Blogs
This blog, written by Alex Jones, originally appeared on the Oxford Policy Management website and is reposted with their permission. The answer to the question ‘would you rather give birth in 1900 or 2018’ might depend on where in the world you are. In 1900 in Sweden, before the construction of modern hospitals or the… Read more
A ‘learning partner’ formative evaluation of StiR Education’s Intrinsic Motivation model STiR Education’s scaling model is predicated on delivering through the system, not just working alongside it. There are no parallel programme delivery structures: STiR works directly with system level roles at the middle tier, including Teacher Development Coordinators (TDCs) and Mentor Teachers (MTs). The… Read more
This report examines four not-for-profit school chains, run by non-governmental organisations in low-income contexts. These are Fe y Alegría, the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (better known by its acronym BRAC), Gyan Shala and Zambia Open Community Schools. These school chains have succeeded in reaching marginalised students and expanding access to hard-to-reach groups. The evidence also… Read more
Vimal Kumar, principal consultant in the Oxford Policy Management Health team, discusses the importance of procurement and supply chain management in supporting effective policy reforms. Ensuring availability, affordability, and quality of commodities (for example medicines) to provide services to the patients is one of the key outcomes which procurement and supply chain management establishes. This… Read more
In 2017 the Canadian IDRC concluded a six-year programme supporting research organisations in Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lebanon, Peru and Vietnam in the development and testing of solutions to strengthen health systems through information technology. The programme under the title ‘Strengthening Equity through Applied Research Capacity building in eHealth’ (SEARCH) set out four objectives:… Read more
The aim of this review was to present the recent evidence on the effectiveness of inclusive and special education approaches in improving learning and behavioural outcomes, with a focus on developing countries, particularly Ethiopia. One of the key difficulties surrounding inclusive education in developing countries is the lack of research about education in these countries…. Read more
Between 2013 and 2017, Education Development Trust designed and delivered a large-scale education reform programme in Kenya, intended to improve the life chances of some particularly disadvantaged girls. This was funded by the UK government Department for International Development (DFID) as part of the UK global Girls’ Education Challenge (GEC) Step Change programmes. Education Development Trust called their project ‘Wasichana Wote Wasome’ (WWW); Kiswahili for ‘let all girls… Read more
While online learning holds increasing potential for high quality learning opportunities in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, there are reputed to be challenges, in particular legal frameworks that do not allow for the recognition of online degrees. However, increasingly institutions need to provide flexible access to tertiary education for people who may be working, have… Read more
Kenya has some of the highest rates of maternal and neonatal mortality in the world at 360/100,000 and 22/1,000 live births respectively. Translated into numbers – this equates to about 7000 maternal deaths and 29,000 neonatal deaths per year in Kenya. The DFID-funded Reducing Maternal and Neonatal Death in Kenya programme aims to reduce mortality… Read more
This report focuses on the specific challenges and opportunities of states that are making two challenging concurrent transitions, away from both extreme poverty and from conflict. First, they are ‘countries where the longer term prospects of the poor to escape poverty are overall good, but not necessarily secure or sustainable, and at risk of development… Read more
This annual review assesses the outputs of the Increasing sustainable access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) programme, and how they contribute to expected outcomes and their sustainability. The review also includes updated recommendations for improving integration of gender into WASH programming and assesses the implementation of the… Read more