In an ambitious new era for health development under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
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, WHO and
its partners have a solid foundation of success on which to build. Health plays a fundamental role in development
and is the central focus of Sustainable Development Goal 3, “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all
at all ages”. It is also relevant to all the Sustainable Development Goals. Understanding the significance of the
role of health is a prerequisite for successful collective action on the social, economic and environmental
determinants of health
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The report offers 20 top recommendations for getting ahead of future outbreaks in Yemen and similarly complex
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humanitarian settings.
In 2015, Yemen was declared a Level 3 emergency by the UN, kicking into gear the highest level of humanitarian support. A massive cholera outbreak followed, leading to 1 million suspected cases in 2 waves from September 2016-July 2018.
“We largely know ‘what to do’ to control cholera, but context-specific practices on ‘how to do it’ in order to surmount challenges to coordination, logistics, insecurity, access and politics remain needed,” the report states.
While the response improved between the 2 waves, there were gaps. For one, Yemen’s history of cholera should have triggered a heavy focus on pre-planning for an epidemic, such as stockpiling supplies and doubling down on community-based surveillance, the report fou
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The greatest risk to persons engaging in international medical emergency response is poor preparation.
The
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In Control handbook hopes to provide a remedy.
At the time of writing, we are living through the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, a health emergency that disregards physical borders, brings into focus social inequalities and affects people on every continent. This shared challenge requires unprecedented measures and the collaboration of the brightest minds to support global health protection through this crisis and beyond. Healthcare infrastructures have to be strengthened, public health capacities and processes upgraded, medical countermeasures and vaccinations found and psychosocial side-effects treated.
Solidarity is the normative order of the day and the human species has to collaborate to face this invisible threat. Hiding and living in fear is not an option in this interconnected world. We have both a responsibility and an opportunity to make substantial contributions to a safer, healthier and more sustainable future for us all.
The existence of this handbook is an impressive example of solidarity. Over 50 authors from more than 15 institutes and organisations have come together voluntarily within a very short time to make their expertise available and enable cross-sectoral thinking. Knowledge is bundled, resources are combined, information gaps are filled. The In Control handbook is not a theoretical treatise of possible dangers, but a collection of subject-matter expertise, written by experts and practitioners who have shaped health topics over the past 20 years in the most diverse corners of the world.
The Centre for International Health Protection at the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) is collaborating with its partners and investing heavily in the build-up of operational know-how and capacity to support health crisis response abroad. This is done by preparing and enabling professionals to deploy safely across the world to assist those in need. In Control addresses the multi-faceted challenges of an international deployment. Readers will find not only technical medical information, but also insights into, for example, the fragility of our environment, the cultural differences that influence risk communication or the dilemmas arising from social distancing. Legal principles are highlighted, along with ethical guidance to ensure that our actions and decisions correspond to the highest moral standards.
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Myanmar has made significant progress in its disaster management policies, plans, and procedures since 2008, when Cyclone Nargis impacted the country leaving devastation
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in its aftermath. The Government of Myanmar (GoM) has modified the government structure and created new authorities and plans to improve the effectiveness of disaster management at all levels. While this progress is encouraging and shows the determination of the government to make necessary adjustments, the resources to implement the policy changes have been slower to develop. Myanmar has made significant progress in its disaster management policies, plans, and procedures since 2008, when Cyclone Nargis impacted the country leaving devastation in its aftermath. The Government of Myanmar (GoM) has modified the government structure and created new authorities and plans to improve the effectiveness of disaster management at all levels. While this progress is encouraging and shows the determination of the government to make necessary adjustments, the resources to implement the policy changes have been slower to develop.
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This report presents the findings from a ‘deep dive’ undertaken by UNICEF East Asia and the Pacific Regional Office to consider the experiences
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in Cambodia, Indonesia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines and the Pacific. The target audience for this report includes OPDs and humanitarian actors at global, regional, and country levels.
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39 examples of field practices, and learnings from 20 countries, for all phases of humanitarian response. The report shows that deliberate and proa
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ctive action is required to ensure that persons with disabilities from all constituencies are systematically included and meaningfully participate in DRR and humanitarian preparedness, response and recovery. It draws lessons from field practices, but does not provide technical guidance. The newly published IASC Guidelines are the reference document to seek in-depth theoretical and technical information.
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Guidelines.
The guidelines set out essential actions that humanitarian actors must take in order to effectively identify and respond to
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the needs and rights of persons with disabilities who are most at risk of being left behind in humanitarian settings.
The recommended actions in each chapter place persons with disabilities at the centre of humanitarian action, both as actors and as members of affected populations. They are specific to persons with disabilities and to the context of humanitarian action and build on existing and more general standards and guidelines.
These are the first humanitarian guidelines to be developed with and by persons with disabilities and their representative organizations in association with traditional humanitarian stakeholders. Based on the outcomes of a comprehensive global and regional multi-stakeholder consultation process, they are designed to promote the implementation of quality humanitarian programmes in all contexts and across all regions, and to establish and increase both the inclusion of persons with disabilities and their meaningful participation in all decisions that concern them.
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This updated implementation guidance is intended for all those who set policy for, or offer care to, pregnant women, families and infants: governments; national managers of maternal and
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child health programmes in general, and of breastfeeding- and BFHI-related programmes in particular; and health-facility managers at different levels (facility directors, medical directors, chiefs of maternity and neonatal wards). The document presents the first revision of the Ten Steps since 1989. The topic of each step is unchanged, but the wording of each one has been updated in line with the evidence-based guidelines and global public health policy.
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Accessed on 31.03.2020
This Guidance Note aims to provide humanitarian child protection practitioners, particularly
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child protection advisors and program managers, with guidance on how to engage in responses to infectious disease outbreaks to ensure children’s protection needs are taken into account in preparedness for, and during responses to, the outbreaks. The Guidance Note draws upon lessons learned during infectious disease outbreaks globally in a variety of contexts.
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Security Risk Management and Religion: Faith and secularism in humanitarian assistance examines the impact that religion has on security risk manag
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ement for humanitarian agencies, and considers whether a better understanding of religion can improve the security of organisations and individuals in the field.
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Action on behalf of unaccompanied and separated children should be guided by principles enshrined in international standards. The validity of these
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principles has been confirmed by experience and lessons learnt from conflicts and natural disasters in 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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The synthesis looked across the evaluations and reviews as mentioned above to draw lessons and conclusions across the different contexts.
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The synthesis aims to identify:
recurrent issues, patterns and trends, and promising initiatives and lessons learned from existing programming including mainstreaming in how UNHCR prevents, mitigates and responds to the risks of SGBV;
institutional management and leadership for SGBV in UNHCR;
factors which are contributing to success, including sustainability of services, and those which are inhibiting it;
the extent to which questions on SGBV are part of UNHCR evaluations of emergency responses;
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Timor-Leste’s vulnerability to natural hazards means if particular care is not taken in the development of the country’s infrastructure, it wil
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l remain at risk to disruption.
Timor-Leste developed the 2008 National Disaster Risk Management Policy, which lays out the government’s vison of its disaster management process from the national to the village level. Additionally, through the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), they have conducted national hazards, vulnerability and risk assessments. Through Plan International they have initiated the integration of disaster management education into public schools. Although the Government of Timor-Leste considers DRM as a priority and supports the dissemination of DRM policy to the district levels, the current Strategic Development Plan 2011-2030 of Timor-Leste has not explicitly reflected nor integrated DRM as one of its development priorities. Disaster Management is included in the Strategic Plan Document of MSS 2009-2012.
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Each humanitarian setting provides distinct opportunities and challenges for actors to coordinate and collaborate at strategic and operational levels. The
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Health and Protection Joint Operational Framework has been developed to ensure that the health and protection response during humanitarian emergencies can adapt to each environment and is adequately coordinated to ensure high-quality services to meet the needs of affected individuals and at-risk groups based on their situation or vulnerabilities.
The Health and Protection JOF was conceived in 2019 as a collaboration between the Global Health Cluster (GHC), the Global Protection Cluster (GPC) and its Areas of Responsibility (AoRs), the Inter-Agency Standing Committee Reference Group on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings (IASC MHPSS RG), and the Inter-Agency Working Group for Reproductive Health in Crisis (IAWG), in addition to key technical experts.
A Steering Group (SG) comprised of representatives from each of these entities guided the framework through a joint global analysis of good practices, gaps, and barriers to integrated and inter-sectoral response coordination. This included a mixed methods review of policy and practice, a survey of humanitarian experts, multiple case studies, structured stakeholder interviews, and field visits. This exercise produced a zero-draft which was then reviewed by field practitioners in three operational contexts to clarify and fully coordinate its operationally focused lens. Finally, the JOF was reviewed by the SG including via a series of consultations in early 2023 to consolidate the current framework.
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In Control imparts knowledge, provokes reflection and triggers curiosity. The first half of the book provides an overview of
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the organisations, principles, 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
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The primary audience of this report with the compendium of resources are youth engagement practitioners in
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the Red Cross Red Crescent National Societies as well as technical experts and policy makers across the humanitarian landscape that thrive for meaningful interventions with and for children, adolescents, and young adults experiencing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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From Participation to Partnerships (September 2020)
Despite the COVID-19 challenges, children around the world have found meaningful ways to support and protect their peers, families, and communiti
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es. Children are on the frontlines of innovative responses and are working closely with their adult allies. The leadership demonstrated through these child-adult partnerships is the underlying inspiration for this guide.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) is releasing the second edition of its Global Accelerated Action fo
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r the Health of Adolescents (AA-HA!) guidance. The document aims to equip governments to respond to the health and well-being challenges, opportunities and needs of adolescents.
The guidance provides the latest available data on adolescent health and well-being. It also outlines an updated list of core indicators that data should be collected on. Globally, road injury was the top cause of death for adolescent males in 2019. Among female adolescents, the leading causes of death were diarrhoeal diseases among the younger group (10-14 years) and tuberculosis (TB) in the older group (15-19 years).
Over the last 20 years, mortality rates have declined among adolescents globally, with the largest decline in older (15–19 years) adolescent girls. For non-fatal diseases, the burden has not improved over the past two decades, with the main causes of ill health in this category being: mental health conditions (depressive and anxiety disorders, childhood behavioural disorders), iron deficiency anaemia, skin diseases and migraine.
Adolescent well-being depends on a range of factors, including healthy food, education, life skills and employability, connectedness, feeling valued by society, safe and supportive environments, resilience, and the freedom to make choices. To take an appropriately holistic approach, the guidance outlines how to take crosscutting action to support adolescent health and well-being, with mutually reinforcing interventions across sectors, such as health, education, social protection, and telecommunications. Targeted efforts are also required to engage adolescents, as they trust health systems less than adults do and are especially vulnerable to modern-day trends, like online bullying and gaming.
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What school closures under COVID-19 mean for children and young people in
crisis-affected contexts