The key tools and governance approaches for
international cooperation for sustainable development
(hereafter, international cooperation) were set up in a
markedly different time and age. International
cooperation – with official development assistance
(ODA) as the dominant means of implementa...tion –
remains key, despite being generally considered as no
longer adequate for addressing today’s common and
collective challenges.
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Zambia is facing a severe economic crisis marked by high inflation, increasing poverty and a heavy debt burden that is straining both its fiscal stability and progress in health outcomes. By 2020, the country's external debt reached United States dollars (USD) 12.7 billion, representing 108% of the ...country's gross domestic product (GDP). In 2020, Zambia sought assistance through the G20 Common Framework and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Extended Credit Facility (ECF), securing a USD 1.7 billion loan over 5 years. IMF loans, however, come with austerity measures that prioritise fiscal discipline but could potentially exacerbate social inequalities. These measures, which include increasing consumer taxes on goods and services (value added taxes - VATs), electricity tariffs and fuel prices, disproportionately impact vulnerable populations, raising concerns about their long-term effects on essential services, especially accessible and good quality healthcare services.
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This comprehensive HPFM report thoroughly explores Kenya’s health financing landscape. It provides an in-depth analysis of the current state of affairs and sheds light on required strategic changes in health financing. The report points out the need to improve public financial management within th...e health sector, for more efficient financial systems. It focuses on better resourceraising and utilization mechanisms. The matrix highlights the need for consolidation of fragmented health financing arrangements, for a more efficient health system. It also emphasizes the need for enhancing strategic purchasing of health services, to improve the overall efficiency and quality of care. Additionally, the report stresses the critical
role of leveraging data and information systems for more evidence-based informed decision-making. These recommendations are crucial for advancing Kenya’s health financing system and moving closer to the UHC goal.
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There has never been a more critical moment to invest in WHO, and strengthen the unique role it plays in global health. Now is the time to sustainably finance WHO and invest in a healthy return for all.
The UK could regain its leadershipin the provision of development assistance for healthunder the next government. But this doesn’t seem likely if the party manifestos are any guide.
The world is facing a sustainable development crisis. The 2024 Financing for Sustainable Development Report: Financing for Development at a Crossroads finds that financing challenges are at the heart of the crisis and imperil the SDGs and climate action. The window to rescue the SDGs and prevent a c...limate catastrophe is still open but closing rapidly. Financing gaps for sustainable development are large and growing – the estimates by international organizations and others are coalescing around $4 trillion additional investment needed annually for developing countries. This represents a more than 50% increase over the pre-pandemic estimates. Meanwhile, the finance divide has not been bridged, with developing countries paying around twice as much on average in interest on their total sovereign debt stock as developed countries. Many countries lack access to affordable finance or are in debt distress. Weak enabling environments are preventing progress. Average global growth has declined, while policy and regulatory frameworks still do not set appropriate incentives. Public budgets and spending is not fully aligned with SDGs. Private investors are not incentivised to invest enough in SDGs and climate action. The world is at a crossroads. This is the last chance to correct course if we want to achieve the SDGs by the 2030 deadline. Only an urgent, large-scale and sustainable investment push can help us achieve our global goals. Next year’s Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development in 2025 will be a once in 80-year opportunity to support coherent transformation of financing.
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All malaria-endemic countries in the Region of the Americas have taken on the challenge to eliminate the disease and to put in place measures to orient their health programs and strategies in that direction. This manual explains how to implement measures to achieve malaria elimination and prevent it...s reestablishment by increasing the intensity and quality of interventions, reorienting initiatives, reducing delays that favor transmission, and ensuring adequate monitoring to adjust interventions. In this regard, the first suggested step is to stratify the territory - so that interventions and population groups can be planned and prioritized - and then implement diagnosis, treatment, investigation and response (DTI-R) actions as a key strategy aimed at effectively eliminating the disease and preventing its reestablishment in all strata. In addition, the document seeks to operationalize the concept of "surveillance as an intervention" promoted by the World Health Organization through the Global Technical Strategy for Malaria 2016-2030 and highlights the importance of communities having access to early diagnosis and treatment. Finally, the manual also includes management and monitoring aspects that must be taken into account to eliminate the foci with transmission.
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The Plan of Action for Malaria Elimination 2021-2025 has been developed in consultation with countries and regional partners as a framework of reference to guide the efforts of countries and the contributions of donors and partners towards elimination of the disease in the Americas. The Plan subscri...bes to the goals and pillars of the WHO Global Technical Strategy against Malaria 2016-2030 (GTS), while presenting key elements to address the specific challenges of the Region. The document seeks to guide national plans and promote an inter-programmatic- intersectoral approach, and joint efforts between countries and partners. The Plan is also the reference framework for PAHO technical cooperation in malaria in the period 2021-2025. The goals to be achieved require changes in action against malaria that must occur at the operations level and for which regulatory and policy adjustments are required from the national levels. Thus, the Plan promotes a systematic action of detection, diagnosis and response, which must be massively implemented and monitored programmatically. A main element of change is action aimed at recognizing the need to address key malaria foci in each country with specific, information-based operational solutions. The Plan of Action seeks to promote these changes in malaria programs in the countries and through the interactions among all actors. The model proposed in this plan is based on a cross-functional dialogue and interconnections across the lines of action (SL). Strategic lines 1, 2 and 3, which correspond to the three pillars of the WHO/GTS, complement each other, and are not designed to function independently. The idea of the consolidated supportive elements - strengthened health systems, strategic planning, financing, partnerships, advocacy, and operational research (SL 4) is to provide the platform, operational structures and alliances for the more specific malaria interventions presented in strategic lines 1, 2 and 3.
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All malaria-endemic countries in the Region of the Americas have taken on the challenge of eliminating malaria and have focused their health programs and strategies on that goal. The risk of emergence of artemisinin resistance in the Americas, the characteristics of P. falciparum parasite, and the e...pidemiological evidence of subnational territories experiencing reintroduction of P. falciparum urge for a call to push for P. falciparum elimination as an intermediate goal of the elimination of all malaria human species. Derived from the elimination of P. falciparum, other important results are expected, such as the empowerment of different actors and entities for the elimination of malaria inspired by the achievements of the elimination of P. falciparum, using early victories as a catalyst. This technical note provides guidance on actions to accelerate P. falciparum elimination in areas close to achieving this goal without compromising unified malaria elimination efforts (P. vivax - P. falciparum), while contributing to the country's ultimate goal of eliminating malaria overall. The acceleration of P. falciparum elimination has several goals: mitigating the risk that resistance to artemisinin and associated drugs will emerge and spread; accelerating the reduction in the total number of malaria cases in areas with a significant proportion of P. falciparum; accelerating malaria elimination (both P. vivax and P. falciparum), considering that P. falciparum is one of the triggers of P. vivax relapses; developing capacities in interventions to accelerate malaria elimination by building on the experience of P. falciparum elimination; and empowering different actors, including high-level authorities, donors, municipalities, and other entities involved in malaria elimination, by inspiring them with the achievements of P. falciparum elimination.
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The objectives of this guideline are the same as those of the 2011 edition, namely to provide evidence-based normative guidance on interventions to improve adolescent morbidity and mortality by reducing the chances of early pregnancy and its resulting poor health outcomes. The specific objectives of... the guideline were to: 1. identify effective interventions to prevent early pregnancy by influencing factors such as early marriage, coerced sex, unsafe abortion, access to contraceptives and access to maternal health services by adolescents; and 2. provide an analytical framework for policy-makers and programme managers to use when selecting evidence-based interventions to prevent early pregnancy and negative health outcomes when they occur that are most appropriate for the needs of their countries and context. The recommendations and best practice statements described in this document aim to enable evidence-based decision-making with respect to preventing early pregnancy and poor reproductive outcomes among adolescents in low- and middle-income country contexts.
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Malaria in pregnancy is a significant health problem in malaria-endemic areas. It not only causes substantial childhood morbidity and mortality but also increases the risks of adverse events for pregnant women and their developing fetuses. Most of the burden in these areas is due to infection with P...lasmodium falciparum. Artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) has been recommended as first-line treatment for uncomplicated P. falciparum malaria in all populations, including pregnant women in their second and third trimesters, since 2006. However, for women in their first trimester of pregnancy, WHO recommended as first-line treatment a combination of quinine and clindamycin.
Based on a review of the evidence conducted in 2022, WHO now recommends artemether–lumefantrine, the ACT with the most human safety data available, as the preferred treatment for uncomplicated P. falciparum malaria in the first trimester of pregnancy. This document presents all relevant evidence on the effects and safety in early pregnancy of artemisinins and partner medicines used in ACTs from both studies in experimental animals and observational studies in humans.
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The Regional Child Protection Operational Note has been developed by IOM and UNICEF’s Regional and Country Offices in North, West and Central Africa as a collaborative inter-agency and cross-regional endeavour within the framework of the sixth phase of the IOM Regional Development and Protection P...rogramme (RDPP) for North Africa, a regional initiative funded by the European Union through the Directorate‑General for Migration and Home Affairs and the Italian Ministry of Interior.
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ith a view to support the monitoring and reporting on the denial of humanitarian access against children, the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict and UNICEF publish today* a guidance note offering new tools to practitioners to better address ...this violation of children's rights in conflict situations. The Denial of Humanitarian Access (DHA) is one of six grave violations against children monitored by the United Nations in the framework of its Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC
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