Coordinated multi-sectoral efforts needed to address the COVID-19 pandemic:lessons from China and the United States

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused staggering human and economic costs.We outline four key lessons learned from efforts to address the pandemic in China and the US.First,effective surveillance,reporting,and contact tracing are needed to contain an epidemic at its emergence and to mitigate its impact at a later stage.Second,multi-sectoral efforts to offer incentives for those with no or minor symptoms to seek care and to quarantine themselves are critical,which would need concerted efforts from payers,providers,and public health.Third,sustained and routine prevention efforts involving both the public and the health systems will prove to be useful in times of a pandemic.Fourth,a strong public health system is essential and will be appreciated at times of urgency.Concerted multi-sectoral efforts are required to address COVID-19 pandemic with strong leadership from the public health sector.

Overreliance on Net Export and Investment Impedes China's Structural Transformation: Estimation and Analysis Based on a Multi-Sector Growth Model

Since reform and opening-up in 1978, changes in China's industrial structure have generally followed the pattern of "Kuznets facts" but still exhibits some unique characteristics, which led us to raise the following three questions regarding China's structural transformation:(1) Why did the share of China's agricultural and manufacturing employment reduce/increase intermittently rather than continuously?(2) Why did the share of China's agricultural employment increase during certain periods? When the share of manufacturing employment reduced, why did the workforce reversely flow into agriculture rather than move to the service sector?(3) Why did growth in the share of China's service sector employment decelerate before reaching its peak? Why did the share of employment in the industrial sector suddenly increase after an abrupt decline? This paper creates a multisector economic growth model that contains non-homothetic preferences and differentiated productivity, and incorporates the "two drivers" therein for a demand-side estimation and analysis. The result shows that China's economic growth model driven by net export and investment is a critical factor for explaining the three questions regarding its structural transformation. This paper believes that only by implementing supply-side structural reforms, reducing the dependence on net export and investment, and achieving sustainable endogenous economic growth will China be able to expedite its industrial restructuring.

The Risk of Water, Energy, and Food Nexus under Regional Metabolism for Multi-Sector City

The Urban Nexus system creates another risk characteristic of resource metabolism. Urban metabolism has complex effects from multi-levels and multi-sectors resulted from the changes socio-economic. It is crucial to implement effective urban governance;in particular, resource metabolism creates a new nexus risk by dramatic growth in urban areas. The resource metabolism associates with water, energy, and food consumption on an urban scale that drives the intensity in resource metabolism. Therefore, this study estimates the FEW intensity of the nexus and demand side in material flow analysis by organizing into four categories of resource metabolism, including supply side, process side, demand side, and final sink. This research compares different characteristics for a small island dominated by tourism and a multi-sector city dominated by increasing economic activity. The resource intensity on the demand side and resource service systems are evaluated to identify the nexus intensity and risk for FEW nexus at the urban scale. This study determines that constraints for resource service systems are complex, and suggests that resource consumption intensity is higher in that particular nexus and demand sector. To avoid excessive loads on resource metabolism, sustainable resource management should implement trade-off strategies after analyzing the resource metabolism for urban nexus.

Mechanisms for Cross-Scaling, Flexibility and Social Learning in Building Resilience to Sea Level Rise: Case Study of Hampton Roads, Virginia

This case study examines how the Hampton Roads Sea Level Rise Preparedness and Resilience Intergovernmental Planning Pilot Project, a whole-of-government and whole-of-community approach to planning for and adapting to sea level rise, addressed coastal resilience in a southeastern Virginia watershed that spans multiple jurisdictions. Meeting the challenge of sea level rise requires that actors across multiple sectors—citizens, community organizations, industry and government—understand the risks and work together to make critical decisions regarding adaptation strategies and actions. The case study area includes Little Creek Amphibious Base, which is bordered by the cities of Norfolk and Virginia Beach. Adaptation responses to sea level rise by the military base and the local governments will impact each other and the residents of the area, but no cooperative agreements are in place for a joint or collaborative response. This case study examines public and private infrastructure at risk, the infrastructure interdependencies, and mechanisms for providing collaborative solutions. Engagement of area residents and other stakeholders is also integral to the process of adaptation, which includes educating about sea level rise risk and provides a mechanism for social learning that enables stakeholders to participate in critical adaptation decisions. The case study demonstrates a method to improve resiliency in the case study area and inform a regional, multi-sectoral response to sea level rise adaptation strategies.

One Health governance:theory,practice and ethics

One Health approach is a global public good(GPG)that invites governance to maximize the health of humans,animals,and the environment by shaping interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral collaboration.This paper explores the theoretical foundations,practical applications,and ethical considerations of the One Health governance architecture.At the theoretical level,One Health governance invites systems thinking and involves collaborative efforts among multiple stakeholders,applying across multi-layered scenarios and requires public-private partnership(PPP).This governance architecture transcends traditional anthropocentrism and shifts towards ecocentrism,highlighting the integrity of ecosystems and the deep prevention of diseases.Selected case studies illustrate the implementation of One Health initiatives,such as shared water resources,disease surveillance programmes,and sustainable environmental health interventions,demonstrating the added value of a collaborative efforts across sectors and regions.Ethical considerations are integral to decision-making and actions of One Health governance,with a focus on equity,inclusivity and accountability,providing moral guidelines to prioritize the health of vulnerable populations and ecosystems.Through these efforts,One Health governance is expected to improve public health globally,promote sustainable development,and achieve a harmonious coexistence of human,animal,and environmental health.

Agriculture green development in China: insights and advances

Reconciling the tasks of producing adequate amounts of nutritious food for the increasing global population while preserving the environment and natural ecosystems simultaneously is an enormous challenge. The concept of agriculture green development(AGD) and the necessary governmental policies were developed to address the aforementioned challenge in China and to help achieve the related global sustainable development goals. Agriculture green development emphasizes the synergy between green and development;current agriculture has to transform from the intensive farming with high inputs, high environmental impacts and low resource-use efficiency to a more sustainable agriculture, in order to ensure an adequate supply of nutritious food while delivering environmental integrity, improved economic profitability,and social equity. A research program on AGD was established by China Agricultural University with four research themes, namely: green crop production, green integrated crop-animal production, green food and industry,and green ecological environment and ecosystem services, to provide a scientific basis for future developments and to facilitate the implementation of AGD in practice. AGD requires a multistakeholder approach, fueled by innovative and interdisciplinary research. Joint actions have to be taken by governments, farmers, supply industries, consumers, educators, extension services and researchers to support AGD. This requires strong coordination and public awareness campaigns. This review presents the progress that has been made over the past 5 years and makes recommendations for more research and development, in order to better deliver agricultural green and sustainable development on national and international scales.

Analysis on Trade Gains from the Economic Dual Circulation in China

Accelerating the building of a new development pattern with domestic market as the mainstay and domestic and international markets reinforcing each other is a major decision made by the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core in light of changes in the development stage,environment and conditions in China.Trade gains are an important indicator of the development trend of domestic and international circulations for a country.With the quantitative model of trade gains containing the multi-sectoral input-output relations,this paper estimates the trade gains from the economic dual circulation in China between 1987 and 2017,based on the kernel density estimation and Markov chain,and the main findings are as follows.(1)The trade gains from the domestic circulation in China showed a downward trend,while the trade gains from the international circulation presented a trend of first rising and then declining.But the former still outweighed the latter.(2)Compared with the international circulation,the continuity,spatial correlation effect and rising potential of the trade gains from China's domestic circulation were greater.(3)There was no positive spatial correlation effect between the trade gains from the domestic and those from the international circulation.China should make overall plans for opening up both externally and internally,and unblock sticking points between the two circulations,so as to realize the positive interaction of the trade gains from the dual circulation,and accelerate the formation of a new development pattern with domestic market as the mainstay and domestic and international markets reinforcing each other.

Multi-source financing for tuberculosis treatment in China: key issues and challenges

Background:The End Tuberculosis(TB)Strategy of the World Health Organization highlights the need for patientcentered care and social protection measures that alleviate the financial hardships faced by many TB patients.In China,TB treatments are paid for by earmarked government funds,social health insurance,medical assistance for the poor,and out-of-pocket payments from patients.As part of Phase III of the China-Gates TB project,this paper introduces multi-source financing ofTB treatment in the three provinces of China and analyzes the challenges of moving towards universal coverage and its implications of multi-sectoral engagement for TB care.Main text:The new financing policies forTB treatment in the three provinces include increased reimbursement forTB outpatient care,linkage ofTB treatment with local poverty alleviation programs,and use of local government funds to cover some costs to reduce out-of-pocket expenses.However,there are several challenges in reducing the financial burdens faced byTB patients.First,medical costs must be contained by reducing the profit-maximizing behaviors of hospitals.Second,treatment forTB and multi-drug resistant TB(MDR-TB)is only available at county hospitals and city or provincial hospitals,respectively,and these hospitals have low reimbursement rates and high co-payments.Third,many patients with TB and MDR-TB are at the edge of poverty,and therefore ineligible for medical assistance,which targets extremely poor individuals.In addition,the local governments of less developed provinces often face fiscal difficulties,making it challenging to use of local government funds to provide financial support for TB patients.We suggest that stakeholders at multiple sectors should engage in transparent and responsive communications,coordinate policy developments,and integrate resources to improve the integration of social protection schemes.Conclusions:The Chinese government is examining the establishment of multi-source financing forTB treatment by mobilization of funds from the government and social protection schemes.These efforts require strengthening the cooperation of multiple sectors and improving the accountability of different government agencies.All key stakeholders must take concrete actions in the near future to assure significant progress toward the goal of alleviating the financial burden faced byTB and MDR-TB patients.

Do High-technology Exports Cause More Technology Spillover in China?

The volume of China＇s high-technology exports has grown sharply since the implementation of its export promotion strategy ＂Revitalizing Trade through Science and Technology＂ in 1999. This paper investigates whether technology spillover effects are greater for hightechnology exports than for primary manufactured goods exports. We present a generalized multi-sector spillover model to identify both between-spillover effects from exports towards non-exporters and within-spillover effects among export sectors. Using panel data for 31 provinces in China over the period from 1998 to 2005, we find that although high-technology export sectors have higher productivity compared with other sectors, this productivity advantage does not lead to technology spillover to both domestic sectors and other export sectors, and export technology spillover mainly derives from traditional export sectors rather than high-technology export sectors. As such findings can be largely attributed to the fact that China ＂s high-technology exports depend significantly on processing trade byforeign- invested firms, policy implications are discussed in relation to how to best promote the role of China ＂s highechnology exports during economic expansion.