Originally developed for Gendernet, this online guide is intended to support the design and delivery of gender training. As a resource, the guide provides ‘building blocks’ that facilitators can use to design customised training workshops and has been designed with the assumption that potential learners have little or basic understanding of gender and development concepts. Training modules cover topics like gender inequity and poverty, gender analysis and planning, gender-aware designing, planning, monitoring and evaluation in terms of gender, gender mainstreaming and organisational change, including policy approaches to addressing gender and equality in development and developing advocacy strategies. Facilitators’ tools include ice-breakers and energisers. There are also suggested workshop plans that provide ideas for how this guide can be used to design workshop outlines.
Useful Resources
The latest edition of Eldis OnDisc is out now and focuses on Manuals and Toolkits. It contains over 400 full-text publications from 150 development organisations. Eldis OnDisc is freely available to subscribers with poor internet connection who struggle to access the full Eldis online services. Designed with the busy development professional and researcher in mind, publications on this CD-Rom have been categorised into key subject and skills areas for quick reference. There is also an easy-to-use Search function, helping you get right to the publication you need and each publication is accompanied by a short abstract. To receive your copy of Eldis OnDisc Manuals and Toolkits edition, please complete the registration form at the website address given here. If you are experiencing problems with this form, you can request a Word version at the email address provided.
The new EU online platform, Capacity4Dev, is part of the European Commission’s ambitious ‘Backbone Strategy’ to reform technical cooperation. The Commission envisions the new portal as an essential tool in reforming technical cooperation programmes that support capacity development, public sector reform and other themes. The site, which will be developed through 2009, provides a forum for all Commission staff, partner countries, other donors, academics and civil society representatives to share ideas and expertise. By joining Capacity4Dev, you get access to useful capacity development tools, feature articles on current topics of interest and academic papers. Registration is free.
Under a new initiative, international donors are backing Africa-based policy research to improve local decision-making on complex global issues with potentially enormous humanitarian consequences like food security and climate change. Led by Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and funded by IDRC, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Hewlett Foundation, the Think Tank Initiative will provide core funding for 24 African think tanks over 10 years. About US$30 million has been made available for the initial five years. Retaining top quality staff is a challenge, according to Jean Mensa, executive director of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), a Ghanaian think tank and a grant recipient. Many of the best and brightest researchers look for employment abroad or in international development projects that offer better conditions and more job security. But if African think tanks are to be effective, Mensa said, long-term investment is essential.
Many development interventions appear to leave no trace of sustained positive change after they have been terminated. This guidance document was developed by the Network of Networks on Impact Evaluation to support its focus on sharing methods and learning-by-doing to promote the practice of impact evaluation. It shows you how to identify the type and scope of the intervention by agreeing on the objectives of the intervention that are valued, articulating the theories linking interventions to outcomes, addressing the issue of attribution and building on existing knowledge relevant to the impact intervention. It also shows you how to manage impact evalulations by determining the feasibility of impact evaluation, gathering data and conducting front-end planning. It puts forward the idea that rigorous impact evaluation is not merely about specific methods and designs, but also about addressing the issues given above, in particular the core methodological and conceptual issues.
This training manual, published by the Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance II (FANTA-2) Project, recognises that nutrition interventions are an important component of comprehensive care and support for people living with HIV. They help to manage symptoms, promote response to treatment and improving functioning and quality of life. The authors argue that equipping nurses, who in many settings play a critical role in HIV care, with nutrition and HIV knowledge and skills enables them to provide effective nutrition care and support. The manual is organised into three parts: Part I includes introductory sessions with basic information about HIV, Part II aims to build technical knowledge and Part III provides guidance on nutrition care for different clients living with HIV. This training manual is designed to be used for pre-service training, but it can also be used or adapted for in-service training – an advantage considering the fact that nursing school curricula in the East, Central and Southern Africa region often includes little or no information on the subject.
This operations manual provides guidance on planning and delivering HIV prevention, care and treatment services at health centres in countries with high HIV prevalence. It gives an operational framework to ensure that HIV services can be provided in an integrated, efficient and quality-assured manner. It is based on the decentralised public health approach to scaling up HIV services in resource-constrained settings, which includes simple, standardised regimens and formularies; standardised supervision and patient monitoring approaches; as well as integrated delivery of care at primary health centres within a district network. This manual is written as a learning aid and job aid for the health centre team, and in particular the health centre manager (often an in-charge nurse). The authors, however, contend that district management teams, which supervise and support health centre services, should also find this manual helpful, as should national Ministries of Health and other partners responsible for planning and supporting the decentralisation of HIV services.
Complex policy issues cannot be solved by government alone. Delivering high-quality public services at the least cost and achieving shared public policy goals requires innovative approaches and greater involvement of citizens. This book is a valuable source of information on government performance in fostering open and inclusive policy making in 25 countries. It offers rich insights into current practice through 14 in-depth country case studies and 18 opinion pieces from leading civil society and government practitioners. It includes 10 guiding principles to support open and inclusive policy making and service delivery in practice.
The website for the Taskforce on Innovative International Financing for Health Systems has re-launched with a new range of applications designed to improve the navigation and accessibility of information hosted on the site. The Taskforce report and Working Group reports are currently available to download in five languages: English, French, German, Italian and Spanish, with other languages, including Chinese mandarin, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean and Portuguese due to be added in the forthcoming weeks. The website encourages interactivity with video footage of recent consultation events and speeches from Gordon Brown, Dr Margaret Chan and Glenys Kinnock. A blog page and feedback form have also been added to ensure that a constant stream of communication can be maintained between the Taskforce, civil society and other interested parties.
This is a practical, do-it-yourself guide for leaders and facilitators wanting to help organisations, such as social movements, function and develop in more healthy, human and effective ways. The guide, with its supporting website, includes tried and tested concepts, approaches, stories and activities, and was developed by a global team of collaborating practitioners and activists. It offers a perspective on why organisations exist and the real role they play, and the importance of supporting local sovereignty of local organisations and social movements for meaningful social change. It provides a range of approaches to self-understanding as well as understanding the role of leaders and facilitators aiming to facilitate change in organisations. It looks at the significance of relationships and power dynamics, including tracking how organisations move through various phases of development, how change can be facilitated and the challenges faced in implementing or sustaining change.