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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ndependent of the current conflict, the health sector in Ukraine faces several critical shortcomings. In particular, the country has an oversupply of hospitals and an undersupply of primary care and diagnostic facilities. Addressing these limitations will require substantial amounts of capital inves...tment, but constraints on public finances in the post-war context will reduce the Government’s ability to fund the needed reconfiguration. Multiple international financial institutions have stated their intention to support reconstruction in the aftermath of the war. The use of public–private partnerships (PPPs) may support the achievement of these outcomes and their use in Ukraine is likely to remain an important issue for Government policy-makers and their partners to consider in a variety of post-war scenarios.
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This document presents an integrated strategy for mental health system development that will lead to enhanced service delivery, improved outcomes, and improved human rights for people with mental disorders.
By using the practical guidance provided in this document, countries can ensure that thei...r mental health systems are not haphazard, but rather, the products of careful consideration and planning.
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A corruption event in 2009 led to changes in how donors supported the Zambian health system. Donor funding was withdrawn from the district basket mechanism, originally designed to pool donor and government financing for primary care. The withdrawal of these funds from the pooled financing mechanism ...raised questions from Government and donors regarding the impact on primary care financing during this period of aid volatility.
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Harm Reducation, Decriminalization and Zero Discrimination for People who use Drugs
Guidance | Preparedness - Response and early recovery - Recovery and reconstruction
The scale of international migration in the WHO European Region has increased substantially in the last decade. The dynamics of large-scale migration pose specific challenges and opportunities to health systems, and responses will differ from country to country. Strengthening health system responses... is one of the priority areas in the 2016 Strategy and action plan for refugee and migrant health in the WHO European Region. Its agreed actions include the identification and mapping of practices for developing and delivering health services that respond to the needs of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants. This compendium aims to collect and present some of these practices in the form of case studies. Selected in 2016, the case studies reflect experience from different levels of administration in a variety of European countries, and during the different phases of the migration journey.
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The threat climate change poses to health, equity, and development has been rigorously documented. However, in an era marked by economic crisis, regional conflicts, natural disasters and growing disparities between rich and poor, the joint global actions required to address climate change have been ...vigorously debated – and critical decisions postponed.
This document, part of WHO’s Health in the Green Economy series, describes how many climate change measures can be “win-wins” for people and the planet.
These policies yield large, immediate public health benefits while reducing the upward trajectory of greenhouse gas emissions. Many of these policies can improve the health and equity of people in poor countries and assist developing countries in adapting to climate change that is already occurring, as evidenced by more extreme storms, flooding, drought and heatwaves.
WHO’s Department of Public Health and Environment launched the Health in the Green Economy initiative in 2010 to review potential health and equity “co-benefits” of proposed climate change measures – as well as relevant risks.
This review examines mitigation strategies discussed in the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which constitutes the most broad-based global review of mitigation options by scientific experts.
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This open access book not only describes the challenges of climate disruption, but also presents solutions. The challenges described include air pollution, climate change, extreme weather, and related health impacts that range from heat stress, vector-borne diseases, food and water insecurity and ch...ronic diseases to malnutrition and mental well-being.
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A book of methods, aids, and ideas for instructors at the village level
An indispensable resource for health educators, this book provides hundreds of methods, aids, and learning strategies to make health education engaging and effective, encouraging community involvement through participatory edu...cation.
You can download chapter by chapter free of charge
The previous version (2005) is freely available here
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The new five-year agenda of WHO in Africa, The Africa Health Transformation Programme, 2015–2020: a vision for universal health coverage, is the strategic framework that will guide WHO’s contribution to the emerging sustainable development platform in Africa. It articulates a vision for health a...nd development that aims to address the unacceptable inequalities and inequities that have kept our region lagging far behind others in terms of health indices and enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of life.
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