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Using evidence to change antimalarial drug policy in Kenya

SHRETTA, R
et al
November 2000

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This review analyses the range and quality of the evidence base that was used to change the drug policy in Kenya from chloroquine to SP and examines the process of consensus building and decision making. The review illustrates the difficulties in translating sensitivity data with gross geographical, temporal and methodological variations into national treatment policy. The process was complicated by limited options, unknown adverse effects of replacement therapies, cost, as well as limited guidance on factors pertinent to changing the drug policy for malaria. Although more than 50% of the studies showed parasitological failures by 1995, there was a general lack of consensus on the principles for assessing drug failures, the inclusion criteria for the study subjects and the relative benefits of parasitological and clinical assessments. A change in international recommendations for assessment of drug efficacy in 1996 from parasitological to clinical response further perplexed the decisions. There is an urgent need for international standards and evidence-based guidelines to provide a framework to assist the process by which decision-makers in malaria-endemic countries can make rational choices for antimalarial drug policy change

Measuring the difference : guide to planning and evaluating health information outreach

BURROUGHS, Catherine M
WOOD, Fred B
September 2000

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This guide presents a programmatic and goal-orientated approach to outreach activities. The premise of this approach is that evaluation is an integral part of programme development: planning and evaluating an outreach initiative is one and the same process, and asking the right questions at the beginning is essential for getting useful results at the end. The guide is practical in purpose, with checklists, worksheets and examples, but also heavily theory-based, offering a range of methodological possibilities and strategies. The guide should be useful to community organisations, libraries, clinics or other groups seeking to affect the capacity of individuals or communities to use health information resources and to address barriers to access, through simple or complex outreach projects. It is not specifically written for developing-country contexts

Valuing evaluation : a practical approach to designing an evaluation that works for you

THOMAS, Alain
March 2000

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An introduction to the basics of evaluation, its role and importance. Based on a 1997 workshop, this short paper takes a self-evaluation or learning-oriented approach with the emphasis on learning lessons for the future. It includes a discussion of qualitative versus quantitative methods, deciding on indicators, the involvement and input of different stakeholders, and issues for implementing an evaluation plan

Happy ever afters : a storybook guide to teaching children about disability

SAUNDERS, Kathy
2000

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This books gives a framework for examining children's fiction for out-dated or erroneous portrayals of disability. This book: explains how certain familiar storybooks can be interpreted to highlight major disability awareness concepts; suggests how these can be used to promote discussion about disability with children, for early years to adolescence; shows how to identify texts which create misleading ideas about disability; indicates how disability interests can be included in a number of curriculum areas

Worker-led participatory research and evaluation : lessons from the real world : reflections of the SREPP participants

ECKMAN, A
MCQUISTON, T
LIPPON, T
2000

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In 1997, four US union health and safety training programmes entered into a three-year, multi-union learning action-research collaborative, the Self-sufficiency Research and Evaluation Pilot Project (SREPP). This initiative sought to build the research and evaluation capacities of the participating unions' training by offering a new model of participatory learning and action in the area of worker health and safety. Existing examples of participatory action research in this field have tended to concentrate on single worksites and start with a stakeholder labour management model. By contrast, this project has sought to foster participatory learning across programmes from a union perspective. It uses and expands on the peer-training model to institutionalise a new base of worker produced knowledge. During the last of SREPP’s four training workshops participants reflected on their experiences in the project through a series of participatory activities. In this article the background to the project is followed by the words of SREPP participants describing what it takes to learn about and do participatory evaluation in the context of union-based, worker-led health and safety training programmes. This includes a look at what was learned and how, as well as supports and barriers to participatory evaluation and the model that they have developed

Children as economic and social factors in the development process

BOYDEN, Jo
LEVISON, Deborah
2000

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This report aims to explore present thinking and experience on childhood and children, and to identify the most constructive future directions for policy. The report is based on concepts and theories from social anthropology, developmental psychology, sociology, demographics, economics and history and attempts to bridge the gap between these fields and policy making. The report maintains that childhood is best understood as a culturally and situationally diverse social construction. The variations in the way that children are perceived and treated reflect cultural differences in priorities in child development and beliefs pertaining to childhood and account for major differences in both children's social and economic roles and child development outcomes. This report focuses on children all over the world and on children of all ages. Although there are also references to children under the age of 8 throughout the report, section 3 (p.23) on the diversity of childhood focuses most on the early childhood years

Early childhood counts : a programming guide on early childhood care for development

EVANS, Judith L
MYERS, Rober G
ILFELD, Ellen M
Ed
2000

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This extensive resource guide and handbook is designed to help development professionals, programme planners, trainers, policy makers and child advocates to develop integrated approaches to working with young children living in poverty. It is organised into seven sections: the basics of early childhood development; needs assessment; setting project goals and objectives; choosing an appropriate approach; creating the infrastructure to deliver services; evaluation; and costs and financing.

Assessing community telecentres : guidelines for researchers

WHYTE, Anne
2000

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This guidebook will assist researchers as they assess and evaluate the role and impact of community telecentres. It provides an introduction to some of the key research issues, a framework for telecentre evaluation, and an impetus for research teams to share ideas, instruments, and methods. Assessing Community Telecentres will interest researchers, practitioners, and academics in information science, communications, international development, and evaluation, including telecentre operators, telecentre managers, and community leaders. [Publisher's abstract]

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