The product of all this work is the Standard Treatment Guideline and Essential Medicines List of Common Medical Conditions in the Kingdom of Swaziland. These systematically developed statements are designed to assist practitioners in making decisions about appropriate treatment for specific clinical... conditions. They are meant to reflect expert consensus based on a review of current and published scientific evidence of acceptable approaches to diagnosis, man-agement, or prevention of specific conditions.It is enlightening to note that section A of the document contains the STG, and effort has been made to have the conditions commonly encountered in Swaziland classified according to systems. Written in simple, clear language, each section consists of a short definition followed by common symptoms and signs of the disease or condition and then management (pharmacological and nonpharmacological)
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In 2016, the risk of premature mortality1 from noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in Ethiopia was 18.3%. The economic costs of NCDs are significant and are due principally to their impact on the non-health sector (reduced workforce and productivity). I...n this study, it is estimated that NCDs cost Ethiopia at least 31.3 billion birr (US$ 1.1 billion) per year, equivalent to 1.8% of the gross domestic product (GDP). Less than 15% of the costs are for health care.
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Member States have requested WHO policy guidance on how to facilitate the implementation of national AMS activities in an integrated and programmatic approach. This policy guidance responds to that demand from Member States and is anchored in public health guiding principles in the human health ...n class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">sector. It aims to provide a set of evidence-based and pragmatic recommendations to drive comprehensive and integrated AMS activities under the purview of a central national coordination unit, National AMR steering or coordinating committees or other equivalent national authorities.
Available in English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Chinese
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The WHO and UNICEF-led Hand Hygiene for All Initiative aims at ensuring implementation for WHO's global recommendations on hand hygiene to prevent and control COVID-19 pandemic, and hand hygiene improvement sustainability in countries as a mainstay of wider infection prevention and control (IPC) and... water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) efforts.
But how can hand hygiene implementation be successful? By implementing strategies and approaches proven through the successes of the WHO Save Lives: Clean Your Hands campaign and fostering integration between hand hygiene and WASH improvements. This brief draws on learning from legacy work and the current evidence based and summarizes how joint action and collaboration are essential for successful strategies, in the context of the COVID-19 response and beyond
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Infectious diseases cause over one billion human infections per year, with millions of deaths each year globally. Extensive health and financial burden is seen from both established and emerging infectious diseases. Infectious diseases also affect plants and animals, which may pose threats to agricu...lture and water supplies with additional impacts on human health. This Question and Answers, prepared by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Secretariat under their joint work programme on biodiversity and health, and launched of the occasion of the International Day for Biodiversity 2020, summarizes some of the interlinkages between biodiversity and infectious diseases.
WHO is continuously monitoring and responding to the COVID 19 outbreak. This Q&A will be updated as more is known about COVID-19, how it is affecting people worldwide, and the effectiveness of interventions against the disease.
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This publication presents the Agenda for the Americas on Health, Environment, and Climate Change 2021–2030 (the Agenda). The Agenda is a call to action to the health sector to lead the charge to address environmental determinants of health in the ...Americas. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) will work with Member States to achieve its goal and objective to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages using a sustainable and equitable approach that places a priority on reducing health inequity. The Agenda has been developed under the umbrella of the WHO Global Strategy on Health, Environment, and Climate Change, and builds upon the commitments set forth in the Sustainable Health Agenda for the Americas 2018–2030 and the PAHO Strategic Plan 2020–2025. The Agenda was developed in consultation with the Technical Advisory Group and through a consensus-driven decision-making process with Member States during the 2019–2020 period. Looking toward the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 3, the Agenda focuses on: improving the performance of environmental public health programs and institutions; fostering environmentally resilient and sustainable health systems; and promoting environmentally healthy and resilient cities and communities. Its implementation will be context-specific, based on the needs and realities of the countries. It will benefit countries and territories by promoting good governance practices, strengthening the leadership and coordination roles of the health sector, fostering cross-sectoral action, focusing on primary prevention, and enhancing evidence and communication. It will facilitate access to human, technical, and financial resources necessary to address environmental determinants of health and ensure that the Region is fully engaged in global health, environment, and climate change processes and agreements. The objective of the Agenda is to strengthen the capacity of health actors in the health and non-health sectors to address and adapt to environmental determinants of health (EDHs), prioritizing populations living in conditions of vulnerability, in order to meet Outcome 18 of the PAHO Strategic Plan 2020–2025 directly and several other outcomes of the Plan indirectly. To address and adapt to the challenges of EDHs in the Region, an integrated and evidence-informed approach within the health sector and across sectors will be needed, one enabled, and supported by good governance practices, adequate management mechanisms, high-level political will, and adequate human, technical, technological, and financial resources.
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This report outlines the coordination and partnership between two key ministries (Education and Public Health) in Kenya, other line ministries, the private sector, NGOs and the community in implementing the first phase of a sub-national school-based... deworming exercise. The areas targeted included Coast, Central, Western, Nyanza
and parts of Eastern provinces, covering over 45 districts in this first phase. The SBD programme is guided by the National School Health Policy and Guidelines launched in 2009.
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The NDMS&IP focuses on mainstreaming disability to promote equitable access to services in the six thematic areas of health, education, livelihoods, empowerment, and social inclusion and cross-cutting issues.
The first part of the NDMS&IP outlines incongruences between national and sectoral policie...s and pieces of legislation on one hand, and practice on the other and identifies key priority areas/themes of the strategy,
medium-term outcomes and strategies for each identified priority area/ theme. This process is largely informed by key findings and recommendations from a study on the Situation of Persons with Disabilities
in Malawi (CBMM/NAD, 2011). The study provides background descriptive information on existing national and sectoral policy and legal framework, level of access by children, adult women and males with disabilities to services in the areas of education, health, livelihoods and other social services as well as of participation by persons with disabilities through self-representation in development activities at various levels. A review of relevant documents at the international level further describes the disability situation in Malawi in the global context.
The second part of the NDMS&IP consists of the operational matrix, (Annex 1), a monitoring and evaluation framework (Annex 2) and budget estimates (Annex 3). This part outlines specific actions by various actors both in the public, private and civil society sectors to prioritise disability in their routine policy, programming, resource mobilisation and allocation, monitoring, evaluation and reporting routines. The action plan lays out priority sectors and concrete actions by setting out implementation schedules, defining targets, assigning responsibility to key duty bearers and rights holders for coordination, decision-making, monitoring and reporting, mobilisation and allocation and control of resources.
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The following technical report outlines the rationale, process and results of a joint research study, coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), co-chaired by the Ministry of Health and Social... Protection and the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development in collaboration with the Climate and Climate Air Coalition, the Stockholm Environment Institute, the Clean Air Institute and leading international and national experts. A rationale section describes the links between greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, short-lived climate pollutants, air pollution and adverse health outcomes. A summary of the research study describes how scenarios were modelled to examine the health and economic implications of raising ambition in Colombia’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
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The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) Biosafety and Biosecurity Initiative was launched by the Africa CDC in April 2019 with the aim of strengthening the African Union (AU) Member States’ biosafety and biosecurity systems and enabling them to comply with national and i...nternational requirements for biosafety and biosecurity including the International Health Regulations (IHR) (2005), the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), and United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1540 and the multi-country Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA). The World Health Organization (WHO) Joint External Evaluation (JEE) and the Global Health Security Index report confirmed the known capacity gaps in biosafety and biosecurity among Africa Union Member (AU).
The regional consultations by Africa CDC conducted between 2019-2021 highlighted the deficiency or limited availability of standardized and regionally recognized training programs in the continent, limiting biosafety and biosecurity capacity building efforts in the region. In response, Africa CDC working with AU Member States developed a home grown, implementable and accessible professional training and certification program that is both recognized and endorsed by AU Member States. The Regional Training and Certification Program for Biosafety and Biosecurity Professionals, for African Biosafety and Biosecurity Professionals (RTCP-BBP) has four (4) areas of specialization, namely
Selection, Installation, Maintenance and Certification of Biological Safety Cabinets
Biorisk Management
Design and Maintenance of Facilities Handling High Risk Pathogens (Biocontainment Engineering)
Biological Waste management
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The Quadripartite organizations have developed the One Health Priority Research Agenda for AMR report, this is a joint initiative to assist in directing and catalysing scientific interest and financial investments for the priority research agenda ac...ross sectors for countries and funding bodies. The research agenda also serves as a guide to mitigate One Health AMR that will help policymakers, researchers, and a multidisciplinary scientific community work together on solutions to prevent and mitigate AMR within the One Health approach.
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The High-Level Panel on International Financial Accountability, Transparency and Integrity for Achieving the 2030 Agenda (FACTI Panel) was convened by the 74th President of United Nations General Assembly and the 75th President of the Economic and Social Council on 2 March 2020. The objective of the... FACTI Panel is to contribute to the overall efforts undertaken by Member States to implement the ambitious and transformational vision of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It is mandated to review current challenges and trends related to financial accountability, transparency and integrity, and to make evidence-based recommendations to close remaining gaps in the international system.
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This report started with a simple question—“How can we tell how much funding is devoted to global health programs?”—and ended (more than two years later) with an answer that is far from simple. As those who have tried know well, tracking health-related funding is challenging in any setting, ...given the range of public and private sources and the many types of services and programs that fall within the definition of “health sector.” It is made all the more complicated when significant external support from donors and private charities plus in-kind donations of drugs and other inputs are taken into account. The task is made yet harder by inadequate public expenditure management systems in countries where public agencies’ capacity is stretched very thin and by donor accounting structures that are not designed to respond in a timely way
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This report examines the support to private healthcare provision in India by the World Bank’s private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC). Despite supporting private healthcare in the country since 1997, no healthcare results f...or lending and investments have been disclosed since the start of these operations over twenty-five years ago. The IFC has overwhelmingly invested in high-end urban hospitals which are out of reach for the majority of Indians. Several have consistently failed to provide free healthcare to poor patients despite this being a condition under which free or subsidized public land was allotted to these hospitals. Supporting private healthcare in a context where 37% of Indians experience catastrophic health expenditures in private hospitals appears to run counter to the World Bank Group’s focus on poverty reduction. These investments do not contribute to the building of stronger healthcare infrastructure or respond to unmet healthcare needs. Only 14% of IFC-financed hospitals are located in the 10 states ranked lowest in terms of the overall performance of the health system. Furthermore, we found many instances where regulators upheld complaints pertaining to violations of patients’ rights by these hospitals including overcharging, denial of healthcare, price rigging, financial conflict of interest and medical negligence.
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To maintain a structured and well-organized implementation plan it is important to have a lead agency or sector. The ministry of health or a similar authority in government will be critical in facilitating development and implementation of the multi...sectoral action plan.
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Nationally, Senegal met the MDG target for water supply access. It did this by engaging the public and private sectors to effectively invest and report on investments. It focused on larger population centers, less on remote regions of the country. Its achievements set the stage for more equitable an...d widespread service provision as the country now works to achieve the SDGs, requiring sustainable management of universal access. This case study documents the progression of the sector between 1990 and 2015, and analyzes the impact of local systems created in Senegal to respond to the water and sanitation challenge.
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The Country Cooperation Strategy is the World Health Organization’s corporate framework developed in response to a country’s needs and priorities. The 2022–2025 CCS is the fourth for WHO in Sierra Leone. It is a medium-term strategic document that defines a broad framework for WHO’s work, at... all levels, with the Government of Sierra Leone and all health partners for the next four years. This document is guided by the country’s major policy and strategy documents including the 2020 National Health and Sanitation Policy (NHSP); the 2021–2025 National Health Sector Strategic Plan (NHSSP); and the 2019–2023 National Medium-term Development Plan (NMTDP). The current CCS also reflects the broad priorities of WHO as outlined in its Thirteenth General Programme of Work (2019–2023, extended to 2025) with a focus on improving access to universal health coverage, protecting people from health emergencies, and improving people’s health and well-being. The CCS priorities are also in alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) in Sierra Leone and will contribute to attaining the country's SDG targets
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Regional Network for Equity in Health in east and southern Africa (EQUINET): Disussion Paper 109
This report describes the evolution of mainland Tanzania’s EHB; the motivations for developing the EHBs, the methods used to develop, define and cost them; how it is being disseminated, communicat...ed, and used; and the facilitators (and barriers) to its development, uptake or use. Findings presented in this report are from three stages of analysis: literature review, key informant perspectives and a national consultative meeting.
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The aim of this paper is to map and critically analyse evidence of good practice in prevention and response to gender-based violence (GBV) in humanitarian contexts which can support humanitarian practitioners and policy makers to improve the quality of GBV programming in the field. The paper is stru...ctured as follows. Following a brief discussion of key concepts and definitions in relation to GBV, Chapter 2 presents an overview of the extent of GBV in emergencies, and some of the challenges in responding to the problem. Chapter 3 then analyses some of the literature on the evidence of GBV programming effects in humanitarian settings, and draws out key lessons with regard to good practice. Chapter 4 discusses some of the key issues emerging from this review, and Chapter 5 concludes the paper with a discussion of the implications of the findings for research, policy and programming on GBV.
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this toolkit presents a structured, rating-based methodology designed to provide a rapid, comprehensive assessment of the capacity of the human resource support system for a country’s supply chain. Data are gathered from a document review, focus g...roup discussions, and in-country stakeholder interviews to identify the strengths, areas for improvement, opportunities, and challenges for a wide range of human resource inputs and components. The findings are transformed into specific recommendations and strategies for action based on an understanding of country priorities and programming gaps. It includes Word templates; PowerPoint templates and Exce-based Diagnostic Dashboard
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