Useful Resources

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.

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.

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.

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.