Effectiveness of Mechanisms and Models of Coordination between Organizations, Agencies and Bodies Providing or Financing Health Services in Humanitarian Crises: A Systematic Review.

BACKGROUND: Effective coordination between organizations, agencies and bodies providing or financing health services in humanitarian crises is required to ensure efficiency of services, avoid duplication, and improve equity. The objective of this review was to assess how, during and after humanitarian crises, different mechanisms and models of coordination between organizations, agencies and bodies providing or financing health services compare in terms of access to health services and health outcomes. METHODS: We registered a protocol for this review in PROSPERO International prospective register of systematic reviews under number PROSPERO2014:CRD42014009267. Eligible studies included randomized and nonrandomized designs, process evaluations and qualitative methods. We electronically searched Medline, PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and the WHO Global Health Library and websites of relevant organizations. We followed standard systematic review methodology for the selection, data abstraction, and risk of bias assessment. We assessed the quality of evidence using the GRADE approach. RESULTS: Of 14,309 identified citations from databases and organizations' websites, we identified four eligible studies. Two studies used mixed-methods, one used quantitative methods, and one used qualitative methods. The available evidence suggests that information coordination between bodies providing health services in humanitarian crises settings may be effective in improving health systems inputs. There is additional evidence suggesting that management/directive coordination such as the cluster model may improve health system inputs in addition to access to health services. None of the included studies assessed coordination through common representation and framework coordination. The evidence was judged to be of very low quality. CONCLUSION: This systematic review provides evidence of possible effectiveness of information coordination and management/directive coordination between organizations, agencies and bodies providing or financing health services in humanitarian crises. Our findings can inform the research agenda and highlight the need for improving conduct and reporting of research in this field

Entrepreneurship in Peace Operations

Journal of Civic Society," 6(01), (2010), pp. 1-21.A central question guides this article: To what extent can entrepreneurship be a force for change and transformation in war-torn areas? To address the question, this article introduces the topic of social entrepreneurship and illustrates how social entrepreneurs are serving as change agents in rebuilding and reconstructing areas devastated by conflict. The social enterprise of Kiva, the brainchild of social entrepreneurs Matthew Flannery and Jessica Jackley, provides an example. It is notable for its innovative idea—a Web-based, internet-facilitated micro-loan process that attracts individual investors worldwide in support of business entrepreneurs in the developing world. As a counter example to top-down, mandate-driven, organization-centric intervention strategies that many organizations pursue in peace operations, Kiva’s enduring legacy may very well be its bottom-up, entrepreneur-driven, network-centric model of change. Its most salient features are: a supply chain that ‘contractually’ connects all the partners in the loan process to minimize coordination problems and ensure that each step in the workflow sequentially adds value; processes and systems that guarantee work is transparent, efficient and accountable; a model of learning that enables global and local partners to co-create a complex, worldwide community-based learning system in support of entrepreneurship; and a rich network of social relations built from face-to-face and online interactions to help generate social capital needed for development

International Brain Initiative: An Innovative Framework for Coordinated Global Brain Research Efforts.

The International Brain Initiative (IBI) has been established to coordinate efforts across existing and emerging national and regional brain initiatives. This NeuroView describes how to be involved and the new opportunities for global collaboration that are emerging between scientists, scientific societies, funders, industry, government, and society