This practical guidance is designed to assist programme specialists to implement COVID19 RCCE activities for and with refugees, IDPs, migrants and host communities vulnerable to the pandemic. The guidance highlights key challenges and barriers faced by these people in accessing COVID19 health-relate...d information and presents key considerations and recommendations for planning and implementing RCCE activities. The document can be adapted to countries’ specific context and aligned with national response plans for COVID-19 and national RCCE plans.
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The purpose of these guidelines is to give practical advice to doctors so that all services and models of care used by doctors and health workers are encouraged to consider the use of telemedicine as a part of normal practice. These guidelines will assist the medical practitioner in pursuing a sound... course of action to provide effective and safe medical care founded on current information, available resources, and patient needs to ensure patient and provider safety.
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A public health emergency operations centre (EOC) is a central location for coordinating operational information and resources for strategic management of pugencies and events. EOCs provide communication and information tools and services blic health emer-
and a management system during a response ...to an emergency or event. This report lays out components and characteristics of an emergency operations plan, providing a suggested structure for plans and procedures. The planning process, and that of coducting a hazard analysis or needs assessment, are also discussed as key steps
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This guide is available in English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and Chinese
This guide consolidates COVID-19 guidance for human resources for health managers and policy-makers at national, subnational and facility levels to design, manage and preserve the workforce necessary to manage the COVI...D-19 pandemic and maintain essential health services.
The guide identifies recommendations to protect, support and empower health workers at individual, management, organizational and system levels.
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This document describes the essential interventions in mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) that should be developed on an intersectoral basis in countries and communities. Its frame of reference is the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) intervention pyramid for MHPSS services. The pyr...amid shows different levels of support, ranging from social considerations, safety, and basic needs, to the provision of specialized services for the management of more severe conditions, as well as the probable volume of demand at each established level.
Available in Spanisch, Portuguese and English
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Public health emergencies, including pandemics, highlight the need for health systems and services that are prepared, resilient and ready to respond to health security threats. Endorsed by Member States in 2023, the Asia Pacific Health Security Action Framework (APHSAF) is designed to engage m...ultisectoral actors in health security, and to reflect the complex nature of current and future public health emergencies. The Framework presents six interconnected, multisectoral domains of work that together form a comprehensive, multi-hazard health security system — emphasizing the One Health approach. The Framework also supports progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals and universal health coverage while meeting the responsibilities and obligations of the International Health Regulations (2005).
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Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) is one of the greatest child survival challenges in the world today and
reportedly affects more than 16.2 million children each year1. High impact, proven treatment interventions exist
yet sadly approximately only 3.2 million children with SAM have access to treatme...nt each year2. Thus, there
is a need to scale up interventions to improve coverage and access across high burden countries. While efforts
are currently underway to expand services in many countries, obstacles remain.
One critical barrier to expanding SAM treatment services is the acceptance, accessibility and utilisation of
ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF). In some countries and contexts, RUTF is still not fully accepted by
community members; while other countries face problems with procurement, storage and supply chain
management which impact on availability and use3. Reports from Ghana and Zambia highlighted that stock-
outs and logistical challenges are often noted as key contributors to high default rates in outpatient treatment
centres4.
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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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In 2014, GHS/NACP, with support from UNICEF and other partners, conducted a situation analysis on paediatric HIV care and treatment in Ghana. The purpose of this analysis was to identify the gaps within the current delivery of paediatric HIV care and support system and develop a road map for effecti...ve implementation of Early Infant Diagnosis (EID) and to increase paediatric antiretroviral therapy (ART) coverage. The analysis identified gaps such as lack of task shifting on ART services, low paediatric ART coverage, and poor linkage of ART, EID, and PMTCT services with other RCH - immunization and nutrition services.
In view of the findings of the analysis, it was recommended that an Acceleration Plan for Paediatric HIV Services be developed to address the barriers and bottlenecks identified during the assessment. At the current pace of paediatric HIV Services, it can be extrapolated that paediatric ART coverage will increase from 26% to only about 40% by 2020; Ghana will, therefore, fall short of the global target of 90-90-90 (UNAIDS concept).
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This updated Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan 2013-2030 builds upon its predecessor and sets out clear actions for Member States, the WHO Secretariat and international, regional and national partners to promote mental health and well-being for all, to prevent mental health conditions for thos...e at-risk and to achieve universal coverage for mental health services. While the updated action plan includes new and updated indicators and implementation options, the original four major objectives remain unchanged: more effective leadership and governance for mental health; the provision of comprehensive, integrated mental health and social care services in community-based settings; implementation of strategies for promotion and prevention; and strengthened information systems, evidence and research.
In English, French, Spanish, Arabic and Russian available
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The protracted humanitarian situation in northeastern Nigeria, particularly in Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe (BAY) States, remains a concern due to ongoing insecurity, displacement, food insecurity, disease outbreaks, and climate-related shocks. To address these complex challenges, the health sector has ...developed a comprehensive humanitarian response strategy aligned with the three States Development plans, Durable Solutions for the Population Displacement Plan, and the Humanitarian Need Response Plan for 2025. This strategy aims to reduce morbidity and mortality among crisisaffected populations by ensuring timely, equitable, and effective delivery of lifesaving health services, while strengthen the resilience of health system and enhancing local and national capacities for sustainable health response in protracted emergency.
Supported by an in-depth analysis of the ongoing health humanitarian response using the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) methodology, the strategy is guided by three key objectives:
1. Provide access to lifesaving interventions and sustain an effective response to the prolonged health emergency.
2. Prevent, mitigate, and prepare for health risks from all hazards and respond to all health emergencies.
3. Advance the primary health care approach and essential health system capacities for universal health coverage.
To achieve these objectives, the strategy employs the “Five C” framework which refers to:
• Collaborative Surveillance: Enhancing collaborative efforts for effective monitoring.
• Community Protection: Implementing community-based protection measures.
• Safe and Scalable Care: Ensuring care that is both secure and scalable.
• Access to Countermeasures: Facilitating access to necessary countermeasures.
• Emergency Coordination: Coordinating emergency responses efficiently.
These proactive approaches are designed to be more anticipatory and preemptive rather than reactive, aiming to meet the needs of the crisis-affected population by providing lifesaving interventions, enhancing preventive and anticipatory actions, and ensuring the resilience of the health system. All actions are guided by International Humanitarian Standards and the Humanitarian Principles.
The implementation of the health humanitarian response strategy will involve collaboration with local authorities, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and international organizations. The strategy emphasizes localization and resource mobilization, efficient logistics and supply chain management, mainstreaming protection, and the deployment and training of healthcare workers. Continuous monitoring and periodic evaluation will ensure the effectiveness of the response. Cross-sector collaboration with sectors such as WASH, Nutrition, Education, and Protection will be crucial to enhance the quality and reach of health interventions. Additionally, sustainability and transition approaches will ensure long-term health outcomes and benefits, bridging the gap from humanitarian to development efforts.
By adopting this comprehensive approach, the humanitarian response in northeastern Nigeria, particularly in BAY States, can be effectively guided, ultimately reducing the suffering of affected populations.
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This resource is the third in a series of online guides for promoting positive mental health across the lifespan. This resource provides health and social service providers (“practitioners”) with current evidence-based approaches in the application of mental health promotion concepts and princip...les for refugees. It is intended to support practitioners, caregivers and others in incorporating best practice approaches to mental health promotion initiatives or programs directed toward refugees.
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2nd edition. This new edition provides policy-makers, programme managers and health-service providers with the latest evidence-based guidance on clinical care. It includes information on how to establish and strengthen services, and outlines a human-rights-based approach to laws and policies on safe..., comprehensive abortion care. This guidelines is available in English; French, Spanish; Japanese; Russian; Portuguese; Romanian and Ukrainian
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DHS Further Analysis Reports No. 108 - This report examines levels, trends, and inequalities in maternal health in Rwanda from 2010 to 2014-15 among women age 15-49 with a recent birth. The analysis uses Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data for 15 key indicators of maternal health: 6 for antenat...al care, 3 for delivery, 1 for postnatal care, and 5 for barriers to accessing medical care. Levels and trends in these indicators were analyzed overall and by three background characteristics: women’s education, household wealth quintile, and region.
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As a lower-middle-income country (LMIC), South Africa (SA) bears
the burden of maternal and neonatal mortality similar to other sub-
Saharan African countries. According to the Saving Mothers Report
2017/19, there has been a progressive and sustained reduction
in institutional maternal mortality... (iMMR) in the past three triennia
(2010-2019), from 320 per 100,000 live births to 120 per 100,000 live
births.
According to the Rapid Mortality Survey, the country’s infant mortality
rate has declined from 29 deaths per 1000 live births in 2014 to 25
deaths per 1,000 live births in 2018. The institutional neonatal death
rate showed a slight decrease from 12,7 deaths per 1,000 live births in
2016 to the current level of 12 per 1,000 live births and has remained
static at this level for the past three years (saDHIS).
Working towards the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of reducing maternal mortality to below 70 per 100 000 live births and neonatal mortality to 12 deaths per 1000 live births, South Africa aims to reduce institutional maternal mortality, neonatal mortality and stillbirths by 50% by 2030.
This Maternal, Perinatal and Neonatal Health Policy provides a
framework for the delivery of quality, comprehensive, and integrated
MNH services and will guide the development and review of guidelines
and related MNH interventions, including strengthening of the service
delivery platform, governance, leadership and accountability for
the provision of quality MNH services, development of advocacy
messages, and guiding civil society priorities and community
initiatives. The policy will also guide the development and review of
academic curricula and the setting of research priorities.
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Ensuring mental health and well-being has become a worldwide imperative and an important target of the Sustainable Development Goals. But in all countries around the world, our response has been woefully insufficient, and we have made
little progress to advance mental health as a fundamental human ...right.
One in ten people are affected by a mental health condition, up to 200 million people have an intellectual disability and an estimated 50 million people have dementia. Many persons with mental health conditions, or psychosocial, intellectual, or cognitive disabilities lack access to quality mental health services that respond to their needs and respect their rights and dignity.
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24 April 2020
Policy considerations
for the WHO European Region
This document provides key considerations for Member States to help them to decide on the modulation
of large-scale restrictive public health measures
(i.e. movement restrictions and large-scale physical distancing), while at the... same time strengthening core public health service capacities (to identify, isolate,
test and treat every patient and quarantine contacts) together with personal protective measures (hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette) and individual physical distancing (>1 metre distance). The transition should be informed by national, subnational or even community-level risk assessments as the transmission of COVID-19 is typically not homogeneous within a country.
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For many years, Community Health Care Workers (CHWs) in Tanzania and Africa in general have played significant role in community health promotion. Their specific roles have been changing from time to time. However, their key roles have over time included giving health education and dissemination of ...health information to communities, invariably moving on to include other services such as offering curative services and conducting community surveys. Deployment of CHWs has mainly been a response to the severe shortage of the human resource for health in most African countries due to brain drain for various reasons that include unattractive terms and conditions of employment. On the other hand the human resources for health (HRH) is a result of positive growing demand for health services, a situation confronted by inadequate supply of trained health personnel from training institutions to meet the demand.
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Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of global deaths, with the majority occurring in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). The primary and secondary prevention of CVD is suboptimal throughout the world, but the evidence-practice gaps are much more pronounced in LMIC. Barriers at the... patient, health-care provider, and health system level prevent the implementation of optimal primary and secondary prevention. Identification of the particular barriers that exist in resource-constrained settings is necessary to inform effective strategies to reduce the identified evidence-practice gaps. Furthermore, targeting modifiable factors that contribute most significantly to the global burden of CVD, including tobacco use, hypertension, and secondary prevention for CVD will lead to the biggest gains in mortality reduction. We review a select number of novel, resource-efficient strategies to reduce premature mortality from CVD, including: (1) effective measures for tobacco control; (2) implementation of simplified screening and management algorithms for those with or at risk of CVD, (3) increasing the availability and affordability of simplified and cost-effective treatment regimens including combination CVD preventive drug therapy, and (4) simplified delivery of health care through task-sharing (non-physician health workers) and optimizing self-management (treatment supporters). Developing and deploying systems of care that address barriers related to the above, will lead to substantial reductions in CVD and related mortality.
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Africa’s health sector is facing an unprecedented financing crisis, driven by a sharp decline of 70% in Official Development Assistance (ODA) from 2021 to 2025 and deep-rooted structural vulnerabilities. This collapse is placing immense pressure on Africa’s already fragile health systems as ODA ...is seen as the backbone of critical health programs: pandemic preparedness, maternal and child health services, disease control programs are all at
risk, threatening Sustainable Development Goal 3 and Universal Health Coverage. Compounding this is Africa’s spiraling debt, with countries expected to service USD 81 billion by 2025—surpassing anticipated external financing inflows—further eroding fiscal space for health investments. Level of domestic resources is low. TThe Abuja Declaration of 2001, a pivotal commitment made by African Union (AU) member states, aimed to reverse this trend by pledging to allocate at least 15% of national budgets to the health sector. However, more than two decades later, only three countries—Rwanda, Botswana, and Cabo Verde—have
consistently met or exceeded this target (WHO, 2023). In contrast, over 30 AU member states remain well below the 10% benchmark, with some allocating as little as 5–7% of their national budgets to health.
In addition, only 16 (29%) of African countries currently have updated versions of National Health Development Plan (NHDP) supported by a National Health Financing Plan (NHFP). These two documents play a critical role in driving internal resource mobilisation. At the same time, public health emergencies are surging, rising 41%—from 152 in 2022 to
213 in 2024—exposing severe under-resourcing of health infrastructure and workforce. Recurring outbreaks (Mpox, Ebola, cholera, measles, Marburg…) alongside effects of climate change and humanitarian crises in Eastern DRC, the Sahel, and Sudan, are overwhelming systems stretched by chronic underfunding. The situation is worsened by Africa’s heavy dependency with over 90% of vaccines, medicines, and diagnostics being externally sourced—leaving countries vulnerable to global supply chain shocks. Health worker shortages persist, with only 2.3 professionals
per 1,000 people (below the WHO’s recommended 4.45), and fewer than 30% of systems are digitized, undermining disease surveillance and early warning. Without decisive action, Africa CDC projects the continent could reverse two decades of health progress, face 2 to 4 million additional preventable deaths annually, and a heightened risk of a pandemic emerging from within. Furthermore, 39 million more
Africans could be pushed into poverty by 2030 due to intertwined health and economic shocks. This is not just a sectoral crisis—it is an existential threat to Africa’s political, social, and economic resilience, and global stability. In response, African leaders, under Africa CDC’s stewardship, are advancing a comprehensive three-pillar strategy centered on domestic resource mobilization, innovative financing, and blended finance.
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