The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the world and consequently increased MHPSS needs across various contexts. While National Societies respond to the
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rising mental health and psychosocial support needs, they are also adapting to and implementing remote support, such as telephone hotlines or other online services. Accordingly, many trainings in psychological first aid (PFA) of staff and volunteers have moved to online platforms.
Throughout the pandemic, the PS Centre developed online approaches, guidances, adaptable tools, videos, podcasts, and other materials on MHPSS. This was to ensure easy access to tools and resources that assist National Societies in their training efforts in MHPSS during COVID-19.
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Psychological first aid is a simple, yet powerful way of helping someone in distress. It involves paying attention to the person’s reactions, active listening and if relevant, practical assistance to help address immediate problems and basic needs
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. Learning psychological first aid skills and understanding reactions to crises empowers helpers to help others and apply the same skills to their own lives.
A Short Introduction to Psychological First Aid contains chapters about What is PFA, Who needs PFA and How to provide PFA. It also contains a short introduction to PFA for children and PFA in Groups.
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Operation update 01/04/2022
MEDBOX Issue Brief 26. Cholera is an acute diarrhoeal infection caused by eating or drinking food or water that is contaminated with the
bacterium Vibrio cholerae. Cholera remains a global threat to public health and is an indicator of inequity and
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lack of
social development. Researchers have estimated that every year, there are 1.3 to 4.0 million cases of cholera, and 21
000 to 143 000 deaths worldwide due to the infection.
However, cholera remains a neglected and underreported disease. Many cases are not recorded due to limitations in
surveillance systems and fears of potential impact on trade or tourism.
Today cholera affects 47 countries across the globe. Almost every developing country faces cholera outbreaks or
the threat of cholera. Major ongoing outbreaks are being reported from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Democratic
Republic of Congo, Ethiopia and Nigeria. Major outbreaks are currently in Syria and Haiti.
Therefore, MEDBOX decided to produce issue briefs on cholera and available resources in Arabic, English and
French.
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Over the 20 years that followed, this unique partnership has invested more than US$53 billion, saving 44 million lives and reducing the combined death rate from
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the three diseases by more than half in the countries in which the Global Fund invests.
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This brief provides key considerations for engaging communities on COVID-19 and tips for how to engage where there are movement restrictions and physical distancing measures in place, particularly in low-resource settings.
The purpose of the handbook is to provide those involved in nutrition coordination with relevant tools, guidance, information and resources to support their roles in facilitating predictable, coordi
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nated and effective preparation for, and responses to, nutrition needs in humanitarian emergencies. Rather than being prescriptive, the handbook aims to raises key issues encountered to date.
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This is the first guidance note in a four-part series of notes produced by InterAction to support management,
program and M&E staff in international NGOs to plan, design, manage, conduct and use impact evaluations. This first guidance note, Introdu
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ction to Impact Evaluation, provides an overview of impact evaluation, explaining how impact evaluation differs from – and complements – other types of evaluation, why impact evaluation should be
done, when and by whom. It describes different methods, approaches and designs that can be used for the different aspects of impact evaluation. The guidance note is also available in French, Arabic and Spanish on https://www.interaction.org/impact-evaluation-notes.
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The report offers an analysis of the broader challenges to securing humanitarian action and recommends areas for improvement. This study will contribute to improving
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the way humanitarians ‘do business’ in complex
security environments. Document also available in French, Arabic and Spanish.
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Euro Surveillance 2014;19(47):pii=20970, p.31-37
Action on behalf of unaccompanied and separated children should be guided by principles enshrined in international standards. The validity of these principles has been confirmed by experience and lessons learnt from conflicts and natural disasters i
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n recent years. The objective of the present publication is to outline the guiding principles which form the basis for action in this regard.
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Policy Research Working Paper 6100 | Impact Evaluation Series No. 60 | This study examines the effect of performance incentives for health care providers to provide more and higher quality care in Rwanda on child health outcomes.
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The authors find that the incentives had a large and significant effect on the weight-for-age of children 0–11 months and on the height-for-age of children 24–49 months. They attribute this improvement to increases in the use and quality of prenatal and postnatal care. Consistent with theory, They find larger effects of incentives on services where monetary rewards and the marginal return to effort are higher. The also find that incentives reduced the gap between provider knowledge and practice of appropriate clinical procedures by 20 percent, implying a large gain in efficiency. Finally, they find evidence of a strong complementarity between performance incentives and provider skill .
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Paying for performance (P4P) provides financial incentives for providers to increase the use and quality of care. P4P can affect health care by providing incentives for providers to put more effort into specific activities, and by increasing
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the amount of resources available to finance the delivery of services. This paper evaluates the impact of P4P on the use and quality of prenatal, institutional delivery, and child preventive care using data produced from a prospective quasi-experimental evaluation nested into the national rollout of P4P in Rwanda. Treatment facilities were enrolled in the P4P scheme in 2006 and comparison facilities were enrolled two years later. The incentive effect is isolated from the resource effect by increasing comparison facilities’ input-based budgets by the average P4P payments to the treatment facilities. The data were collected from 166 facilities and a random sample of 2158 households. P4P had a large and significant positive impact on institutional deliveries and preventive care visits by young children, and improved quality of prenatal care. The authors find no effect on the number of prenatal care visits or on immunization rates. P4P had the greatest effect on those services that had the highest payment rates and needed the lowest provider effort. P4P financial performance incentives can improve both the use of and the quality of health services. Because the analysis isolates the incentive effect from the resource effect in P4P, the results indicate that an equal amount of financial resources without the incentives would not have achieved the same gain in outcomes.
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