Showing posts from category population.
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Mobile Phones for Maternal Health in the Developing World
›With rising use in the developing world, cell phones and mobile technologies can create “connected and coordinated health systems that save more lives,” said Josh Nesbit at the GHI event “New Applications for Existing Technologies to Improve Maternal Health,” on October 27. Capitalizing on these new technologies could increase efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and efficacy of public health programs. Nesbit, executive director of FrontlineSMS: Medic, was joined by Alain Labrique, assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, and David Aylward, executive director of the mHealth Alliance at the United Nations Foundation, to discuss the role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the prevention of maternal mortality.
Collaborations for mHealthWhile “cell phones can’t save lives, the lack of information does kill,” said Aylward. Using technology that many people already own and use, mobile technology is an appropriate tool for disseminating health data and information. Existing technologies such as mobile phones and SMS text messaging can revolutionize healthcare by improving data collection and disease tracking, expanding patient diagnostics, and advancing education and awareness among health workers and patients.
With 64 percent of all mobile phone users located in the developing world, the use of mobile devices to improve health services in low-income countries is especially promising.
Aylward hopes that mobile health technology (mHealth) will help combat maternal mortality in the developing world. With approximately 350,000 women dying in childbirth each year, and only marginal progresses towards achieving Millennium Development Goal 5, finding such innovative solutions to improve maternal health is crucial.
Public-private partnerships are particularly important when considering the long-term sustainability of mHealth programs. “This didn’t happen because of the World Bank, it happened because people who are very poor voted with their very limited funds to have access to information,” said Aylward.
Aylward is hopeful that government and donor support will continue to become more supportive of mobile technology and coordinated in their implementation of mHealth programs globally.
Mobile Health Solutions in the Developing World
“Through mobile tools, we can act as quickly as possible to improve access to skilled birth attendants, emergency obstetric care, and access to reproductive health commodities,” said Nesbit.Nesbit’s organization, FrontlineSMS: Medic, is working to eliminate barriers created by the lack of resources and infrastructure in the developing world using mobile health technology. Now working in 20 countries, the organization uses free software “that enables large-scale, two-way text messaging using only a laptop, a GSM modem, and inexpensive cell phones,” explained Nesbit.
“One of the best measures is whether people continue to use your tools, and they will if it impacts their lives positively and they won’t if it doesn’t—sometimes it’s as simple as that,” said Nesbit on why communities in the developing world are eagerly embracing mobile technology.
Moving forward, Nesbit hopes to “scale and replicate, both vertically and horizontally, models that we’ve shown can work, but also to build new tools” and work with the health community “to help identify the needs and the gaps in these systems.”
However, Nesbit stresses that “these are very much tools and not solutions; they become solutions when they are paired with people on the ground who use them.”
Compressing the Time Between Crisis and Care
“The opportunities for mobile phones to act synergistically with existing health systems in low- to middle-income countries are many,” said Labrique. The current challenge is to harness this technology to improve health outcomes in the developing world, where disease burden is disproportionately high.
In the developing world, “decisions influenced by the lack of resources, such as poverty, or lack of information have led to highly convoluted patterns of care-seeking,” said Labrique.“Delayed decision-making compounded by delayed transport can have tragic consequences for maternal mortality,” said Labrique, and the most immediate use of mobile technology is “getting the necessary care, on time, to where these deaths are taking place.” Cell phones can help women, their families, and local health workers to seek timely, appropriate medical help for an obstetric emergency.
“Addressing equity and access to phones when evaluating the impact or success of mHealth interventions is critical,” Labrique said. Although cell phone use is high and steadily increasing, social and cultural norms in some countries might prevent women from using them. Further, Labrique notes, in Bangladesh, cell phone use among the poorest families is noticeably less than those with higher socioeconomic status.
“ICT and mHealth solutions have tremendous promise to improve maternal health in resource limited settings; however, it’s important not to let the technology guide the public health agenda,” said Labrique. More data is needed to determine how these tools might strengthen and enhance health systems and a clearer research agenda can help ensure evidence-based solutions guide programming.
For more from David Aylward and mHealth, be sure to see “Watch: David Aylward on How Wireless Technology is Changing Global Health and Empowering Women.”
Sources: Lancet, United Nations Foundation.
Photo Credit: “‘SMS till you drop’ — mobile phone ad on van in Kampala, Uganda,” courtesy of flickr user futureatlas.com. -
PATH Foundation’s ‘Population, Health, and Environment Leadership as a Way of Life’
›PATH Foundation Philippines, Inc. (PFPI) just released a short documentary, Population-Health-Environment (PHE) Leadership as a Way of Life in All Walks of Life. The video features interviews with peer educators and local government officials who have partnered with PFPI on integrated coastal resource management in the Philippines that combines family planning and reproductive health services with environmental services.
According to those interviewed, an integrated approach is the best way to alleviate food insecurity in the area. “We cannot separate population, health, and environment, they should be implemented hand in hand,” said Marlyn Alcanises, a Fisheries and Coastal Resource Management program officer. “Even if we manage our coastal resources well, if there are many children due to high fertility and population growth, many people are hungry.”
The comprehensive program has been successful in addressing the social and environmental problems in the Verde Island Passage of the Philippines, one of Asia’s most densely populated regions, as well as a marine biodiversity hotspot and sea lane for many commercial ships.
The program uses community-based distribution of contraceptives to increase access to family planning, micro-credit schemes to finance sustainable livelihoods and alleviate poverty, and advocacy campaigns to increase government support for integrated health and environment programs.
Municipal Planning and Development Coordinator Cecilia Zulueta praised the integrated approach, saying “it can slow down population growth, decrease the number of malnutrition cases, lessen the number of out-of-school youth, and it can also decrease the crime rate, because if one does not have a stable source of income it may force him to engage in illegal activities.”
In ECSP’s FOCUS Issue 15, “Fishing for Families: Reproductive Health and Integrated Coastal Management in the Philippines,” Joan Castro and Leona D’Agnes demonstrated that PFPI’s Integrated Population and Coastal Resource Management project (IPOPCORM) was more cost-effective and had a greater impact on the wellbeing of both human reproductive health and coastal resources than non-integrated programs. In a study measuring the impacts of integrated versus single-sector reproductive health (RH) or coastal resource management (CRM) programs, they found the integrated approach met or exceeded single-sector outcomes for 26 out of 27 indicators.
Reducing high fertility rates reduces pressure on natural resources, decreases high rates of malnutrition, crime and HIV/AIDS, and preserves local fisheries, “making life sustainable for both humans and nature,” as PFPI puts it in the documentary. The hope is that the community leaders featured in the documentary will inspire others in similar situations to take the lead on integrated issues in their communities.
“Even if we are doing environmental conservation through population management in our province but the others are not, it will still create conflict somehow,” said Alcanises. “I believe that whatever program is being done in one province should also be done in other provinces, in order to avoid conflict and promote balance in program implementation.”
Julio Lopez, president of the Galera Association of Managers and Entertainers said, “this land is ours, and we are responsible in taking care of it.”
PFPI, along with the University of Rhode Island’s Coastal Resource Center and Conservation International, is part of the BALANCED project, which last year launched the PHE Toolkit as a resource for PHE professionals. For more on PFPI’s IPOPCORM program, see ECSP’s interviews with Joan Casto and Leona D’Agnes on our YouTube channel: “Joan Castro – Integrated Population and Coastal Resource Management (IPOPCORM)” and “Leona D’Agnes on Population, Health, and Environment.”
Video Credit: “Population-Health-Environment (PHE) A Video Documentary,” courtesy of YouTube user PATHFoundationPhils.
Sources: Population Reference Bureau. -
Watch: Alex Evans on Natural Resource Supply and Demand, Scarcity, and Resilience
›October 27, 2010 // By Schuyler Null“The backdrop to the whole issue of scarcity is that demand is rising, but on the supply side, we’re increasingly hitting restraints,” said Alex Evans of NYU’s Center for International Cooperation in this interview with ECSP.
“Global population is growing, a kind of new global middle class is expanding, especially in emerging economies, and that means demand is rising across the board – particularly for energy, for food, water, and air space for our carbon emissions.”
Evans joined Mathew Burrows of the National Intelligence Council this September at the Wilson Center to talk about scarcity, natural resources, and conflict. He argued that building resilience and improving governance of natural resources is key to addressing growing demand, particularly in developing countries.
“With the Millennium Development Goals there’s been tremendous emphasis on increasing access to services, like health and education, which is important,” he said. “But we haven’t always brought the risk management aspect to the fore, and I think the emphasis we’re starting to see now on areas like social protection, climate adaptation, disaster risk reduction – these are areas that are much more concerned with resilience and it’s very welcome that they’re moving to the front of the development agenda.”
Poor governance in some developing countries has resulted in cases like in Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where natural resources are seen as more of a curse to the local people than a blessing. The intersection between supply and demand will continue to make these problems more acute.
“Over the last 10 years when international aid agencies have thought about governance, it’s usually been in terms of capacity building in the executive branch – areas like public financial management,” said Evans. “I think increasingly we’ll see more of the very, very political issues surrounding who owns natural resources like land, or water, or fisheries, or forests.”
Evans also highlighted other international governance issues like transboundary agreements (or lack thereof), the resiliency of the international trade system (or lack thereof), and existing legal infrastructure that will be challenged by a changing climate and growing demand.
“We haven’t really begun to think these issues through,” he said, “but these are potential conflict flashpoints for the future.” -
Christian Leuprecht on Demography, Conflict, and Sub-National Security
›“Demographics are going to be to the 21st century what class cleavages were to the 19th century,” said Christian Leuprecht in this conversation with the Environmental Change and Security Program. Leuprecht is an assistant professor at the Royal Military College of Canada and was one of the authors featured in ECSP Report 13.
“Specifically with regards to demography and security, the challenge that I see is at the sub-national level. That is to say that most of the conflict, if you look around the world – the intractable conflicts, the violent conflicts, the conflicts that have been dragging on for decades – tend to be at the sub-national level,” he said. “Yet much of the academic work and the way data are gathered are at the national level.”
The “Pop Audio” series offers brief clips from ECSP’s conversations with experts around the world, sharing analysis and promoting dialogue on population-related issues. Also available on iTunes. -
Watch: Population, Health, and Environment in Ethiopia
›Severely eroded and deforested, Ethiopia’s land is increasingly turning to desert, due to the country’s high population growth, unsustainable land use, and lack of land ownership. Featuring footage from my trip to Ethiopia last year, this video looks at the efforts of two projects to combat these devastating trends by meeting the country’s complex challenges with integrated solutions.
Ethiopia’s population is estimated at 85 million. Since 1900, the country has grown by nearly 74 million people, and the United Nations predicts this rapid growth will continue, reaching nearly 120 million people by 2025.
“Family planning is very crucial” to sustainable development, said Gebrehiwot Hailu of the Relief Society of Tigray (REST), located in the northern region of Tigray. “If the family has more children… he can’t feed them properly, he can’t send the children to school, because there is a food gap in the household.” REST uses a watershed planning model jointly developed by the community, health workers, and government agencies.
Realizing there is no silver bullet to development, projects like REST integrate population, health, and environment (PHE) programs to engage these challenges from all angles.
The Ethio Wetlands and Natural Resource Association (EWNRA), located in Ethiopia’s Wichi watershed, uses a combination of techniques to restore the watershed, create alternative livelihoods, strengthen health systems, and improve reproductive health.
“Through this integrated watershed intervention, the wetland is regaining its natural situation,” Shewaye Deribe of EWNRA told me. “The communities with their own bylaws, with their own watershed committee, with their own organization… are protecting these remaining forest patches.”
Sources: Population Reference Bureau. -
UNFPA State of World Population 2010
›Today marks the release of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) annual State of the World Population Report. But the 2010 edition, “From Conflict and Crisis to Renewal: Generations of Change,” is unlike those that have come before. In lieu of the traditional statistic-driven report, this year’s edition has enlisted another tool to document living conditions across the world — storytelling. In addition to demographers, the UNFPA looked to journalists to fan out across the world to gather stories on the ground and paint a portrait of the challenges and opportunities facing today’s global population that goes beyond the numbers, with particular focus on gender issues and human insecurity.
For more on the UNFPA report, be sure to listen to The New Security Beat’s interview with one of its authors, Barbara Crossette, who talks about her experiences dealing with family planning around the world, as part of our ongoing Pop Audio series.
Video Credit: UNFPA. -
Assessing Our Impact on the World’s Rivers
›In a special “Rivers in Crisis” issue of Nature, the lead article, “Global Threats to Human Water Security and River Biodiversity,” presents damning evidence that manipulation of river systems — through the construction of canals, levees, hydroelectric projects, and other infrastructure — has caused serious and lasting biological damage to watersheds throughout both the developing and developed worlds. The authors (all 11 of them!) report that key rivers have become shadows of their former selves in terms of the amount of aquatic life they can support. Without drastically improved stewardship of waterways, “we are pushing these river systems toward catastrophe,” warns Peter McIntyre, an article co-author.The human impact on the world’s river systems will be hard to reverse, says Margaret Palmer, author of a second Nature article on freshwater biodiversity loss, “Beyond Infrastructure.” Human-induced changes to watersheds affect local hydrology at a fundamental level, she contends, weakening rivers’ ability to deliver crucial “ecological goods and services” — such as clean water and nutrient-rich sediment loads — that help maintain the health of local environments and the human populations that depend on them. To fully understand the scope of the problem, Palmer says more research is needed to explore the linkages between biodiversity levels and “ecosystem services” that healthy rivers provide. -
Barbara Crossette on UNFPA State of the World Population 2010 Report
›“Particularly when you go into a society that’s been broken by war or conflict or is so impoverished that is has nowhere to start climbing up, there have to be integrated programs and they have to work with people in mind,” said former New York Times foreign correspondent Barbara Crossette in an interview with The New Security Beat. “The people themselves will solve a lot of the problems around them if they’re just given the tools to do so.”
Crossette is one of the lead authors of the UN Population Fund’s latest State of the World Population Report, “From Conflict and Crisis to Renewal: Generations of Change,” set to launch this Wednesday, October 20th. She spoke to us particularly about the challenges of women around the world and the unique storytelling aspect of this year’s report.
The “Pop Audio” series offers brief clips from ECSP’s conversations with experts around the world, sharing analysis and promoting dialogue on population-related issues. Also available on iTunes.
