The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is a leading humanitarian agency dedicated to helping people whose lives have been shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover, and gain control of their future. Health comprises nearly half of IRC...’s program portfolio globally and encompasses three sectors: 1) Primary Health (including child health, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and mental health); 2) Nutrition; and 3) Environmental Health. IRC health programming across its portfolio, in terms of the size and breadth, responds to significant needs in crisis affected settings, improving health and wellbeing while reducing causes of ill-health.
This five-year Health Strategy sharpens our focus on where we can have the most impact. It guides our efforts in planning, technical assistance, business development, advocacy, and internal and external collaboration. Through this strategy, we will invest and grow in areas that will help us achieve high impact at scale for our clients. For the next five years these priorities will include: Nutrition; Immunization: Infectious Disease Prevention and Control; Last Mile Delivery of Primary Health Care: Clean Water.
Our strategy aligns with Strategy 100 (S100) and Strategy Action Plans (SAPs). It lays out how IRC, through health, nutrition, and Environmental Health (EH) programming, will advance the IRC’s S100 ambitions, respond to global trends, and capitalize on our value add. The strategy will be complemented by delivery plans that detail investments, actions, and roles and responsibilities to advance our priorities. At the end of FY24, we will take stock of the implementation of the strategy, measure progress towards achieving our goals, and review if it continues to be fit for purpose.
more
Every day, schools engage in numerous activities that help promote the health and well-being of students, families, and communities. There is clear evidence of the benefits of the health-promoting s...chools (HPS) approach, not only for improving overall health outcomes (physical, mental, and social) in the educational community but also for achieving better learning outcomes. The closure of schools during the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted these benefits, as well as the close links between health, wellness, and education.
more
Food security, human health and wellbeing largely depend on biodiversity. Biodiversity supports agriculture through ecosystem services such as pollination and water purification, and provides access... to natural medicines,
which are the primary source of health care for 4 billion people worldwide
more
This treatment guideline is intended to assist clinicians in the Behavioral Health department in treatment planning and service delivery for patients with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). It m...ay also assist clinicians treating patients who have some of the signs and symptoms of PTSD but who do not meet the full criteria of PTSD. The treatment guideline is not intended to cover every aspect of clinical practice, but to focus specifically on the treatment models and modalities that clinicians in our outpatient treatment setting could provide. These guidelines were developed through a process of literature review and discussion amongst clinicians in the Behavioral Health department and represent a consensus recommendation for service provision for this disorder. The guideline is intended to inform both clinical and administrative practices with the explicit goals of outlining treatment that is: effective, efficient, culturally relevant and acceptable to clinicians, program managers, and patients.
more
At least half of the world’s population does not have full coverage of essential health services. Health expenses push more than 100 million peop...le into extreme poverty each and every year, forcing them into terrible choices that no one should ever have to make: Buy medicine or food? Education or health care? These stark statistics make the case for universal health coverage compelling.
more
Climate change presents significant challenges to human health and biodiversity. Increased numbers of extreme climate events, such as heat waves, droughts or flooding, threaten human health and well...-being, both directly and indirectly, through impaired ecosystem functioning and reduced ecosystem services. In addition, the prevalence of non-communicable diseases is rising, causing ill health and accelerating costs to the health sector. Nature-based solutions, such as the provision and management of biodiversity, can facilitate human health and well-being, and mitigate the negative effects of climate change.
more
This country snapshot provides an overview of national data relating to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) throughout the life course. Realization of SRHR requires provision of comprehensive, people-centred ...ghlight medbox">services, that address the different elements of SRHR, and which are supported by an enabling environment, quality health systems, and meaningful community engagement. Multiple, synergistic cross-linkages exist within and between the different SRHR elements, leading to sequential outcome benefits throughout the life course.
more
Training aids
Evidence shows that FGM can cause several physical, mental and sexual health complications in girls and women, and in newborns. Health...an>-care providers play an important role in supporting girls and women living with FGM, and improving their health and well-being. They are in a unique position to influence and change the attitudes of their patients about FGM.
more
This open access book not only describes the challenges of climate disruption, but also presents solutions. The challenges described include air pollution, climate change, extreme weather, and related health impacts that range from heat stress, vect...or-borne diseases, food and water insecurity and chronic diseases to malnutrition and mental well-being.
more
2nd edition. This new edition provides policy-makers, programme managers and health-service providers with the latest evidence-based guidance on clinical care. It includes information on how to esta...blish and strengthen services, and outlines a human-rights-based approach to laws and policies on safe, comprehensive abortion care. This guidelines is available in English; French, Spanish; Japanese; Russian; Portuguese; Romanian and Ukrainian
more
Regional Network for Equity in Health in east and southern Africa (EQUINET): Disussion Paper 113
This report synthesises the learning across the full programme of work. It presents the methods used, the context and policy motivations for deve...loping EHBs; how they are being defined, costed, disseminated and used in health systems, including for service provision and quality, resourcing and purchasing services and monitoring and accountability on service delivery and performance, and for learning, useful practice and challenges faced.
more
Advances have been made through expanded interventions delivered through five public health approaches: innovative and intensified disease management; preventive chemotherapy; vector ecology and management; veterinary public ...o-highlight medbox">health services; and the provision of safe water, sanitation and hygiene. In 2015 alone nearly one billion people were treated for at least one disease and significant gains were achieved in relieving the symptoms and consequences of diseases for which effective tools are scarce; important reductions were achieved in the number of new cases of sleeping sickness, of visceral leishmaniasis in South-East Asia and also of Buruli ulcer.
The report also considers vector control strategies and discusses the importance of the draft WHO Global Vector Control Response 2017–2030.
more
In many contexts, the safe delivery of health care services is challenged by the lack of respect for health care personnel who face insults, threat...s and violence. Consequences include the disruption of health services, high staff turnover in health facilities, high levels of stress impacting the quality of the services and health care personnel being forced to flee. This manual intends to complement the existing training materials and is aimed at supporting staff in health care facilities to cope with stress and violent experiences, including how they can protect themselves by de-escalating potentially violent situations.
No publication year indicated
more
The objective of the evaluation is to understand whether the CHW program has achieved its intended objectives, thus contributing to the overarching objectives defined in the HSSP III of improving the health status of the population by “Ensuring un...iversal accessibility of quality health services for all Rwandans”.
This evaluation has focused on CHWs, who are selected, trained and deployed by the MoH to deliver a defined set of tasks at community level. CHWs are the central element of the Community Health Policy and of the community health strategy plan (CHSP) of the MoH.
more
The guideline uses state-of-the-art evidence to identify effective policy options to strengthen community health worker (CHW) programme performance through their proper integration in health systems... and communities.
Successful delivery of services through CHWs requires evidence-based models for education, deployment and management of these health workers. The guideline is intended as a tool for national policy makers and planners and their international partners to use in the design, implementation, performance and evaluation of effective community health worker programmes. It contains pragmatic recommendations on selection, training and certification; management and supervision: and integration into health systems and community engagement.
more
The scale of international migration in the WHO European Region has increased substantially in the last decade. The dynamics of large-scale migration pose specific challenges and opportunities to health systems, and responses will differ from countr...y to country. Strengthening health system responses is one of the priority areas in the 2016 Strategy and action plan for refugee and migrant health in the WHO European Region. Its agreed actions include the identification and mapping of practices for developing and delivering health services that respond to the needs of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants. This compendium aims to collect and present some of these practices in the form of case studies. Selected in 2016, the case studies reflect experience from different levels of administration in a variety of European countries, and during the different phases of the migration journey.
more
24 April 2020
Policy considerations
for the WHO European Region
This document provides key considerations for Member States to help them to decide on the modulation
of large-scale restrictive public health measures
(i.e. movement restrictions... and large-scale physical distancing), while at the same time strengthening core public health service capacities (to identify, isolate,
test and treat every patient and quarantine contacts) together with personal protective measures (hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette) and individual physical distancing (>1 metre distance). The transition should be informed by national, subnational or even community-level risk assessments as the transmission of COVID-19 is typically not homogeneous within a country.
more
Over the past two decades, Afghanistan has depended on international donor support to fund essential services like health care. But this donor support has been falling for years and will likely to c...ontinue do so—perhaps precipitously—following the announcement by United States President Joe Biden that the US will withdraw all US forces from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021. This decline in funding has already had a harmful—and life-threatening—impact on the lives of many Afghan women and girls, as it affects access to, and quality of, health care.
more
September – December 2021
The funds will be used by WHO to ensure:
continued coordination with other agencies and health actors in the response to the crisis situation
continuity of health...an> services for the population of Afghanistan
provision of life-saving medical supplies
continued response to COVID-19
timely response to potential outbreaks
response to urgent trauma needs
more
Climate change threatens to undermine the past 50 years of gains in public health. In response, theNational Health Service (NHS) in England has bee...n working since 2008 to quantify and reduce its carbon footprint.
This Article presents the latest update to its greenhouse gas accounting, identifying interventions for mitigation efforts and describing an approach applicable to other health systems across the world.
more