This study sought to investigate the facilitators, best practices and barriers of integrating family planning data into the district and national Health management information systems in Uganda. The authors conducted a qualitative study in Kampala, Jinja, and Hoima Districts of Uganda, based on 16 key informant interviews and a multi-stakeholder dialogue workshop with 11 participants. The technical facilitators of integrating family planning data from public and private facilities in the national and district Health management information systems were user-friendly software; web-based and integrated reporting; and availability of resources, including computers. Organizational facilitators included prioritizing family planning data; training staff; supportive supervision; and quarterly performance review meetings. Key behavioural facilitators were motivation and competence of staff. Collaborative networks with implementing partners were also found to be essential for improving performance and sustainability. Significant technical barriers included limited supply of computers in lower level health facilities, complex forms, double and therefore tedious entry of data, and web-reporting challenges. Organizational barriers included limited human resources; high levels of staff attrition in private facilities; inadequate training in data collection and use; poor culture of information use; and frequent stock outs of paper-based forms. Behavioural barriers were low use of family planning data for planning purposes by district and health facility staff. Family planning data collection and reporting are integrated in Uganda’s district and national health management information systems. Best practices included integrated reporting and performance review, among others. Limited priority and attention is given to family planning data collection at the facility and national levels. Data are not used by the health facilities that collect them. The authors recommend reviewing and tailoring data collection forms and ensuring their availability at health facilities. All staff involved in data reporting should be trained and regularly supervised.
Monitoring equity and research policy
Female adolescents living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) face lifelong challenges in reproductive and sexual health ranging from relational, social and legal-ethical considerations. A visual method and storybook research innovation was used with young female adolescents in Malawi that initiate sex as early as 15 years, mostly with adult partners, given their reluctance to discuss sexual matters through more direct questions during interviews. The researchers thus used invoke youth-friendly research approaches to address these issues and enable these vulnerable individuals to articulate their experience and advocate their preferred changes.
Female circumcision--also known as female genital mutilation--is widely practiced in some parts of Sudan. Information about attitudes toward the practice, the reasons why women support it and the social and demographic predictors associated with support for it are needed for development of eradication strategies.
Beyond health care, the economic evaluation of social welfare programmes is rare but the demand for such evaluation is rising. To encourage greater use of economic evaluation, undoubtedly social welfare researchers need to gain a better understanding of the philosophy behind such evaluation and the methodologies necessary to carry these out in practice.
In a major step forward for the open access movement, universities at Berkeley, Cornell, Dartmouth and Harvard, as well as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have announced a joint commitment to provide their researchers with central financial assistance to cover open access publication fees, and encouraged other academic institutions to join them. The aim of the Compact for Open Access Publication Equity (COPE) is to create a level playing field between subscription-based journals (which institutions support centrally via library budgets) and open access journals (which often depend on publication fees). The Compact commits each university ‘the timely establishment of durable mechanisms for underwriting reasonable publication charges for articles written by its faculty and published in fee-based open-access journals and for which other institutions would not be expected to provide funds.’
The challenge of improving healthcare information in countries with meagre resources will require more than just highlighting insufficiencies, according to this editorial. The right to access health information is a key component of a strong health system, but to be effective it requires evaluation and synthesis of evidence, translation of evidence into educational materials, and implementation and dissemination. Health information is key to improving weak health systems. If governments are legally obliged to support the right to access reliable health information, what can be done to ensure that they do so? It is suggested that a legal approach may not work, but that locating access to reliable health information within the broader human rights framework may generate benefit from the momentum of human rights advocacy.
This paper provides a summary of the empirical and policy-related literature on the multifaceted relationships between gender inequalities and foreign direct investment (FDI). It reviews the research on the impact of FDI on investment, productivity, trade, employment, wages and working conditions.
For many years, economic indicators were considered the ultimate measure of a country’s well-being. But the general happiness of a country doesn’t always correlate with its wealth. In fact, economic indicators don’t match up with a number of important indicators about well-being. Hence the Social Progress Index, an initiative from the Social Progress Imperative and Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter that examines how 50 countries perform on 52 indicators related to basic human needs, the foundations of well-being, and opportunity. The index looks at social and environmental outcomes directly rather than proxies of economic indicators. These social and environmental components include personal safety, ecosystem sustainability, health and wellness, shelter, sanitation, equity and inclusion, and personal freedom and choice. Each component is calculated based on specific outcomes: health and wellness, for example, is determined by life expectancy, obesity, cancer death rate, and other factors. The author argues that the index will allow businesses to better articulate the purpose they serve, and how business can collectively shape, influence and be a co-collaborator in some of the bigger social progress issues.
As part of the lead up to the October 2000 International Conference on Health Research for Development in Bangkok, the Council on Health Research for Development (COHRED) called upon its associates around the world to reflect on achievements and setbacks in the 1990s. This book is the result of those reflections. In Forging Links for Health Research, a team of international experts record the important lessons of the past decade and suggest what must be done in the research arena to ensure a healthy future for all. It follows up on the landmark publication Health Research: Essential Link to Equity in Development (Oxford University Press, 1990) and is unique in its combination of evocative human stories and expert insight from international health researchers. Forging Links for Health Research will be of interest to academics, researchers, students, and policymakers in public health, epidemiology, health sciences, international health, development studies, and international affairs; professionals in donor organizations, development organizations, and NGOs worldwide; and concerned citizens, particularly health-care workers, interested in international affairs and Third World development.
Participants at Forum 2012, held in Cape Town in April 2012, have argued that it is a misconception that developing countries rely purely on international aid, as they remain the major funders of research in their countries, despite finding it difficult to meet recommended targets for research and development spending. They called for greater collaboration with neighbouring countries, such as pooling resources and knowledge, as well as better cooperation between different sectors within countries to drive improved health outcomes. Innovation was also identified as a key factor in compensating for the lack of infrastructure and resources, especially in the form of new information and communication technologies (ICTs), with virtual collaboration, sharing of data and mobile health technology to reach rural areas, being some of the exciting possibilities. At the Forum, participants had the opportunity to share experiences on how to set their own priorities for research, build capacities and provide incentives for innovation, with the need to always ensure the involvement of communities in setting the priorities for health research being a strong and recurring theme. Also high on the Forum 2012 agenda was the issue of women’s health, although it was stressed that the focus should be on sexual and reproductive health and not simply on maternal health.