scholarly journals Health Planning in 1960s Africa: International Health Organisations and the Post-Colonial State

2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (4) ◽  
pp. 425-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Manton ◽  
Martin Gorsky
Keyword(s):  
International Development ◽  
Health Planning ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
International Health ◽  
The United States ◽  
Development Planning ◽  
World Health ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Existing Structures

This article explores the programme of national health planning carried out in the 1960s in West and Central Africa by the World Health Organization (WHO), in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Health plans were intended as integral aspects of economic development planning in five newly independent countries: Gabon, Liberia, Mali, Niger and Sierra Leone. We begin by showing that this episode is treated only superficially in the existing WHO historiography, then introduce some relevant critical literature on the history of development planning. Next we outline the context for health planning, noting: the opportunities which independence from colonial control offered to international development agencies; the WHO’s limited capacity in Africa; and its preliminary efforts to avoid imposing Western values or partisan views of health system organisation. Our analysis of the plans themselves suggests they lacked the necessary administrative and statistical capacity properly to gauge local needs, while the absence of significant financial resources meant that they proposed little more than augmentation of existing structures. By the late 1960s optimism gave way to disappointment as it became apparent that implementation had been minimal. We describe the ensuing conflict within WHO over programme evaluation and ongoing expenditure, which exposed differences of opinion between African and American officials over approaches to international health aid. We conclude with a discussion of how the plans set in train longer processes of development planning, and, perhaps less desirably, gave bureaucratic shape to the post-colonial state.

scholarly journals How Loud and Clear Rung the Alarm Bell: The Communication Efforts of WHO on the Beginning of COVID-19 Outbreak

2021 ◽  
pp. 002073142110249
Author(s):  
Huriye Toker
Keyword(s):  
Risk Communication ◽  
International Development ◽  
International Health ◽  
Well Being ◽  
World Health ◽  
The Public ◽  
News Releases ◽  
The Media ◽  
Credible Information ◽  
Health Organization

As seen clearly from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, health is an important foreign policy and diplomatic issue connected with security, economic well-being, and international development. According to risk communication researchers, effective, transparent, and timely information sharing is the most important tool after vaccines for responding to pandemics. This study aims to start a scholarly discussion on the risk communication efforts of the World Health Organization (WHO) during the COVID-19 outbreak. We analyzed WHO’s communication efforts during the first 3 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the leading international health organization, WHO was responsible for providing rapid, up-to-date, and credible information for the public and the media. The selected research items were 42 news releases and statements provided by WHO between December 31, 2019, and March 30, 2020. These were subjected to qualitative and quantitative content analyses using the NVivo 12 qualitative analysis software program for coding. The data were coded under 6 variables (date of publication, topics, frequency, wording of the COVID-19 outbreak, sourcing, and themes of the releases). While 54.7% of WHO's communications were devoted to the COVID-19 outbreak, more than half were not issued until March. That is, instead of early risk communication and clear warnings about the outbreak, WHO acted overcautiously, preferring messages related to solidarity and cooperation during the most devastating pandemic of the 21st century.

scholarly journals Malaria continues to select for sickle cell trait in Central Africa

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (22) ◽  
pp. 7051-7054 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Elguero ◽  
Lucrèce M. Délicat-Loembet ◽  
Virginie Rougeron ◽  
Céline Arnathau ◽  
Benjamin Roche ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sickle Cell ◽  
Sickle Cell Trait ◽  
Genetic Disorder ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
The United States ◽  
Malaria Prevalence ◽  
Current Data ◽  
World Health ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Health Organization

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a genetic disorder that poses a serious health threat in tropical Africa, which the World Health Organization has declared a public health priority. Its persistence in human populations has been attributed to the resistance it provides to Plasmodium falciparum malaria in its heterozygous state, called sickle cell trait (SCT). Because of migration, SCT is becoming common outside tropical countries: It is now the most important genetic disorder in France, affecting one birth for every 2,400, and one of the most common in the United States. We assess the strength of the association between SCT and malaria, using current data for both SCT and malaria infections. A total of 3,959 blood samples from 195 villages distributed over the entire Republic of Gabon were analyzed. Hemoglobin variants were identified by using HPLCy (HPLC). Infections by three species of Plasmodium were detected by PCR followed by sequencing of a 201-bp fragment of cytochrome b. An increase of 10% in P. falciparum malaria prevalence is associated with an increase by 4.3% of SCT carriers. An increase of 10 y of age is associated with an increase by 5.5% of SCT carriers. Sex is not associated with SCT. These strong associations show that malaria remains a selective factor in current human populations, despite the progress of medicine and the actions undertaken to fight this disease. Our results provide evidence that evolution is still present in humans, although this is sometimes questioned by scientific, political, or religious personalities.

No Longer Overlooked and Undervalued? The Evolving Dynamics of Endogenous Educational Research in Sub-Saharan Africa

2006 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
RICHARD MACLURE
Keyword(s):  
International Development ◽  
Educational Research ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Research Capacity ◽  
The United States ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Research Network ◽  
Research Networks ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Local Research

Multilateral donors like the World Bank and bilateral agencies such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the British Department for International Development exert a great deal of influence in international educational development — particularly in sub-Saharan Africa — both in the programs they fund and the types of research they engage in. In this article, Richard Maclure investigates educational research in Africa and juxtaposes research done by large, exogenous, Western, results-oriented organizations with research performed by smaller, endogenous, local researchers aided by local research networks. Maclure argues convincingly that research that falls into the exogenous "donor-control" paradigm far too often is irrelevant to the African educational policy context and does little to develop local research capacity. The cases of two African research networks — the Educational Research Network of West and Central Africa and the Association for the Development of Education in Africa—are presented as exemplars of organizations that promote an alternative type of research that is endogenous, relevant to policy and the process of policymaking, and controlled by Africans. Maclure concludes with a call for increased support for and development of these types of networks, and for the development of the long-term solution to educational research in Africa — the university.

The Development Advisory Team (DAT) Training Program at Iowa State University

1982 ◽  
Vol 4 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 22-24
Author(s):  
D. Warren
Keyword(s):  
International Development ◽  
The United States ◽  
Development Planning ◽  
Project Design ◽  
State University ◽  
Iowa State University ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Political Ideologies ◽  
Consulting Firms ◽  
New Directions

Since 1973, The United States Agency for International Development's "New Directions" policies have required that international development projects be designed and evaluated from a more complex multidisciplinary format, adding social soundness analyses to problems of economic, financial, and technical analyses. Due to personnel constraints, USAID includes non-Agency persons on project design and evaluation teams. They frequently rely on international development consulting firms to identify and assemble the non-Agency members of these teams. More often than not the team members, assembled at short notice from different universities and agencies, have never met each other prior to the assignment, have had no previous experience in the country or region to be visited, may be unfamiliar with USAID procedures and expectations, and are anything but a "team." The different approaches of these "team" members to development planning, combined with different personalities and political ideologies, can be difficult constraints to overcome in short-term project design and evaluation assessments.

scholarly journals Politics and Health at the WHO Regional Office for South East Asia: The Case of Portuguese India, 1949–61

2017 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 380-400
Author(s):  
Monica Saavedra
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
International Health ◽  
Health Policies ◽  
World Health ◽  
South East Asia ◽  
Regional Office ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The Face

This paper analyses how the 1950–61 conflict between Portugal and India over the territories that constituted Portuguese India (Goa, Daman and Diu) informed Portugal’s relations with the World Health Organization’s Regional Office for South East Asia (SEARO). The ‘Goa question’ determined the way international health policies were actually put into place locally and the meaning with which they were invested. This case study thus reveals the political production of SEARO as a dynamic space for disputes and negotiations between nation-states in decolonising Asia. In this context, health often came second in the face of contrasting nationalistic projects, both colonial and post-colonial.

scholarly journals GLOBAL STANDARDS FOR PROSTHETICS AND ORTHOTICS

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward D Lemaire ◽  
Terry J Supan ◽  
Marlo Ortiz
Keyword(s):  
International Development ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
The United States ◽  
World Health ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
Global Standards ◽  
Agency For International Development ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
People With Physical Disabilities ◽  
Service Standards

Over the past decade, essential documents and agreements have emerged to help improve the lives of people with physical disabilities. These include Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), ratified by more than 170 countries, and the World Health Organization (WHO) global disability action plan. While the principles in these broad agreements can be applied to people who would benefit from assistive technology, specific service standards are required to operationalize the CRPD and WHO objectives. Therefore, WHO, in partnership with the International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics (ISPO) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), prepared global standards and an implementation manual to assist Member States in setting up, improving, or transforming their systems for delivering appropriate prosthetic and orthotic services. Article PDF Link:https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/cpoj/article/view/31371/23745 How to cite: Lemaire ED,  Supan T,  Ortiz M. Global  Standards  for  Prosthetics  and  Orthotics.  Canadian  Prosthetics  &  Orthotics  Journal.  Volume1, Issue2, No.3, 2018. DOI: https://doi.org/10.33137/cpoj.v1i2.31371

Historical Amnesia, or, the Logic of Capital Accumulation: Cotton Production in Colonial and Postcolonial Mozambique

1997 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 757-790 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alien Isaacman
Keyword(s):  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Structural Adjustment ◽  
Development Planning ◽  
Cotton Production ◽  
Politics Of Memory ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Adjustment Program ◽  
The Impact

In this article, the very different cotton production schemes that the state introduced in colonial and post-colonial Mozambique are explored. Three distinct periods in the history of cotton production are examined. In the first, the focus is on the impact of cotton cultivation on the daily lives of peasants trapped in a highly coercive labor regime which Portugal imposed in 1938 and enforced for almost a quarter of a century. An outline of the abortive attempt of the newly independent FRELIMO government to revitalize cotton production from 1977 to 1985 as part of its broader socialist agenda to transform the countryside, is given next, and the study is concluded with a discussion of recent state efforts to promote joint cotton ventures under the guise of the IMF—World Bank structural adjustment program. An analysis of these changing cotton regimes offers a way of exploring a wide set of issues in the sustainability debate, The Mozambican cotton scheme demonstrates the extent to which state development planning often is not only about either social or ecological sustainability but also about control, power, and effectively silencing the rural poor by experts disconnected from the countryside. It is also stressed that the politics of memory is an important dimension of the sustainability debate and the broader ideological struggles which it reflects. Try as they might, neither the colonial state nor the postcolonial state could control how peasants constructed and interpreted the past. The official representations of cotton as a path to progress, whether on a capitalist or a social road, were simply dismissed by most growers who knew better.

Praxis of Technology and Tools in COVID-19 Response

2021 ◽  
pp. 4808-4814
Author(s):  
Padmavathy K M ◽  
Rohith Sharan S ◽  
Noorzaid M ◽  
Rehanna M
Keyword(s):  
Correct Diagnosis ◽  
Treatment Guideline ◽  
International Health ◽  
The United States ◽  
Response Strategy ◽  
World Health ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Medical Field ◽  
Coronavirus Infection ◽  
Health Organization

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has affected around forty million people worldwide and causing over a million deaths. Since no treatment guideline is considered the most efficient, and with no vaccine approved for prophylaxis, currently the COVID-19 response demands efficient use of available technology and tools in medical field for controlling the disease. The knowledge and experience gained from the epidemics of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), Ebola, and Zika virus play a pivotal role in this pandemic response. The required technologies and tools are adapted from the existing technologies and are modified to serve the purpose of COVID-19 response which is applied in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of Coronavirus infection. The technologies applied at the prevention stage aims at limiting the spread of infection by using personal protective equipment, contact-tracing, and modelling. At the stage of diagnosis, technologies are used efficiently and the correct diagnosis of infected cases is done by molecular, immunological testing and radiological imaging. Artificial-Intelligence is employed in building applications that use the available information and radio-images to aid in differential diagnosis of Coronavirus infection. The treatment in COVID-19 incorporates technology in both in-patient and remote care of the cases. Though the COVID-19 response strategy differs from country to country, it is devised based on the recommendations made by the international health authorities such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention of the United States (NCDCP-US). The controlling of the pandemic depends on the collective effort of all nations which rest on efficient scientific communication and in the advancement of the medical field.

scholarly journals 50 States or 50 Countries: What Did We Miss and What Do We Do Now?

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 353-357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick M. Burkle ◽  
Asha V. Devereaux
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Management ◽  
International Health ◽  
The United States ◽  
Population Based ◽  
World Health ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Music Department ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
And Control

AbstractThere have been multiple inconsistencies in the manner the COVID-19 pandemic has been investigated and managed by countries. Population-based management (PBM) has been inconsistent, yet serves as a necessary first step in managing public health crises. Unfortunately, these have dominated the landscape within the United States and continue as of this writing. Political and economic influences have greatly influenced major public health management and control decisions. Responsibility for global public health crises and modeling for management are the responsibility of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Health Regulations Treaty (IHR). This review calls upon both to reassess their roles and responsibilities that must be markedly improved and better replicated world-wide in order to optimize the global public health protections and its PBM.“Ask a big enough question, and you need more than one discipline to answer it.”Liz Lerman, MacArthur “Genius” Fellow, Choreographer, Modern Dance legend, and 2011 Artist-in Residence, Harvard Music Department

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