The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) launched a new Framework for Environmental and Social Management (FESM) to ensure that both people and the environment are protected from any potential impacts of FAO programmes and projects.
“This Framework ensures that our proj
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ects do both “no harm” and support the transformation to more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable agrifood systems by upholding the highest international standards for risk management,” FAO Director-General QU Dongyu explained during a virtual event.
The Framework, which includes key elements of a people-centered approach and establishes environmental and social performance requirements for FAO programming, is also intended to ensure that all stakeholders, including local and indigenous communities, have ample opportunities to actively participate in projects’ activities and to voice their concerns about them.
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Snakebite is an acute life threatening time limiting medical emergency. It is a preventable public
health hazard often faced by rural population in tropical and subtropical countries with heavy
rainfall and humid climate.
Human rabies remains a significant public health problem in Africa with outbreaks reported in most countries. In Nigeria–the most populous country in Africa–rabies causes a significant public health burden partly due to perennial obstacles to implementing a national prevention and control progra
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m.
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This training guide is designed to enable participants to understand the human rights perspective on migration, and how human rights laws and standards can be operationalized to make migration safer and an empowering experience for all. It provides an introduction to related principles and issues an
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d is designed for persons with limited knowledge of human rights or migration.
The training guide contains session plans for the trainer and is supported by sample slide presentations and associated materials, including activities and handouts for participants, which are available electronically as individual components.
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Since the beginning of the Ukraine crisis on 24 February 2022, WHO has supported Government-led efforts and initiatives alongside key partners on the ground. Building on efforts to date, and working alongside Bulgaria’s health authorities to bring added value to existing mechanisms, the WHO Countr
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y Office Bulgaria, the WHO Regional Office for Europe and the WHO Health and Migration Programme, in close collaboration with the Ministry of Health of Bulgaria and key partners, undertook a joint review mission to support Bulgaria, with a focus on addressing the health system needs of refugees, migrants, asylum seekers and vulnerable host populations in Bulgaria.
The assessment team developed this report on the key findings and a package of potential interventions based on the opportunities identified and the need for technical support and assistance. The report summarizes concrete areas of work for which collaborations can be further strengthened. The joint review team identified key recommendations for consideration across 8 priority areas. The report and the outcomes of the review mission serve as a basis for future technical collaboration in the area of refugee health, to address the health needs of refugees and third-country nationals fleeing from Ukraine.
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La violencia contra las mujeres y las niñas es generalizada en la Región de las Américas, y tiene enormes consecuencias para su salud y bienestar, así como el de sus familias y sus comunidades. Se trata de un costo inaceptable que puede ser prevenido mediante acciones basadas en la evidencia, pr
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omovidas por las políticas y los protocolos del sector de la salud, y la colaboración con otros sectores. El presente informe es el primero de su tipo y representa un hito importante para la Región. Se basa específicamente en los compromisos asumidos por los Estados Miembros en la Estrategia y plan de acción sobre el fortalecimiento del sistema de salud para abordar la violencia contra la mujer. El informe ofrece un análisis de los esfuerzos para avanzar en la prevención de la violencia contra las mujeres en la Región por medio de políticas de salud, protocolos clínicos, planes multisectoriales y otros enfoques relevantes. La atención a este tema es oportuna, ya que la pandemia de COVID-19 ha dado más visibilidad a esta esfera de trabajo. En este informe se ofrece información crucial sobre los esfuerzos llevados a cabo en la Región, de los cuales se puede aprender y utilizar el conocimiento extraído en el futuro para prevenir y responder a la violencia contra las mujeres y las niñas en todo el mundo.
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Forests, trees and green spaces, hereinafter ‘forests and trees’ for short, provide multiple goods and services that contribute to human health. These include medicines, nutritious foods and other non-wood forest products (NWFPs). Globally, at least 3.5 billion people use NWFPs, including medici
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nal plants, which are particularly important for vulnerable groups and Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs).
During periods of crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, demand for forest products typically increases amongst these groups. Forests and trees also contribute to better health by playing a role in climate change
mitigation and adaptation, contributing to regulating the carbon cycle, but also moderating the micro-climate, filtering pollutants from the air and protecting settlements against the effects of extreme events such as droughts and flash floods.
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Traditional food markets play important economic, cultural, and social role and are sources of livelihood for millions of people in urban and rural areas. The manual Five keys for safer traditional food markets: risk mitigation in traditional food markets in the Asia-Pacific Region aims to support a
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nd guide local authorities, market community, and consumers to transform these markets into safer and healthier places through practical risk mitigation measures and community engagement strategies. The manual provides guidance on the implementation of five keys to promote public health and safety, particularly, in the context of food safety, zoonoses diseases, and infectious respiratory diseases.
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The African Regional Convening of the Global Initiative to Support Parents (GISP) stimulated the interest or engagement of almost 1500 individuals from 742 unique organizations in the fields of health, education, social welfare, women’s affairs, early childhood, water and sanitation, mental health
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, violence prevention, innovative finance, climate, and many others. The convening united representatives across governments, civil society organizations, programme implementers, philanthropies, multilateral organizations, bilateral funders, private companies, universities, schools and day care centres, and hospitals around the common cause of supporting parents and caregivers.
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The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) call for major societal transformations that will require significant fiscal outlays as well as private investments. The fiscal outlays cover public investments, the public provision of social services, and social protection for vulnerable populations. The ke
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y message of this paper, building on recent reports by the IMF and SDSN (IMF, 2019b; SDSN, 2018) is that the governments of Low-Income Developing Countries (LIDCs) will require a substantial increase in fiscal (budget) revenues, far beyond what they can achieve by their own fiscal reforms. For this reason, SDG financing will require substantial international cooperation to enable the LIDCs to finance their SDG fiscal outlays. One important source of increased revenues should be the globally coordinated taxation of ultra-high-net worth assets. Today’s ultra-rich should help to pay for the survival and basic needs of the world’s poorest people.
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In 2017, $37.4 billion of development assistance was provided to low- and middleincome countries to maintain or improve health. This amount is down slightly compared to 2016, and since 2010, development assistance for health (DAH) has grown at an annualized rate of 1.0%. While global development ass
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istance for health has seemingly leveled off, global health spending continues to climb, outpacing economic growth in many countries. Total health spending for 2015, the most recent year for which data are available, was estimated to be $9.7 trillion (95% uncertainty interval: 9.7–9.8)*, up 4.7% (3.9–5.6) from the prior year, and accounted for 10% of the world’s total economy. With some sources of health spending growing and other types remaining steady, and with major variations in spending from country to country, it is more important than ever to understand where resources for health come from, where they go, and how they align with health needs. This information is critical for planning and is a necessary catalyst for change as we aim to close the gap on the unfinished agenda of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and move forward toward universal health coverage (UHC) in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) era.
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Background:Neonatal mortality accounts for 43% of global under-five deaths and is decreasing more slowly than maternal or child mortality. Donor funding has increased for maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH), but no analysis to date has disaggregated aid for newborns. We evaluated if and how a
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id flows for newborn care can be tracked, examined changes in the last decade, and considered methodological implications for tracking funding for specific population groups or diseases. MethodsandFindings:We critically reviewed and categorised previous analyses of aid to specific populations, diseases, or types of activities. We then developed and refined key terms related to newborn survival in seven languages and searched titles and descriptions of donor disbursement records in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Creditor Reporting System database, 2002–2010. We compared results with the Countdown to 2015 database of aid for MNCH (2003–2008) and the search strategy used by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Prior to 2005, key terms related to newborns were rare in disbursement records but their frequency increased markedly thereafter. Only two mentions were found of ‘‘stillbirth’’ and only nine references were found to ‘‘fetus’’ in any spelling variant or language
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Oral health is defined as the absence of disease and a status that ensures optimal functioning of the mouth and its tissues in a manner preserving the highest level of function and self-esteem. Oral health enables an individual to eat, speak and socialise having no active disease, discomfort or disc
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ouragement thus contributing to the general well-being. Good oral health is an essential component of general health and a right of every person1. Poor oral health has a negative impact on general health, work productivity, educational performance and adversely affects growth and development.
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Financing Global Health 2013: Transition in an Age of Austerity, IHME’s fifth annual report on global health expenditure, depicts financing trends that underline the resilience of development assistance for health. This year’s updated estimates show that despite lackluster economic growth and fi
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scal cutbacks in many developed countries, total assistance remained steady, reaching an all-time high of $31.3 billion in 2013. While annual increases have leveled off since 2010, continued international funding is a sign of the international development community’s enduring support for global health.
The report also shows shifts in sources of financing. As funding from many bilateral donors and development banks has declined, growth in funding from the GAVI Alliance, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, non-governmental organizations, and the UK government is counteracting these cuts. Development assistance for different health issues is tracked up to 2011, revealing that the greatest increase in funding was for maternal, newborn, and child health.
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: Development assistance for health (DAH) is one of the most important means for Japan to promote
diplomacy with developing countries and contribute to the international community. This study, for the first time,
estimated the gross disbursement of Japan’s DAH from 2012 to 2016 and clarified its
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flows, including source, aid
type, channel, target region, and target health focus area
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Development assistance for health (DAH) is an important part of financing healthcare in low- and middle-income countries. We estimated the gross disbursement of DAH of the 29 Development Assistance Committee (DAC) member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
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for 2011–2019; and clarified its flows, including aid type,
channel, target region, and target health focus area. Data from the OECD iLibrary were used. The DAH definition was based on the OECD sector classification. For core funding to non-healthspecific multilateral agencies, we estimated DAH and its flows based on the OECD methodology for
calculating imputed multilateral official development assistance (ODA).
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Cardiovascular diseases, principally ischemic heart disease (IHD), are the most important cause of death and disability in the majority of low- and lower-middle-income countries (LLMICs). In these countries, IHD mortality rates are significantly greater in individuals of a low socioeconomic status (
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SES).
Three important focus areas for decreasing IHD mortality among those of low SES in LLMICs are (1) acute coronary care; (2) cardiac rehabilitation and secondary prevention; and (3) primary prevention. Greater mortality in low SES patients with acute coronary syndrome is due to lack of awareness of symptoms in patients and primary care physicians, delay in reaching healthcare facilities, non-availability of thrombolysis and coronary revascularization, and the non-affordability of expensive medicines (statins, dual anti-platelets, renin-angiotensin system blockers). Facilities for rapid diagnosis and accessible and affordable long-term care at secondary and tertiary care hospitals for IHD care are needed. A strong focus on the social determinants of health (low education, poverty, working and living conditions), greater healthcare financing, and efficient primary care is required. The quality of primary prevention needs to be improved with initiatives to eliminate tobacco and trans-fats and to reduce the consumption of alcohol, refined carbohydrates, and salt along with the promotion of healthy foods and physical activity. Efficient primary care with a focus on management of blood pressure, lipids and diabetes is needed. Task sharing with community health workers, electronic decision support systems, and use of fixed-dose combinations of blood pressure-lowering drugs and statins can substantially reduce risk factors and potentially lead to large reductions in IHD. Finally, training of physicians, nurses, and health workers in IHD prevention should be strengthened.
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A year ago, the second Special Session of the World Health Assembly (WHASS) unanimously agreed to start a diplomatic process for a new binding instrument aimed at ensuring the international community is better prepared for the next health emergencies. The establishment of an Intergovernmental Negoti
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ating Body (INB) at the WHO paved the terrain for a proper negotiation, which has started to unfold. The INB will be releasing the “conceptual zero draft” of the treaty text in early December 2022.
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The annual Development Co-operation Report brings new evidence, analysis and ideas on
sustainable development to members of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) and the international community more broadly. The objectives are to promote best practices and innovation in development co-ope
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ration and to inform and shape policy reform and behaviour change to realise better lives and the Sustainable Development Goals for all
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Air pollution is a major environmental risk factor and contributor to chronic, noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). However, most public health approaches to NCD prevention focus on behavioural and biomedical risk factors, rather than environmental risk factors such as air pollution. This article discus
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ses the implications of such a focus. It then outlines the opportunities for those in public health and environmental science to work together across three key areas to address air pollution, NCDs and climate change: (a) acknowledging the shared drivers, including corporate determinants; (b) taking a ‘co-benefits’ approach to NCD prevention; and (c) expanding prevention research and evaluation methods through investing in systems thinking and intersectoral, cross-disciplinary collaborations.
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