A new publication - Waste Management during the COVID-19 Pandemic: from response to recovery - reviews current practices for managing waste from healthcare facilities, households and quarantine locations accommodating people with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19. Jointly produced by UNEP, th...e Institute for Global Environmental Strategies and the International Environmental Technology Centre, the report considers various approaches, identifies best practices and technologies, and provides recommendations for policy-makers and practitioners to improve waste management, over the long term.
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This research report provided results from the study of living conditions among people with functional limitation in Mozambique. Two comparative studies of different indicators of living conditions were carried out. These studies include: (i) a comparative study of households with and without family... member(s) with functional limitation and (ii) a comparative study of individuals with and without functional limitation. In addition, a detailed study that specifically addresses the situation of individuals with functional limitation was also conducted. The Mozambique study was undertaken in 2007 – 2008.
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Bull World Health Organ 2020;98:773–780
Universal health coverage (UHC) depends on a strong primary health-care
system. To be successful, primary health care must be expanded at community and household levels as much of the world’s population still lacks access to health facilities for basic... services. Abundant evidence shows that community-based interventions are effective for improving health-care utilization and outcomes when integrated with facility-based services. Community involvement is the cornerstone of local, equitable and integrated primary health care.
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This report summarizes the latest scientific knowledge on the links between exposure to air pollution and adverse health effects in children. It is intended to inform and motivate individual and collective action by health care professionals to prevent damage to children’s health from exposure to ...air pollution.
Air pollution is a major environmental health threat. Exposure to fine particles in both the ambient environment and in the household causes about seven million premature deaths each year. Ambient air pollution alone imposes enormous costs on the global economy, amounting to more than US$ 5 trillion in total welfare losses in 2013.
This public health crisis is receiving more attention, but one critical aspect is often overlooked: how air pollution affects children in uniquely damaging ways. Recent data released by the World Health Organization (WHO) show that air pollution has a vast and terrible impact on child health and survival. Globally, 93% of all children live in environments with air pollution levels above the WHO guidelines (see the full report, Air pollution and child health: prescribing clean air. More than one in every four deaths of children under 5 years of age is directly or indirectly related to environmental risks. Both ambient air pollution and household air pollution contribute to respiratory tract infections that resulted in 543 000 deaths in children under the age of 5 years in 2016.
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This report summarizes the latest scientific knowledge on the links between exposure to air pollution and adverse health effects in children. It is intended to inform and motivate individual and collective action by health care professionals to prevent damage to children’s health from exposure to ...air pollution.
Air pollution is a major environmental health threat. Exposure to fine particles in both the ambient environment and in the household causes about seven million premature deaths each year. Ambient air pollution alone imposes enormous costs on the global economy, amounting to more than US$ 5 trillion in total welfare losses in 2013.
This public health crisis is receiving more attention, but one critical aspect is often overlooked: how air pollution affects children in uniquely damaging ways. Recent data released by the World Health Organization (WHO) show that air pollution has a vast and terrible impact on child health and survival. Globally, 93% of all children live in environments with air pollution levels above the WHO guidelines (see the full report, Air pollution and child health: prescribing clean air. More than one in every four deaths of children under 5 years of age is directly or indirectly related to environmental risks. Both ambient air pollution and household air pollution contribute to respiratory tract infections that resulted in 543 000 deaths in children under the age of 5 years in 2016.
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To enhance health co-benefits across urban policies which tackle air pollution and climate change, WHO, in cooperation with various international, national, and local partners, implemented the Urban Health Initiative (UHI) pilot project in Accra, Ghana. The Initiative prompted the health sector to u...se its influential position to demonstrate to decision-makers and the public the full range of health, environmental and economic benefits that can be achieved from implementing local emission reduction and energy access policies and strategies. Policy tracking, although not always considered, is a fundamental component of this procedure. It assesses the planning, implementation and progress of a policy to refine or adjust policies with the final objective of increasing the likelihood of the policy being successful. This report is an outcome of the last component of the UHI model process, Policy tracking and monitoring outcomes. The report proposes a framework for tracking urban health policies, with a special focus on the impacts of air quality and energy access on human health and well-being in African countries, giving some examples from the pilot project in Accra. The report also provides resources to survey air quality in cities and other tools to assess public health and the environmental impacts of urban policies and monitor or track their effects.
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This report summarizes the latest scientific knowledge on the links between exposure to air pollution and adverse health effects in children. It is intended to inform and motivate individual and collective action by health care professionals to prevent damage to children’s health from exposure to ...air pollution.
Air pollution is a major environmental health threat. Exposure to fine particles in both the ambient environment and in the household causes about seven million premature deaths each year. Ambient air pollution alone imposes enormous costs on the global economy, amounting to more than US$ 5 trillion in total welfare losses in 2013.
This public health crisis is receiving more attention, but one critical aspect is often overlooked: how air pollution affects children in uniquely damaging ways. Recent data released by the World Health Organization (WHO) show that air pollution has a vast and terrible impact on child health and survival. Globally, 93% of all children live in environments with air pollution levels above the WHO guidelines (see the full report, Air pollution and child health: prescribing clean air. More than one in every four deaths of children under 5 years of age is directly or indirectly related to environmental risks. Both ambient air pollution and household air pollution contribute to respiratory tract infections that resulted in 543 000 deaths in children under the age of 5 years in 2016.
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Stats SA has released an in-depth report on persons with disabilities. The report, written using Census 2011 data, is the first in a series of in-depth analyses of various Census 2011 variables, such as ageing and education.
The report provides statistical evidence relating to the prevalence of dis...ability and characteristics of persons with disabilities at both individual and household levels. Two methods were used to profile disability prevalence and patterns based on the six functional domains, namely seeing, hearing, communication, remembering/concentrating, walking and self-care. These two methods were:
- the level/degree of difficulty in a specific functional domain and;
- the disability index.
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This year’s MPI results show that more than two-thirds of the multidimensionally poor—886 millionpeople—live in middle-income countries. A further 440 million live in low-income countries. In both groups, data show, simple national averagescan hide enormous inequality inpatterns of povertywith...in countries. For instance, in Uganda 55 percentof the population experience multidimensional poverty—similartotheaverage in Sub-Saharan Africa. But Kampala, the capital city, has an MPI rate of sixpercent, whileinthe Karamojaregion, the MPI soars to 96 percent—meaningthat partsof Ugandaspan the extremes of Sub-Saharan Africa.There is even inequality under the same roof. In South Asia, for example, almost a quarter ofchildren under five live in households where at least one child in the household is malnourished but at least one child is not.
There is also inequality among the poor. Findings of the2019 global MPI paint a detailed picture of the many differences in how-and how deeply -people experience poverty. Deprivationsamong the poor varyenormously: in general, higher MPI valuesgo hand in hand with greater variationin the intensity of poverty. Results also show that children suffer poverty more intensely than adults and are more likely to be deprived in all 10 of the MPI indicators, lackingessentialssuch as clean water, sanitation, adequate nutrition or primary education
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Improvements in water sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and wastewater management in all sectors are critical elements of preventing infections and reducing the spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as identified in the Global Action Plan to combat AMR. Yet, at present, WASH and wastewater management... actors and improvement actions are under-represented in AMR multi-stakeholder platforms and national action plans (NAPs). This WHO/FAO/OIE technical brief on WASH and wastewater management to reduce the spread of AMR provides a summary of evidence and rationale for WASH and wastewater actions within AMR NAPs and sector specific policy to combat AMR. Evidence and actions are presented in the domains of; coordination and leadership, households and communities, health care facilities, animal and plant production, manufacturing of antimicrobials, and surveillance and research.
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The Facilitator's Guide has been piloted in Borno (Nigeria) and in Fafan zone (Somali region, Ethiopia) and improved iteratively after each test.
What does the ROAP have that you won't find in other methodologies?
It is based on holistic, people-centred approaches that span across sectors an...d consider people's perceptions, priorities, ways of coping, and assistance preferences.
It introduces the concepts of inter-sector needs profile and inter-sector causal analysis, and how to use these to articulate shared objectives and better integrated and holistic response packages, as opposed to siloed plans.
It introduces the concept of basic needs basket, and how to define the BN basket based on both households' perspective and sector experts' opinions, and acknowledging that needs have different frequencies and timings, and units of analysis (individual, household, community).
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The Lab identifies, develops, and launches sustainable finance
instruments that can drive billions to a low-carbon economy. The
2019 Global Lab Cycle targets four specific sectors across
mitigation and adaptation: blue carbon in marine & coastal
ecosystems; sustainable agriculture for smallholde...rs in West and
Central Africa; sustainable energy access; and sustainable cities
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An attempt has been made to map the incidence of uni-dimensional and multi-dimensional poverty simultaneously arguably for the first time in Pakistan. While multi-dimensional poverty map is calculated using PSLM 2010-11; small area estimation technique is utilized to map uni-dimensional poverty usin...g both nationally representative HIES (Household Integrated Economic Survey) and district-level representative PSLM (Pakistan Standard of Living Measurement) for the same year of 2010-11. The result indicates the existence of spatial distribution of poverty pockets in each of the four provinces of Pakistan. Furthermore, it is also observed that these pockets of poverty are more concentrated in the desert and mountains regions of the country.
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Air pollution is one of the leading causes of health complications and mortality worldwide, especially affecting lower-income groups, who tend to be more exposed and vulnerable. This study documents the relationship between ambient air pollution exposure and poverty in 211 countries and territories.... Using the World Health Organization’s (WHO) 2021 revised fine particulate matter (PM2.5) thresholds, we show that globally, 7.3 billion people are directly exposed to unsafe average annual PM2.5 concentrations, 80 percent of whom live in low- and middle-income countries. Moreover, 716 million of the world’s lowest income people (living on less than $1.90 per day) live in areas with unsafe levels of air pollution, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. Air pollution levels are particularly high in lower-middle-income countries, where economies tend to rely more heavily on polluting industries and technologies. These findings are based on high-resolution air pollution and population maps with global coverage, as well as subnational poverty estimates based on harmonized household surveys.
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The 2018 NDHS is a national sample survey that provides up-to-date information on demographic and health indicators. The sample was selected using a stratified, two-stage cluster design, with enumeration areas (EAs) as the sampling units for the first stage. The second stage was a complete listing o...f households carried out in each of the 1,400 selected EAs. The target groups were women age 15-49 and men age 15-59
in randomly selected households across Nigeria. A representative sample of approximately 42,000 households was selected for the survey. One-third of the households (14,000) were selected for malaria, anaemia, and genotype testing of children age 6-59 months. Also, in the subsample of households selected
for the men’s survey, one eligible woman in each household was randomly selected for additional questions regarding domestic violence. Specifically, information was collected on fertility levels, marriage, fertility preferences, awareness and use of family planning methods, child feeding practices, nutritional status of women and children, adult and childhood mortality, awareness and attitudes regarding
HIV/AIDS, and female genital mutilation. The survey also assessed the nutritional status (according to weight and height measurements) of women and children in these households. In addition to presenting national estimates, the report provides estimates of key indicators for both rural and urban areas, the country’s six geopolitical zones and 36 states, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
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The 2019 SLDHS is a national sample survey that provides up-to-date information on demographic and health indicators. The sample was selected using a stratified, two-stage cluster design, with enumeration areas (EAs) as the sampling units for the first stage. The second stage was a complete listing ...of households carried out in each of the 578 selected EAs. The target groups were women age 15-49 and men age 15-59 in
randomly selected households across the country. A representative sample of approximately 13,872 households was selected for the survey. Half of the households (6,936) were selected for biomarker and men’s interview. The men’s survey was conducted in half (50%) of the sample households, and all men age 15-59 in these households were included. In this subsample, one eligible woman in each household was randomly selected to be asked additional questions about domestic violence.
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Water security, or having the right amount and quality of water in the right place at the right time, fosters social and economic progress. Where water is sufficient to meet demand, it can promote economy wide growth and enable countries to reach their food security, energy security, and human devel...opment goals. Where it is scarce, excessive, or unclean it can exacerbate multiple dimensions of poverty. Neither of these two worlds is protected from future water crises, which are heavily influenced by changing local circumstances
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Sectors in which Priority Adaptation Projects should be implemented first include:
- 1) Agriculture, Early Warning Systems and Forest (First Priority Level Sectors). This is followed by:
- 2) Public Health and Water Resources (Second Priority Level Sectors);
- 3) Coastal Zone (Thir...d Priority Level Sector); and
- 4) Energy and Industry, and Biodiversity (Fourth Priority Level Sectors).
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The PDF "Vamos proteger-nos da Cólera" provides comprehensive guidance on cholera prevention and response strategies, particularly for use in community health settings. It emphasizes the importance of safe water use by treating water with bleach, boiling it for at least 5 minutes, or using purifica...tion tablets like Aquatabs. Handwashing is highlighted as a key measure, especially after using the latrine, before preparing food, and before eating. Sanitation practices include using and maintaining clean latrines or, if unavailable, burying feces far from homes and water sources.
The document also addresses diarrhea treatment, recommending the preparation and use of Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS) with added zinc for effective recovery. It encourages breastfeeding for infants with diarrhea and stresses the importance of cooking food thoroughly, keeping it covered, and ensuring all utensils and surfaces are clean. Proper waste management, including the disposal of household waste, is highlighted to maintain a clean and safe environment.
In emergency situations, the guide advises seeking immediate medical attention for severe diarrhea and emphasizes the prompt burial of bodies during outbreaks to prevent contamination. Additionally, it provides visuals and strategies for community engagement, empowering health workers and communities to promote awareness and adopt effective cholera prevention measures.
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Small drinking-water supplies commonly experience operational, managerial, technical and resourcing challenges that impact their ability to deliver safe and reliable services. The needs and opportunities associated with these supplies therefore warrant explicit consideration in policies and regulati...ons.
These Guidelines, specifically tailored to small water supplies, build on over 60 years of guidance by the World Health Organization (WHO) on drinking-water quality and safety. They focus on establishing drinking-water quality regulations and standards that are health based and context appropriate; on proactively managing risks through water safety planning and sanitary inspections; and on carrying out independent surveillance. The guidance is intended primarily for decision-makers at national and subnational levels with responsibility for developing regulatory frameworks and support programmes related to these activities. Other stakeholders involved in water service provision will also benefit from the guidance in this document.
Designed to be practical and accessible, these Guidelines offer clear guidance that is rooted in the principle of progressive improvement. State-of-the-art recommendations and implementation guidance are provided, drawn from a comprehensive evidence review and established good practices. Additionally, case examples are provided from countries and areas around the world to demonstrate how the guidance in this publication has been implemented in practice in a wide variety of contexts.
Together with WHO’s 2024 Sanitary inspection packages – a supporting tool for the Guidelines for drinking-water quality: small water supplies, these Guidelines update and supersede WHO’s 1997 Guidelines for drinking-water quality. Volume 3: surveillance and control of community supplies. Key changes to this updated publication include a greater focus on preventive risk management and a broader range of small water supplies covered, including those managed by households, communities and professional entities.
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