Health
HealthAlthough in parts of South Sudan the situation is unstable which necessitates humanitarian action, in other parts of the country development programmes are taken up with the communities. In Northern and Western Bahr el Ghazal states, Aweil North and Wau county respectively, the South Sudan Health Action and Research Project (SHARP) works on improving reproductive… Read more
This rapid review looks at the evidence on Early Childhood Development (ECD) models (including integrated approaches) in Malawi and in the Sub-Saharan African region, looking at the impact on child development and learning. Most of the evidence from Malawi focuses on Community Based Childcare Centres (CBCC) which are the main centre based model for ECD… Read more
The value of syphilis testing in early pregnancy has been gaining recognition in recent years. Mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of the disease is estimated to be responsible for between 2-4% of all neonatal deaths in sub-Saharan Africa in the 2010 Global Burden of Disease Study. This makes a clear case for strengthening the prevention of MTCT (PMTCT)… Read more
The market for menstrual hygiene products in developing countries is expanding rapidly, driven both by private demand and by public efforts to improve girls’ educational outcomes and women’s health and dignity. However, many women and girls cannot consistently afford the monthly cost of disposable menstrual products and revert to less hygienic solutions when facing cash… Read more
The post-conflict or post-crisis period provides the opportunity for wide-ranging public sector reforms; social norms are in a state of uncertainty, donor funds are available and there is often a political will for change and to ‘build back better’. Health system reform can improve the quality and accessibility of health care; increase the effectiveness and… Read more
A training approach for community health volunteers increased skilled birth attendance rates in six rural districts in Zambia by 63 percent from baseline over a two-year period. The training approach was developed for adult community health volunteers operating in a low literacy context. The UK aid-funded Mobilising Access to Maternal Health Services in Zambia (MAMaZ)… Read more
An astonishing transformation is taking place that has until now been absent from mainstream development thinking: global ageing. Its absence is even more surprising as the evidence makes clear that demographic changes are affecting developing countries the most. Currently about one in ten of the population is aged 60 or over; but within a generation… Read more
There is a growing movement advocating for an increased focus on resourcing the control and treatment of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), ie The Lancet NCD Action Group and the NCD Alliance. The proponents of tackling NCDs often quote figures for NCD impact in LMICs without discussing disparities between socio-economic groups. The rapid search for this report… Read more
The organised efforts of societies have resulted in the most remarkable improvements in child and maternal survival, control and eradication of major infectious diseases and fertility control that have resulted in population ageing – an underlying cause of the increase in non-communicable diseases – over the last 50 years. We now need to seek ways… Read more
Low and middle income countries are faced with a range of challenges related to providing efficient and affordable health care. With non-communicable diseases (NCD) on the rise, there is a growing need to be able to estimate resource requirements, costs and expected impact associated with various investment strategies related to prevention and control of NCD…. Read more
There has been increasing global interest in documenting funding flows for health, but none of that work has focused on the Pacific region. This paper outlines external funding for two specific areas of overseas development assistance (ODA) for health in the region—HIV/AIDS and non-communicable diseases (NCDs)— during 2002-09. These are compared to the comparative disease… Read more