Evaluating the Impact of Institutional Performance and Government Trust on Farmers' Subjective Well-Being: A Case of Urban-Rural Welfare Gap Perception and Family Economic Status in Shaanxi, Sichuan and Anhui, China

In the modern world, fostering comprehensive social sustainability has become one of the major concerns. Interestingly, rural livelihood may significantly comprise the compelling performance evaluations of governmental institutions' performances. Governmental institutions' performances in rural areas largely depend on whether they can gain relatively higher trust levels of marginal farmers. However, the critical interaction between these two prospects may foster farmers' subjective well-being (SWB). Therefore, the study aims to model and test institutional performance, government trust, and farmers' subjective well-being by utilising a survey of data from 963 farmer households in Shaanxi, Sichuan, and Anhui provinces, China. We have adopted structural equation modelling (SEM) to craft the study's findings. However, in the literature, political performance is widely quantified by the urban-rural welfare and economic status gap; thus, in the core model, we have incorporated and measured the mediating role of the urban-rural welfare gap and household economic status. The results show that institutional performance, social insurance performance, and ecological livability performance have a significant and positive impact on institutional performance and government trust and eventually derive farmers' SWB. However, the role of environmental livability performance is more substantial than social insurance performance in quantifying governmental trust and institutional performance. Moreover, it has a significant positive impact on the subjective well-being of farmers, and the effect of policy trust is not substantial. The results of further mediation and moderation effects show that social insurance performance and ecological livability performance can enhance the subjective well-being of farmers through the indirect transmission of institutional trust. In contrast, the mediating impact of policy trust is not significant. For farmers with higher economic status, institutional performance has a more substantial effect on the subjective well-being of farmers with a relatively smaller perception of the urban-rural welfare gap and lower family economic status.

Impact of Organizational Support and Social Capital on University Faculties' Working Performance

As the major concerns of higher education institutions (HEIs) are teaching, services, and research, this paper describes a region-wide evaluation of institutional performance in relation to universities in Taiwan. The evaluation was based on the perceptions of university professors regarding institutional slack and reputation, as well as internal and external social capital. The study sought answers to several research questions and adopted a survey approach. After choosing 30 universities of various sizes and from different regions, 926 professors were selected randomly as participants. Using PLS-SEM, this study confirms the influence of institutional slack, reputation, and internal and external social capital on performance. The results show that (a) institutional slack and reputation positively affect institutional performance; (b) internal social capital positively and significantly influences the relationships of institutional slack and reputation with performance; and (c) external social capital has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between institutional slack and performance. Concluding this paper, theoretical and managerial implications and suggestions for future studies are proposed.

How Effective are Mentoring Programs for Improving Health Worker Competence and Institutional Performance in Africa? A Systematic Review of Quantitative Evidence

Introduction

Mentoring programs are frequently recommended as innovative and low-cost solutions, and these have been implemented in many healthcare institutions to tackle multiple human resource-related challenges. This review sought to locate, appraise and describe the literature reporting on mentorship programs that were designed to improve healthcare worker competence and institutional performance in Africa.

Methods

This review searched and synthesized reports from studies that assessed the effectiveness of mentorship programs among healthcare workers in Africa. We searched for studies reported in the English language in EMBASE, CINAHL, COCHRANE and MEDLINE. Additional search was conducted in Google Scholar.

Results

We included 30 papers reporting on 24 studies. Diverse approaches of mentorship were reported: a) placing a mentor in health facility for a period of time (embedded mentor), b) visits by a mobile mentor, c) a mentoring approach involving a team of mobile multidisciplinary mentors, d) facility twinning, and e) within-facility mentorship by a focal person or a manager.

Implication for practice

Mentoring interventions were effective in improving the clinical management of infectious diseases, maternal, neonatal and childhood illnesses. Mentoring interventions were also found to improve managerial performance (accounting, human resources, monitoring and evaluation, and transportation management) of health institutions. Additionally, mentoring had improved laboratory accreditation scores. Mentoring interventions may be used to increase adherence of health professionals to guidelines, standards, and protocols. While different types of interventions (embedded mentoring, visits by mobile mentors, facility twinning and within-facility mentorship by a focal person) were reported to be effective, there is no evidence to recommend one model of mentoring over other types of mentoring.

Implications for research

Further research—experimental methods measuring the impact of different mentoring formats and longitudinal studies establishing their long-term effectiveness—is required to compare the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of different models of mentoring. Further studies are needed to explore why and how different mentoring programs succeed and the meaningfulness of mentoring programs for the different stakeholders are also required.

To What Extent is Drinking Water Tested in Sub-Saharan Africa? A Comparative Analysis of Regulated Water Quality Monitoring

Water quality information is important for guiding water safety management and preventing water-related diseases. To assess the current status of regulated water quality monitoring in sub-Saharan Africa, we evaluated testing programs for fecal contamination in 72 institutions (water suppliers and public health agencies) across 10 countries. Data were collected through written surveys, in-person interviews, and analysis of microbial water quality testing levels. Though most institutions did not achieve the testing levels specified by applicable standards or World Health Organization (WHO) Guidelines, 85% of institutions had conducted some microbial water testing in the previous year. Institutions were more likely to meet testing targets if they were suppliers (as compared to surveillance agencies), served larger populations, operated in urban settings, and had higher water quality budgets (all p < 0.05). Our results indicate that smaller water providers and rural public health offices will require greater attention and additional resources to achieve regulatory compliance for water quality monitoring in sub-Saharan Africa. The cost-effectiveness of water quality monitoring should be improved by the application of risk-based water management approaches. Efforts to strengthen monitoring capacity should pay greater attention to program sustainability and institutional commitment to water safety.