PeerJ PrePrints , http://dx.doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.579v1 2 Nov 2014
Evidence from Low and Middle Income Countries
This paper reviews the effects of vertical responses to COVID-19 on health systems, services, and people’s access to and use of them in LMICs, where historic and ongoing under-investments heighten... vulnerability to a multiplicity of health threats. We use the term ‘vertical response’ to describe decisions, measures and actions taken solely with the purpose of preventing and containing COVID-19, often without adequate consideration of how this affects the wider health system and pre-existing resource constraints.
more
The international reconstruction effort in Afghanistan after 2001 created an opportunity to advance human rights, and women’s and girls’ rights in particular. Although its achievements have fallen short of what was envisioned, significant improv...ements in legal protections have emerged through the adoption of new and revised laws, the founding and growth of legal aid organizations, and the training of a cadre of women lawyers, prosecutors, and judges.
more
This report is part of the gender and noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) initiative launched by the WHO Regional Office for Europe, which aims to strengthen the response to NCDs through a gender approach. It is part ...medbox">of a series of country profiles and a synthesis report. The country profile of Ukraine presents a gender analysis of the WHO STEPwise survey (STEPS) data to support international commitments to reducing the burden of NCDs with evidence and knowledge exchange. A gender analysis of STEPS NCD risk-factor survey data describes how risk factors for chronic diseases differ between and among men and women by exploring and tracking the direction and magnitude of trends in risk factors and accessing services by sociodemographic variables. Important differences hide even in sex-disaggregated data that need to be unpacked through sociodemographic characteristics, because men and women are not homogenous groups. The report also recognizes gaps in evidence and calls for further analysis of the impact of gender-based inequalities.
more
Driving progress towards rabies elimination: Results of Gavi’s Learning Agenda on rabies and new WHO position on rabies immunization
This report examines the support to private healthcare provision in India by the World Bank’s private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC). Despite supporting private healthcare in the country since 1997, no healthcare results for lending and investments have been disclosed sinc...e the start of these operations over twenty-five years ago. The IFC has overwhelmingly invested in high-end urban hospitals which are out of reach for the majority of Indians. Several have consistently failed to provide free healthcare to poor patients despite this being a condition under which free or subsidized public land was allotted to these hospitals. Supporting private healthcare in a context where 37% of Indians experience catastrophic health expenditures in private hospitals appears to run counter to the World Bank Group’s focus on poverty reduction. These investments do not contribute to the building of stronger healthcare infrastructure or respond to unmet healthcare needs. Only 14% of IFC-financed hospitals are located in the 10 states ranked lowest in terms of the overall performance of the health system. Furthermore, we found many instances where regulators upheld complaints pertaining to violations of patients’ rights by these hospitals including overcharging, denial of healthcare, price rigging, financial conflict of interest and medical negligence.
more
An ICRC Guidance Document
This study examines the gendered impacts of the Ebola virus disease (EVD) in Liberia in the largest outbreak of EVD ever recorded. The findings are based on an extensive two-week desk study and one-...week participatory field study conducted in January 2015 in the cities of Monrovia and Buchanan in Liberia
more
The 65-page report names more than 15 commanders and officials from both the government Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and the rebel SPLA-in Opposition and their allies who have used child soldiers. The report is based on interviews with 101 child soldiers who were either forcibly recruited... or joined forces to protect themselves and their communities. They said they lived for months without enough food, far away from family, and were thrown into terrifying gun battles in which they were injured and saw friends killed. Children also expressed deep regret that they had lost time they should have spent in school.
more