An environmental scan of one health preparedness and response: the case of the Covid-19 pandemic in Rwanda

Background Over the past decade, 70% of new and re-emerging infectious disease outbreaks in East Africa have originated from the Congo Basin where Rwanda is located. To respond to these increasing risks of disastrous outbreaks, the government began integrating One Health (OH) into its infectious disease response systems in 2011 to strengthen its preparedness and contain outbreaks. The strong performance of Rwanda in responding to the on-going COVID-19 pandemic makes it an excellent example to understand how the structure and principles of OH were applied during this unprecedented situation. Methods A rapid environmental scan of published and grey literature was conducted between August and December 2020, to assess Rwanda’s OH structure and its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In total, 132 documents including official government documents, published research, newspaper articles, and policies were analysed using thematic analysis. Results Rwanda’s OH structure consists of multidisciplinary teams from sectors responsible for human, animal, and environmental health. The country has developed OH strategic plans and policies outlining its response to zoonotic infections, integrated OH into university curricula to develop a OH workforce, developed multidisciplinary rapid response teams, and created decentralized laboratories in the animal and human health sectors to strengthen surveillance. To address COVID-19, the country created a preparedness and response plan before its onset, and a multisectoral joint task force was set up to coordinate the response to the pandemic. By leveraging its OH structure, Rwanda was able to rapidly implement a OH-informed response to COVID-19. Conclusion Rwanda’s integration of OH into its response systems to infectious diseases and to COVID-19 demonstrates the importance of applying OH principles into the governance of infectious diseases at all levels. Rwanda exemplifies how preparedness and response to outbreaks and pandemics can be strengthened through multisectoral collaboration mechanisms. We do expect limitations in our findings due to the rapid nature of our environmental scan meant to inform the COVID-19 policy response and would encourage a full situational analysis of OH in Rwanda’s Coronavirus response.

Development of Innovation System in Bioinformatics Using Blockchain Platforms

It is reasonable to use digital technologies to organize and support an innovation system that simplify and promote interactions between innovation activity participants by performing a situational analysis of big volumes of structured and unstructured data on innovation activity subjects in the regions. The aim of the article is to substantiate the essence, peculiarities and features of integrating blockchain platforms with Big Data intelligent analytics for regional innovation development. The study was carried out as based on materials describing the development of this concept both in the whole world and its spread in the Russian economy.

Determinants of Financial Capability: A Situational Analysis for Namibia

It is imperative that if the poor in society benefit from the massive developments in the financial sector, then such a sector must be genuinely inclusive. It should meet the needs of all citizens with the potential to use such financial services productively. This paper scopes financial inclusivity as a process ensuring ease of access, availability, and usage of financial services by all members of society. To reduce socio-economic inequality, the poor in developing countries, like everyone else, need access to a wide range of financial services that are convenient, flexible, and reasonably priced. Therefore, financial inclusivity is sought to be significant towards the global development agenda as a tool for increasing the poor’s access to financial services, often cited as a mechanism that can help reduce poverty and lower income inequality. For many years, microfinance has been heralded as a mechanism for enhancing financial inclusion. It provides an avenue through which the marginalized and the poor can access and benefit from the formal financial system. Moreover, financial inclusivity is substantially evident in the rural areas among the poor, who have no collateral or credit history for participating in the legal financial system. As a result, financial inclusion is receiving increased attention as an essential tool for reducing aspects of socio-economic inequality characterized by the isolation of individuals and communities from formal financial services, like affordable and accessible credit.

Impact of Migration on Women Empowerment: A Situational Analysis of North-Bihar

The study was conducted during 2018-2019 to explore the impact of male migration innorth-Bihar in empowering women in different domain of household decisions. Five domainsnamely agricultural production, asset creation, health care, educational decision of childrenand leadership were considered and women empowerment indices were computed for eachdomain. The result revealed that migration of male member adequately empowered only29.44 per cent of women. Larger proportion of women respondents (43.89%) were foundunder moderately empowered category and 29.67 per cent were observed still under lowempowerment group. Women were adequately empowered in studied area to take decisionsrelated to health care, education and agricultural production. The decision to purchase andsale of assets still was under the jurisdiction of male counterpart as the patriarchal systemstill dominated. The role of women in decision making in all the farm activities, fromselection of crops to the sale of farm produce, showed comparatively more moderateempowerment indices. The paper concludes that the women are empowered to varyingextent in situation of male migration from their native places.

Sexual Harassment in Universities: Situational Analysis in Pakistan

The purpose of the study was to analyze "sexual harassment and its psychological effects on the students at the university level." The objectives of the study were to identify the awareness and the causes of sexual harassment among university students. The main purpose of the study was to identify the factors that caused the increasing rate of sexual harassment in educational institutions. The data was collected with a five-point Like rt scale that consisted of thirty-nine (39 statements). The statements were further divided into five (05) factors. The factors related to ethnicity and gender, awareness about sexual harassment act, causes of sexual harassment, reporting of sexual harassment, psychological impacts of sexual harassment. A sample of three hundred (300) students was randomly selected out of the whole population of Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, from fifteen departments with equal ratios, male (150) and female (150) students were selected. The obtained scores were analyzed using different statistical methods. SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) was used for statistical data analysis. The results show that at university, girls try to impress others with their styles and gestures. This research indicated that psychological effects on the students are notable as they suffered mental trauma, stress, and anxiety.

Internet of models of things for situational analysis and forecasting dependent failures

To advance from the internal approach to assessing effectiveness of a new system (based on a set of indicators that often are not sufficiently grounded) to the external, much more objective, approach, when this assessment is made based on the results of functioning a new system as part of a metasystem, it is proposed to supplement the emerging Internet of Things (IoT) with a new sector – the Internet of Models of Things (IoMoT), that is, to implement the transition from the IoT to the IoTaM (Internet of Things and Models). This will allow developers of new devices and systems to justify safety from inclusion in the existing environment by analyzing their relationships with previously specified components.

HIV and TB Workplace Program for Street Vendors: A Situational Analysis

In South Africa, 15 percent of informal economy workers are street vendors. The organization of occupational health services in the country is fragmented and does not cover informal workers. Conditions of work make informal workers extremely vulnerable to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and tuberculosis (TB) exposure. In this study, a qualitative risk assessment was conducted among street vendors, followed by focus group discussions. Interpretation of data was according to major themes extracted from discussions. Workers are exposed to several occupational health hazards identified during the risk assessment. There is a lack of workplace HIV and TB services and overall poor access to healthcare. Street vendors, especially females, are at higher risk of HIV, due to gender inequalities. Comprehensive gender-sensitive training on occupational health and safety, HIV, and TB should be prioritized. To reach Universal Health Coverage and achieve the Sustainable Developmental Goals’ targets, the health system should improve services for informal economy workers.

Using Test Positivity Rate (TPR) as an Indicator for Strategic Action in COVID-19: A Situational Analysis in Kerala, India

Administrators and policymakers have relied on test positivity rate (TPR) for making policy decisions regarding local, regional, and national lockdowns. It has the advantage of easily available data with an easy technique for calculation on day-to-day basis. However, concerns are being raised regarding its use as a sole indicator for determining movement restrictions and lockdowns. The present review provides a perspective of the alterations in TPR in Kasaragod district of Kerala during the first half of 2021. The variations in the number of antigen and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (rt-PCR) tests along with the trend of proportion of rt-PCR test are depicted. In places like Kerala where primary care system and contact tracing is comparatively robust than several other regions, testing the appropriate persons in a timely fashion alone is sufficient to cause an upswing in the TPR. Rather than daily change, the overall change in a larger time frame of 1 to 2 weeks could give early warning regarding the emergence of a new wave. TPR alone may not be able to reflect the transmission patterns of COVID-19. Using 7-day median value of TPR along with weekly tests done per 10,000 population, 7-day rolling average of active cases per 10,000 population, or daily number of new positive cases per 10,000 population could bring out a more composite indicator. Such an indicator reflecting the disease dynamics at regional levels will enable people to improve their livelihood without compromising on COVID-19.

The Role of Cancer Charities in Breast Cancer Prevention in Iran

Background: Cancer is a significant public health problem, and its burden is increasing globally, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Cancer charities, alongside the government, could address health issues based on their goals. We studied the activities of cancer charities related to breast cancer (BC) prevention in Iran. Methods: We designed a situational analysis study. We abstracted the cancer charities’ objectives that were members of the “Iran Cancer National Network of NGOs and Charities (IRCNNC).” We also searched for their international activities. We reviewed the BC prevention programs conducted by Iranian cancer charities and collected their data and information regarding BC awareness and screening. Results: Overall, 43 charities were an active member of the IRCNNC and were engaged in 6 areas, including 1) financial and non-financial supports, 2) providing medical services, 3) providing accommodation to companions of the patients traveling from other cities, 4) supplying infrastructure and medical equipment to cancer hospitals, 5) conducting scientific and research activities, and 6) running educational and awareness campaigns. Most actions were on financial and non-financial supports. Seven charities are a member of the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC). Five charities reported their movement on BC prevention. Conclusion: Most charities did not document their prevention programs and did not follow an organized screening program. Training and capacity building is needed to support the cancer charities for the evidence-based cancer prevention program.