Allen Yu-Hung Lai

Organizational Collaborative Capacity in Fighting Pandemic Crises: A Literature Review from the Public Management Perspective

Collaborative capacity serves for organizations as the capacity to collaborate with other network players. Organizational capacity matters as collaboration outcomes usually go beyond single-shot implementation efforts or a single-minded focus on either the vertical dimension of program or the horizontal component. This review article explores organizational collaborative capacities from the perspective of public management, in particular, network theory. By applying the 5 attributes of network theory—interdependence, membership, resources, information, and learning—to the explanation of collaborative capacity in fighting pandemic crises, I argue in some ways organizational collaborative capacity is very much like an organization in its own right. Studying collaborative capacity in the battle against pandemics facilitate our understanding of multisectoral collaboration in technical, political, and institutional dimensions, and greatly advances the richness of capacity vocabulary in pandemic response and preparedness.

Towards a Collaborative Cross-border Disaster Management: A Comparative Analysis of Voluntary Organizations in Taiwan and Singapore

Abstract This paper analyzes the voluntary involvement of two Red Cross organizations engaged in post-disaster cross-sector collaborative efforts for the 2004 Asian Tsunami and the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake. Using Bryson, Crosby, and Stones expanded model for nonprofit collaboration as a framework, I compare and contrast the disaster management collaborated by both voluntary organizations. The findings illuminate the strengths of voluntary involvement in disaster collaborative management, as well as its limitations during extreme events. Implications of the findings for cross-border voluntary contributions are discussed.

Combating SARS and H1N1: Insights and Lessons From Singapore’s Public Health Control Measures

Managing the outbreak of infectious diseases is a major public health imperative for the small island-state of Singapore. In this paper, we discuss and assess the Singaporean government’s public health measures to combat the 2003 SARS and the 2009 H1N1 pandemics. Crucially, the government established a clear line of command and control to execute drastic public health control measures at three main fronts: healthcare providers, community levels, and at border-crossings. Key characteristics of these public health control measures are case management, outbreak control, surveillance, public education, temperature screening, and, as a last resort, quarantine. By providing a chronological account of the public health control measures introduced to combat SARS and H1N1 in Singapore, this paper seeks to add to the body of knowledge on pandemic management.

Impact of Disasters and Disaster Risk Management in Singapore: A Case Study of Singapore’s Experience in Fighting the SARS Epidemic

Singapore is vulnerable to both natural and man-made disasters alongside its remarkable economic growth. One of the most significant disasters in recent history was the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic in 2003. The SARS outbreak was eventually contained through a series of risk mitigating measures introduced by the Singapore government. This would not be possible without the engagement and responsiveness of the general public. This chapter begins with a description of Singapore’s historical disaster profiles, the policy and legal framework in the all-hazard management approach. We use a case study to highlight the disaster impacts and insights drawn from Singapore’s risk management experience with specific references to the SARS epidemic. The implications from the SARS focus on four areas: staying vigilant at the community level, remaining flexible in a national command structure, the demand for surge capacity, and collaborative governance at regional level. This chapter concludes with a presence of the flexible command structure on both the way and the extent it was utilized.

Climate extremes: an observation and projection of its impacts on food production in ASEAN

Climate change alters global food systems, especially agriculture and fisheries—significant aspects of the livelihoods and food security of populations. The 2014 IPCC Fifth Assessment Report identified Southeast Asia as the most vulnerable coastal region in the world, and highlighted the potential distribution of impacts and risks of climate change in the region. While climate hazards may differ across geographical regions, the impact of climate extremes on food production will affect marginal farmers, fishers and poor urban consumers disproportionately, as they have limited capacities to adapt to and recover from extreme weather events. Governments and other stakeholders need to respond to climate extremes and incorporate adaptation into national development plans. Unfortunately, there is still limited peer-review publication on the subject matter. This paper presents some findings from research on observed and projected loss and damage inflicted by climate extremes on agricultural crops in Southeast Asia.

Organisational Capacity and Health Security

Despite the emphasis placed on response capacity building to strengthen health security in this region, no comparative data exists to look into the determinants that drive the capacity. For public and private managers, the ignorance of capacity development and failure to assess it, by and large, points to highly ambiguous and flawed methodological approaches. This paper therefore reports on a qualitative interview study into capacity building around health security and explains the emergence of response capacity against the fight of influenza A H1N1 pandemics in Singapore and Taiwan in 2009. This paper further provides empirically grounded evidence to identify prerequisites for capacity development towards health security in response to (the same type of) public health crises in Asia.

Agility amid uncertainties: evidence from 2009 A/H1N1 pandemics in Singapore and Taiwan

ABSTRACT Despite the emphasis placed on agility in uncertain situations such as extreme events, no comparative data exist to look into the determinants that drive agility. For crisis response managers, the failure to develop agility threatens organizations’ survival amid uncertainties. This paper investigates the development of agility and explains the emergence of agility against the fight of influenza A/H1N1 pandemics in Singapore and Taiwan in 2009. This paper further provides empirically grounded evidence to identify prerequisites for agility development in response to public health crises in East Asia.

Teaching Policy Analysis in China and the United States: Implications for Curriculum Design of Public Policy Programs

Abstract Rapid worldwide growth in public policy education now offers excellent opportunities to assess the development of the field from a comparative perspective. Our analysis, which examines recent trends in public policy education by comparing public policy analysis courses taught in professional degree programs in China and in the United States, reveals considerable disparities in these curricula as taught in the two countries. Surprisingly, these differences have emerged primarily through disciplinary foci, expertise in policy analysis, and practical experience among instructors, rather than through the distinctive social, political, institutional, and historical characteristics of the two countries. Our findings also suggest that a positivist approach to policy analysis continues to dominate classroom discussions in US programs, despite intense debates in the literature regarding the utility of that approach in guiding actual practice.

Crises and Disasters in Singapore: What Matters? Or Does It?

Having achieved an export led exponential economic growth, Singapore remains vulnerable to both natural disasters and economic crises. One significant public health crisis that impacts Singapores economy is the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic in 2003. Another crisis of significant impact is the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) 2007-2008. This paper illuminates the impact of a public health crisis (SARS) and an economic crisis (GFC) on the Singapore economy. The comparison between these two extreme events is made based on the financial market, macro economy, property sector, and tourism trade. The respective policy responses to both SARS and GFC are discussed and contrasted with regards to the economic recovery.

Six Countries, Six Reform Models: The Healthcare Reform Experience of Israel, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland and Taiwan: Healthcare Reforms “Under the Radar Screen” by Kieke G. H. Okma and Luca Crivelli

Usually not given serious consideration in major international comparisons because of their small size, each in fact provides a fascinating case study that illuminates the understanding of the dynamics of healthcare reform. Although dissimilar in historical and cultural backgrounds, they share some important features: all faced very similar pressures for change in the 1970s and 1980s; all considered a very similar range of policy options; and all did not only discuss but actually implemented fundamental changes in their healthcare funding, organization, contracting and governance structures with strikingly different outcomes.