Bruce Benton:Riverblindness in Africa: Taming the Lion's Stare
- Taschenbuch ISBN: 9781421439662
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Paperback / softback. New. The Cooperative Extension Service, a publicly supported educational agency, is continually struggling to define its proper function and purpose in our changing… Mehr…
Paperback / softback. New. The Cooperative Extension Service, a publicly supported educational agency, is continually struggling to define its proper function and purpose in our changing society. Should its mission be broadly based or narrowly focused? Should staff members be generalists or specialists? Should its clients be primarily rural or urban, farm or nonfarm? What role should Extension play in the information networks of the twenty-first century? Professors Warner and Christenson take a broad look at these and other questions concerning where the Extension Service has been, how well it is doing, and where it ought to go. Theirs is, first, the only comprehensive national survey that looks at the total Extension organization rather than at just one program area. Second, it expresses the viewpoint of Extension clients and the public, rather than that of the organization's staff; and third, it combines outside survey information with data recorded in the Extension Management Information System (EMIS) and other routine agency reports. The authors evaluate, among other things, the extent of public awareness of the agency and its four major program areas (agriculture, home economics, 4-H, and community development), determine the users and nonusers of the programs and the accessibility of programs to the general population, identify the level of satisfaction with existing programs, and outline priorities and policy issues for the future., 6, Paperback / softback. New. In 1952, India launched a massive and enthusiastic effort to reach the 360 million people in its 550,000 villages with a national program of economic and social reconstruction. Known as Community Development, the program provided an innovative model of rural development for both Third World nations and the aid-giving countries of the West. Although the program achieved its goal of providing service coverage to the nation, its many implementation problems and the lack of quantifiable cost-effectiveness led critics to label it a failure and resulted in its submergence into the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in 1966. More recently, however, partly as a result of the social dislocations following the "Green Revolution," there has been renewed interest in Community Development as the Indian government searches for ways of effectively implementing a strategy of integrated rural development. It is recognized that a repeat of the CD program is not the answer; but an analysis of the program allows the identification of the elements critical to good administration-and political survival. Drawing on extensive interviews with Indian and American participants, this book critically appraises the Community Development program. Dr. Sussman examines the successful pilot project at Etawah, then documents the many problems-organizational, political, and logistical-that were encountered in the attempt to replicate it on a nationwide scale, and that eventually led to its demise. From his analysis emerges the question of what kind of government strategies can best equip rural populations to participate in development. Admitting the difficulties still to be faced, he concludes on a note of guarded optimism based on recent efforts in both India and the U.S. that combine a systems approach with the use of a range of development strategies., 6, Hardback. New. <p><b>The remarkable story of how a large public-private partnership worked to control and defeat riverblindness—a scourge which had devastated rural communities and impeded socioeconomic development throughout much of Sub-Saharan Africa for generations.</b></p><p>Riverblindness (onchocerciasis)—a pervasive neglected disease, transmitted by the blackfly, that causes horrific itching, disfigurement, and loss of vision—is also known as "lion's stare" in reference to the fixed, lifeless glare of the eyes blinded by the disease. The disease has destroyed countless lives for generations, particularly in Africa. Its effects are so devastating that the areas where it is most common (large expanses of land around rivers where the fly breeds) end up abandoned as villages move farther and farther away to more arid environments in order to escape the fly-biting, and hence the disease. The disease devastates communities from multiple angles: a large portion of each stricken community's population is disabled, often permanently blind in the prime of life, placing a burden on the rest, and communities' efforts to escape infection force them to move to areas where farming is less productive.</p><p>To defeat riverblindness would not only release these communities from the heavy toll of the disease, but would also open more fertile areas in Africa to be inhabited, thus alleviating extreme poverty. These were the goals of the World Bank, led by then-president Robert McNamara, when launching a partnership to combat riverblindness more than forty-five years ago. In this book, Bruce Benton tells the remarkable story of that partnership's success. An authoritative account of the launch and scale-up of the effort, the book covers the transformation of the fight from a top-down high-tech operation to a grassroots drug treatment program covering all of endemic Africa. How, Benton asks, did the effort become such a unique partnership of UN agencies, donors, NGOs, a major pharmaceutical company, universities, African governments, and the stricken communities themselves? </p><p>Highlighting the importance of disease control in alleviating absolute poverty and promoting development, Benton examines the key developments, individuals, and notable qualities of the partnership in realizing success. He also extracts lessons from this particular story for addressing future challenges through partnership. Drawing on Benton's twenty years of experience managing the riverblindness program for the World Bank, along with extensive research and interviews with 100+ players in the program, <i>Riverblindness in Africa</i> is the first and only book of its kind. The story of the battle has an epic scale, both in terms of geography and the vast number of people and organizations involved. It provides a template for a broad range of global health efforts and is an excellent example of evolving, increasingly effective approaches to disease control and elimination.</p>, 6<
