As part of our commitment to the fight against NCDs, Nigeria was signatory to the political declaration at the UN General Assembly High Level Meeting on NCDs in September 2011. Thus, the purpose of this document is to develop and ensure the implementation of policies and p...rogrammes that will engender and guarantee a healthy lifestyle and quality health for all Nigerians. The core sections include background, scope of the policy, policy goal, strategic thrusts for implementation, programme management and coordination, roles of stakeholders and partnership coordination. It is expected that with the adoption of this policy, the control and prevention of NCDs and their associated risk factors will be well integrated at all levels of government and health care delivery system in Nigeria. This policy document is therefore a stepping stone towards the development of guidelines for the prevention and management of NCDs.
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International Journal of Mental Health Systems December 2011, 5:3
Community mental health programs in low-income countries face a number of challenges. Using a case study methodology developed for this purpose, it is possible to compare programs and begin to assess the effectiveness of diverse serv...ice delivery models
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While the ratification of the Convention and its Optional Protocol has proceeded rapidly, knowledge on how to implement and monitor them has not kept pace. Conscious of this challenge, my Office has developed this Training Guide on the Convention and its Optional Protocol. It is complemented by eigh...t training modules, designed to inform and empower those who are involved in ratifying, implementing and monitoring the two instruments. While the Training Guide is mainly targeted at facilitators of training courses on the Convention and its Optional Protocol, it acknowledges that each and every one of us has a role to play. I recommend wide dissemination of the training package, and its use by all those who want to embark upon the essential journey towards greater awareness and effective implementation of the rights of persons with disabilities and, ultimately, the building of an inclusive society for all.
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The report is geared towards mayors, local government officials and city policy planners.It highlights key areas where city leaders can tackle the drivers of NCDs, including tobacco use, air pollution, poor diets and lack of exercise, and improve road safety.
From anti-tobacco actions in Beijing a...nd Bogor, to road safety initiatives in Accra and Bangkok, a bike sharing scheme in Fortaleza, and actions to create walkable streets for seniors that have reduced elderly pedestrian deaths by 16% in New York City, the report aims to share knowledge between urban policy planners.
Of the 19 case studies cited, 15 are from developing countries, where 85% of premature adult deaths through NCDs take place, and over 90% of road traffic fatalities are recorded. You can download the case studieson the website https://www.who.int/ncds/publications/tackling-ncds-in-cities/en/.
Over 90% of future urban population growth will be in low or middle-income countries, and seven of the world’s 10 largest cities are in developing countries.
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The report reveals weak national mental health services overburdened by the demands placed on them by the Syria crisis. Health facilities which previously provided integrated mental health services in Syria have themselves become casualties of war, with most either destroyed, damaged or not function...ing. The shortage of trained mental health care providers is viewed as critical, both in Syria and in the neighboring countries where refugees now reside. Strengthening and expanding these services is crucial for Syria’s longer term recovery because the need for treatment will last for years after the war ends.
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This discussion guide is designed to assist individuals and
agencies working toward developing trauma-informed
approaches to service delivery. It describes how common
traumatic experiences are for individuals accessing health
and social services, and it provides information to help service
prov...iders recognize the adaptations people make to cope with
trauma. Trauma awareness is a foundation for developing
trauma-informed services, which integrate knowledge about
trauma into policies, procedures, and practices. Traumainformed
services actively seek to avoid re-traumatization and
have been shown to improve client engagement, retention, and
outcomes. This guide includes practice examples, suggested
resources, and sample questions to stimulate further discussion.
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The transformation of the humanitarian landscape has already made a significant impact on the operational security of INGOs and other humanitarian actors. This report serves to inform strategic policy priorities and approaches to security planning and coordination, and addresses three main questions...: 1. What are the emerging trends, developments and drivers of change that are likely to affect or change security issues and considerations in the humanitarian environment of the future? 2. How will the humanitarian sector need to adapt in order to continue to deliver programmes within this changing operational context? 3. How prepared are organisations for this future, and what might they need to do differently in order to be prepared?
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NUDOR’s first strategic plan (2010-2016) focused on establishing NUDOR as a viable, well-run organisation. Significant progress has been made towards these aims and therefore the strategy and has been reviewed by NUDOR board, secretariat and member organisations. The updated strategic plan now cov...ers the period 2015 – 2020 for which three strategic aims have been agreed.
1. Representation and accountability: NUDOR will be accountable to and effectively represent members’ interests through the delivery of projects and priorities agreed by member organisations, and by facilitating joint working amongst members.
2. Capacity building and resource mobilization: NUDOR and its member organisations are strengthened to fulfil its mandates by developing its technical skills, research and insight, sustainability and outreach.
3. Advocacy and influencing: NUDOR will work to ensure that the needs and rights of all persons with disabilities are recognised by all, mainstreamed in laws and policies at all levels of government, and in programmes of other institutions focusing on areas of education, health and poverty reduction.
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Access to health workers who are fit for purpose, motivated and protected is a fundamental force of health service delivery and the achievement of universal health coverage and the health and health-related Sustainable Development Goals. Data and knowledge of the distribution, skill mix and future d...evelopment needs of the health workforce can mean the difference between enabling or impeding health systems performance, inclusive economic growth and global health security preparedness and response
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July 2021. This publication brings together important clinical and programmatic updates produced by WHO since 2016 and provides comprehensive, evidence-informed recommendations and good practice statements within a public health, rights-based and person-centred approach.
These guidelines bring in... the most recent guidance on HIV testing strategies - the entry point for HIV prevention and treatment - and include comprehensive guidance on infant diagnosis. Key recommendations are presented on rapid antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation and the use of dolutegravir. Updated recommendations are included on the timing of ART for people with TB, and the use of point-of-care technologies for treatment monitoring.
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The Commission on Macroeconomics and Health (CMH) was established by World Health Organization Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland in January 2000 to assess the place of health in global economic development. Although health is widely understood to be both a central goal and an important outcome ...of development, the importance of investing in health to promote economic development and poverty reduction has been much less appreciated. We have found that extending the coverage of crucial health services, including a relatively small number of specific interventions, to the world’s poor could save millions of lives each year, reduce poverty, spur economic development, and promote global security.
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Despite the increasing uptake of information and communication technologies (ICT) within healthcare services across developing countries, community healthcare workers (CHWs) have limited knowledge to fully utilise computerised clinical systems and mobile apps. The ‘Introduction to Information and ...Communication Technology and eHealth’ course was developed with the aim to provide CHWs in Malawi, Africa, with basic knowledge and computer skills to use digital solutions in healthcare delivery. The course was delivered using a traditional and a blended learning approach.
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The BRACED Myanmar Alliance was a three-year project aiming to ‘build the resilience of 350,000 people across Myanmar to climate extremes’. The project worked in 7 states, 8 townships and 155 communities. The main impact for project populations was intended to be ‘improved well-being and reduc...ed loss and damage despite climate shocks’, and the project sought to do this by addressing immediate hazard-related needs at community level while encouraging longer-term solutions driven and delivered by communities and subnational and national government.
Community Resilience Assessments (CRAs) were the first activities delivered as part of the project, and the list of community-identified needs became the basis from which local-level project interventions were selected. The selection typically involved an infrastructure requirement (linked to addressing a natural hazard, and sometimes shared between communities); a package of livelihood support (assets and trainings); capacity-building on climate change/resilience topics; and village savings and loans association (VSLA) support. A particular emphasis was placed on women’s empowerment, and leadership trainings and support to women’s self-help groups were provided.
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This manual presents a compelling case for action on carbapenem-resistant organisms (CROs) and describes the linkages between the prevention and control of CROs and the Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR). It describes how the eight recommendations contained within the World Health ...Organization (WHO) guidelines for the prevention and control of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, Acinetobacter baumannii and Pseudomonas aeruginosa in health care facilities relate to general measures (that is, the core components of infection prevention and control [IPC] programmes) that need to be in place in all countries and health care facilities to prevent and control health care-associated infections (HAIs). The use of a stepwise approach is proposed to support implementation and improvement, based on the evidence and experience of what has worked in several health care settings worldwide. The focus is on adoptable and adaptable information.
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It is a pressing question for donors and NGOs alike: is funding development and humanitarian work in fragile and conflict-affected states (FCAS) the equivalent of pouring money into a bottomless pit, if achievements are only going to be undone by further cycles of violence? There is, of course, a st...rong humanitarian imperative to meet the needs of those caught up in violence. However, if the long-term aim of humanitarian and development efforts is the reduction of poverty, it begs the question: what contribution can these programmes make to building peace and stability – and thus increase their own effectiveness and sustainability?
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PNAS 119 (8) e2113947119 | https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2113947119
Environmental exposure to active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) can have negative effects on the health of ecosystems and humans. While numerous studies have monitored APIs in rivers, these employ different analytical methods, m...easure different APIs, and have ignored many of the countries of the world. This makes it difficult to quantify the scale of the problem from a global perspective. Furthermore, comparison of the existing data, generated for different studies/regions/continents, is challenging due to the vast differences between the analytical methodologies employed. Here, we present a global-scale study of API pollution in 258 of the world’s rivers, representing the environmental influence of 471.4 million people across 137 geographic regions. Samples were obtained from 1,052 locations in 104 countries (representing all continents and 36 countries not previously studied for API contamination) and analyzed for 61 APIs. Highest cumulative API concentrations were observed in sub-Saharan Africa, south Asia, and South America. The most contaminated sites were in low- to middle-income countries and were associated with areas with poor wastewater and waste management infrastructure and pharmaceutical manufacturing. The most frequently detected APIs were carbamazepine, metformin, and caffeine (a compound also arising from lifestyle use), which were detected at over half of the sites monitored. Concentrations of at least one API at 25.7% of the sampling sites were greater than concentrations considered safe for aquatic organisms, or which are of concern in terms of selection for antimicrobial resistance. Therefore, pharmaceutical pollution poses a global threat to environmental and human health, as well as to delivery of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
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The recently published World Health Organization (WHO) Strengthening infection prevention and control in primary care document collates existing standards, measurement and implementation approaches, and resources for infection prevention and control (IPC) in primary care. During its development, it ...became apparent that a number of already existing tools and resources have the potential to support facility-level implementation of IPC in primary care.
This toolkit brings together in one place a number of these tools and resources from WHO and other organizations, with a focus on those most relevant to primary care. These tools and resources have been compiled to support facility-level implementation in line with the recommended WHO IPC Hub and Task Force multimodal approach.
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- Module 1: Understanding modelling approaches for sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health, and nutrition
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has a wide range of documented effects. It directly causes death and disability for some people infected. However, disruption to... essential health services, resources allocated to mitigation and therefore away from essential health service delivery, and the overall impact on the economy and society must also be considered within the response to COVID-19. Understanding the magnitude of all of these effects is an essential part of developing mitigation polices.
Several epidemiological models have been created to assess the potential impact of disruptions to essential health services caused by COVID-19 on morbidity and mortality from conditions other than COVID-19 illness. This guide presents models that have been used to assess these indirect impacts. The effects have been studied in various settings, using a variety of models.
The guide is intended for people who need to understand what the models say, their construction and their underlying assumptions, or need to use models and their outcomes for planning and programme development and to support policy decisions for a country or region.
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14 January 2021
This practical guide can be used to help countries monitor and analyse the impact of COVID-19 on essential health services to inform planning and decision-making. It provides practical recommendations on how to use key performance indicators to analyse changes in access to and deliv...ery of essential health services within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic; how to visualize and interpret these data; and how to use the findings to guide modifications for safe delivery of services and transitioning towards restoration and recovery. The guide focuses on existing indicators and data that are captured in routine reporting systems and how they can be used by national and subnational authorities to understand specific contexts, challenges and bottlenecks. This guide supports Maintaining essential health services: operational guidance for the COVID-19 context, which provides an integrated framework to guide countries in their efforts to reorganize, adapt and maintain safe delivery of high-priority essential health services within the context of the pandemic.
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he central Sahel region—Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger—is facing a severe humanitarian and protection crisis.
Massive displacement, most of it driven by intense and largely indiscriminate violence perpetrated by a range of armed actors against civilian populations, is taking place across the regi...on. While internal displacement is on the rise substantial numbers of refugees have fled to neighboring countries, and the situation risks spilling over into the coastal countries of Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Togo.
This context is exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which is already affecting areas hosting refugees and IDPs
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