Publications

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is one of the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa with the highest maternal mortality ratio estimated at 846 deaths per 100,000 live births. Innovative strategies such as social accountability are needed to improve both health service delivery and utilization. Indeed, social accountability is a form of citizen engagement defined as the ‘extent and capability of citizens to hold politicians, policy makers and providers accountable and make them responsive to their needs.’ This study explores existing social accountability mechanisms through which women’s concerns are expressed and responded to by health providers in local settings.

Laboratories are an essential and fundamental part of all health systems and their goal to improve health. Reliable and timely laboratory-investigation results are fundamental elements in decision-making in almost all aspects of health services and so directly affect the health and well-being of individuals and countries. Reliable and timely laboratory services are also crucial to a nation’s health security and economy and its ability to meet obligations such as the International Health Regulations. Approximately 60–70% of medical decisions are based on laboratory results. The ongoing outbreak of Ebola virus disease in west Africa has highlighted not only the crucial role of a strong health system in responding to public health emergencies but also the immense cost of ignoring this need. Within such a strong health system, effective high-quality (accredited) laboratories and response networks must be on the front line/

The women’s movement in Zimbabwe has gone through highs and lows in its long history of mobilizing at different levels and on various issues. The first years of the 2000s were such ‘low’ ones that many afterwards wondered whether the women’s movement still existed. Yet new initiatives have emerged and grown, and contexts are changing. New generations and new modes of organizing and agency have taken shape, and significant successes in legal reform have taken place. This paper thus reframes the question about the status of the Zimbabwean’s women’s movement and explores how it is reconfiguring itself and continuing to exist. We first document recent methods of organizing and mobilizing by women in Zimbabwe and look both at new players and new forms of action. Secondly,
we seek to document the movement’s achievements and challenges since the turn of the millennium. The focus will be on organizing through women’s NGOs. The women’s movement in Zimbabwe comprises many actors, key among them women’s NGOs and clubs; women in political parties and the labour movement; women’s religious associations and women’s professional or business associations. In this paper, however, the women’s movement refers to organizing through women’s NGOs. In documenting new players and new forms of action, as well as identifying challenges and achievements, the paper seeks to reflect on and rethink the women’s movement and its status in the contemporary Zimbabwean context. This also provides a basis for reflection on strategies for
transformative change and their underlying theories of change, and on how women’s organizing engages with the state in the pursuit of gender equality and women’s rights.

Every year, farmers in sub-Saharan Africa suffer from unacceptable levels of crop loss as a result of plant health problems, threatening their food security, income and livelihoods

The project “Wealth creation through integrated development of potato production” (WCPP) was aimed at addressing constraints faced by potato producers in Ethiopia, and in doing so improving the wealth and livelihoods of potato producers. The project ran from 2008-2012.

Bringing a group of diverse but interdependent stakeholders together to build and stimulate the cassava and maize sectors both goes “against the grain” and “to the roots” of agricultural development in West and Central Africa. It requires new thinking and new organizational constellations, alongside an appreciation and inclusion of long-standing actors in these food crop systems. These actors include men and women farmers, primary processors, transporters, traders, researchers, extension workers, policymakers and input suppliers, to name just a few.

This report presents a synthesis of findings on factors influencing the performance of closeto-community (CTC) providers. It is based on research conducted in six countries: Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi and Mozambique, and also on evidence from an international literature review that investigated factors influencing the performance of CTC providers. These studies were carried out as part of the first phase of the REACHOUT consortium — ‘Reaching out and linking in: health systems and close-tocommunity services’ — funded by the European Union. This report describes an analytical framework for examining the factors influencing the performance of CTC providers.