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Tools for policy impact : a handbook for researchers

START, Daniel
HOVLAND, Ingie
October 2004

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"This handbook presents work in progress on tools for policy impact, specifically geared towards the needs of researchers. "The handbook is particularly targeted at civil society organisations, or the parts of them, whose activities involve gathering evidence, doing research, learning lessons or advising on strategy for social, environmental and economic development in the North and South"

Mobile phones keep track of HIV treatments

KHAN, Taman
September 2004

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Thi article reports on the Cell-Life project, which has developed a software and data management systems to allow health workers use their mobile phones to monitor patients' treatment. The data is transferred to a central database, which clinic staff can access over a secure Internet connection. In a successful pilot project 80 HIV counsellours where trained, and through the use of their mobiles are now able to keept track of nearly 800 patients

An examination of current provision of education for children with special educational needs in Karen refugee camp schools at the Thai-Myanmar border

MORTIMER, Aye Aye
August 2004

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"The paper investigates the provision of education for children designated as having special educational needs within the context of the Karen community located near the eastern border area of Myanmar. The population sample chosen is that of the Karen refugees in camps along the Thai-Myanmar border. The study is carried out through: i) collection of available statistics to demonstrate the scale of the problem; ii) disaggregation of data to indicate the range of special needs being catered for; and, iii) an examination of various teacher training and administration approaches being used, in order to identify whether these are accommodating to children with special educational needs"

The role of information and communication technologies in the development of African women | Le rôle des technologies de l'Information et de la communication dans le développment des femmes africaines

RADLOFF, Jennifer
PRIMO, Natasha
MUNYUA, Alice
August 2004

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This paper presents the findings of a study commissioned by the Association for Progessive Communications on the role of ICTs in empowering women in Africa. It provides examples of good practice and includes recommendations to civil society organisations on how to create an enabling environment for women to access and use ICTs for development. The crucial link between understanding the gender dimensions of the information society - in terms of what women's needs are and a thorough understanding of conditions of access, policies - and the potential ICTs have of boosting the economic, political and social empowerment of women, and the promotion of gender equality is explored. An extensive resource list and examples of successful initiatives form the field are included in appendices

Hygiene promotion in Burkina Faso and Zimbabwe : new approaches to behaviour change

SIDIBE, Mynam
CURTIS, Val
August 2004

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After years of debate, most people working in water and sanitation now agree that hygiene promotion is vitally important. But even now, many programmes either ignore it or do it badly. This field note describes two African hygiene promotion programmes that have successfully used new approaches: Saniya in burkina Faso and ZimAHEAD in Zimbabwe. Both programmes concentrated on understanding how people actually hehave and hence hot to change that behaviour. Both programmes demonstrated ideas that can be applied at a larger scale. Changin human hygiene behaviour is a long process that is difficult to measure and both of these programmes still have obstacles to overcome. However, this work indicates that systematic and carefully managed hygiene promotion programmes can achieve improvement in hygiene behaviour and hence reduction in diarrhoeal diseases

Radio broadcasting for health : a decision makers' guide

SKUSE, Andrew
July 2004

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This DFID issues paper examines the contribution of community, national and international radio to health programmes in the developing world. It contextualises the relevance of radio as a strategic tool of human development and poverty reduction, examines its use by poor people, and advocates a people-centred and rights-based approach to health communications. It addresses a range of issues from the role of formative research and evaluation and the development of health messages, to a range of format options widely used in health broadcasting. It also examines the community, public and international radio sectors and in the process highlights a range of opportunities and constraints that these sectors face. Likewise, it highlights key synergies and linkages that could be enhanced to improve access to health information for radio producers, the poor, the 'at risk' and the vulnerable. In doing so, this paper raises a number of critical questions about capacity development, social mobilisation, and using radio in conjunction with other technologies such as the Internet and email

The journey of life : a community workshop to support children

REGIONAL PSYCHOSOCIAL SUPPORT INITIATIVE (REPSSI)
June 2004

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'The Journey of Life' is a community workshop curriculum to support children. This workshop seeks to address the increasing psychological and social needs of children affected by HIV/AIDS, war, and displacement. Its objective is to raise community awareness of the problems that children face growing up in a time of HIV/AIDS, war, and family disintegration. 'The Journey of Life' assists the community to identify children in need of social, emotional, intellectual, spiritual, and physical support. Through dialogue and reflection the community better understands how to use available resources in solving the problems that children encounter and to strengthen the resilience of their children. The workshop covers the areas of meeting children's needs; understanding children's problems; identifying children who need help; building children's strengths; and community mobilisation. The workshop manual can be used without additional training, though further training has been found to be helpful. A Facilitator's Guide accompanies the workshop

Rethinking conceptual approaches to behaviour change : the importance of context

PARKER, Warren
April 2004

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This concise article critically reviews the concept of behaviour change as it has been applied to individual behaviour in relation to HIV/AIDS. It notes the limits of cognitive approaches to behaviour change when applied within complex contexts and variations of risk to HIV infection. With regard to communication there is a need to move beyond top-down approaches and to incorporate horizontal and participatory approaches. These include recognising and resourcing the role of civil society responses to HIV/AIDS

Expanding contraceptive options and access for youth

SCHOLL, Ed
FINGER, William
March 2004

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In a time when young people are increasingly at risk of unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, the role of contraception in preventing these is crucial. This issue of YouthLens looks at how education, services and products can help protect youth against unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. It stresses that young people should be targeted with appropriate messages

Helping children who are deaf : family and community support for children who do not hear well

NIEMANN, Sandy
GREENSTEIN, Devorah
DAVID, Darlena
2004

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This book was written primarily for parents and other caregivers of young children. It provides a wealth of well-illustrated practical information. The book gives a thorough overview of the different ways to communicate with hearing impaired children. It is written in an easy-to-read style with lots of illustrations and examples from Southern countries.

World youth report 2003 : the global situation of young people

UNITED NATIONS. Department for Economic and Social Affairs
Ed
2004

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Overall, young people today are better off than previous generations, but many are still severely hindered by a lack of education, poverty, health risks, unemployment and the impact of conflict. The World Youth Report 2003 provides an overview of the global situation of young people. The first ten chapters focus on the priority areas of education, employment, extreme poverty, health issues, the environment, drugs, delinquency, leisure time, the situation of girls and young women, and youth participation in decision-making as identified by the World Programme of Action for Youth (WPAY) adopted by the General Assembly in 1995. The remaining five chapters address some of the newer issues that were later identified as additional priorities for youth and were adopted by the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in 2003

UNESCO's strategy for HIV/AIDS prevention education

UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION (UNESCO). International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP)
2004

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Describes the guiding principles and core tasks which will be the focus of UNESCO's HIV/AIDS prevention education work for 2004-2008 (to be revised as appropriate). Sets out the context for these efforts in terms of the nature and extent of the pandemic, and the role of education in combatting ignorance and stigma

The 10/90 report on health research 2003-2004

GLOBAL FORUM FOR HEALTH RESEARCH
2004

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This report, the fourth since Global Forum for Health Research formed in 1998, covers progress in helping correct the 10/90 gap (that only ten per cent of health research funds are spent on 90 per cent of the world's problems) over the past two years. It focusses on health and health research as sound economic investments; priority setting in health research; progress in measuring the 10/90 gap; research capacity strengthening; information networks in health research; gender; the MDGs and health research; and networks in the priority research areas

Routemapping culture and development : report on a pilot research project exploring the use of cultural approaches to development within five UK development agencies

GOULD, Helen
MARSH, Mary
2004

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This research highlights the inconsistent approach and limited explicit policy with reference to cultural activities in development, despite finding over 350 examples across five development agencies over two years. The study considers the different uses of culture in development, finding a lack of consistency in implementing projects, little understanding of how cultural processes work, and few examples of appropriate evaluation

Using research to inform health policy : barriers and strategies in developing countries

HENNINK, Monique
STEPHENSON, Rob
2004

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Looks at the uptake of health research into policy in four developing countries - Malawi, Tanzania, India and Pakistan. Identifies a range of barriers to effective dissemination and uptake of research results based on interviews with researchers, policy-makers and a range of stakeholders. Makes recommendations for donor support to developing country research capacity and greater involvement of practitioners and policy-makers in the south in research priorities and applications

The 10/90 report on health research 2003-2004

GLOBAL FORUM FOR HEALTH RESEARCH
2004

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This site contains up-to-date information on progress in helping correct the 10/90 gap in health research. It includes reports from 1999, 2000, 2001/2002 and 2003/2004. The most recent, the fourth since Global Forum for Health Research formed in 1998, covers progress in helping correct the 10/90 gap (that only ten per cent of health research funds are spent on 90 per cent of the world's problems) over the past two years. It focusses on health and health research as sound economic investments; priority setting in health research; progress in measuring the 10/90 gap; research capacity strengthening; information networks in health research; gender; the MDGs and health research; and networks in the priority research areas

RBM communications assessment : challenges and opportunities in Ghana, Mali, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda

SHUFFELL, Sara
2004

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This report is from an assessment carried out between October 2002 and April 2003 in Ghana, Mali, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda. It was part of a Roll Back Malaria Communications Assessment as an initial stage in the process to develop effective and inclusive national malaria communication strategies in RBM participating countries across Africa. It notes the challenges that are raised in the context of development communications in Africa: the absence of basic malaria communications strategies, poor visibility of National Malaria Control Programmes, and lack of regional coordination and information sharing to name a few. There are, however, many opportunities to develop better malaria communications listed in the report

Participatory communication strategy design : a handbook

MEFALOPULOS, Paolo
KAMLONGERA, Chris
2004

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This handbook on participatory communication strategy design (PCSD) has been prepared as a training and field guide for designing, implementing and managing communication for development strategies for field projects. The handbook focuses on the process of planning a communication strategy design in a participatory manner. It clearly explains the principles and processes of communication planning, message development, multimedia material production and the implementation of communication activities in the field. PCSD has been prepared primarily as training and reference material to be used during workshops for communication skills development, as well as a guide for participatory communication strategy design in the field

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