Over the past year, 2005, the Latin America Division of MERCK Pharmaceutical has been utilizing the PD approach to enhance sales. In addition to improved sales results, the approach has had a profound impact on the lives and work of its sales force and their managers.
Common river provides a direct link to the rural Ethiopian community. Aleta Wondo in Sidama, Ethiopia seeks those willing to invest and work together towards a sustainable future with a true sense of partnership. This village has distinguished coffee production and untapped human resources making it the ideal model for community development and creating community socio-economic wellness.
Positive internal innovation has been a central element of African agriculture development, even if modern efforts have tended to look outwards. A recently published paper by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) examines the role of positive deviance in Kenyan agriculture over the last 75 years. Both positive deviance and appreciative inquiry are suggested as organizing frameworks for identifying and amplifying the generation and uptake of internal African innovations. Read the report here.
PD has been used to enhance access to education for girls in Ethiopia. The following report documents the design used by Save the Children (SC) to increase the number of girls attending school in the Afar region of Ethiopia. SC staff report a marked increase in girl's enrollment since the inception of the program. Read the report
The National Staff Development Council (NSDC) is looking to identify schools in the United States where "positive deviance" has been recognized or amplified through a Ford Foundation-funded study.
With support from the World Bank, the government of Argentina is using Positive Deviance to address the high rates of student drop out in one region. By using PD, schools with high drop out rates have been able to identify specific strategies that neighboring schools are using to decrease school drop out.
In 1998, CEDPA began a project using the Positive Deviance Approach to address female genital cutting (FGC, also known as female circumcision or female genital mutilation), both in terms of community awareness and in designing appropriate strategies for diminishing or eradicating this practice.
In May of 2003 Save the Children (SC) and a local Indonesian non-governmental organization (LPKP) met with a consultant to explore how Positive Deviance (PD) could be used to build a community- based movement to protect girls from being trafficked into the 'special entertainment industry' (sex industry.)
Save the Children Federation is implementing a program entitled Life after the LRA: Piloting Positive Deviance with Vulnerable Girl Survivors in Northern Uganda. This program is funded by the Oak Foundation and is slated to run until December 2008. The project’s purpose is to create an enabling reintegration process for the young mothers and vulnerable girls returning from the LRA and to reduce their engagement in transactional commercial sex by strengthening peer support networks, identifying sustainable reintegration strategies and facilitating access to social services. Project progress reports will be added as they are updated.
Hospital Acquired Infections (HAI) kill an estimated 90,000 people in US hospitals every year. These individuals enter the hospital to address health issues, and die from an infection that directly results from their stay in the hospital. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is one on the most lethal of the HAI. In collaboration with the Plexus Institute, the PDI has worked with hospitals to reduce MRSA infection.
The use of the positive deviance process in Waterbury hospital represents a landmark event in newer applications of PD. In a short time period of six months, the positive deviance process fostered a behavior and cultural change in a cohort of professionals who were long considered immune to change - healthcare professionals.
The VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System (VAPHS) is using the Positive Deviance approach to advance their "Getting to Zero MRSA Initiative".
Bruce Horowitz is based out of Ecuador and he tells an analytical tale of positive deviants in negotiation of agreemnts and contracts in international law practice.
A Students (Dustin Burnett and Melissa Fuster) from a positive deviance class offered at Tufts University's Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy work with members from Sociedad Latina to help them discover healthy eating habits. Sociedad Latina works to promote community leadership, civic engagement, meaningful employment, educational attainment, cultural identity and pride in Boston's latin american community.
FHI/Bolivia has recently begun a five year program using Positive Deviance to address childhood malnutrition in two geographic locations, eventually reaching a population of over 20,000.
After finding that nutrition demonstrations were not significantly alleviating the problem of childhood malnutrition, Save the Children (US)-Mali used the Positive Deviance Approach to design an intervention with the goal of reducing the prevalence of infant malnutrition and mortality.
Save the Children (Japan) began using the Positive Deviance Approach in 1996 in their community-based nutrition program and safer motherhood programs.
In 1990 Save the Children (US) had received an unprecedented invitation from the Government of Vietnam to create a program to enable poor villages to address the pervasive problem of childhood malnutrition.
ICDS uses Positive Deviance in four districts of West Bengal to reduce and prevent malnutrition and promote positive child development among under 3s.
Several INGOs have done PD Nutrition programs in Mozambique over the past 3 years. In this excellent evaluation of the Food for the Hungry PD program, Tom Davis provides some of the insights into the special PD practices which have enabled poor families with well nourished children to achieve significantly superior nutritional outcomes for their children than do their neighbors with access to the same resources. Read the full report of the extended PD Study in Mozambique.
In a recent study conducted by the Nature Conservancy, the Australian government, WWF-Indonesia, and Vrie University in Amsterdam identified four marine protected areas which have helped reduce local poverty. Through a PD lens, the researchers determined that the success of these protected areas was due to the management of marine resources. The report is highlighted in a press release at Nature Conservancy. The full report can be read here.
While not originally conceived as a "positive deviance" project, Gary Barker's work with young men in Rio de Janeiro illustrates many of the same principles.
Johns Hopkins University's Center for Communication Programs has used the Positive Deviance Approach to promote abstinence and condom use amongst youth in Cote d'Ivoire. This work is documented by Stella Babalola in a FHI report and a powerpoint presentation on "Factors Affecting Sexual Behavior."
In January 2003, Save the Children (US)-Guatemala held a training workshop on applying the Positive Deviance Approach to increase use of family planning services.
Save the Children's (SC/US) Viet Nam field office in conjunction with a local NGO partner, SHAPSI, is exploring fresh ways to address the growing problem of HIV/AIDS in Viet Nam.
Indonesian transvestites (Warias) use PD to decrease risk of HIV infection among Waria commerical sex workers.
The Indonesia PD Network, comprised of six International NGOs and their counterparts, published their 4th bulletin, with articles in both English and Bahasa Indonesian focusing on on-going PD informed-projects addressing goiter and iodine deficiency, among others
CRESP-Senegal held a workshop on applying the Positive Deviance Approach to childhood iron deficiency anemia in June 2002 followed by a trial intervention which continued for three months.
The Saving Newborn Lives Initiative (SNL), led by Save The Children US, is using Positive Deviance to improve Maternal and Newborn Care (MNC) in Pakistan. PD is being used to identify unique strategies and practices that protect the health of mothers and reduce the risk of neonatal death.
The government of Egypt in conjunction with Save the Children and Tufts University conducted a Positive Deviance Inquiry to identify specific behaviors and strategies that contribute to healthy pregnancy outcomes amongst poor women. These results were incorporated into a program that included providing counseling to the mother-in-laws of pregnant women on topics that were identified through the PDI. (Mother-in-laws were included as it was determined that they play a central role in assisting women to obtain medical care.)
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