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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The report “Dementia: a public health priority” has been jointly developed by WHO and Alzheimer's Disease International. The purpose of this report is to raise awareness of dementia as a public health priority, to articulate a public health approach and to advocate for action at international a...nd national levels.
Dementia is a syndrome that affects memory, thinking, behaviour and ability to perform everyday activities. The number of people living with dementia worldwide is currently estimated at 35.6 million. This number will double by 2030 and more than triple by 2050. Dementia is overwhelming not only for the people who have it, but also for their caregivers and families. There is lack of awareness and understanding of dementia in most countries, resulting in stigmatization, barriers to diagnosis and care, and impacting caregivers, families and societies physically, psychologically and economically.
Available Languages: Chinese, English, Japanese, Russian and Spanish
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Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the world, was devastated by an earthquake in 2010. The disaster uncovered the realities of a non-existent mental health care system with only ten psychiatrists nationwide. Attempts were made to assess the increased prevalence of mental illness, likely due to t...he trauma to which many were exposed. Several interventions were carried out with aims to integrate mental health into primary health care services. The interplay between socio-cultural beliefs and health (both mental and physical) in Haiti has been widely commented upon by both foreign aid and local caregivers. Observations frequently highlight barriers to the willingness of patients to seek care and to their acceptance of biomedicine over traditional Vodou beliefs. The perception of Haitian beliefs as barriers to the availability and acceptance of mental health care has intensified the difficulty in providing effective recommendations and interventions both before and after the earthquake. Argued in this review is the importance of considering the interactions between socio-cultural beliefs and mental health when developing models for the prevention, screening, classification and management of mental illness in Haiti. These interactions, especially relevant in mental health care and post-disaster contexts, need to be acknowledged in any healthcare setting. The successes and failures of Haiti’s situation provide an example for global consideration.
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In this report a nutrition governance framework was applied to research and analyse the provincial experience with nutrition policy in Pakistan, looking both at chronic and acute malnutrition. Twenty-one in-depth interviews with key stakeholders were also conducted along with a review of published a...nd grey literature. Findings were validated and supplemented by consultative provincial roundtable meetings. Punjab’s nutritional puzzle is that it has high levels of chronic malnutrition and micro-nutrient deficiencies despite a surplus production of food and a low poverty level. Under-nutrition is mainly linked to insufficient attention to preventive health strategies and to a lack of connection between relevant sectors such as Education, Health, Poverty, Safe Water and Sanitation, and Food. Strategic opportunities are recommended which include cross-party political support and ownership for nutrition, with steering by executive leadership; multi-sectoral action and functional integration of various departments and programmes with the creation of a central convening structure for effective cross-sectoral coordination; broadening of nutritional activities beyond salt iodization and vitamin A coverage; central co-ordination of monitoring and evaluation and effective partnerships between the state and non-state sector around data production, awareness, advocacy, and monitoring.
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2016-2018 Early implementation,
This report presents 2015 data on the consumption of systemic antibiotics from 65 countries and areas, contributing to our understanding of how antibiotics are used in these countries. In addition, the report documents early efforts of the World Health Organization (...WHO) and participating countries to monitor antimicrobial consumption, describes the WHO global methodology for data collection, and highlights the challenges and future steps in monitoring antimicrobial consumption.
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Background paper for the Oslo Summit on Education for Development.
This paper covers the four topics of the Oslo Summit: investment in education, quality of learning, education in emergencies and girls’ education. Disability continues to be one of the primary causes of educational disadvantage a...nd exclusion,
creating the largest single group of girls and boys who remain out of school. Even in those countries
close to achieving universal primary enrolment, children with disabilities are still not in school,accessing opportunities to meaningful employment and on sustainable routes out of poverty
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In where under-five mortality is high and vitamin A deficiency is a public health problem, two high-dose supplements of vitamin A per year, spaced four to six months apart, can strengthen children’s immune systems and improve their chances of survival.
During much of early childhood – from... 6 months to 5years of age – two high doses of vitamin A every year can prevent blindness and hearing loss, boost children’s immunity against diseases like measles and diarrhoea and provide critical protection against death. Like all forms of malnutrition, vitamin A deficiency is a marker of inequality. In countries where diets are lacking in vitamin A and infections and deaths are prevalent, supplementation programmes give vulnerable children a better chance to survive, develop and thrive.
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This publication outlines public health aspects of alcohol use and harm in WHO South East Asia Region Countries. It summarizes Global Regional and country specific data and also discusses aspects of alcohol control that are important in the context of the Region. The possible future trend of alcohol... use in the Region is also analysed and current and future barriers to effective alcohol control in countries of the Region are discussed.
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The report – Global Status Report on Preventing Violence Against Children 2020 – is the first of its kind, charting progress in 155 countries against the “INSPIRE” framework, a set of seven strategies for preventing and responding to violence against children. The report signals a clear need... in all countries to scale up efforts to implement them. While nearly all countries (88%) have key laws in place to protect children against violence, less than half of countries (47%) said these were being strongly enforced.
The report includes the first ever global homicide estimates specifically for children under 18 years of age – previous estimates were based on data that included 18 to 19-year olds. It finds that, in 2017, around 40,000 children were victims of homicide.
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Five years after a global commitment to Fast-Track the HIV response and end AIDS by 2030, the world is off track. A promise to build on the momentum created in the first decade of the twenty-first century by front-loading investment and accelerating HIV service provision has been fulfilled by too fe...w countries
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Available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. You can download a summary of the main report and background documents!
The report demonstrates that the current system—at both national and international levels— was not adequate to protect people from COVID-19. The time it t...ook from the reporting of a cluster of cases of pneumonia of unknown origin in mid-late December 2019 to a Public Health Emergency of International Concern being declared was too long. February 2020 was also a lost month when many more countries could have taken steps to contain the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and forestall the global health, social, and economic catastrophe that continues its grip. The Panel finds that the system as it stands now is clearly unfit to prevent another novel and highly infectious pathogen, which could emerge at any time, from developing into a pandemic.
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3 June 2021. After 40 years of AIDS, charting a course to end the pandemic.
The report shows that countries with progressive laws and policies and strong and inclusive health systems have had the best outcomes against HIV. In those countries, people living with and affected by HIV are more likely t...o have access to effective HIV services, including HIV testing, pre-exposure prophylaxis (medicine to prevent HIV), harm reduction, multimonth supplies of HIV treatment and consistent, quality follow-up and care.
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Cancer centres are a major resource in ensuring a comprehensive approach to cancer treatment and its planning. As part of a new roadmap developed by WHO and IAEA to help countries design national cancer control programmes, this publication proposes a framework to develop a cancer centre and/or to st...rengthen the provision of services in an existing cancer centre. The publication provides the features of multidisciplinary cancer care and details the infrastructure, human resources and equipment for different services. This framework is expected to be used as a guide to implementation, taking into consideration the local context and resources.
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Severe bacterial infections are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among people with advanced HIV disease, after tuberculosis and cryptococcal disease. For countries to reach the end-AIDS targets for 2030, there is a need to establish a roadmap for managing severe bacterial infections and re...duce mortality. The purpose of the meeting was to
Review the current research and implementation data on the use of prophylactic antibiotics (specifically azithromycin/macrolides) as part of the AHD package of care; To review options for preventing SBIs that are in line with goals of reducing AMR; Present the current evidence on diagnostics for SBI; Discuss research gaps and implementation challenges.
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The World Health Organization Global TB Report provides a comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the TB epidemic, and progress in the response, at global, regional and country levels.
The 2022 edition features data on disease trends and the response to the epidemic from 215 countries and area...s, including all 194 World Health Organization (WHO) Member States. It provides a comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the TB epidemic, progress in the response at global, regional and country levels, as well as on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on TB services.
TB remains one of the top infectious killers in the world. This year’s report presents data on an increase in the number of people falling ill with TB and drug resistant TB for the first time in many years. Increases were also reported on the number of TB deaths, highlighting the severe impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and other crises on the TB response that has reversed years of progress. It also presents the status of progress towards targets set at the first-ever United Nations General Assembly high-level meeting on TB in 2018 as well as the targets of the WHO End TB Strategy and the Sustainable Development Goals.
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The power of the Global Drug Policy Index lies in its key objective: to score and
rank how countries are faring in different areas of drug policy as identified in the
UN report ‘What we have learned over the last ten years: A summary of knowledge
acquired and produced by the UN system on drug-r...elated matters’,1 and derived
from the landmark UN System Common Position on Drug
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This document provides an overview of strategic purchasing of nutrition services within primary health care. It introduces key terms and payment methods for countries to use in preparing to transform their health financial systems to scale up nutrition services. It does so by introducing nutritional... perspectives to strategic health purchasing core areas: What to buy, From whom to buy and How to buy.
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This document puts forward the joint position and vision of an expert, global, multistakeholder working group on implementing Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) for all preterm or low birth weight (LBW) infants as the foundation for small and/or sick newborn care within maternal, newborn, and child health p...rogrammes, and spur collaborative global action. The document summarizes the background information, evidence, and rationale for making KMC available to every preterm or LBW newborn and seeks to galvanize the international maternal, newborn, and child health community and families to come together to support the implementation of KMC for all preterm or LBW infants to improve their and their mothers and families health and well-being.
This position paper is intended to be used by policy-makers (i.e. those responsible for national policy, guideline development and budget allocation), development partners, programme managers, health workforce leadership, practising clinicians, civil society leadership (e.g. parent and professional organizations) and researchers/research organizations involved in KMC implementation research.
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Ethiopia is Africa’s second most populous country; with a population of 102 million and a growth rate of 2.6% in 2020, it is also the world’s 12th most populous one. The country is home to various ethnicities, with more than 80 different spoken languages. The country borders six countries. Most ...of the population in Ethiopia lives in central and northern plateaus. The southeastern and eastern parts of the country are sparsely populated and inhabited by pastoralist communities. Ethiopia is also home to many (estimated at 1 million) refugees from South Sudan, Somalia, Somaliland, and Eritrea. Though fewer in numbers, Ethiopia also hosts Syrian and Sudanese refugees.
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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...re often now only to find dry, depleted or polluted reservoirs.
Today, during World Water Week, Oxfam publishes the first of its series of reports, “Water Dilemmas”, about the growing water crisis, in large part driven by global heating from greenhouse gas emissions. The report describes how climate change will impact water security in different regions, leading to more hunger, disease and displacement.
Carlos Calderon, Humanitarian Advocacy and Partnerships Lead for Oxfam Aotearoa said, “This new Oxfam research is focused on the global Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH) situation, but it paints a picture that illustrates the complexity of elements that, combined, will continue to increasingly affect women, girls, boys and men in the decades to come. Changing weather, poverty, inequality, gender-based violence, political instability and conflicts are impacting the availability and quality of adequate water systems. All governments, particularly those from rich countries, should responsively take action at a global scale. The clock is ticking. Our children will judge us for our actions today, or for the lack of them.”
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