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On World Malaria Day 2012, Integrity is pleased to announce that Director Andrew Cleary has been in South Sudan's Central Equatoria state managing a baseline survey for a long lasting insecticide net (LLIN) continuous distribution pilot. Andrew is managing this survey of 600 households in Lainya County, which lies between Juba and Yei cities, for Integrity's partner the Malaria Consortium. The Integrity team has also worked with the support of South Sudan’s Ministry of Health and the National Malaria Control Programme on this project.

Andrew has been working with senior team members James Khalil, Augustino Ting, Mansuk Moses, Gordon Wani and Martin Wani, as well as three teams of four enumerators. The survey will provide baseline data for the Malaria Consortium's upcoming pilot to continuously distribute LLINs in Lainya.

The broad application of continuous distribution of LLINs is a recent development in malaria control practice, as it has been found that a) sleeping under bed nets significantly reduces incidence of malaria in affected areas and b) bed nets become unusable more rapidly than had previously been thought. Continuous distribution of nets, therefore, is a process at the forefront of malaria control programming worldwide.

The Integrity team is very pleased to be involved at this start of this community health intervention, and looks forward to continuing to expand our health sector and survey research expertise.

World Malaria Day 2012 Sustain Gains, Save Lives: Invest in Malaria

Integrity recently completed a mapping of the public policy research sector in Egypt for Oxfam Novib. Team members Andrew Cleary, Tristan Salmon and Nahla Hassan interviewed key research organisations and Oxfam's partners, mainly community service organisations (CSOs), to understand how research is commissioned, produced and used to inform public policy decisions in the country.

Integrity's team identified several notable dynamics in the public policy research sector in Egypt. Among the most notable are:

• Significant research capacity exists in the country, but research organisations and CSOs rarely work together or engage in commercial relations. This results in a significant gap, where knowledge is left unshared and very little dialogue exists between CSOs and research organisations.
• On both the supply and demand sides, the procurement and contracting interface between organisations is often under-capacitated and poorly understood.
• Research is constrained by under-qualified capacity in rural areas, a widespread absence of taught research methodology in universities and some difficulties in conducting quantitative research.
• Organisations noted a strengthened capacity to effectively engage with research partners would significantly assist them in leveraging necessary research products and services.

The research process involved the development of tailored research tools, which were used by the Integrity team to engage relevant individuals and organisations in in-depth interviews on their research outputs, capacities and requirements.

Our team looks forward to continuing our work with Oxfam Novib, their partners, and our fellow research organisations in Egypt in building capacity and enhancing linkages across the sector.

Between the 27th of February and the 7th of March, the Ministry of Interior, with the support of international partners, brought together the senior leadership of the South Sudan Police Service (SSPS) for a seminar in Juba. The aim of the nine-day seminar was to strengthen both individual and organizational law enforcement abilities specific to knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Participants included the Inspector General and Deputy Inspector General of Police, Police Commissioners from the ten states and senior managers within national headquarters.

Members of the SSPS, United Nations Police, United Nations Development Programme, Safety and Access to Justice Programme and GIZ facilitated a number of presentations and group exercises relating to various aspects of policing, leadership, and command. Throughout the seminar, the challenges of security sector reform (SSR) in South Sudan were discussed amongst the senior leadership, in addition to the everyday challenges faced by police throughout the ten states. It was stressed that reform needs to be embraced within the SSPS and sustainable change has to be initiated by the top ranks of the police service.

The United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID)’s Safety and Access to Justice Programme (SAJP) commissioned Integrity to provide coverage of the presentations, discussions, and group exercises that took place throughout the seminar. Integrity Consultant, Jessica Hayes, was supported by Integrity’s Head of Office in Juba, Marc Buchner, to capture the seminar’s events, deliberations, and the agreed upon resolutions. Following the seminar, Jessica drafted the seminar report, with support and valuable contributions from members of the SSPS’ Research and Planning Unit, and SAJP.

On the 9th and 10th of February Integrity was asked to present to government representatives, experts, and practitioners at a colloquium in Ottawa on lessons learned and insights on monitoring and evaluating measures to counter violent extremism. The colloquium was organised by the Center on Global Counterterrorism Cooperation and co-financed by the Canadian Ministry of Public Safety, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Participants included a broad range of experts and practitioners from approximately fifteen governments, as well as representatives from academia, aid organisations, the private sector, and multilateral organisations such as the United Nations. Head of Programme Design and Evaluation Martine Zeuthen presented on insights from the field of conflict transformation and the challenges involved in measuring the impact of interventions in a conflict environment.

Many states have undertaken efforts to develop programs to prevent terrorism and elaborate strategies to counter violent extremism. Governments are concerned to know whether these prevention strategies - which are a relatively new addition to the counter-terrorism toolkit - are effective. At the same time, governments are facing budgetary pressures and are keen to deploy limited resources in an optimal fashion. States and program administrators therefore confront the need to evaluate them and consider the development of indicators against which effectiveness of ongoing programs might be assessed. Participants in the colloquium acknowledged the timeliness of this discussion and were eager to see it continue and allow for greater cooperation and collaboration among governments and relevant experts.

During the colloquium, the Canadian Minister of Public Safety, Vic Troews, announced the launch of Canada’s Counter-Terrorism Strategy, Building Resilience Against Terrorism, and reminded participants that, “While there are many counterterrorism programs in place there is currently little information on how to measure their effectiveness. In an era of global fiscal uncertainty, we need to know that we are directing our efforts and resources towards programs that are having a positive impact on our world.”

Click here to download the presentation...