Publications

Sustainable chain management maps out the economic, ecological and social effects that occur during the life cycle of a product and focuses on measures that improve the sustainability.

Fin 2001, l’ONUSIDA a initié, en consultation avec le Secrétariat de l’ONUSIDA, les Groupes Thématiques des Nations Unies dans différents pays et les responsables du Département Développement de Réseaux Techniques (TND) de l’ONUSIDA, le développement d’un Recueil de Techniques et Pratiques pour le renforcement des Compétences en matière de lutte contre le SIDA. Ce Recueil d’outils a pour but de renforcer la capacité et les compétences des intervenants au niveau local à répondre aux défis posés par l’épidémie liée à l’infection VIH/SIDA.

No ano 2001, a UNAIDS deu início ao desenvolvimento de uma ‘caixa de ferramentas’ contendo um conjunto de técnicas e práticas para a capacitação na área de AIDS, em um esforço conjunto entre a Secretaria da UNAIDS, com os Grupos Temáticos das Nações Unidas em diferentes países e membros da Rede Técnica da UNAIDS para Repostas Localmente Apropriadas para HIV/AIDS

This manual is an action-oriented document which will facilitate improved coverage and quality of SRH services. Its main target audience are those individuals, alone or as part of the district health management team (DHMT), who have responsibility for the planning and management of sexual and reproductive health/ primary health care services in the district.

Tuberculosis is still one of the major public health problems in the world. Countries in the Eastern Mediterranean Region have been working hard for several years to promote directly observed treatment, short course (DOTS) and reach the regional target of DOTS ALL OVER. As a result, 18 out of 22 countries in the Region have already achieved DOTS ALL OVER. Somalia and Yemen are in the final stage of achieving this target, whilst Pakistan and Afghanistan, currently at 45% and 35% DOTS coverage respectively, are making progress towards achieving DOTS ALL OVER.

In 1992, the government of Mali decided on a policy of reforming the management of public affairs on the basis of decentralisation. Various reasons lay behind this policy option of devolving powers and resources to local government authorities, including the need to deepen the ongoing democratisation process, tackle the problems of local development in a different way, recast the role of the State and promote security and peace. Decentralisation became a reality in 1999, following the organization of the local elections, and resulted in a profound change in the relationship between the State and citizens, while bringing public services closer to the community

This paper explores human resources constraints in health service delivery, especially with regards to specific disease control and provides an inventory of strategies that can be used to overcome constraints. This paper is the edited version of the report on the meeting of the Working Group “Priority Diseases” which is one of the seven working groups of the Joint Learning Initiative currently exploring strategies to address the human resources constraints in health services delivery

Recognising inter-cultural differences in the way people experience and express emotional problems and the difficulties that consequently may arise in properly diagnosing mental health problems, this study seeks to develop and validate a tool for screening psychiatric disorders in Ethiopian populations. The study was carried out in Ethiopia as well as among Ethiopian Jews in Israel, among groups at different levels of exposure to western medicine. It was a collaborative effort between researchers from Israel, Ethiopia and the Netherlands.

This study encompasses the results of a comprehensive survey among different groups of Zambian adolescents concerning sexual behaviour and attitudes which affect the risk of HIV infection and AIDS. It deals with the factors that influence the youngsters’ knowledge about AIDS, their perceptions with regard to prevention and their engagement in risky sexual activities. The study was carried out by a team of Israeli and Zambian researchers between 1997 and 2002.

Nigeria is in the grip of a growing HIV/AIDS epidemic with Benue State recording one of the highest State level infection rates: 13.5% in 2001, which will have a devastating impact on individual lives and livelihoods.

HIV/AIDS is not the only crisis that rural people have to deal with. The downturn in the Nigerian economy is also hitting Benue State. Public investment in infrastructure, water, health, and education facilities is limited, resulting in poor basic service delivery. The economy in Benue mostly depends on agriculture, spin-off activities such as processing, trading and casual labour, and migration. Farming is under stress due to worsening terms of trade, and input markets that are not functioning well. Over the past decade, farming has actually become more labour-intensive per unit of harvest, a development that increases the vulnerability to shocks

Abstract: Sexual torture constitutes any act of sexual violence which qualifies as torture. Public awareness of the widespread use of sexual torture as a weapon of war greatly increased after the war in the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. Sexual torture has serious mental, physical and sexual health consequences. Attention to date has focused more on the sexual torture of women than of men, partly due to gender stereotypes. This paper describes the circumstances in which sexual torture occurs, its causes and consequences, and the development of international law addressing it. It presents data from a study in 2000 in Croatia, where the number of men who were sexually tortured appears to have been substantial. Based on in-depth interviews with 16 health professionals and data from the medical records of three centres providing care to refugees and victims of torture, the study found evidence of rape and other forced sexual acts, full or partial
castration, genital beatings and electroshock. Few men admit being sexually tortured or seek help, and professionals may fail to recognise cases. Few perpetrators have been prosecuted, mainly due to lack of political will. The silence that envelopes sexual torture of men in the aftermath of the war in Croatia stands in strange contrast to the public nature of the crimes themselves

The KIT/ITAD team was invited to carry out an evaluation of DFID’s partnership with WHO within the context of the ISP and the ISP Action Plan, and as a first example of evaluating DFID’s partnership with other multilateral organisations.

“There has never been such an overwhelming move to increase access to medicines in such a short period”. In one sentence, a conference speaker had given participants a view of the magnitude of the debate that conference organizers, KIT, Share-Net and Aids Fonds, ignited when they asked: “3 by 5: what are the implications?” The HIV/AIDS pandemic had been put in the right dramatic context without using dramatic effects. But by referring to the history of public health care, the speaker went beyond the limitations of the conference question, suggesting that traditional approaches will be far from sufficient to address the problem of HIV/AIDS.

Over the past years, poverty reduction has been explicitly driving the development agenda. In 1999, World Bank and the IMF agreed that nationally owned participatory poverty reduction strategies should provide the basis for all concessional lending and for debt relief under the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative. The Poverty Reducation Strategy Papers (PRSPs) put this approach into effect and describe a country’s macroeconomic, structural, and social policies and programs to promote economic growth and poverty

“For example, when I hear that countries are choosing to comply with medium-term expenditure ceilings at the expense of adequate funding of AIDS programs, it strikes me that someone isn’t looking hard enough for sound alternatives. And I recognize that such principles of fiscal discipline are in place for good reason, but surely there must be means of accommodating vast new inflows without stirring economic demons.“
Peter Piot

This article is about taking stock of experiences of mainstreaming gender. It addresses two related concerns. First, that after three decades of feminist activism in the field of development – both at the level of theory and practice – most development institutions have still to be constantly reminded of the need for gender analysis in their work, policymakers have to be lobbied to “include” the “g” word and even our own colleagues need convincing that integrating a gender analysis makes a qualitative difference. Second, by constantly critiquing their own strategies, feminist advocates have changed their approaches, but institutional change continues to be elusive (except in a few corners).

In developing countries, medicines may account for 30–40% of health expenditure. Many of these payments are made by individuals purchasing medicines for selfmedication and only rarely on prescription. Understanding how and why consumers make the choices they do is the critical fi rst step to intervening to ensure that these precious resources are spent as safely and productively as possible. This manual is a successor to the 1992 WHO publication, How to Investigate Drug Use in Communities, a small but important book that has been reprinted eight times. A year later came How to Investigate Drug Use in Health Facilities. Since then numerous courses have been held and many studies undertaken, with valuable experience gained in understanding the use of medicines in health facilities and communities. This manual’s authors have been leaders in the movement to better understand and improve medicines use in the community