Prehospital & Disaster Medicine
Volume  28  – Issue 06 – December 2013
https://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayIssue?jid=PDM&tab=currentissue

Development of an Evaluation Framework Suitable for Assessing Humanitarian Workforce Competencies During Crisis Simulation Exercises.
Cranmer H1, Chan JL2, Kayden S3, Musani A4, Gasquet PE5, Walker P6, Burkle FM7, Johnson K8.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24429109

Abstract
The need to provide a professionalization process for the humanitarian workforce is well established. Current competency-based curricula provided by existing academically affiliated training centers in North America, the United Kingdom, and the European Union provide a route toward certification. Simulation exercises followed by timely evaluation is one way to mimic the field deployment process, test knowledge of core competences, and ensure that a competent workforce can manage the inevitable emergencies and crises they will face. Through a 2011 field-based exercise that simulated a humanitarian crisis, delivered under the auspices of the World Health Organization (WHO), a competency-based framework and evaluation tool is demonstrated as a model for future training and evaluation of humanitarian providers.

Qualitative Health Research
January 2014; 24 (1)
http://qhr.sagepub.com/content/current

Former Child Soldiers’ Problems and Needs: Congolese Experiences
Steinar Johannessen and Helge Holgersen
Qual Health Res January 2014 24: 55-66, first published on November 20, 2013 doi:10.1177/1049732313513655
Abstract
With this article, we explore how staff working at transit centers and vocational training centers in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo experienced the problems and needs of former child soldiers. We argued that the staff’s experience of the children’s daily lives and their understanding of the sociocultural context of the conflict make their perspective a valuable source of information when trying to understand the phenomenon of child soldiering. Additionally, we reasoned that how the staff frame these children’s problems influences how they attempt to aid the children. We conducted 11 semistructured interviews and analyzed these using a hermeneutical-phenomenological approach. We clustered our findings around six themes: unfavorable contextual factors, acting as if still in the army, addiction, symptoms of psychopathology, social rejection, and reintegration needs. The overarching message we observed was that the informants experienced that former child soldiers require help to be transformed into civilians who participate proactively in their society.

Social Science & Medicine
Volume 104,   In Progress   (March 2014)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/02779536/104
Fast, cheap, and out of control? Speculations and ethical concerns in the conduct of outsourced clinical trials in India
Original Research Article
Pages 48-55
Vinay R. Kamat

Abstract
The globalization of biopharmaceutical clinical trials and their offshore outsourcing, from the West to low and middle-income countries, has come under increasing scrutiny from academic scholars, practitioners, regulatory agencies and the media. This article reports the results of a study conducted in Bangalore and Hyderabad between 2007 and 2009, to elicit the perspectives of stakeholders, concerning media representations of their work and the ethical issues that emanate from their engagement in the clinical trials enterprise. In acknowledging the inherently problematic nature of the outsourcing of clinical trials to low income countries, I argue that the practice of not prioritizing research on diseases that are most prevalent among communities, from which subjects are recruited, demands a coordinated and sustained critique. I propose that the critical discourse on the outsourcing of clinical trials should not only emphasize the perils of this practice, but also address some broader issues of equity and distributive justice that determine people’s access to basic health care in low income countries. Close attention to the specific context of clinical trials in an increasingly neoliberal medical and health environment in emerging economies such as India can provide critical insights into the on-the-ground complexities and challenges of outsourced global clinical trials.

Sustainability
Volume 6, Issue 1 (January 2014), Pages 1-473
http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/6/1
Cultural Resources as Sustainability Enablers: Towards a Community-Based Cultural Heritage Resources Management (COBACHREM) Model
by Susan O. Keitumetse
Sustainability 2014, 6(1), 70-85; doi:10.3390/su6010070
Received: 10 September 2013; in revised form: 7 November 2013 / Accepted: 29 November 2013 / Published: 20 December 2013
Show/Hide Abstract | Download PDF Full-text (992 KB) | Download XML Full-text

Abstract: People inhabit and change environments using socio-cultural and psycho-social behaviors and processes. People use their socio-cultural understanding of phenomena to interact with the environment. People are carriers of cultural heritage. These characteristics make cultural values ubiquitous in all people-accessed and people-inhabited geographic spaces of the world, making people readily available assets through which environmental sustainability can be implemented. Yet, people’s conservation development is rarely planned using cultural resources. It is against this background that a Community-Based Cultural Heritage Resources Management (COBACHREM) model is initiated as a new approach that outlines the symbiosis between cultural heritage, environment and various stakeholders, with a view to create awareness about neglected conservation indicators inherent in cultural resources and better placed to complement already existing natural resources conservation indicators. The model constitutes a two-phased process with four (04) levels of operation, namely: level I (production); level II (reproduction); level III (consumption) that distinguish specific components of cultural heritage resources to be monitored at level IV for sustainability using identified cultural conservation indicators. Monitored indicators, which are limitless, constitute work in progress of the model and will be constantly reviewed, renewed and updated through time. Examples of monitoring provided in this article are the development of cultural competency-based training curriculum that will assist communities to transform cultural information into certifiable intellectual (educational) and culture-economic (tourism) assets. Another monitoring example is the mainstreaming of community cultural qualities into already existing environmental conservation frameworks such as eco-certification to infuse new layers of conservation indicators that enrich resource sustainability. The technical COBACHREM model acknowledges existing academic frameworks of communal identity formation (e.g., indigenity and autochthony) and is designed to add value onto these.

Sustainability
Volume 6, Issue 1 (January 2014), Pages 1-473
http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/6/1

Integrating Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in the Post-2015 Development Agenda: Goal Structure, Target Areas and Means of Implementation
by Paul L. Lucas, Marcel T.J. Kok, Måns Nilsson and Rob Alkemade
Sustainability 2014, 6(1), 193-216; doi:10.3390/su6010193
Received: 1 November 2013; in revised form: 16 December 2013 / Accepted: 17 December 2013 / Published: 27 December 2013
Show/Hide Abstract | Download PDF Full-text (851 KB) | Download XML Full-text

Abstract: The United Nations’ discussions on defining a new set of post-2015 development goals focus on poverty eradication and sustainable development. Biodiversity and ecosystem services are essential for poverty eradication, which is also one of the foundations of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Based on an assessment of current proposals of goals and targets, and a quantitative pathway analysis to meet long term biodiversity and food security goals, this paper discusses how biodiversity and ecosystem services can be integrated into a broad set of goals and targets, and concludes with relevant target areas and means of implementation for which specific targets need to be defined. Furthermore, it responds to the call of the CBD to consider the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity and the related Aichi biodiversity targets in the post-2015 development agenda. The paper’s analysis identifies three overlapping but also supplemental ways to integrate biodiversity and ecosystem services in the post-2015 agenda: integrated goals, goals addressing earth system functioning and goals addressing environmental limits. It further concludes seven target areas to be included under the goals to address biodiversity and ecosystem services in the context of food and agriculture: access to food, demand for agricultural products, sustainable intensification, ecosystem fragmentation, protected areas, essential ecosystem services and genetic diversity. The Strategic Plan for Biodiversity provides a good basis for integrating biodiversity and ecosystem services in the post-2015 development agenda. Many Aichi targets address the proposed target areas and the means of implementation discussed, while they need to be complemented with targets that specifically address human well-being, as well as institutions and governance.

From Google Scholar+
Selected content from beyond the journals and sources covered above, aggregated from a range of Google Scholar monitoring algorithms and other monitoring strategies.

The Case for Collaboration Among Humanitarian Surgical Programs in Low Resource Countries
QA Fisher, G Fisher – Anesthesia & Analgesia, 2014 Anesthesia & Analgesia:
February 2014 – Volume 118 – Issue 2 – p 448–453
doi: 10.1213/ANE.0000000000000053
The overall challenge, in essence, is to seek ways in which in-country hosts can identify their needs, and with their stakeholders co-create actionable solutions to meet them. Working relationships with host country hospital hierarchy and government officials are not …

[PDF] Imaging and GIS for Disaster Response
E Frost – 2014
… Several very special groups led by Open-‐Source groups like Crisis Mappers (http://crisismappers.net ) and commercial companies doing humanitarian assistance disaster relief like Google Crisis Map (http://google.org/crisismap) and the ESRI Disaster response group (http …

[PDF] Health in the Arab world: a view from within 4 Changing therapeutic geographies of the Iraqi and Syrian wars
O Dewachi, M Skelton, VK Nguyen, FM Fouad, GA Sitta… – 2014
… health-care facilities and professionals has been identified as a major threat to public health worldwide.19 A wide range of agencies, including local or national non-governmental organisations (NGOs), local health-care providers, and international humanitarian bodies are …
[PDF] Moving Sustainability Forward: Contributions and Outcomes of the 3rd World Sustainability Forum
MA Rosen, S La Russa – Sustainability, 2014
… highlighting the importance of sustainability and sustainable development, and on the interplay of these key issues: … E. Sustainable Urban Development F. Sustainable Development Policy, Practice and Education G. Sustainability Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Innovation

Facebook: The enabler of online civic engagement for activists
AM Warren, A Sulaiman, NI Jaafar – Computers in Human Behavior, 2014
… All the participants included in this study have a history of engaging in some form of charity or humanitarian work for the betterment of the community and have Facebook accounts. … For example, a humanitarian worker at MyCorps commented, …

WHO: India three years polio-free

Excerpt
Wild poliovirus has not been found in India since 13 January 2011 meaning that, from that date, India is no longer a country where polio is endemic. Three years of being polio free is a notable milestone for the country as a whole, but the success of the immunization and awareness campaign has had a wider impact – with this achievement, it is hoped that soon the entire South-East Asia Region can be considered certifiably free from polio. A commission of experts will meet at the World Health Organization offices at the end of March to analyze the data and determine the polio status for the Region.

Historically, India has been the largest endemic reservoir of polio in the world with between 50,000 to 100,000 paralytic polio cases occurring each year between 1978 and 1995. It has also been one of the main sources of polio importation for other countries. This achievement has been driven by the partnership between the Government of India, international organizations, local NGOs and other institutions. An extraordinary mobilization of health workers was necessary to reach this point, particularly in the Uttar Pradesh and Bihar states. The outcome of this has been an improved vaccine delivery system, better trained health staff and high quality surveillance, monitoring and research mechanisms…

http://www.searo.who.int/mediacentre/features/2014/sea-polio/en/index.html

Speech: Opening remarks at the Fourth stakeholder meeting: Accountability for women’s and children’s health – now and in the post-2015 agenda
Dr Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General
14 January 2014

Excerpt
Colleagues in public health, development partners, representatives of sister agencies and civil society organizations, ladies and gentlemen,

Welcome to this fourth meeting of stakeholders as we continue our efforts to improve accountability for women’s and children’s health. I thank all of you for coming to Geneva. We have a good mix of perspectives, experiences, and contributions at many levels represented in this room.

We are at the midpoint in a time-bound process of improving accountability. This is a good time to take stock of where we stand, the lessons we have learned, and how we can institutionalize these lessons as the international community moves into the post-2015 era.

When I was asked to serve as a vice-chair for the Commission on Information and Accountability for Women’s and Children’s Health, I knew we were embarking on a journey into largely uncharted territory.

Accountability for resources and results has long been deeply desired, but rarely tackled in a rigorous and systematic way. I also knew that establishing an accountability framework specifically for women’s and children’s health would be an especially hard test case, perhaps even the hardest test case imaginable.

As we all know, maternal and child mortality cannot be brought down without addressing fundamental weaknesses in health systems that have been neglected for decades. Addressing accountability for women’s and children’s health means addressing long-standing problems with health infrastructures and services, inadequate numbers of appropriately trained and motivated staff, and the absence in most countries of reliable systems for civil registration and vital statistics.

Accountability means counting. Transparency is impossible in the absence of reliable data. It means improving the way donors and recipient countries work together, the way information is collected and used, and the capacity to track resource flows throughout the health sector.

It means ensuring equitable access to services, fair financing for care, and, as the independent Expert Review Group so clearly reminds us, high quality care that is person-centred, not intervention-centred…
Full text here: http://www.who.int/dg/speeches/2014/accountability-women-children/en/index.html

Speech: The Global Economy in 2014
Christine Lagarde, Managing Director, IMF
National Press Club, Washington DC
January 15, 2014  AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY

Excerpt
…what I want to talk about today—how the IMF sees the global economy as the wheels of time roll into yet another year.

If we think about it, 2014 will be a milestone in many respects. It will mark the hundredth anniversary of the start of the First World War, the 70th anniversary of the Bretton Woods conference that gave birth to the IMF, and the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

It will also mark the 7th anniversary of the financial market jitters that quickly turned into the greatest global economic calamity since the Great Depression.

This crisis still lingers. Yet, optimism is in the air: the deep freeze is behind, and the horizon is brighter. My great hope is that 2014 will prove momentous in another way—the year in which the “seven weak years”, economically speaking, slide into “seven strong years”.

Is this wishful thinking? No, but it will not simply happen on its own. Getting beyond the crisis still requires a sustained and substantial policy effort, coordination, and the right policy mix. Let me talk about this—I will start with the global outlook, and then touch on the policy path I have in mind.

Global outlook and risks

In just a few days, we will be releasing our updated forecasts. While our numbers are still being finalized, I will talk about the main trends as we see them.

:: Momentum strengthened in the latter half of 2013, and should strengthen further in 2014—largely due to improvements in the advanced economies.

:: Yet, global growth is still stuck in low gear. It remains below its potential, which we think is somewhere around 4 percent. This means that the world could create more jobs before we would need to worry about the global inflation genie coming out of its bottle.
:: Even for the advanced economies, however, the outlook is still subject to significant risks. With inflation running below many central banks’ targets, we see rising risks of deflation, which could prove disastrous for the recovery. If inflation is the genie, then deflation is the ogre that must be fought decisively.

:: During the years of crisis, we have relied on the emerging markets to keep the global economy afloat. Together with the developing countries, they accounted for three-quarters of global growth over the past half decade. However, a growing number of emerging markets are slowing down as the economic cycle turns.

:: We also see risks arising from financial market turbulence and the volatility of capital flows. The reaction to the Fed’s tapering has been calm so far, and this is good news, but there still could be some rough waters ahead.

:: Overall, the direction is positive, but global growth is still too low, too fragile, and too uneven. Moreover, it is not enough to create the jobs for the more than 200 million people around the world who need them.

:: In far too many countries, the benefits of growth are being enjoyed by far too few people. Just to give one example: in the United States, 95 percent of income gains since 2009 went to the top 1 percent. This is not a recipe for stability and sustainability.

This all points to one thing: the need to stay focused on the policies needed for sustainable growth and rewarding jobs, which in the end are needed to make everybody better off…

Full text here: http://www.imf.org/external/np/speeches/2014/011514.htm

Report: Global Risks 2014
World Economic Forum
January 2014
http://reports.weforum.org/global-risks-2014/

Excerpt from Executive Summary
The Global Risks 2014 report highlights how global risks are not only interconnected but also have systemic impacts. To manage global risks effectively and build resilience to their impacts, better efforts are needed to understand, measure and foresee the evolution of interdependencies between risks, supplementing traditional risk-management tools with new concepts designed for uncertain environments. If global risks are not effectively addressed, their social, economic and political fallouts could be far-reaching, as exemplified by the continuing impacts of the financial crisis of 2007-2008.

The systemic nature of our most significant risks calls for procedures and institutions that are globally coordinated yet locally flexible. As international systems of finance, supply chains, health, energy, the Internet and the environment become more complex and interdependent, their level of resilience determines whether they become bulwarks of global stability or amplifiers of cascading shocks. Strengthening resilience requires overcoming collective action challenges through international cooperation among business, government and civil society.

Based on a survey of the World Economic Forum’s multistakeholder communities, the report maps 31 global risks according to level of concern, likelihood and impact and interconnections among them.

The risks of highest concern to respondents are fiscal crises in key economies, structurally high unemployment and underemployment, and water crises:

Ten Global Risks of Highest Concern in 2014

1. Fiscal crises in key economies
2. Structurally high unemployment/underemployment
3. Water crises
4. Severe income disparity
5. Failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation
6. Greater incidence of extreme weather events (e.g. floods, storms, fires
7. Global governance failure
8. Food crises
9. Failure of a major financial mechanism/institution
10. Profound political and social instability

Source: Global Risks Perception Survey 2013-2014. Note: From a list of 31 risks, survey respondents were asked to identify the five they are most concerned about.

The risks considered high impact and high likelihood are mostly environmental and economic in nature: greater incidence of extreme weather events, failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation, water crises, severe income disparity, structurally high unemployment and underemployment and fiscal crises in key economies. Female respondents perceived almost all global risks as both more likely and more impactful than did males, especially in the environmental category. Younger individuals gave higher scores for the impact of almost all of the risks, particularly environmental risks, such as water crises, greater incidence of natural catastrophes, the loss of biodiversity and greater incidence of extreme weather events.

The risks perceived to be most interconnected with other risks are macroeconomic – fiscal crises, and structural unemployment and underemployment – with strong links between this macroeconomic risk nexus and social issues, such as rising income inequality and political and social instability. The failure of global governance emerges as a central risk that is connected to many different issues. Mapping perceived interconnections between risks helps to understand the potential transmission channels between them.

The decline of trust in institutions, lack of leadership, persisting gender inequalities and data mismanagement were among trends to watch, according to survey respondents. Experts added further concerns including various forms of pollution, and accidents or abuse involving new technologies, such as synthetic biology, automated vehicles and 3-D printing.

Three Risks in Focus 
Of the many conceivable ways in which possible interconnections and interdependencies between global risks could play out systemically over the 10-year horizon considered by this report, three are explored in depth:

Instabilities in an increasingly multipolar world: Changing demographics, growing middle classes and fiscal constraints will place increasing domestic demands on governments, deepening requirements for internal reform and shaping international relations. Set against the rise of regional powers, an era of greater economic pragmatism and national self-protection might increase inter-state friction and aggravate a global governance vacuum. This may hinder progress on cross-cutting, long-term challenges, and lead to increased inefficiencies and friction costs in strategically important sectors, such as healthcare, financial services and energy.   Managing this risk will require flexibility, fresh thinking and multistakeholder communication.

Generation lost? The generation coming of age in the 2010s faces high unemployment and precarious job situations, hampering their efforts to build a future and raising the risk of social unrest. In advanced economies, the large number of graduates from expensive and outmoded educational systems – graduating with high debts and mismatched skills – points to a need to adapt and integrate professional and academic education. In developing countries, an estimated two-thirds of the youth are not fulfilling their economic potential. The generation of digital natives is full of ambition to improve the world but feels disconnected from traditional politics; their ambition needs to be harnessed if systemic risks are to be addressed.

Digital disintegration: So far, cyberspace has proved resilient to attacks, but the underlying dynamic of the online world has always been that it is easier to attack than defend. The world may be only one disruptive technology away from attackers gaining a runaway advantage, meaning the Internet would cease to be a trusted medium for communication or commerce.  Fresh thinking at all levels on how to preserve, protect and govern the common good of a trusted cyberspace must be developed.

Collaborative multistakeholder action is needed. Wide variance in how risks are identified and managed still exists. Businesses, governments and civil society alike can improve how they approach risk by taking steps such as opening lines of communication with each other to build trust, systematically learning from others’ experiences, and finding ways to incentivize long-term thinking. By offering a framework for decision-makers to look at risks in a holistic manner, the Global Risks 2014 report aims to provide a platform for dialogue and to stimulate action.
http://reports.weforum.org/global-risks-2014/executive-summary/

OXFAM: The Food Index
January 2014
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/what-we-do/good-enough-to-eat

Overview Excerpt
Interactive snapshot of 125 countries showing the best and worst places in the world to eat, and the challenges people face getting enough of the right food. Around the world, one in eight people go to bed hungry every night, even though there is enough food for everyone. Our graph illustrates how overconsumption, misuse of resources and waste are common elements of a system that leaves hundreds of millions without enough to eat.

Eight established global data sources were identified that capture aspects of the food market relevant for this index. The statistics are from different years, but all the figures are the most recently available from global data sources, such as the World Health Organisation, Each of the sources used different scales in measuring the countries, requiring a process to standardise them so that they could be compared. The standard MIN / MAX rescaling method was used, generating re-scaled values of 0-100 where 0 points is the minimum score (best) and 100 points is the maximum score (worst). The process is based on identifying the countries with the minimum and maximum scores in the original data, scoring them 0 and 100 respectively and then measuring how far every other country is from these maximum and minimum values.

All countries with data for each measure were included in the re-scaling process to ensure that the final result was a globally comparable one. However, only the countries that had data for all eight measures were included in the final index, with one exception. For most developed countries, there is no data available for the underweight children measure. For those countries that achieved the minimum score for the undernourishment measure they were assumed to also be amongst the best in the world for measures for underweight children. The Good Enough To Eat database therefore includes 125 countries. That some of the measures do not include minimum or maximum scores illustrates that there are countries that are better or worse but are not included in the index because they do not have data available for the other measures.

Comment: Development – Time to leave GDP behind
Gross domestic product is a misleading measure of national success. Countries should act now to embrace new metrics…
Robert Costanza, Ida Kubiszewski, Enrico Giovannini, Hunter Lovins, Jacqueline McGlade, Kate E. Pickett, Kristín Vala Ragnarsdóttir, Debra Roberts, Roberto De Vogli& Richard Wilkinson
http://www.nature.com/news/development-time-to-leave-gdp-behind-1.14499
Nature, 15 January 2014

Excerpt
Robert F. Kennedy once said that a country’s gross domestic product (GDP) measures “everything except that which makes life worthwhile”. The metric was developed in the 1930s and 1940s amid the upheaval of the Great Depression and global war. Even before the United Nations began requiring countries to collect data to report national GDP, Simon Kuznets, the metric’s chief architect, had warned against equating its growth with well-being.

GDP measures mainly market transactions. It ignores social costs, environmental impacts and income inequality. If a business used GDP-style accounting, it would aim to maximize gross revenue — even at the expense of profitability, efficiency, sustainability or flexibility. That is hardly smart or sustainable (think Enron). Yet since the end of the Second World War, promoting GDP growth has remained the primary national policy goal in almost every country1.

Meanwhile, researchers have become much better at measuring what actually does make life worthwhile. The environmental and social effects of GDP growth can be estimated, as can the effects of income inequality2. The psychology of human well-being can now be surveyed comprehensively and quantitatively3, 4. A plethora of experiments has produced alternative measures of progress (see Supplementary Information).

The chance to dethrone GDP is now in sight. By 2015, the UN is scheduled to announce the Sustainable Development Goals, a set of international objectives to improve global well-being. Developing integrated measures of progress attached to these goals offers the global community the opportunity to define what sustainable well-being means, how to measure it and how to achieve it. Missing this opportunity would condone growing inequality and the continued destruction of the natural capital on which all life on the planet depends…

… Alternative measures of progress can be divided into three broad groups (see Supplementary Information). Those in the first group adjust economic measures to reflect social and environmental factors. The second group consists of subjective measures of well-being drawn from surveys. The third group relies on weighted composite indicators of well-being including housing, life expectancy, leisure time and democratic engagement.

Adjusted economic measures. These are expressed in monetary units, making them more readily comparable to GDP. Such indices consider annual income, net savings and wealth. Environmental costs and benefits (such as destroying wetlands or replenishing water resources) can also be factored in. One example is the genuine progress indicator (GPI). This metric is calculated by starting with personal consumption expenditures, a measure of all spending by individuals and a major component of GDP, and making more than 20 additions and subtractions to account for factors such as the value of volunteer work and the costs of divorce, crime and pollution6.

Crucially, unlike other measures in the first group, GPI considers income distribution. A dollar’s worth of increased income to a poor person boosts welfare more than a dollar’s worth of increased income does for a rich person. And a big gap between the richest and the poorest in a country — as in the United States and, increasingly, in China and India — correlates with social problems, including higher rates of drug abuse, incarceration and mistrust, and poorer physical and mental health5…

…Subjective measures of well-being. The most comprehensive of these is the World Values Survey (WVS), which covers about 70 countries and includes questions about how satisfied people are with their lives. Starting in 1981, the WVS is conducted in ‘waves’, the sixth of which is currently in progress. Another example is the gross national happiness index used in Bhutan. This measure uses elaborate surveys that ask how content people feel in nine domains: psychological well-being, standard of living, governance, health, education, community vitality, cultural diversity, time use and ecological diversity.

Subjective well-being has been highly studied, and has even been recommended as the most appropriate measure of societal progress7. But subjective indicators are tricky to compare across societies and cultures. For example, self-reported health tracks with clinically reported rates of morbidity and mortality within countries but not across them8. And people are not always aware of the things that contribute to their well-being. Few of us give credit to ecosystem services for water supply and storm protection, for example.

Weighted composite measures of several indicators. A comprehensive picture of sustainable societal well-being should integrate subjective and objective indicators9(see Supplementary Information, Figure S1), as these measures begin to do. One example is the Happy Planet Index, introduced by the New Economics Foundation in 2006. This multiplies life satisfaction by life expectancy and divides the product by a measure of ecological impact.

Other indices in the third group combine a range of variables, such as income, housing, jobs, health, civic engagement, safety and life satisfaction. The Better Life Index, developed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, maintains a website that allows users to choose how to weight variables, revealing how the emphasis on different variables can influence countries’ rankings…

…If undertaken with sufficiently broad participation, the hunt for the successor to GDP might be completed by 2015. There are significant barriers to doing this, including bureaucratic inertia and the tendency of governments, academia and other groups to work in isolation. These barriers can be overcome with dedicated leadership. Crucially, people can now communicate across the globe with an ease unthinkable in the days of Bretton Woods.

Any ‘top-down’ process must be supplemented with a ‘bottom-up’ engagement of civil society that includes city and regional governments, non-governmental organizations, business and other parties. We recently formed the Alliance for Sustainability and Prosperity (www.asap4all.com) to do just that. This web-based ‘network of networks’ can communicate research about sustainable quality of life and the elements that contribute to it (see Supplementary Information), and so help to build consensus among the thousands of groups now concerned with these issues.

The successor to GDP should be a new set of metrics that integrates current knowledge of how ecology, economics, psychology and sociology collectively contribute to establishing and measuring sustainable well-being. The new metrics must garner broad support from stakeholders in the coming conclaves.

It is often said that what you measure is what you get. Building the future we desire requires that we measure what we want, remembering that it is better to be approximately right than precisely wrong.

http://www.nature.com/news/development-time-to-leave-gdp-behind-1.14499

AMREF

Ugandan Community Lauds Efforts To Improve Education, Health and Sanitation
“Were it not for AMREF, we would probably still be drinking water from the wells,” recounted 38 year old Mary Among referring to the boreholes drilled and equipped by AMREF.  “Thankfully,  we can now access clean drinking water from nearby boreholes.”   Her sentiments were echoed by the people of Katine sub-county in Soroti district  who were thrilled by the work AMREF has been doing to improve education, health and sanitation through its various programmes.

BRAC

BRAC distribute 20,000 blankets in 13 districts of Bangladesh
16 January 2014, Dhaka. BRAC distributed 20,000 blankets in the coldest districts of northern and southern Bangladesh. The first cold wave of this year hit the people of northern and southern part of the country the hardest, causing many to suffer. BRAC promptly took the initiative to distribute blankets in 81 upazila under 13 districts. During 12-16 January 2014, 1,000 blankets in Panchagarth; 2,000 in Nilphamari; 1,500 in Thakurgaon; 2,000 in Dinajpur; 1,500 in Joypurhut; 1,000 in Pabna; 1,5……Read More

Haiti’s on its feet again, literally
January 12, 2014 by Scott MacMillan
Today marked the four-year anniversary of the Haiti earthquake. Our friends at AmeriCares write about Herve, a patient at the BRAC Limb and Brace Center, who like so many others lost his legs in the quake…

BRAC @BRACworld Jan 18
Here’s BRAC distributing warm clothes amongst the needy in 13 districts of #Bangladesh – http://on.fb.me/1dFG1hC  pic.twitter.com/Y4fFl733PK
3:39 AM – 18 Jan 2014

BRAC @BRACworld Jan 18
BRAC Maendeleo with support from @gatesfoundation out to help Tanzania’s small & medium http://farmers-bit.ly/1e0AjDj  #Africa #agriculture
3:36 AM – 18 Jan 2014

BRAC @BRACworld Jan 15
BRAC’s Mushtaque Chowdhury introducing Lancet series on “Bangladesh miracle” @RockefellerFdn in NYC http://www.thelancet.com/series/bangladesh …
3:43 PM – 15 Jan 2014

BRAC @BRACworld Jan 14
BRAC, @UN_Women & gov of Norway create a training prog to help natural #disaster victims of #Bangladesh – http://bit.ly/1anba7Y 
8:25 PM – 14 Jan 2014

Casa Alianza

Covenant House a Finalist in the Partnership for Freedom Opportunity Challenge
01/14/2014 – 10:15am
Covenant House and LifeWay Network have been named finalists in the Partnership for Freedom Reimagine Opportunity Challenge, a competition seeking innovative ideas to better care for survivors of modern-day slavery in the United States.

To Stop Traffickers, Stop Their Supply of Kids
Kevin M. Ryan
President and CEO, Covenant House
Huffington Post Blog
Posted: 01/16/2014 11:58 am
Eighteen-year-old Julie told me in no uncertain terms how she got involved in prostitution. “The situation was forcing me,” she said. “I just couldn’t do the homeless thing. I just couldn’t stand to be on the streets anymore.”

No homeless kid sells his or her body to a john by choice. A recent study by Covenant House New York and Fordham University found that almost one in four of surveyed homeless youth were either victims of trafficking or felt they needed to trade sex in order to survive. Almost half of them said that not having a place to stay was a main reason for their trafficking exploitation. All of them regretted having to trade their bodies.

In a few weeks, the world is coming to Rutherford, N.J., for the Super Bowl. While there are no firm numbers of how much the forced sex and labor trade expands during the week of the Super Bowl, the influx of hundreds of thousands of visitors means more homeless kids may be put at risk. And make no mistake, vulnerable kids are at risk. This week’s announcement by New Jersey’s acting Essex County prosecutor of indictments against four individuals for allegedly trafficking a 15-year-old girl for months across the state, forcing her to have sex with strangers, makes that crystal clear.

We already know from our outreach efforts there are a large number of pimps who hang out and recruit near bus and train stations and specific shops and fast food places where homeless youth are known to congregate. They ensnare thousands of kids each year: In New York City alone, 2,200 child victims of human trafficking are discovered annually, with another 400 upstate, ranking New York fourth after California, Texas, and Florida, for the number of minor victims.

I suspect that prostitutes, mostly women, will be brought into the New York/New Jersey area for the Super Bowl on February 2. Many of the young trafficking victims Covenant House serves have told stories of being taken on “the circuit,” moved from city to city, based on where the conventioneers or sports fans were gathering. It certainly makes sense that pimps would follow the demand for sex-for-sale, with the added benefit to them of keeping their workers moving from place to place, steps ahead of the law, disconnected from the communities and the people who could help them escape and build a safer life.

At Covenant House, we see that every single instance of trafficking leaves behind damaged souls and bodies, particularly when the trafficked person is underage. As is so often the case, many of these kids have already confronted the steepest of challenges; they are survivors of homelessness, long-term foster care, broken families, and other circumstances that make it very difficult to build a safe new life.

Prevention efforts of advocates and law enforcement officials for February 2 are in full swing, and I commend these efforts. At Covenant House in New York City and New Jersey, we are ramping up our outreach efforts to protect vulnerable children from harm, and our shelters will be open 24 hours a day for any youth in need of shelter.

There is good news on the anti-trafficking front. Much advocacy work is being done to bring about stricter punishments for those who traffic children and for the adults who buy their bodies. Just this month, New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, signed critically important legislation to protect all of New York’s commercially sexually exploited children, extending the ground-breaking Safe Harbor Act to 16- and 17-year-olds. In addition to being the first state in the country to pass a version of Safe Harbor, which helps minors who have been commercially sexually exploited receive social services, instead of jail sentences, New York has continued its leadership as the first state to develop Human Trafficking Intervention Courts, which specialize in prostitution and trafficking cases. We have the legal framework in New York to help all commercially exploited youth. Now, we need services.

We know all too well that there are not enough beds for homeless young people across the country, and when vulnerable youth do not have access to shelter and services, there is a pimp or trafficker lying in wait to lure them. We have put together a petition asking Gov. Cuomo to include $20.2 million to provide shelter and services for trafficking victims and homeless youth.    Please consider signing it here, because clearly, more support for outreach and safe shelters for homeless youth is critical. Let’s make it harder for traffickers to stay in business, by keeping vulnerable kids off the streets in the first place.

It is clear that advocates for victims of child sexual exploitation have our work cut out for us, during Super Bowl week and every day of the year. No child should be left to fend for himself or herself on the streets of our cities. Most of us have been blessed with moms, dads, grandparents, or other people who believe wholeheartedly that we need to be kept safe when we are children. For the thousands who have been denied this basic right, it is our moral responsibility to protect and nurture them.

No child should be forced to sell his or her body to strangers, many times a night, for someone else’s profit.

ECPAT

ECPATUSACarol @ECPATUSACarol Jan 18
ECPAT-USA is part of the End It Movement February 27 is the big day http://tinyurl.com/llb5lp4  #trafficking
7:22 AM – 18 Jan 2014

ECPAT International @ECPAT Jan 17
We are hiring! ECPAT is looking for a #Thailand External Relations and Program Officer to join our team. http://www.ecpat.net/employment 
1:02 AM – 17 Jan 2014

Handicap International

Handicap Intl UK @HI_UK Jan 17
We’ve launched new demining activities in DRC – 30,000 square metres of land will be cleared http://bit.ly/1j8NOWj  #landmines
8:14 AM – 17 Jan 2014

Handicap Intl UK @HI_UK Jan 15
Here’s our written evidence to the @CommonsIDC #Disability and #Development Inquiry http://bit.ly/L3Kjo7  @boggs_dorothy
2:30 AM – 15 Jan 2014

Dorothy Boggs @boggs_dorothy Jan 14
Watch Ola Abu Alghaib from @HI_UK present oral evidence at @CommonsIDC #disability and #development inquiry session this morning
1 Retweet

Heifer International

January 17, 2014
Haiti Four Years After the Quake: There’s Good News
LITTLE ROCK, Ark.
Four years ago this week a devastating earthquake hit the Caribbean Island of Haiti. In the years that have passed, many smallholder farmers have seen important improvements in their lives.
Full Press Release

January 15, 2014
Heifer International Receives $25.5M Grant to Expand Its East Africa Dairy Development Program – ‘Milk for Health and Wealth’
LITTLE ROCK, Ark.
Heifer International received a $25.5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to expand the East Africa Dairy Development (EADD) project and assist more than 136,000 farm families in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.
Full Press Release

Heifer International ‏@Heifer Jan 17
Watch: Africa Programs VP talks about the second phase of the East Africa Dairy Development Program. http://hefr.in/1dg5zNH 
5:00 PM – 17 Jan 2014

Pierre Ferrari @HeiferCEO Jan 13
Glad to see @Heifer is in great company: 101 Organizations to Watch in 2014 http://goo.gl/HnB37O#.UtBti3z9YJU.twitter … via @Food_Tank #IYFF14
6:01 AM – 13 Jan 2014

HelpAge International

HelpAge @helpage Jan 17
An introduction to humanitarian accountability from @HAPInt in simple terms and in under 4 mins http://bit.ly/1dBJGhT 
7:33 AM – 17 Jan 2014

HelpAge @helpage Jan 17
Congrats to our partner COSE! They’ve just won an award from the Philippine Government for humanitarian work! #Haiyan pic.twitter.com/6ZkfoJniTb
2:22 AM – 17 Jan 2014

HelpAge @helpage Jan 15
#Haiyan destroyed 15mil coconut trees, leaving farmers without work. We’re given them 5,500 bags of seed & fertiliser http://bit.ly/1aoeNYj 
6:53 AM – 15 Jan 2014

HelpAgeUSA @HelpAge_USA Jan 15
The answer: 52% of small-scale farmers in the #Philippines are aged 50+! Learn how we support them http://bit.ly/1eSBBST 
11:59 AM – 15 Jan 2014 ·

HelpAgeUSA ‏@HelpAge_USA Jan 13
4yrs after the #Haitiearthquake we continue 2 support 200K+ victims, including providing new homes 4 older farmers http://twitpic.com/ds5ojy 
7:31 AM – 13 Jan 2014 ·

International Rescue Committee

David Miliband @DMiliband Jan 18
My @washingtonpost Op-Ed on the siege in #Syria>>> http://bit.ly/1eIl3MT  #Geneva2
Retweeted by Intl Rescue Comm IRC
4:15 AM – 18 Jan 2014

Intl Rescue Comm IRC @theIRC Jan 17
Our president @DMiliband went on @ReutersInsider & talked about #resettlement for #refugees in the US & more. Video: http://reut.rs/1b5dWzo 
11:53 AM – 17 Jan 2014

Intl Rescue Comm IRC @theIRC Jan 17
On @HuffPostPol, IRC’s Sharon Waxman calls on the US & others to open their doors to #SyrianRefugees: http://bit.ly/1j8FSEt  #resettlement
7:52 AM – 17 Jan 2014

Intl Rescue Comm IRC ‏@theIRC Jan 16
IRC + partners have distributed 20k+ #WakaWaka lamps in #Syria. A first hand account of @SolarForSyria‘s power>> http://bit.ly/1eOczpQ 
12:51 PM – 16 Jan 2014

Intl Rescue Comm IRC ‏@theIRC Jan 13
In the 4 yrs since the #Haiti earthquake, IRC has reunited over 1k children w their families. Read Fifie’s story: http://bit.ly/1djzTLK 
10:18 AM – 13 Jan 2014

IRC Blog
Ending Syrians’ suffering [commentary]
Posted by giselle benatar on January 18, 2014
On the eve of the Geneva II conference, IRC President David Miliband calls on key actors to address four issues and bring immediate humanitarian relief to besieged Syrians. more »

Open the door for Syrian refugees [Commentary]
Posted by The IRC on January 16, 2014
Based on the growing need for large-scale resettlement of displaced Syrians, the IRC calls on the US and other countries to open their doors to vulnerable Syrian refugees. more »

Meeting Syrian humanitarian needs in 2014
Posted by Sue Dwyer on January 14, 2014
There are children going hungry, elderly who struggle to stay warm, girls and women who have been raped, and men who have lost their dignity because they cannot provide for their family. As humanitarians we cannot stop the war, but we can address the lifesaving needs and promote human dignity with sufficient resources and the ability to reach those most in need. more »

Four years after the Haiti earthquake, reuniting children with families
Posted by Jordan Helton on January 13, 2014
Fifie was one of an estimated 200,000 children working as restaveks, a form of indentured labor that often results in abuse. Four years after the devastating earthquake, the IRC continues to protect children like Fifie and by reuniting them with their families in Haiti. more »