A discussion paper on the scope of the problem, its drivers, and strategies for moving forward for policy, practice, and research
In many protracted emergencies, the prevalence rates of global acute malnutrition (GAM) regularly exceed the emergency threshold of > 15% of children with acute malnutri...tion (< -2 weight-for-height z-scores (WHZ) or with nutritional edema), despite ongoing humanitarian interventions. The widespread scale and long-lasting nature of “persistent GAM” means that it is a policy and programming priority.
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The Strategic Plan of Action and Budget 2016-2025 for the elimination of onchocerciasisin countries was prepared based on the above dlrective for the consideration of IAF 18.The vision of the plan of action is to eliminate onchocerciasis in 80 percent of Africancountries. Implementation of the plan ...will also help strengthen health systems at community level while implementing CDI wlll help scale-up interventions agalnst other NTDs to the benefit of the wider national health systems.
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“2022 was an eventful year for the WHO Country Office in Ghana,” says Dr Francis Kasolo, WHO Representative to Ghana.
In 2022, WHO Ghana collaborated with partners to deliver interventions in support of the Government of Ghana's health sector agenda to ensure healthy lives for all towards ach...ieving Universal Health Coverage. This 2022 annual report highlights some of the achievements that were chalked in our efforts to help promote the health and wellbeing of Ghanaians
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2023 is seeing intense heatwaves. According to a July 2023 briefing by the World Meteorological Association temperatures will frequently reach above 35–40°C in many places across the Mediterranean region, with temperatures in the Middle East and southeastern Türkiye reaching up to 45°C and, in ...North Africa, 44–49°C. April–May 2023 also saw temperature records broken across many parts of Asia, including Thailand, Laos and Myanmar.
The IPCC predicts that 420 million people will be exposed to extreme heat and heatwaves in the near future. Hundreds of thousands of people die from preventable heat-related causes each year, while temperature extremes and wildfires cause devastation to lives and livelihoods. According to the WMO, ‘heatwaves are amongst the deadliest natural hazards [and] heat is a rapidly growing health risk’.
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The 2021 Financing for Sustainable Development Report responds to the request made by Member States to review the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on nancing for sustainable development, and to propose recommendations to rebuild better. The report underlines the need for policy actions to ensure e e...ctive support until the recovery is rmly underway. Its thematic chapter discusses the systemic and interlinked nature of risk in a tightly intertwined world, and the importance of providing nancing for risk reduction and resilience and nancing that is risk-informed and resilient. With the collaboration of more than 60 agencies of the United Nations system and partner international organizations, the report provides much needed guidance to Member States to take action towards a more resilient future.
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Background: Mental health has recently gained increasing attention on global health and development agendas, including calls for an increase in international funding. Few studies have previously characterized official development assistance for mental health (DAMH) in a nuanced and differentiated ma...nner in order to support future funding efforts. Methods: Data from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development Creditor Reporting System were obtained through keyword searches. Projects were manually reviewed and categorized into projects dedicated entirely to mental health and projects that mention mental health (as one of many aims). Analysis of donor, recipient, and sector characteristics within and between categories was undertaken cumulatively and yearly.
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The thirty-seventh meeting of the Programme, Budget and Administration Committee was held in Geneva from 25 to 27 January 2023 and chaired by Ms Aishath Rishmee (Maldives). The Committee adopted its agenda and agreed its programme of work. In his opening remarks, the Director-General emphasized the ...crucial work on the financial future of the Organization, most significantly implementation of the Programme budget 2022−2023 and development of the Proposed programme budget 2024−2025, which would be the first to benefit from the agreed increase in assessed contributions. He welcomed the work of the Agile Member States Task Group on Strengthening WHO’s Budgetary, Programmatic and Financing Governance with its recommendations for long-term improvements in reform, prevention of and response to sexual abuse and harassment, new web-based information portals and a new replenishment process for consideration by Member States. Efforts were also under way to improve impact at country level, and he would continue to report to Member States on progress. He was heading an agile, proactive and fast-responding WHO, committed to implementing plans approved by Member States.
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To support the achievement of health equity in the Region, the regional inter-agency movement Every Woman Every Child Latin America and the Caribbean (EWEC-LAC) advocates for and supports the use of equity and evidence-based policies, strategies and interventions to accelerate equitable progress in ...the health of women, children and adolescents. Although progress has been made, great inequities persist. Women from the LAC region’s poorest countries are almost four times more likely to die due to complications during childbirth than those living in the wealthiest countries. Through the years, several tools, instruments and methods (TIMs) have been developed by global, regional and country partners that can be used to conduct systematic equity-based analyses and/or re-designs of health systems, programs, strategies and interventions. The main purpose of this document is to present an overview of existing TIMs that can be used by policymakers, program managers, development partners, nongovernmental organizations, academia and civil society partners to strengthen systematic identification, analysis and responding to social inequities in the health of women, children and adolescents in LAC. The TIMs included were identified through a systematic search process
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The COVID-19 pandemic has had unprecedented public health, economic, and social impacts on the international community, and prompted an unprecedented range and size of policy actions globally. Collective efforts, at national, regional, and global levels, were called for to contain and mitigate such ...impacts. The public health response measures alone proved to be insufficient, calling for additional socio-economic policy interventions such as ring-fencing economic activities to contain the spread of the virus. Faced with devastating socio-economic costs, all possible sources of financing, both public and private, have been explored.
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Strategic communication is at the heart of public health and more important than ever in the digital age. Using communication strategically requires expertise, skills and resources to plan, implement and evaluate interventions that encourage governments to implement policies that improve people’s ...lives and well-being, that empower health workers to deliver the best care possible, and that encourage people to take actions that protect and improve their health and that of their family and community. This Regional Action Framework on Communication for Health (C4H) aims to support Member States in implementing the C4H approach. It outlines steps to be taken by WHO and Member States to use C4H to achieve shared public health goals in the Western Pacific.
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Health systems in Latin America face many challenges in controlling the increasing burden of diabetes. Digital health interventions are a promise for the provision of care, especially in developing countries where mobile technology has a high penetration. This study evaluated the effectiveness of th...e implementation of a Diabetes Program (DP) that included digital health interventions to improve the quality of care of persons with type 2 Diabetes (T2DM) in a vulnerable population attending the public primary care network.
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The workshop aimed to support countries in the prioritization and acceleration of NCD prevention and management with a specific focus on accelerating the prevention and control of hypertension and diabetes, identifying the most impactful NCD interventions within their context, closing the gaps in ca...ncer care services through regional collaboration and integrating NCD services in when responding to emergencies.
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An essential component of the return process is counselling, which aims to support counselling beneficiaries to make an informed decision on their future migration pathways. Counselling provides the space for migrants to exert their agency, supports them to prepare for return and positively contr...ibutes to their reintegration in countries of origin. The question of how to prepare and provide return counselling is of significant concern for all actors involved in the return process itself, but until
now very little has been done to offer a standardized approach to return counselling. The Return Counselling Toolkit intends to address this question and proposes a rights-based and migrant-centred approach to return counselling, which builds upon
IOM standards and the Organization’s long-standing experience in providing return and reintegration counselling to thousands of migrants every year, in a multiplicity of countries and contexts.
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Key stakeholders must be involved in the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of NCD plans and programmes. Within a ministry of health there will be different types of stakeholders, such as programme managers and senior managers in departments of prevention, health promotion, and hosp...ital and health services. Other stakeholders may come from ministries for transport, economics, agriculture, and education, funding partners, nongovernmental organizations, civil society and community members. It is critical to ensure that there are clear and accurate descriptions of the policies, plans and programmes, so that all interventions, activities and desired outcomes are clearly understood by all involved in their evaluation.
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Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), including mental disorders, currently pose one of the biggest threats to health and development globally, particularly in low and middle income countries2. It is predicted that unless proven interventions are rapidly implemented in countries, in the short to medium ...term, health care costs will increase exponentially and severe negative consequences will ensue not only to individuals and families but to whole societies and economies. NCDs are already a major burden in South Africa, but without added rigorous and timely action the health and development consequences may well become catastrophic. Immediate and additional, high quality, evidence based and focussed interventions are needed to promote health, prevent disease and provide more effective and equitable care and treatment for people living with NCDs at all levels of the health system. The problem is further compounded by the rising global prevalence of multi-morbidity (defined as the coexistence of two or more chronic diseases in one individual).
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Public health emergencies, including pandemics, highlight the need for health systems and services that are prepared, resilient and ready to respond to health security threats. Endorsed by Member States in 2023, the Asia Pacific Health Security Action Framework (APHSAF) is designed to engage m...ultisectoral actors in health security, and to reflect the complex nature of current and future public health emergencies. The Framework presents six interconnected, multisectoral domains of work that together form a comprehensive, multi-hazard health security system — emphasizing the One Health approach. The Framework also supports progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals and universal health coverage while meeting the responsibilities and obligations of the International Health Regulations (2005).
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The article outlines the prioritized research agenda for the prevention and control of chronic respiratory diseases (CRDs) as part of the World Health Organization's (WHO) action plan on noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) from 2008 to 2013. It highlights the significant global impact of CRDs, including... asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and other related conditions, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The document stresses the need for effective prevention strategies and better surveillance, as well as enhanced healthcare infrastructure and resources in LMICs. It calls for research into CRD risk factors, effective interventions, and integrated care approaches that align with broader NCD prevention programs. The article emphasizes the importance of public health initiatives and cross-sector collaborations to reduce the disease burden and improve patient outcomes.
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The guidance document provides a set of indicators for assessing the status of development, implementation and monitoring of key policy interventions for prevention and control of NCDs and injuries. It promotes city-level evidence based decision-making processes to identify gaps and take appropriate...s actions to strengthen responses. Additionally, using the standardized indicators can facilitate cross-city learning, sharing best practices and lessons learnt in implementing various policy interventions.
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The active participation and engagement of health and care workers (HCWs) in health emergency preparedness, readiness and response is crucial to support risk communication, community engagement and infodemic management (RCCE-IM) interventions during emergencies. HCWs hold unique position...s in society – repeatedly being identified among the main influencers of people’s behaviours: they are one of the most trusted sources of health information and advice in communities and role models for the acceptance and uptake of protective measures during health emergencies. On the frontline, HCWs have valuable insights and knowledge that can be harnessed to support health emergencies across the entire emergency cycle. Between October and December 2023, the WHO Regional Office for Europe interviewed key informants on strategies and experiences to meaningfully engage HCWs during emergencies
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Healthy Settings, a key component of Malawi’s Health Sector Strategic Plan (HSSP) 2011–2016, is the World Health Organization’s (WHO) holistic community-led approach to achieving health improvement by addressing social determinants of health, an approach which is central to the current WHO fra...mework on integrated people-centred health services. Healthy Settings projects by their construct have many different components which vary from one group and community to another depending on their priorities: from housing, hospital improvements and waste management to “softer” interventions like leadership skills training and health promotion. It can be challenging to find relevant indicators to monitor and assess the impact of such a complex holistic project, this paper explores if social capital data can provide useful impact assessment indicators at the start of such a project.
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