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The study drew on capacity framework around the individual, organisational, health system and wider context to explore gaps in health supply chain (HSC) workers capacity and competency to perform supply chain (SC) functions and the lessons for workforce development.

A mixed-method study was conducted across the Northern Region of Ghana. Qualitative data were collected from in-depth interviews with 34 key SC managers at the regional, district and facility levels. A semi-structured questionnaire was administered through the RedCap mobile app to 233 core HSC workers and non-core workers (clinicians with additional responsibilities in SC). Data were managed and analysed inductively and deductively for themes.

Weak knowledge and competency in SC functions attributed to poor training exposure and organisational support for capacity building, undermined the capacity to perform basic SC functions, especially by the non-core category. The policy and regulatory environment of the HSC marketplace were described as fluid and with complexity of demands. Both worker categories, therefore, requested functional, technical, managerial and customer care competencies to anticipate and manage complexities. Structural characteristics of the health system giving narrow decision space to HSC workers cascaded the capacity for innovation and initiative and promoted frustrations among mid-level managers. Infrastructural deficits and shortfalls in operational resources scaled back the capacity to efficiently manage inventory and ensure that commodities reach clients in good quality.

Finding suggest that capacity building of HSC workers, strengthening of health institutions structural and resource capacity, and leveraging on technology will enable optimal performance of HSC functions.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the question regarding how the similar implementation traditions in two countries (Czech Republic and Italy) have influenced the implementation of activation policies in the frame of similar reform trajectories (decentralization and marketization) but different modes of governance (multilevel vs hierarchical).

Moving from a policy implementation studies approach, the paper assumes that substantive reforms and procedural reforms are mutually interdependent: activation policies often require changes in delivery structures while the changes in these structures influence the key substantive features of the activation policies. Further, implementation capacities and implementation traditions shape the real policies implemented.

Although the two countries compared are different in terms of the mode of governance emerging from the governance reforms, in both cases the gaps in coordination and implementation capacities have led to several implementation failures in the field of activation policies. In poorly developed active labour market policy (ALMP) regimes, activation governance reforms (such as decentralization and marketization) may not be effective due to enduring implementation gaps.

The paper is innovative since it develops a full‐fledged comparative approach by focusing on two countries with similar implementation traditions which contrast with different modes of governance. Furthermore, the findings put implementation traditions and capacities at the heart of policymaking.

The paper presents a process of development of the capacity of resources used in the improvement of an organization. The purpose of this paper is to determine the conditions in which the development of the improvement capacity is sustainable.

As the basis for the study, the following prerequisites have been adopted: potential effects of the use of resources in a process can be expressed by their capacity, which involves the productivity and volume of the resources; a model of sustainability of improvement is based on the procedure ABC and principle of continuous improvement; an improvement process involves two components: subject matter (eliminating problems) and methodical (learning how to eliminate problems during the execution of subject matter tasks) projects; the methodology of Six Sigma can be a reference model, which is studied to identify and interpret elements and relationships that are characteristic for the process of sustainable development.

There have been formulated a model of the process of developing the improvement capacity in which the subject matter and methodical tasks are coupled, a model of the Six Sigma process that refers to the features of the process of development of the improvement capacity and three principles for sustainable development of improvement capacity.

The principles refer to decisions on the improvement process made at basic (strategic, tactical and operational) levels of an organization.

Education is a natural process of improvement. Education’s specific features and challenges include a large number of students, with different psychophysical characteristics, simultaneously taking part in a lesson. The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors that can help to meet the challenges of classroom teaching.

The principle of “equal opportunities in education” is adopted as the basic premise to improve education. The general sustainability model developed by the author is used as a reference model to analyze the sustainability of the education process.

The following elements of the process of sustainable development in education are defined: the improvement micro-projects, as the basic form of using and developing students’ knowledge, and the principles of sustainable development in the classroom as conditions necessary for the effectiveness of micro-projects, in the teaching process carried out in the classroom. They point to the key role of the teacher as the leader in the improvement process.

The principles of sustainable development define the conditions necessary to ensure the development of the reserve of the students’ knowledge capacity and the possibilities of using it in the classroom teaching process. The micro-project system enables personalization of the teaching process through the use of the capacity reserve contributed by students.

This study aims to analyze the complexities of the Brazilian soybean supply chain (SSC) and develop strategic interventions to improve the origin system’s performance.

This study used stakeholder interviews to identify the SSC bottlenecks and determine and assess drivers of competitiveness. A methodological framework based on the systems thinking approach for developing long-term structural changes was used. The problem was structured using behavior over time graph and causal loop modeling to propose three investment strategies to solve the logistics problem in SSC.

This study highlights the gaps in coordination between stakeholders and the public sector regarding the public policy for infrastructure investment. Three strategic interventions were developed to address the agro-industrial logistical problem, namely, investment in storage, multimodal transport systems and improvements in existing transport infrastructure. To overcome transport and storage logistics limitations, the authors suggest different forms of partnerships, including public-private partnerships.

This research is limited to evaluating an agricultural commodity (soybean) and does not include its by-products. The sample of stakeholders was limited and the boundary of analysis was Brazil. Nevertheless, the study showed how strategic interventions could be developed following a holistic analysis.

The proposed integrated approach illustrates the development of three strategic initiatives. It can be implemented by stakeholders, including the public sector, which is the basis for providing assertive long-term investments in Brazilian logistics.

The SSC analysis could promote the implementation of systemically determined interventions and strategies. It could significantly improve the performance of agricultural systems and help the formulation of public policies aimed at rural development.

The use of system dynamics to identify intervention points is an essential contribution to mitigating the SSC’s hindrances. Moreover, the combining methodologies resulted in comprehensive intervention strategies.

COVID-19 has affected most business activities, including technology-based business. The higher the business vulnerability rating, the greater the impacts. After identifying three dimensions of vulnerability (exposure, business sensitivity and response capacity), this study aims to determine the potential components and indicators of the vulnerability of technology-based businesses.

Using the indicator approach, a comprehensive vulnerability model was developed for assessing the vulnerability of the technology-based business against COVID-19.

In this study, COVID-19, as a biological threat and an exogenous shock, was considered the exposure dimension. Business characteristics, job characteristics, business owner-manager demographics, product and supplier characteristics were identified as the sensitivity dimension, while resources, human capital, technological capitals, social capitals, institutional capitals, infrastructures, management capacity and supply chain capabilities were defined as the adaptive business capability or response capacity. To determine vulnerability and response capacity against exogenous shocks and a pandemic crisis, the framework can act as a useful checklist for managers and owners of technology-based businesses.

Research on the COVID-19, especially in the technology-based business, is still at the emergent stage. This study is a pioneering effort to review the literature on business vulnerability and provide a framework to reduce business vulnerability using the indicator-based approach.

Hampshire County Council, the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Strategic Health Authority and the seven primary care trusts in the County Council area have formed a partnership to create additional nursing care capacity. This paper examines the background, identifies an approach to modelling the need for nursing home places and addresses the partnerships being put in place to create additional capacity in the public sector.

Quality management (QM) principles define the values of the organizational culture that makes people focus on quality assurance and improvement. However, the formulation of the principles of the ISO 9000 standard published in 2000–2015 is more like a list of things to remember that result from the development of QM methodologies, rather than systematic guidelines to follow. Their ambiguity does not facilitate understanding and can lead to activities that do not bring benefits to the organization. The purpose of this paper is to formulate such a system of directives that when implemented allows achieving the desired level of effectiveness of the organization’s processes with increased efficiency, and some measures can be assigned that show the progress of implementation.

The resource capacity reserve was adopted as the main factor ensuring the effectiveness of the planned tasks. A systemic analysis of relationships between the QM principles and the categories of Deming’s system of profound knowledge was carried out. Some factors referred to in the principles have been distinguished. The conditions necessary to achieve their positive impact on the capacity of organization’s resources have been formulated in terms of some directives for management processes. The interaction of the components of variability in organization processes with the factors was discussed.

Eight directives for effectiveness management (EM) have been established. They define independent dimensions in the management tactics for the development of the organization’s resources necessary to ensure and increase the effectiveness of the organization’s processes. The implementation of the tactics defined by EM directives, assuming randomness in processes, consists in the demonstration of care for trust within the organization, organization development and confidence in the organization of external partners.

Two key QM functions, quality assurance and improvement, are implemented in management processes in order to provide a balance between available capacity and tasks allocated to the organization’s processes, and increase the available capacity by eliminating gaps in knowledge used to control resources in the processes. The EM directives show the role of the organization’s knowledge and stakeholder commitment in providing the necessary complement to the capacity available in the organization. The confidence in the organization is shown as a key premise for access to the commitment of stakeholders. They also show that QM functions would be unnecessary or trivial if one could eliminate random variation from processes in the organization.

This paper aims to explore the strategy of police harnessing the crime control capacities of third parties and to relate this to problem‐oriented policing.

Harnessing the crime control capacities of third parties requires police to act as effective brokers of public safety by improving the spheres of influence that third parties assert over relevant locations, systems or conditions that facilitate crime. This process is often termed redistribution, leveraging or third‐party policing. Research from the fields of illicit synthetic drug control and regulation is reviewed to highlight a number of key implementation issues.

The term “harnessing capacity” provides a strong conceptual basis by which to analyse police efforts to facilitate the co‐production of public safety, with terms such as third‐party policing being conceptually imprecise. To effectively engage third parties in crime prevention police need to use a range of compliance‐seeking mechanisms. In harnessing the crime control capacity of third parties police need to consider a range of issues: existing deficits in capacity, competency to act against crime, existing incentives to act, and the costs of co‐production.

Relevant implementation challenges are canvassed, as well as issues relating to third parties bearing the costs in return for co‐producing crime prevention.

The paper further expands theory and practical implications related to police harnessing the crime prevention potential of third parties.

The birth of the African Capacity Building Foundation on February 9, 1991, was the culmination of intense efforts and groundbreaking commitment to capacity building in Africa by Africa Governors of the World Bank, the Bank itself and the cofounding Institutions ‐ the African Development Bank and the United Nations Development Program, as well as numerous other individuals. The successes chalked by ACBF towards attainment of its objectives have vindicated those who held the view that establishing an indigenous African institution, with focus on and commitment to the course of Africa’s development was the right course of action at the time. Twenty years on, ACBF has supported nearly 250 projects and programs in 44 African countries and committed more than US$400 million to build capacity on the continent. Projects and programs supported by the Foundation have drawn synergy with and complemented countless other activities of various development institutions operating on the Continent. ACBF’s support has been crucial in the building of development capacity in Africa, whether in ministries of finance and economic planning or central banks. For many among us who dedicated to this initiative and worked towards its realization, we remain humbled by the opportunity to witness the twentieth anniversary of ACBF.