Qualitative synthesis has become more commonplace in recent years. Meta ethnography is one of several methods for synthesising qualitative research and is being used increasingly within health care research. However, many aspects of the steps in the process remain ill-defined. Meta-ethnography is a useful method for synthesising qualitative research and for developing models that interpret findings across multiple studies. Despite its growing use in health research, further research is needed to address the wide range of methodological and epistemological questions raised by the approach.
Useful Resources
Conducting a meta-ethnography of qualitative literature: Lessons learnt
Atkins S, Lewin S, Smith H et al: BMC Medical Research Methodology 8: 21, 16 April 2008
Report Writing Toolkit for Development
ELD, April 2008
The Reporting Skills and Professional Writing Handbook (2nd Edition) is a self-study programme based on the best of 10 years' experience working with INGOs, NGOs,GOs and IOs over hundreds of training courses. It's available on CDROM for convenient desktop study, and, for larger organisations, the Trainer Edition is supported by a complete Training Pack. For people working in international development, it can be accessed for free on sign-up.
Agriculture and the WTO in Africa: Understand to Act
Marie-Christine Lebret and Arlène Alpha (GRET)
The purpose of this book is to provide guidance in understanding how the WTO institutions and agreements that impact the agricultural sector operate. Its aim is to provide those in charge of civil society organisations in sub-Saharan Africa with tools and references to better understand the stakes behind, and means for, their participation in worl trade. Organised around descriptive and factual texts, this work contains many definitions and is illustrated by concrete experiences that facilitate reading.
Analysing Health Equity Using Household Survey Data
World Bank, Poverty and Health
Progress in quantifying and understanding health equities would not have been possible without appropriate analytic techniques. These techniques are the subject of this book, which includes chapters dealing with data issues and the measurement of the key variables in health equity analysis, quantitative techniques for interpreting and presenting health equity data, and the application of these techniques in the analysis of equity in health care utilisation and health care spending. The aim of the book is to provide researchers and analysts with a step-by-step practical guide to the measurement of a variety of aspects of health equity, with worked examples and computer code, mostly for the computer program Stata. It is hoped that these step-by-step guides, and the easy-to-implement computer routines contained in them, will help stimulate yet more research in the field, especially policy-oriented health equity research that enables researchers to help policymakers develop and evaluate programs to reduce health inequities.
Our money, Our Responsibility: A citizens' guide to monitoring government expenditures
Ramkumar V: International Budget Project
This Guide documents pioneering methodologies used by civil society organizations around the developing world to hold their governments to account for the use of public resources. Specific methodologies examined by the Guide include social audits, citizen report cards, public expenditure tracking surveys, procurement monitoring tools, and participatory auditing tools. These methodologies are considered in detailed case studies presenting the work of 17 organizations from 12 countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The Guide will enable readers to gain familiarity with the typical processes followed by national-level governments during the execution of budgets, management of procurements, measurement of impact achieved by expenditures, and oversight of budget expenditures through audits and legislative supervision. For each of these processes, the Guide provides practical tools and techniques that readers can use to monitor the results achieved by government expenditures.
Equal opportunities for health action for development
Equal opportunities for health action for development is a project implemented by 29 European partners and associates from the health community with the aim to mobilise public support in Europe for Global Health and Health Equity as a strategy and policy for more equitable North-South relations and poverty reduction in developing countries.
The African Population and Health Research Center
APHRC’s research focuses on improving understanding of population and health issues through development and implementation of innovative, policy-oriented research programs to address the region’s key population and health challenges. APHRC’s research focus is organized into four themes: Urbanization and wellbeing; Population and Reproductive Health; Health Challenges and Systems; and Education. These research priorities have been selected to respond to needs identified by African governments and by multinational bodies and frameworks including the MDGs, the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), the Economic Commission for Africa, the African Union, and the World Health Organization, among others. Within each theme, we particularly focus on areas where there are considerable knowledge gaps and where building on our past investments and current strengths holds the greatest potential to improve the wellbeing of Africans. Our methods include primary research projects where we collect new data; secondary analysis of existing data; synthesis of evidence; scenario building; and monitoring and evaluation of interventions. We also seek to develop and use new methodologies, partnering with other institutions as needed.
Towards wellbeing in forest communities: A sourcebook for local government
Albornoz MA, Becker M, Cahyat A: Center for International Forestry Research, 2008
Local governments have an important role to play in enhancing the wellbeing of forest communities, yet often lack the capacity to understand and address local needs. This source book provides a useful resource for local governments, local communities, development practitioners and civil society organisations interested in reducing poverty through more participatory approaches with forest communities. They offer a positive concept of sustained human wellbeing and security that extends beyond sufficiency of income and food, and emphasises the potential role of forests in enhancing community wellbeing.
HRET Disparities Toolkit: A toolkit for collecting race, ethnicity, and primary language information from patients
Health Research and Educational Trust
The updated HRET Disparities Toolkit gives hospitals, health systems, clinics, and health plans the information and resources needed for collecting race, ethnicity, and primary language data from patients. In order to make this invaluable Toolkit more accessible to all health care providers, the Toolkit is now available free of charge. HRET’s Disparities Toolkit helps clinicians and administrators at all levels learn the why and how of collecting race, ethnicity, and primary language data from patients. The Toolkit is useful for educating and informing hospital staff about the importance of data collection, how to implement a framework to collect the data, and how to use these data to improve quality of care for all populations.
Trade justice: Turning words into action - A campaign guide
Christian Aid, 2007
Trade justice is about giving poor people and countries the chance to work their own way out of poverty; giving farmers the chance to earn enough to feed their families and to send their children to school; allowing industries to develop, creating jobs and opportunities. But instead of trade justice, free trade is being forced on developing countries. It is hurting poor people, not helping them. And it is undermining democracy by denying poor people a greater say in the decisions that affect their lives. In 2005, unprecedented numbers of people campaigned for trade justice as part of the Make Poverty History campaign. With the UK government starting to question the wisdom of
forcing free trade and liberalisation on developing countries, we are making progress. But there’s still some way to go before trade justice becomes a reality for millions of poor people worldwide. This guide addresses what is meant by trade justice, what needs to change, and how the campaign will help make poverty history.