In response to COVID-19, countries around the world have implemented several public health and social measures (PHSM), such as movement restrictions, closure of schools and businesses, and international travel restrictions.1 As the local epidemiology of the disease changes, countries will adjust (i....e. loosen or reinstate) these measures according to the intensity of transmission.
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The equation is simple: we cannot effectively respond to a global pandemic when millions of people are still caught in warzones. We cannot treat sick people when hospitals are being bombed, or prevent the spread of coronavirus when tens of millions are forced to flee from violence. We must have a gl...obal ceasefire, and we must put our collective resources behind making that ceasefire a reality.
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This technical brief was developed by the UNFPA Global Ageing Network to complement the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs' (UN DESA) Issue Brief: Older Persons and COVID-19, which emphasized the humanitarian imperative of addressing older persons' specific needs within preparedness and re...sponse to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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While the COVID-19 pandemic threatens all members of society, persons with disabilities are disproportionately impacted due to attitudinal, environmental and institutional barriers that are reproduced in the COVID-19 response.
The “United Nations Framework for the immediate socio-economic response to COVID-19: Shared responsibility, global solidarity and urgent action for people in need” calls for protecting jobs, businesses and livelihoods to set in motion a safe recovery of societies and economies as soon as possibl...e for a more sustainable, gender-equal, and carbon-neutral path—better than the “old normal”.
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Accessed on 21.05.2020
Considering a hotline? This set of tools will help you assess, set up and manage different types of channels to communicate with communities during humanitarian crises.
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to threaten health and food systems around the world, the 2020 Global Nutrition Report calls on governments, businesses and civil society to step up efforts to address malnutrition in all its forms.
This policy brief has been developed in response to the contemporary challenge of antibiotic resistance (ABR). ABR poses a formidable threat to global health and sustainable development. It is now increasingly recognized that the systematic neglect of cultural factors is one of the biggest obs...tacles to achieving better health outcomes and better standards of living worldwide. Using a cultural contexts of health approach, the policy brief explores the centrality of culture to the challenge of ABR. The brief examines how the prescription and use of antibacterial medicines, the transmission of resistance, and the regulation and funding of research are influenced by cultural, social and commercial, as well as biological and technological factors. The brief moves beyond the ready equation of culture with individual behaviours and demonstrates how culture serve as an enabler of health and provide new possibilities for change.
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A WFP analysis of the economic and food security implications of the pandemic
March 2020
The number of African Union Member States reporting COVID-
19 cases is increasing and there is a likelihood of community transmission. The WHO recently modified the COVID-19 suspect case definition to include severe acute respiratory infection and advises testing of all severe acute res...piratory illness (SARI) cases.1 However, many Member States have not yet started implementing these changes, they are still focussing surveillance efforts on individuals with travel history to an area with local COVID-19 transmission. This means patients with similar symptoms, but no apparent contact, may not
be investigated.
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The ECA, says over 300,000 Africans could lose their lives due to COVID-19. This, as the pandemic continues to impact on the Continent’s struggling economies whose growth is expected to slow down from 3.2 percent to 1.8 percent in a best-case scenario, pushing close to 27 million people into extr...eme poverty.
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Concentrations of the major greenhouse gases, CO2 , CH4 , and N2 O, continued to increase despite the temporary reduction in emissions in 2020 related to measures taken in response to COVID-19.
2020 was one of the three warmest years on record. The past six years, including 2020, have been the si...x warmest years on record. Temperatures reached 38.0 °C at Verkhoyansk, Russian Federation on 20 June, the highest recorded temperature anywhere north of the Arctic Circle.
The trend in sea-level rise is accelerating. In addition, ocean heat storage and acidification are increasing, diminishing the ocean’s capacity to moderate climate change.
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Transformation and outlook
February 2020Earth's Future 8(2):e2019EF001377.The water planetary boundary attempts to provide a global limit to anthropogenic water cycle modifications, but it has been challenging to translate and apply it to the regional and local scales at which water problems and management typically occur. We... develop a cross‐scale approach by which the water planetary boundary could guide sustainable water management and governance at subglobal contexts defined by physical features (e.g., watershed or aquifer), political borders (e.g., city, nation, or group of nations), or commercial entities (e.g., corporation, trade group, or financial institution).
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Novel coronavirus will disproportionately impact world’s 70 million displaced people
Report recommends stopping asylum seeker deportations, prioritising hygiene and refugee camp decongestion, better communication
Displaced people must be included in prevention, mitigation efforts - for s...ake of everyone’s health
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The State of the world’s nursing 2020 report provides the latest, most up-to-date evidence on and policy options for the global nursing workforce. It also presents a compelling case for considerable – yet feasible – investment in nursing education, jobs, and leadership.
The primary chapters... of the report outline the role and contributions of nurses with respect to the WHO “triple billion” targets; the health labour market and workforce policy levers to address the challenges to nurses working to their full potential; the findings from analysis of National Health Workforce Account (NHWA) data from 191 Member States and progress in relation to the projected shortfall of nurses by 2030; and forward-looking policy options for an agenda to strengthen the nursing workforce to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals, improve health for all, and strengthen the primary health care workforce on our journey towards universal health coverage.
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In this paper they make estimates of the potential short-term economic impact of COVID-19 on global monetary poverty through contractions in per capita household income or consumption.
The estimates are based on three scenarios: low, medium, and high global contractions of 5, 10, and 20 per cent;... we calculate the impact of each of these scenarios on the poverty headcount using the international poverty lines of US$1.90, US$3.20 and US$5.50 per day.
The estimates show that COVID poses a real challenge to the UN Sustainable Development Goal of ending poverty by 2030 because global poverty could increase for the first time since 1990 and, depending on the poverty line, such increase could represent a reversal of approximately a decade in the world’s progress in reducing poverty.
In some regions the adverse impacts could result in poverty levels similar to those recorded 30 years ago. Under the most extreme scenario of a 20 per cent income or consumption contraction, the number of people living in poverty could increase by 420–580 million, relative to the latest official recorded figures for 2018.
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Productive and Inclusive Cities for an Emerging Democratic Republic of Congo
Society first acknowledges a child’s existence and identity
through birth registration. The right to be recognized as
a person before the law is a critical step in ensuring
lifelong protection and is a prerequisite for exercising all
other rights. A birth certificate is proof of that legal ide...ntity, and is
the basis upon which children can establish a nationality,
avoid the risk of statelessness and seek protection from
violence and exploitation. For example, proof of age is
needed to help prevent child labour, child marriage and
underage recruitment into the armed forces. A birth
certificate may also be required to access social service
systems, including health, education and justice.
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