All aid actors, whether donors, recipients or implementers, now talk of incorporating participation of the poor - but has there really been a paradigm shift? What do the major multilateral and bilateral donors mean when they talk about 'participation' and 'stakeholders'? What institutional and attitudinal changes are necessary to enable the poor to truly participate in decision-making?
Governance and participation in health
Creating the will to practice participation: the role of donors, NGOs and recipient governments
Letting Them Die: How HIV/AIDS Intervention Programmes Often Fail
This book examines the context and social construction of sexuality, HIV prevention and community development, based on a three-year study of a large-scale HIV/AIDS prevention programme in a South African gold mining community. The Summertown Project was a well-resourced intervention that sought to promote sexual health through the treatment of STIs, community-led peer education, and the promotion of local participation and 'stakeholder' partnerships.
LEARNING TO LIVE: MONITORING AND EVALUATING HIV/AIDS PROGRAMMES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
This paper addresses the lack of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) procedures within HIV/AIDS programme design. It offers a practical guide to developing, monitoring and evaluating practice in HIV/AIDS-related programmes for young people, based on the experience of projects around the world. It focuses on recent learning from work with young people in peer education, school-based education, clinic-based service delivery reaching especially vulnerable children, and working with children affected by HIV/AIDS. Good examples of practice are included throughout.
Case Study of the MTV Staying Alive Campaign
Since 2002, YouthNet has partnered with MTV on the Staying Alive Campaign, which reached over 800 million households worldwide, making it the largest public health campaign ever. The campaign produced five hours of television available to TV and radio stations around the world, and also produced a Web site with HIV/AIDS information, referrals, and programming in English, French, and Spanish. A case study was recently published by YouthNet, detailing the successes and experiences of the 2002 Staying Alive Campaign.
Friends in deed - preventing HIV through peer education in South African
HIV is rampant among young people in South Africa, despite sound knowledge about sexual health risks. Levels of perceived vulnerability among this group are low and unprotected sex is common. Researchers from the London School of Economics studied a participatory programme seeking to empower young people to change gender norms as an HIV prevention strategy.
Sensitive matters: HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns in Zimbabwe
How can we tell if teenagers are responding to HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns? Is it acceptable to conduct randomised trials in schools to find out? University College London, together with the University Zimbabwe and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, looked into the sensitive topic of interviewing and testing teenagers for sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs) including HIV, in a feasibility study for a large community randomised trial. It found that communities in Zimbabwe were enthusiastic about taking part in trials in schools and recognised the importance of these.
Community participation and sexual health – is there a relationship?
Is there a relationship between people’s degree of community involvement and participation and their sexual behaviour? If this is the case, it may help to identify possible areas of HIV/AIDS intervention at community level. Researchers from the London School of Economics (LSE) investigated this relationship in a mining town in South Africa. The results were mixed. Whereas some forms of community participation were associated with safer sexual behaviour and lower levels of HIV infection, others acted in the opposite way. The findings highlight the need for further research.
Sensitive matters: HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns in Zimbabwe
How can we tell if teenagers are responding to HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns? Is it acceptable to conduct randomised trials in schools to find out? University College London, together with the University of Zimbabwe and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, looked into the sensitive topic of interviewing and testing teenagers for sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs) including HIV, in a feasibility study for a large community randomised trial. It found that communities in Zimbabwe were enthusiastic about taking part in trials in schools and recognised the importance of these.
AN URGENT CALL TO CIVIL SOCIETY TO ADVOCATE FOR INCREASED FUNDING TO THE GLOBAL FUND TO FIGHT AIDS, TUBERCULOSIS AND MALARIA
Fund the Fund have produced an advocacy kit aimed at civil society organisations (including nongovernmental, community-based, people living with the diseases, faith-based, and trade unions) to promote their advocacy for increased investment in the Global Fund.
Further details: /newsletter/id/29809
CIVIL SOCIETY AND HEALTH - ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SELECTED RESEARCH
Civil society actors have become more visible, active and influential within health and health systems. Understanding their role, the factors influencing them and the health outcomes they produce is important to anyone wishing to improve public health. This website presents an annotated bibliography of research on civil society and health prepared as a collaboration between the World Health Organisation's Civil Society Initiative and Training and Research Support Centre. The research focused on three theme areas: Civil society - state interactions in national health systems; Civil society contributions to pro-poor, health equity policies; Civil society influence on global health policy.