mnesty International’s annual report on the state of the world’s human rights in 2021, published in March 2022, shows that promises to “build back better” after the Covid-19 pandemic were li...ttle more than lip service. Hopes of global cooperation withered in the face of vaccine hoarding and corporate greed.
Governments suppressed independent and critical voices, with some even using the pandemic as a pretext to shrink further the civic space. New and unresolved conflicts erupted or persisted. Those forced to flee were subjected to a litany of abuses, including pushbacks by countries in the Global North. But hopes for a better post-pandemic world were kept alive by courageous individuals, social movements and civil society organizations.
The report is available in different languages
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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 Country 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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This training and guidance has been developed to provide an in-depth understanding on what it means to respect legal capacity in mental health and related areas as well as concrete strategies ...class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">to ensure that people are able to exercise their right to legal capacity in all areas of their life. In this context a wide range of scenarios are used to describe how different models of supported decision making can be applied in practice.
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2nd edition. This toolkit provides step-by-step guidance to NTD programme managers and partners on how to engage and work collaboratively with the ...WASH community to improve delivery of water, sanitation and hygiene services to underserved population affected by many neglected tropical diseases. The toolkit draws on tools and practices used in the delivery of coordinated and integrated programmes for control, elimination and eradication of NTDs. This second edition include revisions and new tools based on experiences of using the toolkit in more than 20 countries.
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This document accompanies the interim guidance on “Strengthening Preparedness for COVID-19 in cities and urban settings”. It provides local authorities, leaders and policy-makers in cities with a checklist tool ...t medbox">to ensure that key areas have been covered. An excel version that local authorities may wish to adapt to meet their needs is also available. It allows filtering by steps of action; suggested domains and responsible teams within local governments for each action; and phase(s) of the emergency management cycle.
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This document is based on currently available scientific evidence on treatment for drug use disorders and sets out a framework for the implementation of the Standards, in line with principles ...class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">of public health care. The Standards identify major components and features of effective systems for the treatment of drug use disorders. They describe treatment modalities and interventions to match the needs of people at different stages and severities of drug use disorders, in a manner consistent with the treatment of any chronic disease or health condition. The Standards are aspirational, and such, national or local treatment services or systems need not attempt to meet all the standards and recommendations made in this document all at once. However over time, progressive quality improvement, with ‘evidence-based and ethical practice’ as an objective, can and should be expected to achieve better organized, more effective and ethical systems and services for people with drug use disorders.
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A guidance document in simple language for health personnel, setting out their rights and responsibilities in conflict and other situations of violence. It explains how responsibilities and rights for health personnel can be derived from internation...al humanitarian law, human rights law and medical ethics.The document gives practical guidance on:
- The protection of health personnel, the sick and the wounded; - Standards of practice; - The health needs of particularly vulnerable people; - Health records and transmission of medical records; - "Imported" health care (including military health care);
- Data gathering and health personnel as witnesses to violations of international law; - Working with the media
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Covid-19 Social Policy Response Series / No.14
This report examines Ecuador’s social policy response to mitigate the Covid-19 pandemic’s effects and protect
vulnerable populations. It chronologically traces containment, closure policies, socia...l policies and programmes
put in place following the announcement of Covid-19 as a global pandemic. A combination of external con-
straints and domestic structures, i.e. informality and weak coordination, led to truncated efforts in the healthcare
response, while persistent inequalities in access to technology and high levels of informality led to fragmented
education, labour policies and social protection responses. The report zooms into the Family Protection Grant
(Bono de Protección Familiar or BPF), a new social protection programme that covers informal workers, which
captures the difficulties in reaching unregistered populations amid lockdown and containment measures.
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The magnitude and complexity of these mental health conditions caused by prolonged and extensive trauma requires a diagnosis fitting the unique context of the Syrian conflict. Over half a million pe...ople have been killed since the beginning of the conflict in 2011, and more than 6.4 million are internally displaced with over 5 million living as refugees. SAMS documents the multi-dimensional nature of mental health disorders afflicting Syrians, including accounts of refugee experiences from Eastern Ghouta, Idlib, and beyond. This qualitative report seeks to raise awareness about increasing mental health needs, while sharing personal stories of those who have been affected by the trauma of the conflict.
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Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases and their risk factors are an increasing public health and development challenge in Kazakhstan. This report provides evidence through three analyses that NCDs reduce economic output and ...discusses potential options in response, outlining details of their relative returns on investment. An economic burden analysis shows that economic losses from NCDs (direct and indirect costs) comprise 2.3 trillion tenge, equivalent to 4.5% of gross domestic product in 2017. An intervention costing analysis provides an estimate of the funding required to implement a set of policy interventions for prevention and clinical interventions. A cost–benefit analysis compares these implementation costs with the estimated health gains and identifies which policy packages would give the greatest returns on investment. For example, the salt policy package achieved a benefit-to-cost ratio of 118.4 over 15 years, a return of more than 118 tenge for every 1 tenge invested.
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The Western Pacific Regional Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases (2014–2020) was developed in response to a resolution adopted at the sixty-second ses...sion of the WHO Regional Committee for the Western Pacific. The regional plan is fully harmonized with the Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases (2013–2020) while adding the value of actions that build on regional achievements, contexts, opportunities and perspective
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The sixteenth meeting of the Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for Neglected Tropical Diseases (STAG-NTD) was held as a hybrid meeting, 27–28 September 2022.
Dr Ren Minghui, Assistant Director-General, Universal Health Coverage/Communicabl...e and Noncommunicable Diseases, welcomed participants to the meeting. He said the World Health Organization’s Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases (WHO/NTD) was in a state of transition. Following the death of the late esteemed Director Dr Mwelecele Ntuli Malecela earlier in the year, Dr Gautam Biswas had taken over as Acting Director but would soon retire; the appointment of a new Director was under way. Owing to rotation of STAG-NTD members, this would be the last meeting for some and the first meeting for several new participants. The work however would continue with the same commitment. Discussions over the next two days would focus on critical issues regarding recovery of NTD services following the disruptions caused by coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which had impacted many health services worldwide. He looked forward to receiving the advice and guidance of STAG-N
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Countries reported disruptions in all health-care settings. In more than half of countries surveyed, many people are still unable to access care at the primary care and community care levels. Signi...ficant disruptions have also been reported in emergency care, particularly concerning given the impact on people with urgent health needs. Thirty-six per cent of countries reported disruptions to ambulance services; 32% to 24-hour emergency room services; and 23% to emergency surgeries.
Elective surgeries have also been disrupted in 59% of countries, which can have accumulating consequences on health and well-being as the pandemic continues. Disruptions to rehabilitative care and palliative care were also reported in around half of the countries surveyed.
Major barriers to health service recovery include pre-existing health systems issues which have been exacerbated by the pandemic as well as decreased demand for care.
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A Systematic Review, Country Case Studies, and Recommendations for Integration into National Health Systems
Alliance Report
Participation of community health workers (CHWs) in the provision of pr...imary health care has been experienced all over the world for several decades, and there is an amount of evidence showing that they can add significantly to the efforts of improving the health of the population, particularly in those settings with the highest shortage of motivated and capable health professionals.
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The COVID-19 pandemic is challenging health systems across the world. Rapidly increasing demand for care of people with COVID-19 is compounded by fear, misinformation and limitations on the movement... of people and supplies that disrupt the delivery of frontline health care for all people...
This guidance addresses the specific role of community-based health care in the pandemic context and outlines the adaptations needed to keep people safe, maintain continuity of essential services and ensure an effective response to COVID-19. It is intended for decision-makers and managers at the national and subnational levels and complements a range of other guidance, including that on priority public health interventions, facility-based care, and risk communication and community engagement in the setting of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The key actions, activities, and approaches in this document are organized within each of the 5Cs (see Table 1 in the PDF) and those of the Strategic preparedness and response plan (SPRP) pillars as... follows:
National action plan key activities, prioritized for the current context and the current understanding of the threat of SARS-CoV-2
A. Transition from emergency response to longer term COVID-19 disease management.
B. Integrate activities into routine systems.
C. Strengthen global health security.
Special considerations for fragile, conflict-affected and vulnerable (including humanitarian) settings
WHO global and regional support to Member States to implement their national action plans
Key guidance documents for reference
This is a living document that will be updated to incorporate new technical guidance in response to the evolving epidemiological situation. National plans should be implemented in accordance with the principles of inclusiveness, respect for human rights, and equity.
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Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are a growing public health problem in Ghana and other African countries. Strokes and other CVDs have become a leading cause of death due to increasing risk factors su...ch as hypertension. According to the Global Burden of Disease study (GBD), ischaemic heart disease was the fourth leading cause of death in Ghana in 2016. The prevalence of hyper-
tension, a major risk factor for CVDs, is increasing rapidly and ranges from 19% to 48%, according to the Ghana Health Service Annual Report, 2017, due to rising life expectancy and the increasing prevalence of contributing factors such as overweight/obesity. Early diagnosis and adequate management of the risk factors can reduce the fatal consequences of CVDs.
At the heart of improving risk assessment and management of CVDs are nationally approved guidelines, which facilitate standardisation of care approaches.
These guidelines developed by experts from all levels of health care and stakeholders capture all recommended approaches and necessary information for clinicians and other healthcare workers on CVDs. They also serve as a practical guide for assessing and managing the most important CVDs prevalent in Ghana and can be used at all levels of care namely health facilities without a doctor; with a general practitioner and with a physician specialist.
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In 2018, the WHO European Healthy Cities Network adopted the political vision of the Network until 2030 that is fully aligned with the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: the Cop...enhagen Consensus of Mayors: Healthier and Happier Cities for All. The vision is built around six themes. This compendium comprises tools, resources and networks that are related to one of the themes - place - from across the WHO European Healthy Cities Network and wider from 2010 to 2020. It is part of the support package for implementation of the place theme in Phase VII (2019–2024) of the WHO European Healthy Cities Network.
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Guiding framework for development cooperation, Working paper 2017.
This document was drawn up on the basis of expert publications and inputs from partners in the
GIZ regional programme Psychosocial Support for Syrian and Iraqi Refugees and Interna...lly
Displaced People1 in order to serve as guidance in the design, implementation and assessment of
psychosocial support measures for refugees in the context of the crises in Syria and Iraq. It is
aimed at actors from the MHPSS sector working with refugees in the Middle East and at ministries
and academic/scientific institutions in the context of the Syria and Iraq crises.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has created challenges for forcibly displaced persons and the humanitarian organizations working to support them. With restrictions on movement and limited access ...attribute-to-highlight medbox">to refugees, asylum-seekers, internally displaced persons (IDPs) and stateless persons across the globe, UNHCR is supporting displaced communities to take the lead in the prevention of, and the response to, the existing and emerging protection needs of women, men, girls and boys of diverse backgrounds.
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