Lessons learnt during the implementation of WISN for comprehensive primary health care in India, South Africa and Peru

Introduction: The World Health Organization introduced the workload indicators of staffing needs (WISN) in 1998 to improve country-level health workforce planning. This study presents the primary care health workforce planning experiences of India, South Africa and Peru. Methods: A case study approach was used to explore the lessons learnt in the implementation of WISN in India and South Africa. It also describes the methods developed and implemented to estimate health workforce in Peru. We identify the barriers and facilitators faced by countries during the implementation phase through the triangulation of literature, government reports and accounts of involved health planners in the three countries. Results: India implemented WISN in a referral pathway of three district health facilities, including a primary health centre, community health centre and district hospital. Implementation was impeded by limited technical support, poor stakeholder consultation and information systems challenges. South Africa implemented WISN for health workforce planning in primary care and found the skills mix and staff determinations to be unaffordable. The Peruvian Ministry of Health considered using WISN but decided to develop a context-specific tool to estimate the health workforce needed using its available resources such as the National Register of Health Personnel. The main challenge in using WISN was the insufficient information on its inputs. Conclusion: While India and South Africa had unique experiences with the integration of WISN in their health system, none of the countries has yet benefited from the implementation of WISN due to financial, infrastructure and technical challenges. Since the methodology developed by the Peruvian Ministry of Health is context-specific, its implementation has been promising for health workforce planning. The learnings from these countries’ experiences will prove useful in bringing future changes for the health workforce

Final report : SIM comparison in mass standards SIM.M.M-K5

This report summarizes the results of a SIM comparison in masss carried out between 7 NMIs. Five mass standards with nominal values 2 kg, 200 g, 50 g, 1 g and 200 mg have been circulated by the NMIs. The results reported by the participants are consistent with each other and with the key comparison reference valu of the comparison CCM.M-K5 to which the present comparison has been linked.Fil: Becerra, L. O. Centro Nacional de Metrología (CENAM); MéxicoFil: Peña, L. M. Centro Nacional de Metrología (CENAM); MéxicoFil: Luján, L. Centro Nacional de Metrología (CENAM); MéxicoFil: Díaz, J. C. Centro Nacional de Metrología (CENAM); MéxicoFil: Centeno, , L. M. Centro Nacional de Metrología (CENAM); MéxicoFil: Loayza, V. M. Instituto Nacional de Metrologia, Qualidade e Tecnologia (INMetro); BrasilFil: Cacais, F. A. Instituto Nacional de Metrologia, Qualidade e Tecnologia (INMetro); BrasilFil: Ramos, O. Laboratorio Costarricense de Metrología (LaCoMet); Costa RicaFil: Rodriguez, S. Laboratorio Costarricense de Metrología (LaCoMet); Costa RicaFil: Garcia, F. Centro de Estudios, Medición y Certificación de Calidad (CESMEC); ChileFil: Leyton, F. Centro de Estudios, Medición y Certificación de Calidad (CESMEC); ChileFil: Santo, C. Laboratorio Tecnológico del Uruguay (LATU); UruguayFil: Caceres, J. Laboratorio Tecnológico del Uruguay (LATU); UruguayFil: Kornblit, F. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Industrial (INTI); ArgentinaFil: Leiblich, J. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Industrial (INTI); ArgentinaFil: Claude, J. National Research Council (NRC); Canad

Final report : SIM comparison in mass standards SIM.M.M-K4

This report summarizes the results of a SIM comparison in masss carried out between 7 NMIs. Five mass standards with nominal values 2 kg, 200 g, 50 g, 1 g and 200 mg have been circulated by the NMIs. The results reported by the participants are consistent with each other and with the key comparison reference valu of the comparison CCM.M-K5 to which the present comparison has been linked.Fil: Becerra, L. O. Centro Nacional de Metrología (CENAM); MéxicoFil: Peña, L. M. Centro Nacional de Metrología (CENAM); MéxicoFil: Luján, L. Centro Nacional de Metrología (CENAM); MéxicoFil: Díaz, J. C. Centro Nacional de Metrología (CENAM); MéxicoFil: Centeno, , L. M. Centro Nacional de Metrología (CENAM); MéxicoFil: Loayza, V. M. Instituto Nacional de Metrologia, Qualidade e Tecnologia (INMetro); BrasilFil: Cacais, F. A. Instituto Nacional de Metrologia, Qualidade e Tecnologia (INMetro); BrasilFil: Ramos, O. Laboratorio Costarricense de Metrología (LaCoMet); Costa RicaFil: Rodriguez, S. Laboratorio Costarricense de Metrología (LaCoMet); Costa RicaFil: Garcia, F. Centro de Estudios, Medición y Certificación de Calidad (CESMEC); ChileFil: Leyton, F. Centro de Estudios, Medición y Certificación de Calidad (CESMEC); ChileFil: Santo, C. Laboratorio Tecnológico del Uruguay (LATU); UruguayFil: Caceres, J. Laboratorio Tecnológico del Uruguay (LATU); UruguayFil: Kornblit, F. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Industrial (INTI); ArgentinaFil: Leiblich, J. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Industrial (INTI); ArgentinaFil: Claude, J. National Research Council (NRC); Canad

Climate Vulnerability and the Cost of Debt

We use indices from the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative to investigate the impact of climate vulnerability on bond yields. Our methodology invokes panel ordinary least squares with robust standard errors and principal component analysis. The latter serves to address the multicollinearity between a set of vulnerability measures. We find that countries with higher exposure to climate vulnerability, such as the member countries of the V20 climate vulnerable forum, exhibit 1.174 percent higher cost of debt on average. This effect is significant after accounting for a set of macroeconomic controls. Specifically, we estimate the incremental debt cost due to higher climate vulnerability, for the V20 countries, to have exceeded USD 62 billion over the last ten years. In other words, for every ten dollars they pay in interest cost, they pay another dollar for being climate vulnerable. We also find that a measure of social readiness, which includes education and infrastructure, has a negative and significant effect on bond yields, implying that social and physical investments can mitigate climate risk related debt costs and help to stabilize the cost of debt for vulnerable countries

No silver bullet for digital soil mapping: country-specific soil organic carbon estimates across Latin America.

Country-specific soil organic carbon (SOC) estimates are the baseline for the Global SOC Map of the Global Soil Partnership (GSOCmap-GSP). This endeavor is key to explaining the uncertainty of global SOC estimates but requires harmonizing heterogeneous datasets and building country-specific capacities for digital soil mapping (DSM).We identified country-specific predictors for SOC and tested the performance of five predictive algorithms for mapping SOC across Latin America. The algorithms included support vector machines (SVMs), random forest (RF), kernel-weighted nearest neighbors (KK), partial least squares regression (PL), and regression kriging based on stepwise multiple linear models (RK). Country-specific training data and SOC predictors (5 x 5 km pixel resolution) were obtained from ISRIC - World Soil Information. Temperature, soil type, vegetation indices, and topographic constraints were the best predictors for SOC, but country-specific predictors and their respective weights varied across Latin America. We compared a large diversity of country-specific datasets and models, and were able to explain SOC variability in a range between ~ 1 and ~ 60 %, with no universal predictive algorithm among countries. A regional (n = 11 268 SOC estimates) ensemble of these five algorithms was able to explain ~ 39% of SOC variability from repeated 5-fold cross-validation.We report a combined SOC stock of 77.8 +- 43.6 Pg (uncertainty represented by the full conditional response of independent model residuals) across Latin America. SOC stocks were higher in tropical forests (30 +- 16.5 Pg) and croplands (13 +- 8.1 Pg). Country-specific and regional ensembles revealed spatial discrepancies across geopolitical borders, higher elevations, and coastal plains, but provided similar regional stocks (77.8 +- 42.2 and 76.8 +- 45.1 Pg, respectively). These results are conservative compared to global estimates (e.g., SoilGrids250m 185.8 Pg, the Harmonized World Soil Database 138.4 Pg, or the GSOCmap-GSP 99.7 Pg). Countries with large area (i.e., Brazil, Bolivia, Mexico, Peru) and large spatial SOC heterogeneity had lower SOC stocks per unit area and larger uncertainty in their predictions. We highlight that expert opinion is needed to set boundary prediction limits to avoid unrealistically high modeling estimates. For maximizing explained variance while minimizing prediction bias, the selection of predictive algorithms for SOC mapping should consider density of available data and variability of country-specific environmental gradients. This study highlights the large degree of spatial uncertainty in SOC estimates across Latin America. We provide a framework for improving country-specific mapping efforts and reducing current discrepancy of global, regional, and country-specific SOC estimates

DIMBOA levels in hexaploid Brazilian wheat are not associated with antibiosis against the cereal aphids Rhopalosiphum padi and Sitobion avenae.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the natural levels of the plant defence compound DIMBOA in young leaves of eight hexaploid Brazilian wheat genotypes and the impact of the genotypes upon development of cereal aphids, Rhopalosiphum padi and Sitobion avenae. HPLC Analysis revealed that the DIMBOA levels varied from 5.376 (in BRS Guabiju) to 30.651 mmol/kgFW (in BRS Timbaúva) with two genotypes outperforming Solstice, a UK variety used as reference. Bioassays were conducted to evaluate the development and fecundity of both aphids when grown on the wheat genotypes. Although BRS Guabiju and BRS Timbaúva were among the genotypes showing the highest and lowest susceptibility respectively, against both aphids, no correlation could be found between DIMBOA levels and antibiosis effects. The cultivar BRS 327 that was among the genotypes showing lower intrinsic rate of population increase for the two aphid species. Elucidating the role of secondary metabolites in plant resistance to aphids and the characterisation of the genotypes that allowed reduced aphid development are important steps to achieve a better natural resistance in hexaploid Brazilian wheat

Business constraints and growth potential of micro and small manufacturing enterprises in Uganda

Ugandan micro and small enterprises (MSEs) still perform poorly. Studies associating poor performance of manufacturers with lack of finance and low investment ignore micro enterprises. Those focusing on MSEs are either exploratory in nature or employ a descriptive analysis, which cannot show the extent to which business constraints explain the performance of MSEs. Thus, this paper tries to examine the extent to which the growth of MSEs is associated with business constraints while controlling for owners’ attributes and firms’ characteristics. The results reveal that MSEs’ growth potential is negatively associated with limited access to productive resources (finance and business development services), high taxes and lack of market access