Discussion of climate change typically involves natural phenomena: raging wildfires, record flooding, ruinous drought. Less frequently examined, but equally important, is the effect of our warming planet on a child’s right to education.
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What do family planning and menstrual hygiene management (MHM) have in common? Beyond a shared purpose to improve the health and well-being of women and girls, some family planning methods can actually improve menstrual hygiene. Menstrual Hygiene Day on May 28 offers an opportunity to explore synergies between the two fields.
In recent years, the MHM movement has focused on the critical role that good menstrual hygiene management plays in enabling women and girls to achieve their full potential. Reducing the stigma associated with menstruation and ensuring that adolescent girls and women are able to safely manage their menses can eliminate some of the barriers that prevent girls and women in many countries from participating in day-to-day activities, such as attending school.
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Imagine the potential if each one of the 600 million adolescent girls in developing countries could have full control over her reproductive life. She would be able to stay in school, delay marriage, postpone pregnancy, and support herself and her community. Yet, approximately 16 million girls between the ages of 15 and 19 give birth each year and one-third of girls give birth before their 20th birthday.To advocate for young people’s access to safe, reliable contraceptive information and services, FHI 360 co-hosted a meeting today on youth and long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCS). With participants including the LARC and Permanent Methods Community of Practice Secretariat, Population Services International, Marie Stopes International and Pathfinder, the meeting highlighted the range of highly effective contraception methods available and provided a platform for tackling tough questions about how to effectively promote LARCs for youth.
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May 26, 2015
A road map to transforming lives
Written by
From Kendari to Mosul and Abuja to San Francisco, people across the world will celebrate Dec. 31, the close of another year and the promise of a brighter year to come.
But this New Year’s Eve will be more than a time for personal reflection and writing resolutions. It also marks the end of the Millennium Development Goals and the start of a new chapter for the international development community.
It is the launch of the sustainable development goals — our road map for the next 15 years.
As we prepare for this milestone, we’re reflecting as a community on what has worked and where we can improve. We’re also setting our priorities for the future and how we set about achieving our new goals.
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Hypertension is a serious public health issue, with nearly one billion people across the world currently hypertensive. And the numbers are increasing every day. In Ghana, where we are based, the number of reported new cases in outpatient public health facilities increased more than tenfold between 1988 and 2007. A recent estimate of the prevalence of hypertension in Ghana was 27.3 percent.
If hypertension is identified early, it can be treated and managed to prevent life-threatening diseases such as stroke and heart failure.
In the Lower Manya Krobo, a district in the eastern region of Ghana with a population of nearly 100,000, there is a growing recognition of the increasing burden of hypertension. Unpublished 2014 data from the Lower Manya Krobo District ranked the disease as the eighth leading cause of mortality in the district, accounting for 3.8 percent of all deaths. This figure underestimates the overall impact of hypertension because it has a role as a risk factor for other, potentially fatal diseases, such as cardiac diseases, congestive heart failure and cerebrovascular disease. When combined, these conditions would rank as the leading cause of death (25.4 percent) in the district.
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April 27, 2015
On behalf of my colleagues at FHI 360, I extend my heartfelt condolences to those affected by Saturday’s catastrophic earthquake outside Kathmandu. Our thoughts and prayers are with those suffering from this tragedy. I am deeply relieved that all of FHI 360’s Bangladesh, India and Nepal staff are accounted for and safe.
Our organization has deep roots in Nepal. We are privileged to work alongside talented, inspiring Nepali and international partners. We stand with them now, offering all the support we possibly can, and will continue to do so as this crisis unfolds.
The full human impact of the earthquake remains unknown, but FHI 360 will work closely with our partners to understand how we can best support the relief effort.
Thanks to each of you who have reached out to express your concern for our team.
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Malaria elimination and the role of partnerships
An Interview with
Halima Mwenesi, Director, Infectious Diseases, FHI 360
We’re working toward malaria eradication. How close are we?Malaria eradication as a shared vision can mobilize stakeholders and much-needed financial resources. The World Health Organization estimates that 584,000 people died from malaria in 2013. So, while that big goal of eradication is important, malaria elimination, which means the end of endemic transmission, is what many countries are aspiring to in the meantime. As noted in the President’s Malaria Initiative’s World Malaria Day report for 2015, the community continues to work toward a vaccine, and we’ve had some impressive successes in reducing mortality and increasing the uptake of prevention measures. But, there is much more to be done in order to defeat malaria.
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March 17, 2015
International development’s awkward stage
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We all know that children are the future. We have seen the commercials picturing heartbreaking photos of children in need or adorable youngsters with the brightest of dreams, and asking for donations to support them. Such attention has made a difference. Children globally are healthier and better educated than at any time in human history. According to a 2014 U.N. report on the Millennium Development Goals, the enrollment rate in primary education in developing regions increased from 83 percent to 90 percent over just the last decade. In addition, the child mortality rate has almost halved since 1990, with 6 million fewer children dying in 2012 than in 1990. These are achievements that development organizations — and the taxpayers who support them — should be proud of, having plowed billions into primary education, vaccinations, and other efforts that have helped young boys and girls around the world.
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How do we best meet the needs of adolescents, recognizing that the world they are entering is rapidly changing?
Youth programming should focus on the successful transition from adolescence to adulthood, rather than on the reduction of behavioral problems, a past trend. Such programming ensures adolescents’ mental and physical health, as well as provides opportunities to develop positive social values, human and social capital, a sense of well-being and an ability to make sound choices.
Unfortunately, donor-funded discourse on secondary education reform is still dominated by a dialogue on expanding access and improving quality in education. Youth development and large-scale secondary school reform usually operate on parallel tracks, with youth development approached through afterschool, extracurricular or nonformal programming.
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Unequal educational opportunity often lies at the heart of deep inequities in economic productivity, social well-being and participation in democratic institutions. Key livelihood statistics show that across the globe, individuals with lower levels of education are more likely to earn less, have poorer health outcomes and are less likely to enter leadership positions. For this reason, efforts to improve equity must start with education.
A soon-to-be released study, completed by the FHI 360 Education Policy and Data Center (EPDC) and commissioned by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Peacebuilding, Education and Advocacy Programme, indicates that ensuring equitable access to educational resources may be more than just a moral right: It may also contribute to reducing the likelihood of civil conflict.
Using an innovative methodology that captures disparities in educational attainment among ethnic and religious groups, as well as among subnational regions within countries, we found that violent civil conflict is more likely in countries with high levels of disparity among groups. Preliminary results showed that the difference in the odds of conflict between highly unequal and more equal countries was large in magnitude and held true even after accounting for the countries’ differences in economic development, political systems, populations and income inequalities.
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There is no question that the greatest health achievements under the Millennium Development Goals have focused on single diseases. Arresting the spread of HIV and AIDS and malaria is perhaps the most significant development success of the new century. And vaccination, especially of measles, is one of the reasons that deaths among older children have fallen faster than deaths among infants or women during pregnancy and childbirth.
In contrast, the lowest-performing areas across all eight MDGs — reducing infant and maternal deaths — are targets that don’t lend themselves to a single disease strategy. Just six countries have met the MDG target for reducing infant deaths, and only 15 countries have achieved the target for reducing maternal deaths.
Could these targets have actually been achieved if we had pursued an integrated approach to advancing the health of women and children? Did our fascination with and confidence in the segregation of single-disease initiatives cost us achievement in other areas requiring more complex solutions?
Read the remainder of the blog here.