This resulting toolkit is a practical guide  intended to assist users to become advocates  for palliative care in a practical and effective 
way. It is not necessarily a resource to read  from cover to cover; rather, it can also be used  selectively to each reader’s needs to engage  audiences and... ensure that there is a real  understanding of the need for palliative care.  It should also be read in conjunction with the  supplementary resources listed at the end of  each of the toolkit’s sections.
                                                                    more
                                                            
                         
                     
                                                        
                        
                        
                            
                            
                                                                For education to be competency-based and effective, appropriate training methodologies have to  be used to support the learner to have the appropriate knowledge and to translate this knowledge  into skills and competencies. Such education and training should lead to a change in attitudes, beliefs  a...nd values, thus making the palliative care graduate able to do their job very effectively. To that end,  APCA has developed this new resource, which is a guide to effective teaching methodologies in  palliative care, targeting educators and trainers across Africa.  This guide has been developed to enable educators and trainers to acquire knowledge and skills  for using effective, practical, participatory and experiential teaching methods, and to use these in  extending learning to all health care providers in Africa. The methods presented in this guide are  based on existing practical and documented evidence of effective palliative care education.
                                                                    more
                                                            
                         
                     
                                                        
                        
                        
                            
                            
                                                                The African Palliative Care Association  is pleased to publish the first edition of  Palliative Care Standards for Africa. The  development of these standards was achieved  through wide consultation with service  beneficiaries and providers, and they have  been developed to suit different levels of ... service delivery, from primary to tertiary.  These standards are underpinned by the  World Health Organization’s definition of  palliative care, and recognise that scaling  up palliative care requires a public health  approach with four pillars: policy, education,  drug availability and implementation. In  addition, the increasing need to establish  specific indicators of quality and effectiveness  for palliative care has been a big driving force  behind these comprehensive standards.  It is APCA’s wish that they will provide a  framework for the development of evaluation 
and performance indicators that can facilitate  programme improvement and development. The standards are designed to allow the  development or improvement of palliative  care across the different services levels,  within the organisational capacity of various  service providers. They describe a relationship  between primary, intermediary and tertiary  level service providers, with expectations for all  providers articulated through detailed criteria  for each standard. It is therefore expected that  these standards will influence the planning  and delivery of palliative care services at  all levels of health care service delivery.
                                                                    more
                                                            
                         
                     
                                                        
                        
                        
                            
                            
                                                                The Guidelines for the Use of the APCA African  Palliative Outcome Scale (POS) has been  developed by the APCA, in collaboration with 
stakeholders, to help appropriately trained  health practitioners and researchers across  the region to utilise the APCA African POS in  their work place (Powell et... al, 2007; Warria  et al, 2007). Not only do the guidelines  provide a clear rationale for measuring  palliative care outcomes, but they also outline  practical information on how to use the tool  to collect data and analyse its results.  So why is there a need for these guidelines? 
Palliative care as a concept and discipline  is not well understood across Africa, and  its development is still embryonic in many  countries. While there are many obstacles  that hinder palliative care development on  the continent, a key challenge is the lack of  accurate information about the palliative  care being provided and its outcomes. The  APCA African POS is a useful tool to help us  measure these outcomes and, given that 
measuring palliative care outcomes remains  a relatively new concept, it is important  to guide people on how to use the tool. Of course, these guidelines are not intended  to address everything related to the  measurement of palliative care outcomes;  they contain only essential information for  providers. More detailed information on the  use of outcome tools, and in particular within  the research setting, can be gained from  contacting relevantly trained professionals.
                                                                    more
                                                            
                         
                     
                                                        
                        
                        
                            
                            
                                                                In the absence of a such a measure, and building on the success of developing the APCA African 
Palliative Outcome Scale (POS) for adults, the African Palliative Care Association has developed the 
APCA African Children’s POS. The tool has been validated across diseases, countries, settings and ...
languages and used in both quality improvement and research studies. Moreover, feedback on the 
tool from doctors and nurses who have used it has been very supportive, with providers perceiving 
it as an easy-to-use instrument that helps them undertake holistic assessments that in part entail 
discussing difficult issues.
This booklet is a practical guide intended to help users employ the APCA African POS correctly. 
Following a discussion of the origins and background to the APCA African PPOS, the guide discusses 
the measurement of outcomes, the development of the tool and its use (including the analysis of 
collected data), before finishing with illustrative examples of the use of the questionnaire.
                                                                    more
                                                            
                         
                     
                                                        
                        
                        
                            
                            
                                                                In this guide, the African Palliative Care Association (APCA) has put together  evidence‑based information on the use of specific opioids commonly used in the  management of moderate‑to‑severe pain to manage both cancer and non‑cancer  pain. APCA hopes that this guide will be a useful tool i...n aiding health professionals  at all levels of healthcare delivery to assess and manage pain using opioids.  All opioids included in this guide are listed on the WHO model list of  essential medicines but we remind readers that oral morphine is the  standard opioid of choice for managing moderate‑to‑severe pain and  we recommend that it should be made available at all times.
                                                                    more
                                                            
                         
                     
                                                        
                        
                        
                            
                            
                                                                IDMC's Global Report on Internal Displacement (GRID) is the authoritative source for data and analysis on the state of internal displacement for the previous year.
                                                            
                         
                     
                                                        
                        
                        
                            
                            
                                                                Public health challenges over the past decade have highlighted the importance of approaching health through a holistic lens of human, animal, and environmental sectors, recognizing the need for a collaborative response against shared threats. Zoonotic diseases, transmitted between humans and animals... through their shared environment, are at the forefront of the threats requiring collaborations that span human health, natural ecosystems, and food systems.
                                                                    more
                                                            
                         
                     
                                                        
                        
                        
                            
                            
                                                                Promoting and protecting the mental health and psychosocial wellbeing of children, adolescents, and their caregivers remains  undamental to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with a direct contribution to SDG 3 (Good Health and Well- eing). In 2024, UNICEF accelerated the scale-up o...f integrated, multisectoral MHPSS programming. These efforts contributed to the strengthening of national and subnational child and adolescent mental health systems by supporting programming across the continuum of care, investing in workforce development, advancing data systems and evidence generation, and promoting institutional leadership and coordination mechanisms. UNICEF’s growing reach, particularly through health, education, and child protection systems, reflects a strategic commitment to embedding MHPSS in sustainable development frameworks and in responses that bridge humanitarian action and development programming.
                                                                    more
                                                            
                         
                     
                                                        
                        
                        
                            
                            
                                                                The health impacts of climate change are no longer a distant threat. They are being felt here and now and becoming more extreme.
To address these threats, the WHO Asia-Pacific Centre for Environment and Health in the Western Pacific Region (ACE) was established in 2019 through a partnership with ...the Seoul Metropolitan Government, the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment of the Republic of Korea and the World Health Organization (WHO).
The Centre’s mission is to strengthen cooperation and drive action where environment and health meet. This focus on environmental health has created a strong foundation for system-wide change.
This strategic plan builds directly on that work. Over the next five years, the Centre will expand its reach, supporting countries to take practical, systems-based action that ensures healthier people, healthier environments and a healthier planet.
                                                                    more
                                                            
                         
                     
                                                        
                        
                        
                            
                            
                                                                This Climate terminology bank provides key definitions and facts related to climate and resilience for Uganda’s refugee response. Its goal is to build a common understanding among stakeholders and support the integration of climate-smart practices in humanitarian efforts.
                                                            
                         
                     
                                                        
                        
                        
                            
                            
                                                                This Toolkit for ensuring rights-based and ethical use of digital technologies in HIV and health programmes is derived from the comprehensive UNDP Guidance on the rights-based and ethical use of digital technologies in HIV and health programmes document. The foundational UNDP Guidance document outli...nes key ethical, human rights and technical considerations for countries adopting digital technologies for health, detailing human rights risks, norms and standards, and provides a practical checklist for assessment.
The Toolkit serves as a quick reference guide for UNDP staff, governments, partners, technology developers, and civil society organizations, designed to provide practical guidance for implementing ethical digital health solutions by distilling and structuring the in-depth information from the broader UNDP Guidance into six easy-access modules. Each module addresses a specific key issue by outlining definitions, ethical principles, key considerations, and recommendations that align with the comprehensive framework established by the UNDP Guidance.
                                                                    more
                                                            
                         
                     
                                                        
                        
                        
                            
                            
                                                                The Best Buys for Disease Elimination is a practical, evidence-based guide to the most effective actions for countries to implement in order to eliminate communicable diseases. The guide highlights the efficient use of resources and prioritizing populations in vulnerable situations.
“The Region... of the Americas is advancing steadily towards the elimination of communicable diseases,” said Dr. Jarbas Barbosa, PAHO Director. “To achieve this, it is necessary to increase and sustain high vaccination coverage, engage communities to expand access to diagnosis and treatment, strengthen surveillance, and bring integrated services to marginalized communities, incarcerated populations, and those living in informal settlements,” he added.
For each disease and condition included in the Elimination Initiative, the Best Buys are presented as one-page documents with clear, accessible information. Each Best Buy summarizes expected impact goals, disease elimination targets, key operational indicators, and priority interventions that have proven to be cost-effective in different contexts.
                                                                    more
                                                            
                         
                     
                                                        
                        
                        
                            
                            
                                                                Indoor air pollution is caused by burning solid fuel sources – such as firewood, crop waste, and dung – for cooking and heating.
Burning such fuels, particularly in poor households, results in air pollution that leads to respiratory diseases, which can result in premature death. The WHO calls... indoor air pollution "the world's largest single environmental health risk."
                                                                    more
                                                            
                         
                     
                                                        
                        
                        
                            
                            
                                                                The International Primary Care Respiratory Group (IPCRG) is a clinically-led charitable company that works locally in primary care and collaborates globally to improve respiratory health. Our vision is that, through universal access to the right care, everyone can breathe and feel well.
                                                            
                         
                     
                                                        
                        
                        
                            
                            
                                                                In the European Union, over 20 million people suffer from asthma. During the 1990s there was a rapid decrease in asthma mortality, probably related to the increased use of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS). However, during the last decade, asthma mortality rates have plateaued, and a consistently high p...roportion of patients have uncontrolled asthma. As a result, many patients with asthma still have impaired quality of life and suffer from chronic respiratory symptoms, often including night-time symptoms, causing sleep disturbance, excessive daytime sleepiness and decreased work productivity.
                                                                    more
                                                            
                         
                     
                                                        
                        
                        
                            
                            
                                                                This document is the ninth in a series of Tobacco Knowledge Summaries and is prepared with the objective to summarize the current evidence on the association between tobacco use and asthma. This is also intended as an advocacy tool to widely include health care professionals, in particular pulmonolo...gists and respirologists, in the fight for tobacco control and prevention of tobacco related adverse health effects. This knowledge summary was prepared by World Health Organization in collaboration with the Forum of International Respiratory Societies, the Global Initiative for Asthma and The University of Tasmania.
                                                                    more
                                                            
                         
                     
                                                        
                        
                        
                            
                            
                                                                The Pan African Thoracic Society is a major professional organization representing Lung Health in Africa. Africa carries a disproportionally high burden of respiratory morbidity and mortality relative to the population size.
                                                            
                         
                     
                                                        
                        
                        
                            
                            
                                                                Worldwide, around 2.3 billion people still cook using solid fuels (such as wood, crop waste, charcoal, coal and dung) and kerosene in open fires and inefficient stoves. Most of these people are poor and live in low- and middle-income countries. There is a large discrepancy in access to cleaner cooki...ng alternatives between urban and rural areas: in 2021, only 14% of people in urban areas relied on polluting fuels and technologies, compared with 49% of the global rural population.
                                                                    more