Useful Resources

1. Useful Publications

Commission for Africa: Our Common Interest: Report Of The Commission For Africa. Report issued March 05 by Commission (Commission Chair: Tony Blair). Aims to address, respond to, and outline recommendations for, Africa's development needs. The elimination of preventable diseases, and responses to HIV/AIDS, are integral to the context considered by the report (Chapter 6: Leaving no-one out: investing in people). Recommended practical actions include 'strengthening health systems in Africa so all can obtain basic health care' (http://commissionforafrica.org)

UN Millennium Development Project: Investing in Development: A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals. The final report of the UN Millennium Project released January 2005 suggests how we might achieve the Millennium Development Goals which include reduction of child mortality, improvement of maternal health, and combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases by 2015. It outlines practical investment strategies and possible approaches to their financing. Specific sections in the published report relevant to public health issues include 'Health systems: ensuring universal access to essential health sciences' (Chapter 5: Public investments to empower poor people) and the summaries of the Development Goals by area and target (Appendices 1 & 2). Both the full report and an overview are available on the Millennium Project site (www.unmillenniumproject.org/reports/index.htm) In addition a book by Jeffrey Sachs (UN Millennium Project Director) entitled[The End of Poverty: How We Can Make It Happen in Our Lifetime by (0141018666) was also recently published (April 05) by Penguin (www.penguin.co.uk)]

World Bank: World Development Indicators 2005 Report (0-8213-6071-X) released by World Bank April 05, with national and regional development statistics. Data covers 'Health: expenditure, services, and use' and 'Disease prevention: coverage and quality' (www.worldbank.org/data/wdi2005) (http://devdata.worldbank.org/wdi2005)

Global Monitoring Report 2005: From Census To Momentum (0-8213-6077-9) published by World Bank with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) April 05. Chapter 2 ('Scaling up service delivery') reviews the progress to MDG's, including those in child/maternal health and disease (www.worldbank.org)

World Health Organisation: World Health Report 2005: Make Every Mother and Child Count, published by the WHO. This is an annual report, with the 2005 edition focusing on the need, and possible strategies, for the improvement of maternal/child health. 'Calls for greater access to life-saving interventions and a 'continuum of care' approach to start before pregnancy and extend into the baby's childhood'. Detailed statistical annexes are included. Issued to coincide with World Health Day (www.who.int/whr/en)

Also useful in the context of these reports is an earlier study, published last year (2004). The second assessment report prepared by the Global Forum for Health Research, 'Monitoring Financial Flows for Health Research' (ISBN 2-940286-27-2), is available in full on the Global Forum's website. In analysing funding levels and priorities it could be an additional source of information on the cost, value, coherence and impact of recent health research internationally (www.globalforumhealth.org)

INASP Newsletter (November 2004), which focused on the 'Global Review on Access to Health Information in Developing Countries'. Please see www.inasp.info/newslet/nov04.html.

2. Useful websites

- Useful summary of Wellcome Trust's 'major overseas programmes', currently including research based in Kenya and in Malawi is accessible at www.wellcome.ac.uk/node4240.html

- Overseas Development Institute Humanitarian Practice Network http://www.odihpn.org/ A useful site for those working in development, particularly Health and Education, with information regarding current and past projects, publication and events

- London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine - Press releases on latest research involving LSHTM can be found at http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/news/2005/

The WHO Global InfoBase has, for the first time, assembled in one place, country level risk factor data stratified by age and sex, with complete source and survey information. The current version of the InfoBase contains over 45,000 data points from more than 2,000 sources. The NCD InfoBase contains data for 170 out of 192 WHO Member States. A unique feature is that each record can be linked back to all its survey information, including the primary source. This is important when the collection of such data involves so many different protocols and definitions.

On the occasion of World Health Day 2005, the Action for West Africa Region Reproductive Health and Child Survival Project (AWARE-RH) launches its new Web site, http://www.aware-rh.org. Echoing the World Health Day 2005 theme of "Make every mother and child count," the Web site supports AWARE-RH's aim to improve reproductive and maternal and child health services across 18 countries in West Africa.

The World Health Report 2005 – Make Every Mother and Child Count, says that this year almost 11 million children under five years of age will die from causes that are largely preventable. Among them are 4 million babies who will not survive the first month of life. Read the report by clicking on the URL provided.