Helpdesk Reports
Capacity building is mainly seen as a way for organisations to become better equipped to support themselves and to increase their productivity and, thereby, their competitiveness. Few rigorous evaluations that have sought to compare different capacity development strategies, rather than the outcomes of specific projects and the evaluative literature in this field is weak. An… Read more
This review shows that there is evidence of an association between child health outcomes and parents’ education. This relationship is particularly pronounced when considering the impact of maternal education. Section 2 presents some key papers showing this relationship, including one recent paper arguing that of the 8·2 million fewer deaths in children under 5 between… Read more
This review shows that there is evidence that girls, poor and vulnerable children stay in school longer if they are taught first in their mother tongue. Fifty percent of the world’s out-of-school children live in communities where the language of schooling is rarely, if ever, used at home. The language used in schools, is one… Read more
There is evidence to show that community participation and accountability in health service delivery and health care leads to improved health outcomes within that community. This review gives definitions of the key concepts and a history of community participation and accountability in section 2. The experience of pilot programmes suggests that community mobilisation can bring… Read more
This helpdesk response concludes that there are a large number of consulting firms that could provide long term technical assistance to countries considering contracting out government health services. A list of organisations providing this form of technical assistance is provided in Section 3. Additionally, the main mandate of the Partnership of Democratic Governance, OECD was… Read more
This report is divided into the following sections: Who Uses the Female Condom? Typical users seem to vary in different countries and according to different studies. This section looks at different countries and identifies users and the reasons behind this. Is FC use correlated to HIV prevalence? Study results differ on whether they may be… Read more
While there is extensive literature on teacher quality, teacher education and training, most of it focuses on emphasising the extent of the problem, their importance, how they might be developed or delivered. A few others mention programmes that have been conducted in various countries. There is very little literature that focuses specifically on the impacts… Read more
This paper provides an overview of the evidence on educational outcomes from nutrition and nutritional outcomes from education. It includes the following sections: effects of intra-uterine growth retardation; low birth-weight, effects of poor infant nutrition (low weight, stunting, breastfeeding), iron deficiency anaemia in school age children, parental education and school health and feeding Some key… Read more
The 2006-2010 percentage decrease in under 5 mortality in Ethiopia is significant and among the greatest declines found in this brief search. However, there is some evidence that the percentage decrease may be less than the DHS reports and also some evidence that there was a greater percentage decrease between 2000 and 2005. There have… Read more
There is a strong association between higher age at marriage and higher education levels. A global analysis of data by the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) found that girls’ education is ‘the most important factor associated with child marriage’. Another study determined that in 29 countries, women who married at the age of 18 or… Read more
There are different ways of working with governments and partner organisations to improve the quality of education in developing countries, specifically Ethiopia. This report highlights these differences by using two different donor organisations as examples. AusAID advocates for working through government systems and their approach, including impact and cost effectiveness, is summarised in section 4. … Read more