Lancet Glob Health 2022 Published Online May 24, 2022 https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(22)00185-1
Many commercial actors use a range of coordinated and sophisticated strategies to protect business interests— their corporate playbook—but many of these strategies come at ...to-highlight medbox">the expense of public health. To counter this corporate playbook and advance health and wellbeing, public health actors need to develop, refine, and modernise their own set of strategies, to create a public health playbook. In this Viewpoint, we seek to consolidate thinking around how public health can counter and proactively minimise powerful commercial influences.
more
The Arab region in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) represents a substantial area of the terrestrial landmass encompassing several countries... and ecosystems. This area is generally drier and warmer compared to the rest of the world and has extreme resource limitations that are highly vulnerable to a changing climate, geopolitical instability and land degradation (Slimani & Aidoud, 2004). Agriculture (crops and livestock) is a critical source of employment and a potential option for engaging rural youth. However, environmental degradation coupled with declining and variable agricultural productivity may pose a massive challenge already beset by instability and declining oil reserves (Tagliapietra, 2017). The Arab region is also subjected to short and long-duration climate extreme events, and the overall impact of their cascading effects on ecosystems, societies and economies is still an open question. Climate change, along with post-war geopolitical complexities, has greatly affected the Arab region in terms of its economy and social balance. Climate change has penetrating effects on the region’s agriculture sector and hence its economy. These are mainly manifested via changes in water resources and extreme weather conditions such as heatwaves and a drastic decline in precipitation.
more
The guide to implementing the One Health Joint Plan of Action (OH JPA) at national level provides practical guidance on how countries can adopt and adapt ...the OH JPA to strengthen and support national One Health action.
Building on the OH JPA theory of change, this guide describes three pathways and five key steps to implement the OH JPA at national level:
Pathway 1 -- Governance, policy, legislation, financing and advocacy
Pathway 2 -- Organizational and institutional development, implementation and sectoral integration
Pathway 3 -- Data, evidence, information systems and knowledge exchange.
The stepwise approach comprises:
Situation analysis including stakeholder mapping and review of existing assessment results
Set-up/strengthening of a multisectoral, One Health coordination mechanism
Planning for implementation, including activity prioritization and leveraging of resources
Implementation of national One Health action plans
Review, sharing and incorporation of lessons learned.
more
The 2017 Global Nutrition Report focuses on 5 key areas and finds that improving nutrition can have a powerful multiplier effect across the SDGs. Indeed, it indicates that it will be a challenge to ...achieve any SDG without addressing nutrition. The report shows that there is an exciting opportunity to achieving global nutrition targets while catalysing other development goals through ‘double duty’ and ‘triple duty’ actions, which tackle malnutrition and other development challenges could yield multiple benefits across the SDGs.
more
Since the release of the first volume in May 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has continued to rage around t...he world. By mid-March, 2021, countries around the globe had reported over 123 million cases—a nearly five-fold increase since this report’s previous volume—and over 2.7 million deaths attributed to the disease. And while new case loads are currently on the rise again, the global health community has already administered almost 400 million doses of vaccines, at last offering some signs of hope and progress.
Economic impacts threaten to undo decades of recent progress in poverty reduction, child nutrition and gender equality, and exacerbate efforts to support refugees, migrants, and other vulnerable communities. National and local governments—together with international and private-sector partners—must deploy vaccines as efficiently, safely and equitably as possible while still monitoring for new outbreaks and continuing policies to protect those who do not yet have immunity.
More than ever, the world needs reliable and trustworthy data and statistics to inform these important decisions. The United Nations and all member organizations of the Committee for the Coordination of Statistical Activities (CCSA) collect and make available a wealth of information for assessing the multifaceted impacts of the pandemic. This report updates some of the global and regional trends presented in Volume I and offers a snapshot of how COVID-19 continues to affect the world today across multiple domains.
more
The procurement of essential medicines and other health products is a critical function in support of the effective discharge of WHO’s mandate, and WHO values ...edbox">the importance of the quality of essential medicines and health products that are supplied to countries. The first World Health Assembly in 1948 recognized the need to establish a procurement service at WHO, and recommended setting up an office “to give advice on the procurement of essential drugs, biological products and other medical supplies”.
more
BackgroundClimate change is one of the great challenges of our time. The consequences of climate change on exposed biological subjects, as well as on vulnerable societies, are a concern for ...ass="attribute-to-highlight medbox">the entire scientific community. Rising temperatures, heat waves, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, droughts, fires, loss of forest, and glaciers, along with disappearance of rivers and desertification, can directly and indirectly cause human pathologies that are physical and mental.
more
Conference Report Sao Paulo, Brazil 22-24 October 2015
Failure to Credibly Investigate and Provide Redress for Unlawful Attacks in Yemen
Herd immunity by mass vaccination offers the potential to substantially limit the continuing spread of COVID-19, but high levels of vaccine hesitancy threaten this goal. In a cross-country analysis ...of vaccine hesitant respondents across Latin America in January 2021, we experimentally tested how five features of mass vaccination campaigns—the vaccine’s producer, efficacy, endorser, distributor, and current population uptake rate—shifted willingness to take a COVID-19 vaccine. We find that citizens preferred Western-produced vaccines, but were highly influenced by factual information about vaccine efficacy. Vaccine hesitant individuals were more responsive to vaccine messengers with medical expertise than political, religious, or media elite endorsements. Citizen trust in foreign governments, domestic leaders, and state institutions moderated the effects of the campaign features on vaccine acceptance. These findings can help inform the design of unfolding mass inoculation campaigns.
more
The Lancet Volume 397, ISSUE 10269, P129-170, January 09, 2021
The Scientific Conceptual Framework for Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) provides a scientific foundation for understanding, implementing and monitoring LDN. It has been designed to create a bridge between ...">the vision and the practical implementation of LDN, by defining LDN in operational terms. The conceptual framework is a product of the UNCCD Science-Policy Interface.
more
The Lab identifies, develops, and launches sustainable finance
instruments that can drive billions to a low-carbon economy. The
2019 Global Lab Cycle targets four specific sectors across
mitigati...on and adaptation: blue carbon in marine & coastal
ecosystems; sustainable agriculture for smallholders in West and
Central Africa; sustainable energy access; and sustainable cities
more
The Quadripartite Organizations – the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), ...the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH, founded as OIE), and the World Health Organization (WHO) – collaborate to drive the change and transformation required to mitigate the impact of current and future health challenges at the human–animal– plant–environment interface at global, regional and country level.
more
The article is a scoping review that explores the challenges in diagnosing asthma in children in three sub-Saharan African countries: Nigeria, South Africa, and Uganda. It identifies key barriers, s...uch as a lack of community awareness, inadequate healthcare access, limited diagnostic tools like spirometry, and insufficient knowledge among healthcare workers. The review also highlights the stigma associated with asthma and the absence of relevant diagnostic guidelines. Solutions proposed include community education, development and adherence to diagnostic guidelines, and strengthening healthcare systems. The study aims to inform policymakers and healthcare providers to improve asthma diagnosis and care for children in these regions.
more