This document aims to assist countries to take the first step towards better considering gender and equity issues in their efforts to tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR), to inform the implementation of strategies in national action plans and contribute to improved reach and effectiveness of AMR e...fforts in the longer term. It is part of a series of papers being developed y WHO, FAO and OIE to build a better global evidence base for implementing AMR national action plans. This version is illustrated by examples from the health sector predominantly but
will be updated with advice from the food and animal sectors in due course.
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La violencia contra las mujeres y las niñas es generalizada en la Región de las Américas, y tiene enormes consecuencias para su salud y bienestar, así como el de sus familias y sus comunidades. Se trata de un costo inaceptable que puede ser prevenido mediante acciones basadas en la evidencia, pr...omovidas por las políticas y los protocolos del sector de la salud, y la colaboración con otros sectores. El presente informe es el primero de su tipo y representa un hito importante para la Región. Se basa específicamente en los compromisos asumidos por los Estados Miembros en la Estrategia y plan de acción sobre el fortalecimiento del sistema de salud para abordar la violencia contra la mujer. El informe ofrece un análisis de los esfuerzos para avanzar en la prevención de la violencia contra las mujeres en la Región por medio de políticas de salud, protocolos clínicos, planes multisectoriales y otros enfoques relevantes. La atención a este tema es oportuna, ya que la pandemia de COVID-19 ha dado más visibilidad a esta esfera de trabajo. En este informe se ofrece información crucial sobre los esfuerzos llevados a cabo en la Región, de los cuales se puede aprender y utilizar el conocimiento extraído en el futuro para prevenir y responder a la violencia contra las mujeres y las niñas en todo el mundo.
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Violence against women and girls is widespread in the Region of the Americas, resulting in enormous consequences for the health and wellbeing of women and girls, their families and communities. These costs are unacceptable and they can be prevented through evidence-based action, including the health... sector through its policies and protocols, as well as in collaboration with other sectors. This report remains the first of its kind and is a major milestone for the Region. It is specifically informed by the commitments of Member States in the regional Strategy and Plan of Action on Strengthening the Health System to Address Violence against Women. The report provides an analysis of efforts to advance the prevention of violence against women through health policies, clinical protocols, multisectoral plans and related approaches across the Americas. Attention to this topic is timely, as the COVID-19 pandemic has created new visibility for this area of work. This report offers critical information on efforts in the Region that can be learned from and used to build upon in the future to prevent and respond to violence against all women and girls everywhere.
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Since the beginning of the Ukraine crisis on 24 February 2022, WHO has supported Government-led efforts and initiatives alongside key partners on the ground. Building on efforts to date, and working alongside Bulgaria’s health authorities to bring added value to existing mechanisms, the WHO Countr...y Office Bulgaria, the WHO Regional Office for Europe and the WHO Health and Migration Programme, in close collaboration with the Ministry of Health of Bulgaria and key partners, undertook a joint review mission to support Bulgaria, with a focus on addressing the health system needs of refugees, migrants, asylum seekers and vulnerable host populations in Bulgaria.
The assessment team developed this report on the key findings and a package of potential interventions based on the opportunities identified and the need for technical support and assistance. The report summarizes concrete areas of work for which collaborations can be further strengthened. The joint review team identified key recommendations for consideration across 8 priority areas. The report and the outcomes of the review mission serve as a basis for future technical collaboration in the area of refugee health, to address the health needs of refugees and third-country nationals fleeing from Ukraine.
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To enhance health co-benefits across urban policies which tackle air pollution and climate change, WHO, in cooperation with various international, national, and local partners, implemented the Urban Health Initiative (UHI) pilot project in Accra, Ghana. The Initiative prompted the health sector to u...se its influential position to demonstrate to decision-makers and the public the full range of health, environmental and economic benefits that can be achieved from implementing local emission reduction and energy access policies and strategies. Policy tracking, although not always considered, is a fundamental component of this procedure. It assesses the planning, implementation and progress of a policy to refine or adjust policies with the final objective of increasing the likelihood of the policy being successful. This report is an outcome of the last component of the UHI model process, Policy tracking and monitoring outcomes. The report proposes a framework for tracking urban health policies, with a special focus on the impacts of air quality and energy access on human health and well-being in African countries, giving some examples from the pilot project in Accra. The report also provides resources to survey air quality in cities and other tools to assess public health and the environmental impacts of urban policies and monitor or track their effects.
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In East Africa, the trend in cross-border FGM puts at risk the progress achieved in eliminating the practice. The only way we can reach zero FGM by 2030 is by concerted and immediate action to address all aspects of FGM.
This policy brief highlights the cross-border dimension of FGM (Ethiopia, Keny...a, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda) in the East Africa region. The brief describes the factors that perpetuate cross-border FGM and the work that is being done to reduce the rates.
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This report provides insight into the work that UNFPA has been doing to tackle FGM across borders in these border areas, where country offices are implementing a wide range of initiatives to address the issue. The information provided in this report is structured into four pillars, namely those list...ed in the regional action plan to eliminate cross-border FGM endorsed by the Governments that participated in the interministerial meeting on ending cross-border FGM held in 2019.
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A study set out to investigate the factors affecting the prevalence of the practice among cross-border communities in East Africa and the Horn of Africa and the extent to which people cross borders to practise or undergo FGM and the effects of the practice on the women and girls in those communities.... Changes were found in social norms in the cross-border communities investigated, indicating that the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) can be eradicated. Effective interventions to end FGM need to be tailored to communities’ belief systems if they are to be “owned” by and mobilize the communities to change their culture. This report summarises the findings.
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This regional action plan provides a broad framework for the regional level to assist governments in accelerating the implementation of existing international, regional and national commitments on ending FGM. Formulating the plan has provided an opportunity for the region to identify broad prioritie...s, initiate strategic actions and determine responsibilities among different actors. It also ensures that anti-FGM campaign activities are seen not as standalone efforts but rather as an integral part of the African Union’s discussions, in line with the African Union initiative on eliminating FGM (Saleema Initiative)
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This training guide is designed to enable participants to understand the human rights perspective on migration, and how human rights laws and standards can be operationalized to make migration safer and an empowering experience for all. It provides an introduction to related principles and issues an...d is designed for persons with limited knowledge of human rights or migration.
The training guide contains session plans for the trainer and is supported by sample slide presentations and associated materials, including activities and handouts for participants, which are available electronically as individual components.
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Millennium Development Goal 8E aims for affordable access to essential medicines. Essential medicines, as defined by WHO, are those that “satisfy the health-care needs of the majority of the population” and that should therefore “be available at all times in adequate amounts”. However, there... is a category of medicines that faces a unique challenge in terms of availability. These are the medicines governed by the international conventions on narcotic and psychotropic substances. “Controlled medicines” is the common definition for pharmaceuticals whose active principles are listed under the 1961 United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs as amended by the 1972 Protocol, such as morphine and methadone; the 1971 United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances, such as diazepam and buprenorphine; and the 1988 United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, such as ergometrine and ephedrine. The conventions list substances in “Schedules” according to their different levels of potential for abuse and harm, and the commensurate severity of control measures to be applied by countries.
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These Guidelines on prudent use of antimicrobials in human health are based on a technical report prepared by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) with input from EU Member States experts and stakeholders, which should be referred to for details of the methodology used in cr...eating the guidelines as well as for additional references
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Mothers, newborns, young children and adolescents are losing 20 percent of their health and social services due to the COVID-19 pandemic says a Panel of senior global health experts.
Since 24 February 2022, the war in Ukraine has caused widespread suffering to its people and serious damage
to the country’s infrastructure. Attacks on the country’s health system and its power network threaten people, compromise the provision of health care, and complicate the distribution of ...essential medicines and equipment.
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The desired impact of the OH JPA is a world better able to prevent, predict, detect and
respond to health threats and improve the health of humans, animals, plants and the
environment while contributing to sustainable development. The OH JPA aims to work
towards this vision in the following way:
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• Provide a framework for action and propose a set of activities the four organizations
can offer together to advance and sustainably scale up One Health.
• Provide upstream policy and legislative advice and technical assistance, to help
set national targets and priorities across the sectors for the development and
implementation of One Health legislation, initiatives and programmes.
• Take stock of existing cross-sectoral global and regional initiatives around One
Health, identify and advise on synergies and overlaps, and support coordination.
• Mobilize and make better use of resources across sectors, disciplines and
stakeholders.
• The OH JPA is guided by a theory of change and makes use of One Health principles
to strengthen collaboration, communication, capacity building and coordination
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Cervical cancer continues to be a significant public health problem and a major cause of premature mortality among women, disproportionately affecting the socioeconomically disadvantaged population in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In the absence of implementing the known evidence-based, ...cost-effective interventions, the number of deaths per year is projected to reach approximately 416 000 globally in 2035. It was estimated in 2020 that 32% of incident cervical cancer cases and 34% of cervical cancer deaths in the world occurred in the 11 Member States of the WHO South-East Asia (SEA) Region. In 2020, 190 874 new cases and 116 015 deaths were estimated due to cervical cancer, which is the third commonest cancer in the Region
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This background document (EUR/RC72/BG/7) was considered and adopted by the WHO Regional Committee for Europe at its 72nd session (Tel Aviv, Israel, 12–14 September 2022), together with the working document (EUR/RC72/7) and information document (EUR/RC72/INF./4). The Regiona...l Committee adopted resolution EUR/RC72/R3, in which it endorsed the framework.
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Scabies is a skin infection that is a result of direct skin to skin contact and is primarily mediated by close and extended contact with scabies infested person. Scabies occurs worldwide among people of all ages, races, genders and social classes and has been identified as a neglected tropical infec...tious disease. Globally, it affects more than 130 million people at any time.
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Conflicts and disasters, including pandemics, affect women and men in all their diversity differently, and women and girls often suffer the most. Crisis-related hardships combine and compound pre-existing disadvantages, for example, they often cause women’s working conditions to worsen while incre...asing their overall workload and care responsibilities. At the same time, crises can give rise to changes that enable women to take up roles that were previously available only to men, and crises can open opportunities to address existing gender-based discrimination and violations of rights.
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Cholera which disproportionally impacts poor countries and the most vulnerable continues to affect at least 47 countries across the globe, resulting in an estimated 1.3 – 4 million cases, and 21,000 - 143,000 deaths per year worldwide. In Ethiopia, despite major improvements seen in the increasing... access to healthcare, clean water, and improvement in maternal and child health, the country continues to be significantly affected by cholera outbreaks. From 2015 – 2021 for example, several outbreaks of cholera have occurred in multiple parts of the country resulting in over 105,000 cases and thousands of deaths. Some of the risk factors associated with cholera in Ethiopia include inadequate access to clean water, practice of open defecation, poor household and environmental sanitation, unhygienic latrine and weak sanitation practise among communities.
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