The South South North (SSN) network adopts a pragmatic approach to tackling climate change and sustainable development. This module incorporates the main approaches and provides a toolkit for practitioners wishing to implement mitigation and/or adaptation in communities in developing countries. These tools and methodologies are gleaned from a learning-by-doing approach from projects implemented in countries like South Africa, Tanzania and Mozambique. The SSN mitigation programme describes the SSN Matrix Tool of criteria and indicators for appraising sustainable development projects. The SSN adaptation programme details the community based approach to adaptation (CBA) and details the SSN Adaptation Project Protocol ‘SSNAPP’ methodology, including the selection of community-based projects, and ‘mapping’ of vulnerable areas. This is followed by a ‘bottom-up’ approach of identifying a beneficiary community, to confirm vulnerability ‘hotspots’ and learn about current coping mechanisms to incorporate into an adaptation strategy. The SSN capacity building approach deals with indicators of sustainability. The SSN technology receptivity programme describes the steps for identifying and contributing to the technical receptivity and capacity of the programme.
Useful Resources
Developed in direct consultation with researchers, the newly launched open beta version of the UK PubMed Central (UKPMC) site offers a whole range of new search and data mining tools designed to unlock the scientific knowledge held by the repository. It will enable researchers to search and link information from literature and drill down into underlying datasets in new and innovative ways. The easy-to-use, intuitive interface developed by the British Library for the latest open beta version will enable researchers to: conduct a full-text search of 1.7 million articles; access abstracts for over 19 million articles; exploit the scientific literature with innovative features that enrich abstracts and full-text articles by linking scientific terms to other sources of quality-assured and useful information; and search content not included in traditional journal literature – including clinical guidelines, as well as other hard-to-find material such as PhD theses.
According to this paper, health impact assessment (HIA) provides an important decision-making tool through which health issues can be addressed upstream in development planning and design. HIA proposes a systematic process to screen, scope, assess, appraise and formulate management plans to address key issues in development project implementation. While most African countries have a framework for environmental impact assessment (EIA), few have adequate capacity for HIA, which is still at a relatively early stage of development compared to other types of impact assessment globally. Partly because the importance of HIA is not yet well understood by policy makers in Africa, the tool has not been used to support development processes, including large-scale infrastructure projects. In addition to the lack of awareness of HIA, low technical competencies and inadequate institutional arrangements hinder the application of the process in Africa. The development of national HIA capacity building is the main means through which to respond to these challenges. This paper explains how to implement the HIA process.
The official launch of the pre-decision and information kit on migration and women health workers was held on the 9th of December, 2009, at the Parktonian Hotel in Johannesburg. The launch was attended by representatives from the National Department of Health (NDH), the International Labour Organization (ILO), Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC) and affiliates of the Public Services International (PSI) in South Africa, including a number of trade unions. The pre-decision and information kit was prepared by the National Working Group (NWG), composed of representatives of PSI affiliates in South Africa. The objective of the pre-decision information kit was to provide as much information as possible to professional women health workers intending to leave or enter South Africa for work. It provides a wide range of information from cost of living comparisons, terms and conditions of employment, cultural and language dynamics, workers’ rights and referral organisations to assist and guide health workers to make informed decisions or help them in cases of possible abuse. The launch of the toolkit came at an opportune time a few days before International Migrants Day, which is commemorated on the 18th of December each year.
In this paper, the authors argue that the successful application of technologies for the management of environmental risks to human health relies on a country’s capacity to assess risks and potential health impacts, as well as develop and implement appropriate policies, monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of these policies, and engage and communicate with stakeholders. The authors identify the main challenges to most African countries as lack of access to relevant tools and reduced the capacity to deliver vital evidence-based knowledge on the links between the environment and health. The translation of evidence into policies and programmes is often a complex issue, and legal and regulatory frameworks in Africa remain largely limited or ineffective. This paper describes useful tools for policy making and proposes that governments integrate health and environmental impact considerations into economic development processes, identify knowledge gaps, support local applied research to build technical capacity and strengthen cooperation among key actors to answer practical policy questions.
With the goal of improving health service delivery on a global scale, this new portal offers a one-stop-shop where users can efficiently search for, organise, adapt and use up-to-date, evidence-based health information. The portal features a search tool, powered by Google Search Appliance, that enables users to quickly find resources from select sources, including the K4Health site, a range of health databases, and top quality health web sites, in addition to the web. Toolkits are available to give users access to specialised collections of resources on family planning, reproductive health, and population and environment. A toolkit application has also been supplied that allows users to design, develop, and share their own toolkits. Discussion forums have been set up to provide users with access to a community of experts around the world.
The Africa4All project will provide the participating African countries of Kenya, Lesotho, Namibia, Tanzania and Uganda with an information and communication technologies (ICT) solutions that will enable citizens and politicians to better appreciate the impact of legislation, making the complex political debate meaningful and interesting for all citizens. The overall objective of the Africa4All project is to help African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) governments build sustainable capacity to adapt and implement international good practice in leveraging ICT in Parliaments of ACP States. The specific objectives of the project are to educate members of Parliament, Parliamentary ICT staff and citizens to leverage technology to support collaboration and active engagement in decision making processes in society, to identify the challenges and barriers from the introduction of ICT in everyday functioning of Parliaments and to contribute to the bridging the digital divide, enhancing the use of ICT as key enablers for poverty reduction.
Debates and struggles over how to define a problem are a critically important part of the policymaking process. The outcome of these debates and struggles will influence whether and, in part, how policymakers take action to address a problem. Efforts at problem clarification that are informed by an appreciation of concurrent developments are more likely to generate actions. These concurrent developments can relate to policy and programme options (e.g. the publication of a report demonstrating the effectiveness of a particular option) or to political events (e.g. the appointment of a new Minister of Health with a personal interest in a particular issue). This article suggests questions that can be used to guide those involved in identifying a problem and characterising its features: What is the problem? How did the problem come to attention and has this process influenced the prospect of it being addressed? What indicators can be used, or collected, to establish the magnitude of the problem and to measure progress in addressing it? How can the problem be framed (or described) in a way that will motivate different groups?
Policymakers and those supporting them may find themselves in a number of situations that will require them to characterise the costs and consequences of options to address a problem. For example, a decision may already have been taken and their role is to maximise the benefits of an option, minimise its harms, optimise the impacts achieved for the money spent, and (if there is substantial uncertainty about the likely costs and consequences of the option) to design a monitoring and evaluation plan. Research evidence, particularly about benefits, harms, and costs, can help to inform whether an option can be considered viable. This article offers questions that can be used to guide policymakers: Has an appropriate set of options been identified to address a problem? What benefits and harms are important to those who will be affected? What are the local costs of each option, including cost-effectiveness? What adaptations might be made? Which stakeholder views and experiences might influence an option's acceptability and its benefits, harms and costs?
Evidence about local conditions is evidence that is available from the specific setting(s) in which a decision or action on a policy or programme option will be taken. Such evidence is always needed, together with other forms of evidence, in order to inform decisions about options. Global evidence is the best starting point for judgements about effects, factors that modify those effects, and insights into ways to approach and address problems. But local evidence is needed for most other judgements about what decisions and actions should be taken. This article suggests five questions that can help to identify and appraise the local evidence that is needed to inform a decision about policy or programme options: What local evidence is needed to inform a decision about options? How can the necessary local evidence be found? How should the quality of the available local evidence be assessed? Are there important variations in the availability, quality or results of local evidence? How should local evidence be incorporated with other information?