Between October 1999 and November 2000, WHO's Department of Health Information Management and Dissemination worked with participants of the Health Information Forum to elaborate ways in which WHO and other health information organizations might work together more effectively to improve access to information for healthcare workers in developing and transitional countries. Based on a series of five structured meetings and a questionnaire survey of health information organizations, the following document from the WHO-HIF collaboration is intended as a basis for the cooperative development of needs-driven action plans in each of six priority areas. Proceedings of meetings and survey reports are available at http://www.inasp.org.uk.
Human Resources
improving access to information for healthcare workers in developing and transitional countries
SA: NEDLAC, COSATU MEET ON PRIVATISATION
The National Economic Development and Labour Council's (Nedlac) standing committee on Friday met representatives of the Congress of SA Trade Unions and the Department of Public Enterprises on Cosatu's notice of possible protest action against privatisation. Last week Cosatu notified Nedlac that it was planning mass action in protest against the privatisation of state assets.
Waste disposal - local information makes hygiene promotion more effective
Over three million children die from diarrhoea every year in developing countries and a third of the world's population is infected with parasitic worms. Simple improvements in hygiene could drastically cut infection rates. But what is the best way to develop hygiene promotion programmes? How can health promoters identify target populations and risk factors?
Zambia: Health workers Conflict Resolved
The confrontation that ensued between health workers in Livingstone and the provincial health directorate in Southern Province over the withdrawal of labour has now been resolved. The matter concerned the disciplinary letters which were handed to striking workers while the Civil Servants Union of Zambia (CSUZ) was concluding negotiations with Government.
Zim doctors on strike
Medical consultants and specialists at all public hospitals throughout Zimbabwe are on an indefinite strike over low salaries and poor working conditions, plunging an already ailing heath sector into deeper crisis. The senior doctors went on strike on Sunday following an ultimatum they issued to the government to address their grievances by last Saturday.
Apartheid regime backed Cape plc activities despite health warnings
It has been discovered that the former apartheid regime colluded with the mining giant, British Cape Asbestos Property Limited to run South African mines for another decade even though it impacted negatively on the workers' health. The company, which is now known as Cape Plc, has been sued by 6 500 South Africans who have contracted asbestosis.
ILO to launch new Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work
New data shows some 23 million workers infected with HIV worldwide
Citing new data showing some 23 million workers
worldwide now infected with HIV/AIDS, the Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Juan Somavia plans to formally launch a pioneering Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work at the U.N General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS in New York on 25-27 June. The ILO Code of Practice will provide workers, employers and governments with new global guidelines - based on international labour standards - for addressing HIV/AIDS and its impact at the enterprise, community and national levels where most infections occur. It will also help boost efforts to prevent the spread of HIV, manage its impact, provide care and support for those suffering from its effects and staunch stigma and discrimination which arise from it.
Further details: /newsletter/id/28656
Nigeria: Doctors and Nurses Call Off Crippling 18-day Strike
Doctors and nurses in Nigeria Friday called off their 18-day strike action, called to protest against the government's failure to offer better conditions of service, according to report by the state-owned Federal Radio Corporation Network news.
ZAMBIA'S STRIKING PUBLIC WORKERS SCALE DOWN DEMANDS
Striking public workers in Zambia have scaled down their demands from a 100 percent pay hike to a "reasonable" salary increment, a union leader said Monday. "We have come down from our initial demand. We have asked the government to give us a reasonable offer," Darison Chaala, secretary general of the Civil Servants Union of Zambia, told AFP.
Zambia: Social Services Crippled by Three-Week Strike
A three-week long strike by Zambian public sector workers has crippled hundreds of schools and hospitals and slowed the delivery of other key government services in this impoverished southern African country. However, a preoccupation with an unfolding political crisis that could see a parliamentary motion to impeach embattled President Frederick Chiluba being passed appears to have diverted official attention from the resultant social crisis.