In disaster preparedness, the participation of women, children, older people, persons with disabilities (PWDs), and other minority groups and sectors is important because they are ...bute-to-highlight medbox">the most vulnerable against disasters. Inclusive disaster preparedness provides technical and logical frameworks that assimilate the most vulnerable sectors in a community and enhances their capacity against future disasters.
more
Vitamin A supplementation (VAS) programs targeted at children aged 6–59 months are implemented in many countries. By improving immune function, vitamin A (VA) reduces mortality associated with measles, diarrhea, and other illnesses. There is currently a debate regarding ...ighlight medbox">the relevance of VAS, but amidst the debate, researchers acknowledge that the majority of nationally-representative data on VA status is outdated. To address this data gap and contribute to the debate, we examined data from 82 countries implementing VAS programs, identified other VA programs, and assessed the recentness of national VA deficiency (VAD) data.
Article published in: Nutrients, 2017, 9, 190
https://doi.org/10.3390/nu9030190
more
OECD Development Policy Tools
Recognising that donor policies and responses constantly evolve, this guidance recommends that donors operating in situations of forced displacement prioritise three broad areas of work, where they can best contribute to existing capacities at ...e-to-highlight medbox">the national, regional and global levels.
more
In 1964 medical mission was challenged and called to define its distinctiveness and its special role in the context of that particular time. The consultation "Tuebingen I" clearly stated: ... "The Christian church has a specific task in the field of health and healing"1, and developed a concept of wholeness and of the role of the congregation in health provision. 50 years later, the question of the proprium of Christian health services is again a very important one. At a time when governments, international non-governmental organizations and other philanthropic organizations participate in health care, the question has to be asked: What is the specific contribution of a Christian health service or ministry of healing? At a time when chronic disease challenges not only rich but now also poor countries, when infections like Ebola that for years were hidden in Africa pose a threat to the global situation, Christians have to reflect on the question of the proprium of Christian health care.
more
In Control imparts knowledge, provokes reflection and triggers curiosity. The first half of the book provides an overview of the organisations, pri...nciples, frameworks and themes that every professional deploying to health emergencies should be aware of. The second half of the book provides practical advice to help professionals survive and thrive during their mission – from staying healthy, protecting oneself from cyber-attacks and coping with stress to building trust among the host community or dealing with language barriers and the press.
This handbook is free of charge and can be made available in small quantities as long as supply lasts. To order, please send this form to: incontrol-handbook@rki.de
more
An Overview of Current Evidence with Recommendations for Strengthening Community Health Worker Programs to Accelerate Progress in Achieving the Health-related Millennium Development Goals
This working draft develops guidance on conducting effective evaluations of conflict prevention and peacebuilding work. The current working draft will be used for a one year application phase through 2008. It is ...edbox">the result of an ongoing collaborative project by the OECD DAC Networks on Development Evaluation and on Conflict, Peace and Development Co-operation (CPDC). The two Networks began this collaboration in 2005, responding to the need expressed by CPDC members for greater clarity regarding techniques and issues of evaluation in their field. An assessment of past conflict and peace evaluations and a study of current practices were undertaken in 2006 and identified a need for further guidance.
more
A consolidated set of reproductive health kits for use by humanitarian agencies. These kits are intended to speed up the provision of appropriate reproductive health services in emergency and refugee situations.
Fistula Care's implementing partner in Ethiopia, IntraHealth, has developed materials to train health workers on obstetric fistula prevention, identification, and pre-repair care. The course contains a participant handbook (PDF, 604 KB), a facilitat...or manual (PDF, 1.3 MB), ten modules, a variety of visual aids, and supplementary handouts
more
This paper presents lessons learned from previous flood responses in developing countries, based on a structured review of the literature. It is intended for people working in relief and recovery operations who have to decide if, when and how to int...ervene after a flood.
more
This special issue on Newborn Health in Global Health Action is being launched to share the experience of how to scale up a cost-effective package of newborn care that involves families, community health workers and health facilities. ...ttribute-to-highlight medbox">The results of this community randomized trial, the Uganda Newborn Study (UNEST), show that home visits in pregnancy and soon after delivery resulted in improved breastfeeding practices, skin-to-skin care immediately after birth, delaying a baby’s first bath, and hygienic care of the baby’s umbilical cord among the poorest households with lowest access to care.
more
Ghana is attracting global attention for efforts to provide health insurance to all citizens through the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). With the program’s strong emphasis on maternal and... child health, an expectation of the program is that members will have increased use of relevant services. The NHIS does appear to enable pregnant women to access services and allow caregivers to seek care early for sick children, but both the quantitative and qualitative assessments also indicated that the poor and least educated were less likely to have insurance than their wealthier and more educated counterparts.
more
Based on research by a team of Nepalese and international experts, this report carries an analysis of the five key elements in the sector - land, basic services, housing finance, building materials ...and construction technologies, and labour. It gives an assessment
of how these components are governed by policy, institutional and legal frameworks, and how they are linked with one another and other urban policies.
more
This guide was prepared to enable advocates to use data
when advocating for universal access to SRHR at the national,
regional and global levels. It is a direct outcome of the Strategic
SRHR Indi...cators workshop held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on
21-22 August for the project “Strengthening the Networking,
Knowledge Management and Advocacy Capacities of an AsiaPacific
Network for SRHR” supported by the EU.
One of the major objectives of the project is to develop
a comprehensive monitoring framework of indicators for
measuring government performance to fulfil their international
commitments, particularly to the ICPD and the MDGs, both in
the Asia-Pacific region and globally.
more
For close to 15 years, the Monitor has tracked the impact of victim assistance on the lives of victims of landmines..., cluster munitions,
and other explosive remnants of war (hereafter “mine/ERW victims”). Over this time, the international community has strengthened its resolve to promote the rights and address the needs of victims through programs and services that are accessible and adequate in quantity, quality, availability, and consistent with the high standards set by human rights as well as other international humanitarian law.
more
DHS Further Analysis Reports No. 90 - In Rwanda, between 2005 and 2010, there have been radical declines in the desired number of children, actual fertility, and child mortality along with a large increase in contraceptive prevalence. This study rev...iews trends in some of these measures. Multivariate analyses evaluate the relative importance for
the desired number of children of years of schooling, wealth, urban residence, media exposure, child mortality, and attitudes toward gender equality. Variations in reproductive preferences, the total fertility rate, and unmet need for family planning are mapped for the 30 districts of Rwanda. The explanations for the rapid changes in reproductive attitudes and behavior are clearly related to the concerns of the country, the rapid rate of population growth, and its implications for economic development and reproductive health.
more
Levels and Inequities
DHS Further Analysis Reports No. 110
This study shows large variations in maternal health indicators across high-priority counties in Kenya. Nairobi exceeds the national average on all maternal health indicators in th...is study, while other highpriority counties consistently are disadvantaged compared with Kenya as a whole in most maternal health indicators. Kisumu exceeds the national average in use of antenatal care, delivery in a health facility, and postnatal care, but not other indicators. Nakuru has fewer women with fertility risk and fewer women who report that the distance they must travel to reach a health facility is a problem.
This study identifies a number of inequities in maternal health indicators across socio-demographic characteristics in the high-priority counties—most in the distribution of delivery care and least in antenatal care. Inequities are also observed in fertility risk and postnatal care.
more
DHS Methodological Report No. 20
This study used Service Provision Assessment (SPA) and Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data from Haiti, Malawi, and Tanzania to compare traditionally used additive methods with a data reduction method—principal component analysis (PCA).
We scored ...the quality of health facilities with three approaches (simple additive, weighted additive, and PCA) for two constructs: quality of services, with only facilities-level data, and quality of care, which incorporates observation and client data. We ranked facilities as high, medium, or low quality based on their scores. Our results indicated that the rankings change with the scoring methodology. There was more consistency in the rankings of facilities by the simple additive and PCA methods than the weighted additive and PCA-based rankings. This may be due to the low factor loadings and little variance explained by the first component in the PCA. We aggregated facility scores to their respective DHS clusters (Haiti, Malawi) or regions (Tanzania) and geographically linked them to women interviewed in DHS surveys to test associations between the use of family planning services and the quality environment, as measured with each index.
more
Building on Nigeria’s Call to Action to Save Newborn Lives, the Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) has developed the National Strategy and Implementation Plan for Scale-up of Chlorhexidine. ...lass="attribute-to-highlight medbox">The Ministry incorporated existing maternal, newborn, and child health plans with additional comprehensive strategic planning and consultation to develop a comprehensive, five-year costed scale-up plan. The strategy and implementation plan is intended to guide programming, resource allocation, and commitments to achieve the national objective of Chlorhexidine uptake of 52% after the fifth year of national scaleup.
more
Lesotho’s predominantly rural population faces significant health challenges within a setting of inadequate human resources for health. It is essential that nurses and nurse-midwives, who together make up the largest health workforce in ...s="attribute-to-highlight medbox">the country, be adequately prepared to address Lesotho’s Health Priorities according to the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) in the settings where they work. Under the HRAA project, Jhpiego conducted a task analysis study to obtain data on job duties or tasks performed by these cadres, as well as information about how often the tasks are performed, if and where tasks were learned, and the self-perceived level of competence in performing the tasks.
more