This editorial describes the contradiction between the medical and public health approaches. While the medical field spends exorbitant amounts of money on one person’s treatment, the public health field aims to provide societal benefit, with as little cost as possible.

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In 2008, Save the Children UK, Save the Children in Sri Lanka, and Columbia University’s Program on Forced Migration and Health undertook a population-based survey to explore the magnitude and nature of physical and sexual violence against women and children in Trincomalee District, in eastern Sri Lanka. The study examined five domains—physical violence, corporal punishment outside the home, rape, early marriage, and sexual violence—in order to establish a baseline estimate of violence for Save’s areas of operation in this district. Two samples were constructed, one consisting of women and children in villages; the second included women and children residing in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps or in villages that were displaced and very recently resettled. Phase I of the research employed the Neighborhood Method.

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This article, published in Conflict and Health, presents findings from a nation-wide survey in Central African Republic on human rights violations. Measuring human rights violations is particularly challenging during or after armed conflict. A recent nationwide survey used the Neighborhood Method in the Central African Republic to produce estimates of rates of grave violations against children and adults affected by armed conflict. In June and July, 2009, a random household survey was conducted based on population estimates from the 2003 national census. Respondents in randomly selected households were interviewed regarding incidents of killing, intentional injury, recruitment into armed groups, abduction, sexual abuse and rape between January 1, 2008 and the date of interview, occurring in their homes’ and those of their three closest neighbors.The population-based figures greatly augment existing information on human rights violations in CAR, and represent a step forward in quantifying the protection needs of Central Africans.

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Over the past fifteen years, there has been increased attention in the humanitarian community regarding the ways in which women and girls are affected by conflict, violence, and displacement. Due to stigma and fear of retribution, which lead to under-reporting, it remains exceedingly difficult to obtain reliable data regarding the magnitude and nature of gender-based violence in conflict and displacement settings. It is in this context that the International Rescue Committee and Columbia University’s Program on Forced Migration and Health embarked on a project to measure the magnitude of violence facing women and girls in two Somali refugee camps and one of the surrounding host communities. This report presents the findings from these studies, which use the Neighborhood Method, to measure incidents of violence against women and girls.

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For this report, UNICEF and the CPC Learning Network executed a nationwide survey covering four of the six grave violations of the rights of children in the Central African Republic. This experience shows it is possible to collect representative, population-based estimates regarding the occurrence of grave violations in difficult and politically unstable settings, although further validation is required.

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This study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, sought to establish incidence rates for gender-based violence (GBV) in internally displaced persons (IDPs) camps in Northern Uganda. The assessment involved a ‘neighborhood methodology’, in which adult female heads of household reported about their own experience, their sisters’ experiences, and their neighbors’ experiences. It found that gender-based violence – particularly intimate partner violence – is commonplace in post-conflict Uganda.

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