Reducing the global suicide mortality rate by a third by 2030 is a target of both the UN Sustainable Development Goals and ...o-highlight medbox">the WHO Global Mental Health Action Plan. However, an impediment to meeting this goal is the fact that suicide and suicide attempts remain illegal in at least 23 countries worldwide. Decriminalization of suicide and suicide attempts represents one critical step governments can take in their efforts to prevent suicide. The WHO Policy Brief on the health aspects of decriminalization of suicide and suicide attempts cites data and research to make a case for decriminalizing suicide globally. It also includes case examples from countries that have recently decriminalized suicide and suicide attempts — Guyana and Pakistan, Singapore,— providing important insights to policy-makers, legislators, parliamentarians and other decision-makers.
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This technical brief was developed by the UNFPA Global Ageing Network to complement the UN Depar...tment of Economic and Social Affairs' (UN DESA) Issue Brief: Older Persons and COVID-19, which emphasized the humanitarian imperative of addressing older persons' specific needs within preparedness and response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The standards define 10 key competencies for health and care workers to support self-care in their clinical practice as well as the specific, measu...rable behaviours that demonstrate those competencies, focusing on people-centredness; decision-making; effective communication; collaboration; evidence-informed practice, and personal conduct.
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This Global Competency Standards sets the benchmark for the health workforce in providing equali...ty of care to refugees and migrants. Refugee and migrant populations are highly diverse, with significant variation in life experiences, health needs and access to health care. The standards described outline expected behaviours of health workers in delivering quality care to refugees and migrants and can be used to inform the outcomes of education programmes aligned with standards for care. The Competency Standards is designed to provide a foundation to support the development of competency-based curricula tailored to the local context and for health workers to achieve a minimum level of competence. The importance of person-centred, culturally responsive care is emphasized in the nine competency standards, which recognize the need for health workers to be trained, supported and empowered within strong health systems
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Lancet Public health 2022 January 6, 2022 https://doi.org/10.1016/ S2468-2667(21)00249-8
Growth in the number of individuals living with dementia underscores ...box">the need for public health planning efforts and policy to address the needs of this group. Country-level estimates can be used to inform national planning efforts and decisions. Multifaceted approaches, including scaling up interventions to address modifiable risk factors and investing in research on biological mechanisms, will be key in addressing the expected increases in the number of individuals affected by dementia.
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Learnings from the COVID-19 evidence response and recommendations for the future.
Reflections and recommendations from the evidence synthesis com...munity.
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In 2017, the World Bank and partners created the Global Investment Framework for Nutrition as a roadmap towards achieving ...-highlight medbox">the World Health Assembly (WHA) nutrition targets by 2025. The framework estimates that the world needs to mobilize an annual additional investment of $7 billion per year to scale-up nutrition-specific interventions at the level needed to achieve the global targets. However, the world is off-track to meet the global targets. And it is unclear whether additional resources will be mobilized for life-saving and cost-effective nutrition-specific interventions, or whether donor support will be enough to meet the annual resource need established by the framework.
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A systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. The Lancet Vol.399 Issue 10341 p.2129-2154
Human resources for ...tribute-to-highlight medbox">health (HRH) include a range of occupations that aim to promote or improve human health. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the WHO Health Workforce 2030 strategy have drawn attention to the importance of HRH for achieving policy priorities such as universal health coverage (UHC). Although previous research has found substantial global disparities in HRH, the absence of comparable cross-national estimates of existing workforces has hindered efforts to quantify workforce requirements to meet health system goals. We aimed to use comparable and standardised data sources to estimate HRH densities globally, and to examine the relationship between a subset of HRH cadres and UHC effective coverage performance.
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The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) showed
that global commitment and collective action
could significantly reduce the disease burdens of
th...ree deadly communicable diseases: HIV/AIDS,
tuberculosis (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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2018 monitoring report: current status and strategic priorities
The report sets out the status of women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health...span>, and on health systems and social and environmental determinants. Regional dashboards on 16 key indicators highlight where progress is being made or lagging. There is progress overall, but not at the level required to achieve the 2030 goals. There are some areas where progress has stalled or is reversing, namely neonatal mortality, gender inequalities and health in humanitarian settings.
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Lancet Glob Health 2018 Published Online September 12, 2018 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(18)30409-1
Annals of Global Health,Vol.81,No.2, 239-247
At the 2008 inaugural meeting of the Consortium of... Universities for Global Health (CUGH),participants discussed the rapid expansion of global health programs and the lack of standardized competencies and curricula to guide these programs. In 2013, CUGH appointed a Global Health Competency Subcommittee and charged this subcommittee with identifying broad global health core competencies applicable across disciplines
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The Mexico Declaration for Circulatory Health brings together global health
organizations commi...tted to improving circulatory health and reducing deaths and disability from heart disease and stroke around the world. These diseases presently represent the biggest health burden world-wide, accounting for over 17 million deaths every year. We are united around existing global strategies and targets to reduce the burden of heart disease and stroke. We are committed to achieving the World Health Organization (WHO) “25 by 25” non-communicable disease (NCD) targets, and the United Nations’ NCDrelated Sustainable Development Goals, based on known, effective and affordable
interventions for secondary prevention, primary prevention and primordial prevention in populations. As heart disease and stroke make up half of all NCD deaths, our efforts, working together as the international cardiovascular community, are central to achieving these global goals.
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Policy Note #3: Myanmar Health Systems in Transition Policy Notes Series
A network of basic health facilities has been established in each of ...the 330 townships, covering both rural and urban areas. For the vast majority of Myanmar’s people, particularly the 70% who reside in rural areas, the township health system (THS) is the only government-funded source of preventive, promotive and curative services.
To achieve the national policy objective of progressing towards universal health coverage (UHC) through a primary health-care approach by 2030, the THS is critical to success. It is responsible for the bulk of health care delivery – particularly in rural areas – and is at the heart of national health development in Myanmar. However, if the THS is to be the backbone of health care provision, it currently suffers from a severe case of osteoporosis.
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Lancet Glob Health 2018, Published Online September 12, 2018 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(18)30387-5
2nd edition.
The tool kit provides learning objects and curricular content to support the competencies for those proficiency/trainee levels
Germany has become a visible actor in global health in the past 10 years. In this Series paper, we describe how this development complements a broa...d change in perspective in German foreign policy.
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The Planetary Health Education Framework is a project of the Planetary Health Alliance (planetar...yhealthalliance.org). The Planetary Health Alliance is a consortium of over 250 partners from around the world committed to understanding and addressing the human health impacts of global environmental change
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This fourth WHO report on neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) reviews the progress made towards achieving the Roadmap targets for 2020, noting the r...emaining challenges, then looks beyond 2020 to evaluate the changing global health and development landscape, considering the implications of integrating these diseases into the broader 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
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WHO/Europe has launched a new guide, providing support to countries on how to apply behavioural and cultural insights (BCI) for health. It presents a simple step-wise approach, complemented by a rich collection of detailed considerations, tools and ...exercises. The guide is the first of its kind, specifically developed for use by public health professionals developing policies, services and communications informed by BCI across health topics.
Some of the most persistent public health challenges involve human behaviour. Using a BCI lens means that health policies, services and communications can be tailored to the needs and circumstances of people and communities, and thereby help combat these challenges. The new Tailoring Health Programmes (THP) guide describes how this can be done.
Building on several topic-specific guides that focused on applying BCI to routine and influenza vaccination and tackling antimicrobial resistance, as well as external evaluations and a rigorous peer-review process, this guide is the result of over a decade of work by WHO/Europe. The THP approach has already been adopted in over 20 countries and has received positive feedback from public health agencies.
“This guide is the culmination of a decade of work involving many colleagues at country, regional and global levels. The guide is our “BCI bible”, guiding our work with and in countries to help tackle persistent health challenges,” said Katrine Bach Habersaat, Regional Advisor for BCI at WHO/Europe.
Karina Godoy, Senior Analyst and National Focal Point for Behavioural Insights at the Public Health Agency of Sweden, who is employing the approach described in the guide across several health projects, comments: “The THP guide is easy to use and at the same time provides detailed guidance and inspiration where needed. We have decided to translate the document into Swedish and use the approach widely”.
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