LIST OF PANELS

Objectives

This panel objective is to discuss papers studying the policymaking and/or implementation processes of covid-19 responses/policies, applying or advancing public policies’ theories and/or frameworks, as well as capacities and resilience theories and/or frameworks, to better understand the policy processes of covid-19 policies in different countries/contexts.  

Main questions:

[General Question] How did distinct actors/experts/ stakeholders and institutions influence the formulation/re-formulation and implementation of covid-19 policies, in a period that entailed/required a dynamic and rapid process of learning and re-adaptation?

[Policymaking] What were the main coalitions and other political actors directly influencing the policymaking, and what types of knowledge, learning and feedback characterized them? Did the formulation and re re-formulations entailed a collaborative process with the participation of front-line health workers and other institutions/organizations? How have the processes of learning and feedback and communication of information taken place?

[Implementation] How frontline health workers have implemented the covid-19 measures in distinct facilities: public general hospitals, temporary facilities and primary care facilities? How were frontliners levels of knowledge regarding new policies and to what extent have they adopted discretionary actions while dealing with challenges/ everyday resilience? What were the main organizational and relational constraints? To what extent have new funds and supplies enabled front liners to cope with the demand? To what extent have citizens and community been involved in the implementation of covid-19 measures.

Scientific Relevance

Covid-19 exacerbates both ambiguities and the role of experts in varied types of top-down policymaking processes. Governments’ capacities to respond to the crisis became critical everywhere in the world, and their analytical capacities, among other issues, turned out to be one of the main Achilles heels of policymaking processes. The pandemic also exacerbated frontline health workers' coping and everyday resilience, as well as critical capacity and risky conditions at the street level. As far as impact is concerned, analyses in varied countries show that covid-19 also exacerbates inequalities, as infection rates are higher among vulnerable groups, with poor housing/living conditions, using public transport.

In the first semester of 2020, the covid-19 pandemic presented unprecedented policy and health system challenges to countries around the world. In diverse and politically significant ways countries answered with rapid, adaptive and constant-learning social and medical responses in the fight against the new coronavirus. At the initial six months of the pandemic, we (seemed to have) learned that countries that rapidly adopted social measures together with tests and monitoring, or had managed to keep transparent information and trust in government measures, were considered as examples of success in tackling covid-19. With the arrival of the second wave in Europe, and the possibility of spreading the second wave to the other parts of the globe, the learning process needs to continue and policy process theories can greatly contribute to that purpose.

Therefore, the current emergence of a second wave of covid-19 pandemic (in late Oct-20) reveals that this pandemic requires a deeper understanding of policy processes, what could be achieved by using concepts in a critical or adaptive perspective. Covid-19 also constitutes an opportunity to advance theories and frameworks in public policies, advancing our understanding regarding specificities of policy processes and with respect to vulnerable groups as well.

Other co-organisers: Lindsay Forbes/University of Kent, UK; Rodrigo T. Lima/Fiocruz, Brazil; Allan Sousa/Ministry of Health, Brazil.

The best papers of the panel will be considered for publication in a Special Issue in an International Journal

This panel welcomes papers studying the policymaking and/or implementation processes of covid-19 responses/policies, applying public policies’ theories and/or frameworks, as well as capacities and resilience theories and/or frameworks to better understand the policy process of covid-19 in different countries/contexts.  

We especially welcome papers using/exploring or advancing or adapting theories and frameworks to study the policy process of covid-19.

We welcome papers dealing with those questions (as examples):

[General Question] How distinct experts/ stakeholders influenced the formulation/re-formulation and implementation of covid-19 policies, in a period that entailed/required a dynamic and rapid process of learning and re-adaptation?

[Policymaking] What were the main coalitions and policy streams influencing the formulation of policy, and what types of knowledge, learning and feedback characterize the actions of those actors? Has the formulation entailed a collaborative process with participation of front-line health workers and other institutions/organizations? What were the main resilience measures and tools adopted and how they have been decided? How have the processes of learning and feedback and communication of information, taken place vis-à-vis the states/municipalities and society?

Examples of policymaking/formulation theories are: governance, tools, policymaking styles, multiple stream, advocacy coalition, policy capacity, policy learning, policy feedback, collaborative policymaking. 

[Implementation] How frontline health workers have implemented the covid-19 measures in distinct facilities: public general hospitals, temporary facilities and primary care facilities? How were frontliners levels of knowledge regarding new policies and to what extent have they adopted discretionary actions while dealing with challenges/ everyday resilience? What were the main organizational and relational constraints? To what extent have new funds and supplies enabled front liners to cope with the demand? To what extent have citizens and community been involved in the implementation of covid-19 measures - and especially in vulnerable areas.

Examples of implementation theories are: implementation process, implementation mechanisms, street level bureaucracy, policy capacity, social network, coordination, stakeholders/ community engagement, social participation, working conditions, feedback, covid related knowledge/education  

We encourage the adoption of health policy and system concepts/frameworks together with public policy concepts/theories.

Examples of health system concepts would be, for instance, types of resilience (absorption, adaptation, transformation) and health system strengthening building blocks.

We also encourage analyses that establish relationships between capacities and resilience. Types of capacities would express diverse abilities and competencies, and “critical capacities” would designate the pre-requisites needed to the development of policies.

We welcome theoretical discussions, policy process analysis, case analysis as well as comparative case analysis

We also welcome documental and qualitative synthesis analysis

We welcome other types of analyses and theories related to this call.