Consultants

Banagladesh Institute of ICT in Development (BIID)

Shahid Akbar — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 01:12:59 -0700

Bangladesh Institute of ICT in Development (BIID) is a distinct initiative to support development and promotion of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) based services in Bangladesh. The distinction of BIID lies in clear identification of ICT market development opportunities through continuous knowledge management, innovation and development. In recent days ICT has evolved as an effective tool in development dynamics and created enormous opportunities by IT revolution which means widespread access to, sharing of and use of information (knowledge) in economic and social activities. In the context of the developing world, ICT enabled development & business initiatives are useful only to the extent that there is complimentary tangible and intangible capital, including human, R&D Capital, and knowledge capital.

Services offered by BIID:

Consultancy - Although it came into being in 2008, the leadership behind BIID draws on many years of experience and exposures to ICT for Development (ICT4D) both home and abroad. BIID offers a range of consulting services that are aimed at contributing to improve livelihood, business development of enterprises and initiatives engaged in ICT enabled knowledge based services.
Research & Development - Research and Development is at the core of BIID’s approach to ICT for development. R&D services offered by BIID are aimed at development of business models, services and community outreach strategies for Telecentres and other ICT4D initiatives in rural Bangladesh.
Content Creation & Delivery - Useful and user friendly content is vital in delivering communication services targeted to rural entrepreneurs and communities. Supported by its competence in R & D, BIID specializes in facilitating development of general and location-specific content through its linkages with academic community, research organizations, private and public providers of information.
Advocacy - BIID uses interactive media and events to bring favorable changes in the environment (policy, awareness/readiness) to support development and promotion of ICT based initiatives. Knowledge and Skills Development Based on its understanding of specific training needs of human resources engaged in operation of ICT4D projects and in the provision of information based service delivery mechanism, BIID offers skill development support for prospective organizations and service providers.
Knowledge Transfer - The leadership behind BIID has developed a knowledge base on ICT4D through active participation and sharing with local and international forums. BIID plans to continuously build on it by working in the field so that it can become a major contributor of knowledge to practitioners, researchers, policymakers and other stakeholders both home and abroad through capturing the lessons and sharing with relevant stakeholders.

John Davies

John Davies — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 04:51:42 -0700

John Davies is a Senior Consultant for Maternal and Child Health, Contraception, HIV-AIDS and Nutrition.

Summary of Experience Public Health Challenges:

• Maternal & child health, nutrition, HIV-AIDS, neonatal health, breastfeeding, oral rehydration, sexually transmitted infection, reproductive health, sexual health, antenatal care, postnatal care, safe motherhood, family planning, birth spacing, contraception, gender issues, immunization, diarrhea control. Approaches, Tools and Interventions

• Behavior Change Communication & Social Marketing: BCC media including interpersonal, community and mass media, personal health promotion; strategic planning, formative studies, market segmentation, advocacy, branding, product distribution, demand creation, health promotion.

• Project Management: feasibility, start-ups, before-and-after surveys, maternal channeling, formative research, strategic planning, opportunity analysis, participatory workshop facilitation, proposals, implementation, staffing, service delivery, supportive supervision, field monitoring, impact evaluation, organizational development.

• Essential Drugs & Medical Supplies: logistics & supply chains, essential drug lists, rational pharmaceutical management, contraceptives, revolving drug funds, security.

• Human Resource Development: capacity building, mentoring, training of trainers, training of health providers.

Recent Achievements:

Communication Strategy for Birth Spacing in Pakistan. 2008. Employed by Population Council. Worked with communication strategy team of the USAID-supported FALAH project to: (1) draft evidence-based papers on effective communication approaches, and on repositioning family planning toward birth spacing; and (2) develop FALAH’s communication, advocacy and mobilization strategy for birth spacing.

HIV/AIDS Risk Reduction Communication Strategy for Female Sex Workers in Pakistan. 2008. Employed by Agriteam Canada. Worked with the CIDA-supported HIV-AIDS Surveillance Project (HASP) team. Supported by NACP. Created Communication Strategy to increase use of STI services, VCT and condoms among Female Sex Workers and their clients. The Communication Strategy is based on results of surveillance and other reports plus a planning workshop and a group interview of Female Sex Workers. Recommendations include an AIDS Risk Reduction conceptual framework, a “push and pull” management cycle, multimedia Behavior Change Communication, education-entertainment, IPC training of service providers who counsel Female Sex Workers and a six-month field-test of activities prior to scaling up.

Five-Year Action Plan for the Social Marketing Company (SMC), Bangladesh. 2007. Employed by Coffey International Development. Worked with Eshna Consulting to lead participatory planning workshops for managers of the Social Marketing Company. Produced first draft of key objectives and strategic approaches for the Action Plan, and an advocacy strategy aimed at potential investors. Reviewed second draft produced by SMC/Eshna.

Start-up of National Contraceptive and HIV/AIDS Social Marketing in Yemen. 2005-2006. Employed by Marie Stopes International. Team Leader and Social Marketing Advisor for the first nine months of the KfW-funded project. Partnered with Ministry of Public Health, GTZ and UNFPA. Facilitated workshops, designed workplan, marketing plan, budgets, test markets, evaluation. Recruited, trained and mentored staff.

MCH Social Marketing project Evaluation in India. 2005. Employed by Population Services International. Team Leader for external-internal evaluation of USAID-funded Social Marketing Strategies Project. Assessed management, implementation and effectiveness in three northern states. Advocated expansion.

Safer sex for HIV/AIDS prevention in Bangladesh. 2005. Employed by UNFPA. Worked with the National AIDS-STD Programme to produce the National Strategy for Safe Sex. Designed and facilitated workshops.

HIV/AIDS control in India. 2004. Employed by CIDA as Team Leader for mid-term evaluation of the India-Canada HIV/AIDS Project (ICHAP). Assessed progress including gender equality. Recommended advocacy.

Behavior change communication for MCH nutrition in Bangladesh. 2003 & 2004. Employed by JHU/UNICEF for three months. Funded by World Bank. Wrote behavior change component of Bangladesh National Nutrition Project. Designed workshops. Developed capacity of UNICEF to manage communication and social marketing.

Lindsay Morgan

lmorgan — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 06:50:14 -0700

Lindsay Morgan is a communications professional based in East Africa working to promote local voices and programs and bridge the important gaps between policy communities and people working in the field. Based in Dar es Salaam, Lindsay can help organizations create and disseminate branded materials (annual reports, brochures and websites, including e-newsletters); develop communications strategies; develop and maintain media contacts, write press releases, and conduct media training for staff; and can provide policy writing and analysis.

Previously, Lindsay served as a policy analyst for the Center for Global Development, a Washington, DC.-based non-partisan think tank, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In this position, she conducted research, and provided analysis and advice on key issues related to public health in sub-Saharan Africa. Her research included high-level interviews with stakeholders in the U.S., Europe and SSA, as well as literature reviews. She prepared (often time-sensitive) detailed reports and briefing papers setting out relevant research findings and policy recommendations.

Lindsay also works as a writer for the World Bank's Health, Nutrition and Population Unit (see her latest: Signed, Sealed, Delivered? Evidence from Rwanda on the Impact of Results-based Financing for Health) and from time to time as a freelance journalist (her latest piece, Development Aid and Its Criticisms: The View From Zambia, is an unconventional response to Dambisa Moyo's book, Dead Aid).

Having worked as a journalist, she has a rich network of media contacts. Lindsay previously worked as publications manager, responsible for overseeing the production of CGD's books, briefs, working papers, brochures, and annual reports, and managing a pool of editors, writers and printers. Before that, she served as an editor at The Middle East Journal, a leading academic, peer-reviewed journal covering the political economy of the modern Middle East. Prior to that she worked as communications manager for Sojourners, a Washington DC-based faith-based organization.

For a more detailed CV and list of publications, please contact Lindsay Morgan at lindsaymorgan9@gmail.com

NomadsLand Media Consultancy

nomadsland — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 06:40:18 -0700

Profession / Job Title
Journalist / Filmmaker / New Media Consultant / Founder, NomadsLand

Company
NomadsLand LLC

Short Bio
Davin Hutchins
Journalist / Filmmaker / New Media Consultant / Founder, NomadsLand
davin@nomadsland.com
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/nomadsland

Summary
Davin Hutchins is a filmmaker and entrepreneur specializing in documentary filmmaking and new media with a special emphasis on international social issues and online delivery platforms. He also runs the NomadsLand Network , a worldwide network of social issue filmmakers and journalists with more than 800 members.

Hutchins has fourteen years experience in television journalism and has worked with CNN International, BBC World, Headline News, TechTV, Huffington Post and many others. His producing and journalism assignments have taken him to Egypt, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Turkey, Kuwait, Jordan, Oman, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Iceland, France, Britain, Denmark, the Netherlands, Italy as well as locations throughout the United States.

Most recently, he was Managing Producer at American News Project in Washington, D.C. He produced investigative, muckraking video reports that aired on CNN, Huffington Post, Al Jazeera English, Talking Points Memo, The Real News, FreeSpeechTV and other independent media. His online reports have garnered over 2.5 million views. ANP is funded by Schumann Center For Media and Democracy (Bill Moyers, President) and the Tides Center.

Among career highlights, Hutchins directed The Art Of Flight, his debut feature documentary which featured at AFI Fest Hollywood, International Documentary Festival Amsterdam and Bangkok International Film Festival. He also trained Palestinian journalists in the West Bank in news production and new media during 2007-2008. In 1994, Hutchins began his career at CNN in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A, where he helped produce newscasts, “Generation X” news magazine pilots and a retrospective on human rights with Peter Gabriel and Jimmy Carter.

Hutchins holds a Masters of Arts Degree in Middle East Studies from the American University in Cairo and two Bachelors of Arts Degrees in Journalism and History from California State University: Fresno.

Specialties
HD Videography (Sony Z1U, AVCHD), Non-linear editing (Adobe Premiere CS3, Final Cut Pro 6.0.4), Online video distribution and social networking (Brightcove, Flash, H264, Amazon S3, Drupal, Joomla, Ning, KickApps and Clearspring), International travel and work experience.

Language Fluency

English, Arabic

Countries Traveled To, Lived In
Egypt, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Turkey, Kuwait, Jordan, Oman, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Iceland, France, Britain, Denmark, the Netherlands, Italy as well as locations throughout the United States.

Five International Social Issues Important To Me

Climate Change, Corruption in Politics, American Foreign Policy, Religious Conflict, Islam and the West.

Website URL: http://www.linkedin.com/in/nomadsland

Facebook, Twitter or other social network profile: http://twitter.com/nomadsland

Paula E. Hollerbach

jwalton — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:58:52 -0700

Paula Hollerbach is an independent consultant in international health based in Fairfax, Virginia, USA. Her field of expertise is women's reproductive health, especially the acceptability of contraceptives and fertility decision making, as well as STI/HIV prevention programs designed with and for vulnerable populations, including adolescents, males who have sex with males, and female partners of men with multiple concurrent relationships. She has approximately ten years experience working specifically with youth and adolescents both in the US and Asia on issues pertaining to the determinants of adolescent fertility and contraceptive use, including youth development; gender socialization of males and females; and STI/HIV prevention in various settings.

Dr. Hollerbach is trained in demography, epidemiology, formative, process, and impact evaluation, and qualitative and quantitative methodology. She has provided technical assistance to numerous researchers worldwide. She has also served as the cross-site process evaluator assisting program staff and evaluators in 13 US communities with high adolescent pregnancy rates and multi-ethnic populations.

She has been funded as a researcher by USAID, NICHD, the World Bank, Ford and Rockefeller Foundations. She has also served as a regional monitor, evaluator, program manager, or project director on five USAID-funded and two CDC-funded projects, which were conducted by the research center staff at the Academy for Educational Development, Family Health International, and the Population Council. She has written full-length monographs and reports analyzing demographic and health data and cross-site indicators for donors and communities; edited monographs and policy briefs for overseas distribution to academicians, policy makers, and population libraries; and developed the learning objectives, content and downloadable resources for two online training modules.

Professional Experience

Egypt: Served as the family planning/reproductive health specialist for the mid-term evaluation of the integrated reproductive health services project (“Takamol”). The team analyzed and evaluated the effectiveness of the project in achieving its objectives and M&E indicators, and contributing to USAID/Egypt’s efforts to increase the use of family planning and maternal child health services. The evaluation summarized major challenges, documented best practices, and suggested recommendations regarding modifications in approach, results, or activities to ensure that the last 2-½ years of the project will achieve the intended goals. (Funded by USAID through the GH Tech Project/The QED Group LLC, Washington, DC from February 7 to April 30, 2009.)

US: Reviewed and supplemented an annotated bibliography that identified the most salient research publications, reports, and documents on the topic of birth spacing that address the impact of communication on behavior change and will inform the development of proposed Communication for Change (C-CHANGE) activities on factors related to spacing. Also reviewed a manuscript on choosing and using contraceptive methods. (Funded by the Academy for Educational Development, Center for Global Health Communication and Marketing, Washington, DC, June 2008.)

US: Provided evaluation technical assistance (ETA) to CDC-funded partners, specifically HIV/AIDS advisors in local and state education agencies and staff in nongovernmental organizations, specifically, the development of goals and SMART objectives, logic models, and the selection of appropriate indicators for school health programs, which enable the partners to record and track their program progress.

Wrote a series of 33 ETA Evaluation Briefs on methodological and substantive topics, many of which have been distributed to CDC project officers and funded partners and posted on the CDC web site at http://www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/evaluation/resources.htm. (Funded by CDC/Division of Adolescent and School Health, 2005-2006).

Bangladesh: Served as a co-investigator on a qualitative study entitled In Their Own Words: The Formulation of Sexual and Health-related Behaviour Among Young Men in Bangladesh. Assisted in thematic data analysis and writing of the Summary Report and Full Report, describing the methodology, study findings, and recommendations from the study. She also prepared the CD-ROM entitled A Guide for Conducting Research on the Formulation of Sexual and Health-related Behaviour Among Young Men, which provides all of the resources and information necessary to replicate the study, including the Summary Report, training guidelines, a lengthy list of resources pertaining to men at risk, the IGWG Men and Reproductive Health Task Force Resource Guide on Reaching Men to Improve Reproductive Health for All, study guides for participatory research discussion groups, interviews, and focus group discussions, and informed consent forms for all study groups. The Full Report, Summary Report, and the CD-ROM can be downloaded from one of two websites, either http://www.synergyaids.com/resources.asp?searchtxt=Young%20men or http://www.nfi.net. (The Asia/Near East [ANE] Bureau funded the study. The ANE Bureau and the Office of Population and Reproductive Health, Bureau for Global Health, funded CATALYST staff time and publication costs, under the terms of a cooperative agreement awarded to the CATALYST Consortium, 2003-2005).

US: Managed a multi-year systematic literature review and meta-analysis, conducted by three teams of researchers from the US and abroad, which investigated the relationship between interpregnancy/interbirth intervals and 30 adverse health and nutritional outcomes for pregnancies, infants, mothers, and children. She supervised the search process and acquisition of 450 documents, facilitated discussion of the methodological approach, prepared agendas and summaries of conference calls, reviewed drafts of the reports, and organized a meeting of the USAID Expert Panel meeting in Washington, DC, where external consultants provided suggestions to the investigators on their draft reports. The reports were subsequently revised and submitted to the World Health Organization for final review. See http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2007/WHO_RHR_07.1_eng.pdf. (The Office of Population and Reproductive Health, Bureau for Global Health, funded CATALYST staff time and publication costs, under the terms of a cooperative agreement awarded to the CATALYST Consortium, 2003-2005).

US: Wrote a review for USAID on serosurveillance and behavioral research and recent programmatic interventions designed to reduce the spread of STIs/HIV in Asia among adolescents, adult men, and their female and male partners. She also compiled an annotated guide to resources on sexual and health-related behavior of vulnerable populations in Asia. (The Office of Population and Reproductive Health, Bureau for Global Health, funded CATALYST staff time and publication costs, under the terms of a cooperative agreement awarded to the CATALYST Consortium, 2003-2005).

Contact Information

Paula E. Hollerbach
4150 Vernoy Hills Road
Fairfax, Virginia 22033 USA

Phone: +1 703.385.2077
Email: phollerb@verizon.net

radioexpert.org

radiodog — Thu, 07 May 2009 00:01:05 -0700

radioexpert.org is an international non-profit organization committed to increasing the effectiveness of community media. We work closely with individuals and organizations to provide project development, consulting, training, advocacy, networking, teaching, research, and more. We deliver expert support for community media.

Renata Schiavo/Strategic Communication Resources

Renata — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 07:14:27 -0700

Renata Schiavo, Ph.D., M.A. is a senior health communications consultant and the Founder and Principal of Strategic Communication Resources, which provides strategic health communications counseling, training, and program evaluation and strategic planning counseling only to non-profit health organizations and foundations and other leading U.S. and international organizations in the public health field. She is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Public Health at New York University, Steinhardt School, Department of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health, where she is on the faculty of the Community Public Health and Global Public Health M.P.H. programs (Courses: Health Communication: Theory and Practice; Cross-Cultural Health Communications).

Renata has over 18 years of international healthcare experience, which includes the US, and several countries in Europe, Latin America and Africa. She has had the opportunity to work on staff or as a consultant for non-profit organizations, corporations, communications agencies, universities, research laboratories and governments. Her work has focused, in addition to others, on the following health areas: oncology/cancer, HIV/AIDS, malaria, leishmaniasis, CNS disorders/mental health, cardiovascular diseases, women’s health, respiratory diseases, obesity, biotechnology, infectious diseases, childhood immunization, adolescent immunization, flu immunization, global handwashing, Lyme disease and primary nocturnal enuresis.

Renata’s fields of expertise include: strategic planning, strategic behavior communications, marketing communications, health communication training, patient and professional communications, constituency relations, public relations, media advocacy, social marketing, audience/market research, pre-testing/field studies, internet-based communications, corporate communications, branding, cross-cultural health communications, reaching vulnerable populations, and strategic partnerships.

Renata is a member of the American Public Health Association (APHA), the National Association of Medical Communicators (NAMC), the Public Health Association of New York City (PHANYC) and the Society for Public Health Education and Promotion (SOPHE). She serves as the 2007-2008 Chair of the APHA Health Communication Working Group, as well as on the APHA Governing Council as a representative of the APHA Public Health Education and Promotion section (PHEHP). She is a member of the advisory board of Cases in Public Health Communication and Marketing, an on-line peer-reviewed journal. Renata has also contributed with articles and opinions to the Communication Initiative (CI) and is a member of the COMBI (Communication for Behavioral Impact) Global Technical Network (GTN), which is maintained by the World Health Organization (WHO).

She is the author of a book on Health Communication: From Theory to Practice (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, April 2007) and other publications in the field of health communication.

Renata holds a Doctorate in Biological Sciences from the University of Naples (Italy) and a Masters of Arts in Journalism and Mass Communications from New York University. She is fluent in English, Italian and Portuguese and can read and understand Spanish and French.