Over the period 2015 to 2019, scaling up a package of selected nutrition-specific and nutrition sensitive interventions to cover 90 per cent of Sudan would:
- Reduce the under-five mortality rate to 49/1,000 live births
- Reduce the prevalence of stunting to 25 per cent
- Reduce the ...prevalence of wasting (global acute malnutrition – GAM) to 6 per cent
- Increase exclusive breastfeeding to 63 per cent
- Reduce iron deficiency anaemia among pregnant women to 26 per cent.
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From 2000 to 2010, Rwanda implemented comprehensive health sector reforms to strengthen the public health system, with the aim of reducing maternal and newborn deaths in line with Millennium Development Goal 5, among many other improvements in national health. Based on a systematic review of the lit...erature, national policy documents and three Demographic & Health Surveys (2000, 2005 and 2010), this paper describes the reforms and the policies they were based on, and provides data on the extent of Rwanda’s progress in expanding the coverage of four key women’s health services. Progress took place in 2000–2005 and became more rapid after 2006, mostly in rural areas, when the national facility-based childbirth policy, performance-based financing, and community-based health insurance were scaled up. Between 2006 and 2010, the following increases in coverage took place as compared to 2000–2005, particularly in rural areas, where most poor women live: births with skilled attendance (77% increase vs. 26%), institutional delivery (146% increase vs. 8%), and contraceptive prevalence (351% increase vs. 150%). The primary factors in these improvements were increases in the health workforce and their skills, performance-based financing, community-based health insurance, and better leadership and governance. Further research is needed to determine the impact of these changes on health outcomes in women and children.
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Kangaroo mother care is a method of care of preterm infants. The method involves infants being carried, usually by the mother, with skin-to-skin contact. This guide is intended for health professionals responsible for the care of low-birth-weight and preterm infants. Designed to be adapted to local ...conditions, it provides guidance on how to organize services at the referral level and on what is needed to provide effective kangaroo mother care. The guide includes practical advice on when and how the kangaroo-mother-care method can best be applied.
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Sexual and reproductive health is health issues that have to do with your body, sex, relationships, and having and giving birth to children. This includes having the information you need to be able to make your own decisions about your body, when to have sex, and whether or not to become a parent. T...his also includes having access to family planning methods—or contraceptives—
when you do not want to become pregnant. The acronym SRH is often used as a way to refer to sexual and reproductive health.
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Preliminary overview of refugees and migrants self-reported impact of COVID-19
The study surveyed over 30,000 refugees and migrants living in 170 countries. Many of the respondents had fled war or dire economic conditions in their home country only to be faced with the additional challenges posed b...y COVID-19. Travel restrictions including border closures, suspension of resettlement travel, and last-minute deportation left many stranded or forced to stay in cramped, makeshift shelters or detention centers. Amid these uncertain, precarious conditions, many migrants described either a lack of access to health services or a fear of seeking them out — even if they were experiencing COVID-19 symptoms.
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Putting Human Rights at the Heart of the Response
Topic in Focus: COVID-19 and Women’s Human Rights
15 April 2020
Stay-at-home restrictions and other measures restricting the movement of people contribute to an increase in genderbased violence, a finding confirmed by media reports, official ...statements and information received from OHCHR field presences and human rights defenders in many countries.
Women and girls already in abusive situations are more exposed to increased control and restrictions by their abusers, with little or no recourse to seek support. Hotlines receive reports of women being threatened with being thrown out of their homes, exposed to the infection, or having financial resources and medical aid withheld.
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According to the United Nations, Yemen has been the "Worst humanitarian crisis in the world," for the past two years. Despite the Hudaydah Agreement signed in December 2018, the fighting continued in many areas of the country, such as Hajjah in the north, Al Dhale' e in the south and Hudaydah along ...the west coast. Within a year, another 400,000 Yemenis were forced to flee their homes, eventually adding up to one-eighth of the entire Yemeni population who had become displaced at least once, over the last five years.
In 2019, unprecedented heavy rain and flooding from May onwards caused catastrophic damage to homes and the families’ livelihoods, adding to their misery. Thousands of families who had already lost their home due to the fighting had yet again, their temporary shelters, beddings and essential kitchen supplies, destroyed.
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Helping Children Live with HIV offers a holistic approach by building on the existing knowledge of parents and caregivers and respecting the importance of other local resources. It integrates health care, illness prevention, and psychosocial support for children and families coping with poverty, foo...d insecurity, emotional trauma, loss, as well as stigma and discrimination.
This guide is intended for broad use by parents, family members, and health workers in home settings and throughout community-based health programs.
To learn more, view the table of contents and a sample chapter, and to buy your copy of this essential new resource from Hesperian.
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Giving Myanmar's displaced their land back
The Norwegian Refugee Council and Displacement Solutions have produced the report "Addressing Myanmar's Unsettled Restitution Gap" to advocate and help find ways for displaced people in Myanmar to be able to return home and recover their property and pos...sessions.
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Specifically the Strategy focuses on five strategic objectives:
commitment to action on Healthy Ageing in every country;
developing age-friendly environments;
aligning health systems to the needs of older populations;
developing sustainable and equitable systems for providing lon...g-term care (home, communities, institutions); and
improving measurement, monitoring and research on Healthy Ageing.
Available in Englisch, French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Spanish
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It provides guidance on care for use in resource-limited settings or in settings where families with sick young infants do not accept or cannot access referral care, but can be managed in outpatient settings by an appropriately trained health worker. The guideline seeks to provide programmatic guida...nce on the role of CHWs and home visits in identifying signs of serious infections in neonates and young infants.
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The content of these guidelines acknowledges that wasting and undernutrition in HIV-infected children reflect a series of failures within the health system, the home and community and not just a biological process related to virus and host interactions.
The guidelines do not cover the feeding of i...nfants 0 to 6 months old, because the specialised care in this age group is already addressed in other WHO guidelines and documents.
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The Early Essential Newborn Care Pocket Guide was developed by the WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific for introducing and scaling-up Early Essential Newborn Care. This step-by-step Guide is intended to provide a portable and practical summary of the up-to-date global evidence for newborn ca...re focusing on the first hours and days of life, including infection prevention and control measures during COVID-19. This Guide can be used in all health-care settings by skilled birth attendants (midwives, nurses and doctors) who care for newborns, also by managers to ensure all system measures are put in place for optimal quality of care.
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The postpartum period is a critical time for mothers and newborns, who require essential hygiene and personal items, such as menstrual pads, clothes, and diapers, to ensure their well- being and health. Although these items are simple, they can significantly enhance well- being. Conversely, lacking ...these essentials can increase the risk of infections for mothers and newborns.
In Gaza, the current emergency situation has meant women face significant limitations in accessing these essential items due to market unavailability, financial constraints, high security risks, and border closures.
In response, organizations working in sexual and reproductive health in Gaza have united to provide postpartum kits (PPKs) to mothers and newborns effectively.
With approximately 4,000 live births occurring in Gaza each month, it is crucial for partners to collaborate in advocating for resources and ensuring timely procurement and distribution of these kits.
Moreover, to ensure equitable access and consistent quality of the kits for all women, partners have agreed on a unified set of criteria for their composition and distribution.
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Globally, over two million women live with obstetric fistula with the majority of the cases
being from Africa. In low-resource settings such as Zambia, obstetric fistula (OF) is a visible indicator of
gaps in maternal health care resulting in failure to provide adequate, accessible and quality m...aternal health
care, including family planning, skilled birth attendance, basic and emergency obstetric and neonatal care,
and affordable treatment of fistula. OF is preventable and treatable, and no woman in Zambia should continue to endure the condition. It is therefore necessary that Zambia intensifies national scale up of OF management centers including
community based interventions, train more surgeons and other health workers to provide quality and
affordable care closer to the women who are silently suffering from obstetric fistula.
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Data from 22 countries across the region featured in the study shows children are bearing the heaviest burden of the economic crisis caused by the war in Ukraine. While children make up 25 per cent of the population, they account for nearly 40 per cent of the additional 10.4 million people experienc...ing poverty this year.
The Russian Federation has experienced the most significant increase in the number of children living in poverty, with an additional 2.8 million children now living in households below the poverty line, accounting for nearly three-quarters of the total increase across the region. Ukraine is home to half a million additional children living in poverty, the second largest share. It is important to note that this is a conservative estimate which uses a GDP drop of 10 per cent.
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DHS Further Analysis Reports No. 111
This study is a theory-driven analysis of the socio-demographic determinants of maternal care seeking in Kenya. Specifically, it examines predisposing, enabling, and need factors potentially associated with use of antenatal care (ANC), health facility delive...ry, and timely postnatal care (PNC).
This study uses data from the 2014 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS) conducted among women age 15-49 with a live birth in the five years preceding the survey. It includes data from all 47 counties of Kenya, grouped contiguously into 12 regions. We apply Andersen’s Behavioral Model of Health Services Use to examine socio-demographic predictors of health service use. We estimate logistic regression models for adequate use of ANC (defined as attending at least four ANC visits, starting in the first three months of pregnancy), delivery in a health facility, and PNC within 48 hours of delivery.
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This study is a theory-driven analysis of the socio-demographic determinants of maternal care seeking in Kenya. Specifically, it examines predisposing, enabling, and need factors potentially associated with use of antenatal care (ANC), health facility delivery, and timely postnatal care (PNC).This s...tudy uses data from the 2014 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS) conducted among women age 15-49 with a live birth in the five years preceding the survey. It includes data from all 47 counties of Kenya, grouped contiguously into 12regions.We apply Andersen’s Behavioral Model of Health Services Use to examine socio-demographic predictors of health service use.We estimate logistic regression models for adequate use of ANC (defined as attending at least four ANC visits, starting in the first three months of pregnancy), delivery in a health facility, and PNC within 48 hours of delivery.
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Census Report Volume 4-F (Thematic report on Population Projections for the Union of Myanmar, States/Regions, Rural and Urban Areas, 2014-2050)
Key findings
- The total population of Myanmar is estimated to be 65 million by 2050. The projection is based on steadily declining population grow...th rate over the projection period: from 0.9 per cent in 2015 to 0.3 per cent in 2050.
- The proportion of the urban population rises from 29.3 per cent in 2015 to 34.7 in 2050. The rural and urban crude birth rates both decline between 2015 and 2050, but the difference between them narrows to almost zero by the end of the period.
- The population of Yangon grows more rapidly than any other area, by 39 per cent between 2015 and 2031. Other rapidly growing areas include Kayah (37 per cent), Kachin (32 per cent), Nay Pyi Taw (27 per cent), and Shan (26 per cent). Ayeyawady, Magway and Mon lose population, mostly due to migration.
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UNICEF analysis indicates that:
- Investments that increase access to high-impact health and nutrition interventions by poor groups have saved almost twice as many lives as equivalent investments in non-poor groups.
- Access to high-impact health and nutrition interventions has improved ra...pidly among poor groups in recent years, leading to substantial improvements in equity.
- During the period studied, absolute reductions in under-five mortality rates associated with improvements in intervention coverage were three times faster among poor groups than non-poor groups.
- Because birth rates were higher among the poor, the reduction in the under-five mortality rate translated into 4.2 times more lives saved for every 1 million people. Indeed, of the 1.1 million lives saved across the 51 countries during the final year studied for each country, nearly 85 per cent were among the poor.
- Intensified focus on equity-enhancing policies and investments can help countries achieve the Sustainable Development Goal newborn and child mortality targets (SDG3.2).
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