This study aimed to determine noise exposure levels of spectators at a FIFA 2010 designated training stadium during a premier soccer league match and changes in auditory functioning after the match. This was a one-group pretest–post-test design of football spectators attending a premier soccer league match at a designated FIFA 2010 training stadium in Gauteng, South Africa. Individual spectator noise exposure for the duration of the football match and post-match changes in hearing thresholds were measured with pure-tone audiometry, and cochlear functioning was measured with distortion product oto-acoustic emissions (DPOAEs). The study found that average sound exposure level during the match was 100.5 LAeq (dBA), with peak intensities averaging 140.4 dB(C). A significant deterioration of post-match hearing thresholds was evident at 2,000 Hz, and post-match DPOAE amplitudes were significantly reduced at 1,266, 3,163 and 5,063 Hz. In conclusion, exposure levels exceeded limits of permissible average and peak sound levels. Significant changes in post-match hearing thresholds and cochlear responsiveness highlighted the possible risk for noise-induced hearing loss. Public awareness and personal hearing protection should be prioritised as preventive measures.
Governance and participation in health
At a meeting in Addis Ababa in February 2010, African Heads of States reviewed the framework guiding the relationship between the two continents, namely, the Joint Africa-EU Strategy (JAES) and its associated Action Plan. The meeting noted that the JAES aims to upgrade European Union-Africa relations to a strategic political partnership based on joint interests and a common vision. It is meant to enable continent-continent cooperation, especially with a view to addressing global challenges such as climate change, terrorism etc., while fostering integration on both sides. It serves as an over-arching and inclusive framework for EU-Africa relations. However, three major challenges facing the JAES have been identified: lack of engagement of all stakeholders, lack of results from cooperation and dialogue in this framework so far, and the fact that political dialogue is not driving partnerships. According to this report, a genuine change in mentality has not yet taken place, and the JAES is currently not being used as a true partnership between the two players to address important global challenges. It further argues that most of the current cooperation could be done through other already existing frameworks. It concludes that there is a risk that the framework will lose credibility if its added value is not clarified.
Despite the significant success of global health programs, there is a continuing gap between policy analysis and action. This paper is the first in a series, cosponsored by Results for Development Institute and the Global Health Council, which presents examples and opportunities of how evidence-based research can be translated into policies and programmes that will improve the health of poor people in developing countries. The series includes six presentations that draw from Results for Development's expertise in transparency and governance, the role of the private sector in health, health ministry capacity building, health financing and the health workforce. The first of these talks, 'Civil Society: A Missing Link in Development' took place on 29 March 2010 and featured civil society leaders from India, South Africa and Uganda, who are participating in the Institute's Transparency and Accountability Programme. You can watch the presentations on the website given above.
This paper argues that parliaments and parliamentarians have a crucial role to play in ensuring that governments are accountable for the decisions that they make about how resources – including aid – are spent. The scope parliaments actually have to play this role varies widely. Some parliaments benefit from large resources and a legal framework that back them in playing their oversight and legislative role. Many other parliaments, especially in developing countries, lack resources or power to play an effective role in promoting development or the more effective use of aid. Parliamentarians themselves come from all walks of life and do not share the same knowledge on these issues, and there is no consensus among parliamentarians or across countries on the ways and means by which they can enhance oversight of development policies and how development resources are used. This guidance note addresses some of these challenges and seeks to provide parliamentarians and those who work with them with a common understanding and clear guidance on what they can do to promote more effective and accountable use of aid in particular and of development resources in general.
The purpose of this study was to determine the roles of educators in mitigating the impact of the HIV and AIDS pandemic, and to ascertain the skills and knowledge required by them to play such roles effectively. The study gathered data from 3,678 survey respondents to a questionnaire. Qualitative fieldwork showed that levels of concern among educators were polarised with respect to HIV and AIDS pandemic, ranging from lack of concern and denial of its importance to extreme concern and a strong sense of ethical responsibility to mitigate its impact. However, most respondents displayed a very high level of concern regarding the pandemic. They pointed to an urgent need for training and resources for future roles. The study made four recommendations. It urged for a resolution to South Africa's current strategic dilemma, namely whether to prescribe approaches to mitigating the impact of the pandemic or allow individuals and institutions to develop their own responses. It also called for curriculum interventions that meet the challenges of the pandemic, differentiated interventions that enable educators to meet the challenges of the pandemic and more time to develop appropriate resources and support, including training.
This guide explores a number of different themes related to youth participation in development: governance, voice and accountability, post-conflict transition and livelihoods, and sexual and reproductive health. In the sexual and reproductive health section, several examples of youth-focused health initiatives from Uganda are discussed, such as Uganda's National Development Plan and the Youth Empowerment Programme. Another health initiative, Young, Empowered and Healthy (Yeah) is a sexual health campaign for and by young people in Uganda was launched in 2004 under the auspices of the Uganda AIDS Commission and uses radio and other media to reach youth.
Mkanda, in central Malawi, is presented as a successful example of cholera control through the Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach, with a fall from fourteen to zero cholera cases in a year. The article does not give adequate evidence to attribute the cause of the decline, but toilet availability and community awareness both improved in the year.
Conditional cash transfers (CCTs) provide mothers of school-age children in extreme poverty with a cash subsidy conditional on their children's attendance at school and health clinics. This paper assesses the evidence for the claim that these programmes empower women. It finds that, although CCTs are designed to target the extremely poor and the particularly vulnerable, they operate under a highly selective definition of social need, and these programmes privilege and target some needs over others even at household level, reinforcing social/gender inequalities within the family itself. Highly unequal gender relations were found to be central in the functioning of such programmes. The paper argues that cash transfers should be part of a broader effort to improve and strengthen the social sector while attending to the urgent needs of the most deprived. If they signal a move in the direction of residualist welfare policies designed as compensation for exclusionary economic development, then they represent a more worrying trend. If cash transfers are to enhance the life chances of seriously disadvantaged populations, their design needs to take into account the household as a whole, so that the needs of all members are met.
The articles in this issue on participatory learning and action focus on the recent approaches to adaptation to climate change utilising the priorities, knowledge and capacities of local people. Community-based adaptation (CBA) draws on participatory approaches and methods developed in both disaster risk reduction and community development work and sectoral-specific approaches. The emphasis now leans to policy processes and institutionalisation, issues of difference and power, assessing the quality and understanding the impact of participation, rather than promoting participation. Participatory Learning and Action reflects these developments and recognises the importance of analysing and overcoming power differentials which work to exclude the marginalised. This issue is divided into three sections: reflections on participatory processes and practice in community-based adaptation to climate change; participatory tool-based case studies; and participatory tools, with step-by-step descriptions of how to use them. The report also presents two important tools: communication maps, which help participants to understand communication patterns and relationships, and a tool called Rivers of Life, where participants reflect on personal experiences that have motivated them in their personal lives.
This study and report were commissioned by the Rockefeller Foundation to explore the feasibility of establishing a support mechanism for ministers and ministries of health especially in the poorest countries, as part of the Foundation’s Transforming Health Systems initiative. Based on data from minister and stakeholder interviews and supporting research and consultation activities, this report offers seven action items geared toward building a systematic and sustained program of support for health ministries. Recommendations and proposals provided address: capacity assessment tools; leveraging existing management development resources; mapping country networks of expertise; regional networks to support health systems stewardship and governance; knowledge networks to support ministers of health; executive leadership development; and advocacy for strengthening health ministries. Collective action on these proposals is needed to strengthen health ministries and enhance the leadership capabilities of ministers.