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This paper extends a cross-country analysis of health determinants with a civil society variable. The reason is that next to government and households and the level of economic development, civil society agency is likely to play a role in health care as well. This role refers to community care, political pressure, and demands for accountability of health care providers. We use the ISD index of civic activism to measure the agency of civil society. The panel regression results for developing counties indicate that civic activism contributes to the reduction of child mortality and maternal mortality. The size effect is larger than that of almost all other variables, except those for health expenditures. This implies that in times of severe financial constraints, civic activism may be the relatively most feasible factor stimulating better health outcomes.

This paper extends a cross-country analysis of health determinants with a civil society variable. The reason is that next to government and households and the level of economic development, civil society agency is likely to play a role in health care as well. This role refers to community care, political pressure, and demands for accountability of health care providers. We use the ISD index of civic activism to measure the agency of civil society. The panel regression results for developing counties indicate that civic activism contributes to the reduction of child mortality and maternal mortality. The size effect is larger than that of almost all other variables, except those for health expenditures. This implies that in times of severe financial constraints, civic activism may be the relatively most feasible factor stimulating better health outcomes.

Poverty and vulnerability are among the major problems in Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA). To design appropriate poverty reduction initiatives for the region, it is not only important to understand the distribution of poverty but also the determinants. Various reports have documented information on the status, distribution and determinants of poverty in each of the countries. Nonetheless, not much information has been documented in a form that is easily accessible to decision makers and planners involved in designing and implementing programmes for addressing poverty reduction and food insecurity at the regional level. This paper reviews the existing knowledge on the status, distribution and determinants of poverty in the ESA region to fill that knowledge gap. It emerges from the literature that poverty in the region differs across socio-economic groups and across space. The existing poverty maps suggests that most districts and provinces whose poverty rates are lower than the national averages are located in rain fed mixed crop–livestock systems and that the highest proportion of them are in the humid and sub humid systems. High poverty rates also occur in the livestock only systems. About half of the poor provinces and districts fall in areas with short growing periods; this affects their agricultural potential. The areas are also constrained by market access. Investment in irrigation, improved water management and improved market access would play a vital role in these regions. The review suggests that household level determinants of poverty in the region include, but are not limited to: household characteristics—family composition, size and structure, age and marital status of head, gender of the head, education and other human capital capabilities; access to basic services such as social amenities, water and sanitation, credit and infrastructure; employment, occupation and incomes; asset ownership; access to remittances; burden of disease; variations in agricultural production; and declining food stocks and high food prices. Community/regional/country level determinants include: geography and related factors such as market access, agro-ecological zones, climate and ethnicity; the environment; population density; area of residence (rural vs. urban); income, growth and inequality; conflict, insecurity and political instability; and governance and corruption. However, it is difficult to separate the determinants of community level poverty from the determinants at the household level. The review further suggests that the determinants of poverty are fairly robust across many COMESA countries. This suggests the need for a consultative approach to poverty reduction in the region.

The objective of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services is to provide Governments, private sector, and civil society with scientifically credible and independent up-to-date assessments of available knowledge to make informed decisions at the local, national and international level. This assessment on pollinators, pollination and food production has been carried out by experts from all regions of the world, who have analysed a large body of knowledge, including about 3,000 scientific publications. It represents the state of our knowledge on this issue. Its chapters and their executive summaries were accepted, and its summary for policymakers was approved, by the Plenary of IPBES at its fourth session (22-28 February 2016, Kuala Lumpur). This report provides a critical assessment of the full range of issues facing decision-makers, including the value of pollination and pollinators, status, trends and threats to pollinators and pollination, and policy and management response options. It concludes that pollinators, which are economically and socially important, are increasingly under threat from human activities, including climate change, with observed decreases in the abundance and diversity of wild pollinators. However, the report also outlines a wide range of management and response options that are available to halt the further decline of pollinators. The assessment concludes that 75% of our food crops and nearly 90% of wild flowering plants depend at least to some extent on animal pollination and that a high diversity of wild pollinators is critical to pollination even when managed bees are present in high numbers.