Multiple pandemics, numerous outbreaks, thousands of lives lost and billions of dollars of national income wiped out—all since the turn of this century, in barely 17 years—and yet the world’s ...investments in pandemic preparedness and response remain woefully inadequate. We know by now that the world will see another pandemic in the not-too-distant future; that random mutations occur often enough in microbes that help them survive and adapt; that new pathogens will inevitably find a way to break through our defenses; and that there is the increased potential for intentional or accidental release of a synthesized agent. Every expert commentary and every analysis in recent years tells us that the costs of inaction are immense. And yet, as
the havoc caused by the last outbreak turns into a fading memory, we become complacent and relegate the case for investing in preparedness on a back burner, only to bring it to the forefront when the next outbreak occurs. The result is that the world remains scarily vulnerable.
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Unprecedented humanitarian needs, the COVID-19 pandemic, a worsening economic crisis, and funding shortfalls converge to create life-threatening challenges for people in need throughout the region.
In March 2022, the Syria crisis entered its 12th... year, marking another grim milestone for Syrians throughout the region. For women and girls, the cumulative impact has been catastrophic, upending decades of progress on women’s issues and bringing unprecedented risks that have fundamentally altered their realities.
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The Facilitator's Guide has been piloted in Borno (Nigeria) and in Fafan zone (Somali region, Ethiopia) and improved iteratively after each test.
What does the ROAP have that you won't find in ot...her methodologies?
It is based on holistic, people-centred approaches that span across sectors and consider people's perceptions, priorities, ways of coping, and assistance preferences.
It introduces the concepts of inter-sector needs profile and inter-sector causal analysis, and how to use these to articulate shared objectives and better integrated and holistic response packages, as opposed to siloed plans.
It introduces the concept of basic needs basket, and how to define the BN basket based on both households' perspective and sector experts' opinions, and acknowledging that needs have different frequencies and timings, and units of analysis (individual, household, community).
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The paper sets out the specific communication challenge posed by Ebola and why it was so difficult to get to grips with this in the early months of the outbreak. It thendocuments when the health communication ...ox">response became more useful and explores what that tells us about effective media and communication. Finally, it offers recommendations to ensure that media and communication are used to their full potential during other disease outbreaks and humanitarian crisis
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This bulletin focuses on the situation in Ukraine and several key refugee-receiving countries (Bulgaria, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Republic of Moldova, Romania, and Slovakia), with the underst...anding that other countries in the European Region are also receiving Ukrainian refugees and WHO is providing technical support to them.
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Supportive supervision is considered critical to community health worker programme performance, but there is relatively little understanding of how it can be sustainably done at scale. Supportive supervision is a holistic concept that encompasses three key functions: management (ensuring performance...), education (promoting development) and support (responding to needs and problems). Drawing on the experiences of the ward-based outreach team (WBOT) strategy, South Africa’s national community health worker (CHW) programme, this paper explores and describes approaches to supportive supervision in policy and programme guidelines and how these are implemented in supervision practices in the North West Province, an early adopter of the WBOT strategy. Outreach teams typically consist of six CHWs plus a nurse outreach team leader (OTL).
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A survey was conducted in countries in all six WHO regions and focused on the building blocks that are considered prerequisites to combat antimicrobial resistance: a comprehensive national plan, laboratory capacity to undertake surveillance for resi...stant microorganisms, access to safe, effective antimicrobial medicines, control of the misuse of these medicines, awareness and understanding among the general public and effective infection prevention and control programmes.
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WHO would like to express its gratitude and appreciation to all Member States that provided information to the WHO survey on policies and activities at the national level in the area of antimicrobia...l resistance. The contribution of staff in WHO Regional and Country Offices has been invaluable: in gather-ing original data and information from Member States, in supporting the process of aggregation of these data; and in reviewing the regional analysis of the findings that reflect the country situation at the point when the survey was conducted. The support and commitment of the members of the WHO Task Force on Antimicrobial Resistance, comprising WHO staff from Headquarters and Regional Offices has, is also acknowledged.
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A Toolbox of Conflict Sensitive Indicators.
This toolbox adapts a sample of 15 indicators from the SPHERE Project's Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response to be even mo...re conflict sensitive while remaining practical and user-friendly
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As part of a wider organisational undertaking to better capture and communicate the effectiveness of its work, Oxfam developed an evaluative method to assess the quality of targeted humanitarian responses<.../span>. This method uses a global humanitarian indicator tool which is intended to enable Oxfam GB to estimate how many disaster-affected men and women globally have received humanitarian aid that meets establishes standards for excellence. This method was used after the independence of South Sudan, which was followed by political tensions with its neighbour on issues unresolved from the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which include border demarcation, wealth-sharing and the fate of the disputed territory of Abyei.
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This report sets out ways to make pre-hospital care and ambulance services operating in areas of armed violence safer. Written by the Norwegian Red Cross with support from the ICRC ...ibute-to-highlight medbox">and the Mexican Red Cross, the report summarizes field experience in over 20 countries.
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The Global vector control response 2017–2030 (GVCR) provides a new strategy to strengthen vector control worldwide through increased capacity, improved surveillance, better coordination and integr...ated action across sectors and diseases.
In May 2017, the World Health Assembly adopted resolution WHA 70.16, which calls on Member States to develop or adapt national vector control strategies and operational plans to align with this strategy.
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The scale of West Africa’s Ebola epidemic has been attributed to the weak health systems of affected countries,
their lack of resources, the mobility of communities and their inexperience in dealing with Ebola. This briefing for African Affairs a...rgues that these explanations lack important context. The briefing examines responses to the outbreak and offers a different set of explanations, rooted in the history of the region and the political economy of global health and development. To move past technical discussions of “weak” health systems, it highlights how structural violence has contributed to the epidemic. As part of this, local people – their beliefs, concerns and priorities – have been marginalised. Both the crisis response and post-Ebola ‘reconstruction’ will be strengthened by acknowledgment of its long term structural underpinnings and from a more collaborative inclusion of local people.
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This rapid compilation of data analyses provides a ‘stock-take’ of social science and behavioural data related to the on-going outbreak of Ebola in North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri provinces. Ba...sed on data gathered and analysed by organisations working in the Ebola response and in the region more broadly, it explores convergences and divergences between datasets and, when possible, differences by geographic area, demographic group, time period and other relevant variables. Data sources are listed at the end of the document.
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Since 24 February 2022, the war in Ukraine has caused widespread suffering to its people and serious damage
to the country’s infrastructure. Attacks on the country’s health system and its power... network threaten people, compromise the provision of health care, and complicate the distribution of essential medicines and equipment.
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Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) threatens displaced women and girls, as well as men and boys, in all regions of the world. Creating safe en...vironments and mitigating the risk of SGBV can only be achieved by addressing gender inequality and discrimination. While the scourge of SGBV is receiving much more attention internationally – as illustrated by Security Council Resolutions 1820, 1888 and 1960 – preventing SGBV is a complex challenge. To assist operations in addressing this core protection concern, UNHCR is presenting the Action against Sexual- and Gender-Based Violence: An Updated Strategy. This strategy provides a structure to assist UNHCR operations in dealing with SGBV on the basis of a multi-sectoral and interagency approach. UNHCR policies and programmes have for many years helped operations to address SGBV in coordination with other actors. 80% of operations in urban settings and 93% in camp settings work with SGBV Standard Operating Procedures which strengthen cooperation between partners. Moreover, support to community-based organisations has given communities a greater sense of ownership in addressing SGBV.
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As the war in Ukraine pushes food, fuel and fertilizer prices toward record levels putting food security in many of the world’s poorest countries at risk, the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) today launched a Crisis ...pan class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">Response Initiative to ensure that small-scale farmers in high-risk countries can produce food over the next few months to feed their families and communities while reducing the threat to future harvests.
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27 March 2020
Countrys: World and Kenya, Zambia, Ethiopia
The restrictions on movement imposed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic constitute one of the largest single global challenges that the humanitarian community has ever encountered. Main...taining continuity and quality in the delivery of essential assistance and services, including protection services, in the face of these restrictions requires operations to quickly innovate, leveraging fully the rich capacities and established networks within both communities of persons of concern, as well as host communities.
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Five months after the beginning of the desert locust upsurge in the Greater Horn of Africa and Yemen, and four months since the launch of the response...an> plan (24 January 2020) a total of USD 130 million have been mobilized in the region.
As described in the recently published Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) quarterly report (January to April 2020), a lot has been achieved already, thanks to generous contributions from resource partners and affected governments.
But bringing a desert locust upsurge under control and mitigating its impact on livelihoods and food security requires a prolonged effort and numerous factors could influence the duration and magnitude of the problem, including the widespread presence of COVID-19.
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Sudan has a long history of hosting refugees and asylum seekers with 991,787 individuals, 51 per cent female and 53 per cent children, expected to live in Sudan by the end of 2020.