Increasing the accessibility, acceptability and use of the IUD in Gujarat, India

The USAID-funded FRONTIERS Program of the Population Council, in collaboration with the Department of Health & Family Welfare, Government of Gujarat, and the Center for Operations Research and Training, Vadodara, conducted an operations research study in India to test the hypothesis that by improving the demand for the IUD and simultaneously strengthening the technical competencies and counseling skills of the providers, use of the IUD use would increase. The findings show that demand-generation activities and provision of good-quality IUD services, together with a supportive programmatic environment, when carried out simultaneously showed increased acceptance of the IUD. The intervention could be easily integrated into the existing system. A sustained and coherent IEC campaign is required to remove myths; the IEC and counseling aids developed for the study have been well accepted by healthcare providers, clients, and national and state government officials

Understanding Uncertainty: Views from Kachchh, Mumbai, and Sundarbans

This issue of Southasiadisasters.net focuses on the theme of climate related uncertainty. This issue draws heavily from the work of the Research Council of Norway (RCN) funded project 'Climate Change, Uncertainty and Transformation'. This project spawned three round tables recently held at Gandhinagar, Mumbai, and Kolkata to understand the perspectives of various stakeholders such as policy makers, administrators, climate scientists, activists and community leaders on climate related uncertainty. This issue is replete with the insights of these stakeholders on how they understand, experience, interpret and are impacted by climate change related uncertainty