SciDev.Net

This report is the WHO's official record of data produced by its technical programmes and regional offices in close consultation with countries and in collaboration with researchers and development agencies. The WHO produces the statistics to provide an evidence base for strategies to improve global public health.

The report clearly shows that the global burden of disease is shifting from infectious diseases to non-communicable diseases, with chronic conditions such as heart disease and stroke now being the chief causes of death globally. The shifting trends indicate that leading infectious diseases — diarrhoea, HIV, tuberculosis, neonatal infections and malaria — will become less important causes of death globally over the next 20 years.

The report documents in detail "the levels of mortality in children and adults, patterns of morbidity and burden of disease, prevalence of risk factors such as smoking and alcohol consumption, use of health care, availability of health care workers, and health care financing."

This joint publication between the World Health Organization and the Global Forum for Health Research reveals mental health research capacity in 114 low-income and middle-income countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean. The extensive review identified over 10,000 articles, 4,633 mental health researchers and 3,829 other stakeholders. The authors argue that this is "the first systematic attempt to confirm the pressing needs of improving research capacity in mental health".

The publication provides useful details in table and charts, analysed by group of stakeholders and by region, on topics such as: researchers' profiles; priority-setting process; amount and type of research production; services and technical support available to them; courses and trainings offered; funding patterns; and dissemination of research findings. The appendix provides two extensive lists — by country — of policy and practice that resulted from research evidence, as well as research evidence that was never translated into policy and practice.

Nine recommendations indicate how the management of mental health research can be strengthened so that it meets the national needs of the countries as well as contributes to the global fund of knowledge. The authors say their report thus enables evidence-based decision-making in funding and priority setting in the area of mental health research in low-income and middle-income countries.

These consist of two reports: SuRF1(Surveillance of risk factors related to non-communicable diseases: current status of global data) and SuRF2 (Surveillance of chronic disease risk factors: country-level data and comparable estimates).

These reports are the result of a large WHO project to set up for the first time a global database of the prevalence of risk factors for non-communicable diseases collected from WHO member states. The first report is largely a collection of the country profiles; the second analyses the data to produce comparable estimates for risk factor prevalence in the countries. The WHO designed this as an advocacy tool to highlight where primary prevention and health promotion need to be directed.

The eight risk factors were chosen because they are easily measurable and theoretically can be changed through prevention efforts. They are: tobacco and alcohol use, patterns of physical inactivity, low fruit/vegetable intake, obesity (as measured by BMI), blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes (measured by blood glucose).

The second report presents country-level estimates for overweight/obesity and systolic blood pressure. It also shows the attributable mortality and disease burden from all causes of death due to these overweight and high blood pressure for the 11 most populated countries. 

(See WHO Global InfoBase Online for electronically searchable data contained in the reports http://www.who.int/infobase/surf2/online.html.)

Chronic diseases — heart and lung disease, cancer and diabetes — are having a negative economic impact on both the developed and developing world, says this report, which is why they should be properly addressed by domestic and international policy makers. Compared to the epidemiological evidence on the rise of non-communicable diseases in developing nations, there is little information on how this increase will affect their economies.

This report investigates the demographics of the problem and finds that contrary to popular belief, the disproportionate burden of disease on the elderly does have economic implications. The reason is that though the elderly may not be part of the workforce, they are still consumers and therefore a part of the economic equation.

Whether approaches to tackling chronic diseases are cost-effective or not is a vital issue for countries whose health budgets are already overstretched — the report outlines some of the interventions that offer most bang for buck. The authors point out that strategies that work well in developed countries are not so effective in developing countries, and call for more research to assess what will be appropriate.

This extensive report was one of the first to document the scale of the problem of chronic diseases in developing countries, and crucially, to offer guidance on feasible and practical methods of tackling them.

The document starts by laying out in detail the profiles of chronic diseases in different countries, projections for the future, and how chronic diseases are linked with poverty. It also examines in depth the economic costs of such diseases and the macroeconomic consequences of not tackling them quickly enough. The authors outline interventions — whether community, workplace, or school — that have robust evidence supporting them.

The report ends with a call for a unifying framework of global health experts and stakeholders, in which the government has a key role. It also specifies what policymakers need to do to ensure that measures to tackle chronic diseases are put into action.

The report summarises the results of a survey of African Universities’ experiences in collaborating with scientists and institutions in developed countries. The study was carried out by the Association of Commonwealth Universities to provide background information to support the recent development thrust aimed at strengthening African universities through greater investment and North–South (and South–South) collaboration. It focuses primarily on social sciences and humanities research. The report presents empirical data on institutional goals, resource availability, prevalence and satisfaction with collaborative arrangements, challenges faced by individual researchers, capacity building as well as training and research support.

This paper presents a review of the challenges of international scholarly scientific collaboration. It looks at institutional constraints and points out that the challenges and problems multiply when collaborators come from different countries with differing conditions, resource endowments and institutional structures. It is easier to call for more and better forms of international collaboration than it is to design them. The report asserts that good design is helped by a better understanding of what collaboration is and how it has been carried out. It draws on social research insights to help reduce the transactional, financial, ethical and emotional costs of international linkages and exchange and provides a conceptual framework for thinking about international collaboration issues.

Commissioned by UK Office of Science and Innovation, the report looks at the trend of international scientific collaboration between the United Kingdom and its leading partners. It uses bibliometric data (co-authorship and citations of scientific articles) to capture international scientific collaboration in seven broad research fields, focusing on Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, UK and the US. The data deals with two time-periods, 1996–2000 and 2001–2005 and the report finds that publication of co-authored articles on scientific collaboration has increased considerably faster than the overall increase in research across the two time-periods. It also finds that countries vary in their ability to collaborate or to benefit from it. The results may have important implications for putting international scientific collaborative arrangements in place.

This report attempts to understand the growing trend of international scientific collaboration as a preferred method of building scientific capacity in developing countries. Before the effects of these trends can be documented, however, there is a need to better define scientific capacity itself. This is relevant not only as an end in itself but also as a means of identifying potential collaborators. The traditional dichotomy of developed and developing countries no longer seems to serve the purpose of increasing useful understanding of these trends. The report attempts to provide a new index of scientific capacity based on an aggregation of several national-level measures and creates a useful taxonomy of countries categorised by scientific capacity. The four classifications arising from this taxonomy are scientifically advanced, proficient, developing, and lagging countries. It examines the trends in output, productivity, collaboration and linkages between and among countries in each of these categories.

This is a thorough and in-depth analysis of the link between media coverage of science stories and the public understanding of science. The 56-page document was prepared for the UK Economic and Social Sciences Research Council by British media experts Ian Hargreaves and Justin Lewis, with the support of PhD student Tammy Spears.

The study, published in 2002, was based on data collected from a seven-month media analysis of over 2,000 science stories from radio, television and the press, and two nationwide surveys. It focuses on climate change, the MMR vaccine and cloning/genetic research.

Key findings include:

• there is a clear link between media coverage and the way people understand science
• only the broad patterns of coverage (whether a story or one side of a controversy receives more or less media attention than another) inform opinions;
• the presence of more scientists in the media does not appear to increase public understanding of science issues; and
• a clear and consistent narrative behind an issue helps generate public engagement.

This study continues the work that Hargreaves began in his 2000 report Who's Misunderstanding Whom? in which he discusses the idea of 'dialogue' with the public regarding science, and the possibility of enforcing a code of practice for science journalists.

The South African press has often been criticised for its lack of science and technology coverage. This is the report of a study which aimed to determine how and to what degree science and technology were reported in a representative sample of the South African press.

The study surveyed the amount of science coverage in 15 South African publications over three months in 2002. Around 1000 science and technology articles were sampled and studied for profiles of the science reporters, tone of reporting, use of visuals, prominence of coverage and of controversies, and the nature of the reported science.

There were a number of key findings:

• under 2 per cent of the editorial content studied was dedicated to science and technology;
• a large number of science articles came from foreign sources, including foreign publications and wire services;
• on average, each of the 15 publications had two science correspondents, although this varied greatly according to the type of publication, and none of the regional publications had dedicated science reporters;
• overall, the tone of reporting was positive, with 42 per cent of the articles appearing to promote the benefits of science;
• contrary to expectations, the majority of science articles did not deal with controversy;
• together, biomedicine, astronomy, HIV/AIDS and technology constituted the majority of coverage (although Mark Shuttleworth's visit to the International Space Station during the sampling period no doubt boosted astronomy ratings).

The report concludes with a recommendation to repeat the study at regular intervals and over longer periods.

The report focuses on the lack of antibiotics in the pharmaceutical pipeline. Until now, it says, problems of resistance have been overcome by the development of new drugs. The older ones, to which bacteria or parasites have become resistant get phased out, and the new effective ones are brought in. But what happens when the cupboard is bare?

After a year's investigation of the problem, the authors say that while all stakeholders have a part to play in reducing the effect of resistance, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are best placed to take the lead in developing new drugs. The reason for the slump in production has been the high risk involved in investing large sums of money in drugs that might not yield a high return (especially if the drugs are most needed in poor countries).

Legislative and policy changes are needed to spur the pharmaceutical industry into action, says the report. Changes might include allowing companies to extend the exclusivity period on drug patents if they develop a priority antibiotic, tax incentives for R&D of priority antibiotics, or a guaranteed market (for example, by a government or donor agreeing to buy large quantities of drugs).

This brief, based on an ESMAP report published in 2005, provides a roadmap for developing countries considering large-scale biofuels production.

It proposes sugarcane ethanol as the most commercially viable option, and draws on Brazil's experience to show what has made their industry successful, as well as listing eight conditions that foster success in ethanol production. These include adequately educating farmers, establishing good roads and developing a communication infrastructure.

Although almost 100 countries have started to grow sugarcane, none have yet matched Brazil's success. This brief outlines steps for a global evolution of biofuels production, and suggests ways in which governments can help.

This report, assessing bioenergy production in G8+5 countries, highlights challenges for the developing industry.

Trade barriers still impede bioenergy development, particularly in smaller developing countries. And although not all biofuels are environmentally friendly, there is no international sustainability assurance system for bioenergy — though this is being addressed.

All of the +5 countries except Russia have set a transport biofuel target, and are reviewing blending targets. Almost all countries cite energy security and climate change as the most important factors for developing biofuels. Technical standards are becoming increasingly uniform, which will promote quality assurance and trade.

Energy demands are rising, and most of this demand will come from outside the OECD by 2015.

This report outlines how developing country farmers can exploit biofuels' potential, including producing ethanol from crop residues and growing energy crops on land unsuitable for producing food.

It analyses bioenergy's effects on global food sources, showing how incomes, and thus food security, could improve.

Developing an industry that benefits poor, small-scale farmers is a challenge. The authors highlight the need for management and regulation at all levels, from local communities to policymakers, as well as ensuring technologies are transferred.

Biofuels offer an attractive solution to escalating oil prices and concern over how fossil fuels affect global climate. They also provide new prospects for rural communities.

But their full implications, for developing countries and the environment, remain unclear. Balancing economic efficiency and environmental sustainability is not easy, and many key questions remain unanswered.

This essay addresses some of these questions, investigating the pros and cons of biofuels for the developing world. It examines economic and social factors, and the role of science and technology in biofuels production. It explores experiences from Brazil and other developing nations, as well as trade-offs between producing biofuels and food.

This report, prepared for the UNESCO Cairo Office, presents data and information on higher education systems in 21 Arab states over a five-year period (1992–1996). It is an update of a previous study published in 1995

Data presented includes the number of institutions, enrolment, structure and financing of higher education systems in these countries. The study also covers the growing participation of private and non-profit sectors in higher education delivery. It highlights a number of challenges faced by the higher education systems in the Arab world, including the growing role of private sector, issues in quality, demand for more diversified university programmes, and the growing importance and participation of universities in R&D systems.

This chapter from Working Group II of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for the Fourth Assessment Report concentrates on the consequences of climate change in Asia.

Crop yields have already been affected in Asia, says the report, due to rising temperatures and extreme weather events. Climate related diseases are also on the increase and the retreat of glaciers and permafrost — including the Himalayas — has been unprecedented.

The report provides comprehensive country-specific details about socioeconomic environments, along with observed and projected trends in climate variability, and a case study on the Himalayan glaciers.

Basing their projections on differing severities of climate change models, the report suggests that accelerated glacier melt will cause flooding, destabilisation of mountain slopes and reduced river flow, decreasing the amount of drinking water available downstream.

Biodiversity will also be threatened as changes in land use, migration and population pressure cause deforestation.

The purpose of this report is to update and verify information on Nepal's biodiversity, last recorded in 1996. It is part of the Nepal Biodiversity Yearbook project, which aims to annually update information on the country's biodiversity from 2006 onwards.

This 2007 report focuses on higher plants and animals. Biodiversity is analysed at different altitudes and in protected areas, 'Ramsar sites' — wetlands of international importance — and World Heritage Sites of Nepal.

The report provides a background to the project, including information on Nepal's environmental conditions, topography and climate, its reliance on bioresources, an assessment of land use, and a summary of regulations and policies relevant to biodiversity protection.

An analysis of the species diversity, distribution, confinement and richness for each area follows, including the areas' environment, background and achievements in protecting biodiversity.

This book-length report details a study by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS) that aimed to map vulnerability to the impacts of climate change in Africa. 

Climate change models of four different future scenarios were used and the impacts on agriculture assessed. Biophysical and social vulnerability were also analysed, using indicators developed specifically for this research.

The outcomes suggest, if tentatively, that many already vulnerable systems may be adversely affected by climate impacts, including the mixed arid-semiarid systems in the Sahel and rangelands in eastern Africa, the Great Lakes region, the coastal regions of eastern Africa and the drier zones of southern Africa.

The report concludes that adaptation is best researched at national or regional levels, not the macro level, due to local variability, and that communities themselves need to become much more involved in adaptation strategies.