Policy Note #2: Myanmar Health Systems in Transition Policy Notes Series
Myanmar is a country in which people’s access to health services is determined more by where they live than their need for care – a situation that is fundamentally inequitable. The challenge is to reduce levels of ineq...uity between different groups in the population and different geographical areas, and most particularly to ensure that health services reach poor and disadvantaged groups, including minorities and those living in conflict-affected areas.
more
Policy Note #3: Myanmar Health Systems in Transition Policy Notes Series
A network of basic health facilities has been established in each of the 330 townships, covering both rural and urban areas. For the vast majority of Myanmar’s people, particularly the 70% who reside in rural areas, the ...township health system (THS) is the only government-funded source of preventive, promotive and curative services.
To achieve the national policy objective of progressing towards universal health coverage (UHC) through a primary health-care approach by 2030, the THS is critical to success. It is responsible for the bulk of health care delivery – particularly in rural areas – and is at the heart of national health development in Myanmar. However, if the THS is to be the backbone of health care provision, it currently suffers from a severe case of osteoporosis.
more
Policy Note #4: Myanmar Health Systems in Transition Policy Notes Series
Protecting people from financial hardship when they fall ill is one of the two key elements of universal health coverage (UHC). In practice, this means that the majority of health care costs have to be met from government ...revenues so that services are provided free or with a small affordable co-payment. The alternative is to rely on pre-payment through some form of insurance, where risks are pooled across all contributors.
The challenge in Myanmar is that at present neither approach is functioning. Government spending is too low to meet people’s health needs and the proportion of the population covered by insurance is negligible. As a result, families face a stark choice in the event of serious illness: either defer treatment and face the consequences, or incur what can amount to catastrophic expenses and a downward spiral of disinvestment and poverty.
more
Background Paper prepared for the 2015 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction
The aim of this paper is to help bring voluntary standards into the toolbox of disaster risk reduction, including both by encouraging their use by business and by enhancing their role in legislation and ...regulatory practice.
- Authorities can build awareness for standards in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), by facilitating access to relevant standards, encouraging education on DRR-related standards and involving the standardization community.
- Standards need to be sustained by a powerful infrastructure that allows for reliable inspections, audits and precise measurements to be conducted by skilled professionals.
- Risk management best practice needs to embed, as emdodies in standards, more fully in regulatory frameworks in sectors that are relevant.
more
The purpose of this Strategy is to set out the way to meet the needs of the rural populations for improved domestic water supply services, access to and use of improved sanitation with elimination of open defecation, and improved hygiene behaviour by the Year 2030. It also addresses water, sanitatio...n and hygiene in schools up to high school level and health facilities up to township hospital level. The Strategy is supported by Investment Plans covering a financing period 2015 to 2030 in order to ensure sufficient funding for development and operation of services in accordance with the Strategy.
more
The publication aims to establish the rationale for inclusion and provides technical advice and tools for putting theory into practice. It is intended to be used as a reference during organizational and program/project development with a focus on gender responsiveness and disability inclusion as wel...l as a tool to support good practice in implementation.
This first part guides the reader through the process of assessing whether or not the organization is ready to change towards becoming a more inclusive organization. The second part introduces the ACAP framework, which sets up a way of approaching inclusion via focus on the areas: Access, Communication, Attitude and Participation. It then demonstrates how the framework can be applied to projects and programmes. The third part provides guidelines for the people who will guide organizations through the process of change towards becoming inclusive of persons from marginalized groups.
more
Lack of satisfactory progress in mainstreaming disaster risk reduction within development is attributed to various factors. One of the important factor that is often not much appreciated is the inadequate comprehension of mainstreaming and the absence of clear, cogent and practical guidelines, tools... and techniques for mainstreaming DRR within development. This Guidebook helps to tackle this challenge by providing strategic and practical guidelines on how to mainstream disaster risk reduction into their policies plans and programmes across key sectors. It discusses strategic approaches towards risk resilient development in the Asia-Pacific region and demonstrates how to operationalize them using examples from various countries in the region. These guidelines can be adopted by countries according to their specific contexts, resources and capacities.
more
According to 2014 Census data, almost a third of the population in Myanmar do not have adequate identity and civil documentation. Of these, 54 percent are women.
Women who live in remote or conflict affected areas, who are displaced or belong to stateless ethnic and religious minorities face the... consequences of an insecure legal identity. They cannot enrol their children in school, open a bank account, travel freely or register land.
The report provides an analysis of the gender aspects of citizenship legislation in Myanmar and its application in light of the standards set by the UN Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). It analyses in detail women’s ability to acquire citizenship on an equal basis as men, their ability to acquire, retain or confer citizenship following marriage and their ability to confer citizenship to their children. The report highlights the normative and practical challenges faced by women and proposes ways forward.
more
Submitted to the US Agency for International Development by the
Systems for Improved Access to Pharmaceuticals and Services (SIAPS) Program.
This manual provides a framework to identify problems and design interventions to improve access to and use of medicines for children. It is a resource for ...both health policy makers and health system managers and presents a structured approach to the steps introduced in the framework in the context of child health.
more
The National Strategic Plan is based on the following guiding principles:
1) Life-course approach: adolescence is a key decade in the course of life that influences the health outcomes later in life.
2) Comprehensive approach: It recognizes the cross cutting health and development needs o...f young people such as intentional and unintentional injuries and violence, SRH, HIV/AIDS, mental health, substance use, violence, substance use and substance use disorders, infectious diseases and common conditions.
3) Equity and rights-based approach: focusing on equitable access to services to all adolescents including vulnerable groups and the recognizing the need to move from aspirations to obligations in fulflling young people rights for the highest attainable standard of health.
4) Multisectoral approach: recognizing cognizant of the fact that holistic development of young people requires multisectoral approach involving education, social welfare.
more
Civil Society Organisations’ contribution towards community engagement to access and demand health services and encourage communities to practice appropriate health-seeking behaviour in Mon and Chin States
The following report is a study of 14 villages under the Collective Voices project (Nov...ember 2015-December 2017) in the states of Mon and Chin. The objectives of the study were:
(1) to explore Village Health Committee (VHC) members, Basic Health Staff (BHS), and community members’ perceptions on community engagement in seeking and demanding health care and
(2) to describe health-seeking behaviours relating to Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health and hygiene practices among target beneficiaries.
more
The study analyses the current situation of children with disabilities in relation to realizing their rights and accessing basic services, as well as their life experiences in their communities. It also focuses on identifying the barriers created by society that prevent children with disabilities fr...om enjoying their human rights. This includes identifying negative attitudes; environmental and communication barriers; gaps in policies or their effective implementation.
The report reveals that children with disabilities in Myanmar are less likely to access services in health or education; rarely have their voices heard in society; and face daily discrimination as objects of pity. It also highlights how inadequate policies and legislation contribute to the challenges these children face.
The information available in this publication should be useful for policy makers, development partners and Disabled Persons Organisations to promote the realization of the rights of all children with disabilities.
more
Based on the Vulnerability Index developed in this review, an estimated 22.7 million persons in Myanmar, or 44% of the population, were found to have some form of vulnerability related to human development and/or exposure to active conflict/violence. These people experience varying combinations of p...oor housing, lack of education, poor educational attainment, lack of access to safe sanitation and improved drinking water, and direct exposure to conflict.
Shan and Ayeyarwady have the largest populations of vulnerable persons, a function of both their size and relative vulnerability in comparison to other States and Regions. Yangon and Shan show the widest variation in vulnerability across townships (in terms of the number of vulnerable persons and their level of vulnerability), followed by Mandalay, Chin and Rakhine.
Original file: 15 MB
more
Civil Society Organisations’ contribution towards community engagement to access and demand health services and encourage communities to practice appropriate health-seeking behaviour in Mon and Chin States. The study recognizes that civil society can promote people-centered health by creating an e...nabling environment for broad and active citizen participation. The VHCs/Volunteer Working Groups play a key role in facilitating engagement between the village community and the Basic Health Staff (BHS).
more
Prevention, Assessment and Management
The second edition of the WHPCA Global Atlas of Palliative Care was launched during World Hospice & Palliative Care Day 10 October. The Atlas is an update of the original WHPCA/WHO Global Atlas of Palliative care at the end of life published in 2014. It is full of useful facts and figures to support... palliative care advocacy and development. In this edition we have switched from using the WHO methodology for need for palliative care to the evolving Lancet Commission on Palliative Care and Pain Relief methodology. As a result the number of people needing palliative care has gone from 40 million per year to almost 57 million and more accurately reflects the need for palliative care globally models of palliative care worldwide? What resources are devoted to palliative care? What is the way forward?
more
This report found that many people with disabilities enter institutions as children and remain there for their entire lives. Most of these institutions visited by Human Rights Watch researchers did not provide for more than people’s basic needs, such as food and hygiene, with scarce contact with t...he community and little opportunity for personal development. Some residents are tied to their beds and given sedatives to control them.
more
"Helping Traumatized Children Learn is the result of an extraordinary collaboration among educators, parents, mental health professionals, community groups, and attorneys determined to help children experiencing the traumatic effects of exposure to family violence succeed in school."