This issue:

- risks in public–private partnerships 
- valuing health for all 
- zooming into better work-life balance? 
- climate change impacts and adaptation 
- reducing poverty and inequality is possible 

Plus what I’m reading. 

Mitigating risks in public-private partnerships

Public–private partnerships (PPPs) are increasingly being used to overcome complex challenges and develop new opportunities. High quality risk management is critical to the success of PPPs. A paper in Public Performance & Management Review identifies eight major risk factors and develops a risk management framework to mitigate them.

Read our brief on the article

A World Health Organisation brief sets out a framework to build an economy for health. The following principles are the centrepiece of a new system of value and measurement: 

- Valuing planetary health including essential common goods such as clean water, clean air and a stable climate. 
- Valuing the diverse social foundations and activities that promote equity including social cohesion, supporting people in need and enabling communities to thrive. 
- Valuing human health and well-being with every person able to prosper physically, mentally and emotionally 

Building a Health-for-All economy Building an economy for Health for-All needs a whole-of-society approach. It is one which addresses the broader social determinants of health such as education, working conditions and the environment. The primary goal of Health for-All is to:  

- Increase person-centred capacities including physical and mental health 
- decrease death and disease burden. 

The framework encompasses the following dimensions: 

- Root/structural causes: economic, social, cultural, political, governance 
- Social foundations: education, occupation, income, gender, ethnicity/race 
- Infrastructure and systems: health systems, financial markets, Information and communications technology, state capacity
- Communities/households/ individuals: access to services, access to resources, equity in access to resources and opportunities, social cohesion. 

Measuring Health-for-All  
Measures are needed that value goods and services which are indispensable for health. This includes recognising the factors that create differences in the health of people and local communities like accumulated disadvantage and discrimination. There is a need to understand people’s lived experiences directly from where they live, work, learn and play. 

A report from the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research assesses the implications of the increasing trend towards working from home on wellbeing and career progression. The benefits of remote working fall into three broad areas: 

- benefits to employers in reduced costs (due to the potential to function with a smaller footprint) alongside no discernible reduction in productivity 
- benefits to workers in terms of work-life balance 
- environmental benefits from reduced traffic congestion and commuter volumes. 

At a glance 
1. COVID-19 accelerated the trend towards working from home. Even before the pandemic, trends in digitalisation and globalisation were changing the ways people worked in Aotearoa New Zealand and overseas. 
2. Increased remote working may not automatically be good for equity. Flexibility is a double-edged sword – it can also blur the boundaries between work and home life. With women still taking on responsibility for the bulk of domestic work, the risk is current trend will disadvantage women both at work and in the home. 
3. Employers can act to ensure remote working improves both productivity and equity. Employers need to carefully identify their needs and requirements in relation to remote versus on-site working and offer as much flexibility as possible. Managers should be offered training and support to increase their confidence in managing remote workers 

This UNSW and ACOSS report examines the evidence on the impact of the COVID recession and recovery on income inequality and poverty in Australia. It includes new ABS data tracking inequality during 2020 and 2021. The data tells a tale of two very different pandemic experiences. 

What the evidence found 
- In 2020, income inequality and poverty declined during the ‘Alpha’ wave of the pandemic despite the deepest recession in a century and an ‘effective unemployment rate’ reaching 17 per cent. This was due to robust public income supports: JobKeeper Payment and Coronavirus Supplement.  

- In the first half of 2021, employment and earnings recovered but these income supports were withdrawn. The available evidence indicates that income inequality and poverty increased above pre-pandemic levels.  

- In September 2021, the effective unemployment rate was 9 per cent with half the population back under lockdown in response to the Delta wave of the pandemic.

- COVID income supports in response to the Delta wave were much weaker. Over 8 per cent of people on the lowest income support payments were excluded from the COVID Disaster payment. Those payments have now been phased out.

- The legacy of the two pandemic experiences is likely to be higher inequality and poverty than beforehand, despite remarkable progress in reducing both in 2020. By September 2021 there were 1.7 million people on the lowest income support payments (25 per cent) more than before the pandemic) and those payments still sit below the poverty line. 

This summary for policymakers from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assesses the impacts of climate change. It has a strong focus on the interactions between systems climate, ecosystems (including their biodiversity) and human society.  

These interactions are the basis of emerging risks from climate change, ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss. At the same time, they offer opportunities for the future.  

Knowledge and justice 
This report recognises the value of diverse forms of knowledge in understanding and evaluating climate adaptation processes and actions to reduce risks from human-induced climate change. This includes scientific as well as Indigenous knowledge and local knowledge.  

Adaptation solutions are offered which are feasible and conform to principles of justice. The term climate justice generally includes three principles: 

1. Distributive justice which refers to the allocation of burdens and benefits among individuals, nations and generations. 
2. Procedural justice which refers to who decides and participates in decision-making. 
3. Recognition also entails respect and robust engagement with diverse cultures and perspectives. 

Risk 
Risk provides a framework for understanding the increasingly severe and interconnected impacts of climate change on ecosystems, biodiversity and human systems. Risk can arise from the dynamic interactions among climate-related hazards and the vulnerability of affected human and ecological systems. This report identifies 127 key risks. 

‘Til the next issue

Maria Katsonis

Maria curates The Bridge. She is a Public Policy Fellow at the University of Melbourne and a former senior Victorian public servant with 20 years’ experience. She has a deep understanding of public policy and public management and brings a practitioner’s perspective to the academic.