If you’re working in civil society and looking to sharpen your skills in communicating effectively with the media about your work against poverty, the environment and other issues – especially if you’re presenting research from the South – then this online resource may be most helpful. The Civil Society Gateway aims to reduce isolation of civil society organisations, experts and other individuals by bringing them together in one place, where they can communicate on a wide range of themes. Easily searchable by geography and theme, this tool helps journalists and the media find the sources they need from civil society to produce their stories. The Civil Society Gateway was made possible through a partnership between CIVICUS (World Alliance for Citizen Participation) and the Inter Press Service (IPS), with the support of Oxfam Novib.
Useful Resources
Fifteen years after the International Conference on Population Development, a large global family of development workers committed to universal access to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) continue to work on improving the lives and expanding the choices of individuals and couples. This guide considers reproductive health as a human right, while it notes that reproductive health conditions are the leading cause of death and illness in women of childbearing age worldwide. At least 200 million women who want to plan their families or space their births lack access to safe and effective contraception. Investments in reproductive health save and improve lives, slow the spread of HIV and encourage gender equality. These benefits extend from the individual to the family and from the family to the world. Yet resources allocated for improving SRH are scarce and needs are urgent. The guide aims to help practitioners to use limited resources in the most effective way. Contributors to the guide have developed and used many tools and methodologies to promote SRH – these are streamlined in the guide for the busy programme manager at national or district level.
The European Union (EU) established this projects database in December 2008. It ‘includes information about projects, conferences, and operating grants funded through calls for proposals in the years 2003 to 2008 under the previous EU Public Health Programme and the current EU Health Programme 2008-2013’.
This guide is an attempt to help humanitarian aid agencies look a generation into the future to begin making the necessary changes now to their thinking and organisation, to ensure that they continue to deliver the right assistance and protection to the right people in the right ways. It examines possible future scenarios and the consequences they may bring with them for humanitarian agencies. Three central themes emerge: the emergence of a ‘new humanitarianism’ that will be part of neither the humanitarian nor development systems; the continued growth of information, communication and technology tools; and strategic leadership that is central to humanitarian action in an increasingly uncertain world. Navigating these dynamics is noted to require leadership that is comfortable with ambiguity and risk, drawing on evidence and data, but not constrained by its absence. According to the guide, agencies need a leadership that encourages dissent and experimentation, in organisations that are flatter, able to implement functions of both ground delivery and global analysis.
The AIDS and Law Exchange (AIDSLEX) is a new website that may be used as an online resource tool for activists, community organisations, researchers, policy-makers, journalists, health workers and anyone who seeks quick and easy access to a wide range of resources about HIV, human rights and the law. It helps people around the world communicate and share information, materials and strategies, with the ultimate goal of contributing to a global effort to protect and promote the human rights of people living with or vulnerable to HIV and AIDS.
African Networks on Ethnomedicines, the publisher of African Journal of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicines (AJTCAM) has launched an interactive forum for traditional medical practitioners. It is hoped that it will prove to be a useful resource for traditional medical practitioners and others in uplifting the standard of traditional medicines and alternatives medicines. In order to post on this forum, you may register with your username and password. If you have registration problems, enable cookies on your browser.
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.
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.