DHS Working Papers No. 69
This paper uses data from the three Indian National Family Health Surveys (1992-93, 1998-99, 2005-06) to examine how the relationship between household wealth and child mortality evolved during a time of significant economic change in India. The main predictor is a new... measure of household wealth that captures changes in wealth over time. Outcomes include neonatal mortality, postneonatal mortality, child mortality, and under-five mortality. Multivariate analysis is conducted at the national, urban, rural, and regional levels.
Results indicate that the overall relationship between household wealth and mortality weakened over time, as evidenced by the coefficients for under-five mortality at the national level.
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his profile is part of a series of Climate Risk Country Profiles developed by the World Bank Group (WBG). The country profile
synthesizes most relevant data and information on climate change, disaster risk reduction, and adaptation actions and policies
at the country level. The country profile ser...ies are designed as a quick reference source for development practitioners to better
integrate climate resilience in development planning and policy making.
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This profile is part of a series of Climate Risk Country Profiles developed by the World Bank Group (WBG). The country profile synthesizes most relevant data and information on climate change, disaster risk reduction, and adaptation actions and policies at the country level. The country profile seri...es are designed as a quick reference source for development practitioners to better integrate climate resilience in development planning and policy making. This effort is managed and led by Veronique Morin (Senior Climate Change Specialist, WBG) and Ana E. Bucher (Senior Climate Change Specialist, WBG)
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Climate change and health vulnerability and adaptation assessment
In 2013 the World Health Organization (WHO) published the report Protecting health from climate change:
vulnerability and adaptation assessment. The aim was to provide basic and flexible guidance on conducting national or subnati...onal assessments of current and future vulnerability (the susceptibility of a population or region to harm) to the health risks of climate change, and of policies and programmes that could increase resilience, taking into account the multiple determinants of climate-sensitive health outcomes.
That guidance has been a very useful tool, applied to more than 50 countries and settings, and has helped countries to prepare their health contributions to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change national adaptation plans.
Since the launch of the guidance, WHO, technical partners such as Health Canada, and countries have learned much in terms of its applicability in different countries, at national and local levels.
At the same time, knowledge on climate change and health has increased.
WHO, the Pan American Health Organization and Health Canada have produced this updated version, which aims to better support countries in their assessments by proposing a simpler tool that incorporates all lessons learned.
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Climate change is a major risk to good development outcomes, and the World Bank Group is committed to playing an important role in helping countries integrate climate action into their core development agendas. The World Bank Group is committed to supporting client countries to invest in and build a... low-carbon, climate-resilient future, helping them to be better prepared to adapt to current and future climate impacts
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A guide to facilitating community-managed disaster risk reduction in the Horn of Africa.
This manual describes how to help communities implement disaster risk reduction activities. It was written for development workers and community-based organizations in the Horn of Africa, but practitioners can ...use it to implement activities around the world
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Significant progress has been made in the eradication of three priority diseases in the African Region, as a result of extensive collaboration between the Regional Office, WHO country offices and countries. For example, in August 2020, the region was certified free of wild poliovirus. In the area of... neglected tropical diseases, Guinea worm disease is on the verge of eradication, and 12 member states are within reach of being certified as having eradicated yaws by the end of this year.
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This booklet presents key messages for action, summarized from a set of
chapters on different environmental health issues.
Advocacy ,Social Mobilization ,Behavior Change Communications
Tuberculosis cases, TB deaths
Africa’s health sector is facing an unprecedented financing crisis, driven by a sharp decline of 70% in Official Development Assistance (ODA) from 2021 to 2025 and deep-rooted structural vulnerabilities. This collapse is placing immense pressure on Africa’s already fragile health systems as ODA ...is seen as the backbone of critical health programs: pandemic preparedness, maternal and child health services, disease control programs are all at
risk, threatening Sustainable Development Goal 3 and Universal Health Coverage. Compounding this is Africa’s spiraling debt, with countries expected to service USD 81 billion by 2025—surpassing anticipated external financing inflows—further eroding fiscal space for health investments. Level of domestic resources is low. TThe Abuja Declaration of 2001, a pivotal commitment made by African Union (AU) member states, aimed to reverse this trend by pledging to allocate at least 15% of national budgets to the health sector. However, more than two decades later, only three countries—Rwanda, Botswana, and Cabo Verde—have
consistently met or exceeded this target (WHO, 2023). In contrast, over 30 AU member states remain well below the 10% benchmark, with some allocating as little as 5–7% of their national budgets to health.
In addition, only 16 (29%) of African countries currently have updated versions of National Health Development Plan (NHDP) supported by a National Health Financing Plan (NHFP). These two documents play a critical role in driving internal resource mobilisation. At the same time, public health emergencies are surging, rising 41%—from 152 in 2022 to
213 in 2024—exposing severe under-resourcing of health infrastructure and workforce. Recurring outbreaks (Mpox, Ebola, cholera, measles, Marburg…) alongside effects of climate change and humanitarian crises in Eastern DRC, the Sahel, and Sudan, are overwhelming systems stretched by chronic underfunding. The situation is worsened by Africa’s heavy dependency with over 90% of vaccines, medicines, and diagnostics being externally sourced—leaving countries vulnerable to global supply chain shocks. Health worker shortages persist, with only 2.3 professionals
per 1,000 people (below the WHO’s recommended 4.45), and fewer than 30% of systems are digitized, undermining disease surveillance and early warning. Without decisive action, Africa CDC projects the continent could reverse two decades of health progress, face 2 to 4 million additional preventable deaths annually, and a heightened risk of a pandemic emerging from within. Furthermore, 39 million more
Africans could be pushed into poverty by 2030 due to intertwined health and economic shocks. This is not just a sectoral crisis—it is an existential threat to Africa’s political, social, and economic resilience, and global stability. In response, African leaders, under Africa CDC’s stewardship, are advancing a comprehensive three-pillar strategy centered on domestic resource mobilization, innovative financing, and blended finance.
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This Implementation Kit (I-Kit), developed by the Health Communication Capacity Collaborative (HC3), which is funded by USAID and based at the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, offers structured guidance for improving social and behavioural change communication (SBCC) strategies relat...ed to malaria in pregnancy (MiP). Designed for programme managers and stakeholders, the toolkit addresses critical communication gaps in MiP programming, particularly among service providers. It provides tools to help users integrate MiP into situation analyses, segment audiences, define behavioural objectives and draft strategic communication plans.
MiP poses a significant public health challenge, contributing to maternal and neonatal mortality and morbidity in sub-Saharan Africa. Although effective interventions exist, such as the use of insecticide-treated nets, intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy (IPTp) and timely diagnosis and treatment, their implementation remains inconsistent. The I-Kit supports more effective SBCC planning and implementation, with the aim of increasing the uptake and impact of these interventions and ultimately reducing malaria-related deaths and illness among pregnant women and newborns.
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Meeting report, Kampala, Uganda,
7–8 November 2023
Implementation reference guide. This Malaria Surveillance Assessment Toolkit implementation reference guide is a comprehensive reference document, as well as a step by-step guide. It aligns and adapts available tools into a single set of standardized tools, which can be used to conduct malaria surve...illance assessments across all transmission settings. Use of these standardized tools allows comparison of results between countries and within the same country over time, enabling countries to track their progress towards surveillance system strengthening.
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