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The years 2011, 2012, and 2013 witnessed both significant developments and setbacks in global polio eradication efforts. On the positive side, January 13, 2012, marked a full year since India had detected a case of wild poliovirus. On the negative side, polio continued to be endemic in three countries-Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria-and in those countries the goal of eliminating polio seemed more challenging than ever. Between December 2012 and January 2013, sixteen polio workers were killed in Pakistan, and in February 2013, nine women vaccinating children against polio in Kano, Nigeria, were shot dead by gunmen suspected of belonging to a radical Islamist sect. In addition, after a 95 percent decline in polio cases in 2010, the number of cases in Nigeria rebounded in 2011. Recognizing that polio was unlikely to be eliminated in these countries in the near term, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative moved its target date for eradication from 2013 to 2018.

These setbacks sparked a debate about the appropriate strategy for global eradication of polio. Indeed, some experts believed that recent setbacks were not caused by poor management but were instead the result of epidemiological characteristics and preconditions that might render polio eradication unachievable. These experts argued that global health efforts should focus on the control or elimination of polio rather than on the eradication of the disease.

This case presents an overview of polio and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative and recounts the successful effort to eradicate smallpox. The case enables a rich discussion of the current global strategy to eradicate polio, as well as the issue of whether eradication is the appropriate global public health objective. More generally, the case provides a concrete example of a particular type of global public good, namely infectious disease eradication.

After analyzing and discussing the case, students will be able to:

• Understand the nature of a global public good

• Perform a back-of-the-envelope benefit-cost analysis of polio eradication

• Discuss the appropriate strategy for eradicating an infectious disease

• Apply game theory to analyzing which countries would be likely to contribute funds toward global polio eradication

• Discuss the role of private organizations in the provision of global public goods

Understand the nature of a global public good

Perform a back-of-the-envelope benefit-cost analysis of polio eradication

Discuss the appropriate strategy for eradicating an infectious disease

Apply game theory to analyzing which countries would be likely to contribute funds toward global polio eradication

Discuss the role of private organizations in the provision of global public goods

This study aims to evaluate the role of social media (SM) tools in polio prevention in an Indian context by using a hybrid Delphi-decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) approach.

A preliminary list of suitable evaluation criteria was derived from an extensive literature review. Ten experts were then contacted to collect data and finalize the most prominent criteria by using the Delphi method. To establish cause-effect relationships among the criteria, further data were collected from 21 experts. The DEMATEL method was applied to process and interpret the data collected.

The analysis grouped criteria into two sets, i.e. cause and effect. The results show that awareness of social cause and government utilization of resources fall into the cause group; these elements are critical as both directly affect the remaining criteria. These outcomes can help government and businesses to utilize SM for public health surveillance, e.g. to promote schemes/initiatives through sites concerning polio or related health issues.

The findings of this research are useful for governments and individual companies to conceive their marketing initiatives akin to polio prevention issues by using SM.

Despite the emergence of SM, there has been little discussion in existing literature on their role in polio prevention; however, measuring such role could be useful in practice to help decision-makers in exploiting the potential of SM in the health-care context. To fill this gap, this study aims to measure the role of SM in polio prevention in the Indian context and to create a cause-effect evaluation model. Using an integrated Delphi-DEMATEL framework for decision-making in the health-care context is another novelty of this study.

Effective performance management of local governments is essential for efficient service delivery to the citizens. This is especially true for developing countries where performance management of public sector is severely lacking. The purpose of this paper is to discuss a pioneering and effective performance management framework that has been implemented in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.

The paper outlines the design and implementation of the system in light of relevant research work. Latest digital technologies including smartphone applications and social media have been used to make the system effective and responsive to the needs of the citizens and sustainable in the long term.

The impact of the system includes a drastic reduction in polio infection cases by 90 percent in the province and the successful completion of one of the biggest afforestation campaigns in the world in recent years. In addition, noteworthy improvements in public health, education and municipal services have also been achieved through this system in a province that has a population of 30.5 m.

The paper uses field data to highlight the positive impact of the system which has been operational for more than two years now.

The strong positive impact of the system supports the case for implementation of similar public sector reforms in other developing countries.

The implementation of the system has resulted in significant improvements in social sector service delivery.

There is very limited literature available on successful performance management reforms in the public sector of the developing world. Therefore, this case study can be a very important resource.