As Saudi Arabia embarks upon a transformative economic journey under the umbrella of its Vision 2030 and National Transformation Plan, the Saudi government plans to implement various initiatives to engage the private sector in meeting new national development goals, including the provision of 1600 schools through the public-private partnership (PPP) route. This article provides an international outlook and review of the use of PPPs to deliver school infrastructure and analyzes Saudi Arabia’s potential to implement this promising program. Effective use of the PPP model can guarantee the timely provision of schools and other infrastructure projects that could fulfill the vision of Saudi Arabia’s political leadership, potentially serving as a catalyst and blueprint for other Gulf states. The case study argues that, while Saudi Arabia’s schools’ program enjoys significant political support, its government needs simultaneously to pursue the parallel objective of developing the necessary institutional, legal, regulatory, and supervisory frameworks essential for successful PPP projects globally. The article concludes with recommendations to mitigate existing challenges and foster the involvement of the private sector in education sector development.

The need for strategic alignment within HR management increased managers' concern about individual behavior and how this behavior was related to the achievement of goals. In public management, effectively managing employees' performance has been necessary since Weber's bureaucratic administration. The individual performance appraisal is the right tool to assess employees' competencies. Thus, we proposed the following research question: Which factors, as pointed out by theory, have the most significant influence on the individual performance appraisal process? The quantitative method was applied to answer this question, developing and testing a scale via EFA and a hypothetical model via SEM-CB. The results indicated a scale with 25 items able to access the main points of the IPA process and a hypothetical model with 7 constructs that indicate the influence on employee engagement. The main finding is the significant influence of feedback on the whole process. The main theoretical contribution was the construction of the MIPAS scale, and the practical contribution was to identify the points where managers should focus on improving the IPA process with their subordinates.

This research investigates the dynamic landscape of succession planning (SP) strategies in higher education, with a focus on synthesizing existing literature to guide improvements in presidential succession practices. The intense global competition in higher education has led to imbalances in the quantity and composition of potential successors, hindering institutions’ rapid advancement and affecting their competitiveness on the global stage. The study addresses critical challenges such as attracting, retaining, and nurturing successors in key positions beyond material incentives. Employing a literature analysis methodology, the research comprehensively examines the existing body of literature related to succession planning, offering recommendations to promote stability in leadership, foster continuous talent development, and mitigate talent crises. The study evaluates the current state of succession planning in higher education, identifying issues and their root causes. It provides a summary and analysis of ongoing research efforts related to successor quality, team formation, and cultivation models. Despite advancements through national talent cultivation policies, persistent challenges like talent scarcity, the absence of gender-inclusive succession plans, a lack of originality, and inconsistent staff flow hinder progress. The research attributes these challenges to traditional personnel systems and university administrators. Proactive measures are proposed, including creating awareness of succession planning, advocating for personnel mechanism reform, establishing a comprehensive training system, and developing a scientifically-grounded succession plan. Though the study aims to contribute to leadership development and address pressing issues faced by higher education institutions, with only a limited number utilizing mixed techniques, it restricted the comprehensive inclusion of social context knowledge and evidence regarding the motivations, beliefs, and experiences of individuals in this investigation.

COVID-19 and the economic response have amplified and changed the nature of development challenges in fundamental ways. Global development cooperation should adapt accordingly. This paper lays out the urgency for new methods of development cooperation that can deliver resource transfers at scale, oriented to addressing climate change and with transparency and better governance. It looks at what is actually happening to major donor countries’ development cooperation programs and where the principal gaps lie, and offers some thoughts on how to move forward, notwithstanding the clear geopolitical rivalries that are evident.
The most immediate challenge is to provide a level of liquidity support to countries ravaged by the global economic downturn. Many developing countries will see double-digit declines in GDP, with some recording downturns not seen in peacetime. Alongside the short-term challenge of recovery, COVID-19 has laid bare longer-term trends that have pointed for some time to the lack of sustainability—environmental, social, and governance—in the way economic development was occurring in many places, including in advanced economies. This new landscape has significant implications for development cooperation in terms of scale, development/climate co-benefits, and transparency and accountability.

This paper presents an assessment approach to fostering socioeconomic re-development and resilience in Iraqi regions emerging from the destruction and instability, in the aftermath of the war conflict in Iraq. Focusing on the intricate interplay of logistics infrastructure and economic recovery, the present study proposes a novel framework that integrates general resilience insights, data analytics, infrastructure systems, and decision support from Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). We draw inspiration also from historical cases on “creative destruction” or “Blessing in Disguise” (BiD) phenomena, like the post-WWII reconstruction of Rotterdam, so as to develop the notion of stepwise or cascadic prosilience, analyzing how innovative logistics systems may in various stages contribute to economic rejuvenation. Our approach recognizes the multifaceted nature of regional resilience capacity, encompassing both static (conserving resources, rerouting, etc.) and dynamic (accelerating recovery through innovative strategies) dimensions. The logistics aspect spans both the supply side (new infrastructure, ICT facilities) and the demand side (changing transportation flows and product demands), culminating in an integrated perspective for sustainable growth of Iraqi regions. In our study, we explore several forward-looking strategic future options (scenarios) for recovery and reconstruction policy factors in the context of regional development in Iraq, regarding them as crucial strategic elements for effective post-conflict rebuilding and regeneration. Given that such assets and infrastructures typically extend beyond a single city or area, their geographic scope is broader, calling for a multi-region approach. By leveraging the extended DEA approach by an incorporation of a super-efficiency (SE) DEA approach so as to better discriminate among efficient Decision-Making Units (DMUs)—in this case, regions in Iraq—our research aims to present actionable and effective insights for infrastructure investment strategies at regional-governorate scale in Iraq, that optimize efficiency, sustainability and resilience. This approach may ultimately foster prosperous and stable post-conflict regional economies that display—by means of a cascadic change—a new balanced prosilient future.

The urgency of urban health in Indonesia is very worrying because most of Indonesia’s population now lives in urban areas with minimal supporting infrastructure. That prompted this study to analyze the government’s response to the healthy city development plan in the new capital city. This study uses a qualitative approach that focuses on thematic analysis. It helps check official government documents related to healthy city development plans. The relevant documents that were found were in the form of regulations. This regulation is Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 3 of 2022 concerning the National Capital (Ibu Kota Negara, IKN). This official document was coded by maximizing the analysis tool, namely NVivo 12 Plus. This study succeeded in mapping several bare references in the healthy city development plan for the new capital city by the Indonesian government. Some of these primary references include the healthy city model (World Health Organization, WHO), the healthy city strategy (Cardiff), and (Vancouver). All of these primary references aim to improve the quality of life of residents in cities through city development that focuses on health. However, there are several challenges that the Indonesian government may face in the future, including problems with air pollution, environmentally friendly transportation, and the provision of green public spaces, health facilities, universal health services, and other infrastructure. This all requires adequate capacity and budget plans, including ensuring transparency in budget management. This study also encourages collaboration between the government, the private sector, and civil society to support the development of healthy cities that run well and sustainably.