Design, Monitoring and Evaluation of Resilience Interventions: Conceptual and Empirical Considerations

As resilience programming gains more and more prominence as an approach for addressing chronic vulnerability of populations exposed to recurrent shocks and stressors, empirical evidence will be needed for measuring how well households, communities, and systems manage shocks and stressors and how interventions and programmes that are designed to strengthen these capacities, perform. However, despite progress on the conceptual side, academics, practitioners and donors are still struggling with pragmatic issues - in particular, how to measure, and monitor and evaluate resilience interventions. Developing a robust resilience measurement and Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) framework is therefore a priority. The objective of this paper is to contribute to this agenda. After reviewing some of the progress made recently in relation to resilience measurement, the paper adopts a logical framework (logFram) and uses both theoretical and empirical examples to present the different components that an project M&E needs to include in order to monitor adequately resilience

Characteristics and causes of severe poverty and hunger:

Poverty reduction, Poverty, Hunger, Landlessness in rural areas, Poverty dynamics, Measuring severe poverty, Characteristics of poor and hungry, Women,

The world's most deprived: Characteristics and causes of extreme poverty and hunger

Poverty, Poor, Statistics, Hunger,

Neo?patrimonialism, Institutions and Economic Growth: The Case of Malawi, 1964–2009

For significant periods Malawi's economy has performed as well or better than might have been expected given its geographical location and natural resource endowments. Underlying these promising episodes is a pattern of centralised, long?horizon rent management and technocratic integrity. This case study of ‘developmental patrimonialism’ found that the period 1965–79 was one of centralised, long?horizon rent management and a vertically disciplined technocracy, and the economy grew healthily; 1980–94, by contrast, was a period in which rent management drifted. Although it remained quite centralised, it became geared more to the short term, while the civil service began to deteriorate as it was politicised. These resulted in a comparatively directionless reform programme. The situation deteriorated still further under President Bakili Muluzi (1994–2004). This was a period of decentralised, short?horizon rent management and a further deterioration of the state bureaucracy. The economy entered a tailspin. A recovery was made during the first term of President Bingu wa Mutharika (2004–09), who reintroduced some aspects of long?horizon rent centralisation and promoted a more vertically disciplined technocracy

The clinical course of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and its association to quality of life over time: longitudinal data from the INSIGHTS-IPF registry

Background: Quality of life (QoL) is profoundly impaired in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). However, data is limited regarding the course of QoL. We therefore analysed longitudinal data from the German INSIGHTS-IPF registry. Methods: Clinical status and QoL were assessed at enrollment and subsequently at 6- to 12-months intervals. A range of different QoL questionnaires including the St. George’s Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) were used. Results: Data from 424 patients were included; 76.9% male; mean age 68.7 ± 9.1 years, mean FVC% predicted 75.9 ± 19.4, mean DLCO% predicted 36.1 ± 15.9. QoL worsened significantly during follow-up with higher total SGRQ scores (increased by 1.47 per year; 95% CI: 1.17 to 1.76; p < 0.001) and higher UCSD-SOBQ scores and lower EQ-5D VAS and WHO-5 scores. An absolute decline in FVC% predicted of > 10% was associated with a significant deterioration in SGRQ (increasing by 9.08 units; 95% CI: 2.48 to 15.67; p = 0.007), while patients with stable or improved FVC had no significantly change in SGRQ. Patients with a > 10% decrease of DLCO % predicted also had a significant increase in SGRQ (+ 7.79 units; 95% CI: 0.85 to 14.73; p = 0.028), while SQRQ was almost stable in patients with stable or improved DLCO. Patients who died had a significant greater increase in SGRQ total scores (mean 11.8 ± 18.6) at their last follow-up visit prior to death compared to survivors (mean 4.2 ± 18.9; HR = 1.03; 95% CI: 1.01 to 1.04; p < 0.001). All QoL scores across the follow-up period were significantly worse in hospitalised patients compared to non-hospitalised patients, with the worst scores reported in those hospitalised for acute exacerbations. Conclusions: QoL assessments in the INSIGHTS-IPF registry demonstrate a close relationship between QoL and clinically meaningful changes in lung function, comorbidities, disease duration and clinical course of IPF, including hospitalisation and mortality