Blogs
The HEART blog features views from the HEART team and guests on the latest issues in health, education, nutrition, social protection and water & sanitation.
The content on the HEART blog page does not necessarily represent the views of HEART or their funders. HEART is not responsible for content on external links. For more information on HEART blogs please contact [email protected].
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This blog, written by Alex Jones, originally appeared on the Oxford Policy Management website and is reposted with their permission. The answer to the question ‘would you rather give birth in 1900 or 2018’ might depend on where in the world you are. In 1900 in Sweden, before the construction of modern hospitals or the… Read more
This blog was written by Kelly Shephard and originally appeared on the Institute of Development Studies website. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) defines child labour as work that “deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development”. Currently, 152 million children are recognised as being involved… Read more
This blog originally appeared on the Institute of Development Studies website, and is written by Elaine Mercer. Within the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector, gender issues are frequently reduced to the roles and experiences of women and within that often with a narrow focus on menstrual hygiene management. Although these issues are very important,… Read more
This blog, by Anthony Kinghorn, originally appeared on the Oxford Policy Management website, and is reposted with their permission. World AIDS Day is a time to celebrate successes in tackling the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The global response has achieved reductions in the numbers of AIDS deaths and of new infections which we might once have thought… Read more
Growing attention on water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) and its links to infection prevention and control (IPC) is coming to the forefront of positive change in maternal and newborn health services in low- and middle-income countries. Joanna MacQueen, Junior Communications Officer at The Soapbox Collaborative, examines the importance of simple solutions. It should be no… Read more
An estimated 75 million children cannot go to school because they have been driven from their homes by war, crisis, and natural disaster. This deprivation in turn destabilises vulnerable regions because uneducated children grow into at-risk teenagers and young adults. To strengthen its education in emergencies (EiE) programming, the U.K. Department of International Development (DFID)… Read more
This blog was written by Elizabeth Tofaris, University of Cambridge, on behalf of the the Impact Initiative for international development research. The Impact Initiative seeks to connect policymakers and practitioners with the world-class social science research supported by the ESRC-DFID Strategic Partnership, maximising the uptake and impact of research from: (i) the Joint Fund for… Read more
DFID has just released a new Education Policy paper, entitled Get Children Learning. It sets out DFID’s current priorities in education and its vision for change in the future. It is a hugely ambitious agenda, full of good intentions and ‘we will ….’ commitments. In seeking to tackle the global learning crisis, DFID ‘will focus on… Read more
It is good news that the International Development Committee (IDC) report on DFID and its education activities has been published on 21 November 2017. Interrupted by the June 2017 election, there were doubts that the Committee’s work would be completed. Thankfully, and with further evidence from DFID, the report makes an important statement about the… Read more
With a strong focus on learning and continuous engagement with Nigerian policy-makers, the Operations Research and Impact Evaluation (ORIE) project, led by Oxford Policy Management, was successfully completed in August 2017. ORIE has contributed for the past five years to inform nutrition research and the policy debates in Nigeria and beyond. ORIE provided operations research, impact evaluations,… Read more
On 18 and 19 March 2017, together with around 1,500 people from around the world, I attended the Global Education and Skills Forum in Dubai. The Forum provided an exciting platform to celebrate the importance of teachers around the world. Organised by the Varkey Foundation, it was also a stark reminder of the difficulties that… Read more