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.
Useful Resources
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.
Mobile fundraising is emerging as a new tool for organisations to identify potential donors to raise money. Mobile phones are being used across the world to raise money for social causes such as disaster relief, poverty, cancer research, rescuing abandoned animals and supporting other human needs. This manual examines the effectiveness of non-profit and non-governmental organisations using mobile phones to build their constituent lists, influence political causes, support case studies and raise money. Areas covered include: mobile fundraising for humanitarian relief, partnerships between charities and commercial entities, harnessing media and the entertainment industry, the interplay between donors and activists, and calculating the return on your investment in mobile fundraising. It concludes with some examples of mobile fundraising and the lessons learnt.
This assessment guide leads you through a five-step process to document aspects of the denial of the right to health care in your country. It suggests how to lobby and set up activist strategies for addressing the violations you identify. The steps, in brief, aim to answer the following questions. Step 1: What are your government’s commitments? Step 2: Are your government’s policies appropriate to fulfill these obligations? Step 3: Is the health system of your country adequately implementing interventions to realize the right to health and health care for all? Step 4: Does the health status of different social groups and the population as a whole reflect a progression in their right to health and health care? Step 5: What does the denial or fulfillment of the right to health in your country mean in practice? In this final step, you should systematically contrast the obligations outlined in Step 1 with the realities documented in Steps 2, 3 and 4, and briefly highlight the main areas of denial of health rights in your country.
Primary health care is at the heart of the plans to transform the health services in South Africa. This document provides an integrated package of essential primary health care services available to the entire population will provide the solid foundations of a single, unified health system. It as the driving force in promoting equity in health care. The document sets out the norms and standards that are to be made available in the essential package of primary care services, for individuals to see what quality of primary care services they can expect to receive. It also acts as guidance for provincial and district health authorities to provide these services. The document contains norms and standards for clinic and community services. A noorm is defined as a statistical normative rate of provision or measurable target outcome over a specified period of time.
A standard is defined as a statement about a desired and acceptable level of health care. Standard setting takes place within specific dimensions of quality -- acceptability, accessibility, appropriateness, continuity, effectiveness, efficiency, equity, interpersonal relations, technical competence and safety. The most important dimensions have been chosen for each service.
Clinical trial reports usually give estimates of treatment effects, their confidence intervals and p values. But what do these terms mean? The statistical methods and their technical meaning are well established. However, there is less clarity about the concise interpretative wording that authors should use, especially in the abstract and conclusions and by others in commentaries. This article offers guidance and assumes that one short sentence needs to capture the essence of a trial's findings for the primary endpoint. It explains technical terms simply and aims to help researchers to achieve this objective in their writing.
With some of the worst health indicators and the least adequate health services in the world, providing health services and rebuilding health systems in fragile states is a complex undertaking. This Health and Fragile States dossier highlights the challenges and approaches to delivering health services in fragile states. The dossier covers a number of issues and poses a number of questions. What are fragile states? How can the health-related Millennium Development Goals be met in these states? What are the best approaches for delivering health services in fragile states? How can the World Health Organization’s six building blocks for health systems strengthening be used as a framework for planning and priority-setting in fragile states? What are the implications of the international aid effectiveness agenda for the building of resilient and responsive states to deliver basic services?
Visualizing Information for Advocacy: An Introduction to Information Design is a manual aimed at helping NGOs and advocates strengthen their campaigns and projects through communicating vital information with greater impact. This project aims to raise awareness, introduce concepts, and promote good practice in information design – a powerful tool for advocacy, outreach, research, organisation and education. Effective communcation is essential for any organisation to operate properly, and the guide covers all aspects of business communication. It is part of a programme of work by Tactical Technology Collective to promote research, development and design in the public interest.