Central Sulawesi has been grappling with significant challenges in human development, as indicated by its Human Development Index (HDI). Despite recent improvements, the region still lags behind the national average. Key issues such as high poverty rates and malnutrition among children, particularly underweight prevalence, pose substantial barriers to enhancing the HDI. This study aims to analyze the impact of poverty, malnutrition, and household per capita income on the HDI in Central Sulawesi. By employing panel data regression analysis over the period from 2018 to 2022, the research seeks to identify significant determinants that influence HDI and provide evidence-based recommendations for policy interventions. Utilizing panel data regression analysis with a Fixed Effect Model (FEM), the study reveals that while poverty negatively influences with HDI, underweight prevalence is not statistically significant. In contrast, household per capita income significantly impacts HDI, with lower income levels leading to declines in HDI. The findings emphasize the need for comprehensive policy interventions in nutrition, healthcare, and economic support to enhance human development in the region. These interventions are crucial for addressing the root causes of underweight prevalence and poverty, ultimately leading to improved HDI and overall well-being. The originality of this research lies in its focus on a specific region of Indonesia, providing localized insights and recommendations that are critical for targeted policy making.

In this study, the entropy weight method, the α convergence model, the absolute β convergence model and the conditional β convergence model are used to evaluate the 31 provinces’ innovative potential in China from 2011 to 2022. It is found that the innovative potential in nationwide China and in various regions are all increasing year by year, and the innovative potential in the eastern region is obviously better than that in the central region and western region. No matter considering the influence of external factors or not, the gap of innovative potential among provinces in different regions will gradually expand over time, with the largest gap among provinces in the eastern region, followed by the central region and the smallest in the western region. The conclusion of this study is instructive to enhance the innovative potential of China and promote the balanced development of regional innovative potential in China.

The linkages between adequate service delivery and sustainable development have been given a little academic attention in the South Africa’s local municipalities. For this reason, the achievement of sustainable development has been difficult which has culminated in the occurrence of service delivery protests. These service delivery protests have posed critical threats to social security thus affecting the possibility to achieve sustainable development in South Africa. the paper findings showed that the delivery of inadequate services to the citizens is triggered by the failure to equally include citizens in the process. One of the threats that the paper found is the fact that these service delivery protests have become a major issue and any move to solve them without citizen participation has been unsuccessful. The paper findings also showed that that the lack of adequate service delivery to the citizens causes human insecurities which in turn affect the achievement of sustainable development. This is because the occurrence of the service delivery protests deteriorates national economic growth and human growth. They affect foreign investors and international tourists by instilling fear in them and yet they are contributors to sustainable economic growth that leads to sustainable development. The findings of this paper also presented that the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies can increase citizen participation during service delivery. It is through the use of citizen participation that openness, transparency, accountability, and representation principles that promote the delivery of adequate services are possible. The paper found that using AI technologies would also foster trust between the service provider and service receiver needed for delivering adequate services, thus achieve sustainable development in South Africa.

Environmental regulation is globally recognized for its crucial role in mitigating environmental pollution and is vital for achieving the Paris Agreement and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. There is a current gap in the comprehensive overview of the significance of environmental regulation research, necessitating high-level insights. This paper aims to bridge this gap through an exhaustive bibliometric review of existing environmental regulation research. Employing bibliometric analysis, this study delineates publication trends, identifies leading journals, countries, institutions, and scholars. Utilizing VOSviewer software, we conducted a frequency and centrality analysis of keywords and visualized keyword co-occurrences. This research highlights current hotspots and central themes in the field, including “innovation”, “performance”, “economic growth”, and “pollution”. Further analysis of research trends underscores existing knowledge gaps and potential future research directions. Emerging topics for future investigation in environmental regulation include “financial constraints”, “green finance”, “green credit”, “ESG”, “circular economy”, “labor market”, “political uncertainty”, “digital transformation”, “exports” and “mediating effects”. Additionally, “quasi-natural experiments” and “machine learning” have emerged as cutting-edge research methodologies in this domain. The focus of research is shifting from analyzing the impact of environmental regulation on “innovation” to “green innovation” and from “emissions” to “carbon emissions”. This study provides a comprehensive and structured understanding, thereby guiding subsequent research in this field.