Encourage. Empowering People. Annual Report 2012

Peter Löscher, President of the Siemens Stiftung Board of Trustees, on behalf of the Board: Siemens Stiftung aims to contribute to positive changes in society with technical solutions, concrete concepts, and platforms for knowledge transfer. Cooperating with various stakeholders is a fundamental requirement for increasing the impact of its projects and anchoring them for the long term. For that reason, Siemens Stiftung seeks to cooperate with other foundations and non-governmental organizations as well as with government institutions, businesses, and the scientific community. Partnerships allow complementary approaches, skills, and resources to be bundled and sustainable programs to be developed. The previous fiscal year, in particular, delivers impressive examples of how such partnership models can increase the effectiveness of project work

Assessing Microfinance for Water and Sanitation: Exploring Opportunities for Sustainable Scaling Up

The objective of this study, commissioned by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is to assess the potential market for using microfinance in the water and sanitation sector, and to identify specific opportunities for potential learning, investment, and support. This report focuses on these opportunities and suggests measures that are needed for sustainable scaling up, which can be supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other development institutions

Birth spacing and child mortality: an analysis of prospective data from the Nairobi urban health and demographic surveillance system.

The majority of studies of the birth spacing-child survival relationship rely on retrospective data, which are vulnerable to errors that might bias results. The relationship is re-assessed using prospective data on 13,502 children born in two Nairobi slums between 2003 and 2009. Nearly 48% were first births. Among the remainder, short preceding intervals are common: 20% of second and higher order births were delivered within 24 months of an elder sibling, including 9% with a very short preceding interval of less than 18 months. After adjustment for potential confounders, the length of the preceding birth interval is a major determinant of infant and early childhood mortality. In infancy, a preceding birth interval of less than 18 months is associated with a two-fold increase in mortality risks (compared with lengthened intervals of 36 months or longer), while an interval of 18-23 months is associated with an increase of 18%. During the early childhood period, children born within 18 months of an elder sibling are more than twice as likely to die as those born after an interval of 36 months or more. Only 592 children experienced the birth of a younger sibling within 20 months; their second-year mortality was about twice as high as that of other children. These results support the findings based on retrospective data

Combating the Challenges of Rise in Urban Slums in Cities in Developing World_A Case Study of Lagos State

Lagos State is an urban complex that embodies tremendous contrasts. As the former national capital and the major port of the largest country in Africa, it is a magnet for migrants from all over Nigeria and neighbouring countries alike. Hence, Lagos state attained the status of a megacity with a population estimate of over 15 million inhabitants with an attendant housing and infrastructural development problems. The objective of this paper is to address how to stem the tide of negative development experienced in Lagos in the planning of other developing cities in Nigeria, most especially in the new Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The paper is narrative and historical in methodology. Thus, the paper embarks on a comprehensive literature study of the historical development of Lagos State with a view to determining how it resulted into a megacity with an inadequate level of infrastructural development to match its status, which subsequently gave rise to development of urban slums and squatter settlements within the metropolis. The paper concludes by giving recommendations on how to improve infrastructural facilities, upgrade urban slums and squatter settlements without necessarily resulting into house demolitions or outright eviction of people from their abode

Ethical Fashion Africa Project Update

This document is part of a digital collection provided by the Martin P. Catherwood Library, ILR School, Cornell University, pertaining to the effects of globalization on the workplace worldwide. Special emphasis is placed on labor rights, working conditions, labor market changes, and union organizing.FLA_Ethical_Fashion_Africa_Update.pdf: 317 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

Urban Family Planning in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Critical Scoping Review

Health agendas for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) should embrace and afford greater priority to urban family planning to help achieve a number of the global Sustainable Development Goals. The urgency of doing so is heightened by emerging evidence of urban fertility stalls and reversals in some sub-Saharan African contexts as well as the significance of natural increase over migration in driving rapid urban growth. Moreover, there is new evidence from evaluations of large programmatic interventions focused on urban family planning that suggest ways to inform future programmes and policies that are adapted to local contexts. We present the key dimensions and challenges of urban growth in LMICs, offer a critical scoping review of recent research findings on urban family planning and fertility dynamics, and highlight priorities for future research

Promoting Good Hygiene Practices: Key Elements and Practical Lessons

Summarizes papers and case studies about promoting hygiene in South and Southeast Asia, the Pacific, and Africa. Synthesizes lessons learned, including: know the focus groups, ensure opportunities for change, and enable and motivate good hygiene practice

Adolescent childbearing experiences in Kenya: geographical and socioeconomic determinants

Sub-Saharan Africa has one of the highest level of teenage pregnancies in the world. Some studies on this topic highlight the presence of unmet reproductive health needs of adolescent in different regions. Improving maternal health has been established as a key development priority among the Millennium Development Goals, and upgrading reproductive and maternal health is usually associated with the eradication of inequality and poverty and with the presence of health care programs and services devoted to girls’ education. We attempt to investigate the geographical and socioeconomic determinants of both teenage pregnancies and maternal health behaviours among adolescent women in Kenya. We ascertain the influence of the availability of health care facilities mainly oriented to the specific needs of reproductive health. Main data are represented by 2003 Kenyan Demographic and Health Survey. In addition, the DHS data set collects Global Positioning System locators for each of the primary sampling units included in the samples that enable a deep geographical analysis. We perform a multivariate multilevel analysis to estimate the influence that individual, household, and community-level factors have on the risk of adolescent childbearing. Additionally, a spatial component allows for the presence and proximity of maternal health services. We expect that the availability of reproductive health facilities acts together with levels of socio-economic development, individual and household characteristics and community fertility norms, in influencing individual reproductive behavior at very young ages.Kenya, gravidanze adolescenziali, salute materna, strutture sanitarie, modelli multilivello Kenya, teenage pregnancy, maternal health, health facilities, multilevel modelling, millennium development goals