Suchergebnisse

AbstractThe sixth most populous country, Pakistan's modern contraceptive use rate is just 25%. Of the multiple reasons for avoiding contraceptives, women cite side effects as a significant deterrent to contraceptive uptake. Efforts to understand these side effects are limited by overreliance on the biomedical framework, which typically dismisses some of women's negative experiences and explanatory models as misperceptions. Drawing on 13 months of ethnographic data from a village in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, our study sought to provide an emic description of contraceptive side effects. Respondents' described what we call "spiritual" and "somatic" side effects. While the latter included experiences such as irregular bleeding and leg pain, spiritual side effects had more severe implications ranging from job loss, birth defects, to child death. In a context of a firm belief that family planning was a sin, contraceptives were believed to negatively impact spiritual well‐being and invite God's wrath. Our data suggest these perceptions and experiences played a crucial role in contraceptive decision‐making. The spiritual and somatic experiences of contraceptive use described by respondents also demonstrate the importance of broadening dominant biomedical approaches to holistically understand contraceptive side effects and usage.

AbstractBackgroundThe BRANCH Consortium recently conducted 10 mixed-methods case studies to investigate the provision of health and nutrition interventions for women and children in conflict-affected countries, aiming to better understand the dominant influences on humanitarian health actors' programmatic decision-making and how such actors surmount intervention delivery barriers. In this paper, the research challenges encountered and the mitigating strategies employed by the case study investigators in four of the BRANCH case study contexts are discussed: Somalia, Mali, Pakistan and Afghanistan.DiscussionMany of the encountered research challenges were anticipated, with investigators adopting mitigation strategies in advance or early on, but others were unexpected, with implications for how studies were ultimately conducted and how well the original study aims were met. Insecurity was a fundamental challenge in all study contexts, with restricted geographical access and concerns for personal safety affecting sampling and data collection plans, and requiring reliance on digital communications, remote study management, and off-site team meetings wherever possible. The need to navigate complex local sociopolitical contexts required maximum reliance on local partners' knowledge, expertise and networks, and this was facilitated by early engagement with a wide range of local study stakeholders. Severe lack of reliable quantitative data on intervention coverage affected the extent to which information from different sources could be triangulated or integrated to inform an understanding of the influences on humanitarian actors' decision-making.ConclusionStrong local partners are essential to the success of any project, contributing not only technical and methodological capacity but also the insight needed to truly understand and interpret local dynamics for the wider study team and to navigate those dynamics to ensure study rigour and relevance. Maintaining realistic expectations of data that are typically available in conflict settings is also essential, while pushing for more resources and further methodological innovation to improve data collection in such settings. Finally, successful health research in the complex, dynamic and unpredictable contexts of conflict settings requires flexibility and adaptability of researchers, as well as sponsors and donors.

Abstract
Background
Somalia has been ravaged by more than two decades of armed conflict causing immense damage to the country's infrastructure and mass displacement and suffering among its people. An influx of humanitarian actors has sought to provide basic services, including health services for women and children, throughout the conflict. This study aimed to better understand the humanitarian health response for women and children in Somalia since 2000.

Methods
The study utilized a mixed-methods design. We collated intervention coverage data from publically available large-scale household surveys and we conducted 32 interviews with representatives from government, UN agencies, NGOs, and health facility staff. Qualitative data were analyzed using latent content analysis.

Results
The available quantitative data on intervention coverage in Somalia are extremely limited, making it difficult to discern patterns or trends over time or by region. Underlying sociocultural and other contextual factors most strongly affecting the humanitarian health response for women and children included clan dynamics and female disempowerment. The most salient operational influences included the assessment of population needs, donors' priorities, and insufficient and inflexible funding. Key barriers to service delivery included chronic commodity and human resource shortages, poor infrastructure, and limited access to highly vulnerable populations, all against the backdrop of ongoing insecurity. Various strategies to mitigate these barriers were discussed. In-country coordination of humanitarian health actors and their activities has improved over time, with federal and state-level ministries of health playing increasingly active roles.

Conclusions
Emerging recommendations include further exploration of government partnerships with private-sector service providers to make services available throughout Somalia free of charge, with further research on innovative uses of technology to help reaches remote and inaccessible areas. To mitigate chronic skilled health worker shortages, more operational research is needed on the expanded use of community health workers. Persistent gaps in service provision across the continuum must be addressed, including for adolescents, for example. The is also a clear need for longer term development focus to enable the provision of health and nutrition services for women and children beyond those included in recurrent emergency response.

Abstract

Background
Mali is currently in the midst of ongoing conflicts which involve jihadist groups, rebels, and the state. This conflict has primarily centered in the North of the country. Humanitarian actors delivering services in these geographies must navigate the complex environment created by conflict. This study aimed to understand how humanitarian actors make decisions around health service delivery within this context.

Methods
The current case-study utilized a mixed methods approach and focused on Mopti, Mali's fifth administrative region and fourth largest in population. Latent content analysis was used to analyze interview transcripts guided by our research objectives and new concepts as they emerged. Indicators of coverage of health interventions in the area of maternal and child health and nutrition were compiled using Mali's National Evaluation Platform and are presented for the conflict and non-conflict regions. Development assistance estimates for Mali by year were obtained from the Developmental Assistance for Health Database compiled by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Administrative data was compiled from the annual reports of Mali's Système Local d'Information Sanitaire (SLIS), Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS).

Results
Our data suggests that the reaction of the funding mechanisms to the conflict in Mali was a major barrier to timely delivery of health services to populations in need and the nature of the conflict is likely a key modifier of such reaction patterns. Concerns have been raised about the disconnect between the very high administrative capacity of large NGOs that control the work, and the consequent burden it puts on local NGOs. Population displacement and inaccurate estimates of needs made it difficult for organizations to plan program services. Moreover, actors delivering services to populations in need had to navigate an unpredictable context and numerous security threats.

Conclusions
Our study highlights the need for a more flexible funding and management mechanism that can better respond to concerns and issues arising at a local level. As the conflict in Mali continues to worsen, there is an urgent need to improve service delivery to conflict-affected populations.

Background: Somalia has been ravaged by more than two decades of armed conflict causing immense damage to the country's infrastructure and mass displacement and suffering among its people. An influx of humanitarian actors has sought to provide basic services, including health services for women and children, throughout the conflict. This study aimed to better understand the humanitarian health response for women and children in Somalia since 2000.Methods: The study utilized a mixed-methods design. We collated intervention coverage data from publically available large-scale household surveys and we conducted 32 interviews with representatives from government, UN agencies, NGOs, and health facility staff. Qualitative data were analyzed using latent content analysis.Results: The available quantitative data on intervention coverage in Somalia are extremely limited, making it difficult to discern patterns or trends over time or by region. Underlying sociocultural and other contextual factors most strongly affecting the humanitarian health response for women and children included clan dynamics and female disempowerment. The most salient operational influences included the assessment of population needs, donors' priorities, and insufficient and inflexible funding. Key barriers to service delivery included chronic commodity and human resource shortages, poor infrastructure, and limited access to highly vulnerable populations, all against the backdrop of ongoing insecurity. Various strategies to mitigate these barriers were discussed. In-country coordination of humanitarian health actors and their activities has improved over time, with federal and state-level ministries of health playing increasingly active roles.Conclusions: Emerging recommendations include further exploration of government partnerships with private-sector service providers to make services available throughout Somalia free of charge, with further research on innovative uses of technology to help reaches remote and inaccessible areas. To mitigate chronic skilled health worker shortages, more operational research is needed on the expanded use of community health workers. Persistent gaps in service provision across the continuum must be addressed, including for adolescents, for example. The is also a clear need for longer term development focus to enable the provision of health and nutrition services for women and children beyond those included in recurrent emergency response.

AbstractGlobally, the number of people affected by conflict is the highest in history, and continues to steadily increase. There is currently a pressing need to better understand how to deliver critical health interventions to women and children affected by conflict. The compendium of articles presented in this Conflict and Health Collection brings together a range of case studies recently undertaken by the BRANCH Consortium (Bridging Research & Action in Conflict Settings for the Health of Women and Children). These case studies describe how humanitarian actors navigate and negotiate the multiple obstacles and forces that challenge the delivery of health and nutrition interventions for women, children and adolescents in conflict-affected settings, and to ultimately provide some insight into how service delivery can be improved.

Armed conflict disproportionately affects the morbidity, mortality, and wellbeing of women, newborns, children, and adolescents. Our study presents insights from a collection of ten country case studies aiming to assess the provision of sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health and nutrition interventions in ten conflict-affected settings in Afghanistan, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. We found that despite large variations in contexts and decision making processes, antenatal care, basic emergency obstetric and newborn care, comprehensive emergency obstetric and newborn care, immunisation, treatment of common childhood illnesses, infant and young child feeding, and malnutrition treatment and screening were prioritised in these ten conflict settings. Many lifesaving women's and children's health (WCH) services, including the majority of reproductive, newborn, and adolescent health services, are not reported as being delivered in the ten conflict settings, and interventions to address stillbirths are absent. International donors remain the primary drivers of influencing the what, where, and how of implementing WCH interventions. Interpretation of WCH outcomes in conflict settings are particularly context-dependent given the myriad of complex factors that constitute conflict and their interactions. Moreover, the comprehensiveness and quality of data remain limited in conflict settings. The dynamic nature of modern conflict and the expanding role of non-state armed groups in large geographic areas pose new challenges to delivering WCH services. However, the humanitarian system is creative and pluralistic and has developed some novel solutions to bring lifesaving WCH services closer to populations using new modes of delivery. These solutions, when rigorously evaluated, can represent concrete response to current implementation challenges to modern armed conflicts.