictions. The aim of the research project is to discover why the history of BFC has resulted in its fulfilling certain functions and not others and being constrained in particular ways that might not have been anticipated by its original designers; to understand its functioning in the context of Cambodia’s economy and politics. The article seeks to demonstrate why mixed methods are particularly well-suited to achieving these aims.
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