The Rights-Oriented Research & Education Network in Sexual & Reproductive Health (SRH) aims to generate transformative and robust evidence for policies and programmes on SRH. RORE is involved in determining new indicators and domains of data to identify rights-realization/gender equality related influences on SRH issues (e.g. on reasons for not using services) and exploratory cross-regional research to evolve concepts from the perspective of those affected. Education and training activities of the Network aim to build capacity in research from a gender and human rights perspective on sexual and reproductive health. RORE provides educational materials, training and mentoring focused on gender and human rights based SRH research and online courses with lectures focused on promoting research with a gender and rights perspective for SRH.
Useful Resources
The Global Health Watch is widely perceived as the definitive voice for an alternative discourse on health. It integrates rigorous analysis, alternative proposals and stories of struggles and change to present a compelling case for the imperative to work for a radical transformation of the way we approach actions and policies on health. It is designed to question present policies on health and to propose alternatives. GHW4 is a collaborative effort by activists and academics from across the world, and has been coordinated the People’s Health Movement, Asociacion Latinoamericana de Medicina Social, Health Action International, Third World Network and Medact. This edition of the GHW will be available in November 2014 and PHM invite people to consider launching the GHW4 from December 2014. For this purpose ‘launch kits’ will be available by early November 2014.
In 1948 and again in 1976, the United Nations proclaimed long lists of human rights, but the immense majority of humanity enjoys only the rights to see, hear and remain silent. Eduardo Galeano in this poem posits that suppose we start by exercising the never-proclaimed right to dream? Suppose we rave a bit? He asks us to set our sights beyond the abominations of today to divine another possible world.
All around the world women's voices are absent from the many places and spaces in which the decisions that affect their everyday lives are made. Oxfam aims to change this by strengthening the way in which women's individual and collective voices influence decisions about services, investments, policies and legal frameworks so that worldwide, those in power, from village leaders to politicians and law-makers, become more accountable to them.From 2008-2013, the global Raising Her Voice programme, supported projects in 17 countries to enable over 1 million women to take part in, shape and monitor the decisions that most affect their lives. Although formal funding for RHV ended in March 2013, Oxfam is continuing to work on women's political rights and empowerment worldwide. This website provides case studies and videos on the work from African countries.
The Open Budget Survey is a comprehensive analysis and survey that evaluates whether governments give the public access to budget information and opportunities to participate in the budget process at the national level. The Survey also assesses the capacity and independence of formal oversight institutions. The IBP works with civil society partners in 100 countries to collect evidence. To easily measure the commitment to transparency, IBP created the Open Budget Index from the Survey. The Open Budget Index allows for comparisons among countries and across years. the website provides a 2014 calculator to predict the outcome of the next survey and see where transparency can improve.
The 35th Edition of the Durban International Film Festival came to a close last week with an awards ceremony that saw the unveiling of the fest’s new statuette, the Golden Giraffe. Of particular note, Rehad Desai‘s Marikana documentary Miners Shot Down was awarded “South Africa’s Best Documentary Film.” The film uses the point of view of the Marikana miners as it follows the strike from day one.
The International Drug Price Indicator Guide contains a spectrum of prices from pharmaceutical suppliers, international development organizations, and government agencies. The Guide aims to make price information more widely available in order to improve procurement of medicines of assured quality for the lowest possible price. Comparative price information is important for getting the best price, and this is an essential reference for anyone involved in the procurement of pharmaceuticals. Management Sciences for Health (MSH) has published the International Drug Price Indicator Guide since 1986 and updates it annually.
The Open and Collaborative Science in Development Network (OCSDNet) announces the launch of the network and a public Call for Concept Notes on case studies that explore the linkages between Open Science and development initiatives. Open and Collaborative Science (OCS) is a set of ideas and practices that aims to change the traditional culture of research by making the production and dissemination of scientific knowledge inclusive and publicly accessible. Open approaches to science include increased sharing of research plans and data, participatory citizen science, distributed “crowdsourced” forms of data collection, and innovative models of large or small scale scientific collaborations, enabled by networked technologies. While principles of openness and collaboration are recognized as critical for development, they remain to be realized. Moreover, there is limited awareness about the benefits and practices of OCS in the Global South. If the global scientific community understands how scientific knowledge can be effectively made more open and inclusive, then researchers and research-users in the Global South and North can work to ensure that scientific knowledge informs development efforts.
Presenters' insights and experiences with progressive public services inspired and energized the 150+ people who came from across South Africa and around the world for this three-day event last April. All panel presentations and plenary talks recorded by students from the University of the Western Cape are available online.
The Global Health Learning Centre offers an online course By the end of the course, the learner will understand how health systems components interact with each other, how gender plays a role in each health systems component, and how to address these gender issues in health systems strengthening activities in order to improve health and social outcomes. This course examines gender considerations for each of six health systems components described in the World Health Organization's health systems components and ways to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in health systems strengthening interventions so that health systems better meet the health needs of women, men, girls, and boys. Each section of the course first discusses and illustrates gender issues that affect a particular health system component and then proposes solutions to address these issues and strengthen health systems. The course considers some of the gender norms that drive health behavior, health decision making, and the provision and utilization of health care. It highlights programmatic examples that illustrate aspects of gender equality and women's empowerment in health systems strengthening.