This fourth annual report monitors global progress towards the 2023 target for global elimination of industrially produced trans-fatty acids (TFA), highlighting achievements during the past year (Oc
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tober 2021 – September 2022). Countries are responding to the World Health Organization (WHO) call to action by putting into place best-practice TFA policies. Mandatory TFA policies are currently in effect for 3.4 billion people in 60 countries (43% of the world population); of these, 43 countries have best-practice policies in effect, covering 2.8 billion people (36% of the world population).
Over the past year, several additional countries took action to eliminate industrially produced TFA: best-practice policies came into effect in India in January 2022, Uruguay in May 2022 and Oman in July 2022. Best-practice policies were passed in Bangladesh in November 2021 (to come into effect in December 2022) and in Ukraine in September 2020 (to come into effect in October 2023), best-practice TFA policies are projected to pass soon in Mexico, Nigeria and Sri Lanka.
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A lot has happened this year. While we continued to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, we were hit by disease outbreaks and
humanitarian crises. Yet, despite these challenges, we marched on, resolute in
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resolving critical health systems issues to increase
access to quality healthcare services. To further our vision and bring concrete actions to reality, under
the leadership of the Government of South Sudan, we developed the Health Sector Strategic Plan to define the strategic
approaches, key interventions, mapping resource needs, and the implementation framework to strengthen the health system
to deliver essential quality health services equitably for 2023 to 2027. For WHO, this Plan will usher in a new reality -- access
to lifesaving or health-promoting interventions is doable and possible, making the health sector fairer, especially for those
unable to pay
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WHO needs US$2.54 billion to provide life-saving assistance to millions of people around the world facing health emergencies. WHO’s Health Emergency Appeal is a consolidation of WHO’s priorities
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and financial requirements for 2023 to carry out health interventions in emergency and humanitarian responses. The number of people in need of humanitarian relief has increased by almost a quarter compared to 2022, to a record 339 million. WHO is responding to an unprecedented number of intersecting health emergencies: climate change-related disasters such as flooding in Pakistan and food insecurity across the Sahel in the greater Horn of Africa; the war in Ukraine; and the health impact of conflict in Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria and north eastern Ethiopia – all of these emergencies overlapping with the health system disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and outbreaks of measles, cholera, and other killers. Contributions to the appeal can be fully flexible, flexible across a region, or flexible within a country appeal.
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Obesity and diet-related noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) have been steadily increasing globally, and with them, a pressing need to implement effective responses to address
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the contributing factors. Among the available evidence-based policy options that enable healthier choices and improved diets is the implementation of taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs).
This tax manual is a practical guide for policy-makers and others involved in SSB tax policy development to promote healthy diets and populations. It features summaries and case studies of SSB global taxation evidence, and provides support on the policy-cycle development process to implement SSB taxation — from problem identification and situation analysis through policy design, development and implementation to the monitoring and evaluation phase. Additionally, the manual identifies and debunks industry tactics designed to dissuade policy-makers from implementing these taxes.
SSB taxes can be a win-win-win strategy: a win for public health (and averted health-care costs), a win for government revenue, and a win for health equity.
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More than 700 000 people lose their life to suicide every year. The world is not on track to reach the 2030 suicide reduction targets. WHO advocate
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s for countries to take action to prevent suicide, ideally through a comprehensive national suicide prevention strategy. Governments and communities can contribute to suicide prevention by implementing LIVE LIFE – WHO’s approach to starting suicide prevention so that countries can build on it further to develop a comprehensive national suicide prevention strategy. The guide is for all countries, with or without a national suicide prevention strategy; national or local focal points for suicide prevention, mental health, alcohol or NCDs; and community stakeholders with a vested interest or who may already be engaged in implementing suicide prevention activities.
Excecutive Summary available in English, French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Spanisch here:
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This working paper aims to provide a rough over-view of existing rules and guidelines on the coopera-tion between the UN
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and the private sector – at least as they are publicly available. It will describe com-mon features and discuss advances and shortcomings of the most prominent and debated rules and guide-lines. Finally, it will present proposals for improve-ment of the existing rules and steps towards a new regulatory and institutional framework for interac-tion between the UN and the private sector.
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Curricular Modules for Lecturers and Teachers.
The 2nd edition of the Global Public Health Curriculum has been published in
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the South Eastern European Journal of Public Health, end of 2016 as a special volume . The curriculum targets the postgraduate education and training of public health professionals including their continued professional development (CPD). However, specific competences for the curricular modules remained to be identified in a more systematic approach
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This report is not a formal evaluation, but rather a synthesis of the experiences, observations, and recommendations of a large group of experienced post-disaster shelter
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and recovery experts gathered from interviews, surveys, and direct discussions, and information derived from a desk review of the wide variety of available evaluations and reports.
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نظام مغشوش
سياسات الحكومة السورية لاستغلال المساعدات الإنسانية وتمويل إعادة الإعمار
he pandemic has produced an unprecedented economic and social crisis, and it could generate a food, humanitarian, and political crisis if urgent me
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asures are not taken. The policy options for addressing the pandemic entail consolidating national plans and achieving intersectoral consensus. The response should be structured in three nonlinear and interrelated phases—control, reactivation, and rebuilding—involving the participation of technical actors representing not only the field of health but also other social and economic areas. Measures implemented to control the pandemic as well as measures for the reactivation and rebuilding phases will require increased public investment in health until the recommended parameters are achieved.
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Recommended actions and international and national level
Recommended actions at international and national levels
Financing Global Health 2016: Development Assistance, Public and Private Health Spending for the Pursuit of Universal Health Coverage presents a complete analysis of
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the resources available for health in 184 countries, with a particular focus on development assistance for health (DAH). DAH was estimated to total $37.6 billion in 2016, up 0.1% from 2015. After a decade of rapid growth from 2000 to 2010 (up 11.4% annually), DAH grew at only 1.8% annually between 2010 and 2016. In low-income countries, where much DAH is targeted, DAH made up 34.6% of total health spending in 2016. In upper-middle- and high-income countries, which generally do not receive DAH, DAH accounted for only 0.5% of total health spending. The other 99.5% of health spending – government, prepaid private, and out-of-pocket spending – is the subject of our further analysis.
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Hundreds of thousands of refugees are at risk of being pushed to return to Syria in 2018, despite ongoing violence, bombing and shelling that are endangering the lives of civilians, leading humanita
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rian agencies warn in a report released today. The warning comes amid a global anti-refugee backlash, harsher conditions in neighbouring countries hosting Syrians, and Syrian government victories in the conflict that have fuelled misleading rhetoric suggesting Syria is safe for refugees to return.
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In this course you will examine the interconnections between poverty, development and violent conflict. This is one of seven Medical Peace Work courses.
Ukraine: Russian invasion has forced older people with disabilities to endure isolation and neglect – new report
Many temporary shelters inaccessible to people with physical disabilities
Overburdened care system often provides few alternativ
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es to institutions for older people
Authorities and humanitarian actors must ensure an inclusive response
Displaced older people with disabilities in Ukraine are physically and financially unable to access adequate housing and care amid Russia’s ongoing invasion, sometimes leaving few alternatives to being placed in residential institutions, Amnesty International said in a new report.
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