Degrees | Page 5 of 46 | A 360-degree perspective on human development

November 19, 2019
The darker side of development: The paradox of success

Written by
Patrick Fine, Chief Executive Officer, FHI 360

We have celebrated many successes in global development, thanks in part to advocacy efforts. The billions of dollars in resources and political will mobilized to tackle global development challenges have yielded historic results, such as reducing the number of cases of HIV, cutting malaria deaths in half and increasing life expectancy rapidly, even in the poorest countries. Does the promotion of the progress made lead to complacency that could ultimately reverse the gains we now celebrate?

In this episode, I sit down with Tom Hart, North America Executive Director for the ONE Campaign. Tom shares ONE’s approach to advocacy. We discuss the paradoxes of sharing successes and talk about how the final stretch of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals may be the hardest part of the race. We also examine the role of advocacy in development, the continued need for bipartisan political support for development work and the coalition of strange bedfellows during a divisive time.

This conversation is a part of our 2019 theme for A Deeper Look podcast: the darker side of development — the paradoxes and unintended consequences of international development efforts. You can listen to A Deeper Look on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud or wherever you get your podcasts. I invite you to subscribe and join the conversation by leaving a comment, submitting a rating or sharing this episode on social media.

Read the transcript.

Tags: a deeper look, audio, development, Global development, global health, ONE, podcast, Tom Hart

July 12, 2018
Humanitarian response in Nigeria

Written by
Patrick Fine, Chief Executive Officer, FHI 360

More than 1.7 million people are internally displaced, 14 million people in acute need of humanitarian assistance and 26 million people are affected by conflict in Nigeria.

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June 6, 2018
A personal perspective on the Syrian refugee crisis

Written by
Patrick Fine, Chief Executive Officer, FHI 360

Saria was a young teenager when conflict broke out in Syria. His school was closed and converted into a military base, forcing him to abandon his education. He was captured by three different groups, the Syrian Intelligence, the Free Syrian Army and Jabhat al-Nusra, before fleeing to Jordan.

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May 7, 2018
Reducing commodity costs when scaling up contraceptive implants … A classic chicken vs. egg dilemma

Written by
Markus J. Steiner, Senior Epidemiologist and Project Director, Sino-Implant (II)/Levoplant, FHI 360
Kate H. Rademacher, Technical Advisor, Contraceptive Technology Innovation, FHI 360

A version of this post originally appeared on Exchanges, the Contraceptive Technology Innovation Exchange blog. Reprinted with permission.

Listen to an interview with Markus Steiner and Kate Rademacher on the reductions in the prices of implant commodities.

Contraceptive implants have been available for over 30 years and are one of the most effective methods available. Until recently, however, international donors did not procure significant quantities, and use of the method in developing countries was very low. This access barrier was largely due to the high cost of implant commodities. The situation mirrored the classic, paradoxical question: which came first, the chicken or the egg? In this case, without lower commodity prices, procurements of implants would not increase in many international settings. But without higher volumes, manufacturers couldn’t lower their prices and still achieve a sustainable business model.

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May 3, 2018
A case study on using data and technology in crisis response

Written by
Patrick Fine, Chief Executive Officer, FHI 360

When there is an emergency, conflict or disaster, communities affected by the crisis are often the best source of information for what is happening on the ground. Early engagement with people from these affected communities is crucial.

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April 11, 2018
R&E Search for Evidence: Quarterly recap of FHI 360’s blog on research and evaluation, January–March 2018

Written by
Annette N. Brown, Editor-in-Chief, R&E Search for Evidence blog, and Director, Research and Evaluation Strategic Initiative

We are officially knee-deep into 2018, although many of us are still waiting for spring! The R&E Search for Evidence blog already has 13 new posts written by FHI 360 thought leaders and focused on innovative tools, research and evaluation methodologies, and new evidence related to some of our most pressing human development needs. Here are some of the highlights.

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April 4, 2018
The evolution of the U.S. role in crisis response

Written by
Patrick Fine, Chief Executive Officer, FHI 360

The United States has been a leader in humanitarian response since the end of World War II, but how is this role changing and what are the implications?

In this episode of A Deeper Look, I speak about the evolving U.S. role in humanitarian response with Andrew Natsios, currently executive professor at the Bush School of Government and Public Service and director of the Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs at Texas A&M University. As the former head of both the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance and the U.S. Agency for International Development, Professor Natsios has a keen understanding of the complexity of international development and its place in U.S. foreign policy.

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March 23, 2018
There’s no more time to waste: Let’s find the missing cases of TB

Written by
Otto Chabikuli, Director, Global Health, Population and Nutrition, FHI 360
Robert Makombe, Technical Advisor, FHI 360

Tuberculosis (TB) has now overtaken HIV as the world’s leading cause of mortality. There were about 10.4 million TB cases in 2016, despite the fact that TB is an old and often curable disease whose incidence declined in industrialized countries long before the introduction of the TB vaccine and anti-TB drugs. TB continues to disproportionately affect low-income countries. For those of us who work in public health, this is tragic — we ought to be moving forward at a much faster pace to end TB for good.

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March 22, 2018
Three ways to help female teachers in conflict and crisis contexts

Written by
Paul Frisoli, Associate Director, Education in Conflict and Crisis, FHI 360
Anne Smiley, Technical Advisor, Research in Education, FHI 360

In education in conflict and crisis (EiCC) situations, community members often take on new roles to provide essential education and psychosocial support services to children. This is especially true for female teachers, who are expected to provide academic and nurturing care to their students while also caring for their families and coping with their own social, emotional and material needs. This is a tall order, and female teachers do not receive the support they need to be as effective — and engaged — as possible.

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March 7, 2018
Women as leaders in conflict response

Written by
Patrick Fine, Chief Executive Officer, FHI 360

The international community is not giving enough attention to the impact that humanitarian crises have on women and girls or to the role they play in emergency response. We need to. It’s time to examine how women are disproportionately affected by conflict and emergencies and how they fill the roles of first responders, caregivers and peacebuilders.

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February 15, 2018
To achieve equity in education, we need the right data

Written by
Carina Omoeva, Director, Research and Evaluation, Global Education, and Education Policy and Data Center

A version of this post originally appeared on FHI 360’s R&E Search for Evidence blog.

As we work to realize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to education, it is the responsibility of every funding, implementing and research organization internationally to be asking questions about our own contributions to building equity in education. While a great amount of data gets produced in the course of education projects, only a fraction provides the detail that is needed to assess intervention impact on different equity dimensions. At the technical and implementation level, organizations need to capture and use the necessary evidence to understand and respond to inequity in education provision and outcomes.

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