Ill health is still a major human problem and a high burden for many countries, despite the availability of effective interventions. Growing impatience with this situation, at both national and…
Beyond Scaling Up: improving access to health services
Health in a changing world
Markets for healthcare and pharmaceuticals are spreading rapidly in many countries. Meanwhile, new information communications technology (ICT) is changing the way people access advice and medicines. And as recent events…
Epidemics: policy, justice and future challenges
The spectre of a devastating global pandemic has been raised more than once in recent years. Recent disease events such as SARS, H1N1, avian influenza and haemorrhagic fevers (Ebola, dengue,…
Living in Parallel Worlds? Bridging Formal and Informal Seed Systems (maize briefing 6)
In semi-arid areas of Eastern Kenya many small-scale farmers plant local maize seed, saved from the previous year, or obtained from within the community, rather than purchase commercial seed from…
MCM (Multi-Criteria Mapping) Maize Project Method (maize briefing 3)
In the course of the STEPS maize project, the research team, which included both Kenyan and UK-based researchers, met and talked at length with a diverse range of farmers in…
Getting the Value Without the High Risk? The Rise of Horticulture in Sakai (maize briefing 7)
One of the success stories in Kenya’s agricultural sector has been the rise of the horticultural industry, which has shown remarkable growth both in the domestic and export markets Despite…
Epidemics for all? Governing health in a global age
Alongside climate change and terrorism, epidemics capture the contemporary imagination of a vulnerable, interconnected earth. Bursting from a confined area onto the world stage, epidemics demonstrate precisely the kind of…
Epidemics for all? Governing health in a global age (Briefing)
Alongside climate change and terrorism, epidemics capture the contemporary imagination of a vulnerable, interconnected earth. Bursting from a confined area onto the world stage, epidemics demonstrate precisely the kind of…
GM Crops – a ‘pro-poor’ technology?
often hear that genetically modified (GM, transgenic) crops are urgently needed to kick-start agricultural development and overcome poverty, hunger and malnutrition in the global South. But the experiences of the…
Botswana’s foot-and-mouth disease and beef trade policy
The beef industry in southern Africa has been a stalwart of economic development, but new conditions of trade, market access and disease dynamics, particularly of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), mean a…