Reading Packs
The HEART professional development reading packs provide thought-provoking introductions by international experts to health, education, nutrition, social protection and WASH topics and the emerging issues and debates within them. Most packs are accompanied by video presentations.
Introduction to the topic The international evidence that high quality early childhood development (ECD) programmes benefit all children’s development, life experiences, and life chances is overwhelming. The evidence comes from studies of all kinds, including well-known large quantitative longitudinal studies (e.g. High/Scope Perry studies in the USA and the work of Heckman at http://heckmanequation.org/) to… Read more
Introduction The 2014/15 Ebola outbreak in West Africa demonstrated that there is a need to make disease surveillance more effective. This reading pack sets out key features of effective surveillance systems, challenges to building these systems in low resource settings, and some suggested approaches. It places surveillance in the wider context of health systems strengthening,… Read more
The issue Skills training (often referred to as TVET – technical and vocational education and training) is now regarded as a key factor for economic growth and social development, and as such, has grown in importance for governments and donor agencies. This trend is noticeable within DfID itself where several studies and business cases have… Read more
The issue Higher education has seen astounding growth across the world in recent decades, and about a third of the population globally now go on to some form of post-secondary study. Yet while there are increasing participation rates in all regions there remain significant disparities, with a gross enrolment ratio of 68% in Europe, 23%… Read more
The nature and scale of the problem Depression is a mental disorder characterised by low mood, loss of interest or enjoyment, and reduced energy, leading to increased fatigue, reduced activity, and marked functional impairment (WHO, 1990). Other common symptoms are reduced concentration, reduced self-esteem, ideas of guilt or unworthiness, pessimistic views of the future, ideas… Read more
Introduction The international evidence that high quality early childhood development (ECD) programmes benefit all children’s development, life experiences, and life chances, is overwhelming. The evidence comes from studies of all kinds, including well-known large quantitative longitudinal studies (e.g. High/Scope Perry studies in the USA and the work of Heckman, at http://heckmanequation.org/) to more localised qualitative… Read more
What overall approach should be taken in responding to health needs in a humanitarian crisis? Humanitarian health responses require both coverage and effectiveness in order to achieve the overall goal of reducing mortality and morbidity. Key criteria to maximise coverage and effectiveness include feasibility, timeliness, maximum opportunity benefit and minimum opportunity cost, and cost-effectiveness. The… Read more
The Humanitarian principles are governing rules for humanitarian agencies. They were endorsed by the UN General Assembly as guidelines for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) as well as by hundreds of non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Humanity: “Human suffering must be addressed wherever it is found. The purpose of humanitarian action is to… Read more
Skills for development has been a neglected part of many bilateral and multilateral agencies’ work for the past quarter-century. In the late 1980s, the momentum for a renewed priority for primary education drew heavily on research from the World Bank that showed that rates of return to vocational education and training were comparatively low (e.g.,… Read more