1,720,986 research outputs found
Financial and social efficiency of microcredit programs of partner organizations of Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund.
Full text linkThis paper examines the financial and social efficiency of the microcredit programs offered by the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund partner organizations. Panel data concerning variables of interest are collected from Pakistan Microfinance Network, covering a minimum of 14 partner organizations (in 2005) to a maximum of 35 partner organizations (in 2014). The data is analyzed using the Data Envelopment Analysis, assuming both constant and variable returns to scale scenarios and the operational scale of the partner organizations. Trends in average efficiency scores have been analyzed to assess the mission drift of the partner organizations. Results reveal that managerial inefficiency is more pronounced than the sub-optimal production scale in all three scenarios under consideration. Moreover, trends in the efficiency scores indicated a slight mission drift of the microfinance providers. About 77.5% of the partner organizations were financially sustainable over the entire study period. The study recommends providing objective-oriented training, workshops, and seminars for managing microfinance providers
Estimating prevalence and identifying predictors of zero-dose pentavalent and never-immunized children under two years of age in Kashmore and Sujawal Districts of Sindh, Pakistan: An analysis of household survey data.
Full text linkINTRODUCTION: Despite intensified global efforts to enhance immunization coverage, one in five children continue to miss out on life-saving vaccines, leaving them vulnerable to a range of vaccine-preventable diseases. In 2022, 14.3 million children failed to receive even a single dose of the pentavalent vaccine (Penta-1) by their first birthday, classified as "zero-dose penta". Additionally, some children have not received any vaccinations at all and have had no contact with healthcare services-these are referred to as "never-immunized" children. Collectively, both groups-zero-dose penta and never-immunized children-are termed "true zero-dose" to emphasize the critical need for targeted interventions that ensure no child is left behind in immunization efforts. METHODS: We conducted a household (HH) survey from August 10 to December 19, 2022, in Kashmore and Sujawal, two districts in Sindh, Pakistan, with low immunization coverage. The survey targeted children aged 12-23 months who had not received the Penta-1 vaccine by their first birthday. Our study aimed to determine the community-based prevalence of zero-dose penta and never-immunized children, compare their sociodemographic characteristics and immunization histories, and identify predictors of these outcomes. RESULTS: Of the 2,091 children surveyed, 497 (23.8%) were zero-dose penta, and 587 (28.1%) were never-immunized. Together, these groups constitute 51.9% of the survey population, referred to as 'true zero-dose'. The remaining 1,007 (48.1%) were either fully or partially immunized. Multivariate analysis indicated that absence of antenatal care (ANC) significantly increased the risk of children being classified as zero-dose penta (RRR = 1.68; 95% CI: 1.04-2.72; p < 0.035) and never-immunized (RRR = 2.07; 95% CI: 1.25-3.45; p < 0.005). Furthermore, the absence of Lady Health Worker (LHW) visits significantly increased the risk of children being classified as zero-dose penta (RRR = 2.55; 95% CI: 1.26-5.16; p < 0.009), and the absence of vaccinator visits significantly increased the risk of being never-immunized (RRR = 4.44; 95% CI: 2.68-7.36; p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Despite global efforts for achieving universal immunization, half of the surveyed children remained true zero-dose, highlighting significant gaps in the ability of immunization programs to reach underserved communities. To address this issue, it is essential to enhance ANC coverage and leverage frontline health workers (FHWs) to identify and engage with clusters of zero-dose children effectively. These measures will ensure that no child is left behind, advancing health equity and safeguarding future generations
Models to accelerate modern family planning/contraceptive services access and uptake among married women in rural Pakistan
No full textAccessibility and uptake of modern contraceptive methods in Pakistan : a critical view on what works?
No full textBackground: In Pakistan, there is a clear imbalance between the population's needs and available resources to cater for spacing and limiting childbirth as desired by couples. More than two-thirds (70%) of the Pakistani population are now paying out-of-pocket for overall health costs. Public sector in South Asia is the main player in service provision, Pakistan, however, is unique where private sector is more significant a player in the provision of Family Planning services. The increasing reliance on the private sector is particularly prominent in rural areas where more than 30% of public sector-owned first-level care facilities are located. This critical review is guided by the aim to increase access and utilization of modern contraceptives in the underserved Pakistan. The research question explores the effects of multi-pronged health financing model "using vouchers" for increase in contraceptive access and uptake among married women in rural Pakistan. Methods: Keeping in view on paucity of literature, this review comprised studies that were published inclusive and after 2000 on implementation research on family planning. The international scientific databases searched included PubMed, SCOPUS, and MEDLINE until December 2016. Related articles were found using key terms and based on a review of the titles and abstracts of the published papers, a total of eight published studies met the criteria and were included for this review. Results: This critical review of key private sector intervention demonstrated that the use of multi-pronged health financing mechanisms targeting underserved communities such as 1) using demand-side free vouchers complemented by mid-level social franchise providers along with community health worker support to connect clients with facility and 2) using public sector trained community midwives and engaging a dedicated community health worker with them to generate demand and bridge the gap between clients with the local facility (financing CMW trainings and CHW salaries; and 3) expanding outreach services to reach out to underserved communities (financing free services) - has a positive and favourable impact. The findings show that free vouchers used alongside social franchising (multi-pronged health financing model) was able to increase the overall contraceptive uptake and also increased method specific uptake mainly for intrauterine device (IUD) and condoms in the intervention group in three different studies. Additionally, there was a favourable impact on IUD discontinuation rates (which is significantly found lower than the national average) and improved method switching during intervention and in the post-intervention period in the voucher based social franchising and outreach mobile services clients of four studies. Conclusion: The multi-pronged health financing mechanisms exclusive to FP not only were able to increase the uptake of modern FP services in underserved areas but also facilitated the long-term continuity of modern FP methods, while promoting method-specific switching behaviour. The models, using voucher based social franchising, community midwives coupled by CHWs, and the outreach services have a tangible effect on modern family planning uptake within communities. It has been documented that the provision of evidencebased interventions and care packages especially for the rural population reaching broad coverage (including approaches to promote post-abortion care; antenatal and postnatal care including family planning services) can contribute averting maternal, new-born and child deaths in Pakistan, and furthermore, a large proportion of stillbirths possibly could also be prevented
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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