The INFO Project Blog

On my recent trip to Beijing, I was able to sit down with the director of Marie Stopes International China, Lily Liu Liqing, and American expatriate Alice Zheng, who is working there as a project assistant. Both had a lot to say about the work of MSIC in the domain of family planning and reproductive health in China, which is interesting in its own right but also has implications for work in other contexts. As they discuss in the following clip, China’s unique history and rapid socio-economic transformation have implications both for the needs of the population, and the methods by which organizations can go about fulfilling them.

-Ted Alcorn, The INFO Project

I was introduced to Dr. Ruotao Wang last month when I was traveling in China, and we had the chance to sit down and talk about his work in the field of HIV and STD control there. Dr. Wang is uniquely situated to appreciate the epidemic in China from a number of perspectives; after practicing clinical medicine for nine years, he received his PhD from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and then in 2000, had the chance to study at Yale University, where he received a degree in Law. Although semi-retired now, he has worked in many capacities for the National Center for HIV and STD control at the Chinese CDC.

Posted by Ted Alcorn

Are your publications appropriate for both female and male audiences? How can you ensure that photographs, graphics, content, and design are gender sensitive? The INFO Project’s just published A Gender Guide to Reproductive Health Publications: Producing Gender-Sensitive Publications for Health Professionals is designed for the editors, writers, designers, and distribution specialists who help develop and disseminate reproductive health publications for professional audiences. Press releases and media kits can also benefit from this guide’s approach.

-Posted by Lisa

Reproductive health and family planning take on even keener importance in conflict zones, where the unique circumstances can intensify the problems facing populations just as they hamper systematic responses of assistance. A fellow at Johns Hopkins’ Center for Refugee and Disaster Response, Elizabeth Crowley, gave an interesting presentation to my class last week about the current work in conflict and post-conflict situations.  In addition to detailing the content of the Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP) for reproductive health in conflict situations, she spoke about the role that conflict is seen to play in the spread of HIV/AIDS and other STIs. The patterns are not identical across contexts, but current research suggests that conflict and displacement may actually slow the spread of HIV.

She also directed her audience to two short UNFPA films: Women, War and Health, and Reproductive Health Services for Displaced Persons: A Decade of Progress. They are as pertinent now as ever.

-Posted by Ted Alcorn

Global health may not often make it into the headlines, but there are an ever-growing number of people and institutions that are sharing their ideas and experiences in this field from blog platforms on the web. We stumbled across a few great posts in the last week, which happened to focus on the role that media can play in HIV prevention:

The blog Technology, Health & Development had a very interesting entry about a new animation-based curriculum for HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention, developed at Stanford University. Initial versions of both their Indian and Asian prototypes are available for viewing.

The Foreign Policy Public Health blog had an interesting post on a new mass-media campaign, also implemented in India, which aims to encourage people (and men in particular) to talk more openly about sex and condoms. You can see an advert and read more about it on the BBC.

Read the rest of this entry »