WHO Core Health Indicators

The World Health Organization (WHO) online database provides the latest Core Health Indicators from WHO. With this system, you can find the most recent indicator information (for example, contraceptive prevalence rate, antenatal care coverage, deaths due to HIV/AIDS) in most countries around the world. Additionally, the system also allows you easily construct a table for any combination of countries, indicators and years.

You can access this excellent resource at: http://www3.who.int/whosis/core/core_select.cfm

Sexuality Research and Information Needs Assessment

Last October, HAIN conducted a research entitled, "Sexuality Research and Information Needs Assessment (SRINA)." SRINA was conceptualized to further enhance existing SSPRF and HAIN efforts in addressing research information needs, access and use. The main objective is to further understand the context of gender and sexuality as it affects health and other organizations for national policy and program development.

A total of eighteen organizations were visited in five Southeast Asia countries which include Vietnam, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand, and the Philippines. The organizations were from the academe, government and non-government organizations. Some of them are involved in research, social marketing, interventions and information work.

The country visits looked at the research information needs of organizations working on gender and sexuality and related fields such as population and HIV and AIDS. It also looked at how and where these institutions access information related to gender and sexuality. The research identified the problems in accessing information by the different organizations. Priority research topics and skills training needs were also identified (i.e. on the use of Internet and other information technologies. One important point that was raised by the research is how to make information available, usable and accessible for others.

This project was funded by the Social Science and Philosophy Research Foundation (University of the Philippines) and the Ford Foundation.

For more information about the research, feel free to contact us at HAIN.

Migration of Health Professionals: Boon or Bane?

The migration of health professionals is not an entirely new phenomenon, but the latest wave is producing a more pronounced adverse impact on source countries due to the unusually high number of migrating health professionals.In the Philippines, 85 percent of registered nurses are working abroad. The demand has also spawned a phenomenon unique to the Philippines: doctors are leaving their profession to become nurses.

There is an estimated 4,000 Filipino doctors who are currently enrolled in nursing course. In Fiji, the number of registered nurses leaving for jobs abroad exceeds the number of new nursing graduates. According to Fiji Nursing Association secretary-general Kuini Lutea, the Pacific island produces between 150 to 160 new nursing graduates, but almost 50 percent of these are migrating to other countries.Doctors are also prime labor export. India is currently the top exporter of doctors; there are more Indian doctors in America than in India. The ratio of Indian doctors to American patients is 1:1325, while the ratio of Indian doctors to Indian patients is 1:2400. Pharmacists, medical technologists, and other allied medical professionals are also in demand.

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