Working together to address disability in a culturally-appropriate and sustainable manner.

Purpose: Disability has an enormous impact throughout the world. An increasing amount of important disability research and practice is being undertaken in low-income settings; however, success and sustainability of programmes in these contexts can often be challenging. We share lessons from our experiences.

Influences on maternal and child nutrition in the highlands of the northern Lao PDR.

In two remote northern provinces of the Lao People's Democratic Republic, provincial and district teams were trained and subsequently conducted a qualitative study using a participatory approach to investigate people's knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and practices in relation to women's and children's nutrition. Using focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and structured observation, the teams found that certain nutrition behaviours, including food taboos, may contribute to the high prevalence of child malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies in these northern provinces. Ethnic groups gave details of nutrition-related beliefs and practices; the teams found that many of these are likely to be amenable to change through relatively low-cost nutrition promotion informed by these findings.