Why Information Matters: A Foundation for Resilience

Embracing Change: The Critical Role of Information, a research project by the Internews' Center for Innovation & Learning, supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, combines Internews' longstanding effort to highlight the important role ofinformation with Rockefeller's groundbreaking work on resilience. The project focuses on three major aspects:- Building knowledge around the role of information in empowering communities to understand and adapt to different types of change: slow onset, long-term, and rapid onset / disruptive;- Identifying strategies and techniques for strengthening information ecosystems to support behavioral adaptation to disruptive change; and- Disseminating knowledge and principles to individuals, communities, the private sector, policymakers, and other partners so that they can incorporate healthy information ecosystems as a core element of their social resilience strategies

Disaster and disadvantage: social vulnerability in emergency management

This report describes who is most at risk of being socially vulnerable in an emergency or disaster and what needs to be done to better protect them and improve their recovery Executive summary: While they can be devastating for all affected individuals and communities and cause great physical, financial and psychological hardship, for people who are already facing disadvantage, the impacts can be overwhelming, leading – in the words of one mother – to a “cascade of sorrows”. People facing disadvantage, such as those in poverty, migrants, refugees, children, older people, people with disabilities, people who are homeless or transient, and people living in poor quality housing, are more vulnerable at all stages of a disaster – before, during, and after it strikes. These people are considered ‘socially vulnerable’ in the face of a disaster. Whether it is their capacity to evacuate in time or to recover in the long term from trauma and financial devastation, socially vulnerable people are hit hardest and longest by disasters and emergencies. These people often have fewer resources and less social support, mobility and housing options at their disposal, and so are less able to prepare for, respond to and recover from a disaster or emergency. As one report put it, socially vulnerable are “more likely to die...and less likely to recover.

The Global Risks Report 2016, 11th Edition

Now in its 11th edition, The Global Risks Report 2016 draws attention to ways that global risks could evolve and interact in the next decade. The year 2016 marks a forceful departure from past findings, as the risks about which the Report has been warning over the past decade are starting to manifest themselves in new, sometimes unexpected ways and harm people, institutions and economies. Warming climate is likely to raise this year's temperature to 1° Celsius above the pre-industrial era, 60 million people, equivalent to the world's 24th largest country and largest number in recent history, are forcibly displaced, and crimes in cyberspace cost the global economy an estimated US$445 billion, higher than many economies' national incomes. In this context, the Reportcalls for action to build resilience – the "resilience imperative" – and identifies practical examples of how it could be done.The Report also steps back and explores how emerging global risks and major trends, such as climate change, the rise of cyber dependence and income and wealth disparity are impacting already-strained societies by highlighting three clusters of risks as Risks in Focus. As resilience building is helped by the ability to analyse global risks from the perspective of specific stakeholders, the Report also analyses the significance of global risks to the business community at a regional and country-level

Adapting the WHO QualityRights Tool for the prison setting

ABSTRACT: This dissertation considers a process through which rights and quality of mental health services are measured in non-prison settings, and explores how this can be adapted to prison settings. The World Health Organisation (WHO) QualityRights tool was developed to enable countries to qualitatively assess quality and rights aspects of mental health services, referenced against the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The CRPD is premised on achieving substantive equality of human rights regardless of disability, and entrenches the principle of non-discrimination in the way that states are required to ensure equal rights for people with disabilities. Whilst states are legally bound to provide prisoners with a level of healthcare equivalent to that provided outside prison, understanding what ‘equivalent care’ means is complex. There are many situations where prison procedures uniquely impact on people with mental disorders. Moreover, the higher prevalence and complexity of health problems in prisons arguably means that providing healthcare equivalent to that found in the community may fall short of what prisoners require, if assessed on the basis of equity of health outcomes. Several scholars in the field have suggested a need to move beyond the principle of equivalence because of its conceptual and practical challenges. However there is currently no clear consensus on how to reach a more workable understanding of the principle. To date consideration of the principle of equivalence has included little discussion of the implications of the CRPD. This dissertation seeks to constructively engage with this debate by identifying, from the literature, issues in prison life which can impact significantly on the rights of people with mental disabilities. It proposes an adapted version of the QualityRights tool to incorporate these issues, subject to future refinement and piloting, and suggests areas for future research.RESUMO: Esta dissertação considera um processo através do qual os direitos humanos e a qualidade dos serviços de saúde mental são avaliados em ambientes não prisionais e explora como esse processo pode ser adaptado às configurações prisionais. O instrumento QualityRights da Organização Mundial da Saúde (OMS) foi desenvolvido para permitir que os países avaliem qualitativamente os aspetos de qualidade e observação dos direitos humanos dos serviços de saúde mental, tendo como referência a Convenção sobre os Direitos das Pessoas com Incapacidade (CDPI). A CDPI tem como premissa básica alcançar a igualdade substantiva dos direitos humanos, independentemente da incapacidade, e estabelece o princípio da não discriminação na forma como os países devem assegurar a igualdade de direitos das pessoas com incapacidade. Embora os países estejam legalmente obrigados a fornecer aos presos um nível de assistência médica equivalente ao fornecido fora da prisão, entender o que significa "cuidado equivalente" é complexo. Há muitas situações em que os procedimentos prisionais afetam de forma única as pessoas com perturbações mentais. Além disso, a maior prevalência e complexidade dos problemas de saúde nas prisões significa que o fornecimento de cuidados de saúde equivalentes ao encontrados na comunidade pode ser inferior ao que os prisioneiros exigem, se avaliado com base na equidade dos resultados. Vários estudiosos nesta área sugeriram a necessidade de ultrapassar o princípio da equivalência por causa dos seus desafios conceptuais e práticos. No entanto, atualmente não existe um consenso claro sobre como alcançar uma compreensão mais manejável do princípio. Até à data, a consideração do princípio da equivalência tem gerado pouca discussão sobre as implicações da CDPI. Esta dissertação procura empenhar-se de forma construtiva neste debate, identificando, a partir da literatura, questões da vida prisional que podem ter impacto significativo sobre os direitos das pessoas com incapacidade mental. De forma a incorporar essas questões, este trabalho propõe uma versão adaptada do instrumento QualityRights sujeita, no entanto, a possíveis melhoramentos e a um estudo piloto e sugerindo também áreas para investigação futura

Harnessing Technology School survey 2008: report 1: analysis

This report summarises the main findings from the Harnessing Technology Schools Survey 2008, a national survey of ICT in primary, secondary and special schools. The research was carried out in 2007-08. This annual, representative survey was intended to assess the `state of the nation' in terms of the uptake and impact of educational technologies in maintained schools across England

TB STIGMA – MEASUREMENT GUIDANCE

TB is the most deadly infectious disease in the world, and stigma continues to play a significant role in worsening the epidemic. Stigma and discrimination not only stop people from seeking care but also make it more difficult for those on treatment to continue, both of which make the disease more difficult to treat in the long-term and mean those infected are more likely to transmit the disease to those around them. TB Stigma – Measurement Guidance is a manual to help generate enough information about stigma issues to design and monitor and evaluate efforts to reduce TB stigma. It can help in planning TB stigma baseline measurements and monitoring trends to capture the outcomes of TB stigma reduction efforts. This manual is designed for health workers, professional or management staff, people who advocate for those with TB, and all who need to understand and respond to TB stigma