This report aims to support countries in the necessary transition toward healthier, more sustainable diets by integrating biodiversity in food-based interventions to support nutrition and health. It is intended to help guide decision-makers in the health, nutrition and other sectors, to:
Consider... the important role of biodiversity in food systems for the development of integrated interventions to support healthy, diverse and sustainable diets;
To focus investments and country support for more comprehensive, coordinated and cross-cutting public health and nutrition projects and policies; and
To strengthen the resilience of food systems, health systems, and societies, each of which are each increasingly compromised by widespread ecological degradation, biodiversity loss and climate change.
Biodiversity at every level (genetic, species and ecosystem level) is a foundational pillar for food security, nutrition, and dietary quality. It is the basic source of variety in essential foods, nutrients, vitamins and minerals, and medicines, and underpins life-sustaining ecosystem services. It is a core environmental determinant of health, often a vital ingredient of healthy nutritional outcomes and livelihoods, gender equality, social equity, and other health determinants.
Biodiversity can play a more prominent role in planning for nutritional outcomes in various ways, e.g. by facilitating the production of nutritious fruits and plant products, sustaining livelihoods through more efficient production and increasing the diversity of products available in markets. This Guidance presents and expands on six core building blocks for mainstreaming biodiversity for nutrition and health:
Cross-sectoral knowledge development and knowledge co-production;
Enabling environments;
Integration;
Conservation and the wider use of biodiversity;
Education and awareness-raising;
Monitoring and evaluation;
This WHO report builds on an unprecedented opportunity to mainstream biodiversity in order to support healthy and sustainable diets, and offers the necessary technical guidance to catalyze and support a transformation of the global food system and transition to healthier, more sustainable diets.
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The document presents a systematic analysis of dietary risks and their health impacts in 195 countries from 1990 to 2017. It highlights that suboptimal diets, such as those high in sodium and low in whole grains, fruits, and vegetables, significantly contribute to non-communicable diseases like hear...t disease, stroke, and diabetes. The study emphasizes the urgent need for improved dietary habits and policy interventions to reduce diet-related mortality and morbidity globally.
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It is against this background that the Ministry of Health and Sanitation with its partners have
taken the lead to develop Essential Health Services Package (EHSP). The MOHS believes that the
development of EHSP; defining the services that should be available at each level of care
(community to ...tertiary level), for each age cohort, and across each public health functions, not
only allows for more effective and equitable health service delivery, but also for the
establishment of a functional referral system and allocation of appropriate investments for high
impact interventions. The package is expected to set precedence in defining ‘essential’ set of
services for the population in Sierra Leone, structurally promoting integration of health services,
and providing succinct guidance to partners and stakeholders on the country priorities.
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Overview
Learning objectives
• Understand the mental health treatment gap in low-, middle- and high-income countries.
• Understand the principles and aims of the Mental Health Gap Action Programme.
• Acquire an introduction to mhGAP Intervention Guide (mhGAP-IG).
• Learn about mhGAP ToH...P training methodology and what to expect from mhGAP ToHP
training.
• Prepare group training ground rules.
• Know the common presentations of mental, neurological and substance abuse (MNS)
conditions.
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Climate change threatens to undermine the past 50 years of gains in public health. In response, theNational Health Service (NHS) in England has been working since 2008 to quantify and reduce its carbon footprint.
This Article presents the latest update to its greenhouse gas accounting, identifying ...interventions for mitigation efforts and describing an approach applicable to other health systems across the world.
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Pharmaceutical system assessments are useful to diagnose problems, plan major projects and interventions, monitor progress, and compare the performance of one system with that of another. Recent years have seen a growth in demand for such assessments because of the global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tubercu...losis and Malaria’s policy to conduct procurement and supply management (PSM) assessments as a grant condition. To produce useful results, all assessments should be structured.
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The Ministry of Health and Social Services (MOHSS) undertook a situation analysis in respect of human resources for health in order to improve health and social services outcomes following varios sector targeted interventions. The situation analysis report covers the period up to December 2018 and r...esults from this situation analysis were presented at various forums for broader discussion and input.
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The primary goal of the guideline is to improve the quality of care and the outcome in people with type 2 diabetes in low-resource settings. It recommends a set of basic interventions to integrate management of diabetes into primary health care. It will serve as basis for development of simple algor...ithms for use by health care staff in primary care in low-resource settings, to reduce the risk of acute and chronic complications of diabetes. The guideline was developed by a group of external and WHO experts, following the WHO process of guideline development. GRADE methodology was used to assess the quality of evidence and decide the strength of the recommendations.
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Over the past few decades, the world has witnessed considerable progress in women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health (WCAH) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Yet deep inequities remain between and within countries. This scoping review aims to map financing interventions and meas...ures to improve equity in WCAH in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
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Breaking Barriers is an implementation research project focusing on social and behavioural change. It is conducted in conflict-affected communities in Cameroon. The project explores three innovative, community-based interventions designed to improve health behaviours. This presentation outlines the ...project's context, methodology and implementation process. It also shares qualitative insights and field perspectives, reflecting on key lessons learned for future SBC efforts in fragile settings.
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Malaria is a leading cause of illness and death in the developing world and a significant drag on economic development.
This course will provide basic knowledge about the burden of malaria and effective tools to both treat and prevent malaria, and discuss the challenges and opportunities for taking... these interventions to scale.
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Common presentations of other significant mental health complaints include: depressed mood, irritability, anxiety, stress, extreme tiredness, unexplained physical complaints. Other significant mental health complaints are frequently seen in non-specialized health settings, but are often treated inap...propriately, with excess investigations and inappropriate medications.
OTH supporting material: Role plays, LIVES intervention, Case scenarios, Alternative relaxation exercises, Multiple choice questions, Video link
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This manual details a collaboratively developed intervention to detect and refer Buruli ulcer, Hydrocele, Leprosy
and Lymphedema cases through the use of integrated approaches at community levels. This intervention has
been developed as part of the consortium in partnership with the Nigerian Feder...al Ministry
of Health, and Ogun and Kaduna State Ministries of Health. This manual is designed to assist community and
primary level health workers to identify, refer, diagnose and treat people affected by Buruli ulcer, Hydrocele,
Leprosy and Lymphedema, within the existing patient care pathway
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A broad range of UNHCR’s key priorities overlap with MHPSS issues – for example, child protection and sexual and gender-based violence [SGBV] prevention and response.
Despite all these existent synergies, UNHCR’s current policies and guidelines do not sufficiently link with MHPSS principles.... For example, the Community Services section, which is closely aligned to the principles of MHPSS and could be well-positioned to guide the implementation of related programs, has not adopted the MHPSS language or approach.
There are opportunities for UNHCR to engage more strongly and clearly in this field. However, this requires a vision for how the organisation as a whole, and particular sectors within the organisation, will engage within the field of MHPSS activities. For a start, UNHCR can work to improve its understanding and framing of mental health and psychosocial issues, and how these issues fit within its broader mandate.
While the majority of MHPSS activities are delivered by implementing partners, UNHCR staff require familiarity with core principles in the field, such as the Intervention Pyramid contained in the IASC Guidelines, in order to support and monitor quality MHPSS activities.
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Onchocerca volvulus transmitted by repeated bites of infected blackflies (Simulium spp.). These blackflies breed along fast-flowing rivers and streams, close to remote villages located near fertile land where people rely on agriculture.
There is a need to reinforce skills of national and district... health workers to know and identify the disease, understand the risk factors according to the context and living conditions of the affected communities, and promote the implementation of public health interventions. With the shift from control to elimination, large areas in Africa require mapping to assess whether transmission is active, and treatment required. A sampling strategy named Onchocerciasis elimination mapping has been developed to help countries conduct those assessments and start treatment where needed.
This course examines the epidemiology of Onchocerciasis, clinical aspects, impact, diagnosis, treatment and control, elimination, public health interventions and role of community health workers
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As the culminating volume in the DCP3 series, volume 9 will provide an overview of DCP3 findings and methods, a summary of messages and substantive lessons to be taken from DCP3, and a further discussion of cross-cutting and synthesizing topics across the first eight volumes. The introductory chapte...rs (1-3) in this volume take as their starting point the elements of the Essential Packages presented in the overview chapters of each volume. First, the chapter on intersectoral policy priorities for health includes fiscal and intersectoral policies and assembles a subset of the population policies and applies strict criteria for a low-income setting in order to propose a "highest-priority" essential package. Second, the chapter on packages of care and delivery platforms for universal health coverage (UHC) includes health sector interventions, primarily clinical and public health services, and uses the same approach to propose a highest priority package of interventions and policies that meet similar criteria, provides cost estimates, and describes a pathway to UHC.
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The COVID-19 pandemic is challenging health systems across the world. Rapidly increasing demand for care of people with COVID-19 is compounded by fear, misinformation and limitations on the movement of people and supplies that disrupt the delivery of frontline health care for all people...
This g...uidance addresses the specific role of community-based health care in the pandemic context and outlines the adaptations needed to keep people safe, maintain continuity of essential services and ensure an effective response to COVID-19. It is intended for decision-makers and managers at the national and subnational levels and complements a range of other guidance, including that on priority public health interventions, facility-based care, and risk communication and community engagement in the setting of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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MIHN is a community of mental health innovators - researchers, practitioners, policy-makers, service user advocates, and donors from around the world - sharing innovative resources and ideas to promote mental health and improve the lives of people with mental, neurological and substance use disorder...s.
MHIN aims to facilitate the development and uptake of effective mental health interventions by: Enabling learning; Building partnerships; Synthesizing and disseminating knowledge; Leveraging resources
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This research paper uses the Health Resources and services Availability Mapping System (HeRAMS) database to develop two composite indices – one for health centres and one for hospitals – in order to analyse and assess the health facilities’ performance across time and to evaluate the di...sparities among regions in the Syrian Arab Republic. The indices will provide an evidence-based tool for the main actors in the health sector to identify gaps, to intervene accordingly and to assess the impact of their interventions on the health system. The process of constructing the indices includes description and selection of variables, application of normalization techniques and weighting methods, and sensitivity analysis.
A literature review, analysis of the scope of the HeRAMS database, analysis of the crisis situation, data limitation and expert consultations were the main aspects of the construction process of the indices.
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Obesity in all age groups, including children and adolescents, is a public health challenge across all settings. Obesity is now classified as a complex multifactorial chronic disease and not just a risk factor for other noncommunicable diseases and comorbidities. Recognizing the significance of prim...ary health care for an effective and efficient response to the obesity epidemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) has developed guidance on how to build capacity in the health system to deliver health services for prevention and management of obesity across the life course. This policy brief discusses the challenges and opportunities for preventing obesity in children and adolescents, and providing health services to treat and manage those already living with obesity. It outlines possible interventions through the primary health care approach.
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