WHO working group on HIV incidence assays meeting report
10–11 December 2015
Glion, Switzerland
UNAIDS/WHO working group on global HIV/AIDS and STI surveillance
WHO/HIV/2017.03
Int J Health Policy Manag 2017, 6(10), 587–600
Low-income countries face many contextual challenges to manage healthcare technologies effectively, as the majority are imported and resources are constrained to a greater extent. Previous healthcare technology management (HTM) policies in Benin ha...ve failed to produce better quality of care for the population and cost-effectiveness for the government. This study aims to identify and assess the main problems facing HTM in Benin’s public health sector, as well as the ability of key actors within the sector to address these problems.
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(Research Report)
This assessment relies on semi-structured interviews with 28 purposely-selected Afghan returnees who migrated to Europe and returned to Afghanistan between 2014 and 2017. Through these interviews, the assessment seeks to better understand the socio-economic profile of Afghans retu...rning from Europe, to identify the motivations behind their return, and to investigate the challenges and vulnerabilities they face once they arrive in Afghanistan.
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PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0186835 October 30, 2017
In view of the ongoing political, peace and reconciliation, administrative and economic reforms as well as plans to establish the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) in 2018, WFP extended the current Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation (PRRO 200299), launched in January 2...013, by two years to include 2016 and 2017, with approved budget USD 343 million. To echo this extension and provide a more appropriate response to the country's rapid and multi-pronged transition, WFP adopted a transition strategy with gradually reduced emphasis on humanitarian assistance and greater focus on early recovery and development interventions. WFP's strategic engagement in-country was driven by the overarching goal to assist Myanmar to achieve the national Zero Hunger Challenge by 2025, and was guided by three priorities: emergency preparedness and response; nutrition; and provision of social safety nets.
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The WHO Toolkit for the care and support of people affected by complications associated with Zika virus has been developed to serve as a model guide, with the goal of enhancing country preparedness for Zika virus outbreaks. The toolkit is intended to provide a systems approach involving public heal...th planners and managers so that the necessary infrastructure and resources can be identified and incorporated as needed, as well as technical and practical guidance for health care professionals and community workers.
The toolkit includes three manuals to provide countries with tools to effectively recognize people affected by Zika virus and deliver comprehensive care and support:
Manual for public health planners and managers
Manual for health care professionals
Manual for community workers
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OECD Development Policy Tools
Recognising that donor policies and responses constantly evolve, this guidance recommends that donors operating in situations of forced displacement prioritise three broad areas of work, where they can best contribute to existing capacities at the national, regiona...l and global levels.
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This report investigates the impact of potential misclassification of samples on HIV prevalence estimates for 23 surveys conducted from 2010-2014. In addition to visual inspection of laboratory results, we examined how accounting for potential misclassification of HIV status through Bayesian latent ...class models affected the prevalence estimates. Two types of Bayesian models were specified: a model that only uses the individual dichotomous test results and a continuous model that uses the quantitative information of the EIA (i.e., the signal-to-cutoff values). Overall, we found that adjusted prevalence estimates matched the surveys’ original results, with overlapping uncertainty intervals. This suggested that misclassification of HIV status should not affect the prevalence estimates in most surveys. However, our analyses suggested that two surveys may be problematic. The prevalence could have been overestimated in the Uganda AIDS Indicator Survey 2011 and the Zambia Demographic and Health Survey 2013-14, although the magnitude of overestimation remains difficult to ascertain. Interpreting results from the Uganda survey is difficult because of the lack of internal quality control and potential violation of the multivariate normality assumption of the continuous Bayesian latent class model. In conclusion, despite the limitations of our latent class models, our analyses suggest that prevalence estimates from most of the surveys reviewed are not affected by sample misclassification.
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Biennial Report of the Regional Director
The study on refugee economies shows that refugees and former refugees are contributing positively to Zambia’s economy in various ways and have the potential to contribute even further if legal and other obstacles are removed.
The study targeted mainly Congolese, Burundian, Somali, and Rwandan re...fugees as well as former refugees from Rwanda and Angola in urban areas and the two rural refugee settlements, Mayukwayukwa (Kaoma District/Western Province) and Meheba (Kaulumbila District/North-Western Province).
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Protecting children on the move from violence, abuse and exploitation