The World Health Organisation (WHO) has released a resource package of practical tools specifically aimed at improving patient safety in hospitals in developing countries. African Partnerships for Patient Safety (APPS) is a WHO Patient Safety Programme building sustainable patient safety partnerships between hospitals in countries of the WHO African Region and hospitals in other regions. African Partnerships for Patient Safety (APPS) is a WHO Patient Safety Programme building sustainable patient safety partnerships between hospitals in countries of the WHO African Region and hospitals in other regions. APPS is concerned with advocating for patient safety as a precondition of health care in the African Region and catalysing a range of actions that will strengthen health systems, assist in building local capacity and help reduce medical error and patient harm. The programme acts as a channel for patient safety improvements that can spread across countries, uniting patient safety efforts.
Useful Resources
These guidelines dealing with the legal, ethical and counselling issues related to HIV testing of children are intended for HIV and AIDS practitioners working with children. They were developed through an extensive consultative process with key staff from the South African Department of Health, the United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), civil society, non-governmental organisations, academics, policy makers and practitioners working with children. The guidelines cover a range of topics: counselling of children of different ages and developmental levels and assessing a child’s capacity to give informed consent; pre- and post-test counselling for children and for parents and caregivers of children unable to consent independently; follow-up and referral of children and/or parents or caregivers; client-initiated or voluntary counselling and testing and provider-initiated counselling and testing as applied to children; counselling guidelines relative to disclosure of HIV status by and to children; key qualities and competencies required for HIV counselling of children; and the physical environment and use of appropriate materials in work with children and young people.
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) monitors communicable diseases in South Africa. It is a resource of knowledge and expertise in regionally relevant communicable diseases to the South African Government, to SADC countries and the African continent. The NICD assists in the planning of policies and programmes and supports appropriate responses to communicable disease problems and issues. Every month, NICD publishes its Communiqué for the purpose of providing up-to-date information on communicable diseases in South Africa.
Joint Action and Learning Initiative on National and Global Responsibilities for Health (JALI) is a global coalition of civil society organisations and academia collaborating to challenge inequality in access to health care around the world and to develop strategies to promote and fulfill the human right to health. JALI’s ultimate goal is to develop and see implemented a Framework Convention on Global Health that will serve to guide all countries on their global responsibilities – both individually and collectively – to ensuring access to health care. Discussions around the initiative began in late 2009 and the website is regularly updated with new documents and articles by JALI members. If you would like to join or contribute to JALI, please contact JALI at the email address given.
The Africa Portal is an online knowledge resource for policy-related issues on Africa. An undertaking by the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), Makerere University (MAK), and the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA), the portal offers open access to a suite of features including an online library collection; a resource for opinion and analysis; an experts directory; an international events calendar; and a mobile technology component—all aimed to equip users with research and information on Africa’s current policy issues. A key feature to the Africa Portal is the online library collection holding over 2,500 books, journals, and digital documents related to African policy issues. The entire online repository is open access and available for free full-text download. A portion of the digital documents housed in the library have been digitised for the first time as an undertaking of the Africa Portal project. Facilitating new digitisation projects is a core feature of the Africa Portal, which aims to improve access and visibility for African research.
In the context of severe health worker shortages in rural areas, this toolkit is intended to help health leaders find out what motivates health workers to accept posts in rural areas and to stay there. The toolkit builds on the World Health Organisation’s global policy recommendations for rural retention and is based on the discrete choice experiment, a powerful research method that identifies the trade-offs health professionals are willing to make between specific job characteristics and determines their preferences for various incentive packages, including the probability of accepting a post in a rural health facility. The toolkit guides human resources managers through a survey process to rapidly assess health professional students’ and health workers’ motivational preferences to accept a position and continue working in underserved facilities. It allows for rapid data-gathering and analysis, and the results can be used to create evidence-based incentive packages. It includes step-by-step instructions, sample formats, and examples that can easily be adapted to a specific country context, including survey planning, survey design, survey instrument development using a specialised software programme, survey administration, data analysis and interpretation, and how to present results to stakeholders.
The next Human Development Report – “The Rise of the South: Human Progress in a Diverse World” – will be published in March 2013. It will examine the profound shift in global dynamics that is being driven by the fast-rising powers of the developing world - and the implications of this phenomenon for human development. China has already overtaken Japan as the world’s second biggest economy, lifting hundreds of millions out of poverty in the process. India is actively reshaping its future with entrepreneurial creativity and social policy innovation. Brazil has become another major engine of growth for the South, while reducing inequality at home through antipoverty programs that are emulated worldwide. Turkey, Thailand, South Africa, Mexico, Indonesia and other dynamic developing nations are also leading actors on the world stage today, offering important policy lessons and valuable new partnerships for the South as a whole, including today’s least developed countries. The Report will feature a new Human Development Index (HDI) as well as the Report’s three complementary indices: the Inequality-adjusted HDI, the Gender Inequality Index (GII) and the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI).
This Primer contains tools and resources to help navigate the medical research and development (R&D) paradigm. The Primer provides information on discovery research; translational research; clinical research; regulatory application and approval; and nonprofit actors and their roles in the R&D process.
The Global Health Primer connects the innovators that drive research and development for new drugs, vaccines and diagnostics to the neglected diseases where innovation is desperately needed. It provides a source of compiled and synthesised information for 25 neglected diseases of the developing world and the drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics in use or in development for the management of these diseases. The Primer tracks and analyses progress in global health research and development, provides an evidence base to support decision making, policy change and action, and brings new innovators to the table to address the main medical needs of poor people.
Piloted by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, the antiretroviral therapy (ART) Adherence Club model focuses on patient participation and peer support for improved treatment adherence. This simple model allows patient groups to collect pre-packed, two-month supplies of treatment from lay health workers either at the clinic or outside of the clinic, such as a local library or a fellow patient’s home. ART Adherence Clubs give stable, adherent HIV patients easier access to their treatment, while unclogging clinics and freeing up scarce nurses and doctors to manage new or at-risk HIV patients. This practical toolkit includes a step-by-step ‘How-to’ guide, two short films and additional information on tailoring the model to various contexts.