If you or your colleagues are facing difficulty in your project monitoring and evaluation reports, the Reporting Skills and Professional Writing Handbook (2nd Edition) is a self-study programme based on the best of ten years' experience running hundreds of training courses. There's a free download of the first module and you need to sign up to receive the remaining modules, free. It is designed to save time and help your team turn out more effective progress and evaluation reports. The programme is also available on CDROM for convenient desktop study, and, for larger organisations, the Trainer Edition is supported by a complete Training Pack.
Useful Resources
Free web portal for African civil society organisations
GuideStar International (GSI): September 2008
GuideStar International (GSI) seeks to illuminate the work of civil society organisations (CSOs) around the world. It is based in the UK. Their new website, in co-operation with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), was started as a joint venture to develop a free web portal for African civil society, showcasing NGOs, charities, non-profit organisations and community-based organisations, ranging from the smallest to the largest. Utilising a shared internet platform, organisations will be able to display their vision and mission, objectives, activities, needs and finances to donors, researchers, policy makers and the general public.
New website on health equity and disabilities
To coincide with the high-level meeting last month in New York on the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs), the International Disability and Development Consortium (IDDC) and the Millennium Campaign have launched a new web site on disabilities and the MDGs. The site aims to raise awareness among the general public, NGOs, donors and governments about the need for the MDGs and poverty reduction programmes to address disabilities. One in five of the world's poorest people are disabled, yet they are rarely considered in MDG health plans and programmes. With the recent report from the Commission on the Social Determinants of Health, this is a timely moment for the health community to consider disability as a barrier to accessing health services. The website is a work in progress and the IDDC wants to link it to other sites, sources and organisations.
Zero Issue 2008: The World Food Crisis and the Right to Food
Bread for the World, ICCO and FIAN: October 2008
The Right to Food and Nutrition Watch provides a systematic compilation of best practices for the realisation of the right to food and also documents where violations have been committed. The Zero Issue deals with the topic ‘The World Food Crisis and the Human Right to Food’ and gathers articles and country monitoring reports from different experts and regions (the Americas, Asia, Africa and India). The publication also discusses the most recent global trends affecting the right to food, such as the increased expansion of agrofuels, and sheds new light on practices that continue to impede the realisation of the right to food, such as mining and the mismanagement of social cash transfers. UN experts on human rights and the right to food also give their input on recent UN documents and sessions. The hard copy of the Right to Food and Nutrition Watch is accompanied by a CD-ROM that includes supporting documents and full reports of all content.
2008 World Population Data Sheet: Global demographic divide widens
Population Reference Bureau, 2008
The demographic divide - the inequality in the population and health profiles of rich and poor countries - is widening. Two sharply different patterns of population growth are evident: little growth (or even decline) in most wealthy countries and continued rapid population growth in the world's poorest countries. The Population Reference Bureau has released its 2008 World Population Data Sheet, which provides up-to-date demographic, health and environment data for all countries and major world regions. New on the Data Sheet this year is data on maternal mortality and the percentage of population who are undernourished.
Free donor management toolkit
NPower Seattle, November 2006
This toolkit by NPower Seattle is for any non-profit employee or manager given the task of managing donors. Non-profit organisations regularly face the challenge of accomplishing a mission with limited resources and high accountability for expenditures regularly considered overhead expenses. Donation and grant-dependent funding often means that ‘success’ becomes the ability to tap into and grow these donor bases as efficiently and effectively as possible, but this is hard if you have limited in-house technology expertise and are tasked with maintaining and managing unusual and detailed data to support your services or have data that is stored in multiple locations that don’t talk with one another. The donor management software in this kit will help you to manage relationships with active and prospective donors by tracking contact information, keeping records of correspondence and donations, managing grant deadlines and producing detailed reports.
Free human rights training manuals
IFHHRO, 2008
The International Federation of Health and Human Rights Organisations promotes the monitoring of health-related human rights, including the right to health. The Federation focuses on the role of health professionals in this regard. It also provides free training material in human rights issues.
Public Health Toolkit
US Association of Schools of Public Health, 2008
As part of its ‘This is Public Health’ campaign, ASPH has developed the ‘This is Public Health’ toolkit to which will serve as a resource for anyone interested in educating others about public health issues or the field of public health. The materials in the toolkit are suggestions or templates, which can either be used as is, or tailored to suit your specific audiences. The toolkit also includes links for other sources that can increase knowledge of public health inside and outside classroom. The toolkit contains information on the 'This is Public Health' campaign and the field as a whole. Materials will be provided that target a range of individuals, accommodating varying age groups and differing levels of familiarity with the field of public health.
WHO Global Health Atlas
In a single electronic platform, the WHO’s Communicable Disease Global Atlas brings together for analysis and comparison standardised data and statistics for infectious diseases at country, regional and global levels. The analysis and interpretation of data are further supported through information on demography, socioeconomic conditions and environmental factors. In so doing, the Atlas specifically acknowledges the broad range of determinants that influence patterns of infectious disease transmission.
2008 World Population Data Sheet
Population Reference Bureau, 19 August 2008
The demographic divide - inequality in the population and health profiles of rich and poor countries - is widening. Two sharply different patterns of population growth are evident: little growth or even decline in most wealthy countries and continued rapid population growth in the world’s poorest countries. The 2008 World Population Data Sheet and its summary report offer detailed information about country, regional and global population patterns. It provides up-to-date demographic, health, and environment data for 209 countries and 25 regions of the world. It points up stark contrasts between developed and developing countries and predicts that the world population will soon have an urban majority. In 2008, for the first time, half of the world’s population will live in urban areas. Despite some improvement, maternal mortality continues to be very high in developing countries. In the least-developed countries, 35% of the population consumes fewer than the minimum calories required to lead a healthy active life. That figure rises above 60% in several sub-Saharan countries.