This document is written for local and international staff running nutrition programmes in emergencies, and for local, regional and national authorities and donors involved in such programmes.
The note explains why nutrition programmes need to include early childhood development (ECD) activities t...o maximize the child’s development.
It provides practical suggestions as to what simple steps are necessary to create integrated programmes in situations of famine or food insecurity and it gives examples of how such integrated programmes have been established in other situations.
This document is also available in Arabic: http://www.who.int/mental_health/emergencies/ecd_why_what_how_arabic.pdf?ua=1
;and in French: http://www.who.int/mental_health/emergencies/ecd_why_what_how_french.pdf?ua=1
more
Mortality statistics are fundamental to public health decision making. Mortality varies by time and location, and its measurement is affected by well known biases that have been exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper aims to estimate excess mortality from ...the COVID-19 pandemic in 191 countries and territories, and 252 subnational units for selected countries, from Jan 1, 2020, to Dec 31, 2021.
The Lancet. 10 March 2022. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(21)02796-3.
more
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.
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
more
The COVID-19 pandemic is causing untold fear and suffering for older people across the world. As of 26 April, the virus itself has already taken the lives of some 193,710 people, and fatality rates for those over 80 years of age is five times the global average. As the virus spreads rapidly to devel...oping countries, likely overwhelming health and social protection systems, the mortality rate for older persons could climb even higher.
Less visible but no less worrisome are the broader effects: health care denied for conditions unrelated to COVID-19; neglect and abuse in institutions and care facilities; an increase in poverty and unemployment; the dramatic impact on well-being and mental health; and the trauma of stigma and discrimination.
more
Many migrants find themselves with limited access, if any, to information about risks, prevention measures, health care and other essential services. Migrants in transit, those in need of international protection or without legal status are likely to be particularly vulnerable, as well as those who ...are homeless, held in detention, living in camps, formal or informal settlements or otherwise precarious conditions
more
In response to COVID-19, UNICEF continues to support the Ministry of Health and Sports’ Health Literacy Promotion Unit to translate and disseminate messages including in ethnic languages for the border areas on good hygiene and handwashing. Social media boosting and message dissemination reach app...roximately 15 million people countrywide.
more
The handbook is the first comprehensive collection of practical tips for journalists on how to report on GBV in the context of Syria crisis, building upon internationally recognised ethical principles. It gives an overview of techniques to guarantee the safety, confidentiality and dignity of survivo...rs, their families and communities. It includes terms, ethical questions and practical concerns associated with covering GBV, as well as an overview of some of the organisations involved in both combatting GBV and providing support services for survivors.
more
Briefing Note 8.
Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) is a strategy for adapting to the adverse impacts of climate change by harnessing nature and the services it can provide. This strategy is crucial for cities and peri-urban areas, threatened by a multitude of climate hazards and home to more than ha...lf the human population as of 2018. Despite some outmigration from the largest cities during the COVID-19 pandemic, urbanization will continue, and by 2035, 62.5 percent of the world’s population is expected to reside in urban areas. However, given the need to retrofit, replace and upgrade deteriorating urban infrastructure, and to meet the challenges of climate change, including the urban heat island effect, droughts and more intense flooding, many experts and policymakers see in these demands an opportunity to reinvent cities as greener, less prone to pandemics, and more liveable.
more
The Education 2030 Incheon Declaration and Framework for Action specifies that the mandate of the Global Education Monitoring Report is to be ‘the mechanism for monitoring and reporting on SDG 4 and on education in the other SDGs’ with the responsibility to ‘report on the implementation of nat...ional and international strategies to help hold all relevant partners to account for their commitments as part of the overall SDG follow-up and review.’ It is prepared by an independent team hosted by UNESCO.
more
MANDATEHandicap International in Ethiopia aims at promotinginclusive access to humanitarian aid and development sectors for the most vulnerable groups, including people with disabilities. This includes providing access to services by supporting equal opportunities for people w...ith disabilities and vulnerable groups to access todevelopment of their country; mitigate impacts of crisis and support resilience for the most affected populations
more
Checklist to support the reopening of schools and preparation for resurgences of COVID-19 or similar public health crises.
O objetivo desta lista de verificação é reforçar a conformidade e a adesão às medidas de saúde pública delineadas no documento recentemente atualizado Considerations fo...r school-related public health measures in the context of COVID-19 [Considerações para medidas de saúde pública relacionadas a escolas no contexto da COVID-19], considerando-se principalmente as crianças menores de 18 anos em contextos educacionais e em escolas com recursos limitados. A lista de verificação foi elaborada de acordo com os princípios e as abordagens das escolas promotoras de saúde.7,8 Este documento destaca a importância da coordenação multinível (ou seja, nos níveis escolar, subnacional e nacional) e de abordagens participativas e cocriadas pelas várias partes interessadas (por exemplo, trabalhadores das escolas, professores, alunos e pais). Esta abordagem visa a otimizar o cumprimento das medidas sociais e de saúde pública baseadas nos contextos sociais e culturais, conforme descrito no documento Considerations for implementing and adjusting public health and social measures in the context of COVID-19 [Considerações para a implementação e ajuste de medidas sociais e de saúde pública no contexto da COVID-19].
more
Global HIV control funding falls short of need. To maximize health outcomes, it is critical that national governments sustain reasonable commitments, and that international donor assistance be distributed according to country needs and funding gaps. We develop a country classification framework in t...erms of actual versus expected national domestic funding, considering resource needs and donor financing. With UNAIDS and World Bank data, we examine domestic and donor HIV program funding in relation to need in 84 low- and middle-income countries. We estimate expected domestic contributions per person living with HIV (PLWH) as a function of per capita income, relative size of the health sector, and per capita foreign debt service.
more
The National Tuberculosis Programme (NTP) of Rwanda (known as TB & ORD Division/IHDPC/RBC) is preparing to write their next National Strategic Plan and for this reason Rwanda was selected as a country to received technical assistance (TA) to conduct an assessment of their surveillance system using t...he surveillance checklist as input for the new strategy. This TA was provided under the USAID TBCARE I Core project on Monitoring and Evaluation, Operational Research and Surveillance (C7.08) developed a surveillance checklist with the objectives to assess a national surveillance system’s ability to accurately measure TB cases and deaths and to identify gaps in national surveillance systems that need to be addressed in order to improve TB surveillance.
more
The purpose of this study was to document a technical assessment of a sample of these existing shelters on their functionality, accessibility, operation and management, community perspectives in Myanmar; identify gaps, needs and further the linkages with community-based disaster risk reduction (CDBR...R) activities. The study also aims at a wider assessment: looking at broader recovery in terms of shelter and livelihood aspects with clear linkages and strategic direction for future cyclone shelter support activities.
No publication year indicated.
more
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.
more
The scale of West Africa’s Ebola epidemic has been attributed to the weak health systems of affected countries,
their lack of resources, the mobility of communities and their inexperience in dealing with Ebola. This briefing for African Affairs argues that these explanations lack important contex...t. The briefing examines responses to the outbreak and offers a different set of explanations, rooted in the history of the region and the political economy of global health and development. To move past technical discussions of “weak” health systems, it highlights how structural violence has contributed to the epidemic. As part of this, local people – their beliefs, concerns and priorities – have been marginalised. Both the crisis response and post-Ebola ‘reconstruction’ will be strengthened by acknowledgment of its long term structural underpinnings and from a more collaborative inclusion of local people.
more
Surveys are needed to guide trachoma control efforts in Mozambique, with WHO guidelines for intervention based on the prevalence of trachomatous inflammation–follicular (TF) in children aged 1–9 years and the prevalence of trichiasis in adults aged 15 years and above. We conducted surveys to com...plete the map of trachoma prevalence in Mozambique, concluding that it still represents a significant public health problem in many areas of Mozambique.
more
What measures can we take to overcome the corona crisis, limit its consequences or use scarce resources efficiently? Every day we experience uncertainties and contradictions on these questions among scientists, health experts, politicians and in society. We must all strive for a broad consensus to o...vercome the global COVID-19 pandemic. With our publications IM FOKUS we want to stimulate discussion and promote opinion-forming: We write based on our experience of HIV work. We are not interested in COVID-19 to be equated with HIV, but to discuss which experiences from HIV work could be helpful in dealing with COVID-19. We do not intend to replace scientific papers, nor can we present the current state of knowledge comprehensively and conclusively.
more
The primary role of Benin’s Department of Pharmacy and Medicines (DPMED) is to develop and apply the national pharmaceutical policy. The main objective of this policy is to ensure the availability and accessibility of quality medicines for the population. To fulfill its mandate, DPMED aims to stre...ngthen its regulatory capacity, including the issuance of licenses to pharmaceutical establishments and the registration of pharmaceutical products. Benin’s current registration system shares core concerns that are common to most developing countries, notably the capacity to evaluate and monitor the security, efficacy, and quality of medicines and other health products. It is currently characterized by 1) poor or inadequate traceability of records or regulations (example: a product’s marketing authorization [MA] is often hard to find); 2) lack of evidence used in the regulatory decision-making process (reasons behind special import authorization, i.e., products without valid MAs); 3) inconsistent and unsecured archiving system; 4) limited human resources; and 5) an inefficient information management system
more