Useful Resources

Food Security Information Systems and Networks
Resources for Trainers, Food Security Information for Action: 2007

This course introduces and provides guidance in assessing different kinds of information systems related to food security analysis.

CATCH
Rees-Roberts D; Cooke P: 2016

CATCH is a fictional short film about a father and daughter quarantined in their home in a post-antibiotic world. CATCH is set in a near future world where antibiotic resistance has made antibiotics useless. Although that is a real potential future, the producers argue that it is possible to work now to stop that future from happening. There are lots of simple things people can all do to try to avoid the post-antibiotic future portrayed in CATCH: Always wash hands when handling and preparing food to avoid cross-contamination, especially between raw and ready-prepared food. Never pressure a doctor for antibiotics, as antibiotics can only treat bacterial infections. Never take unprescribed antibiotics. Always finish a prescribed course of antibiotics. Never stop taking antibiotics before the course is finished as prescribed - even if one starts feel better, see it through to the end. Raise awareness about the issue of antibiotic resistance, and what communities can do to combat it. Talk to friends, family, colleagues, and local politicians!

Exchange on HIV/AIDS

The first issue of Exchange, previously Sexual Health Exchange, is produced in collaboration with the Royal Tropical Institute of the Netherlands and Novib (Oxfam Netherlands). The main focus of this edition is mainstreaming HIV and AIDS in civil society organisations (CSOs). The magazine also examines issues such as: lack of access to prevention and treatment for mobile population groups; the consequences of abstinence-only programmes for sexual minorities; and youth and the media in South Africa.

The toll of the cobalt mining industry on health and the environment
CBS News: March 6 2018

This CBS News video reports an investigation of child labour in cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo, revealing that tens of thousands of children are growing up without a childhood today – two years after a damning Amnesty report about human rights abuses in the cobalt trade was published. The Amnesty report first revealed that cobalt mined by children was ending up in products from prominent tech companies including Apple, Microsoft, Tesla and Samsung. According to the CDC, "chronic exposure to cobalt-containing hard metal (dust or fume) can result in a serious lung disease called 'hard metal lung disease'" – a kind of pneumoconiosis, meaning a lung disease caused by inhaling dust particles. Inhalation of cobalt particles can cause respiratory sensitization, asthma, decreased pulmonary function and shortness of breath, the CDC says. An estimated two-thirds of children in the region of the DRC that CBS News visited recently are not in school. They're working in mines instead. CBS News' Debora Patta spoke with an 11-year-old boy, Ziki Swaze, who has no idea how to read or write but is an expert in washing cobalt. Every evening, he returns home with a dollar or two to provide for his family.

"ACCESS TO RESEARCH" INTERNET INITIATIVE FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Opening of the Health InterNetwork website.
Many thousands of doctors, researchers, health policy-makers and others in about 70 developing countries will from today gain free access through the Internet to one of the world's largest collections of biomedical literature. They will benefit from an initiative launched by the World Health Organization and the world's six biggest medical journal publishers, which WHO Director-General Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland has described as "perhaps the biggest step ever taken towards reducing the health information gap between rich and poor countries." The "Access to Research" initiative enables accredited universities, medical schools, research centres and other public institutions in the developing countries to gain access to the wealth of scientific information contained in more than 1000 different biomedical journals produced by the six publishers. Until now, subscriptions to these journals, both electronic and print, have been priced uniformly for such institutions, irrespective of geographical location. Many key titles cost more than US$1500 per year, and the average subscription costs several hundred dollars, putting the journals beyond the reach of the large majority of health and research institutions in the poorest countries. Last year WHO, working with the British Medical Journal, approached the six biggest medical journal publishers: Blackwell, Elsevier Science, the Harcourt Worldwide STM Group, Wolters Kluwer International Health & Science, Springer Verlag and John Wiley. The aim was to bring them together with the countries concerned to seek a more affordable pricing structure for online access to their international biomedical journals. The first stage of the initiative will make more than 1,000 of their journals available free or at significantly reduced charges to institutions in those countries. That availability begins today with the opening of the Health InterNetwork website: A second stage will involve similar access at significantly reduced prices for institutions in the other countries. WHO and the publishers will work with the Open Society Institute of the Soros foundation network and other public and private partners to extend the initiative; for example, through training for research staff, and improving Internetconnectivity.

"How AIDS changed everything” Fact Sheet
UNAIDS: August 2015

The UNAIDS 2014 Global HIV/AIDS Statistics contains key data from the recent publication "How AIDS changed everything”. Global statistics include: 15 million people accessing antiretroviral therapy as of March 2015. 36.9 million [34.3 million– 41.4 million] people globally were living with HIV and 2 million [1.9 million – 2.2 million] people became newly infected with HIV. In 2014, 1.2million [980 000 – 1.6 million] people died from AIDS-related illnesses.

"If you could do one thing..." Nine local actions to reduce health inequalities
British Academy of Science, UK January 2014

The report seeks to help local policymakers improve the health of their communities by presenting evidence from the social sciences that can help reduce inequalities in health. Each of the authors has written an article, drawing on the evidence base for their particular area of expertise, identifying one policy intervention that they think local authorities could introduce to improve the health of the local population and reduce health inequalities.

"The Pop Reporter" Launches Customized Edition

"The Pop Reporter," The INFO Project's weekly, free e-zine for the world's reproductive health care professional, has announced the launch of the new customized edition. This state-of-the-art feature allows subscribers to customize their subscriptions, tailoring issues to both topic and delivery preferences. Now subscribers may choose from among 17 categories of the most important concerns of the world's reproductive health community today.

"The Pop Reporter" Launches Customized Edition

"The Pop Reporter," The INFO Project's weekly e-zine for the world's reproductive health care professional, has announced the launch of a new customized edition. This state-of-the-art feature allows subscribers to customize their subscriptions, tailoring issues to both topic and delivery preferences. Now subscribers may choose from among 17 categories of the most important concerns of the world's reproductive health community today.

Further details: /newsletter/id/29973
#KnowYourCity website
Slum Dwellers International, 2017

Know Your City is a global campaign of Slum Dwellers International (SDI) and UCLG-A. Around the world, slum dwellers collect city-wide data and information on informal settlements. This work creates alternative systems of knowledge that are owned by the communities and have become the basis of a unique social and political argument that supports an informed and united voice of the urban poor. SDI’s databases are becoming the largest repositories of informal settlement data in the world and the first port of call for researchers, policy makers, local governments and national governments.

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