Pakistan is one of the ten countries with the least vaccinated children, and remains to face continued challenges, including endemic polio and periodic measles outbreaks. This study examines the regional disparities of basic vaccination coverage and the impact of socio-economic factors on its improvement between 2006 and 2018 by utilizing the data from the Pakistan Demographic and Health Surveys (PDHSs). The findings divulge significant regional disparities, with children in Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), and Balochistan being 18, 13.5, and 21.6 percentage points less likely, respectively, to be fully immunized as compared to children in Punjab. Higher household wealth correlates with increased immunization likelihood, and children of educated mothers are significantly more likely to be fully immunized. Moreover, male children are more likely to be fully immunized than female children, and antenatal care and institutional births further enhance vaccination rates. A nonlinear decomposition analysis shows a 20.2 percentage point increase in coverage during this period, with given factors explaining 45% of this rise. These results underscore the need for targeted interventions in underserved regions, socio-economic support for low-income families, educational initiatives for mothers, and enhanced antenatal care and institutional delivery services to improve nationwide vaccination rates.
We are living at a time when human societies across the world are facing a range of unprecedented challenges at both global and local levels. While the key global challenges include climate change induced extreme weather events, growing concerns and anxieties about the fast-evolving AI and the disruption of orderly social and economic life caused by persisting geopolitical conflicts disrupting long established trade and commodity flows and human mobility across continents for migration, business, education, and leisure. The emergence of global and local challenges over time has been the subject of close scrutiny by both social and natural scientists and, therefore, most of the developments have not come as a surprise to many keen and careful observers. This is evident from the vast published research literature over many decades, if not more. The critical question today is how to manage and respond to the challenges to minimise their adverse or even catastrophic impacts on human societies and humanity at large. It is against this backdrop that we need to explore the role of social sciences in the challenging global and local environment today. As is well known, Sri Lanka Journal of Social Sciences has provided the space for the community of social science and humanities scholars, not just in Sri Lanka but also in the South Asia region over many decades to publish their papers based on their research and reviews of important published work. As is evident, the papers published over the last several decades have varied in terms of their disciplinary orientation, largely reflecting the significant changes the structure of the university system not just in Sri Lanka but, to some extent, also in the region. This is reflected in the manuscripts submitted to the journal in recent years. A systematic review of some of the papers published over the last few decades would show the emergent trends. Any significant trends deserve the attention of a well-established researcher by way of a carefully designed study. Such a study would indicate the changing landscape of social science research in the country and beyond, while also pointing to the changing theoretical and methodological orientations of social science researchers. This can also be a reflection of the changing higher education landscape in many parts of the world including Sri Lanka under the influence of diverse stakeholders including the corporates. Given the above background, it seems necessary for us to reflect on the issue of how to position the journal as a well-established site for Sri Lankan and other researchers to publish their work vis a vis the changing academic landscape alluded to above. And finally, returning to the point made at the outset of the editorial, namely, the nature of the present global environment characterised by major shifts and tensions in geopolitics, the climate crisis, growing power and influence of AI, and unequal distribution of economic power across continents, it is not clear yet as to how the world community would find common ground to work together to address critical global issues. On the other hand, it is becoming increasingly clear that the social sciences that played a catalytic role in guiding societies and states in the aftermath of the Second World War need to play a significant role to help address issues of development, public welfare, social justice, environmental protection, global solidarity, and peace. Given the present state of the world and the challenges many countries face in the above regard, social sciences no doubt have to play the above role by enlightening the wider public and informing policy makers on the wide ranging and far-reaching implications of the multiple challenges we face and the need to adopt evidence-based policies and interventions to address them. Given the highly interdisciplinary nature of the issues to be dealt with, it has also become imperative for the community of social and other scientists to build bridges, both within and across social and natural sciences to work together in the above regard.
Enhancing corporate performance within a diversified corporate group requires the deliberate establishment of an effective organizational culture. This paper presents the ‘88 Strategy Framework’, a new model developed through an exploratory single-case study of a leading Sri Lankan corporate group. Grounded in the Denison Organizational Culture Model, selected for its explicit linkage between cultural traits and measurable performance outcomes, the study explored the strategies senior managers deploy across four key cultural dimensions: involvement, consistency, adaptability, and mission. Through a three-level coding process applied to semi-structured interviews with twenty senior managers, 88 prominent strategies were identified and organized across six key business pillars: markets and customers, human resources, operations, innovation, sustainability, and management. The findings reveal that the management pillar carries the highest strategic density (26 of 88 strategies), suggesting that management practice bears primary responsibility for cultural establishment. The paper contributes to the limited body of literature on organizational culture and corporate performance within the context of corporate groups in developing nations, while offering practitioners a structured framework for culture-led performance enhancement.
This study analyses how Pakistani and Indian newspapers frame disputes through framing theory. The research identifies the geopolitical importance of the South China Sea and how media serves as a source in shaping people’s viewpoints and policy debates via such global conflicts. This study shows contradictions and then critically evaluates how Pakistani and Indian media platforms have illustrated the maritime challenge to examine the possible biases and hidden hints of nationalism. In terms of methodology, this study focuses on content evaluation from several famous newspapers from both countries. The outcomes determine that different framing approaches are used by Pakistani and Indian newspapers. In India’s reports, the disputes are essentially highlighted as regional security and foreign alliances on a wider scale. Whereas Pakistani reports mainly discuss economic problems, it reflects the nation’s connection with China. Eventually, this study shows the great influence of national media on public opinion of foreign disputes. This study helps us understand the role of media framing in South Asia and its impact on international relations by emphasizing the significance of more balanced journalism in covering complicated geopolitical conflicts.
This study examines the economic and cultural impacts of geographical indications (GI) on local communities in Jammu and Kashmir using a mixed-methods research design. GIs are intellectual property instruments that aim to protect the origin of products and promote regional development. The research design used is an exploratory mixed-methods design. The qualitative phase includes interviews and focus group discussions with producers, consumers, and stakeholders to examine the economic and cultural implications of GI certification. The quantitative phase uses survey data from 682 consumers, along with structural equation modelling, to test the determinants of consumer purchase intention for GI products. The analysis of the qualitative data reveals four major themes. These include increased market access and demand, improvement in product quality and standards, strengthening of community identity, and reinforcement of social and cultural networks. The quantitative results showed that perceived quality, perceived uniqueness, cultural significance, and consumer awareness significantly affect the purchase intention of consumer of GI-certified products. The research adds to the geographical indication literature by combining a cultural heritage perspective with consumer perceptions in an emerging regional setting. The findings raise awareness of the importance of geographical indications as a means that combines both the roles of protecting regional economic development and traditional knowledge systems. The results also offer some policy implications for enhancing consumer awareness and market opportunities for GI-based products.
