The National Programme for HIV and Other Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) (NPHS) 2011–2017 presents a strategy for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of HIV and other STIs. It is structured along three axes of intervention, each aimed to reach a specific target group: the total Swiss population, people with a higher risk of exposure, and infected individuals and their partners. As a joint strategy of the Swiss Confederation, cantons, and non-governmental organizations the NPHS is implemented on a partnership basis. With regard to the programme period ending in 2017, the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (SFOPH) has commissioned the Department of Political Science in collaboration with Synergo to carry out an evaluation of the NPHS 2011-2017. The summative evaluation assesses the progress made on achieving the objectives and the implementation of the programme. The results of the evaluation serve to formulate the application for the extension of the programme and form the basis for the development of a successor programme.
Swiss Political Science Review (SPSR) aims to be a pluralist platform for advancing academic knowledge and debate in the field of political science, and in particular for developing intellectual exchange across traditional boundaries between its subfields and with its neighbouring disciplines. Accordingly, it publishes original and innovative work that makes a theoretical or empirical contribution to the study of political phenomena. SPSR encourages contributions from different theoretical and methodological approaches in order to further their mutual engagement.A fully refereed journal, SPSR publishes research and review articles, book reviews as well as special issues on selected topics. While open to submissions on all topics relevant to political science, SPSR particularly welcomes work engaging with changes in modes and structures of governance, and the challenges this presents for political actors and structures. Having its roots in Switzerland, SPSR is particularly interested in advancing knowledge on the implications of the embedding of national and domestic modes and structures of governance in international and transnational ones as well as issues such as federalism, direct democracy or consociational politics.
Based on a survey among Swiss citizens, the study analyses the attitudes towards public regulations in Switzerland. The results show that public regulations have, although regularly criticized in political debate, in general a high level of acceptance, especially in the fields of health and environment. The Swiss population is quite satisfied with the level of regulation although there is as well scepticism about the administrative burden produced by public interventions.
According to the church law (Kirchengesetz; KiG) the canton of Zurich contributes since 2010 to the costs of the cantonal church corporate bodies for their activities in the fields of education, social issues and culture for society as a whole (§ 19 Abs. 2 KiG). For the time period 2014-2019 the financial support for the evangelical-reformed state church of the canton of Zurich and the roman-catholic corporate body of the canton of Zurich is based on activity programs with global budgets. This study aims at providing the systematic scientific basis in regard of the next funding period (2020-2025). For the churches the findings serve as guidelines for the elaboration of the next activity programs. Furthermore they support the cantonal government and parliament in the evaluation of the programs. The study proceeds as follows: After clarifying definition issues, the researchers develop an instrument to gather data on the church activities. This instrument enables to group the activities according to the defined categories. The identification of activities with cultic content or activities with benefits for a society as a whole allows the researchers to evaluate financial effort of the churches in the fields of education, social issues and culture for society as a whole and to compare these efforts with societal activities of third parties.
2008 the Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (DETEC) assigned radio and television frequencies to broadcasters. 42 private radio stations and 13 regional television broadcaster are under the terms of their concession obliged to establish and maintain an editorial quality assurance systems. These quality management systems have to be evaluated by independent experts every two years. Five evaluation offices are currently accredited as evaluation bodies by the Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM). An evaluation of the quality of the evaluations will be realised due to the fact that the first half of the concession period is over. All broadcasters have been evaluated at least twice. Therefore a substantial number of evaluation reports can be analysed. In a meta-evaluation the conceptual approach and the procedures established by the OFCOM will be analysed. Further the work done by the evaluation offices and their reporting will be evaluated. Building on the insights conclusions are drawn and guide the development of recommendations for future regulatory measures and future evaluations.
Since 2005 IFES (Institut für externe Schulevaluation auf der Sekundarstufe II; see www.ifes.ch) conducts external school evaluations of secondary schools in the Canton of Zurich in order to promote School development, to support steering of the secondary schools by cantonal authorities and to hold accountable the school system on the secondary II level. Goal of the present study is to evaluate the quality and the effects of IFES school evaluations. With a multi-method evaluation design including literature reviews, documentary analyses, guideline based interviews and a standardized online survey, the current study produces findings assessing the current state of affairs and providing recommendations for future improvements of the evaluation system.
This research project investigates some of the most critical political questions related to climate change policymaking in an innovative and systematic manner. Specifically, we ask how the politics of climate change have evolved (or decreased) at the international political level since 2001, and in how far these international developments determine domestic policy? Linked to these questions, we investigate what options do national governments – in particular also from so-called smaller and geopolitically less powerful nations such as Switzerland – have to support and successfully adopt effective climate change protection measures? The research project combines innovative data collecting and analytical techniques such as event data analysis, social network analysis, textual analysis and discourse network analysis together with expert interviews and document analysis to study political processes over time in a systematic way. Theoretically, the research project is located at the intersection of domestic politics and international relations. On the one hand, it looks for domestic political determinants in selected key countries that help to understand the international climate change policy process. On the other hand, it analyzes to what degree political dynamics at the international level open or restrict opportunities for acting on climate change policy issues at the national level. The project is embedded in and closely coordinated with the international research program on Comparing Climate Change Policy Networks (COMPON, see http://www.compon.org) that aims at finding broad principles to explain cross-national variation in the success of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and to foster the diffusion of innovative and successful policy solutions across national boundaries.
The Tobacco Prevention Fund (TPF) was set up particularly to finance measures to stop people from starting to smoke, make it easier to give up smoking and protect non-smokers against passive smoking. Projects supported by the Tobacco Prevention Fund (TPF) have to satisfy high quality requirements and make a contribution to the national tobacco control strategy, namely the National Programme Tobacco 2008-2016. The regulation requires an evaluation of the effectiveness of the financed measures. Up to now these evaluation reports delivered project-related information only and served as a basis for decision-making on the project level. The TPF aims at a management of the general funding-decisions above the project level based on evaluations. Goal of the present study is to assess the quality of the existing commissioned evaluation reports in a meta-evaluation. Based on the results of these assessments the study develops strategies that allow the TPF to improve its evaluation practice.
Since 2008, the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) implements together with the Federal Office of Sport and in coordination with the cantons and Health Promotion Switzerland the National Programme on Nutrition and Physical Activity. This programme aims to promote a healthy lifestyle, e.g. balanced diet and regular physical activities. The Federal Council has extended the programme in 2012 till 2016. Within this programme, the FOPH has launched the initiative actionsanté. This initiative aims to motivate the economy to take voluntary actions to support the individual and the community in choosing a lifestyle that is more active and food that is more balanced. The initiative actionsanté aims that companies take actions in the following for areas in order to promote a healthy lifestyle: A) consumer information, B) marketing/promotion, C) food composition and food supply, and D) promoting an environment that supports physical activity. The FOPH has established partnerships with various private enterprises in these areas. The present study commissioned by the FOPH analyses the possibility to further develop the concept of the initiative actionsanté. On the one hand, the study presents the current international practice and the literature dealing with similar initiatives of other West European countries and international organisations. On the other hand, the stakeholders of the initiative actionsanté were involved in the analysis through guidelines based interviews or a workshop. In this way, the study takes into account the international developments and the stakeholders’ experiences and visions in order to formulate recommendations for the future refinement of the initiative actionsanté.
The program „QuAKTIV. Nature-oriented, child-and youth-friendly quarters and settlement development in the canton of Aargau“ is developed and implemented under the direction of the FHNW School of Social Work together with the cantonal agencies in the canton of Aargau. The program aims at intensifying participatory, ecological and educational goals in the implementation of child- and youth-friendly planning projects and in the design of natural experience spaces. This will be achieved through the participative implementation of concrete projects in three pilot communities in the canton of Aargau. Existing methods and instruments will be adapted to the preexisting demands and, if required, new tools will be developed, tested and evaluated in these pilot communities. The acquired experiences serve as flagship projects (good practice) and will be made available to a broad professional public. Commissioned by the Mercator Foundation Switzerland, the Department of Political Science evaluates the democratic content of alternative participatory forms used in the three pilot communities. This evaluation addresses several aspects such as inclusion, democratic quality and socialization. For this purpose, the study analyses program documents and conducts semi-structured interviews with both participants and decision-makers in the communities. In this way, the study takes into account different experiences and opinions of alternative participatory forms in order to formulate relevant recommendations for decision-makers for similar use of alternative participatory forms in other communities or cantons.