The Alive & Thrive project, FHI 360’s global initiative that is improving breastfeeding and complementary feeding practices, received additional funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Part of these funds will allow Alive & Thrive to increase its maternal, infant and young child nutrition programs in Bangladesh. Karin Lapping, Alive & Thrive Global Project Director, stated, “This investment will generate a wealth of knowledge and tools that can be adapted in settings around the world to improve nutrition practices at scale.”
FHI 360, the National Department of Health in Papua New Guinea and the U.S. Agency for International Development are hosting trainings that introduce doctors to bedaquiline, the first new drug for tuberculosis in more than 45 years. Daniel Tesfaye, FHI 360 Country Director, says, “It’s important to ensure that people who have multidrug-resistant tuberculosis get the best treatment,” and adds, “FHI 360 is working to register adverse events in the global system so that Papua New Guinea can become a full member of the World Health Organization’s Uppsala Monitoring Centre.”
A spelling competition in the children’s mother language of Dagbani, designed by FHI 360’s USAID Ghana Partnership for Education: Learning and the Young Educators Foundation, bolstered the country’s literacy improvement plans. The Learning activity has developed a systematic, phonics-based reading program for primary grade P1 to expand and sustain reading performance for primary school students nationwide.
To see if using open data in developing economies could find solutions to complex and persistent problems worldwide, FHI 360, the GovLab at New York University, the U.S. Agency for International Development and the World Wide Web Foundation posted the report Open Data in Developing Economies: Toward Building an Evidence Base on What Works and How. The article lists six takeaways for open data projects and global development.
FHI 360's Advance program and the Council of Community Colleges of Jamaica are working together to improve curriculum design and pedagogy, professional development opportunities for faculty and staff, and enhanced labor market bridging services to help students find gainful employment after graduating. The program targets agribusiness, the creative industries and tourism.
FHI 360 and other humanitarian organizations are addressing the complex famine crises in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen. FHI 360’s Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance Project (FANTA) conducts research and provides technical assistance to combat global hunger.
The first intrauterine device (IUD) was discussed in a medical journal in 1909. David Hubacher, FHI 360 Senior Epidemiologist, says that the concept of the earliest IUDs was to put foreign objects in the uterus to cause an inflammatory response, making the environment difficult for sperm. With the safety and efficacy advances of modern IUDs, the United States has had a five-fold increase in IUD use since the 1970s.
Ted FitzGerald, Director of Global Research Services at FHI 360, talks about the logistic and economic benefits of commuting three days a week by bus. More than half of FHI 360’s employees in North Carolina either work at home or bike or ride the bus to work at least once a week. FHI 360 is one of the nation’s 231 Best Workplaces for Commuters.
FHI 360 and Qualcomm Wireless Reach team up with Tata Consultancy Services on the Wireless Solutions for Fisheries in Senegal (WISE) project, using a solution that combines wireless connectivity and GPS with specialized mobile and server applications through a smartphone. Berhane Gebru, Director of Programs for TechLab at FHI 360 discusses the unique approach of the project that addresses entrepreneurship and livelihoods, gender, health education and technology.
Patrick Fine, FHI 360 CEO, and Wayne Holden, RTI International President and CEO, co-authored this op-ed that discusses the proposed federal budget cuts for 2017. The op-ed reviews the impact of the proposed cuts on North Carolina jobs and international development aid, which is less than one percent of federal spending and a component of national security.
The intrauterine device (IUD) has a mixed history in the United States and around the world. One in ten American women use one of the five available types of T-shaped IUDs. David Hubacher, FHI 360 Senior Epidemiologist, discusses how other types and shapes of safe and effective IUDs have been on the market in Europe and how manufacturers and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration should expand IUD access in the United States.
FHI 360, the U.S. Agency for International Development and Phandeeyar, an innovation lab in Yangon, hosted the Innovation Marketplace in March. A civic tech competition, the Innovation Marketplace facilitated opportunities to collaborate between civil society organizations and technology companies.
To gather more data to build HIV/AIDS strategies, FHI 360’s Strengthening Integrated Delivery of HIV/AIDS Services (SIDHAS) project will begin the first statewide survey in Akwa Ibom in Nigeria. Robert Chiegil, FHI 360 Nigeria Country Director, says that the “findings from this survey will help the government and its stakeholders to plan how best to address and find solutions to the problem of HIV and AIDS in communities, LGAs [local government areas] and in the state generally.”
The FHI 360 Alive & Thrive project provides technical support to the Da Nang Hospital for Women and Children and the country’s first human milk bank. The milk bank collects, pasteurizes, tests and safely stores the milk that has been donated for infants in need. The facility also provides lactation services for mothers.
This article reviews the possible impacts of future U.S. aid to the Philippines based on current diplomatic issues between the governments. Patrick Fine, FHI 360 Chief Executive Officer stated, “We think this scenario [removing assistance] is highly unlikely,” mentioning an August 2016 independent evaluation issued by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) regarding its work in the health sector in the Philippines. The evaluation’s conclusions and recommendations point to new engagements for USAID.
This article discusses the FHI 360 report, Right from the Start in the Digital Age, which advocates teaching children in pre-K through third grade to be safe and responsible digital citizens. The report’s authors, Merle Froschl and Barbara Sprung, directors at FHI 360, state, “A new educational paradigm is needed so that teachers and parents may help children develop the skills, and establish the principles, in the earliest [years and] grades that will enable them to thrive in both the real and digital worlds.”
FHI 360’s Mobile Solutions Technical Assistance and Research (mSTAR) project hosted an event on October 19, 2016, during Financial Inclusion Week in Bangladesh. The article highlights driving financial inclusion through client-centered digital financial services.
FHI 360 facilitated a gender-based violence (GBV) training for more than 800 youths who will be volunteers at the Federation of the International Football Association (FIFA) under-20 Women’s World Cup in Papua New Guinea in November. These volunteers will be able to deliver GBV messages during the games as part of FIFA’s theme of ending violence.
As a part of the Start Talking. Stop HIV. project, FHI 360 and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) produced a music video that educates gay men about HIV prevention options. Manny Rodriguez, FHI 360 Project Manager, stated, "This is an authentic campaign, with gay men involved in both the campaign staff and creative team. Our goal was to marry CDC research with something that is accessible and enjoyable to watch."
In Ghana, FHI 360 and partners operate the Community-based Hypertension Improvement Project. FHI 360 employees Reina Marie-Antoinette Mwinbang Der, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, and Rebecca Dirks, Senior Technical Officer, discuss bringing hypertension screening to the community level, how patients are self-managing their condition and using digital health tools in remote areas (video).