Good health and well-being are embedded in the 3rd Goal amongst the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The primary objective of this research was to identify the most critical economic, social, and administrative barriers to implementing the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) in the Punjab Province of Pakistan. A sequential exploratory design and case study technique were used, employing both qualitative and quantitative methods. In the first stage, in-depth interviews with 50 key officials were conducted to identify the most critical barriers to the EPI program. A quantitative analysis was then performed based on the results obtained from qualitative analysis, and rank orders of barriers were received from the same health department experts. The results indicate that twenty-eight barriers can cause implementation problems for this program. Still, the ten barriers that gained the maximum hits are the most important barriers, which include Shortage of vaccinators, mismanagement of vaccines’ cold chain, biometric android application, ice-lined refrigerators, communication gap, inadequate legislation of EPI program, capacity building issues with EPI staff, Misconceptions about EPI program, lack of awareness of the parents and community, refusal cases and inadequate cooperation of lady health workers (LHWs). Coordinated efforts of the government and the public are highly recommended to address these barriers.
Studies show that the COVID-19 crisis may threaten to attain sustainable development goals connected with shelter in developing countries, including Malaysia. Low-cost housing provision has been identified as one tool for achieving sustainability goals via synergistic operations. However, studies about post-COVID-19 housing and sustainable development goals integration are scarce in Malaysia. The study investigated the state of post-COVID-19 housing and developed a framework to integrate Goals in housing provision in Malaysia. The study covered four major cities in Malaysia via qualitative research to achieve the study’s objectives. The researchers engaged forty participants via semi-structured virtual interviews, and saturation was achieved. The study utilized a thematic analysis for the collated data and honed them with secondary sources. Findings show that COVID-19 reduced the possibility of low-income earners becoming homeowners. This is because the low-income groups were real losers of COVID-19 economic changes. Also, findings reveal that achieving four Goals from the 17 Goals will improve housing provision in Malaysia’s post-COVID-19 era. The study encourages key housing stakeholders to improve housing delivery, especially for the low-income earners across Malaysia in the post-COVID-19 era. This will imply contributing to achieving four Goals because of the correlation, as part of the study’s implications.
Although various actors have examined the user acceptance of e-government developments, less attention has so far devoted to the relationship between attitudes of certain commuter groups against digital technologies and their intention to engage in productive time-use by mobile devices. This paper aims to fill this gap by establishing an overall framework which focuses on Hungarian commuters’ attitudes toward e-government applications as well as their possible demands of developing them. Relying on a representative questionnaire survey conducted in Hungary in March and April 2020, the data were examined by a machine learning and correlations to identify the factors, attitudes and demands that influence the use of mobile devices during frequent commuting. The paper argues that the regularity of commuting in rural areas, as well as the higher levels of qualification and employment status in cities show a more positive, technophile attitude to new ICT and mobile technologies that strengthen the demands for digital development, with special regard to optimising e-government applications for certain types of commuting groups. One of the main limitations of this study is that results suggest a picture of the commuters in a narrow timeframe. The findings suggest that developing e-government applications is necessary and desirable from both of the supply and demand sides. Based on prior scholarly knowledge, no research has ever analysed these correlations in Hungary where commuters are among the European citizens who spend extensive time with commuting.
In wealthy nations, biofuel usage has grown in importance as a means of addressing climate change concerns, ensuring energy security, and promoting agricultural development. Because they understand the potential advantages of biofuel for rural development and job creation, governments have created policies and legislation to encourage the production of biofuel. However, the province of Limpopo hasn’t fully taken advantage of the potential to use biofuel production as a vehicle for job development, despite a higher demand for the fuel. There is currently a lack of understanding of the role of biofuel in promoting local development in developing regions. For this reason, this study made use of semi-structured interviews to explore how biofuel production can be used as an instrument for Local Economic Development (LED) in the Limpopo province of South Africa. The research investigated the determinants of empowerment that could impact the commercial feasibility of biofuel production in the province. It also identified the need for human resource development to get workers ready for jobs in Limpopo’s biofuel sector. The results showed that, provided certain conditions were met, the production of biofuel in Limpopo may be a useful instrument for creating local jobs. By highlighting the potential for job creation and the importance of human resource development, this research aims to facilitate evidence-based decision-making that can harness biofuel production for sustainable rural development in the region. The value of this study lies in its contribution to the understanding of biofuel’s role in LED, offering actionable insights for policymakers and stakeholders in Limpopo.
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