Following an overview of maternal and neonatal child health in Nepal and in the districts covered by the project, the briefing outlines the backgro
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und to the Strengthening Approaches for Maximizing Maternal, Neonatal and Reproductive Health (SAMMAN) project. It then describes the key aspects of the two main project approaches: one focused on the community level, and the other on health systems
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Evidence from Low and Middle Income Countries
A 2013 Plan study across 30 countries found that children with disabilities were on average 10 times less likely to go to school than children without disabilities. This report presents the findings of a follow-up second phase to the research with a
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qualitative study on barriers and enablers to education for children with disabilities in Nepal.
The Full Report and Executive Summary Reports in English, French and Spanish are now available for download at:
http://disabilitycentre.lshtm.ac.uk/include-us-education-study-available-now/
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Since the Alma Ata Declaration in 1978, community health volunteers (CHVs) have been at the forefront, providing health services, especially to underserved communities, in low-income countries. Howe
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ver, consolidation of CHVs position within formal health systems has proved to be complex and continues to challenge countries, as they devise strategies to strengthen primary healthcare. Malawi’s community health strategy, launched in 2017, is a novel attempt to harmonise the multiple health
service structures at the community level and strengthen service delivery through a team-based approach. The core community health team (CHT) consists of health surveillance assistants (HSAs), clinicians, environmental health officers and CHVs. This paper reviews Malawi’s strategy, with particular focus on the interface between HSAs, volunteers in community-based programmes and
the community health team. Our analysis identified key challenges that may impede the strategy’s implementation:
(1) inadequate training, imbalance of skill sets within CHTs and unclear job descriptions for CHVs; (2) proposed community-level interventions require expansion of pre-existing roles for most CHT members; and (3) district authorities may face challenges meeting financial obligations and filling community-level positions. For effective implementation, attention and further deliberation is needed on the appropriate forms of CHV support, CHT composition with possibilities of co-opting trained CHVs
from existing volunteer programmes into CHTs, review of CHT competencies and workload, strengthening coordination and communication across all community actors, and financing mechanisms. Policy support through the development of an addendum to the strategy, outlining opportunities for task-shifting between CHT members, CHVs’ expected duties and interactions with paid CHT personnel is recommended.
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National emergency medical teams are the best option for providing immediate and appropriate surge response for emergencies directly affecting popu
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lations, while international teams may help relieve overwhelmed health systems. The efficiency and effectiveness of countries and local authorities in mobilizing existing resources is only as good as the quality of care they are able to provide. This publication serves as a practical guide for teams and aims to compliment emergency response systems, fostering seamless collaboration with all emergency response actors and networks
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This report makes the case for a major new initiative—to rapidly recruit, train and deploy 2 million community health workers in Africa. Drawing on a vast body
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of evidence and substantial regional experience, the report shows how community health workers save lives and improve quality of life and how investments in community health workers effectively harness the demographic dividend, reduce gender inequality and accelerate economic growth and development. Indeed, the benefits of community health workers stretch from one end of the Agenda for Sustainable Development to the other.
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The CB MHPSS operational guidelines were developed in response to emerging evidence on the determinants of children’s resilience, lessons learned from the evaluation of existing approaches, and th
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e unique challenges that today’s crises pose for children’s safety, wellbeing and optimal development.
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2nd edition - Published in 2003, the first WHO/HAI medicine prices manual Medicine Prices – A
New Approach to Measurement Draft for field-testing provides a draft methodology and tools to conduct natio
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nal medicine prices and availability surveys. This second edition of the survey manual has been updated to reflect the wealth of practical
experience in conducting medicine prices and availability surveys garnered in the project’s first two phases.
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This report reviews the latest evidence on what works to reduce HIV-related stigma and discrimination through key programmes to reduce stigma and discrimination and increase access to justice in the six settings of focus
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for the Global Partnership. It includes guidance for national governments and key stakeholders on how stigma and discrimination harm; how the stigmatization process operates and how we can stop it; key principles of stigma- and discrimination-reduction efforts; an overview of common intervention approaches; recommendations based on the latest evidence for reducing HIV-related stigma and discrimination in the six settings; and an overview of considerations for monitoring the success of the programmatic interventions recommended for each setting.
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The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) showed
that global commitment and collective action
could significantly reduce the disease burdens of
three deadly communicable diseases: HIV/AIDS,
tuberc
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ulosis (TB) and malaria. The MDGs helped
focus efforts on these three deadly diseases
and leveraged disease-specific programmes and
financing, thus achieving significant progress.
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Antibiotics have been a critical public health tool since the discovery of Penicillin in 1928, saving the lives of millions
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of people around the world. In developing country like ours, where the burden of treatable disease is very high and access to health facilities and laboratories is difficult, antibiotics have long acted as miracle drugs. Today, however, the emergence of drug
resistance in bacteria is reversing the miracles of the past eighty years, with drug choices for the treatment of many bacterial infections becoming increasingly limited, expensive, and in some cases, nonexistent. Diseases previously regarded as relatively easy to manage are much harder to treat as doctors must use “last-resort” drugs that are more costly, take longer to work
and are often unavailable or unaffordable in developing countries. Moreover, regular prescription of antibiotics, random treatment, over the counter sales, inadequate dosage, inclusion of antibiotics in animal feeds and agriculture has contributed equally to emergence of antibiotics resistance as silent epidemic within the country.
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