El Niño conditions persisting during the 2015/16 planting season have caused the worst drought in 35 years in Southern Africa, resulting in a seco...nd consecutive failed harvest. This has created severe food shortages and compounded existing vulnerabilities. Since July 2016, Namibia and Botswana have declared national drought emergencies, in addition to the declarations made earlier by Lesotho, Malawi, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. Madagascar issued a letter of solidarity with the SADC Appeal, and Mozambique has maintained a red alert in affected areas.
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This research report provides results from the study on living conditions among people with disabilities in Zambia. Comparisons are made between individuals with and without disabilities and also be...tween households with and without a disabled family member. Results obtained in Zambia are also compared to those obtained in earlier studies carried out in Namibia, Zimbabwe and Malawi. The Zambian study was undertaken in 2005-2006.
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The Joint Response Plan sets out a comprehensive programme shaped around three strategic objectives – deliver protection, provide life-saving assistance and foster social cohesion. The Plan covers all humanitarian sectors and addresses key cross-cutting issues, including protection and gender main...streaming. The Plan will also strengthen emergency preparedness and response for weather-related risks and natural disasters, with a focus on community
engagement.
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The military offensive by the Russian Federation in Ukraine which began February 2022 has triggered one of the world’s fastest-growing displacement and humanitarian crisis, with geopolitical and e...conomic ripples felt across the globe. The ongoing war has caused large-scale disruptions to the delivery of health services and a near-collapse of the health system. But the crisis also saw an extraordinary mobilization and crisis response to a health emergency by WHO and its more than 100 partners.
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Improvements in water sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and wastewater management in all sectors are critical elements of preventing infections and reducing the spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) ...as identified in the Global Action Plan to combat AMR. Yet, at present, WASH and wastewater management actors and improvement actions are under-represented in AMR multi-stakeholder platforms and national action plans (NAPs). This WHO/FAO/OIE technical brief on WASH and wastewater management to reduce the spread of AMR provides a summary of evidence and rationale for WASH and wastewater actions within AMR NAPs and sector specific policy to combat AMR. Evidence and actions are presented in the domains of; coordination and leadership, households and communities, health care facilities, animal and plant production, manufacturing of antimicrobials, and surveillance and research.
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Saving lives is the priority of WHO’s response in Ukraine. WHO works to ensure time-critical, lifesaving multisectoral assistance, non-discriminatory access to emergency and essential health servi...ces and priority prevention programmes, and laying the foundation for longer-term health systems recovery and strengthening.
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The Global status report on violence prevention 2014, which reflects data from 133 countries, is the first report of its kind to assess national efforts to address interpersonal violence, namely child maltreatment, youth violence, intimate partner a...nd sexual violence, and elder abuse. Jointly published by WHO, the United Nations Development Programme, and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the report reviews the current status of violence prevention efforts in countries, and calls for a scaling up of violence prevention programmes; stronger legislation and enforcement of laws relevant for violence prevention; and enhanced services for victims of violence.
You can download summaries in different languages, single chapters and graphics
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Healthy maternal nutrition, exclusive breastfeeding, and optimal infant and young child nutrition are critical for appropriate growth and development, as well as reducing the risk of developing noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), for both mothers and children. ...">On 7–8 November 2018 the WHO Regional Office for Europe convened an international conference of key stakeholders to discuss good practices and share experiences on these important issues.
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Six months in, the indirect impacts of COVID-19 take a toll on health, social and economic outcomes.
Gender-based Violence Area of Responsibility Working Group July 2010
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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Conflicts and disasters, including pandemics, affect women and men in all their diversity differently, and women and girls often suffer the most. Crisis-related hardships combine and compound pre-ex...isting disadvantages, for example, they often cause women’s working conditions to worsen while increasing their overall workload and care responsibilities. At the same time, crises can give rise to changes that enable women to take up roles that were previously available only to men, and crises can open opportunities to address existing gender-based discrimination and violations of rights.
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This guidance is targeted to primary health care policy-makers and only addresses issues relevant for primary health care providers. It has been prepared ...on the basis of a systematic review of the best available evidence and emergent country practices in response to the COVID-19 outbreak in the WHO European Region. It will be updated on a regular basis as new information becomes available.
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The checklist tool described in this handbook is intended for EU/EEA public health authorities who need to assess the capacity for communicable disease prevention and control at migrant reception/de...tention centres hosting migrants for weeks/months (medium-term) in order to identify gaps and set priorities for development.
Using this tool, the aim is to monitor and support capacity development to prevent the onset and improve the management of communicable disease outbreaks at medium-term migration reception/detention centres, both on a day-to-day basis and in the event of a sudden influx of migrants.
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Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response.
The 2018 Sphere Handbook builds on the latest developments and learning in th...e humanitarian sector. Among the improvements of the new edition, readers will find a stronger focus on the role of local authorities and communities as actors of their own recovery. Guidance on context analysis to apply the standards has also been strengthened. New standards have also been developed, informed by recent practice and learning, such as WASH and healthcare settings in disease outbreaks, security of tenure in shelter and settlement, and palliative care in health. Different ways to deliver or enable assistance, including cash-based assistance, are also integrated into the Handbook.
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This operational guidance on MHPSS provides a practical orientation and tools for UNHCR country operations. It covers specific points of good practice to consider when developing MHPSS programming and offers advice ...t medbox">on priority issues and practical difficulties, while also providing some background information and definitions. Since MHPSS is a cross cutting concept this operational guidance is relevant for programming in various sectors, including health, community based protection, education, shelter, nutrition, food security and livelihoods.
The focus of this operational guidance is on refugees and asylum seekers, but it may apply to other persons of concern within UNHCR operations such as stateless persons, internally displaced persons and returnees. The guidance is meant for operations in both camp and non-camp settings, and in both rural and urban settings in low and middle-income countries with a UNHCR presence.
The guidance should be adapted according to different contexts. A standardized format for programme implementation cannot be offered because this depends to a large extent on existing national capacities and local opportunities.
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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 ... class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">in other 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 classification of digital health interventions (DHIs) categorizes the different ways in which digital and mobile technologies are being used to support ...x">health system needs. Historically, the diverse communities working in digital health—including government stakeholders, technologists, clinicians, implementers, network operators, researchers, donors— have lacked a mutually understandable language with which to assess and articulate functionality. A shared and standardized vocabulary was recognized as necessary to identify gaps and duplication, evaluate effectiveness, and facilitate alignment across different digital health implementations. Targeted primarily at public health audiences, this Classification framework aims to promote an accessible and bridging language for health program planners to articulate functionalities of digital health implementations.
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Wild elephants and snakes, violent men lurking in the forest and human traffickers on the prowl during the night. These are among the most pressing fears identified by Rohingya children who fled fig...hting in Myanmar to Bangladesh, according to a new report launched today by Save the Children, World Vision and Plan International to coincide with the six month mark of the crisis.
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