To guide the provision of quality palliative care services across the African region, the African Palliative Care Association (APCA) has developed a framework of core palliative care competencies that can be used by service providers, educators and other stakeholders to guide programmes development.
                                                            
                         
                     
                                                        
                        
                        
                            
                            
                                                                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.
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                                                                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.
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                                                                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.
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                                                                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.
                                                            
                         
                     
                                                        
                        
                        
                            
                            
                                                                Access to medicines is essential for attainment of universal health coverage, which is central to achievement of the health-related Sustainable Development Goals. Controlled medicines include those such as opioids, benzodiazepines, barbiturates, amphetamines and others with identified or emergent cl...inical indications. WHO recognizes that these medicines are necessary for pre- and post-operative care, for sedation, for the management of both acute and chronic pain, for palliative care, as anticonvulsants (anti-epileptics), for the management of anxiety disorders and for the management of substance use disorders, including as opioid agonist therapy (OAT).
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                                                                Updated guidance on the integration of diabetes, hypertension and mental health services, and interventions to support adherence to antiretroviral therapy.  The guideline offers practical implementation guidance for countries and key stakeholders as well as outlining key research gaps. As life expec...tancy for people living with HIV continues to increase, managing noncommunicable diseases, mental health, and adherence to antiretroviral therapy is essential to sustaining treatment success, quality of life, and engagement in care. A life course approach addresses these needs from childhood through older age. Service integration supports more person-centred, coordinated care across the life course.
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                                                                WHO, as the coordinating authority on international health, supports countries in protecting public health through evidence-based policies and actions. Considering the significant health burden and the multiple potential benefits of interventions, the WHO Air Quality, Energy and Health Unit aims to ...support countries by providing evidence, building institutional capacity and leveraging the “health argument” to convene sectors to tackle air pollution and accelerate energy access.
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