693 research outputs found

    Young adolescents and digital media: uses, risks and opportunities in low- and middle-income countries: a rapid evidence review

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    This rapid evidence review examines adolescents’ access to and use of digital media (especially mobile phones and the internet), together with the associated digital skills and practices, opportunities and risks, and forms of safety mediation, in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The review is especially concerned with 10- to 14-year-old girls’ digital media uses, although little evidence specifically addressed this group. It is guided by two overarching research questions: 1. What do scholars and practitioners know about how young adolescents are using digital media (computers, mobile phones and other information and communication technologies, ICTs) and the key challenges these children face? What are the opportunities involved in their use of such media and what are most significant gaps in our knowledge? 2. What evidence is there of local, national and international development programmes’ effective use of digital media to target 10- to 14-year-olds (rather than older adolescents)? What are the most significant gaps in the existing knowledge about these interventions and their outcomes

    A feminist political economy analysis of public policies related to care: a thematic review

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    Unpaid care work is directly linked to the economic empowerment of women and girls. There is a large and robust body of evidence about the extent of unpaid care work that women and girls do, and its contributions to both the economy and human development outcomes. But is this evidence being used to inform public policy? Doing so would include recognising the role of women and girls in the provision of unpaid care; the need to reduce the drudgery of unpaid care; and the need to redistribute unpaid care work (from women to men, and from the family to communities and the state), thus laying the basis for true gender equality. This review of secondary material aims to identify the political economy conditions of where, why, when and how unpaid care concerns become more visible on domestic policy agendas

    Systematic Overview of Hepatitis C Infection in the Middle East and North Africa

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    AIM: To assess the quality of and to critically synthesize the available data on hepatitis C infections in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to map evidence gaps. METHODS: We conducted an overview of systematic reviews (SRs) following an a priori developed protocol (CRD42017076736). Our overview followed the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses guidelines for reporting SRs and abstracts and did not receive any funding. Two independent reviewers systematically searched MEDLINE and conducted a multistage screening of the identified articles. Out of 5758 identified articles, 37 SRs of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in populations living in 20 countries in the MENA region published between 2008 and 2016 were included in our overview. The nine primary outcomes of interest were HCV antibody (anti-) prevalences and incidences in different at-risk populations; the HCV viremic (RNA positive) rate in HCV-positive individuals; HCV viremic prevalence in the general population (GP); the prevalence of HCV co-infection with the hepatitis B virus, human immunodeficiency virus, or schistosomiasis; the HCV genotype/subtype distribution; and the risk factors for HCV transmission. The conflicts of interest declared by the authors of the SRs were also extracted. Good quality outcomes reported by the SRs were defined as having the population, outcome, study time and setting defined as recommended by the PICOTS framework and a sample size \u3e 100. RESULTS: We included SRs reporting HCV outcomes with different levels of quality and precision. A substantial proportion of them synthesized data from mixed populations at differing levels of risk for acquiring HCV or at different HCV infection stages (recent and prior HCV transmissions). They also synthesized the data over long periods of time (e.g., two decades). Anti-HCV prevalence in the GP varied widely in the MENA region from 0.1% (study dates not reported) in the United Arab Emirates to 2.1%-13.5% (2003-2006) in Pakistan and 14.7% (2008) in Egypt. Data were not identified for Bahrain, Jordan, or Palestine. Good quality estimates of anti-HCV prevalence in the GP were reported for Algeria, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Morocco, Pakistan, Syria, Sudan, Tunisia, and Yemen. Anti-HCV incidence estimates in the GP were reported only for Egypt (0.8-6.8 per 1000 person-year, 1997-2003). In Egypt, Morocco, and the United Arab Emirates, viremic rates in anti-HCV-positive individuals from the GP were approximately 70%. In the GP, the viremic prevalence varied from 0.7% (2011) in Saudi Arabia to 5.8% (2007-2008) in Pakistan and 10.0% (2008) in Egypt. Anti-HCV prevalence was lower in blood donors than in the GP, ranging from 0.2% (1992-1993) in Algeria to 1.7% (2005) in Yemen. The reporting quality of the outcomes in blood donors was good in the MENA countries, except in Qatar where no time framework was reported for the outcome. Some countries had anti-HCV prevalence estimates for children, transfused patients, contacts of HCV-infected patients, prisoners, sex workers, and men who have sex with men. CONCLUSION: A substantial proportion of the reported outcomes may not help policymakers to develop micro-elimination strategies with precise HCV infection prevention and treatment programs in the region, as nowcasting HCV epidemiology using these data is potentially difficult. In addition to providing accurate information on HCV epidemiology, outcomes should also demonstrate practical and clinical significance and relevance. Based on the available data, most countries in the region have low to moderate anti-HCV prevalence. To achieve HCV elimination by 2030, up-to-date, good quality data on HCV epidemiology are required for the GP and key populations such as people who inject drugs and men who have sex with men

    Facilitators and barriers to condom use in Middle East and North Africa: a systematic review

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    Background: The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region continues to have the lowest prevalence of HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) in the world, less than 0.1%, yet new transmissions are increasing. Consistent condom use can reduce the probability of transmission by 90–95%, and its use remains as the staple prevention method; however, this isn’t the case for the MENA region, where condom use, knowledge of proper use, and accessibility are limited. Aims: To conduct a systematic review on condom use, its use across different population groups, and its barriers and facilitators in countries that fall under the UNAIDS regional classification of MENA. Methods: This systematic review was performed in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. The search included electronic databases: PubMed/MEDLINE, Academic Search Ultimate, COCHRANE, APA PsycINFO, ScienceDirect, CINAHL Complete, Scopus. There was no date restriction. Results: Of the 471 records retrieved, 45 articles were appraised and included in the analysis. The reported barriers and facilitators are sub-divided into personal, social, and structural factors. Condom accessibility, partner objection, and their perceived ineffectiveness were key barriers, whereas availability, cost, and lack of awareness were rarely mentioned. Concerns of personal health and future financial security, as well as positive peer influence and delayed sexual experience, were identified as motivators. Conclusion: Condom promotion in the region needs to incorporate gender-based power in relationships and the influence of religion, as well as the legal and structural factors. More investment and research are needed for women-initiated contraceptive and digital healthcare initiatives

    Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV prevention among men who have sex with men (MSM): A scoping review on PrEP service delivery and programming.

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    Background: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a risk factor for developmental problems in offspring. Despite a high prevalence of IPV in the UK and elsewhere, the longer-term outcomes of offspring born to exposed mothers remain under-researched. Methods: Population-based cohort study. We assessed IPV prevalence by type and timing for 3,153 mother-child pairs with complete data within our study population and examined associations between IPV and offspring IQ. We used multiple-imputation to evaluate bias due to our exclusion of observations with missing covariate data. Results: Nearly one in five mothers reported IPV during the study period, with 17.6% reporting emotional violence and 6.8% reporting physical violence. Taking into account potential confounders, the IQ scores of children born to mothers exposed to physical violence remained lower than those of maternally unexposed children (full-scale IQ = −2.8 points [95%CI −4.9 to −0.7], verbal IQ = −2.2 [95%CI −4.4 to −0.1], performance IQ = −2.7 [95%CI −5.0 to −0.5]) and odds of below-average intelligence (IQ<90) remained increased for full-scale (OR 1.48 [95%CI 1.03 to 2.14] and performance IQ (OR 1.48 [95%CI 1.08 to 2.04]) but not verbal IQ (OR 1.06 [95%CI 0.69 to 1.64]). Most physical violence occurred postnatally, and relative odds were most substantial when mothers were exposed to violence across pre-/perinatal and postnatal study periods (OR performance IQ<90 = 2.97 [95%CI 1.30 to 6.82]). Conclusions: Maternal exposure to physical IPV is associated with lower offspring IQ at age 8. Associations persisted after adjusting for potential confounders and were driven by violence occurring postnatally

    Financial Sustainability for Women's Movements Worldwide

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    The report probes into fundamental questions related to resource mobilization and movement-building. How are women's organizations and movements growing worldwide? Why do we need strong women's movements and organizations? Where is the money for women's rights? How should we mobilize new resources to build stronger feminist movements in order to advance women's rights worldwide

    Uses and gratifications of social media in the Middle East North Africa region

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    This study explores the relation between the adoption of various social media platforms and the demographic variables of users consuming these platforms in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. It also provides a better understanding of the positive and negative gratifications acquired when users adopt social media in the region. The uses and gratifications (U&G) perspective is the theoretical grounding of the study applied to newer media, social media platforms in specific. A quantitative questionnaire, conducted within the social media users whose home countries are from the MENA region (N=561) to indicate the behavior of social media adoption in relation to 8 motivation variables. Three in-depth interviews were also conducted to analyze the findings and result, presenting insights on the assumed hypotheses. Findings of the study showed that there\u27s a significant relation between using social media and the use of media utilities in terms of content creation and content engagement. It also showed that social media delivered not only positive gratifications, but also negative ones. Users may gain better online social activity, online learning opportunities, online active citizenship and online efficiency, but on the other hand, they also risk personal privacy violations, social media addiction, and distractions from daily tasks

    A Global Perspective on Addressing Inclusion through the SDGs

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    The future of our world over the next decade is being shaped by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that seek to uphold children’s wellbeing and, by their call to leave no one behind and to reach the furthest behind first, shine a spotlight on the world’s most vulnerable populations including children and adolescents living in poverty and exclusion. The transformative steps promised in the SDGs to ‘shift the world onto a sustainable and resilient path’ assumes greater significance in the post-COVID-19 world where structural exclusions are starkly exposed and deep societal inequalities thickly underlined. This volume seeks to address the main drivers of poverty, exclusion, urbanization, and violence against children and adolescents and investigates how knowledge, information, data collection, measurement, and monitoring can support strategies and innovations to effectively implement the SDGs by drawing on data and experience from several countries across the world including Bangladesh, Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Kenya, Malawi, MENA countries, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, Suriname, and Thailand. As a result, it contributes to revealing the politics of social inclusion, offering policy proposals towards overcoming inequality and exclusion among children and adolescents.publishedVersio

    Sex Education in the Digital Era

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    Exploring sex and sexual relationships is an important part of adolescence, and therefore sex education should have a central role in adolescent emotional development as well as dealing with crucial public-health issues. Good sex education reduces maternal and child mortality by helping to prevent unwanted, early and risky pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases, yet in many parts of the world unmarried teenagers are excluded from receiving information and sexual health services because – according to unrealistic and conservative religious and socio-cultural norms – they are not supposed to be sexually active. Much of the research on sexuality in the digital era is moralistic and slanted, so for those working on sexual/reproductive health and youth/digital development issues, learning more about the subject is a major challenge. There has never been a collection of scholarly work on this topic for a mixed audience of researchers, policymakers and practitioners until this issue of the IDS Bulletin. A collaboration between Love Matters and IDS, articles discuss experiences with digital sex education in many countries and in a range of settings. The issues confronted are diverse, yet the common themes encountered are often as striking as the differences. Young people need help in critically examining the sexual messages they receive, as well as access to new types of digital sex education environments that are realistic, emotionally attuned, non-judgemental and open to the messages they themselves create. Contributions in this IDS Bulletin suggest an urgency for academics and practitioners to understand and develop digital literacy skills in order to help build such environments

    An exploratory study of sexual and reproductive health knowledge, information-seeking behaviour and attitudes among Saudi women: A questionnaire survey of university students.

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    PhDBackground: In Saudi Arabia, women‘s sexual and reproductive health (SRH) is an area, which is usually linked with morality, tradition and religion. This can influence the provision of SRH education or services. Little is known about the knowledge, needs, attitudes or practices of Saudi women in relation to their SRH. Furthermore, earlier studies from other Arab countries had failed to consider married and single women separately. This exploratory study aimed to provide the basis for further research on the SRH of Saudi women, both single and married. Study design: A cross-sectional questionnaire study was conducted, using a translated and piloted anonymous questionnaire in 2013-14. Participants were female students, single and married, at universities in the city of Riyadh. Ethical approvals were granted in Riyadh and the UK. Result: Three hundred and sixty-five students from four of the 13 universities in Riyadh (two governmental and two private) completed questionnaires. SRH knowledge varied widely among participants, with many holding serious misconceptions. 84.1% had a poor general SRH knowledge where single students were more likely to have low knowledge than married ones. While the level of knowledge for married students was higher than among the singles and a poor level of STI knowledge was found to be more among students at private universities, undergraduate and who‘s never been married before. Age, marital status, level of study, type of university and having watched films or seen photographs depicting sexual activities were predictors of knowledge level. Discussion: This study provides, for the first time, fundamental information concerning Saudi female students‘ SRH knowledge and information-seeking behaviour its contributed to knowledge for the first time by looking into single and married women. These findings reveal the limited understanding of the SRH needs and problems of this particular group
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