AIDSFree Case study series
This publication is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) under the terms of Cooperative Agreement AID-OAA-A-14-00046....
The contents are the responsibility of AIDSFree and do not necessarily reflect the views of PEPFAR, USAID, or the U.S. Government.
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The WHO Toolkit for the care and support of people affected by complications associated with Zika virus has been developed to serve as a model guide, with the goal of enhancing country preparedness for Zika virus outbreaks. The toolkit is intended to provide a systems approach involving public heal...th planners and managers so that the necessary infrastructure and resources can be identified and incorporated as needed, as well as technical and practical guidance for health care professionals and community workers.
The toolkit includes three manuals to provide countries with tools to effectively recognize people affected by Zika virus and deliver comprehensive care and support:
Manual for public health planners and managers
Manual for health care professionals
Manual for community workers
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The magnitude of urban disasters, high population densities, and a complex social, political and institutional environment has challenged the manner in which humanitarian agencies are used to working. Humanitarian agencies are now grappling with how to change their approaches to this reality. This d...esk review aims to provide an audit and analysis of existing needs assessments, response analysis frameworks and targeting approaches for use in urban post-conflict emergency response.
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Inerim Guidance. These guidelines have been developed in recognition that infection with Zika virus may present a risk to blood safety, and in consideration of the declaration on 1 February 2016 by the WHO Director-General of a Public Health Emergency of International Concern with regard to clusters... of microcephaly and other neurological disorders, potentially associated with Zika virus. Currently there is limited knowledge of Zika virus biology and lack of definitive evidence of a link between infection and potential complications
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The report covers possible developments in Indonesia over the next 10 months (to end 2016). Four scenarios are outlined:
Delayed Second Crop Harvest
Delayed and Reduced Second Crop Harvest
La Niña disrupts main rural sources of income
Soaring rice prices
The scenarios wer...e developed during a two-day workshop in Jakarta, Indonesia involving 21 organisations. Scenarios are a description of situations that could occur; a set of informed assumptions about a development that may require humanitarian action to support strategic planning, create awareness, provide early warning and promote preparedness activities for those responding to the crisis.
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Levels of humanitarian need continue to stagger in Yemen. Fighting sporadically escalated in different parts of the country leading to spikes in displacement and civilian casualties. As of May some 36,506 families have been displaced across Yemen since the beginning of the year. Hajjah is one of the... most conflict-affected govern orates in Yemen.Between February and May, fighting displaced 33,949 families (about203,694 people). Displaced families are scattered across more than 300sites. In the face of such displacement, UNFPA has scaled up its response and developed preparedness plans to respond to any future large-scale displacement. Through the Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM), led byUNFPA, 30,504 families were provided wither kits. UNFPA is also supporting 12 health facilities in Hajjah to provide lifesaving reproductive health services.
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Mounting an effective international humanitarian response to a chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) event, especially if the response is undertaken on an ad hoc basis, would be extremely difficult and would pose many risks to the responders. The International Committee of the Red Cro...ss (ICRC) has created a competency-based capacity to respond to at least small-scale CBRN events, including a deployable capability to undertake operational activities. This involves informed assessments of CBRN risks, timely and competent decisions on how to respond, and effectively mobilizing appropriate resources to implement these decisions, through the creation of an emergency roster. In addition to the acquisition of technical expertise and material resources, the creation of such capacity requires the application of central processes, ensuring systematic management of CBRN response (including risk-based decision-making), standing operational procedures, and availability of and access to the necessary resources. Implementation of the ICRC's CBRN response framework as described in this article should be considered by any agency or other stakeholder preparing for international humanitarian assistance in CBRN events – especially if such events are related to armed conflict.
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Objectives of the Study:
To understand the community needs, behaviors and perception for MNH in urban poor settings.
To explore various factors (both demand and supply side) affecting care seeking for MNH.
To assess the preparedness of the urban health system for providing MNH services at variou...s levels of care in terms of infrastructures at various levels of care, HR availability and capacity, logistics, drugs & equipment, referral, recording & reporting, supervision, governance and financial modalities.
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The Global Health Security Agenda programme develops national capacity to prevent zoonotic and non-zoonotic diseases while quickly and effectively detecting and controlling diseases when they do emerge. The Emerging Pandemic Threats programme improves national capacity to pre-empt the emergence and ...re-emergence of infectious zoonotic disease and to prevent the next pandemic.
Action against emerging pandemic threats is taken through projects on: Avian influenza, Middle East respiratory syndrome, Africa Sustainable Livestock 2050 and Emergency equipment stockpile. With high-impact diseases that jump from animals to humans on the rise, these programmes are reducing the risk to lives and livelihoods from national, regional and global disease spread.
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Los servicios de emergencias médicas prehospitalarias (SEM) facilitan atención inicial de soporte vital básico y/o avanzado y traslado de heridos o enfermos desde el lugar donde ocurre la emergencia hasta el centro sanitario donde le van a prestar cuidados definitivos. Los SEM también pueden pre...star traslado de pacientes desde una instalación de salud a otra de mayor nivel o complejidad, en lo que se conoce como traslado interhospitalario. Los servicios de ambulancia es el componente más conocido y puede ser prestado por diferentes proveedores que pueden ir desde departamentos de bomberos, organizaciones de voluntarios o servicios adscritos a universidades hasta hospitales que cuentan con su propio servicio de ambulancias para cubrir a sus usuarios. Los SEM prehospitalarios también incluyen otros componentes como los centros tipo 911 o los Centro Reguladores de Urgencia y Emergencias (CRUE) y los programas de primer respondiente. Todos ellos deben integrase de una forma coordinada con las redes integradas de servicios de salud para asegurar una continuidad de los cuidados de salud prestados a la persona herida o enferma. Durante emergencias de salud pública, los servicios de emergencia medicas prehospitalarias pueden verse superados por el número de llamadas o demanda de traslados médicos.
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La capacidad de respuesta de un hospital puede ser superada por la llegada masiva de pacientes que soliciten atención médica como consecuencia de una situación de emergencia. Ante este escenario, se debe considerar si el establecimiento de salud está organizado para garantizar la gestión integr...al de la respuesta hospitalaria, el funcionamiento de los mecanismos de coordinación, el manejo integral de la información, las capacidades logísticas para facilitar la respuesta, y los recursos necesarios para su ejecución, así como para una respuesta integral a los pacientes, precautelando la salud y bienestar de los trabajadores de salud. (7)
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The Government of India is embarking on a mammoth task to prevent COVID-19 spread among communities. The Rapid Evidence Synthesis team received a request to support the planning and development of resources for ensuring preparedness of FLHWs for COVID-19 . The rapid evidence synthesis was conducted ...in a period of three days.
The findings highlight what we can learn from recent pandemics such that we are prepared for potential scenarios and challenges due to COVID-19. Key issues which decision-makers need to consider, based on available evidence
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Women, the elderly, adolescents, youth, and children,
persons with disabilities, indigenous populations, refugees,
migrants, and minorities experience the highest degree
of socio-economic marginalization. Marginalized people
become even more vulnerable in emergencies.1 This is due
to factors su...ch as their lack of access to effective surveillance
and early-warning systems, and health services. The
COVID-19 outbreak is predicted to have significant impacts
on various sectors.
The populations most at risk are those that:
• depend heavily on the informal economy;
• occupy areas prone to shocks;
• have inadequate access to social services or political
influence;
• have limited capacities and opportunities to cope and
adapt and;
• limited or no access to technologies.
By understanding these issues, we can support the capacity
of vulnerable populations in emergencies. We can give
them priority assistance, and engage them in decision-making
processes for response, recovery, preparedness, and
risk reduction.
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This strategy, produced by IFRC, UNICEF and WHO, provides an overview of RCCE coordination approach and priorities across the different phases of the COVID-19 preparedness and response
How should humanitarian organisations prepare and respond to COVID-19 in humanitarian settings in low- and middle-income countries?
This Rapid Learning Review outlines 14 actions, insights and ideas for humanitarian actors to consider in their COVID-19 responses. It summarises and synthesises the... best available knowledge and guidance for developing a health response to COVID-19 in low- and middle-income settings as at April 2020
The paper, supported by the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock, will be updated throughout 2020 to reflect emerging knowledge and evidence on the most effective approaches to respond to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
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Recent forecasts by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) have indicated a risk of locust invasion in West Africa from June 2020. From East Africa, some swarms could reach the eastern part of the Sahel and continue westwards from Chad to Mauritania.
Surveillance and co...ntrol teams will be mobilized across the region with a focus on Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and the Niger, and extended to Senegal. Countries such as Cameroon, the Gambia and Nigeria are also on watch in the event that desert locust spreads to these highly acute food-insecure countries. Since the region could be threatened in the coming months, FAO is strongly encouraging no regret investments in preparedness and anticipatory action to control swarms and safeguard livelihoods, given already high levels of acute food insecurity. Therefore, cost estimates for preparedness, anticipatory action and rapid response have been assessed.
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his revision to the Disaster Management Team’s (DMT) multi-sector response plan for COVID-19 is meant to align the multi-sector plan with the Department of Health’s COVID-19 Emergency Response Plan issued on 24 April 2020. Additionally, at the time of this version, the Department of Education an...d Department for Community Development and Religion have also issued their own national COVID-19 response and recovery plans.
The Government’s plan maintains a health sector focus and plans for a ‘worst case’ scenario, articulating the process of progressing into containment and subsequently mitigation of community transmission and on to recovery. It presents an opportunity to improve the core capacities of the whole of government, to see where both health and non-health sectors fit in and respond in the immediate and medium terms, and to adapt to the ‘new normal’ that this coronavirus has inevitably presented
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This guidance note is meant to assist humanitarian actors, youth-led organizations, and young people themselves across sectors, working at local, country, regional, and global levels in their response to the novel coronavirus pandemic. It begins diagnostically, exploring the impacts of coronavirus d...isease (COVID-19) on young people. It then proposes a series of actions that practitioners and young people can take to ensure that COVID-19 preparedness, response plans and actions, are youth-inclusive and youth-focused – with and for young people. Recommendations are structured around the five key actions of the Compact for Young People in Humanitarian Action: services, participation, capacity, resources, and data. Where available, the recommended actions are accompanied by resources and concrete examples, which can inform approaches and support implementation
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Policy Brief 2 June 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic is a health and human crisis threatening the food security and nutrition of millions of people around the world. Hundreds of millions of people were already suffering from hunger and malnutrition before the virus hit and, unless immediate action is tak...en, we could see a global food emergency. In the longer term, the combined effects of COVID-19 itself, as well as corresponding mitigation measures and the emerging global recession could, without large-scale coordinated action, disrupt the functioning of food systems. Such disruption can result in consequences for health and nutrition of a severity and scale unseen for more than half a century.
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This revision to the Disaster Management Team’s (DMT) multi-sector response plan for COVID-19 is meant to align the multi-sector plan with the Department of Health’s COVID-19 Emergency Response Plan issued on 24 April 2020.