Health Equity: 07/27/12

Friday, July 27, 2012

[EQ] The Right to a Better Life - Strategy for Denmark's Development Cooperation

The Right to a Better Life
- Strategy for Denmark’s Development Cooperation

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark - June 2012

Available online PDF [44p.] at: http://bit.ly/Ojncp5

“…………Poverty has many faces. Hunger and high child mortality are among the harshest expressions of poverty. Others are conflict, insecurity, oppression and vulnerability towards disasters.

We all know the stories of children who work instead of going to school and of families wiped out by diseases which could have been cured. However, poverty is also about women, men, girls and boys unable to claim their rights and influence their own lives.

Denmark’s development cooperation must fight the many faces of poverty and promote coherence between our policies. To do this effectively, we cannot just focus on the most obvious symptoms. We must also address the structures that keep people in poverty and societies in inequality. Denmark’s development cooperation must be anchored locally and build on democratic ownership, and here human rights are central. If we help poor people fight for their rights, then we also fight the main causes of poverty. Consequently, the aim of Danish development policy is both to fight poverty and promote human rights….”

Contents

- Poverty, human rights and growth – sustainable development

- A developing world

- A human rights-based approach

- Human rights and democracy

- Green growth

- Social progress

- Stability and protection

- Flexible partnerships

- Results and effectiveness

KMC/2012/SDE
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[EQ] Implementation research evidence uptake and use for policy-making

Implementation research evidence uptake and use for policy-making

Ulysses Panisset 1; Tracey Pérez Koehlmoos 2; Ahmad Hamdi Alkhatib 3; Tomás Pantoja 4 ;Prabal Singh 5; Jane Kengey-Kayondo 6; Ben McCutchen 7

1 Coordinator, Evidence Informed Policy Network (EVIPNet), Department of Knowledge Management and Sharing, WHO

2 Programme Head, Health & Family Planning Systems Programme, ICDDR,B, Dhaka, Bangladesh

3 Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University; Forum Fellow, McMaster Health Forum, Canada

4 Family Medicine Department, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

5 ACCESS Health International Inc., Centre for Emerging Markets Solutions, Indian School of Business, Andhra Pradesh, India

6 Strategic Alliances, Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), WHO

7 Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University, Canada

Health Research Policy and Systems – July 2012, 10:20 doi:10.1186/1478-4505-10-20

Available online PDF [13p.] at: http://bit.ly/MbJvNV

“……A major obstacle to the progress of the Millennium Development Goals has been the inability of health systems in many low- and middle-income countries to effectively implement evidence-informed interventions.

This article discusses the relationships between implementation research and knowledge translation and identifies the role of implementation research in the design and execution of evidence-informed policy. After a discussion of the benefits and synergies needed to translate implementation research into action, the article discusses how implementation research can be used along the entire continuum of the use of evidence to inform policy. It provides specific examples of the use of implementation research in national level programmes by looking at the scale up of zinc for the treatment of childhood diarrhoea in Bangladesh and the scaling up of malaria treatment in Burkina Faso.

A number of tested strategies to support the transfer of implementation research results into policy-making are provided to help meet the standards that are increasingly expected from evidence-informed policy-making practices…”

“……Implementation research is an integral part of the knowledge translation (KT) continuum. Emphasis must be placed not only on its production, but also on its quality, proper use and uptake in decision-making. In order to more effectively implement evidence informed policy, policy-makers and researchers should learn together and work in partnership to improve access and delivery.

Steps should be taken to increase the demand for research use and knowledge translation (KT) through sustainable partnerships and mechanisms, including KT platforms (at the district, provincial and national levels) that promote the early involvement of policy-makers, managers, health care providers and patients and serve as the basis for capacity-strengthening activities….”

KMC/2012/FCH
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Thank you.

[EQ] Divided We Stand: Why Inequality Keeps Rising

Divided We Stand: Why Inequality Keeps Rising

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) 2012

Website: http://bit.ly/N2aE0n

“…….The gap between rich and poor in OECD countries has reached its highest level for over over 30 years, and governments must act quickly to tackle inequality, according to this OECD report.

The report notes that the average income of the richest 10% is now about nine times that of the poorest 10 % across the OECD. The income gap has risen even in traditionally egalitarian countries, such as Germany, Denmark and Sweden, from 5 to 1 in the 1980s to 6 to 1 today. The gap is 10 to 1 in Italy, Japan, Korea and the United Kingdom, and higher still, at 14 to 1 in Israel, Turkey and the United States.

In Chile and Mexico, the incomes of the richest are still more than 25 times those of the poorest, the highest in the OECD, but have finally started dropping. Income inequality is much higher in some major emerging economies outside the OECD area. At 50 to 1, Brazil's income gap remains much higher than in many other countries, although it has been falling significantly over the past decade.

“…….Globalisation and technological changes offer opportunities but also raise challenges that can be tackled with effective and well-targeted policies. Any policy strategy to reduce the growing divide between rich and poor should rest on three main pillars: more intensive human capital investment; inclusive employment promotion; and well-designed tax/transfer redistribution policies…..”

This report analyses the major underlying forces behind these developments:

Content:

- An Overview of Growing Income Inequalities in OECD Countries

- Special Focus: Inequality in Emerging Economies

- Part I. How Globalisation, Technological Change and Policies Affect Wage and Earnings Inequalities

- Part II. How Inequalities in Labour Earnings Lead to Inequalities in Household Disposable Income

- Part III. How the Roles of Tax and Transfer Systems Have Changed

KMC/2012/SDE
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Thank you.

[EQ] Child Development Index 2012: Progress, Challenges and Inequality

Child Development Index 2012:
Progress, Challenges and Inequality

Save The Children

Available online PDF [36p.] at: http://bit.ly/P6Pfmi

“…..The 2012 edition of the Child Development Index tells a story of success. This edition of the Index shows that substantial progress has been made in addressing the most basic threats to child survival and well-being. On average, the lives of children around the world in the indicators we measured improved by more than 30%.
This means that the chances of a child going to school were one-third higher, and the chances of an infant dying before their fifth birthday were one-third lower at the end of the 2000s than a decade before. During this period child well-being improved in 90% of the countries surveyed…..”

Content:

Executive summary

Box: Measuring children’s well-being

1 A decade of progress in child well-being

Developing countries accelerate progress

Inequalities between developed and developing countries remain

Box: The Child Development Index and the Human Development Index

2 Undernutrition: holding back progress

Under-five mortality

Primary school enrolment

Undernutrition

Box: The uncounted

3 Food and financial crises threaten increased undernutrition

Conclusions

Recommendations

Appendix

KMC/2012/FCH
Twitter http://twitter.com/eqpaho

Thank you.