Editorial: "COP27 climate change conference: urgent action needed for Africa and the world" c/o HIFA

Dear HIFA colleagues,

Chris Zielinski and colleagues achieved a remarkable feat by publishing a climate emergency editorial simultaneously in more than 250 journals. What does this tell us about communicating health research to policymakers?

https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2022/10/18/bjsports-2022-106442

The point was 'to demonstrate the united will of the medical profession, including all areas (nursing, mental health, veterinary medicine, etc.), to combat the health effects of climate change'.

The key message of the authors is to urge 'wealthy nations to finally step up', particularly to realise 'the promised target of providing US$100 billion of climate finance a year... ensuring these resources focus on increasing resilience to the existing and inevitable future impacts of the climate crisis, as well as on supporting vulnerable nations to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions'.

The message is supported by a well-worded case, and by a string of references to published research.

The piece is jointly authored by the editors of medical journals, which was presumably a deliberate decision to emphasise solidarity rather than including climate scientists and others.

In relation to 'communicating health research to policymakers' the exercise suggests more can be achieved when scientists work in solidarity and cooperatively than individually and in competition.

It will be interesting to see what happens at COP27. Will there be major steps forward along the lines that this editorial calls for? If so, what were the key contributing factors to the decisions made? One suspects the shared voices of 250-plus journals will play an important role. Moreover, their solidarity and cooperation is in place and ready to take on the next major advocacy challenge.

Best wishes, Neil

Joint Coordinator, HIFA Communicating health research https://www.hifa.org/projects/new-effective-communication-health-research-policymakers

Neil Pakenham-Walsh, Global Coordinator HIFA, www.hifa.org neil AT hifa.org Global Healthcare Information Network: Working in official relations with WHO

Special Issue: Critical Realism and ICT4D

The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries (EJISDC)

individual

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INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ----------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

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group

Philosophy Subjectivity	Planning #ICT4D research or writing it up: then check the recent open-access special issue on #CriticalRealism and ICT4D Research in EJISDC. Analysis, reflections and case study applications of critical realism in ICT4D https://t.co/TiG4ju4dlC pic.twitter.com/AEitFggA8d — Richard Heeks (@CDIManchester) February 22, 2019
SOCIO - technical?

My source: https://twitter.com/CDIManchester/status/1098962321471348736

Focus on Theory - wither the website (gulp)

"A subtler effect of ego is one that doesn't threaten reputation so much as how you prioritize what is important. The threat is based on a sense that your opinion, approach, and perspective are the only ones with merit. While arrogance is one outcome of these elements, a much subtler risk that can bubble to the surface is becoming too focused on theory.

...
Unfortunately, some folks have something of a love affair with theory. Many of these people write extensive blog entries, give very generic (though well-meaning) presentations, and often seem to think that their primary role is to impart knowledge to others and sound as wildly academic as possible. But there is no secret ingredient in growing community. What makes a great community leader is experience: trying new ideas and concepts and learning from the successes and mistakes." p.17.

Bacon, J. 2012. The Art of Community, Building the New Age of Participation (2nd ed.)  CA, O'Reilly. (1st edition)

@jonobacon

(Reprise) Noah - Thanks Frank and Happy Birthday!

individual
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INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
humanistic --------------------------------------- mechanistic
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL
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group

"High Hopes"	COP 21
COP 21

Trying to stay 'Young at Heart' here too.

Let's hope we can reach maturity - ecologically speaking - this weekend.

The Lyon Declaration on Access to Information and Development

Dear all,

The Lyon Declaration on Access to Information and Development 
http://www.lyondeclaration.org/ was successfully launched at the World Library and Information Congress 2014 in Lyon. Since then, over 280 organisations from across the library and development community have signed the document and called upon United Nations Member States to incorporate access to information in the new post-2015 development framework. The Declaration has now been translated into 13 languages.

Following the release of the Open Working Group Outcome Document in July, IFLA is now waiting to see what UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon will present to the UN General Assembly later this year in New York. The Secretary General is currently overseeing preparation of a ‘synthesis report’ that will bring together the outputs of various processes on the post-2015 development agenda and help UN Member States find a way forward in negotiations over the next twelve months. The synthesis report is expected to be released at the end of October/early November.

What are the next steps?

Once the synthesis report is issued it is crucial that policymakers in the capitals of UN Member States get to hear what libraries want to see in the new framework. As outlined in the Lyon Declaration, IFLA wants the United Nations to acknowledge that access to information, and the skills to use it effectively, are required for sustainable development, and to make sure that the framework’s goals, targets and means of implementation reflects this.

Your voice will be needed for us to achieve this goal.

IFLA is currently preparing an advocacy toolkit which will help library representatives to approach decision-makers in order to talk to them about the importance of access to information in development. IFLA wants to help its members and partners to take the opportunity to position themselves inside development debates in their home countries, so that their governments recognise the value libraries bring to development. Ultimately, libraries can benefit from being included in the national plans that will implement the new development agenda from January 1st, 2016.

The advocacy toolkit will be available in early October 2014.

What can you do to help?

• You can sign the Lyon Declaration and add your voice to the call at the United Nations.
• You can translate the Lyon Declaration into your language and share it with colleagues in your own country.
• You can encourage others in the library and development sectors to sign the Lyon Declaration.
• You can organise meetings with policy makers in your country and use the toolkit provided by IFLA in order to make the library voice heard on a national level.
• You can promote the principles of the Lyon Declaration throughout your network and ensure that the message gets spread as widely as possible.

The Lyon Declaration is available at http://www.lyondeclaration.org/

...

Background

The Lyon Declaration on Access to Information and Development calls upon United Nations Member States to make an international commitment through the post-2015 development agenda to ensure that everyone has access to, and is able to understand, use and share the information that is necessary to promote sustainable development and democratic societies. It was prepared by IFLA and a number of strategic partners in the library and development communities.

Please also see the webversion.

Julia Brungs
Policy and Projects Officer
International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA)
P.O. Box 95312
2509 CH The Hague
Netherlands

My source: HIFA2015

Technologies for Development: Project - founding ideas

Reading the website of this project I noticed that their founding ideas can be mapped to Hodges' model. As depicted below some are pretty obvious, notably the POLITICAL domain and the SOCIOLOGICAL.

Their first founding idea is placed in the interpersonal domain. This is very subjective exercise - literally playing with words - but here I am prioritizing individual cognitive access above physical access. I am thinking of individual participants and how a person even as part of cohorts, communities and groups can be marginalised. Mental health, also 'found' in this domain is a key example. As Nanotechnologies for Development state the first idea also focuses on countries - the group. So maybe I am wrong, if there is a wrong when using models - idealisations - in this way?

Staying with the group, access and participation are also a crucial matter of human rights - education, health information, health and social care, employment, freedoms, and security - freedom from violence, unlawful imprisonment...

These founding ideas clearly denote underpinning values, note in-particular the way risks and benefits are included at the individual and the group level.

In the SCIENCES domain from the beginning acknowledges time, process, project management. Nanotechnology needs to be understood in terms of the environments we inhabit. Not just us, now; but grandchildren... too. Not just the physical environment, but that embodied under and within this other divide: skin.

Within the mechanistic domains how will consultation about benefits and risks be negotiated and communicated to the humanistic domains?

How will the individual - group : community - commercial enterprise and innovation be squared?
 
This individual-group distinction is becoming ever more significant - of which more to follow.

individual
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

group

The first founding idea of this project is that developing countries should not be denied participation in advanced modern technologies.	The third core idea is that such developments entail risks and benefits that need to be addressed from the beginning.
The second that they should do that in their own culturally-specific ways. Our approach rejects any a priori distinction between traditional and modern technologies, but rather seeks innovative ways to connect indigenous and globalized knowledge and practices.	The fourth founding idea is that choices about those benefits and risks need to be made in a democratic way.

Source: Technologies for Development: Project Founding ideas

Drupal musings 3: PHP, Textmate, h2cm and Forms

Happy International Nurses' Day!


For quite a few months I have not connected the MacBook to the external monitor. I did so last night using:

• MAMP (server software)
• Textmate (an editor Mac only)
• prompted by reading - Robin Nixon's, Learning PHP, MySQL & Javascript, O'Reilly.

(Experienced programmers may at this point want to go review some political party broadcasts - coalition news as there's a lot more happening there.)

I typed in a PHP file, purposefully trying Textmate's 'Bundles' > 'HTML' > options to mix some PHP and HTML.

The file does not do a lot, but like creating, reading and writing a file it's a start. All this effort does is display four text box input fields (Chapter 11 Form Handling) with submit buttons. Previously I have mirrored the laptop screen to the external 24" Acer, that appears to be the default. ;-) Tinkering with the display options and turning off mirroring I found that I could pick up the Textmate window and move it to the big screen on my right. Meanwhile on the laptop I could preview the output in the browser. Apple's 'Spaces' is a related facility to master.

Not only that, but suitably editing the PHP file in Textmate resulted in updates on the browser (Refresh after change. Delay 0.40 s.) To me - that's Magic!

On the Drupal front - despite the title of this post - there's not much to report. The news is brief and yet kind of major in that I've bought my ticket for Drupalcon in Copenhagen. I am really gutted that this year I did not get to the Scottish Ruby Conference in March, after '08 and '09. At least getting to grips with Textmate will also help with Ruby (and Rails) too.

OK, back to Textmate to try the other PHP input types: text area, check boxes, hidden fields, select and labels.

TI:ME-2-CARE

The developmental potential and scope of Hodges' health career model is obvious in this fusion of health and career. When using h2cm, development and to be more generic time can be found throughout.

I usually try to stress that the word career in h2cm, is not intended as an invitation to search the website for jobs, but refers to an individual's life-chances throughout their life. The model can represent individual, family, community, organisational and political development as illustrated below: