Resources

The article looks at the challenges and strategies of a partnership for health that was formed in 1998 in Saidpur and Parbatipur municipalities in Northern Bangladesh. Under the Child Survival Programme (CSP), a partnership was formed between Concern, 2 municipal authorities and 24 ward health committees. The overall goal of the CSP is to reduce maternal and child mortality and morbidity, and increase child survival by developing a sustainable municipal health service. The article looks at issues of partnership, and how a meaningful partnership was a difficult achievement in this case and had to be reconstructed after initial failures. The authors describe processes used to assess the capacities of the partners, to design the programme, and the overall achievements of the CSP. The article concludes by outlining future challenges, lessons learnt and implications for building sustainable health-promoting partnerships in development.

The HIV/AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa is disproportionately affecting and infecting women and girls who themselves face a host of cultural, social, economic and political factors that obstruct the realisation of their rights, further fostering their risk and vulnerability. This paper discusses two participatory learning and action methodologies that were used were used in a project working with Maasai communities in Northern Tanzania. Entitled æA Gender Issue: reducing the vulnerability of girls to HIV/AIDSÆ, it aimed to explore factors contributing to womensÆ and girlsÆ vulnerability to HIV/AIDS, facilitating discussions to create understanding in the community and identifying strategies to reduce risk and vulnerability. The majority of the paper is given over to the description of the gender matrix activity, describing itÆs six steps and how to adapt it for children. Drawing activities with children are also looked at and finally the author discusses the effectiveness of these methodologies.