This new Right to Food website was launched on Human Rights Day, 10 December 2012. In addition to a new design, improved functionalities and user friendly navigation, it also displays the diverse work of the Right to Food in the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO). The Team’s work at global, national, sub-national and regional level is divided into ‘Projects’ and according to activities in the ‘Our Work’ section making it easier for users to find the information needed. There is also a ‘Publications’ section, where you will find information on all aspects related to the human right to food – from principle to practice.
Useful Resources
Right to Food website
Food and Agricultural Organisation: December 2012
Community Discussion Guide for Maternal and Newborn Health Care: A Training Manual for Safe Motherhood Action Groups
Mobilising Access to Maternal Health Services in Zambia Programme (MAMaZ), Ministry of Community Development, and Mother and Child Health and District Health Management Teams: 2012
This Guide is being used in six rural districts of Zambia to train Community Health Volunteers, including members of community Safe Motherhood Action Groups (SMAGs), to promote safe pregnancy planning; help reduce maternal delays; and promote appropriate newborn care. The Guide was developed by the Mobilising Access to Maternal Health Services in Zambia (MAMaZ) programme and district health management team partners in six districts It sets out a process for engaging with rural communities to increase awareness of and social approval to act on maternal and newborn health. It contains detailed guidance on how to train SMAG volunteers in two key areas of their portfolio – maternal and newborn health care – and is intended to complement other maternal health and newborn care training resources. The training approach used here aims to build the knowledge and training capacity of the Mama SMAGs in such a way that they do not have to rely on having a paper version of the Community Discussion Guide, mainly because they may have poor literacy. The approach forces trainers to internalise the Guide’s content and techniques and avoids reliance on the production of training manuals in a context where paper and printing capacity may be in short supply and where the dissemination of manuals can be challenging logistically.
New database on United Nations procurement
UNOPS: 2012
The data.unops.org hub has now been officially launched, making publicly available information about procurement from United Nations organisations. Data includes the value of goods and services procured by each organisation, details on amounts procured from developing countries and countries with economies in transition, and profiles of all countries of supply. There are graphs indicating how much UNOPS is delivering on behalf of its partners including the United Nations, governments, multilateral institutions, foundations and the private sector. The data is inter-connected where possible, enabling users to explore information about UNOPS operations from multiple perspectives such as by country, by partner or by sector.
Out of the Dark: Meeting the needs of children with TB
Médecins Sans Frontières: 2012
This guide outlines the current state of paediatric tuberculosis (TB) care, looking at current practices, new developments and research needs in paediatric TB diagnosis, treatment and prevention. It is intended to act as a guide to treatment programmes for implementation of the best standard of care currently available to children with TB, and to raise awareness of the need to continue to push for improvements in the management of childhood TB.
Launch of Patent Opposition Database
Médecins Sans Frontières: 2 October 2012
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has announced the launch of the “Patent Opposition Database,” an online resource to help patient groups or others to oppose wrongful patent applications as a way to ensure access remains open for affordable generic drugs. A patent opposition is a legal challenge aimed at blocking the granting of an unwarranted patent, MSF said. The database was launched on the tenth anniversary of a landmark decision by the central intellectual property court in Thailand to overturn a patent on a key HIV drug based on opposition filed by patients. India and Brazil also have used this process. It provides interested parties with all the information they need to know about patents, medicines and how to build an opposition to cases where pharmaceutical companies are trying to push through patents that will negatively impact on public health.
New African Community of Practice blog
The Africa Portal’s Community of Practice blog signals important policy research topics and trends in Africa. Contributors include top researchers and practitioners conducting on-the-ground, field-based research in Africa. The blog aims to share their work and document the challenges and learning that emerge from efforts to inform African policymaking.
New blog on Africa launched
The Guardian: 1 October 2012
The Guardian, a leading newspaper in the United Kingdom, has launched a new blog on Africa, where participants will debate and discuss contentious issues such as quality of leadership, the legacy of colonialism, identity politics that pitch women's and homosexuals' rights against a form of cultural fundamentalism. What is "Africa" anyway and should it look east, or west, or within? This is one of the main questions posed by this blog. The Guardian intends to showcase strong, sometimes conflicting opinions from inside and outside the continent in collaboration with a dozen independent sites. Partners include solo bloggers from Uganda and Nigeria, collectives from South Africa and Zimbabwe, and pan-African commentators. Some are from established institutions such as the Royal Africa Society's African Arguments or media groups such as the Mail & Guardian's ThoughtLeader and the online magazine Think Africa Press. There's also the development blog A View from the Cave, voices from the diaspora in Africa on the Blog, and the resource site Africa Portal.
New platform: Health in the Post-2015 Development Agenda
This platform, launched and run by the United Nations’ programme, The World We Want 2015, is an open and inclusive consultation space to discuss the role of health in the post 2015 development agenda. The platform is hoping to draw a representative cross section of views and start to build consensus in five key areas: What are the lessons learnt from the health related MDGs? What is the priority health agenda for the 15 years after 2015? How does health fit in the post 2015 development agenda? What are the best indicators and targets for health? And how can country ownership, commitment, capacity and accountability for the goals, targets and indicators be enhanced? The platform is co-convened by the World Health Organisation and the United Nations Children’s Fund, in collaboration with the Government of Sweden, and will run from October to March 2012.
Open access posters for your workplace
Biomed Central: October 2012
Help promote open access research in your work environment by downloading one or the posters on this webpage by Biomed Central, a United Kingdom-based publisher specialising in publishing open access online research. You can print the posters out and display them prominently around your lab, your department and your library to raise awareness of the need for open access research, as well as encourage your colleagues to submit their papers to BioMed Central's journals, which are all open access, so their research will be available to everyone free of charge.
Responding to the HIV-related needs of MSM in Africa: A guide to facilitating a consultation workshop with stakeholders
International HIV/AIDS Alliance: December 2009
This guide has been produced for health activists who want to improve the response to the HIV-related needs of men who have sex with men (MSM) in Africa. It provides a set of activities that may be used when facilitating a meeting with key stakeholders who are responsible for improving local and national responses to HIV among MSM. It includes step-by-step advice about how to run sessions, together with a variety of useful resource material and presentations. It also provides basic information to increase one’s understanding about MSM and, in particular, MSM and the HIV epidemic. The guide is designed to help participants: explore their own attitudes and feelings about working with MSM; identify what is being done already, or has been done elsewhere, that could be usefully adapted to their local setting; and identify and plan a course of action in response to local situations.