As clearly shown in the 2005 UNGASS Country Progress Reports, AIDS resources have grown rapidly in recent years from US$300 million in 1996 to US$8 billion in 2005. One critical need is to ensure that available resources are used effectively, which requires that countries must invest in a sound monitoring and evaluation system to help provide feedback on whether projects, programs, and policies are achieving (or not) their expected results. A major emphasis has been put on integrating the various M&E efforts in support of the three ones principle of “One National Monitoring and Evaluation System”. Four countries were invited to participate in a feedback session, including Botswana of Southern Africa.
Monitoring equity and research policy
Zimbabwe is in the mature stage of a generalised HIV/AIDS epidemic. However, HIV prevalence is unevenly distributed with respect to age, gender and locality. The objective of the mapping exercise was to focus limited project resources for improving linkages and ensuring maximum impact of prevention interventions. Use of GIS systems helped improve linkages between communication activities and product delivery to create informed demand and improve off-take of male and female condoms.
Because researchers and policy-makers work in different spheres, policy decisions in the health arena are often not based on available scientific evidence.This paper describes a model that illustrates the policy process and how to work strategically to translate knowledge into policy actions. Activities were undertaken as part of the Kenyan Ministry of Health’s new decentralised planning-process.
Knowledge brokering is a promising strategy to close the “know–do gap” and foster greater use of research findings and evidence in policy-making. It focuses on organising the interactive process between the producers and users of knowledge so that they can co-produce feasible and research-informed policy options. This paper describes a recent successful experience with this novel approach in the Netherlands and also discusses the potential of this approach to assist health policy development in low-income countries based on the experience of developing the Regional East-African Health (REACH)- Policy Initiative.
This analysis seeks to set the stage for equity-sensitive monitoring of the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs and other development initiatives must become more comprehensive and explicit in their analysis and tracking of inequities, and the design of policies to narrow health gaps must take into account country-specific inequities.
This report provides a strategic solution to the evidence gap in development programming. The report argues that by bringing vital knowledge into the service of policymaking and programme design, it is possible to improve the effectiveness of domestic spending and development assistance. The group was asked to investigate why rigorous impact evaluations of social development programmes, whether financed directly by developing country governments or supported by international aid, are relatively rare; as well as ways to improve on this.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has taken an important step to reform the global system for supporting medical research and development (R&D). The organisation’s governing body has just passed a new — hotly-debated — resolution to set up a new intergovernmental working group that will immediately start work to "draw up a global strategy and plan of action." This will include a new framework to support sustainable, needs-driven, essential R&D work on diseases that disproportionately affect developing countries.
The IRIS/USAID project on developing poverty assessment tools has collected data on the poverty status of 12 low-income countries, adapting measurement tools for country-specific use. This paper proposes a methodology to construct an international poverty tool, or set of tools, that are easily applicable to a range of political economies.
This paper provides a summary of the empirical and policy-related literature on the multifaceted relationships between gender inequalities and foreign direct investment (FDI). It reviews the research on the impact of FDI on investment, productivity, trade, employment, wages and working conditions.
The Commission on Health Research for Development concluded that “for the most vulnerable people, the benefits of research offer a potential for change that has gone largely untapped.” This project was designed to assess low and middle income country capacity and commitment for equity-oriented research.