The INFO Project Blog

We were interested to see news regarding a recent restriction of advocacy and promotion of condoms and other forms of modern contraception in the state of Anambra, Nigeria. The state commissioner for health explains “The use of condoms has greatly encouraged immorality” and sexual education for children should emphasize abstinence.

Read about the changes, the controversy and the reasons for this restriction on UN’s humanitarian news and analysis site, IRIN.

An exciting and promising discovery was announced at Microbicides 2008 in New Delhi, India.  According to a six-month study of 200 women in India and the United States a vaginal microbicde gel containing the antiretroviral agent tenofovir is safe for HIV-negative women to use every day.

The study was performed by researchers at the Microbicides Trial Network and was designed to see if there were differences in adherence rates between women who use the product every day and women who use the product only prior to engaging in sexual intercourse.  The study also was designed to test if sex act-dependent and daily use were equally safe.  Researchers found women’s adherence to either regime similar and found both approaches equally safe.  The compliance rate was 83 percent among women in the daily use group, and 80 percent among women instructed to use the gel within two hours of having sex.   Read the rest of this entry »

Here at CCP and INFO we mostly talk about reproductive health, however several of our CCP staff are involved in global tobacco control work as part of the Bloomberg Global Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use.   Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York city has pledged $125 million to aid in global tobacco control.  The initiative focuses on tobacco control in 15 key countries where smoking rates are the highest.  The initiative has named five partner organizations to work on in-country tobacco control and awarding grants to smaller organizations.  The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is one of the partner organizations, and CCP has been working with several country teams on tobacco behavior change campaigns.

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While many at last week’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland were wringing their hands over the US housing slump, Jordan’s stunning Queen Rania was ringing in an exciting new campaign with the UN Foundation and Nike-convened Coalition for Adolescent Girls. Read on for Davos diaries from Bangladesh to Guatemala… Read the rest of this entry »

As a longtime fan of her work, I was excited to learn that Jessica Mayberry’s Video Volunteers brigade has been selected to participate in America’s Giving Challenge, an online fundraising competition sponsored by Global Giving and Parade Magazine. Read the rest of this entry »