R4D Infrastructure

Streams of innovation: Improving people’s lives through research on water and food. Reflections from the 3rd International Forum on Water and Food, South Africa, November 2011

Wed, 23 May 2012 08:36 GMT

Document Type: Report

Production Year: 2012

Citation: CPWF. Streams of innovation: Improving people’s lives through research on water and food. Reflections from the 3rd International Forum on Water and Food, South Africa, November 2011. The CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food, Colombo, Sri Lanka (2012) 32 pp.

Summary: The 3rd International Forum on Water and Food (IFWF3), convened in Tshwane, South Africa during November 2011. IFWF3 demonstrated the value of CPWF’s multi-stakeholder, research-for-development approach. The Forum report, entitled “Streams of innovation: Improving people’s lives through research on water and food“, synthesizes the main outcomes and issues identified at the IFWF3 and serves as a benchmark CPWF, midway through its second phase.

The IFWF3 highlighted the need to link technical options to institutional change. Options such as intensifying and diversifying farm systems with markets and infrastructure development or ensuring that policies are responding to local realities are emerging from CPWF projects. Likewise, CPWF is taking innovative approaches to spatial analysis and modelling that are demonstrating valuable insights for understanding processes and the consequences of change.

The Forum also highlighted the need to develop and communicate solid evidence in generating the desired impacts on household livelihoods and food security.

Association between health workforce capacity and quality of care for children under five in Afghanistan

Fri, 11 May 2012 06:53 GMT

Document Type: Conference Paper
Creator: Edward, A.; Kumar, B.; Niayash, H.; Peters, D.H.; Burnham, G.

Production Year: 2011

Citation: Edward, A.; Kumar, B.; Niayash, H.; Peters, D.H.; Burnham, G. Association between health workforce capacity and quality of care for children under five in Afghanistan. Presented at 28th ISQua Conference, Hong Kong. (2011) 5 pp.

Summary: Objective: To determine the association between health workforce capacity and quality of care in primary care facilities providing a basic package of health services (BPHS) in Afghanistan.

Methods: Since 2004, annual performance assessments were conducted nationally in >600 health facilities including district hospitals, on a sample of >2300 patients under five years, and >1300 health providers selected by stratified random sampling. The assessments included health system capacity measures for provider adequacy, knowledge and training, infrastructure, essential medicines, equipment and availability of clinical guidelines. Quality of care was defined as adherence to the WHO Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) clinical guidelines. The findings presented in this study include data from 2005 to 2008.

Results: There was a progressive increase in workforce capacity over the study period, as more health facilities adhered to the BPHS standards for provider staffing Basic Health Centres 75.9% to 85.4% (p<0.001), Comprehensive Health Centres 27.4% to 37.6% (p< 0.03) and District Hospitals (33.3% to 38.1%). Quality of patient assessment and counselling improved significantly for all IMCI index indicators between 2005 and 2008, except for assessment of diarrhoeal symptoms. Health facilities with adequate staffing capacity had significantly higher adherence to IMCI clinical standards of care for years 2006, 2007, and 2008. Other variables significantly associated with quality of care were provider cadre, provider gender, age of child, caretaker gender, consultation time, provider knowledge and satisfaction, and availability of clinical guidelines. High patient volume was also significantly associated with better quality of care in 2005 and 2008.

Conclusions: Investments for enhancing the capacity and quality for health service delivery in Afghanistan have illustrated improved health system performance trends measured by the balanced score card since the inception of the basic package of health services. However, severe deficits in professional workforce, particularly in remote and unsecure areas, and the acceleration of internal and external migration, pose enormous challenges to sustaining the gains achieved in service quality and coverage. Aside from ensuring adequacy of the workforce, appropriate investments are required to improve opportunities for professional development and capacity-building, to ensure the competency and satisfaction of health providers delivering care in insecure and complex healthcare environments.

ELLA Policy Brief: Water and climate change: improving access and management in semi-arid Brazil

Fri, 04 May 2012 08:24 GMT

Document Type: Briefing
Creator: South South North

Production Year: 2011

Citation: South South North. ELLA Policy Brief: Water and climate change: improving access and management in semi-arid Brazil. ELLA, Practical Action Consulting, Lima, Peru (2011) 5 pp.

Summary:

Water security is becoming increasingly problematic in semiarid regions as a result of climate change. In response, Brazil’s federal government implemented two large programmes to build water infrastructure and facilitate access. However, the initiatives had a limited focus on water management, a gap that was filled by civil society to help put water to its most productive use. This brief describes these complementary initiatives, focusing on offering useful lessons learned for readers in other regions.

Key Lessons:

Policies and practices focusing on both water supply and use have to be implemented in parallel.
Promoting efficient water use seems to work best when combining community education by civil society groups with disseminating simple, cost-effective technology.
Water infrastructure, such as rainwater harvesting dams and wells, when combined with drip irrigation, will help farmers continue to produce as rain-fed agriculture becomes more difficult due to climate change.

Water, sanitation, and hygiene in emergencies: summary review and recommendations for further research

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 04:57 GMT

Document Type: Journal Article
Creator: Brown, J.; Cavill, S.; Cumming, O.; Jeandron, A.

Production Year: 2012

Citation: Brown, J.; Cavill, S.; Cumming, O.; Jeandron, A. Water, sanitation, and hygiene in emergencies: summary review and recommendations for further research. Waterlines (2012) 31 (1) 11-29. [DOI: 10.3362/1756-3488.2012.004]

Summary: Water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions can interrupt diarrhoeal disease transmission and reduce the burden of morbidity and mortality associated with faecal-oral infections. We know that rapid response of effective WASH infrastructure and services can prevent or lessen the impact of diarrhoeal outbreaks that can exacerbate the human suffering accompanying humanitarian crises. In this review summary, we present an overview of current knowledge about what works to prevent disease in emergency WASH response. We know that providing safe water, safe excreta disposal, and basic hygiene measures such as hand washing with soap are effective interventions both within emergency settings as well as in longer-term development, but innovation and further research are needed to make WASH response more effective. We propose key areas for critical research to support the evidence base for WASH interventions in emergencies and promote innovation.

Policy Brief No. 47. From farmer participation to pro-poor seed markets: the political economy of commercial cereal seed networks in Ghana

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 06:44 GMT

Document Type: Briefing
Creator: Amanor, K. S.

Production Year: 2012

Citation: Amanor, K. S. Policy Brief No. 47. From farmer participation to pro-poor seed markets: the political economy of commercial cereal seed networks in Ghana. (2012) 7 pp.

Summary: Since the 1980s public research systems in seed production in sub-Saharan Africa have increasingly come under pressure to privatise. In Ghana, however, privatisation has been complex and fragmented since farmers are largely dependent upon their own seeds and are reluctant to purchase improved seed. With few large investors willing to approach an industry that has not yet established itself, the development of seed investment is predicated on creating a social infrastructure for improved seeds; this will gradually build demand among farmers and integrate them into improved seed, input and food processing markets. This FAC Policy Brief employs a political economy analysis to examine dominant political interests in the seed industry.

Estimating inequities in sanitation-related disease burden and estimating the potential impacts of pro-poor targeting

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 07:39 GMT

Document Type: Report
Creator: Rheingans, R.; Cumming, O.; Anderson, J.; Showalter, J.

Production Year: 2012

Citation: Rheingans, R.; Cumming, O.; Anderson, J.; Showalter, J. Estimating inequities in sanitation-related disease burden and estimating the potential impacts of pro-poor targeting. (2012) 49 pp.

Summary:

The objectives of this study are to model for 10 low-income countries (Kenya, Malawi, Ethiopia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Nigeria, Bangladesh, India and Tanzania) in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia:

1. The distribution of sanitation-related health burden by wealth quintile.
2. The distribution of health benefits for targeting different wealth quintile groups.
3. The spatial distribution of sanitation-related health burden and benefits.

This work used existing household survey data from the Demographic and Health Surveys for the 10 countries to estimate disparities in sanitation-related services, exposures, susceptibility, burden and impact of infrastructure improvements.

Rift Valley Products - cotton production and ginnery

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 09:42 GMT

Document Type: Case Study
Creator: AECF

Production Year: 2011

Citation: AECF. Rift Valley Products - cotton production and ginnery. (2011) 7 pp.

Summary: The Rift Valley Products (RVP) company restored and took a long term lease on the disused Salawa ginnery in 2009 and cotton production began its revival in the Kerio valley of Kenya. The RVP has also promoted cotton production in Western Kenya and Pokot. The business model is to promote enough production locally to make the Ginnery commercially viable, while impacting on the local economy through smallholder capacity building in an old trade that is new to this generation. AECF has provided a match-funded grant of $1.3million to improve ginnery infrastructure.

Economic Crisis and Forest Cover Change in Cameroon: The Roles of Migration, Crop Diversification, and Gender Division of Labor

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 06:10 GMT

Document Type: Journal Article
Creator: Sunderlin, W.D.; Pokam, J.

Production Year: 2002

Citation: Sunderlin, W.D.; Pokam, J. Economic Crisis and Forest Cover Change in Cameroon: The Roles of Migration, Crop Diversification, and Gender Division of Labor. Economic Development and Cultural Change (2002) 50 (3) 581-606. [DOI: 10.1086/342358]

Summary: This article attempts to explain how changes in population dynamics and smallholder agriculture have led to increased deforestation in the period of the crisis in Cameroon. These foci are justified by the fact that population growth and shifting cultivation are generally viewed, respectively, as the main cause and agent of deforestation in Central Africa in general and in Cameroon in particular. Other factors contributing to deforestation and forest degradation in Cameroon are logging and the construction of transportation infrastructure.

How IAVI builds scientific capacity in developing countries

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 03:13 GMT

Document Type: Fact Sheet
Creator: International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI)

Production Year: 2012

Citation: International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI). How IAVI builds scientific capacity in developing countries. International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), New York, USA (2012) 2 pp.

Summary: IAVI and its partners have established an international network of clinical facilities and laboratories, building technical infrastructure and cultivating human resources to conduct vaccine trials and related epidemiological studies. This fact sheet examines this work in more detail.

Challenges of controlling sleeping sickness in areas of violent conflict: experience in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 07:47 GMT

Document Type: Journal Article
Creator: Tong, J.; Valverde, O.; Mahoudeau, C.; Yun, O.; Chappuis, F.

Production Year: 2011

Citation: Tong, J.; Valverde, O.; Mahoudeau, C.; Yun, O.; Chappuis, F. Challenges of controlling sleeping sickness in areas of violent conflict: experience in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Conflict and Health (2011) 5 (1) 7. [DOI: 10.1186/1752-1505-5-7]

Summary:

Human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), or sleeping sickness, is a fatal neglected tropical disease if left untreated. HAT primarily affects people living in rural sub-Saharan Africa, often in regions afflicted by violent conflict. Screening and treatment of HAT is complex and resource-intensive, and especially difficult in insecure, resource-constrained settings. The country with the highest endemicity of HAT is the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which has a number of foci of high disease prevalence. We present here the challenges of carrying out HAT control programmes in general and in a conflict-affected region of DRC. We discuss the difficulties of measuring disease burden, medical care complexities, waning international support, and research and development barriers for HAT.

In 2007, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) began screening for HAT in the Haut-Uélé and Bas-Uélé districts of Orientale Province in northeastern DRC, an area of high prevalence affected by armed conflict. Through early 2009, HAT prevalence rate of 3.4% was found, reaching 10% in some villages. More than 46,000 patients were screened and 1,570 treated for HAT during this time. In March 2009, two treatment centres were forced to close due to insecurity, disrupting patient treatment, follow-up, and transmission-control efforts. One project was reopened in December 2009 when the security situation improved, and another in late 2010 based on concerns that population displacement might reactivate historic foci. In all of 2010, 770 patients were treated at these sites, despite a limited geographical range of action for the mobile teams.

In conflict settings where HAT is prevalent, targeted medical interventions are needed to provide care to the patients caught in these areas. Strategies of integrating care into existing health systems may be unfeasible since such infrastructure is often absent in resource-poor contexts. HAT care in conflict areas must balance logistical and medical capacity with security considerations, and community networks and international-response coordination should be maintained. Research and development for less complicated, field-adapted tools for diagnosis and treatment, and international support for funding and program implementation, are urgently needed to facilitate HAT control in these remote and insecure areas.