Japan International Cooperation Agency

About: Japan International Cooperation Agency is a government organization based out in Tokyo, Japan. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Public health. The organization has 555 authors who have published 613 publications receiving 9536 citations.

Promoting gender parity in basic education: Lessons from a technical cooperation project in Yemen

Abstract: Many girls are not sent to school in Yemen, despite basic education being free as well as compulsory for all children aged 6–15. Aiming to improve girls’ enrolment by increasing parental and community involvement, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) offered a technical cooperation project in June 2005 called Broadening Regional Initiative for Developing Girls’ Education (BRIDGE). Phase 1 of this project ran for three and a half years, piloting a participatory school management model supported by school grants in six districts of the Taiz Governorate in the Southwest of Yemen. To find out how successful this approach has been in a traditional society, the authors of this paper analysed the gender parity index (GPI) of the project’s pilot schools. Based on data collected at three points in time (in the initial and final years of the project, and two years after the project’s end), their findings suggest that interventions in school management which strongly emphasise girls’ education can be effective in improving gender parity rather quickly, regardless of the schools’ initial conditions. However, the authors also observe that the pilot schools’ post-project performance in terms of gender parity is mixed. While the local government allocated budgets for school grants to all pilot schools even after the project’s end, training and monitoring activities were cut back. The authors further observe that the variation in performance appears to be significantly correlated with school leaders’ initial perceptions of gender equality and with the number of female teachers employed. These findings point to the importance of providing schools with continuous long-term guidance and of monitoring those which implement school improvement programmes.

Active surveillance for acute flaccid paralysis in poliomyelitis high-risk areas in southern China

Abstract: Objective On 29 October 2000 poliomyelitis was officially declared to have been eradicated from the Western Pacific Region. This article describes the results of surveillance for cases of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) in China during the final phase of the eradication effort. Methods We conducted hospital-based active surveillance in high-risk areas for poliomyelitis in 5 provinces of southern China (Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi and Jiangxi) between 1995 and 1997 to determine the adequacy of reporting and laboratory diagnosis of cases of AFP. Findings A total of 1069 AFP cases occurring since 1993 were identified in 311 hospital visits. Less than 50% of AFP cases occurring in 1993 and 1994 had been reported by AFP surveillance, and laboratory diagnosis had been carried out on only a small proportion of these. However, improved cooperation between hospital sectors increased the rate of case reporting and laboratory diagnosis to 85% and 78%, respectively, in 1997. Despite this overall improvement, these two indicators were approximately 10–20% lower in Yunnan Province. Epidemiological analysis revealed that cases of clinical poliomyelitis accounted for as much as one-third of all AFP in 1993 and that some of these cases were clustered. Clusters were rarely observed after 1994. Active surveillance in the China– Myanmar border areas of Yunnan over 1995–96 detected 9 cross-border cases of clinical poliomyelitis, including 2 of wild poliomyelitis. Import of poliomyelitis was thus considered to have occurred frequently until 1996 in this border area of Yunnan. These data were important for the outbreak response immunization carried out in 1996 in the border prefectures of Yunnan. Conclusion Our investigation confirmed a high level of AFP surveillance in poliomyelitis high-risk areas of the five provinces and provided valuable information on the interruption of wild poliovirus circulation in southern China that will be of use to countries in other regions that have yet to eradicate poliomyelitis.

An assessment survey of anti-tuberculosis drug management in Cambodia.

Abstract: CONTEXTE : Il s'agit de 107 services de sante publique comportant un service TB et de 66 pharmacies privees dans 14 provinces. OBJECTIFS: Evaluer les connaissances, las attitudes et les pratiques (KAP) des pourvoyeurs de service TB, des nouveaux patients externes atteints de TB pulmonaire a bacilloscopie positive (SS+) et des vendeurs de medicaments ; documenter les pratiques existant dans le systeme d'approvisionnement en medicaments TB du secteur public ; mesurer la disponibilite des medicaments TB dans les pharmacies privees ; et comparer les prix des medicaments TB des secteurs public et prive avec les prix internationaux. SCHEMA: Revision de documents et de dossiers de traitement, controles d'inventaire et interviews structurees. RESULTATS: Les pratiques des pourvoyeurs de services TB en matiere de prescription sont acceptables. Les nouveaux patients TB externes a bacilloscopie positive ont un niveau de connaissance elevee au sujet du traitement de la TB. Les pratiques d'inventaires des vendeurs de medicaments pour les medicaments TB suggerent la necessite d'une amelioration. Divers medicaments TB sont disponibles dans les pharmacies privees. Dans le secteur public, les prix des medicaments TB sont similaires a ceux de la reference internationale bien qu'ils soient plus eleves que les prix du Dispositif Mondial pour l'Approvisionnement en Medicaments. CONCLUSIONS: Une enquete d'evaluation de la prise en charge des medicaments basee sur un indicateur peut mesurer la situation actuelle et la qualite du DOTS en identifiant les faiblesses ou les ecarts par rapport a la norme et en servant en meme temps de base pour la formation des pourvoyeurs de services TB et les vendeurs de medicaments.