DFID Workshop on Health in Unstable Situations

The British Overseas Development Administration (ODA) has been upgraded to a Ministry under the new Labour government and renamed the Department for International Development (DFID). The goal of the new DFID strategy is eradication of poverty. Details of how this will be accomplished will be elaborated in a White Paper on international development, which will be published in the autumn of this year.

The Health and Population Division (HPD) of DFID currently fund research in five priority areas, one of which is health in unstable situations. In order to disseminate current research findings, facilitate networking and discuss new ways forward for research on health in unstable situations, a workshop was held in London on 10 July 1997. The workshop was attended by UK-based researchers, DFID advisers and NGO representatives.

Following presentations of research in progress or recently completed, there was discussion of research priorities and of ways to improve collaboration between operational agencies and academic institutions. Nutrition-related research in unstable situations was the subject of one of several small discussion groups, and a list of priority research areas was drawn up.

The workshop report can be obtained from Marion Kelly, HPD, DFID, 94 Victoria St, London SW1E 5JL (or e-mail m-kelly@dfid.gtnet.gov.uk).