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OCHA Policy Brief on Gendered Drivers, Risks and Impacts of Food Insecurity in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (2023) CC

It is widely understood that the food insecurity crisis in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa is one of the world’s fastest growing and most neglected crises. It lacks sufficient global focus, resources and urgency. As in so many crises, women and girls are disproportionately affected and shoulder t...he consequences of protracted neglect, with unconscionable impacts on their safety, life chances and agency. Gaining a holistic view of the gendered drivers, risks and impacts of food insecurity in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa is difficult. This is due to a lack of data and prioritization, and the large geographical and socioeconomic terrain covered by both regions. However, what we do know about this crisis is more than enough to urgently address the needs of women and girls. An OCHA discussion paper on this topic (which will be published imminently, and from which this policy brief is drawn) found that there is: A strong risk of profound regression in gender equality gains made to date in the countries of concern, including on education, sexual and reproductive health, and the economic independence of women and girls (with knock-on effects on broader humanitarian and development outcomes). An increasing challenge to reverse what must be recognized as a protracted and growing gender-based violence (GBV) emergency in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa. The food insecurity crisis in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa is protracted, multidimensional and highly gendered, with spiralling impacts on gender equality and food security outcomes. It is driven by interwoven and overlapping factors, including climate change, political instability, conflict, socioeconomic conditions, migration and displacement and, more recently, COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine. Interlinked with these factors are gendered structural drivers of food insecurity, including deeply entrenched gender inequalities and harmful social norms. Gendered risks and impacts of food insecurity include alarming limitations on access to education, sexual and reproductive health rights, women’s agency and participation, and dramatic increases in different existing forms of GBV and the emergence of new ones. Recognition of such gendered dimensions of food insecurity and of the need for a multisectoral approach in the response is key to addressing the crisis, along-side sustained commitment and adequate allocation of resources. This policy brief draws out key findings from the OCHA discussion paper on this topic, which includes a desk review of studies, assessments and reports, and interviews with local women’s organizations on the front lines of the food insecurity crisis in communities across both regions. Below are the most pressing gendered drivers, risks and impacts of food insecurity (not in order of priority), as well as key gaps in the current humanitarian response to food insecurity, and recommendations to take forward. more

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The path that ends AIDS: UNAIDS Global AIDS Update 2023
recommended

UN Children's Fund UNICEF (2023) CC

This report makes clear that there is a path to end AIDS. Taking that path will help ensure preparedness to address other pandemic challenges, and advance progress across the Sustainable Development Goals. The data and real-world examples in the report make it very clear what that path is. It is not... more

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Panorama of Diabetes in the Americas

Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) (2022) C_WHO

The burden of diabetes is enormous, positioning it as one of the main challenges facing public health today. Currently, it is estimated that 62 million people are living with diabetes in the Region of the Americas and projections show its prevalence will continue rising over the following years. The... more

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Panorama de la diabetes en la Región de las Américas

Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) (2022) C_WHO

La carga de la diabetes es enorme, posicionándola como uno de los principales desafíos que enfrenta la salud pública en la actualidad. Actualmente, se estima que 62 millones de personas viven con diabetes en la Región de las Américas y las proyecciones muestran que su prevalencia seguirá aumen... more

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Cholera prevention, control strategies, challenges and World Health Organization initiatives in the Eastern Mediterranean Region: A narrative review

Buliva E., Elnossery S., Okwarah P. et al. Heliyon (2023) C2

Cholera remains a significant public health threat in many countries worldwide. In resource-constrained settings, it disproportionately affects thousands of poor and vulnerable population

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Water dilemmas: The cascading impacts of water insecurity in a heating world

Oxfam (2023) CC

Climate-induced water insecurity poses one of the biggest threats to humanity and will lead to more hunger, disease and displacement Oxfam water engineers are having to drill deeper, more expensive and harder-to-maintain water boreholes used by some of the poorest communities around the world, mo... more

WHO Policy Brief on the health aspects of decriminalization of suicide and suicide attempts

World Health Organisation (WHO) (2023) C_WHO

Reducing the global suicide mortality rate by a third by 2030 is a target of both the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the WHO Global Mental Health Action Plan. However, an impediment to meeting this goal is the fact that suicide and suicide attempts remain illegal in at least 23 countries world... more

Global report on children with developmental disabilities

World Health Organisation (WHO) (2023) C_WHO

Developmental disabilities are common. Yet, children with developmental disabilities have been neglected in health systems planning and policy provisions for health and continue to experience stigmatization, institutionalization, barriers to access health care and inequalities in health and educatio... more

Tracking Universal Health Coverage: 2023 Global monitoring report

World Health Organisation (WHO) (2023) C_WHO

The world is off track to make significant progress towards universal health coverage (UHC) (SDG target 3.8) by 2030 as improvements to health services coverage have stagnated since 2015, and the proportion of the population that faced catastrophic levels of out-of-pocket (OOP) health spending has i... more

Ending disease in Africa: vision, strategies and special initiatives, 2023-2030

World Health Organisation (WHO) (2023) C_WHO

While there has been real progress in addressing the burden of disease in the WHO African region, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the link between health, economics and security, as the region saw decades of progress threatened, including positive trends in decreasing inequality. In the Africa... more

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Tuberculosis Research Funding Trends 2005-2020

World Health Organisation (WHO) (2021) C_WHO

Previous advocacy efforts have achieved tangible goals in terms garnering political commitments to increase financing for TB—as seen at the 2018 UN High-Level Meeting on TB. The challenge now is to ensure that these commitments are actually met within a global biomedical research ecosystem that... more

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Strengthening countries’ capacities to adopt and adapt evidence-based guidelines: a handbook for guideline contextualization

World Health Organization WHO (2023) C_WHO

Trustworthy, evidence-based health guidelines form the basis of national policies affecting both patients and health-care workers. Emphasizing the link between robust evidence and people’s trust in their health systems, Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe said at the launch ev... more

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STAR-H: Strategic Toolkit for Assessing Risks in Health Facilities

Pan American Health Organization (2023) CC

Health facilities in the Region of the Americas frequently suffer the effects of health emergencies and disasters, which jeopardize their ability to provide services to the population. The STAR-H methodology helps staff responsible for health emergency and disaster risk management to identify and as... more

Tracking development assistance for reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health in conflictaffected countries

Li Z., Richter L., Lu C. BMJ Global Health (2019) CC

Little is known about the patterns of development assistance (DA) for each component of reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (RMNCAH) in conflict-affected countries nor about the DA allocation in relation to the burden of disease

Technical series on adapting to climate-sensitive health impacts: Diarrhoeal diseases

World Health Organization WHO (2023) C_WHO

This guide presents a basis for understanding how diarrhoeal diseases are currently influenced by climate and weather, and may be further exacerbated by climate change. It is a technical guide on how to conduct a Vulnerability & Adaptation assessment for diarrhoeal diseases and climate change, and p... more

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Unprecedented economic attack on Sub-Sahara African economies: coronavirus: How severe is the perceived slump?

Nichiimunya N. Environment Systems & Decisions (2020) CC

This paper is motivated by the global spread of the coronavirus referred to as COVID-19 and its efect on Sub-Saharan African (SSA) economies. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has alluded to the COVID-19 not only afecting the global health but also trade and tourism, commodity prices, and fnanci... more

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Policy brief on tuberculosis-associated disability

World Health Organization WHO (2023) C_WHO

People affected by impairments and disabilities associated with TB are even more likely to belong to marginalized segments of society and are more likely to have their human rights unprotected. The challenges faced by people affected by TB include the consequences of impairment and disability associ... more

Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste Ministry of Health - Comprehensive TB Guidelines for National Tuberculosis Program, V Edition

Government of Timor-Leste; World Health Organization (2023) CC

The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste has the highest TB incidence rate in the South East Asian Region - 498 per 100,000, which is the seventh highest in the world. In Timor-Leste TB is the eighth most common cause of death. The salient observations are as follows: In 2018, 487 (12.5%) of the... more

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Leveraging the Learning Insights from HIV Programming for Pregnant and Parenting Adolescent Girls

UN Children's Fund UNICEF (2023) CC

Pregnancy and childbirth during adolescence profoundly affects the lives of millions of girls worldwide, and is a leading cause of maternal mortality and morbidity, and infant and child mortality. Every year, an estimated 21 million girls aged 15–19 years old in low- and middle-income countries be... more

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Empowering Frontline Primary Healthcare Workers in a Global Health Partnership Training of Trainers Intervention to Strengthen the Prevention and Control of Cardiovascular Disease in Mozambique

Harris. P.; Juga, E.; Bay, N. et al. Global Heart (2022) CC

Unpreparedness of health professionals to address non-communicable diseases (NCD) at peripheral health facilities is a critical health system challenge in Mozambique. To address this weakness and decentralize NCD care, training of the primary care workforce is needed. We describe our experience in t... more

The path that ends AIDS: UNAIDS Global AIDS Update 2023 recommended

The path that ends AIDS: UNAIDS Global AIDS Update 2023
recommended