WHO, in partnership with the International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics (ISPO) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), has published global standards for prosthetics and orthotics. Its aim is to ensure that prosthetics and orthotics services are people-centred an...d responsive to every individual’s personal and environmental needs. The standards advocate for the integration of prosthetics and orthotics services into health services, under universal health coverage. Implementation of these standards will support countries to fulfil their obligations under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and towards the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.
The standards provide guidance on the development of national policies, plans and programmes for prosthetics and orthotics services of the highest standard. The standards are divided into two documents: the standards and an implementation manual. Both documents cover four areas of the health system:
policy (governance, financing and information);
products (prostheses and orthoses);
personnel (workforce);
and provision of services.
The Standards have been developed through consultation with experts from around the globe via a steering group, development group and external review group.
more
This document provides a guidance on the importance of consulting with children with disabilities. It provides practical suggestions for consulting with children and young people with disabilities in a variety of situations. It aims to equip individuals working on child rights with the knowledge an...d skills necessary to communicate with children with a variety of disabilities.
more
For full publication see: https://drtbnetwork.org/mdr-tb-patient-education-flipchart
This tool can be used to educate new patients about TB and MDR-TB. The healthcare provider should review the material together with the patient. A treatment supporter can also use this flipchart at community lev...el to reinforce the concepts covered.
Major concepts covered in the flipchart:
TB is a contagious disease, which means it can be spread from person to person.
TB generally lives in the lungs, but it can also infect other parts of the body.
If TB is left untreated, it can kill the patient.
TB can be cured with the right medicine.
The flipchart can be adapted and modified as needed. The Mongolian Anti-Tuberculosis Association has adapted the flipchart for use in physician counseling training and in training of community health workers providing home-based care.
more
CBM’s Child Safeguarding Policy is based on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989 (and its optional protocols); the national child protection legislation of Germany as well as that of the CBM program
countries and the Keeping Children Safe Standards. This policy has been created beca...use respecting the dignity of all children and keeping them safe is a foundational principle of CBM’s work. For the purpose of this policy a child is anyone under the age of 18 years. CBM is committed to ensuring a safe environment for children through investing the necessary resources needed to apply the procedures contained in this policy.
more
A treatment literacy guide for pregnant women and mothers living with HIV
Positive Health, Dignity and Prevention for Women and their Babies is intended for use by networks of women living with HIV, women’s groups, peer educators and others wishing to help guide women living with HIV t...hrough the decisions they will need to take before, during and after their pregnancy. It is not intended as a substitute for going to a health facility and seeking information from a healthcare worker.
The facilitator’s manual and flipchart are intended to be used by leaders of support groups, peer educators or lay counsellors to facilitate small groups or community sessions with women living with HIV. Together, they provide accurate and comprehensive information to enable pregnant women and mothers living with HIV to know their rights and make informed decisions about their health, and the health of their baby.
more
All young people, including those with special needs and from the most vulnerable groups, have the right to quality health care services. Unfortunately, this right is not a reality, particularly in the case of sexual and reproductive health services. Many youth in need of sexual and reproductive hea...lth care may either decline or be denied access to health services for a variety of reasons: Providers are often biased and do not feel comfortable serving youth who are sexually active; youth do not feel comfortable accessing existing services because they are not "youth-friendly" and may not meet their needs; and, often, community members do not feel that youth should have access to sexual and reproductive health services.
To address provider and site bias toward serving youth, EngenderHealth created a training curriculum intended to sensitize all staff at a health care facility on the provision of youth-friendly services. The curriculum was created as a result of the participatory work that we have been doing with youth in Nepal to address the needs of all levels of providers at different service-delivery settings. The curriculum has been field-tested and used in Nepal, Russia, Mongolia, and the United States.
Youth-Friendly Services allows staff to reflect upon and assess their own beliefs about adolescent sexuality while ensuring that those values and attitudes do not compromise the basic sexual and reproductive health rights to which youth are entitled. The curriculum also helps providers understand cross-cultural principles of adolescent development and health needs specific to youth. Once participant knowledge, attitudes, and skills are improved, sites conduct a self-assessment on the youth-friendliness of their services and create an action plan for specific improvements.
more
WHO, in partnership with the International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics (ISPO) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), has published global standards for prosthetics and orthotics. Its aim is to ensure that prosthetics and orthotics services are people-centred an...d responsive to every individual’s personal and environmental needs. The standards advocate for the integration of prosthetics and orthotics services into health services, under universal health coverage. Implementation of these standards will support countries to fulfil their obligations under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and towards the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.
The standards provide guidance on the development of national policies, plans and programmes for prosthetics and orthotics services of the highest standard. The standards are divided into two documents: the standards and an implementation manual. Both documents cover four areas of the health system:
policy (governance, financing and information);
products (prostheses and orthoses);
personnel (workforce);
and provision of services.
The Standards have been developed through consultation with experts from around the globe via a steering group, development group and external review group.
more
A treatment literacy guide for pregnant women and mothers living with HIV
Positive Health, Dignity and Prevention for Women and their Babies is intended for use by networks of women living with HIV, women’s groups, peer educators and others wishing to help guide women living with HIV t...hrough the decisions they will need to take before, during and after their pregnancy. It is not intended as a substitute for going to a health facility and seeking information from a healthcare worker.
The facilitator’s manual and flipchart are intended to be used by leaders of support groups, peer educators or lay counsellors to facilitate small groups or community sessions with women living with HIV. Together, they provide accurate and comprehensive information to enable pregnant women and mothers living with HIV to know their rights and make informed decisions about their health, and the health of their baby.
more
Burkina Faso remains one of the poorest countries in the world, with 44.5% of the population living below the poverty line. To promote the rights of persons with disabilities, the country has adopted almost all of the relevant initiatives and international legal texts on the rights of persons with d...isabilities including the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) that was ratified in 2009. The country has also adopted a National Strategy for the Protection and Promotion of Persons with Disabilities (SN-3PH, 2012), based on, amongst other approaches, Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR), promoted by the WHO and LIGHT FOR THE WORLD. Following on from the 2011-2015 country strategy that enabled LIGHT FOR THE WORLD to contribute strongly to the national dialogue on disability, the present strategy 2016-2020 aims to strengthen our achievements in order to work towards an inclusive society in which persons with disabilities fully enjoy their rights.
more
How we respond both now and going forward will help mitigate the impact of COVID-19, and to the extent possible preserve children’s rights to Survive, Learn, and Be Protected. We will focus our efforts on the most critical work essential to maintaining these commitments to the extent possible.
Accessed: 22.04.2020
The outbreak and spread of the COVID-19 virus confronts Prison Services daily with new challenges.
Prison Services are dealing with closed environments and this makes it especially difficult to provide for the right care for both, prisoners and staff working in prisons.
Pri...son Services are eager to hear from their colleagues in other European countries, how they are dealing with this situation, what approaches and measures they took to keep the situation as much as possible under control.
On this page we would like to gather and share all regulations/protocols/approaches European Prison Services or related organisations have drafted or taken in order to deal with the Covid-19 virus.
more
A comprehensive briefing by Half of Syria
April 2020
A comprehensive briefing on the critical challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic to Syrians, as reported by Syrian civil society organisations. These challenges have been collated following extensive interviews with the teams of member and partner... organisations working in the field in various sectors: health, child care, education, women’s empowerment, media and culture, research, human rights and accountability, relief and social services, and local governance.
This comprehensive briefing also include concrete recommendations formulated by the Syrian civil society.
more
In the light of growing environmental concerns we are witnessing an integration of ecology into the fabric of Catholic social thought. Catholic social teaching (CST) has traditionally focused on economic and social development, encompassing issues related to human work, the economy, peace, human rig...hts, the family and national and international political development. In the light of the ecological crisis, that focus is now expanding
more
Interim guidance 2 February 2021 . Available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Ukranian, Russian
Health workers are at the front line of the COVID-19 outbreak response and as such are exposed to different hazards that put them at risk. Occupational hazards include exposure to SARS-CoV-2 and othe...r pathogens, violence, harassment, stigma, discrimination, heavy workload and prolonged use of personal protective equipment (PPE). This document provides specific measures to protect occupational health and safety of health workers and highlights the duties, rights and responsibilities for health and safety at work in the context of COVID-19.
more
The meningitis road map has been designated as a flagship global strategy of the WHO’s Thirteenth General Programme of Work, 2019–2023 and is an essential component in achieving universal health coverage.
The road map will reinforce and combine with wider initiatives, such as those aimed at s...trengthening primary health care and health systems, increasing immunization coverage, improving global health security, fighting antimicrobial resistance and advocating for the rights of persons with disabilities. It will complement other global control strategies, such as those addressing sepsis, pneumonia, tuberculosis and HIV. Implementation will be a challenge for all countries across the world, but especially in resource-poor settings where the burden of meningitis is greatest. The targets for the visionary and strategic goals will be adapted to regional and local contexts.
more
One of the principles underpinning the delivery of all essential services and coordination of those services is the “survivor-centered approach”, which places the human rights, needs, and wishes of women and girl survivors at the centre of service delivery.
A key challenge faced by many entit...ies working to end violence against women is ensuring that survivors’ voices and inputs are incorporated into policies, practices, and procedures on response. Survivors have diverse needs and face different risks. Not all women and girls experience violence in the same way. An effective intervention takes into account the realities of their unique circumstances, addresses individual needs, and reduces the risk for further harm and suffering.
UN Women, together with Global Rights for Women, have developed “Safe consultations with survivors of violence against women and girls”, which is designed to provide practical steps, safety measures, and actions that government agencies, civil society and survivor organizations, and United Nations’ entities can take to incorporate survivors' voices into systemic reform efforts, through safe and meaningful consultations.
This guidance is intended to help policymakers develop survivor-centered programming on ending violence against women and girls that meets the needs of diverse groups of women and girls, including those who are at higher risk of experiencing violence and discrimination. It is applicable to programming across the health, justice and policing, and social services sectors, as well as coordination of these sectors, and will help improve the standard and delivery of essential services for women and girls who have experienced violence.
more
HIV, viral hepatitis and STI epidemics, particularly among people who inject drugs and other key populations, continue to be fuelled by laws and policies criminalizing sex work; drug use or possession; diverse forms of gender expression and sexuality; stigma and discrimination; gender discrimination...; violence; lack of community empowerment and other violations of human rights. These sociostructural factors limit access to health services, constrain how these services are
delivered and diminish their effectiveness.
more
After introducing Ethiopia's WASH sector challenges and trends, the plan describes IRC Ethiopia's vision and strategy which draws from IRC and Water For People's joint framework - Destination 2030. It then details the organisational changes and business development needed to implement the strategic ...plan. Detailed targets are provided in the annexes.
At IRC, we believe that turning on a working tap should not be a surprise or cause for celebration. We believe in a world where water, sanitation and hygiene services are fundamental utilities that everyone is able to take for granted. For good.
We face a complex challenge. Every year, thousands of projects within and beyond the WASH sector fail – the result of short-term targets and interventions, at the cost of longterm service solutions.
This leaves around a third of the world’s poorest people without access to the most basic of human rights, and leads directly to economic, social and health problems on a global scale. IRC exists to continually challenge and shape the established practices of the WASH sector.
Through collaboration and the active application of our expertise, we work with governments, service providers and international organisations to deliver systems and services that are truly built to last.
more
The evaluation covers the period January 2020 to August 2023. The geographical scope of the evaluation has involved the three levels of WHO (global, regional and country levels) and external key partners. The programmatic evaluation scope was concerned with assessing the SP-PHC in the following area...s/evaluation criteria: relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, added value, sustainability and equity, gender and human rights considerations. The evaluation did not assess the Universal Health Coverage Partnership (UHC-P) as it has its own separate governing body and reviews/evaluations, but instead considered how the SP-PHC had enhanced the value of the UHC-P and vice versa. The resilience and essential public health functions (REPHF) team and Systems’ Governance and Stewardship (SGS) were also not within the scope of this evaluation. However, these workstreams were considered in the wider conclusions and recommendations for the SP-PHC, as appropriate. Finally, the evaluation was focused on the SP-PHC; its scope did not include assessing the configuration and capacity of WHO’s departments and functions as they relate to UHC and health systems.
more
Providing quality, stigma-free services is essential to equitable health care for all and achieving global HIV goals and broader Sustainable Development Goals related to health. Every person has the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. Countries have a legal obliga...tion to develop and implement legislation and policies that guarantee universal access to quality health services and address the root causes of health disparities, including poverty, stigma and discrimination.
The health sector is uniquely placed to lead in addressing inequity, assuring safe personcentred care for everyone and improving social determinants of health by overcoming taboos and discriminatory or stigmatizing behaviours associated with HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Improving health care quality and reducing stigma work together to enhance health outcomes for people living with HIV. Together, they make health care services more accessible, trustworthy and supportive. This encourages early diagnosis, consistent treatment and improved mental well-being. Thus, people living with HIV are more likely to engage with and benefit from health care services, leading to improved overall health.
more