The 'partnership' between international NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and local NGOs in Bangladesh

'Partnership' has become a standard buzzword in the NGO and 'development' world. Until 1980s it was common for many Northern NGOs (NNGOs) to implement their own 'development' programmes and projects. This implementation approach has shifted to one in which local 'partner' organisations are identified and do most of the work, with the NNGOs in a funding and organisational support role. Also many Northern donors started funding the Southern NGOs directly making many NNGOs irrelevant. This paper reviews the current literature on 'partnership' between Northern and Southern NGOs and concludes that the new role of the NNGOs in the North should be to work with governments and business to change policies which create poverty in both the North and the South. It also examines the 'partnership' between a NNGO (Save the Children (UK)) and local NGOs in Bangladesh. There are probably more and bigger NGOs in Bangladesh than in any other country of its size. This paper concludes that in Bangladesh the relationship is led by the financial constraints of the NNGOs not by any intention to build partnership. In other words it is 'donorship' rather than 'partnership'. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Comparative evaluation of phenol and thimerosal as preservatives for a candidate vaccine against American cutaneous leishmaniasis

For decades thimerosal has been used as a preservative in the candidate vaccine for cutaneous leishmaniasis, which was developed by Mayrink et al. The use of thimerosal in humans has been banned due to its mercury content. This study addresses the standardization of phenol as a new candidate vaccine preservative. We have found that the proteolytic activity was abolished when the test was conducted using the candidate vaccine added to merthiolate (MtVac) as well as to phenol (PhVac). The Montenegro's skin test conversion rates induced by MtVac and by PhVac was 68.06% and 85.9%, respectively, and these values were statistically significant (p < 0.05). The proliferative response of peripheral mononuclear blood cells shows that the stimulation index of mice immunized with both candidate vaccines was higher than the one in control animals (p < 0.05). The ability of the candidate vaccines to induce protection in C57BL/10 mice against a challenge with infective Leishmania amazonensis promastigotes was tested and the mice immunized with PhVac developed smaller lesions than the mice immunized with MtVac. Electrophoresis of phenol-preserved antigen revealed a number of proteins, which were better preserved in PhVac. These results do in fact encourage the use of phenol for preserving the immunogenic and biochemical properties of the candidate vaccine for cutaneous leishmaniasis

Assessment of immunity induced in mice by glycoproteins derived from different strains and species of Leishmania

A comparative study was undertaken on the immunogenic properties of 63kDa glycoproteins obtained from five different strains/species of Leishmania and assessed in C57BL/10 mice. The humoral immune response was assessed by ELISA against the five different antigens of the immunized animals. The cellular immune response was derived from Leishmania. The response was found to be species-specific in all of determined by means of the cytokine profiles secreted by the spleen cells of immunized animals. The presence of ³-IFN and IL-2, and the absence of IL-4 in the supernatants of cells stimulated by L. amazonensis antigen established that the cellular response is of Th1 type. The five glycoproteins tested were equally effective in protecting C57BL/10 mice against challenge by L. amazonensis. About 50% of the immunized animals were protected for six months