Category: Blogs
Blog: Co-producing Health Awareness Materials with the Health Promotion Division of the Ghana Health Service – Experiences, Lessons and Challenges
By Delali Kumapley (CHORUS Research Uptake Co-lead) and Selase Odopey (CHORUS Ghana Project Coordinator/Qualitative Researcher) In the four years that the Community-led Responsive and Effective Urban Health Systems (CHORUS) Project has been running in Ghana, it has involved stakeholders including the residents of La Nkwantanang Madina and Ashaiman Municipalities (intervention sites), the Municipal Health Directors in…
Blog: Working with Community Advisory Groups in Research: Lessons Learned from Bangladesh and Ghana
By Francis Poitier (University of Leeds), Lauren Wallace, Adanna Nwameme and Delali Kumapley (University of Ghana), Deepa Barua and Rumana Huque (ARK Foundation) Urban October calls global attention to urban issues and the opportunities available for sustainable development. This year’s theme focuses on engaging youth to create a better urban future. Community engagement, including with…
Blog: The Art and Relevance of Communicating Research with Non-Academic Audiences – Lessons from a Capacity Strengthening Activity in Ghana
By Delali Kumapley, University of Ghana Because most of us grew up talking, we think communicating is easy, but communication is purposeful behaviour,” – Prof. Abena Yeboah-Banin (Lecturer, Department of Communication Studies, University of Ghana). On a regular day for a researcher, data from a multitude of sources will be consolidated to produce new…
Blog: Using Health in All Policies as a Key Strategic Tool for Improved Health Outcomes in a Poor Urban Context in Ghana.
By Patience Ami Mamattah, University of Ghana & Municipal Director of Health, Ashaiman Health Directorate, Ghana Health Services A key strategy for improving population health at scale and in attaining universal health coverage is Health in All Policies (HiAP). HiAP aims to address the social determinants of health and equity and recognizes that population…
Blog: Strengthening Public-Private Partnerships to Address NCDs. A Case of Pharmacies from Pokhara Metropolitan City, Nepal
By Shreeman Sharma, CHORUS Research Uptake Lead, HERD International and Abhingyna Bhattarai, Research Manager for CHORUS Nepal Project 1, HERD International In public health, Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) are described as being non-contagious long-term conditions that are usually a result of genetics and lifestyle factors. Globally, the four main NCDs are cardiovascular disease, cancers, respiratory diseases…
Blog: ARK’s SIMPLE Solution to the Urban Data Dearth
By Abdullah Muhammad Rafi, ARK Foundation ARK’s SIMPLE Solution to the Urban Data Dearth On December of 2022, the Government of Bangladesh declared its next major initiative – the Smart Bangladesh Initiative – with a view to building a Smart Nation by 2041. Government’s Aspire to Innovate (a2i) program defines a ‘smart nation’ as “harnessing…
Blog: Achieving Data Excellence for Stronger Health Systems
By Deepak Joshi, HERD International “Data is a precious thing and will last longer than the systems themselves.” – Tim Berners-Lee (inventor of world wide web) Quality health data is crucial for informed, responsive decision making and resource allocation for improved health outcomes. But how do we ensure data is of a high quality and…
Blog: Urban Dispensaries and Primary Healthcare in Dhaka
By Umme Salma Anee, Masroor Salauddin, Sadika Afrin, Faiaz Chowdhury, Nabila Binte jahan, Deepa Barua and Rumana Huque, ARK Foundation, Bangladesh, and Helen Elsey, University of York Urban regions in Bangladesh are now more densely populated as a result of migration and industrialization. With a population rise of 3.26% from 2022 to 2023, Dhaka, the…
Blog: Herding cats or Flying with the Flock? Experiences of co-designing health systems interventions to improve health in complex urban environments (ICUH Panel Session, Atlanta 2023)
With multiple stakeholders, all with competing agendas and different expectations – how do you effectively co-design sustainable, feasible, equitable interventions to strengthen health systems? At the 19th International Conference on Urban Health, in Atlanta, USA November 2023, CHORUS researchers from all partner countries contributed to a panel session to share our lessons and findings…
Blog: Uniting Planetary Health and Climate Justice – A Call to Global Action
by Baby Naznin, Senior Research Associate (BRAC University, James P. Grant School of Public Health, Bangladesh) In the heart of Utrecht, Netherlands, the 13th European Congress for Tropical Medicine and International Health (ECTMIH) recently concluded, leaving a profound impact on the global discourse around planetary health. Organized by the Federation of European Societies of Tropical…