In an effort to improve the capabilities and accountability of humanitarian and economic practitioners, the SEEP (Small Enterprise Education and Promotion) Network's Minimum Economic Recovery Standards focus on minimum industry standards for facilitating economic recovery in crisis situations.
Th...e handbook sets out strategies and interventions designed to improve income, cash flow, asset management, and growth among crisis-affected households and enterprises. These include financial services, productive assets, employment, and enterprise development. It emphasizes encouraging the re-start of enterprises and livelihoods strategies, and improving market productivity and governance
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This handbook is a quick-reference tool that provides practical, field-level guidance to establish and maintain a GBV sub-cluster in a humanitarian emergency. It provides the foundations for coordination. More in-depth information can be pursued through resources referenced in this handbook. The GBV... AoR website (gbvaor.net) maintains a repository of tools, training materials and resources that complement this handbook. As a second edition, this handbook provides updates to practitioners on humanitarian reforms, lessons learned, promising practices and resources that have emerged since its first publication in 2010.
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Each year, dozens of communities around the world face natural disasters, disease outbreaks, and other emergencies. Scientists think that a worldwide influenza outbreak will happen sometime in the next decade. The purpose of this guide is to help local leaders and community organizers bring together... the community to help plan for disease outbreaks and other emergencies. This guide uses the lessons from communities that have already dealt with disease outbreaks and also uses other often-used tools to create discussion among community members and effectively garner their insight
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This report explores the access to healthcare granted to irregular migrants in 10 EU Member States. It focuses on migrants who are present in an irregular situation, namely those who do not fulfil conditions for entry, stay or residence. Through interviews with a range of different sources including... public authorities at the national and local level, health professionals, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) providing helathcare and irregular migrants themselves, this report documents the legal, economic and practical obstacles that hinder migrants' access to healthcare.
For versions in French, Polish, German and Swedish check also http://fra.europa.eu/de/publication/2012/migranten-einer-irregulren-situation-zugang-zu-medizinischer-versorgung-zehn
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Ensuring reproductive rights for all
The intent of these guidelines is to develop a holistic, coordinated, proactive and technology driven strategy for management of biological disasters through a culture of prevention, mitigation and preparedness to generate a prompt and effective response in the event of an emergency. Th...e document contains comprehensive guidelines for preparedness activities, biosafety and biosecurity measures, capacity development, specialised health care and laboratory facilities, strengthening of the existing legislative/
regulatory framework, mental health support, response, rehabilitation and recovery, etc. It specifically lays down the approach for implementation of the guidelines by the central ministries/departments, states, districts and other stakeholders, in a time bound manner.
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Census data shows that Myanmar can harness a double dividend – both youth and gender. This year’s annual report provides many facets of the journey to gender equality. It tells a story of widening horizons for women and girls who are capable in their own right. It is also a story of women fulfil...ling their reproductive rights, and of couples having access to family planning choices.
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As part of our commitment to the fight against NCDs, Nigeria was signatory to the political declaration at the UN General Assembly High Level Meeting on NCDs in September 2011. Thus, the purpose of this document is to develop and ensure the implementation of policies and p...rogrammes that will engender and guarantee a healthy lifestyle and quality health for all Nigerians. The core sections include background, scope of the policy, policy goal, strategic thrusts for implementation, programme management and coordination, roles of stakeholders and partnership coordination. It is expected that with the adoption of this policy, the control and prevention of NCDs and their associated risk factors will be well integrated at all levels of government and health care delivery system in Nigeria. This policy document is therefore a stepping stone towards the development of guidelines for the prevention and management of NCDs.
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PNAS 119 (8) e2113947119 | https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2113947119
Environmental exposure to active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) can have negative effects on the health of ecosystems and humans. While numerous studies have monitored APIs in rivers, these employ different analytical methods, m...easure different APIs, and have ignored many of the countries of the world. This makes it difficult to quantify the scale of the problem from a global perspective. Furthermore, comparison of the existing data, generated for different studies/regions/continents, is challenging due to the vast differences between the analytical methodologies employed. Here, we present a global-scale study of API pollution in 258 of the world’s rivers, representing the environmental influence of 471.4 million people across 137 geographic regions. Samples were obtained from 1,052 locations in 104 countries (representing all continents and 36 countries not previously studied for API contamination) and analyzed for 61 APIs. Highest cumulative API concentrations were observed in sub-Saharan Africa, south Asia, and South America. The most contaminated sites were in low- to middle-income countries and were associated with areas with poor wastewater and waste management infrastructure and pharmaceutical manufacturing. The most frequently detected APIs were carbamazepine, metformin, and caffeine (a compound also arising from lifestyle use), which were detected at over half of the sites monitored. Concentrations of at least one API at 25.7% of the sampling sites were greater than concentrations considered safe for aquatic organisms, or which are of concern in terms of selection for antimicrobial resistance. Therefore, pharmaceutical pollution poses a global threat to environmental and human health, as well as to delivery of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
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Population movements have turned Chagas disease (CD) into a global public health problem. Despite the successful implementation of subregional initiatives to control vectorial and transfusional Trypanosoma cruzi transmission in Latin American settings where the disease is endemic, congenital CD (cCD...) remains a significant challenge. In countries where the disease is not endemic, vertical transmission plays a key role in CD expansion and is the main focus of its control. Although several health organizations provide general protocols for cCD control, its management in each geopolitical region depends on local authorities, which has resulted in a multitude of approaches. The aims of this review are to (i) describe the current global situation in CD management, with emphasis on congenital infection, and (ii) summarize the spectrum of available strategies, both official and unofficial, for cCD prevention and control in countries of endemicity and nonendemicity. From an economic point of view, the early detection and treatment of cCD are cost-effective. However, in countries where the disease is not endemic, national health policies for cCD control are nonexistent, and official regional protocols are scarce and restricted to Europe. Countries of endemicity have more protocols in place, but the implementation of diagnostic methods is hampered by economic constraints. Moreover, most protocols in both countries where the disease is endemic and those where it is not endemic have yet to incorporate recently developed technologies. The wide methodological diversity in cCD diagnostic algorithms reflects the lack of a consensus. This review may represent a first step toward the development of a common strategy, which will require the collaboration of health organizations, governments, and experts in the field.
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Chagas disease (CD) is caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, and it is endemic in Central, South America, Mexico and the
South of the United States. It is an important cause of early mortality and morbidity, and it is associated with poverty and stigma. A third of
the cases evolve into chronic... cardiomyopathy and gastrointestinal disease. The infection is transmitted vertically and by blood/organ
donation and can reactivate with immunosuppression. Case identification requires awareness and screening programmes targeting the
population at risk (women in reproductive age, donors, immunocompromised patients). Treatment with benznidazole or nifurtimox is most
effective in the acute phase and prevents progression to chronic phase when given to children. Treating women antenatally reduces but does
not eliminate vertical transmission. Treatment is poorly tolerated, contraindicated during pregnancy, and has little effect modifying the
disease in the chronic phase. Screening is easily performed with serology. Migration has brought the disease outside of the endemic
countries, where the transmission continues vertically and via blood and tissue/organ donations. There are more than 32 million migrants
from Latin America living in non-endemic countries. However, the infection is massively underdiagnosed in this setting due to the lack of
awareness by patients, health authorities and professionals. Blood and tissue donation screening policies have significantly reduced
transmission in endemic countries but are not universally established in the non-endemic setting. Antenatal screening is not commonly
done. Other challenges include difficulties accessing and retaining patients in the healthcare system and lack of specific funding for the
interventions. Any strategy must be accompanied by education and awareness campaigns directed to patients, professionals and policy
makers. The involvement of patients and their communities is central and key for success and must be sought early and actively. This review
proposes strategies to address challenges faced by non-endemic countries
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Since the beginning of the Ukraine crisis on 24 February 2022, WHO has supported Government-led efforts and initiatives alongside key partners on the ground. Building on efforts to date, and working alongside Bulgaria’s health authorities to bring added value to existing mechanisms, the WHO Countr...y Office Bulgaria, the WHO Regional Office for Europe and the WHO Health and Migration Programme, in close collaboration with the Ministry of Health of Bulgaria and key partners, undertook a joint review mission to support Bulgaria, with a focus on addressing the health system needs of refugees, migrants, asylum seekers and vulnerable host populations in Bulgaria.
The assessment team developed this report on the key findings and a package of potential interventions based on the opportunities identified and the need for technical support and assistance. The report summarizes concrete areas of work for which collaborations can be further strengthened. The joint review team identified key recommendations for consideration across 8 priority areas. The report and the outcomes of the review mission serve as a basis for future technical collaboration in the area of refugee health, to address the health needs of refugees and third-country nationals fleeing from Ukraine.
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Children continue to be exposed to powerful food marketing, which predominantly promotes foods high in saturated fatty acids, trans-fatty acids, free sugars and/or sodium and uses a wide variety of marketing strategies that are likely to appeal to children. Food marketing has a harmful impact on chi...ldren’s food choice and their dietary intake, affects their purchase requests to adults for marketed foods and influences the development of their norms about food consumption. Food marketing is also increasingly recognized as a children’s rights concern, given its negative impact on several of the rights enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.This WHO guideline provides Member States with recommendations and implementation considerations on policies to protect children from the harmful impact of food marketing, based on evidence specific to children and to the context of food marketing. Guidelines on other policies to improve the food environment are currently under development.
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