The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is a leading humanitarian agency dedicated to helping people whose lives have been shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover, and gain control of their future. Health comprises nearly half of IRC...’s program portfolio globally and encompasses three sectors: 1) Primary Health (including child health, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and mental health); 2) Nutrition; and 3) Environmental Health. IRC health programming across its portfolio, in terms of the size and breadth, responds to significant needs in crisis affected settings, improving health and wellbeing while reducing causes of ill-health.
This five-year Health Strategy sharpens our focus on where we can have the most impact. It guides our efforts in planning, technical assistance, business development, advocacy, and internal and external collaboration. Through this strategy, we will invest and grow in areas that will help us achieve high impact at scale for our clients. For the next five years these priorities will include: Nutrition; Immunization: Infectious Disease Prevention and Control; Last Mile Delivery of Primary Health Care: Clean Water.
Our strategy aligns with Strategy 100 (S100) and Strategy Action Plans (SAPs). It lays out how IRC, through health, nutrition, and Environmental Health (EH) programming, will advance the IRC’s S100 ambitions, respond to global trends, and capitalize on our value add. The strategy will be complemented by delivery plans that detail investments, actions, and roles and responsibilities to advance our priorities. At the end of FY24, we will take stock of the implementation of the strategy, measure progress towards achieving our goals, and review if it continues to be fit for purpose.
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International Journal of Mental Health Systems December 2011, 5:3
Community mental health programs in low-income countries face a number of challenges. Using a case study methodology developed for ...this purpose, it is possible to compare programs and begin to assess the effectiveness of diverse service delivery models
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SIAPS Technical Report. This report summarizes key accomplishments and lessons learned in implementing SIAPS’ approach to improving IPC practices in four countries: South Africa, Namibia, Jordan, and Ethiopia. All activities address SIAPS’s overall objective to build or enhance national and ...n class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">facility capacity to develop, implement, and monitor IPC programs by focusing on the principles of health systems strengthening.
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Climate change is damaging human health now and is projected to have a greater impact in the future. Low- and middle-income countries are seeing the worst effects as they are most vulnerable to climate shifts and least able to adapt given weak ... class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">health systems and poor infrastructure. Low-carbon approach can provide effective, cheaper care while at the same time being climate smart. Low-carbon healthcare can advance institutional strategies toward low-carbon development and health-strengthening imperatives and inspire other development institutions and investors working in this space. Low-carbon healthcare provides an approach for designing, building, operating, and investing in health systems and facilities that generate minimal amounts of greenhouse gases. It puts health systems on a climate-smart development path, aligning health development and delivery with global climate goals. This approach saves money by reducing energy and resource costs. It can improve the quality of care in a diversity of settings. By prompting ministries of health to tackle climate change mitigation and foster low-carbon healthcare, the development community can help governments strengthen local capacity and support better community health.
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In order to maintain daily operations and patient care services, health care facilities need to develop an Emergency Water Supply Plan (EWSP) to prepare for, respond to, and recover from a total or partial interruption of the facilities’ normal wa...ter supply. Water supply interruption can be caused by several types of events such as natural disaster, a failure of the community water system, construction damage or even an act of terrorism.
The planning guide provides a four step process for the development of an EWSP:
1. Assemble the appropriate EWSP Team and the necessary background documents for your facility;
2. Understand your water usage by performing a water use audit;
3. Analyze your emergency water supply alternatives; and
4. Develop and exercise your EWSP
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The new, all oral, 20-month MDR-TB regimens range from US $1,600* (using bedaquiline and linezolid for 6 months and levofloxacin as the fluoroquinolone) to US $2,100* (using linezolid for 12 months and moxifloxacin as the fluoroquinolone.
As a deliverable of the G20 Health and Finance Ministers' Meeting on June 28, 2019, ministers confirmed their commitment to this "G20 Shared Understanding."
This paper has been prepared to inform discussion at the conference “Beating the DRUM - Domestic Resource Use and Mobilization for accelerating progress towards SDG3,”. Many countries face critical shortfalls in domestic resource use and mobilization (DRUM) for ...t medbox">health, threatening to push health goals out of reach. DRUM failures weaken human capital formation, a vital input to economic growth. Countries need more and better health spending. The first step is to apply already-proven DRUM solutions, adapting them to new contexts. However, in many countries, even the best achievable DRUM performance will not be enough. New solutions are needed, including private-sector engagement and a next generation of DAH. The “Beating the DRUM” conference offers a platform for countries and partners to dialogue and build joint strategy. While each country’s situation is unique, shared lines of action are emerging.
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This manual for trainers outlines the information and materials required to undertake training in line with the WASH FIT Guide, including background documents, the content of the recommended training modules and training evaluation approaches. The modular approach outlined enables trainers to decide... on all topics that are most useful to support the delivery of targeted training at the local level. It also provides sample training schedules, evaluation forms and is linked to a full set of interactive, adult-learning focused, training slides.
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at the national and acute health care facility level
A handbook for district and health facility staff
A handbook for district and health facility staff
The Water and Sanitation for Health Facility Improvement Tool (WASH FIT) presents a framework and acts as a guide to support multisectoral action to improve water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in <...span class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">health care. Central to the WASH FIT methodology is training and incremental improvements.
Implementation of WASH FIT requires six preparatory steps at the national level, one of which is conducting national sensitization and training of trainers, followed by facility-level training. At the facility level, step 1 (of five) involves establishing and training a WASH FIT team.
The WASH FIT methodology is outlined in WASH FIT: A practical guide for improving quality of care through water, sanitation and hygiene in health care facilities. Second edition. (the WASH FIT guide), which includes a set of templates designed to help users with each phase of the improvement cycle.
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Technical information note. Digital Adherence Technologies (DATs) such as the smart medication container
kit can help to support people affected by TB with their treatment in a modern
and ef-fective way. These technologies are able to deliver remi...nders and may
help em-power TB affected individuals and their families to take their daily
medication at a time and place that suits them best. They also generate a
digital record of medication intake.
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The Ideal Clinic manual has been developed to assist managers at various levels of healthcare service provision to correctly interpret and understand the requirement for achieving the elements as depicted in the Ideal Clinic framework/dashboard. It can therefore be regarded as a reference document w...hich guides the managers to determine the status of Ideal Clinic framework/dashboard elements in a facility.
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In fragile, conflict-affected and vulnerable settings, delivery of quality health services faces significant challenges, including disruption of a routine ...>health service organization and delivery systems, increased health needs, complex and unpredictable resourcing issues, and vulnerability to multiple public health crises. Despite the difficulty of addressing quality in such settings, the necessity for action is acute, given the significant health needs of the populations in these environments and the increasing numbers of people for whom such settings are home.
This manual has been developed to provide a starting point for multi-actor efforts and actions to address quality of care in the most challenging settings. This includes practical approaches to action planning and implementation of a contextualised set of quality interventions.
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A practical guide for hospital administrators, health disaster coordinators, health facility designers, engineers and maintenance staff to achieve ...Smart Health Facilities by conserving resources, cutting costs, increasing efficiency in operations and reducing carbon emissions
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A guide to increasing coverage and equity in all communities in the African Region
Expanded Programs on Immunization (EPI) is responsible for vaccines and vaccination to control, eliminate and eradicate vaccine preventable diseases (VPDs). Having strong immunization systems to ...ibute-to-highlight medbox">deliver vaccines to those who need them most will play a significant role in achieving the health, equity and economic objectives of several global development goals.
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In 2014, the Ministry of Health (MOH) in Malawi conducted a nationwide assessment of emergency obstetric and newborn care (EmONC) services. This cross-sectional facility-based survey used 10 data co...llection modules. Data collection began on 23rd September 2014 and concluded on 17th October 2014, in all 28 districts. Facilities in both the public and private sector (for-profit and not-for-profit) were included. Since the focus of the assessment was obstetric and newborn care, health facilities that did not offer maternal and newborn health (MNH) services were not selected. In all districts, a census of all hospitals and a 60 percent random sample of health centres that ought to have performed deliveries in the previous year yielded a total of 365 facilities: 87 hospitals and 278 health centres. All these facilities were visited during the assessment. During analysis, weighting procedures were applied to extrapolate results to the district and national level, representing all 87 hospitals and 464 health centres. Such weighting was necessary as a stratified random sample of health centres was taken and weighting applied to all indicators and presentations that have health facility as a unit of measurement. Case reviews and provider’s interviews, on the other hand, are not weighted as their sampling strategy is based on convenience.
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The ICOPE Implementation Framework provides a score card to help assess the overall capacity of health and social care services and systems to deliver integrated care in community settings and suppo...rt the development of ICOPE implementation action plans. There are 19 actions needed to implement ICOPE on the services level (meso) and systems level (macro). The scoring process provides an evidence-based means of highlighting areas for improvement as well as establishing concrete measures of future improvements
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