Assessment of Policies and Harm Reduction Services for Young People Who Use Drugs in Kathmandu Valley of Nepal: Identifying Gaps and Opportunities

Background: Young people under 30 represent the majority of people who use drugs in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. Young people who use drugs (YPWUD) may have particular needs and require different service and policy responses when compared to their older peers. This research examines the strengths and limitations of currently available policies and services; their effectiveness in meeting the needs of YPWUD and identifies gaps and opportunities for their improvement.Methodology: Semi-structured interviews (n=9) with key stakeholders and one focus group (n=5) discussion with YPWUD were conducted. Results were analyzed using the Rhodes Risk Environment framework which considers the ‘physical’, ‘social’, ‘economic’ and ‘policy’ level factors shaping risk at ‘micro’, ‘meso’ and ‘macro’ levels.Results: Drug use patterns among YPWUD in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal are changing. Several trends have been identified including increased use of methamphetamine, diverted pharmaceuticals and ‘Southasian-Cocktail’ (a mixture of buprenorphine, benzodiazepine and antihistamines); use at the border regions and a move away from drug dealing ‘hotspots’ to online drug purchasing. YPWUD and service providers report a range of barriers to accessing services including stigma and discrimination; a lack of local services; a lack of knowledge of existing services; age of consent legislation and opening hours which may conflict with commitments such as school and college. YPWUD report a range of human rights violations including involuntary treatment, arbitrary detention, forced labour and public body searches. Service providers and policymakers report precarious international donor funding of services through HIV prevention programs with little to no youth-specific services for YPWUD.Conclusion: The findings of this study highlight the importance of youth-friendly harm reduction services that are relevant and responsive to the unique needs and experiences of YPWUD. These services should address current trends including the use of new substances (for example, methamphetamine and ‘Southasian Cocktail’) in diverse environments (including at the border regions and online). The perspectives of YPWUD are vital while developing and implementing harm reduction programs to ensure that the programs are effective, efficient and based on the diverse needs of YPWUD.

Critical political economy of the public infrastructure crisis in Lebanon

In this interview, Karim Eid-Sabbagh and Ulrich Ufer discuss how the case of the public infrastructure crisis in Lebanon highlights the importance of including analytical dimensions of critical political economy and global financial dynamics in technology assessment alongside a technology-society-governance perspective – in particular when focusing on the Global South. The Lebanese crisis has built up through long-term structural problems that include the legacies of colonialism, the country’s peripheral position in global capital relations, elite nepotism, sectarian strife, and the state’s dependency on international donor funding to build and maintain public infrastructure. These have coincided with short-term disintegration and disaster events over the past two years: mass migration, countrywide anti-government protests in fall 2019, the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020, the destruction of large parts of the country’s capital by the devastating explosion in the port of Beirut in August 2020, and the spiraling devaluation of the Lebanese currency.

Faith-Based Organisations in New Zealand: an Exploration of How Faith Affects Faith-Based Organisations' Relationships with Donors

<p>Faith-based organisations (FBOs) constitute a significant part of the development industry, yet our knowledge of FBOs and the ways in which they operate, often within secular societies, is limited. This research focuses on one particular aspect of FBOs in New Zealand: that is how FBOs perceive their faith impacts on their donor relationships. The research is undertaken within the context of the call for more empirical studies on FBOs in order to understand what types of FBOs exist, what contexts they appear in, and how they approach development. To this end, I conducted 17 semi-structured interviews with FBOs based in New Zealand over September-October 2010 and critically analysed these interviews for what they revealed about FBOs-donor relationships. The findings of this research are that FBOs are compelled to undertake development work as a religious and moral duty, and that their faith identity sometimes translates into a unique form of development assistance. FBOs have advantages over secular organisations in their ability to mobilise resources from within their faith networks, particularly the ability to secure low cost labour. These networks can be viewed as part of a spiritual economy for FBOs. Some FBOs position their organisations to receive funding from both their spiritual economies and mainstream secular sources. These organisations have established separate development arms within their organisation devoid of any religious reference or content, yet retain a religious arm to promote their faith. Other organisations successfully secure secular donor funding by clearly demonstrating how their faith is incorporated within their development work. The majority of FBOs operate outside the mainstream development industry in New Zealand and are either self-funding or funded through their spiritual economies. My major finding is that FBOs’ donors are not homogeneous groups; they hold a divergence of expectations which change the way FBOs position their development work in relation to their faith.</p>

Faith-Based Organisations in New Zealand: an Exploration of How Faith Affects Faith-Based Organisations' Relationships with Donors

<p>Faith-based organisations (FBOs) constitute a significant part of the development industry, yet our knowledge of FBOs and the ways in which they operate, often within secular societies, is limited. This research focuses on one particular aspect of FBOs in New Zealand: that is how FBOs perceive their faith impacts on their donor relationships. The research is undertaken within the context of the call for more empirical studies on FBOs in order to understand what types of FBOs exist, what contexts they appear in, and how they approach development. To this end, I conducted 17 semi-structured interviews with FBOs based in New Zealand over September-October 2010 and critically analysed these interviews for what they revealed about FBOs-donor relationships. The findings of this research are that FBOs are compelled to undertake development work as a religious and moral duty, and that their faith identity sometimes translates into a unique form of development assistance. FBOs have advantages over secular organisations in their ability to mobilise resources from within their faith networks, particularly the ability to secure low cost labour. These networks can be viewed as part of a spiritual economy for FBOs. Some FBOs position their organisations to receive funding from both their spiritual economies and mainstream secular sources. These organisations have established separate development arms within their organisation devoid of any religious reference or content, yet retain a religious arm to promote their faith. Other organisations successfully secure secular donor funding by clearly demonstrating how their faith is incorporated within their development work. The majority of FBOs operate outside the mainstream development industry in New Zealand and are either self-funding or funded through their spiritual economies. My major finding is that FBOs’ donors are not homogeneous groups; they hold a divergence of expectations which change the way FBOs position their development work in relation to their faith.</p>

Development of Donor Profiles to Improve Donor Financing: A Case Study of Sri Lanka

To strengthen the donor funding, the requesting governments should have a clear idea about the donor agencies, their priority fields and the ways to contact them and communicate with them. For this special purpose, countries are compelled to build up concise formats called “donor profiles” and to distribute this information among health organizations in the country to develop project proposals to fulfil the requirements specified in the profile of the preferred donor to ensure approval and allocation of funding for the requested project.

THE EFFECTS OF DONOR FUNDING ON THE PERFORMANCE OF SEXUAL REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH NGOS IN MOMBASA COUNTY

Purpose: Local Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) play crucial role in uplifting livelihoods and overall economic development in Kenya. However, several local NGOs have experienced dwindling performance as a result of insufficient donor funding. It is in this vein that the current study assessed the effects of donor funding on the organizational performance of local sexual reproductive health NGOs in Mombasa County. The specific study objectives included; to establish the effect of availability of donor funds, funds management, and capacity building on the performance of local NGOs. Methodology: The study adopted a descriptive survey research design while the target population was all the employees of sexual reproductive health NGOs in Mombasa County. The study used simple random sampling technique. A structured questionnaire was self-administered to all employees of the 14 NGOs. The study utilized descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis. Diagnostic tests such as normality and multicollinearity were used. Results: The research found that funds’ management, funds’ availability, capacity building, and government policies had positive relationship with NGOs project performance. The study concludes that NGOs had various sources of funding. It concludes that the NGOs ensured funds’ management by employing qualified accounting staff, embracing openness for regular donor evaluations, ensuring financial disclosures to stakeholders. The study concludes that NGOs’ staff had adequate experience in running projects. It was concluded that there was no level business environment for local NGOs, the available government NGO operation policies were unfriendly and the Co-ordination Act needed improvement. Unique contribution to theory, policy and practice: The study recommends that all NGOs should continue sourcing for multiple reliable funders. The study recommend that all NGOs should uphold proper planning for finances, monitoring, evaluation, and budgeting control to ensure accountability to promote successful completion of projects. The study recommends that NGOs’ staff should be subjected to regular timely task-oriented training.

Effect of Donor Funding on the Performance of Water Utilities in Kenya

The objective of this study was to analyse the effect of donor funding on the performance of water utilities in Kenya. The study employed the use of a census by targeting all 88 regulated Water Services Providers (WSPs) in Kenya for a period of two years, 2016 and 2017. Data pertaining to the support received from the donors were obtained from the publications of the WSPs, Development Partners, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), and Office of Auditor General (OAG). Performance data of the various WSPs were extracted from the Impact reports produced by Water Regulatory Board (WASREB), for the periods 2016/7 to 2017/8. Presentation of the data was done through the use of tables and charts with the application of SPSS. The study found that donor funding issued as Output Based Approach (OBA) leads to improved performance. This finding is expected to assist the Kenyan Government in negotiating for the Official Development Assistance (ODA) funding to be aligned to the government flagship projects under the Medium Term Plans (MTP). The study recommends OBA as the best way of issuing donor funding.

A Systems-Based Framework for Immunisation System Design: Six Loops, Three Flows, Two Paradigms

Despite massive progress in vaccine coverage globally, the region of sub-Saharan Africa is lagging behind and not on track for Sustainable Development Goal 3 by 2030. Sub-national under-immunisation, related to geographical and social heterogeneity, is part of the problem. System-wide changes could transform current immunisation systems to become more sustainable, resilient and inclusive. A framework is proposed that captures the complexity of immunisation systems and offers directions for sustainable redesign. Insights were extracted from literature, stakeholder workshops, and field research in Rwanda and Kenya. A conceptual model of the national immunisation system was co-developed and validated with stakeholders. Leverage points were suggested for intervention scenario building. The Immunisation System Diagram assembles the paradigms of planned and emergency immunisation in one system and emphasizes the synchronized flows of vaccine receiver, vaccinator and vaccine. Six feedback loops capture the main subsystems. Sustainability and resilience are assessed based on loop dominance and dependency on exogenous factors such as donor funding and vaccine stockpiles. In group model building workshops, the diagram invites stakeholders to share their mental models, to assess the system's performance and to trigger detection of root causes and leverage points. The framework provides a systems-approach for problem structuring and policy design.

Financial challenges experienced by South African non-profit organisations regarding CSR implementation

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand the financial challenges experienced by non-profit organisations (NPOs) when implementing corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives in South Africa. These challenges have a negative impact on NPOs because they impede the successful implementation of CSR projects. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative research method and a purposive sampling strategy were used in this study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 employees from three NPOs in South Africa from the education, enterprise development and health and social development sectors. Content analysis was used to examine the data. Findings The findings revealed that NPOs in South Africa experience serious financial resource challenges, notably, overreliance on donor funding; difficulty in obtaining donor funding; limited donor funding available; intense competition from other non NPOs to secure donor funding; donors unwilling to fund operational costs and prescribing exactly how funds should be used; and donors signing non-binding contracts on the provision of funding. Research limitations/implications The sample size of the study was small, namely, three NPOs from Gauteng Province (Johannesburg) in South Africa. Therefore, this study covered only one geographic area of South Africa and the findings cannot be generalised across other provinces of the country. Practical implications The results of this study could have implications for donors and NPO employees involved in CSR activities in South Africa. Originality/value This study bridges a gap in literature by revealing the key financial challenges experienced by South African NPOs in implementing CSR initiatives and the impact of those challenges on their CSR efforts.

Sanitation Challenge for Ghana (SC4Gh): motivating local authorities through innovation prizes to achieve SDG6

As part of the UK Government-funded Ideas to Impact programme, the Sanitation Challenge for Ghana (SC4Gh) ran from 2015 to 2019 aiming to incentivize local authorities in Ghana to prioritize resources to improve municipal sanitation services towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6. The paper reviews the overall results of the SC4Gh and discusses selected results for the Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) involved. The most notable outcome was that MMDAs involved were able to make significant improvements across the sanitation value chain with limited technical support and no upfront external donor funding. Another important outcome was the empowering aspect of the prize process which enabled MMDAs to innovate their plans based upon their own ideas to improve sanitation services. The prize process was an unprecedented opportunity for MMDAs throughout the country to participate in an international programme, resulting in encouraging results particularly from smaller, less well-resourced MMDAs in remote parts of Ghana who secured prizes in both stages of the Challenge.