Many capacity development interventions have been driven by the needs of technological innovation rather than the needs of institutional innovation. However, this article argues that the global challenges of the twenty-first century call for institutional innovation that entails a very different dynamic of the relations within society. Changing institutions, be it related to societal norms and ...

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) addresses the social justice dimensions of health disparities by engaging marginalized communities, building capacity for action, and encouraging more egalitarian relationships between researchers and communities. CBPR may challenge institutionalized academic practices and the understandings that inform institutional review board deliberations and, ...

This paper examines the institutionalization of health promotion (HP) in Brazil in the twenty years following the proclamation of the 1988 Brazilian Constitution. The legal and institutional foundations of HP are delineated, as well as its recent reassertion as a national policy. Moreover, the praxis of HP within the health system and other instances are analyzed, and the institutional capacity...

Priority-setting in health is risky and challenging, particularly in resource-constrained settings. It is not simply a narrow technical exercise, and involves the mobilisation of a wide range of capacities among stakeholders - not only the technical capacity to "do" research in economic evaluations. Using the Individuals, Nodes, Networks and Environment (INNE) framework, we identify those stake...

BACKGROUND Research positions embedded within healthcare settings have been identified as an enabler to allied health professional (AHP) research capacity; however, there is currently limited research formally evaluating their impact. In 2008, a Health Practitioner industrial agreement funded a research capacity building initiative within Queensland Health, Australia, which included 15 new alli...

Regional economies and communities are facing increasing economic, social and cultural hardship in many parts of the world as economies adjust to the demands of the new orders of commerce and governance. A part of this is the paradox that regional economies and communities can be either enhanced or disadvantaged by information and communication technologies (ICT) products and services. The pote...

Advanced warning of potential new opportunities and threats related to biodiversity allows decision-makers to act strategically to maximize benefits or minimize costs. Strategic foresight explores possible futures, their consequences for decisions, and the actions that promote more desirable futures. Foresight tools, such as horizon scanning and scenario planning, are increasingly used by gover...

This paper describes an initiative to implement a network of competency building centers that can assume a central role in shaping the Information Society in developing countries. The paper describes the business model of the centers and reports on the evaluation of their performance and their impact on national ICT initiatives for development. The main objective of the evaluation is to quantif...