Elderly people are at a higher risk of COVID-19 infection due to their decreased immunity and body reserves, as well as multiple associated comorbidities like diabetes, hypertension, chronic kidney disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Also, course of disease tends to be more severe in ...case of elderlies resulting in higher mortality.
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The cholera outbreak has affected 14 countries in the WHO African Region. The climate-induced natural disasters such as cyclone and flooding in the southern African region and drought in the Horn of Africa led to increase in cases of cholera in many of the affected countries. With the rainy season c...ommencement in the west African region there is risk of more cholera outbreaks on the horizon. The trend across the region is being closely monitored and this highlights the need for Member States to enhance readiness, heighten surveillance and institute preventive and control measures in communities and around border crossings to prevent and mitigate cross border infection. Since 1 January 2022, a cumulative number of 213 443 cholera cases has been reported to the WHO Regional Office for Africa (AFRO), including 3 951 deaths with a case fatality ratio (CFR) of 1.9% as of 16 July 2023 (Table 1). Malawi accounts for 28% (58 941) of the total cases and 45% (1 766) of all deaths reported, and together with Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique, and Nigeria contribute to 85% (181 300) of the overall caseload and 88% (3 464) of cumulative deaths. In Epidemiologic week 28, six countries Burundi, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi and Mozambique reported a total of 667 new cases.
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Background:Tracking aid fl ows helps to hold donors accountable and to compare the allocation of resources in relation to health need. With the use of data reported by donors in 2015, we provided estimates of offi cial development assistance and grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (coll...ectively termed ODA+) to reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health for 2013 and complete trends in reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health support for the period 2003–13. Methods: We coded and analysed fi nancial disbursements to reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health to all recipient countries from all donors reporting to the creditor reporting system database for the year 2013. We also revisited disbursement records for the years 2003–08 and coded disbursements relating to reproductive and sexual health activities resulting in the Countdown dataset for 2003–13. We matched this dataset to the 2015 creditor reporting system dataset and coded any unmatched creditor reporting system records. We analysed trends in ODA+ to reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health for the period 2003–13, trends in donor contributions, disbursements to recipient countries, and targeting to need.
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The 2022 Aid Transparency Index reveals that more aid organisations than ever before are publishing good quality information and score “very good” or “good” in the global ranking. However, the whole data set could be under threat as the Aid Transparency Index, the only tool driving tangible ...improvements in data quality, is set to close for lack of funding.
Produced by Publish What You Fund, the Index is the only independent measure of aid transparency among the world’s major aid donors. At a time of climate, hunger, health and debt crises, and some worrying trends in the way official development assistance (ODA) is counted, transparency is more important than ever.
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Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will require the international community to mobilize significant additional financing over the next decade. Tracking and analyzing this funding is central to measuring progress and making more informed choices to direct financial flows where they wi...ll have the greatest impact. This brief highlights AidData’s updated methodology to track financing to the SDGs, providing a baseline of funding for the years immediately before and after their launch. To track SDG-related financing, we build on our 2017 pilot methodology. Using data from the OECD CRS database on all official development assistance between 2010 and 2016, we identify individual projects that are linked to specific SDG goals or targets and then quantify total financing by SDG. This brief highlights four countries that represent different development contexts and trajectories, exploring how a country’s individual context impacts its SDG-related donor funding by examining the composition of funding and financing trends. We also look at SDG financing from the perspective of donors to see how their own interests are reflected in development portfolios across different countries.
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The majority of Countdown countries did not reach the fourth Millennium Development Goal (MDG 4) on reducing child mortality, despite the fact that donor funding to the health sector has drastically increased. When tracking aid invested in child survival, previous studies have exclusively focused on... aid targeting reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health (RMNCH). We take a multi-sectoral approach and extend the estimation to the four sectors that determine child survival: health (RMNCH and non-RMNCH), education, water and sanitation, and food and humanitarian assistance (Food/HA). Methods and findings: Using donor reported data, obtained mainly from the OECD Creditor Reporting System and Development Assistance Committee, we tracked the level and trends of aid (in grants or loans) disbursed to each of the four sectors at the global, regional, and country levels. We performed detailed analyses on missing data and conducted imputation with various methods. To identify aid projects for RMNCH, we developed an identification strategy that combined keyword searches and manual coding. To quantify aid for RMNCH in projects with multiple purposes, we adopted an integrated approach and produced the lower and upper bounds of estimates for RMNCH, so as to avoid making assumptions or using weak evidence for allocation. We checked the sensitivity of trends to the estimation methods and compared our estimates to that produced by other studies. Our study yielded time-series and recipient-specific annual estimates of aid disbursed to each sector, as well as their lower- and upper-bounds in 134 countries between 2000 and 2014, with a specific focus on Countdown countries. We found that the upper-bound estimates of total aid disbursed to the four sectors in 134 countries rose from US$ 22.62 billion in 2000 to US$ 59.29 billion in
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Background: To track donor assistance to maternal, newborn, and child health-related activities is necessary to assess progress towards Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5 and to foster donor accountability. Our aim was to analyse aid flows to maternal, newborn, and child health for 2005 and 2006 a...nd trends between 2003 and 2006.
Methods: We analysed and coded the complete aid activities database for 2005 and 2006 with methods that we developed previously to track official development assistance. For the 68 Countdown priority countries, we report two indicators for use in monitoring donor disbursements: official development assistance to child health per child and official development assistance to maternal and neonatal health per livebirth.
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Background: Achievement of high coverage of effective interventions and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 4 and 5A requires adequate financing. Many of the 68 priority countries in the Countdown to 2015 Initiative are dependent on official development assistance (ODA). We analysed aid flows for ma...ternal, newborn, and child health for 2007 and 2008 and updated previous estimates for 2003–06.
Methods: We manually coded and analysed the complete aid activities database of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development for 2007 and 2008 with methods that we previously developed to track ODA. By use of newly available data for donor disbursement and population estimates, we revised data for 2003–06. We analysed the degree to which donors target their ODA to recipients with the greatest maternal and child health needs and examined trends over the 6 years.
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Background: Tracking of financial resources to maternal, newborn, and child health provides crucial information to assess accountability of donors. We analysed official development assistance (ODA) flows to maternal, newborn, and child health for 2009 and 2010, and assessed progress since our monito...ring began in 2003.
Methods: We coded and analysed all 2009 and 2010 aid activities from the database of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, according to a functional classification of activities and whether all or a proportion of the value of the disbursement contributed towards maternal, newborn, and child health. We analysed trends since 2003, and reported two indicators for monitoring donor disbursements: ODA to child health per child and ODA to maternal and newborn health per livebirth. We analysed the degree to which donors allocated ODA to 74 countries with the highest maternal and child mortality rates (Countdown priority countries) with time and by type of donor.
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Background: Tracking of aid resources to reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health (RMNCH) provides timely and crucial information to hold donors accountable. For the first time, we examine flows in official development assistance (ODA) and grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (co...llectively termed ODA+) in relation to the continuum of care for RMNCH and assess progress since 2003. Methods: We coded and analysed financial disbursements for maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) and for reproductive health (R*) to all recipient countries worldwide from all donors reporting to the creditor reporting system database for the years 2011–12. We also included grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. We analysed trends for MNCH for the period 2003–12 and for R* for the period 2009–12.
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Background: The need for sufficient and reliable funding to support health policy and systems research (HPSR) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) has been widely recognised. Currently, most resources to support such activities come from traditional development assistance for health (DAH) don...ors; however, few studies have examined the levels, trends, sources and national recipients of such support – a gap this research seeks to address. Method: Using OECD’s Creditor Reporting System database, we classified donor funding commitments using a keyword analysis of the project-level descriptions of donor supported projects to estimate total funding available for HPSR-related activities annually from bilateral and multilateral donors, as well as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to LMICs over the period 2000–2014.
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An adequate amount of prepaid resources for health is important to ensure access to health services and for the pursuit of universal health coverage. Previous studies on global health financing have described the relationship between economic development and health financing. In this study, we furth...er explore global health financing trends and examine how the sources of funds used, types of services purchased, and development assistance for health disbursed change with economic development. We also identify countries that deviate from the trends.
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While there has been real progress in addressing the burden of disease in the WHO African region, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the link between health, economics and security, as the region saw decades of progress threatened, including positive trends in decreasing inequality. In the Africa...n Region the momentum towards achieving the 2030 SDG disease burden reduction targets (SDG targets 3.3, 3.4 and 3B) has stalled.
The COVID-19 pandemic was also a major threat to gains made, such as the eradication of polio in the region, declared in 2020; reduced numbers of new HIV infections in 2021 compared to 2010; and passing the 2020 milestone of the End TB Strategy, with a 22% reduction in new cases compared with 2015. However, the pandemic also disrupted essential health services in 92% of countries globally, 22.7 million children missed basic immunization, there was an increase in malaria and TB, and global deaths from TB rose for the first time since 2015.
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Four initiatives have estimated the value of aid for reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health
(RMNCH): Countdown to 2015, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), the Muskoka Initiative, and
the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) policy marker. We... aimed to compare the
estimates, trends, and methodologies of these initiatives and make recommendations for future aid tracking.
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The rapid spread of COVID-19 renewed the focus on how health systems across the globe are financed,
especially during public health emergencies. Development assistance is an important source of health financing in
many low-income countries, yet little is known about how much of this funding was di...sbursed for COVID-19. We
aimed to put development assistance for health for COVID-19 in the context of broader trends in global health
financing, and to estimate total health spending from 1995 to 2050 and development assistance for COVID-19 in 2020.
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Over the past two decades, China has become a distinctive and increasingly important donor of development assistance for health (DAH). However, little is known about what factors influence China’s priority-setting for DAH. In this study, we provide an updated analysis of trends in the priorities o...f Chinese DAH and compare them to comparable trends among OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) donors using data from the AidData’s Global Chinese Development Finance Dataset (2000–2017, version 2.0) and the Creditor Reporting System (CRS) database (2000–2017). We also analyse Chinese medical aid exports before and after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic using a Chinese Aid Exports Database.
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Asia remained the world’s most disaster-hit region from weather, climate and water-related hazards in 2023. Floods and storms caused the highest number of reported casualties and economic losses, whilst the impact of heatwaves became more severe, according to a new report from the World Meteorolog...ical Organization (WMO).
The State of the Climate in Asia 2023 report highlighted the accelerating rate of key climate change indicators such as surface temperature, glacier retreat and sea level rise, which will have major repercussions for societies, economies and ecosystems in the region.
In 2023, sea-surface temperatures in the north-west Pacific Ocean were the highest on record. Even the Arctic Ocean suffered a marine heatwave.
Asia is warming faster than the global average. The warming trend has nearly doubled since the 1961–1990 period.
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The Global status report on alcohol and health and treatment of substance use disorders presents a comprehensive overview of alcohol consumption, alcohol-related harm and policy responses as well as treatment capacities for alcohol and drug use disorders worldwide. The report is based on data collec...ted by WHO from Member States and organized in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals health target 3.5 which calls on countries to strengthen “the prevention and treatment of substance abuse, including narcotic drug abuse and harmful use of alcohol”. The chapter on alcohol and health continues the series of WHO global status reports on alcohol and health and presents the latest available data on the status of, and trends in, alcohol consumption, as well as estimates of the alcohol-attributable disease burden and descriptions of policy responses worldwide. On the basis of data collected from countries on the treatment of substance use disorders the report describes the status of key components of treatment responses to alcohol and drug use disorders and proposes a new service capacity index for these disorders as an additional contextual indicator for monitoring progress in this domain of SDG health target 3.5. The report concludes with broad directions for international action to accelerate progress towards achievement of SDG health target 3.5.
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Between epidemiological weeks (EW) 1 and 22 of 2024, a total of 9,541,015 suspected cases of dengue were reported, resulting in a cumulative incidence of 1,011 per 100,000 population. This represents an increase of 230% compared to the same period in 2023 and 421% compared to the average of the last... 5 years. Figure 1 shows the trend of suspected dengue cases as of EW 22.
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