In many of Myanmar’s contested regions, healthcare services are provided through two parallel governance systems – by the government’s Ministry of Health, and by providers linked to ethnic armed organizations. Building upon efforts to build tr...ust between these two actors following ceasefires signed in 2011 and 2012, the new National League for Democracy-led government offers an unprecedented opportunity to increase cooperation between these systems and to ensure health services reach Myanmar’s most vulnerable populations.
The report provides an overview of existing health service arrangements in these areas, from both the Ministry of Health and from ethnic and community-based health organizations. It then unpacks the concept of “convergence”, highlighting key opportunities and policy recommendations for both government and non-government actors.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has put significant pressure on health systems all around the world. The drastic measures established to contain its spread a...re creating serious impediments to economic activity (including agrifood systems) and, consequently, to livelihoods and food security and nutrition.
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Neonatal mortality is a major challenge in reducing child mortality rates in Nepal. Despite efforts by the Government of Nepal, data from the last three demographic and health surveys show a rise in... the contribution of neonatal deaths to infant and child mortality. The Government of Nepal has implemented community-based programs that were piloted and then scaled up based on lessons learned. These programs include, but are not limited to ensuring safe motherhood, birth preparedness package, community-based newborn care package, and integrated management of childhood illnesses. Despite the implementation of such programs on a larger scale, their effective coverage is yet to be achieved. Health system challenges included an inadequate policy environment, funding gaps, inadequate procurement, and insufficient supplies of commodities, while human resource management has been found to be impeding service delivery. Such bottlenecks at policy, institutional and service delivery level need to be addressed incorporating health information in decision-making as well as working in partnership with communities to facilitate the utilization of available services.
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Harmonising proven strategies beyond the emergency phase. Zero Hunger Phase 2
The Newborn Situational Analysis reports of 2009 and 2011, as well as the “Bottleneck analysis on neonatal health” of 2013, culminated in the N...igeria launch of “Call to action on Newborn health” at the first National Newborn Health Conference in 2014. This call to action provided the framework for the development of the Nigeria Every Newborn Action
Plan (NiENAP). The NiENAP lays out a vision to end preventable stillbirths and newborn deaths by accelerating progress and scaling up evidence- based high-impact and cost effective interventions. The plan is guided by the principles of country-leadership, integration, accountability, equity, human rights, innovation and research. This blue print outlines our commitment as government and stakeholders to repositioning newborn health as we implement approaches that impact on the lives of newborns for improved health outcome.
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In the aftermath of the April 2015 earthquake in Nepal, this paper looks at lessons drawn from previous comparable disasters and seeks to provide invaluable information and assistance to ...="attribute-to-highlight medbox">the operational agencies responding to the crisis.
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In this review, the editors will investigate the impact of eight WASH interventions in preventing (reducing the risk of) and controlling outbreaks ...in LMIC, with particular focus on three diseases of current concern to the response community – cholera, Ebola, and Hepatitis E. Additionally, we will explore economic outcomes related to WASH interventions within an outbreak
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This companion to the ALNAP EHA Guide offers protection-specific insights for evaluators and evaluation commissioners across the humanitarian sector. It covers ...dbox">the planning, data management and analysis phases of evaluation and addresses a range of challenges that – whilst not all unique to protection – are often exacerbated by the contexts in which protection activities typically take place. Challenges addressed include those arising from the multi-faceted nature of protection activities, the difficulty understanding cause-effect relationships underlying protection risks, and the challenges of accessing and managing very sensitive data, sometimes drawn from communities in conflict.
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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 and financial requirements for 2023 to carry out h...ealth 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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WHO’s Ambition and Action in Nutrition 2016-2025 is anchored in the six global targets for improving maternal, infant and young child nutrition and the global diet-related NCD targets.
I...n support of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, particularly SDG2 and SDG3, and in concert with the 2016-2025 UN Decade of Action on Nutrition, WHO’s Ambition and Action in Nutrition 2016-2025 aims for “A world free from all forms of malnutrition where all people achieve health and well-being”. It defines the unique value of WHO for advancing nutrition: the provision of leadership, guidance and monitoring and proposes a theory of change. Finally, following a set of guiding principles, it proposes priority actions for WHO, the delivery model and a clear allocation of roles across the Organization.
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The BRACED Myanmar Alliance was a three-year project aiming to ‘build the resilience of 350,000 people across Myanmar to climate extremes’. The... project worked in 7 states, 8 townships and 155 communities. The main impact for project populations was intended to be ‘improved well-being and reduced loss and damage despite climate shocks’, and the project sought to do this by addressing immediate hazard-related needs at community level while encouraging longer-term solutions driven and delivered by communities and subnational and national government.
Community Resilience Assessments (CRAs) were the first activities delivered as part of the project, and the list of community-identified needs became the basis from which local-level project interventions were selected. The selection typically involved an infrastructure requirement (linked to addressing a natural hazard, and sometimes shared between communities); a package of livelihood support (assets and trainings); capacity-building on climate change/resilience topics; and village savings and loans association (VSLA) support. A particular emphasis was placed on women’s empowerment, and leadership trainings and support to women’s self-help groups were provided.
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With this World Health Day, WHO is drawing attention to a group of diseases that are spread by insects and other vectors, the heavy health and economic burdens they impose, and what needs to be done to reduce these burdens. Many of these diseases ha...ve been historically confined to distinct geographical areas, but this situation has become more fluid due to a host of ills, including climate change, intensive farming, dams, irrigation, deforestation, population movements, rapid unplanned urbanization, and phenomenal increases in international travel and trade. The control of vector-borne diseases can make a major contribution to poverty reduction, as it precisely targets the poor
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Services, Identified needs and recommendations following the April and May 2015 Earthquakes in Nepal
Nepal has made substantial progress in reducing under-five mortality and is on track to achieve Millennium Development Goal 4, but advances in neonatal health are less encouraging. The objectives of this study were to assess relative and absolute in...equalities in neonatal mortality over time, and to review experience with major programs to promote neonatal health.
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This publication by UNAIDS, UNDP and the International Organisation for Migration examines various dimensions related to migration and HIV and AIDS.
How has the DRC Ebola outbreak impacted Sexual and Reproductive Health in North-Kivu?
Recommendations (more specifics found in the assessment):
1. Sexual and reproductive health needs and services... are to be embedded in the EVD response from the outset.
2. Reduce delays at every stage of the patient journey, particularly for women experiencing obstetric complications, including complications from abortion.
3. Support individuals and communities to mitigate SRH risks posed during and after EVD epidemic:
4. Formulate SRH guidelines for the EVD context involving experts in all relevant fields.
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The aim of this paper is to map and critically analyse evidence of good practice in prevention and response to gender-based violence (GBV) in humanitarian contexts which can support humanitarian practitioners and policy makers to improve ...="attribute-to-highlight medbox">the quality of GBV programming in the field. The paper is structured as follows. Following a brief discussion of key concepts and definitions in relation to GBV, Chapter 2 presents an overview of the extent of GBV in emergencies, and some of the challenges in responding to the problem. Chapter 3 then analyses some of the literature on the evidence of GBV programming effects in humanitarian settings, and draws out key lessons with regard to good practice. Chapter 4 discusses some of the key issues emerging from this review, and Chapter 5 concludes the paper with a discussion of the implications of the findings for research, policy and programming on GBV.
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This compendium represents a curated, pragmatic and non-prescriptive collection of tools and resources to support the implementation of interventions to improve quality of care in such contexts. Relevant tools and resources are listed under five are...as: Ensuring access and basic infrastructure for quality; shaping the system environment; reducing harm; improving clinical care; and engaging and empowering patients, families and communities.
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WHO’s Country Cooperation Strategy (CCS) defines the Organization’s medium-term vision for working in and with a particular country. The CCS, developed in ...box">the context of global and national health priorities, examines the overall health situation in a country, including the state of the health sector, socioeconomic status and the major health determinants.
This CCS sets out WHO’s strategic framework for collaboration with the Syrian Arab Republic, from June 2022 until June 2025, in light of the 12 years of crisis that have had a devastating impact on the health sector and infrastructure of basic services. It carefully considers the current and projected issues during its transition from continued humanitarian assistance to recovery, resilience and development. The consolidation of health policies and strategies and health system strengthening, based on the strengthening of primary health care (PHC), aims to contribute to the achievement of national and global development and health goals and the targets of the SDGs.
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As a lower-middle-income country (LMIC), South Africa (SA) bears
the burden of maternal and neonatal mortality similar to other sub-
Saharan African countries. According to the Saving Mothers Repo...rt
2017/19, there has been a progressive and sustained reduction
in institutional maternal mortality (iMMR) in the past three triennia
(2010-2019), from 320 per 100,000 live births to 120 per 100,000 live
births.
According to the Rapid Mortality Survey, the country’s infant mortality
rate has declined from 29 deaths per 1000 live births in 2014 to 25
deaths per 1,000 live births in 2018. The institutional neonatal death
rate showed a slight decrease from 12,7 deaths per 1,000 live births in
2016 to the current level of 12 per 1,000 live births and has remained
static at this level for the past three years (saDHIS).
Working towards the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of reducing maternal mortality to below 70 per 100 000 live births and neonatal mortality to 12 deaths per 1000 live births, South Africa aims to reduce institutional maternal mortality, neonatal mortality and stillbirths by 50% by 2030.
This Maternal, Perinatal and Neonatal Health Policy provides a
framework for the delivery of quality, comprehensive, and integrated
MNH services and will guide the development and review of guidelines
and related MNH interventions, including strengthening of the service
delivery platform, governance, leadership and accountability for
the provision of quality MNH services, development of advocacy
messages, and guiding civil society priorities and community
initiatives. The policy will also guide the development and review of
academic curricula and the setting of research priorities.
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