Publications

Innovation Platforms are fast becoming part of the mantra of agricultural research for development projects and programmes. Their basic tenet is that stakeholders depend on one another to achieve agricultural development outcomes, and hence need a space where they can learn, negotiate, and coordinate to overcome challenges and capture opportunities through a facilitated innovation process. This important publication provides a critical analysis of Innovation Platforms, their defining features, key functions, and what they can and – as importantly – cannot do.

Purpose of this project was to review the completeness and quality of the proposal to support the assessment of the review by the Sida health advisor in Myanmar. As a follow up to an earlier mission.

The United Nations International Children’s Fund State of Palestine (UNICEF SoP) has contracted the KIT-Juzoor consortium to conduct an external evaluation of the Post Natal Home Visiting (PNHV) programme for postnatal mothers, neonates and their families implemented in Gaza in a humanitarian context. This final report describes the purpose of the evaluation, the methodology used, its limitations and key evaluation finding and pointers towards recommendations in relation to the PNHV programme in Gaza. The evaluation covers the period 2011 until the end of 2016. This evaluation was rated as highly satisfactory and as one of the best evaluations of 2018 by UNICEF global.

This paper presents findings from a study which sought to understand why health workers working under the results-based financing (RBF) arrangements in Zimbabwe reported being satisfied with the improvements in working conditions and compensation, but paradoxically reported lower motivation levels compared to those not working under RBF arrangements.

This project consists of:
– A brief account of the existing situation in SRHR in Ethiopia with regards to SRHR policy priorities for SIDA and work by UNFPA.
– Mapping of organisations/ key actors in SRHR, including IPPF´s affiliate Family Guidance Ethiopia, PSI, DKT, MSI, CORHA (network for SRHR organisations), IPAS, Packard Foundation the format of a matrix.
-Recommendation on possible themes/ actors for SIDA to work on/with.

This paper dives into past impact evaluations of nutrition sensitive agricultural programs to unpack the different approaches to how they analysed women’s empowerment. It focuses on evaluation objectives, evaluation design methodologies and choice of indicators. The paper applies a women’s empowerment lens to agricultural-nutrition pathways framework to understand how nutrition sensitive programs addressed women’s role and influence (or lack thereof) in relation to key decision making moments along the pathways. These include decisions on what is produced, what is sold and how income is used, and how these influence what is consumed in the household and by whom. The household, and intra household dynamics, are the level that the analysis of the impact evaluations specifically looks at.

Can a motivational intervention create greater respect for the sexual and reproductive rights of groups that are currently denied their rights? The case of men having sex with men in Bangladesh.

The assignment would be aimed at producing a short background document which can increase our understanding of the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) within the framework of Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

The baseline study of the YES I DO (YID) programme found, among other issues, that initiation ceremonies stimulate young people to experiment with sex, leading to teenage pregnancy and consequently (child) marriage. This study was initiated to explore how initiation ceremonies have evolved over the last 30 years and especially how they have impacted on youth sexual and reproductive health behaviour.

In many low- and middle-income countries, agribusinesses are deeply engaged in providing services to small- and medium-scale farmers. Such services can include agricultural advisory services or extension. Yet this phenomenon of agribusiness-based advisory services (ABAS) has received relatively little attention in the study of and discussions on advisory services (Babu & Zhou, 2016; IDH, 2016, 2017). This is a critical oversight, as agribusinesses are increasingly present as service providers, and hence shape the prevailing service landscape for smallholder farmers. Importantly, agribusinesses face various challenges in their role as service providers, with impacts both on the agribusinesses themselves and on their ability to contribute to inclusive agricultural development.

YES I DO. is a strategic alliance of five Dutch organizations which main aim is to enhance the decision making space of young people about if, when and whom to marry as well as if, when and with whom to have children.

Aquaculture development in Cambodia is recent compared to its neighbouring countries in South East Asia. Production has been growing in the last decade, whilst imports of farmed fish from Vietnam and Thailand remain high. Despite general availability of land and less polluted water in Cambodia, the value chain (VC) is suffering from low sanitary standards of inputs and products. Nevertheless, there is significant potential for growth and diversification of species and fish farming systems, in order to supply the domestic and regional markets more efficiently

This document provides an executive summary of a larger report on “Enhancing the effectiveness of agriculture-to-nutrition pathways: key insights from a gender analysis of impact evaluation design”. See main report for detail on references and recommendations, including links to additional resources and the promising approaches.

Brief mapping of donors and global programmes on SRHR in SSA as input in the Mid-Term Review of implementation of the Swedish Strategy on SRHR in SSA

Despite a decline in child marriage (CM) in the last decade, an estimated 12 million girls under 18 are married each year. To end the practice by 2030 — the target set out in the Sustainable Development Goals — progress must be significantly accelerated. The Yes I Do Alliance (YIDA), comprising Plan International Netherlands(lead organization), Amref Flying Doctors, CHOICE for Youth and Sexuality, KIT Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) and Rutgers works on ending CM, female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and teenage pregnancy (TP).

Epidemiology is the cornerstone of global health. It shapes policy decisions and evidence-based practice by identifying disease risk factors and preventive healthcare targets.

Although Zambia is endowed with natural water resources that offer significant opportunities, about 50% of the estimated fish demand is unmet. Zambian capture fisheries are operating at a fully exploited or over-exploited level. Aquaculture production is beginning to respond to the ever-increasing demand for fish, along with imports that have increased markedly

Review of UNFPA Strategic plan 2018 – 2021 Integrated results and resource framework

Although there are no statistical data showing the relationship between child marriage and the rate of divorce, there are indications that child marriage contributes to divorce rates in Indonesia. Research on child marriage conducted by PLAN International (2015) in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia found that the objection of young people to child marriage was considered to cause disharmony, conflicts and domestic violence in marital relations, and sometimes divorce. Studies on divorces in the context
of child marriage in Indonesia are few and the study presented in this report is an attempt to fill this research gap.

Agricultural innovation systems are complex, multi-layered, and can be difficult to define and analyse. In this paper, we provide examples of ‘systems analysis’: describing the context, what was done, and how the outcomes informed broader research and development activities. The five cases describe analyses of: i) agricultural systems in North-West Vietnam; ii) household food security in Central Vietnam; iii) agricultural innovation systems in Central Africa; iv) wheat commodity systems in Sub-Saharan Africa, and v) the national agricultural research system in Papua New Guinea.