Breast cancer is the most common cancer worldwide and the leading cause of cancer deaths among women, disproportionately affecting low- and middle-income countries. The Global Breast Cancer Initiative strives to reduce breast cancer mortality by 2.5 percent per year, which over a 20-year period can ...save 2.5 million lives. The purpose of this core technical package is to outline a pathway for incremental, sustainable improvements tailored to country-specific needs based on three key strategies and objectives: health promotion for early detection; timely diagnosis; and comprehensive breast cancer management. This document provides a common framework linking policy makers, stakeholders, the clinical community, program managers and civil society to evidence-based systematic approaches that can facilitate health systems strengthening and reduce inequities in women’s health throughout their life cycles
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This thematic brief accompanies the Working for Health 2022–2030 Action Plan, providing a rationale for the related actions of the Working for Health progression model (see Annex). This brief aims to inform Member States, non-state actors and other stakeholders vested in implementing the Action ...Plan to consider the context of planning and financing for the health and care workforce, including the relevant policy landscape, key challenges and future directions.
In doing so, it provides an expanded exploration of the themes beyond what is provided in the Action Plan Itself, and reflects the topical issues and considerations that shaped its design, including those issues identified in the World Health Assembly Resolution WHA74.14 to protect, safeguard and invest in the health and care workforce. The importance of these themes was again emphasized at the Seventy-fifth WHA, when Resolution WHA75.17: Human resources for health, was co-sponsored by over 100 Member States, calling for the adoption and implementation of the Working for Health 2022–2030 Action Plan and utilization of the related Global Health and Care Worker Compact.
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Nurses are critical to deliver on the promise of “leaving no one behind” and the global effort to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They make a central contribution to national and global targets related to a range of health priorities, including universal health coverage, mental... health and noncommunicable diseases, emergency preparedness and
response, patient safety, and the delivery of integrated, people-centred care.
No global health agenda can be realized without concerted and sustained efforts to maximize the contributions of the nursing workforce and their roles within interprofessional health teams. To do so requires policy interventions that enable them to have maximum impact and effectiveness by optimizing nurses’ scope and leadership, alongside accelerated investment
in their education, skills and jobs. Such investments will also contribute to the SDG targets related to education, gender, decent work and inclusive economic growth.
This State of the world’s nursing 2020 report, developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) in partnership with the International Council of Nurses and the global Nursing Now campaign, and with the support of governments and wider partners, provides a compelling case on the value of the nursing workforce globally.
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The recommendations in this guideline are intended to inform development of national and subnational health policies, clinical protocols and programmatic guides. The target audience includes national and subnational public health policy-makers, implementers and managers of maternal, newborn and chil...d health programmes, health-care facility managers, supervisors/instructors for in-service training, health workers (including midwives, auxiliary nurse-midwives, nurses, paediatricians, neonatologists, general medical practitioners and community health workers), nongovernmental organizations, professional societies involved in the planning and management of maternal, newborn and child health services, academic staff involved in research and in the pre-service education and training of health workers, and those involved in the education of parents.
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On 15–16 December 2020, WHO and the Medicines for Malaria Venture co-convened a technical consultation to consider the preferred product characteristics (PPCs) for drugs used in malaria chemoprevention. The main goal of the technical consultation was to agree on the most important PPCs for drugs t...o protect populations from malaria (chemoprevention), while considering relevant measures of efficacy and the safety data needed to support WHO policy recommendations.
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Following a long recovery from the economic crisis (2007–2013), young people in the EU proved to be more vulnerable to the effects of the restrictions put in place to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Young people were more likely than older groups to experience job loss, financial insecur...ity and mental health problems. They reported reduced life satisfaction and mental well-being associated with the stay-at-home requirements and school closures. While governments responded quickly to the pandemic, most efforts to mitigate the effects of restrictions were temporary measures aimed at preventing job loss and keeping young people in education. This report explores the effects of the pandemic on young people, particularly in terms of their employment, well-being and trust in institutions, and assesses the various policy measures introduced to alleviate these effects.
Summary available in 22 languages
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Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is described as a situation when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites
change over time and no longer respond to medicines, making infections harder or impossible to treat,
and increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death.1 AMR in recent years has... become
a global priority in public health due to its widespread consequences and increasing occurrence from
time to time. AMR has a formidable impact where the existing antibiotics and other antimicrobial
medicines become ineffective, and infections become increasingly difficult or impossible to treat.
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Third edition.
The main changes within the third edition of the JEE tool include the split of the technical area National legislation, policy, and financing into two technical areas (Legal instruments and Financing); the drop of the technical area previously titled Reporting and the move of indicat...ors to the technical area IHR coordination, National IHR Focal Point and advocacy; and the merging of two previous technical areas (Emergency preparedness and Emergency operations centre) into a single one named Health emergency management.
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Health is routinely considered in strategic environmental assessment (SEA) and environmental impact assessment (EIA), following requirements of European Union directives and the Protocol on Strategic Environmental Assessment to the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Trans...boundary Context (Espoo Convention). Policy-makers and other sources report that these assessments mostly adopt a biophysical perspective and that few cases consider or define health in a manner which is consistent with the WHO Constitution, by considering the wider social, economic, behavioural and institutional aspects of health. This systematically conducted review of over 333 SEA and EIA cases in the WHO European Region shows that while about 80% of assessments pursue a narrow, biophysical interpretation of health, around 10% consider wider determinants when defining health, and another 10% consider wider determinants of health in the actual assessment. Twelve case studies are presented, literature is reviewed and implications for practice are considered.
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Cascading risks from rising prices and supply disruptions, April 2022.
Global resource markets are still reeling from the impacts of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; the two countries are major suppliers of energy, food and fertilizers. Supply disruption and the sudden imposition, in response to the... crisis, of unprecedented economic sanctions, trade restrictions and policy interventions have caused prices of commodities to skyrocket.
Before the conflict, demand for global resources already exceeded supply and drove up prices as economies rebounded after the COVID-19 pandemic. This gave rise to a global cost-of-living crisis, characterized by increasing levels of energy and food poverty. This situation is likely to become much worse as a consequence of the war in Ukraine, and poses a threat to human security, particularly among low-income and vulnerable populations.
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The toolkit provides guidance on where to get started, including the structures and resources that should be put in place at the national and health-care facility level, through a stepwise approach in low-resource settings. As the ultimate goal of an AMS programme is sustainable behaviour change in ...physicians’ antibiotic prescribing practices, the toolkit also provides detailed guidance on how to plan, perform and assess AMS interventions – including feedback on antibiotic use over time. Finally, the toolkit provides an overview of the competencies an AMS team needs to guide health-care professionals in changing their antibiotic prescribing behaviours.
Please note that this course is part of a training package, so please register for the complementary course WHO Policy Guidance on Integrated Antimicrobial Stewardship Activities so that you can complete your learning journey.
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In 2015, to advance the global and national response to antimicrobial resistance (AMR), the World Health Assembly issued resolution WHA68.7 calling for all Member States to develop AMR national action plans that address the five objectives of the World Health Organization Global Action Plan (GAP) by... May 2017. The WHO GAP provides a framework to support countries in developing their national action plans on AMR. To operationalize and accelerate implementation of national action plans on AMR, WHO has developed a costing and budgeting tool and accompanying user guide. The purpose is to support countries in costing prioritized activities of an operational plan linked to their AMR national action plan, and identify existing funding and funding gaps to promote resource mobilization and sustainable implementation. The target audience of the publication are national policy makers and designated costing coordinators for national action plans on AMR.
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o support and guide countries and partners to strengthen a health systems response to address violence against women, WHO has produced several tools, including:
• clinical and policy guidelines;
• implementation handbooks and manuals;
• training curriculum;
• evidence-based polic...y, prevention and intervention strategy packages.
The resource package consolidates these documents to support countries to develop or update their national or subnational guidelines, protocols, standard operating procedures, health provider training materials, and multisectoral action plans to prevent and respond to violence against women.
The resource package is also intended to be used for training and sensitization of policy-makers, advocates, health care providers and managers of services and programmes to address violence against women.
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In the context of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic response, WHO identifies young people as a priority target audience with specific concerns, experiences and behaviours. This policy brief provides relevant insights from behavioural evidence and a set of behavioural considerations for tho...se promoting COVID-19 preventive behaviours among young people. Designers of programmes and initiatives targeting youth may find it helpful to refer to the youth-specific barriers and drivers identified in this policy brief and to prioritize these for testing when planning initiatives targeted at young people.
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The climate crisis has many consequences – among them widespread health impacts that will lead to immense societal, ecological, and economic harm.
Over the past two decades multiple large-scale reviews on climate change and health have made clear the need for a multi-sectoral approach to target t...he drivers and impacts of climate change, biodiversity loss, and ecosystem degradation. Despite this abundance of scientific evidence underscoring urgency of action, policy implementation responses lag behind. Even at COP26, itself delayed due to an ongoing pandemic, health continues to be considered by many countries a problem independent from climate and environment.
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It outlines key achievements, needs and opportunities for intervention in the field of rehabilitation in Ukraine. The content of this document is a snapshot in time – not an in-depth analysis of the entire rehabilitation sector. The analysis focuses on rehabilitation policy and governance, service... provision, financing, information management and human resources, with the aim of improving access to high-quality rehabilitation services in Ukraine.
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Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) surveillance plays an important role in the early detection of resistant strains of public health importance and prompt response to outbreaks in hospitals and the community. Surveillance findings are needed to inform medical practice, antibiotic stewardship, and policy... and interventions to combat AMR. Appropriate use of antimicrobials, informed by surveillance, improves patients’ treatment outcomes and reduces the emergence and spread of AMR. This protocol describes the steps and procedures to establish/enhance AMR surveillance in Latin America and the Caribbean.
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World Report 2021, Human Rights Watch’s 31st annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.
In his introductory essay, Executive Director Kenneth Roth calls on the incoming US administration to more deeply embed respect for ...human rights as an element of domestic and foreign policy to counter the “wild oscillations in human rights policy” that in recent decades have come with each new resident of the White House. Roth emphasizes that even as the Trump administration mostly abandoned the protection of human rights, joined by China, Russia and others, other governments—typically working in coalition and some new to the cause—stepped forward to champion rights. As it works to entrench rights protections, the Biden administration should seek to join, not supplant, this new collective effort.
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14 January 2021
This practical guide can be used to help countries monitor and analyse the impact of COVID-19 on essential health services to inform planning and decision-making. It provides practical recommendations on how to use key performance indicators to analyse changes in access to and deliv...ery of essential health services within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic; how to visualize and interpret these data; and how to use the findings to guide modifications for safe delivery of services and transitioning towards restoration and recovery. The guide focuses on existing indicators and data that are captured in routine reporting systems and how they can be used by national and subnational authorities to understand specific contexts, challenges and bottlenecks. This guide supports Maintaining essential health services: operational guidance for the COVID-19 context, which provides an integrated framework to guide countries in their efforts to reorganize, adapt and maintain safe delivery of high-priority essential health services within the context of the pandemic.
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The Lancet Planetary Health Volume 5, ISSUE 7, e466-e478, July 01, 2021
Transmission of many infectious diseases depends on interactions between humans, animals, and the environment. Incorporating these complex processes in transmission dynamic models can help inform policy and disease control int...erventions. We identified 20 diseases involving environmentally persistent pathogens (ie, pathogens that survive for more than 48 h in the environment and can cause subsequent human infections), of which indirect transmission can occur from animals to humans via the environment.
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