Exploring “Intersectoral Collaboration” towards the Integration of Indigenous Knowledge into Adult Education Programs in North Wollo, Ethiopia

Integration of indigenous knowledge into adult education recognizes collaboration based on indigenous frameworks and methodologies and gives more attention to people’s history, politics, cultural beliefs, and philosophical views. The most important beginning phases and tasks in promoting indigenous-based learning are establishing a responsive organizational structure that helps to identify and agree on what roles and responsibilities are played by each concerned stakeholder. Considering this in mind, this study aimed to explore intersectoral coordination and their participation in the integration of indigenous knowledge into adult education. In doing so, a qualitative research approach and a case-study design were employed. The study sample was composed of adult education experts and coordinators. Data was obtained through interviews, FGD, and document analysis. Furthermore, thematic analysis was the centre of this study data analysis. As a result, the study finding revealed that stakeholders’ coordinated effort has been observed that lacks consistency in supporting indigenous-based adult education programs due to their deprived collaboration and the presence of not functional administrative structure. This makes the provision and the integration of indigenous-based knowledge systems into adult education sporadic in its coverage of indigenous learning contents and experiences.

Food Marketing to Children in Iran: Regulation that Needs Further Regulation

Increased exposure to advertising of unhealthy food products is one of the main risk factors for the increased prevalence of childhood obesity and non-communicable diseases. This scoping review aimed to investigate the characteristics and effects of food advertisements targeted at children in Iran and review the existing regulations on food marketing targeted at children in the country. In this study, we searched Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, Google, and Google scholar, in addition to Iranian scientific search engines, including Iranian Research Institute for Information Science and Technology (Iran.doc), Scientific Information Database (SID), Iranmedex, Magiran, and Civilica up to December 2020 to find any literature about food marketing to children in Iran and current related regulations and policies in the country. A total of 23 eligible studies were selected for this review. Most of the studies had focused on television as the media to assess. The main food products advertised with reference to children included: Salty snacks, including cheese puffs, chips, cheese fish snacks, puffed corn, and sweet snacks such as ice creams, cakes/biscuits/cookies and candies, beverages/drinks/soft drinks/fruit juices, dried fruits and fruit rolls, and chocolates. Strategies that most commonly used in marketing foods to children in Iran were emotional appeals, misleading messages/claims, use of music and known characters to children, as well as conveying happiness and/or security. The main reported violation of food regulations included using obese children, either as consumers or presenters of the product. In Iran the advertising of unhealthy food products for the general population is banned; however, it is weakly implemented. There are a limited number of regulations that have addressed children explicitly in this regard. The main barriers identified in partial implementation of regulations included weakness in scientific criteria, legal enforcement guarantee, poor intersectoral collaboration, inadequate infrastructures, and poor monitoring. Policies and regulations in food marketing need to clearly address children as an important audience. It is suggested future policies focused on children cover all forms of food marketing and consider all types of persuasive food marketing strategies targeted at children.

Lifetime prevention of cardiovascular disease. Part III: young, middle, elderly and senile age

Intensive investigation of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors (RFs), both traditional (smoking, dyslipidemia, diabetes, etc.) and non-traditional, which are a component of the so-called exposome, as well as their non-drug and drug correction provide wide prospects for effective cardiovascular prevention. Prevention becomes the dominant trend in cardiology and in medicine in general. The aim of the article was to describe cardiovascular prevention in young, middle, elderly and senile age. Due to the multifaceted nature of cardiovascular RFs, an integrated biopsychosocial approach, individual and population-based prevention, cumulative risk assessment of all CVDs, intersectoral collaboration and the involvement of decision-makers, are key to the success and effectiveness of prevention measures. It is important to note that, on the one hand, preventive measures should be started as early as possible due to cumulative effect of RFs, on the other hand, most of the preventive interventions for CVD are extremely relevant at all life stages.

To what extent does early childhood education policy in Australia recognise and propose action on the social determinants of health and health equity?

Early childhood education (ECE) and development is internationally recognised as important to child health and wellbeing and to enabling children to become healthy productive adults. This paper analyses Australian ECE policy current in 2019. It uses the institutional framework of ideas, actors and institutions to determine the extent to which ECE policy recognises and acts on social determinants of health and health equity. We found that the policies supported integrated approaches, intersectoral collaboration and partnerships with parents and families. Evidence was important in formulating the ideas underpinning ECE policy. ECE was widely recognised as a social determinant of health, and the impacts of other social determinants of health and health equity were acknowledged. The ECE policies tended to be future-focused and not respond to social determinants that influence children and their families in the present time. The policies lacked strategies to address social determinants, or to engage with other sectors for this purpose. While some policies focused on breaking the cycle of disadvantage, they did not explore potential policy responses to pathways from intergenerational disadvantage to reduce poverty. Despite this, Australian ECE policy has achieved significant coherence, with shared understandings of the purpose and benefits of ECE.

Integration of a Palliative Approach in the Care of Older Adults with Dementia in Primary Care Settings: A Scoping Review

A palliative approach to care aims to meet the needs of patients and caregivers throughout a chronic disease trajectory and can be delivered by non-palliative specialists. There is an important gap in understanding the perspectives and experiences of primary care providers on an integrated palliative approach in dementia care and the impact of existing programs and models to this end. To address these, we undertook a scoping review. We searched five databases; and used descriptive numerical summary and narrative synthesizing approaches for data analysis. We found that: (1) difficulty with prognostication and a lack of interdisciplinary and intersectoral collaboration are obstacles to using a palliative approach in primary care; and (2) a palliative approach results in statistically and clinically significant impacts on community-dwelling individuals, specifically those with later stages of dementia. There is a need for high-quality research studies examining the integrated palliative approach models and initiation of these models sooner in the care trajectory for persons living with mild and moderate stages of dementia in the community.

ENHANCING CAPACITY FOR LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN CREATING VIBRANT, PRODUCTIVE AND SUSTAINABLE RURAL COMMUNITIES

Since the advent of South Africa’s democracy, there have been many pressing questions; one of which has been: ‘to what extent has the newly found political and civil freedoms, which is guaranteed for all South Africans, translated into an a more economically-viable life?’ This research investigated whether local economic development (LED) interventions necessarily improve the livelihoods of poor communities. The methods used were hinged upon the interpretivist paradigm, using literature as a basis of enquiry. Furthermore, semi-structured interviews with target groups (eg. project beneficiaries, government officials, municipal manager, town mayor, etc) were conducted, followed by focus group-style interviews with key stakeholders. The study found that sound economic development vision may thrive if linked to the following: clear policy guidance, institutional capacity building, intersectoral collaboration, political will and real empowerment.

Supported Independent Accommodation for Older New Zealanders: a Review of Current Policy and Innovative Practice

<p>Existing research establishes a clear link between poor housing and poor health. There is also growing evidence that the physical, mental and social wellbeing of individuals and households can be improved by ensuring their access to suitable accommodation. Despite the growing body of research documenting the benefits of supported independent accommodation (SIA) as a means of maintaining the independence and wellbeing particularly of older people, there is little research evaluating the place of such accommodation within the New Zealand context. This thesis aims to address that gap. It reviews the existing body of literature surrounding this topic - exploring population and accommodation demographics, and analysing government policy in relation to both housing and health. It considers six New Zealand examples of SIA - each selected on the basis of their distinctiveness and innovation - documents these, and compares them using a case study approach. Adopting a general inductive methodology, each case study is then analysed against themes identified in the literature review, identifying any further trends, and the implications of these for ongoing policy and service development. Intersectoral collaboration is identified as having had particular bearing upon the development of SIA within the New Zealand context. This thesis concludes that SIA will play an increasingly important role in the continuum of accommodation and care for older people. It offers an alternative to more institutionalised models of care for older people, maintaining their independence and social integration within their own community. As demographic and economic factors drive up the cost of more traditional models of residential care, SIA offers government an equally important alternative. However, ongoing development in this area is not without it challenges. To this end, a number of policy implications are also identified and discussed.</p>

Supported Independent Accommodation for Older New Zealanders: a Review of Current Policy and Innovative Practice

<p>Existing research establishes a clear link between poor housing and poor health. There is also growing evidence that the physical, mental and social wellbeing of individuals and households can be improved by ensuring their access to suitable accommodation. Despite the growing body of research documenting the benefits of supported independent accommodation (SIA) as a means of maintaining the independence and wellbeing particularly of older people, there is little research evaluating the place of such accommodation within the New Zealand context. This thesis aims to address that gap. It reviews the existing body of literature surrounding this topic - exploring population and accommodation demographics, and analysing government policy in relation to both housing and health. It considers six New Zealand examples of SIA - each selected on the basis of their distinctiveness and innovation - documents these, and compares them using a case study approach. Adopting a general inductive methodology, each case study is then analysed against themes identified in the literature review, identifying any further trends, and the implications of these for ongoing policy and service development. Intersectoral collaboration is identified as having had particular bearing upon the development of SIA within the New Zealand context. This thesis concludes that SIA will play an increasingly important role in the continuum of accommodation and care for older people. It offers an alternative to more institutionalised models of care for older people, maintaining their independence and social integration within their own community. As demographic and economic factors drive up the cost of more traditional models of residential care, SIA offers government an equally important alternative. However, ongoing development in this area is not without it challenges. To this end, a number of policy implications are also identified and discussed.</p>

Public health priorities in countries undergoing economic transition

This chapter starts by reviewing the relationship between the economy and health, looking at changes in health outcome as income increases, demographic transitions related to economic growth, and the impact of urbanization on health outcomes. It then reviews major health challenges facing middle-income countries (MICs), including the triple burden of disease, multimorbidity, mental health across the life course, and the impacts of migration, climate change, and antimicrobial resistance. Finally, it discusses health system challenges and the importance of building resilient and ‘learning’ health systems with the agility to adapt to meet MICs’ evolving health needs. We discuss strategies to achieve universal health coverage in MICs and the importance of intersectoral collaboration in promoting health.