Pathways to prosperity for adolescent girls in Kenya

The World Bank, in partnership with the Population Council, and the Center for Global Development (CGD), launched the Pathways to Prosperity for Adolescent Girls in Africa report in October 2024. The joint report brings urgently needed focus to the challenges faced by adolescent girls across the region and presents targeted policy solutions to address their diverse experiences and needs. The report findings were discussed in Nairobi, Kenya during a policy and evidence workshop held on March 3, 2025. The workshop shone a spotlight on the status and wellbeing of adolescent girls in Kenya and enabled stakeholders to share insights and priority actions that will set adolescent girls on the path to prosperity, positioning them as key drivers of Kenya and Africa\u27s future. The workshop brought together over 100 participants, including representatives of government ministries and county departments serving adolescents, multi-lateral agencies, youth representatives, and international, national and grassroots organizations focused on adolescents. Key indicators on adolescent girls in Kenya are included in this country brief and the related presentation

Sustainable Management Development Program: celebrating 20 years of strengthening public health systems globally through effective leadership and management

To build a strong health infrastructure and improve public health outcomes, ministries of health require capable leadership, organizational management, and technical expertise to implement targeted and effective health programs. Without these assets in place, many important global health initiatives fall short of their goals. In 1992, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) established the Sustainable Management Development Program (SMDP) to assist leaders in low-and middle-resource countries in strengthening their health management systems. For the past two decades, SMDP has been successful in helping countries assess their management capabilities, create more efficient use of resources, and advance the use of evidence-based, practical management and leadership tools and approaches to improve accountability and organizational performance. SMDP's initiatives have been effective in building workforce management competencies for epidemiology, laboratory management, surveillance, and outbreak response. As SMDP's leadership and staff reflect on the past, and look towards the future, their goal is to continue to work collaboratively with ministries of health and other partners to develop leaders and managers with the expertise to manage wisely, improve organizational performance, and leverage investments to ensure that return on public health investment is significant.SMDP framework -- Highlights of SMDP's global health accomplishments (1992-2012) -- SMDP capabilities -- Highlights of SMDP in action across the globe 1992-2012.3/20/13 date from document properties."CS237087."Available via the World Wide Web as an Acrobat .pdf file (13.8 MB, 16 p.)

Pacific Visual Impairment Project

The primary goal of the Pacific Vision Impairment Project (VIP) is to increase the pool of fully credentialed, effective personnel educating students who are blind or have a Vision Impairment in remote areas where services either do not exist or need additional support

Antimicrobial peptides as novel anti-tuberculosis therapeutics

"Available online 24 May 2016"Tuberculosis (TB), a disease caused by the human pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis, has recently joined HIV/AIDS as the world's deadliest infectious disease, affecting around 9.6 million people worldwide in 2014. Of those, about 1.2 million died from the disease. Resistance acquisition to existing antibiotics, with the subsequent emergence of Multi-Drug Resistant mycobacteria strains, together with an increasing economic burden, has urged the development of new anti-TB drugs. In this scope, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), which are small, cationic and amphipathic peptides that make part of the innate immune system, now arise as promising candidates for TB treatment. In this review, we analyze the potential of AMPs for this application. We address the mechanisms of action, advantages and disadvantages over conventional antibiotics and how problems associated with its use may be overcome to boost their therapeutic potential. Additionally, we address the challenges of translational development from benchside to bedside, evaluate the current development pipeline and analyze the expected global impact from a socio-economic standpoint. The quest for more efficient and more compliant anti-TB drugs, associated with the great therapeutic potential of emerging AMPs and the rising peptide market, provide an optimal environment for the emergence of AMPs as promising therapies. Still, their pharmacological properties need to be enhanced and manufacturing-associated issues need to be addressed.Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) - UID/ BIO/04469/2013 unit ; COMPETE 2020 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER- 006684) ; SFRH/BPD/64958/2010Project RECI/BBB-EBI/0179/2012 (FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-027462

Exploring the impact of gender inequities on the promotion of cardiovascular health of women in Pakistan

Cardiovascular disease exerts an enormous burden on women\u27s health. The intake of a healthy diet may reduce this burden. However, social norms and economic constraints are often factors that restrain women from paying attention to their diet. Underpinned by critical realism, this study explores how gender/sex influences decision-making regarding food consumption among women of low socioeconomic status (SES). The study was carried out at two cardiac facilities in Karachi, Pakistan, on 24 participants (male and female from different ethnic backgrounds), who had received health education. Using an interpretive descriptive approach, the study identified major barriers to a healthy diet: proscribed gender roles and lack of women\u27s autonomy, power, male domination, and abusive behaviours. Cardiovascular risk and disease outcomes for the Pakistani women of low SES are likely to further escalate if individual and structural barriers are not reduced using multifactorial approaches

Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats analysis of carbon footprint indicator and derived recommendations

ABSTRACT: Demand for a low carbon footprint may be a key factor in stimulating innovation, while prompting politicians to promote sustainable consumption. However, the variety of methodological approaches and techniques used to quantify life-cycle emissions prevents their successful and widespread implementation. This study aims to offer recommendations for researchers, policymakers and practitioners seeking to achieve a more consistent approach for carbon footprint analysis. This assessment is made on the basis of a comprehensive Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats or SWOT Analysis of the carbon footprint indicator. It is carried out bringing together the collective experience from the Carbonfeel Project following the Delphi technique principles. The results include the detailed SWOT Analysis from which specific recommendations to cope with the threats and the weaknesses are identified. In particular, results highlight the importance of the integrated approach to combine organizational and product carbon footprinting in order to achieve a more standardized and consistent approach. These recommendations can therefore serve to pave the way for the development of new, specific and highly-detailed guidelines