To support its R&D activities on Chagas disease, DNDi launched the Chagas Clinical Research Platform (CCRP). The platform brings together partners, experts, and stakeholders to provide support for evaluation and development of new treatments for Chagas disease. The patient-centred platform aims to f
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acilitate clinical research, provide a forum for technical discussions, develop a critical mass of expertise, and strengthen institutional research capacities. In addition, it identifies and reviews priority needs, works towards standardization of methodology to assess drug efficacy and reviews alternatives for using current approved drugs (new schemes, doses, combination) and special scenarios (resistance).
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For the past years, Haiti has been engulfed in a socioeconomic, political, and humanitarian crisis that has reached critical levels since mid-September 2022 with the intensification of gang violence and social unrest. The widespread insecurity and
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political instability have drastically affected the country’s access to essential goods and services, including food, water, and health. The current fuel supply crisis has affected the water and electricity supply to the population, health centers, and hospitals. Due to problems of insecurity and violence, patients and health personnel have difficulty accessing hospitals and health services.
In parallel, the public health system and international partners face limited response capacity due to reduced international personnel in Haiti, logistics issues, and difficulties in importing supplies. Indeed insecurity, roadblocks, and lockdowns are affecting the importation of internationally procured goods, which may slow the arrival of essential lifesaving supplies to support cholera response efforts. This scenario is particularly problematic, as cholera recently resurfaced in early October.
Armed gangs now control over 60% of the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince, affecting at least 1.5 million people, and have expanded their influence outside of the capital city, interrupting vital humanitarian programs in most of the national territory,
including COVID-19 vaccination campaigns.
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UNFPA has been implementing programming for women and girls through Women Friendly Health Spaces (WFHSs), which provide access to critical services, information and support. The WFHS is providing: psychosocial counseling services; awareness raising
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sessions on PSS in the community; and life skills & vocational training opportunities. The WFHS also facilitates referral to other services including Psychosocial Counseling Centers (PSCCs).
The aim of this guidance note is to provide an overview of approaches on how to successfully integrate adolescent and youth (A&Y) programming into the WFHSs. UNFPA activities for women’s and girl’s protection in health facilities aim to protect women and girls including child marriage. Given that vulnerable women and girls in Afghanistan continue to access health facilities, particularly for reproductive health and maternal health services, it is crucial to provide support for survivors in the same location to improve access to essential psychosocial and protection support for women and girls. To support the integration of A&Y in the WFHS programming each WFHS will be supported by two full time Youth Educators. A female Youth Educator who will be working within the WFHS and a male Youth Educator who will be working in the community. The role of the Youth educators is to increase A&Y awareness and knowledge on living healthy lifestyles and ensuring a referral system to services in existing facilities.
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The Abuja declaration identifies that the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and related infectious diseases must come with additional financial resources. Therefore, African governments agreed on setting the target of allocating at l
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east 15 per cent of each country’s annual budget to the improvement of the health sector. Moreover, the declaration demands donor countries to assist by fulfilling the target of delivering official development assistance (ODA) in the amount of 0.7 per cent of gross national product (GNP).
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Women, girls and marginalized groups who are largely dependent on natural resources for livelihoods are among the hardest hit by extreme weather patterns. These weather patterns limit their access to food, water, shelter, education and access to ess
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ential health services, including those that address sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), gender-based violence (GBV) and preventing harmful practices such as child marriage and female genital mutilation.
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The Social Cash Transfer Programme (SCTP)—locally known in Chichewa as Mtukula Pakhomo—is a non-conditional critical safety net for the most vulnerable, ultra-poor Malawians. By providing monthly cash transfers to over 1.3 million people annuall
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y, this programme helps ultra-poor families to meet their basic needs and build resilience, with the ultimate goal of building human capital and moving them out of poverty.
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Today more people are exposed to hazards. While humanitarian action to mitigate the impact of disasters will always be vitally important, the community is facing critical challenge- how to better anticipate, manage and reduce - disaster risks by int
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egrating the potential threat into its planning and policies at the community level. This manual aims to improve the capacity of the Panchayati Raj Institutions - the local self government and communities that face hazards due to environmental reasons. To help such capacity development efforts, we need learning materials focusing on key areas - water supply, environmental sanitation for better disaster management and preparedness.
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Specific action sheets offer useful guidance on mental health and psychosocial support and cover the following areas coordination assessment monitoring and evaluation protection and human rights standards human resources community mobilisation and s
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upport health services education dissemination of information food security and nutrition shelter and site planning and water and sanitationthe guidelines include a matrix with guidance for emergency planning actions to be taken in the early stages of an emergency and comprehensive responses needed in the recovery and rehabilitation phases
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A public health emergency operations centre (EOC) is a central location for coordinating operational information and resources for strategic management of pugencies and events. EOCs provide communication and information tools and services blic healt
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h emer-
and a management system during a response to an emergency or event. This report lays out components and characteristics of an emergency operations plan, providing a suggested structure for plans and procedures. The planning process, and that of coducting a hazard analysis or needs assessment, are also discussed as key steps
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This guide is a resource for future health professionals who want to learn about and engage in abortion issues. Abortion is a critical but often neglected area of women’s rights, women’s health and health science education. The guide ences stude
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nts was developed for health sciences students -including students in medicine, nursing, midwifery, pharmacology, public health and other related fields
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Needs assessment is essential for programme planning, monitoring and evaluation, and accountability, however needs assessment is still a critical weakness of humanitarian response. Organisations need to improve how they do assessments. The Assessmen
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t Capacities Project (ACAPS) and the Emergency Capacity Building Project (ECB) have produced this guide to fill the gap that existed for a practical resource that pulls together the main lessons learned from various initiatives and experiences.
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The report reveals weak national mental health services overburdened by the demands placed on them by the Syria crisis. Health facilities which previously provided integrated mental health services in Syria have themselves become casualties of war, with most either destroyed, damaged or not function
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ing. The shortage of trained mental health care providers is viewed as critical, both in Syria and in the neighboring countries where refugees now reside. Strengthening and expanding these services is crucial for Syria’s longer term recovery because the need for treatment will last for years after the war ends.
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Summary of lessons learned
Self-imposed quarantine has proved less problematic.
The timely and reliable delivery of resources (e.g. food/water) and expertise (e.g. contact tracing/safe and dignified burials) is essential to ensure cooperat
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ion and deter quarantine violation.
The communities’ understanding of the benefits of quarantine and its role in stopping the outbreak is essential.
Coercion is counterproductive.
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The report provides a global knowledge base on suicide and suicide attempts as well as actionable steps for countries based on their current resources and context to move forward in suicide prevention.
The document will provide information for Ministries of Health and hospital sentinel sites on why and how to determine the denominator of at-risk children <5 years of age and rate of meningitis hospitalizations for a sentinel hospital site conducting IB-VPD surveillance. Such a methodology is currently unavailable and this estimation is
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critical to enable interpretation of surveillance data, particularly pre- and post- vaccine introduction
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The strategy focuses on mobilizing and coordinating partners, experts and resources to help countries enhance surveillance of the Zika virus and disorders that could be linked to it, improve vector control, effectively communicate risks, guidance an
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d protection measures, provide medical care to those affected and fast-track research and development of vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics
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Abduction of aid workers has risen sharply in particular contexts in the past decade. Abduction is a “unique form of critical incident”, characterised by its ongoing, “live” nature, often extended duration, the pressure of decision-making a
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nd uncertainty. This EISF Briefing Paper explores the dimensions of effective, proactive abduction and kidnapping response mechanisms. It complements the EISF Briefing Paper Crisis Management of Critical Incidents, released April 2010, that looks at crisis response plans as a whole.
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For several decades, civil society organisations (CSOs) in Nigeria have been advocating for increased resources for family planning (FP) and reproductive health (RH) services and commodities. To help CSOs in Nigeria understand and actively participa
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te in the budget process at the state level, a team from the Health Policy Project conducted an assessment to identify the differences between theory and practice in state-level budgeting. The team selected two states—Cross River and Zamfara—and compiled information on their budget process for the health sector.
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Moving avidence into action
This document is part of a series of briefs for health program managers interested in implementing evidence-based programs. With a special emphasis on underutilized interventions, they present evidence on programs that work and provide guidance and
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resources for replication.
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For handwashing to be effective, it needs to be practiced consistently and thoroughly. Even when people have access to soap and water, and know how and why to wash their hands, many still do not properly wash their hands consistently at critical tim
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es. The handwashing behavior change challenge is not only to encourage people to wash their hands with soap, but to do so correctly and at all critical times.
Nudges are one example of a behavior change tool that can encourage people to wash their hands.
Although the evidence base for nudges is still emerging and nudges for handwashing have been tested primarily in single contexts or on a limited scale, this brief and infographic answer some frequently asked questions about nudges and provides examples of how they have been used in efforts to increase handwashing.
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