2021, Vol.30, No.2

Journal of Regional Studies and Development 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.4

pISSN : 1738-3846 / eISSN : 2765-4028
https://journal.kci.go.kr/jrsd_ipaid

This paper examines the impact of local government interventions on the household food security of small farmers in Uzbekistan. Household-level data were collected by distributing questionnaires to 228 small farmers randomly selected from four villages of Uzbekistan. The findings of the study revealed that the local government intervention such as extension services, agricultural input subsidies, land use policy, marketing services, and nutritional activities are perceived to significantly increase household food security. As for control variables, the household food security was found to have a positive relationship with monthly income, land size, livestock ownership, education level of household heads, age of household heads, and fertilizer use. On the other hand, family size, consumption ratio, and female-headed families were found to have a negative relationship with household food security. Moreover, the in-depth interview indicates that poor physical infrastructure including poor roads, lack of public transportation, and lack of power grid significantly deteriorate household food security. This paper also shows that the household food security of small farmers has to be addressed with a tailored government intervention reflecting the region’s situation.

Indonesia and Nepal, which are in the World Health Organization South-East Asia Region, are the countries with the highest numbers of confirmed cases and deaths since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic outside of the Region of the Americas and the European Region. Since its first confirmed case on March 2nd, Indonesia has reported 100,303 cases and 4,838 deaths as of July 28, 2020, which is the highest number of cases in Southeast Asia. As restrictions in response to the pandemic continue, the public’s psychological anxiety is gradually increasing. There were 889 undergraduates and graduate students living in Indonesia or Nepal (Indonesia: 551 persons; Nepal: 338 persons). An English questionnaire was administered to participants through an online survey using Google survey. Regarding the factors affecting anxiety, they were “trust in hospitals for COVID-19 diagnosis,” “possibility of contracting COVID-19,” “concerns about family members getting COVID-19,” “national discrimination due to COVID-19,” “chronic disease status,” “experience of purchasing masks,” and “health behaviors” in Indonesia, and “trust in hospitals for COVID-19 diagnosis,” “risk of the family getting infected by COVID-19,” and “depression score” in Nepal. In both countries, significant effects of “trust in hospitals for COVID-19 diagnosis” and “risk of the family getting infected by COVID-19” were observed. Therefore, educational institutes should implement touch-free educational programs to develop social activities and prevent psychological and psychiatric issues due to the COVID-19. Other educational institutions and authorities should consider this result to develop further programs and projects.

This paper aims to provide suggestions to improve the Social Value Index by the Korea Social Enterprise Promotion Agency, which has recently been used in the social economy sector in Korea. The paper attempts to develop measurement indexes based on the type of social missions that Korean social economy enterprises pursue while the IRIS measurement indexes have been proposed based on nine industry sectors, based on which the SVI has been developed. It is impossible to develop a universal social outcome measurement index to apply to all social economy enterprises because the social missions that those enterprises pursue are so diverse. And it is ineffective to illustrate so many indexes that apply to each social economy enterprise. As a second best option, therefore, the paper attempts to categorize the Korean social economy enterprises on the basis of social missions pursued by them and develops a set of indexes which are appropriate for measuring the outcomes that those enterprises generate on the basis of the categorized social missions. Lastly, the paper suggests that the actors in Korean social economy sector categorize the social economy enterprises on the basis of social missions pursued by them rather than on the institutional and policy basis so that it helps those enterprises with same mission to emulate and cooperate each other.