Publications

TUBERCULOSIS (TB) is an increasing public health problem, presently accounting for 3% of global mortality.1 To tackle this problem, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends the directly observed treatment, short course (DOTS) TB control strategy, which entails the use of short- course regimens of effective drug combinations, direct supervision of treatment for at least the first 2 months, and evaluation of treatment for each patient.2 As a broad TB control strategy, DOTS also includes drug supply, monitoring and case detection based on microscopy. Directly observed treatment (DOT), as opposed to DOTS, refers to the treatment component alone.

This publication is based on a study carried out between February 1997 and August 2000 by researchers from Nicaragua, Israel and the Netherlands. It identifies the pros and cons of the participation of rural households in production cooperatives in Nicaragua and their motives for affiliation with various other types of rural organisations, such as secondary service cooperatives, farmers’ associations, traders’ networks, rural finance institutions, NGOs and development projects. It presents an innovative approach which makes use of the concept of social capital.

This booklet presents the synthesis of the project “Local knowledge and local action in the Mandara mountains, North Cameroon”. The project encompassed the studies of one Dutch and two Cameroonian PhD researchers, which were carried out from 1994-1998. The project was co-funded by the Netherlands Israel Development Research Programme (NIRP), while fellowships from WOTRO (the Netherlands) and the French government were granted for the work of Zuiderwijk and Hiol Hiol, respectively. What is presented here as the project results refers to all the activities of the researchers, irrespective of their funding source. The emphasis is, however, on policy-relevant issues.

This strategy paper takes stock of “best practice” experiences in supporting communities in their response to HIV/AIDS in several countries in Africa. It draws lessons from Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Malawi, Nigeria, and Tanzania and sheds light on methods that a growing number of organizations and individuals use to foster behavior change among people living in rural areas.