Curbing coercive identities

human development, culture

Getting and Using Knowledge about the Poor (with Latin American case material)

Summary Information systems concerned with poverty reduction programmes suffer less from a scarcity of information, more from an undigested mass of data and a lack of limited and focused information, relevant to the monitoring of programmes and decision?making in that area (including resource allocation). Intersectoral and decentralization issues are key ? both in information terms, and as regards the institutions set up to make and carry out the relevant decisions. The article is particularly concerned with the institutional requirements to integrate poverty?oriented information systems with relevant decision?making. It uses case material from Chile and, to a lesser extent, from Brazil. Resumé Obtention et exploitation des données concernant les pauvres (avec apports de matériel de cas provenant de l'Amérique Latine) Les systèmes d'information qui se concernent des programmes de réduction de la pauvreté ne souffrent pas tellement d'un manque d'informations, que d'une masse de données indigérées d'une part, et de trop peu d'informations restreintes et focalisées de l'autre, lesquelles pourraient servir utilement dans lecontrôle des programmes et des décisions à prendre dans cette région: notamment, la distribution des ressources. Les questions intersectorales et décentralistes sont cruciales ? à la fois en termes de l'information proprement dite, et en ce qui concerne les institutions qui sont créées dans l'unique but de prendre et de mettre en vigueur les décisions correspondantes. Le présent article se concerne spécifiquement des exigences institutionelles qui détermineront l'intégration des systèmes d'information relatifs à l'indigence dans les prises de décision appropriées. La matière dont se sert l'auteur est dérivée de plusieurs études de cas menées au Chili et dans un cas moindre, au Brésil. Resumen Obtención y utilización del conocimiemto sobre los pobres (con material de ejemplos latinoamericanos) Los sistemas de información relativos a los programas de reducción de probreza sufren no tanto de escasez de material, como de exceso de datos sin procesar y falta de información limitada y bien enfocada que sea relevante para la supervisión de programas y decisiónes en esa área (incluyendo la distribución de recursos). Los asuntos intersectorales y de descentralización son claves ? en términos de la información así como en lo que se refiere a instituciónes creadas para hacer decisiónes relevantes y llevarlas a cabo. Este artículo se refiere particulmente a los requisitos institucionales para integrar los sistemas de información sobre pobreza con la adopción de decisiónes relevantes. Se ilustran estos puntos con material de casos de estudio de Chile, y en menor escala, de Brasil

Participación de la comunidad para la salud

Incluye BibliografíaCon participacion de la comunidad se refiere a arreglos, a menudo informales, que proporcionan un rol mas activo en la promocion de la salud a miembros de la comunidad y a organizaciones con las cuales ellos participan, tales como cooperativas, grupos religiosos, asociaciones de padres etc. Analiza: 1) la atencion primaria de salud; 2) el movimiento del desarrollo de la comunidad y la concientizacion desde una perspectiva historica; 3) dimensiones de la participacion de la comunidad; 4) la naturaleza de la participacion; 5) los patrocinadores de la participacion y su orientacion; y 6) la estructura de la comunidad y su contexto socio- politico

Making health policy management intersectoral: Issues of information analysis and use in less developed countries

There is a growing awareness of the need to approach health problems intersectorally. This has important implications for health policy management, centrally so for the informations systems which should enable 'managers' to monitor performance and also provide feedback to those with broader policy responsibilities. Yet relatively little is being done to adjust the information systems to this new intersectoral awareness: the focus of health information systems remains the collection of health service data. Much of the information collected is not used to provide adequate feedback to planners and managers, and to influence programme implementation. The paper--which focuses on the problems in less developed countries--argues that more attention needs to be paid to analysing the expected links between interventions and outcomes, as well as to cost considerations. Flexible procedures are required to address locally or regionally relevant problems. Thought must be given to making information of interest to health workers by linking it to the outcomes of activities, and by enabling them to discuss the implications of findings. Community members may also be thus involved. Often such processes are wholly neglected. The paper examines institutional and political arrangements that influence the capacity to use information for management and policy making, and which need to be understood if information systems are to be broadened beyond the health sector. The paper ends by discussing the main indicators which have been proposed, and occasionally used, to broaden health monitoring in an intersectoral direction. It argues that much relevant information is being routinely produced by the various departments and discusses briefly how such information can be used to build up gradually an intersectoral information system for health.health information systems intersectoral co-operation policy management health indicators