The motivations behind China’s allocation of health aid to Africa remain complex due to limited information on the details of health aid project activities. Insufficient knowledge about the purpose of China’s health aid hinders our understanding of China’s comprehensive role in supporting Afri...ca’s healthcare system. To address this gap, our study aimed to gain better insights into China’s health aid priorities and the factors driving these priorities across Africa. To achieve this, we utilized AidData’s Chinese Official Finance Dataset and adhered to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) guidelines.
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Insufficient funding is hindering the achievement of malaria elimination targets in Africa, despite the pressing need for increased investment in malaria control. While Western donors attribute their inaction to financial constraints, the global health community has limited knowledge of China’s ex...panding role in malaria prevention. This knowledge gap arises from the fact that China does not consistently report its foreign development assistance activities to established aid transparency initiatives. Our work focuses on identifying Chinese-funded malaria control projects throughout Africa and linking them to official data on malaria prevalence. By doing so, we aim to shed light on China’s contributions to malaria control efforts, analysing their investments and assessing their impact. This would provide valuable insights into the development of effective financing mechanisms for future malaria control in Africa.
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The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted health systems in 2020, but it is unclear how financial hardship due to out-of-pocket (OOP) health-care costs was affected. We analysed catastrophic health expenditure (CHE) in 2020 in
five countries with available household expenditure data: Belarus, Mexico, Peru, R...ussia, and Viet Nam. In Mexico and Peru, we also conducted an analysis of drivers of change in CHE in 2020 using publicly available data.
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In 2021, global life expectancy at birth was 74 years whereas in sub-Saharan Africa it was 66 years. Yet in that same year, $92 per person was spent on health in sub- Saharan Africa, which is roughly one fifth of what the next lowest geographic region—North Africa and Middle East—spent ($379). T...he challenges to healthy lives in sub-Saharan Africa are many while health spending remains low. This study uses gross domestic product, government, and health spending data to give a more complete picture of the patterns of future health spending in sub-Saharan Africa. We analyzed trends in growth in gross domestic product, government health spending, development assistance for health and the prioritization of health in national spending to compare countries within sub-Saharan Africa and globally.
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Nigeria’s healthcare system faces significant challenges in financing and quality, impacting the delivery of services to its growing population. This study investigates healthcare workers’ perceptions of these challenges and their implications for healthcare policy and practice. A cross-sectiona...l survey was conducted with 600 healthcare professionals from eight states across Nigeria, representing a variety of healthcare occupations. Participants completed a questionnaire that assessed their perceptions of healthcare financing, quality of care, job satisfaction, and motivation using a 5-point Likert scale, closed- and open-ended questions. Descriptive statistics, Chi-squared test, and regression analysis were used to analyze the data. The findings revealed that healthcare workers were generally not satisfied with the current state of healthcare financing and system quality in Nigeria. Poor funding, inadequate infrastructure, insufficient staffing, and limited access to essential resources were identified as major challenges.
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Achieving financial risk protection for the whole population requires significant financing for health. Health systems in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) are plagued with persistent underfunding, and recent reductions in official development assistance have been registered. To create fiscal
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space for health, the pursuit of efficiency gains and exploring innovative health financing for health seem attractive. This paper sought to synthesize available evidence on the nature of innovative health financing instruments, mechanisms and policies implemented in Africa. We further reviewed the factors that hinder or facilitate implementation, the lessons learnt on the structure, the development process and the implementation.
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ABSTRACT
More than 500 million people worldwide live with cardiovascular disease (CVD). Health systems today face fundamental challenges in delivering optimal care due to ageing populations, healthcare workforce constraints, financing, availability and affordability of CVD medicine, and service del...ivery.
Digital health technologies can help address these challenges. They may be a tool
to reach Sustainable Development Goal 3.4 and reduce premature mortality from
non-communicable diseases (NCDs) by a third by 2030. Yet, a range of fundamental barriers prevents implementation and access to such technologies. Health system governance, health provider, patient and technological factors can prevent or distort their implementation.
World Heart Federation (WHF) roadmaps aim to identify essential roadblocks on the pathway to effective prevention, detection, and treatment of CVD. Further, they aim to provide actionable solutions and implementation frameworks for local adaptation. This WHF Roadmap for digital health in cardiology identifies barriers to implementing digital health technologies for CVD and provides recommendations for overcoming them.
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Kangaroo mother care (KMC) is a critical strategy to care for preterm and low birth weight infants in resource-limited settings. Despite evidence of its effectiveness and low cost, coverage has remained low, largely due to sociocultural barriers. We aimed to better understand social norms and commun...ity perceptions of preterm infants and KMC (facility-initiated and community-continued) in Malawi, a country with a high preterm birth rate, to inform a pilot social and behavior change program.
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COVID-19 has altered health sector capacity in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). Cost data to inform evidence-based priority setting are urgently needed. Consequently, in this paper, we calculate the full economic health sector costs of COVID-19 clinical management in 79 LMICs under di...fferent epidemiological scenarios.
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Annual and medium-term budget preparation processes are the platforms through which specific plans are transformed into actual resource allocation decisions. The aim of this Process Guide is to support key stakeholders involved in these processes (such as the Cabinet, Ministries of Finance and Healt...h, the Parliament, citizens, media, and civil society organizations) to reorient budgetary arrangements in order to facilitate the ability of national governments to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic by delivering, therapeutics, diagnostics, and vaccine services to their populations. Reorienting budgetary arrangements positions governments to sustain the capacity to mitigate and respond to COVID-19 while concurrently delivering other essential health services and working towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC). The reorientation process is an opportunity to better align budgetary arrangements to sustain systemic capacity to prevent emerging health threats over the short, medium, and long terms.
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The Story of Cholera was produced in collaboration with award-winning animator Yoni Goodman.
This animation covers cholera transmission, prevention, signs, and care in a simple and accessible way. The film follows evidence-based guidelines, has been field-tested, and reviewed for accuracy and conte...nt. Download flashcards and mobil phone versions from the website.
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The Story of Cholera was produced in collaboration with award-winning animator Yoni Goodman.
This animation covers cholera transmission, prevention, signs, and care in a simple and accessible way. The film follows evidence-based guidelines, has been field-tested, and reviewed for accuracy and conte...nt. Download flashcards and mobil phone versions from the website
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This poster, designed for children, shows they key times for handwashing and demonstrates how to properly wash hands
Die Handreichung ‚Miteinander Lernen‘ möchte Jugendgruppen, Kirchengemeinde und -kreise, Eine-Welt-Vereine und Einrichtungen, Engagierte im schulischen Bereich und andere entwicklungspolitische Akteure bei der Gestaltung entwicklungspolitischer Begegnungsprogramme und der Antragstellung unterst...ützen.
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On 16 February 2022, Malawi received confirmation of Wild Poliovirus Type 1 (WPV1) from an acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) case in Lilongwe.
The article "Non-communicable diseases, injuries, and mental ill-health in Africa: the role of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention" examines the role of the Africa CDC in addressing non-communicable diseases (NCDs), injuries, and mental health across the continent. It highlights ho...w Africa CDC, originally focused on communicable disease response, has expanded its mandate to include NCDs and mental health, driven by the high mortality and morbidity associated with these conditions.
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Disease epidemiology has a deeper relationship with the dynamic nature of culture. Health behaviors in general are largely shaped by the cultural norms and customs in a society. A mere identification of a behavior could be only a layer on the outer sphere of a particular disease epidemiology and the... interventional efforts to counteract such behaviors through for example public health measures could be futile and volatile, unless the deeper cultural factors are addressed.
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Severe asthma is associated with high morbidity, mortality, and health care utilization, but its burden in Africa is unknown. This article wants to determine the burden (prevalence,
mortality, and activity and work impairment) of severe asthma in 3 countries in East Africa: Uganda, Kenya, and Ethio...pia using the American Thoracic Society/European Respiratory Society case definition of severe asthma.
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An interdisciplinary study within the framework of the dialogue project on the contribution of the Catholic Church to a socio-ecological transformation.
The study examines the obstacles to the implementation of the socio-ecological transformation and develops recommendations for action.
Dieses Fachdossier stellt mehrere Facetten des Themas Kinderschutz vor: Was bedeutet es, Kinder vor Gewalt und Vernachlässigung zu schützen?
Welche Gefahren gibt es, wie kann man ihnen begegnen? Und wie kann Kinderschutz wirksam und nachhaltig umgesetzt werden? Wissenschaftler
und Wissenschaftle...rinnen, Fachleute und Projektpartnerinnen und -partner stellen unterschiedliche Aspekte des Themas in Deutschland und anderen
Ländern vor.
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