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Participatory Research Toolkit (Rain Barrel Communications, 2018)

This toolkit gathers together a wide variety of participatory research tools developed over a 20-year period and used in multiple social and behaviour change communication (SBCC) projects around the world. Examples are provided from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Mozambique, Nepal, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone.

All of the tools presented have been tried and tested. A majority of them have been used with adolescents. However, children, women, men, key influentials and, indeed, whole communities have used them.

The tookit provides an overarching description of the tool as a whole, next, there is a list of topics and countries where the research team has had first-hand experience of working with these tools, and then there is a selection of concrete examples. Finally, each tool is accompanied by suggested “how-to’s” with step by step instructions, tips and techniques that have been employed in real-world settings.

Click here for full toolkit.

Effectiveness of Community Dialogue in Changing Gender and Sexual Norms for HIV Prevention: Evaluation of the Tchova Tchova Program in Mozambique (Journal of Health Communication, 21:5, 554-563, 2016)

Abstract: Structural HIV prevention interventions have gained prominence as ways to address underlying social and cultural factors that fuel the HIV epidemic. Identifying theories that explain how structural interventions are expected to change such factors can substantially increase their success. The Tchova Tchova community dialogue program, a theory-based intervention implemented in 2009–2010 in the provinces of Zambezia and Sofala, Mozambique, aimed to change gender and sexual norms for HIV prevention. Through facilitated sessions, the program sparked critical thinking and open dialogue among participants. This article measures the program’s effectiveness based on a sample of 462 participants and 453 nonparticipants. The results show that the program was successful in producing changes in three of the underlying structural factors of HIV: gender attitudes, gender roles, and HIV stigma. The program was also successful in changing other factors associated with HIV infection, including HIV prevention knowledge, discussion of HIV between sex partners, and having multiple sex partners.

Click here for full paper.

Accountability for Health Equity: Galvanising a Movement for Universal Health Coverage (IDS Bulletin 49:2, 2018)

Since the publication of the 2004 World Development Report, a range of different attempts have been made to make the design, prioritisation and delivery of health services more accountable to different stakeholders. However, complex politics and power dynamics can limit or skew people’s abilities to access services or hold them to account, particularly for poor and marginalized people.

In July 2017, the IDS hosted a workshop in collaboration with Future Health Systems, the Impact Initiative, the Open Society Foundations, Unequal Voices, and Health Systems Global, to develop new thinking and practical approaches to improving accountability relationships and processes in favour of greater health equity.

This new issue of the IDS Bulletin focusses on three principal themes that emerged from this workshop as needing particular attention. First, the nature of accountability politics ‘in time’ and the importance of longitudinal approaches to change. Second, the contested politics of ‘naming’ and measuring accountability, and the intersecting dimensions of marginalisation and exclusion that are missing from current debates. Third, the shifting nature of power in global health and new configurations of health actors, social contracts, and the role of technology.

Click here for full bulletin.

Nutrition Knowledge Bank (GSMA mNutrition Initiative that provides advice via mobile phones)

A new open-access Knowledge Bank aims to deliver nutrition information to three million people in 12 developing countries.

The Knowledge Bank, part of the GSMA mNutrition initiative to help tackle malnutrition in Africa and Asia, is a collection of content on good nutritional practices and includes downloadable factsheets and mobile messages.

Adequate nutrition is critical to the physical and mental development of children and to long-term human health, but one out of three people in developing countries suffers from micronutrient deficiency. Experts consider poor access to agricultural and health information a major barrier to the uptake of improved nutritional practises, particularly by women and vulnerable groups in marginalized areas.

mNutrition delivers content to people at risk of malnutrition in Bangladesh, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. An expert consortium on nutritional matters—BMJ, CABI, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and Oxfam International—is partnering with local organizations in these countries to produce useful and reliable nutritional, agricultural and health information, which is then distributed through mobile phone networks in each country.

The Nutrition Knowledge Bank is searchable by country and subject. The messages and factsheets are available in several local languages and take into account the differing cultural contexts. The topics covered include breastfeeding advice for new mothers, practical tips for rearing dairy cows and growing healthier crops for human consumption.

The Nutrition Knowledge Bank can be found at: https://www.cabi.org/nutritionkb

Contested and Under Pressure: A Snapshot of the Enabling Environment of Civil Society in 22 Countries (CIVICUS 2017)

Between 2013 and 2016, civil society in 22 countries carried out an Enabling Environment National Assessment (EENA). The EENA is a civil society-led process that analyses the extent to which national conditions enable the work of civil society.
The EENA analysis explores in particular how laws and regulations relating to civil society are implemented in practice, and how they impact on civil society. The assessments, led by national civil society partners, employed a common methodology that encompassed interviews with key stakeholders, consultations, focus groups and desk research. In every country, six core dimensions were assessed: the ability of civil society groups to form, operate and access resources -all aspects of the freedom of association – plus the freedoms of peaceful assembly
and expression, and relations between civil society and governments.
Overall the EENA assessments reveal a picture of an environment for civil society that is volatile, contested and often under pressure, but also with some optimism in some contexts about the potential for progress.

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