Suchergebnisse

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), committed to by all 191 United Nations member states, are rooted in the concept of sustainable development. Although 2007 (midway) reports indicated that programs are under way, unfortunately many countries are unlikely to reach their goals by 2015 due to high levels of poverty. Madagascar is one such example, although some gains are being made. Attempts of this island nation to achieve its MDGs, expressed most recently in the form of a Madagascar Action Plan, are notable in their emphasis on (1) conserving the country's natural resource base, (2) the effect of demographic trends on development, and (3) the importance of health as a prerequisite for development. Leadership in the country's struggle for economic growth comes from the president of the Republic, in part, through his "Madagascar Naturally" vision as well as his commitment to universal access to family planning, among other health and development interventions. However, for resource-limited countries, such as Madagascar, to get or stay "on track" to achieving the MDGs will require support from many sides. "Madagascar cannot do it alone and should not do it alone." This position is inherent in the eighth MDG: "Develop a global partnership for development." Apparently, it takes a village after all – a global one.

An impact evaluation of an integrated school‐ and health‐clinic‐based adolescent reproductive health initiative was undertaken by the State Secretariats of Health and Education in Bahia, Brazil during 1997–99. The project was initiated in response to continued high pregnancy rates among adolescents and growing numbers of new HIV infections among young adults. It sought to promote responsible sexual and health‐seeking behaviors among public secondary‐school students, including the use of public health clinics. The study design included a matched control group used to measure project impact. The findings indicate that the project was successful in increasing the flow of sexual and reproductive health information to secondary‐school students and that it had an impact on adolescents' intentions to use public health clinics in the future. No effects on sexual or contraceptive‐use behaviors or on use of public clinics were observed, however. Client exit‐interview data from a subset of project clinics indicate that adolescents who use clinic‐based services are overwhelmingly female and considerably older on average and much more likely ever to have been pregnant than are adolescents in the target population for the project.