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Public Health Action for the Prevention of Suicide

World Health Organization (WHO) (2012) C_WHO

Suicide is largely preventable. Unlike for many other health issues, the tools to significantly reduce the most tragic loss of life by suicide are available. With collective action to acknowledge and address this serious problem, as well as commitme ... more

Africa’s Health Financing in a New Era

Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) (2025) CC

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 o ... n 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. more

Achieving Health Equity in Contested Areas of Southeast Myanmar (Burmese Version)

Davis, Bill; Jolliffe, Kim The Asia Foundation (2016) C1

In many of Myanmar’s contested regions, healthcare services are provided through two parallel governance systems – by the government’s Ministry of Health, and by providers linked to ethnic armed organizations. Building upon efforts to build tr ... more

WHO-AIMS: Report on mental health systems in Latin America and the Caribbean

WHO-AIMS WHO (2013) C_WHO

The Member States of the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) that appear in the tables below have used the assessment instrument for mental ... more

Ethiopia Health Cluster Strategy 2024-2025

World Health Organization WHO; Health Cluster (2024) CC

Ethiopia has been repeatedly affected by conflict, flooding, drought, and disease outbreaks in the past years. As of January 2024, the country is actively responding to the longest recorded cholera outbreak which started in August 2022, recurrent measles outbreaks which started in August 2021, and t ... more

Protecting health in Europe from climate change: 2017 update

World Health Organization. Regional Office for Europe (2017) C_WHO

Current evidence that the climate is changing is overwhelming. Impacts of climate change and variability are being observed: more intense heat-waves, fires and floods; and increased prevalence of food- water- and vector-borne diseases. Climate change will put pressure on environmental and ... more

Integrating disease outbreaks and strengthening of health in whole-of-society disaster risk management

UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (2024) CC

The guide aims to provide health and DRM practitioners, planners and policymakers across sectors with targeted information to help them strengthen national ... more

Health Namibia Budget Brief

UNICEF (2022) C_UNICEF

Strengthening health financing to accelerate progress towards universal health coverage. Total Government Health Expenditure exceeds the commitmen ... more

One Health Joint Plan of Action (2022-2026)

World Organisation for Animal Health Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; United Nations Enviroment Programme; Wolrd Health Organization; World Organisation for Animal Health (2022) C_WHO

The desired impact of the OH JPA is a world better able to prevent, predict, detect and respond to health threats and improve the health of humans, animals, plants and the environment while contri ... more

Operational framework for building climate resilient health systems

World Health Organization WHO (2017) C_WHO

The framework responds to the demand from Member States and partners for guidance on how the health sector and its operational basis in health systems can systematically and effectively address the ... more

Quantification of Health Commodities - A Guide to Forecasting and Supply Planning for Procurement

USAID USAID | DELIVER PROJECT, Task Order 4 (2014) C1

The USAID | DELIVER PROJECT, Task Order 4, developed this guide for quantifying health commodities; it will assist technical advisors, program managers, warehouse managers, procurement officers, and service providers in (1) estimating the total comm ... more

Qualitative assessment of community health workers’ perspective on their motivation in community-based primary health care in rural Malawi

Ndambo, M.K.; Munyaneza, F.; Aron, M.B. et al. BMC Health Services Research (2022) CC

Background: Community Health Workers (CHWs) have a positive impact on the provision of community-based primary health care through screening, treatment, referral, psychosocial support, and accompan ... iment. With a broad scope of work, CHW programs must balance the breadth and depth of tasks to maintain CHW motivation for high-quality care delivery. Few studies have described the CHW perspective on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to enhance their programmatic activities. Methods: We utilized an exploratory qualitative study design with CHWs employed in the household model in Neno District, Malawi, to explore their perspectives on intrinsic and extrinsic motivators and dissatisfiers in their work. Data was collected in 8 focus group discussions with 90 CHWs in October 2018 and March–April 2019 in seven purposively selected catchment areas. All interviews were audiotaped, transcribed verbatim, coded, and analyzed using Dedoose. Results: Themes of complex intrinsic and extrinsic factors were generated from the perspectives of the CHWs in the focus group discussions. Study results indicate that enabling factors are primarily intrinsic factors such as positive patient outcomes, community respect, and recognition by the formal health care system but can lead to the chal- lenge of increased scope and workload. Extrinsic factors can provide challenges, including an increased scope and workload from original expectations, lack of resources to utilize in their work, and rugged geography. However, a posi- tive work environment through supportive relationships between CHWs and supervisors enables the CHWs. Conclusion: This study demonstrated enabling factors and challenges for CHW performance from their perspec- tive within the dual-factor theory. We can mitigate challenges through focused efforts to limit geographical distance, manage workload, and strengthen CHW support to reinforce their recognition and trust. Such programmatic empha- sis can focus on enhancing motivational factors found in this study to improve the CHWs’ experience in their role. The engagement of CHWs, the communities, and the formal health care system is critical to improving the care provided to the patients and communities, along with building supportive systems to recognize the work done by CHWs for the primary health care systems. more

Health Care Waste Management Policy for Ghana

Ministry of Health Ghana (2020) CC

Ghana's attempt to regulate health care waste management started in 2002 with the development of guidelines on health care waste manage-ment by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In 2006, t ... more

Public health guidance on screening and vaccination for infectious diseases in newly arrived migrants within the EU/EEA

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (2018) C1

The main objective of this guidance is to provide scientific advice, based on an evidence-based assessment of targeted public health interventions, to facilitate effective screening and vaccination for priority infectious diseases among newly arrive ... more

Antimicrobial resistance and primary health care

World Health Organization WHO (2018) C_WHO

Despite the considerable improvement in global health, millions of people still lack access to quality health services, including access to effective antimicrobial medicines, or are impoverished as ... more

Health in the Americas 2022: Overview of the Region of the Americas in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic

Pan American Health Organisation PAHO (2022) C_WHO

The objective of Health in the Americas: Overview of the Region of the Americas in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic is to respond to the need to address important public health issues in an incr ... more

Donor Financing of Global Mental Health, 1995—2015: An Assessment of Trends, Channels, and Alignment with the Disease Burden

Charlson, F.J.; J. Dieleman, L. Singh et al. PLOS One (2017) CC

Background: A recent report by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) highlights that mental health receives little attention despite being a major cause of disease burden. This pape ... more

Covid-19 pandemic impact on maternal and child health services access in Nampula, Mozambique: a mixed methods research

das Neves Martins Pires P.H. , Macaringue C. , Abdirazak A. et al. BMC Health Services (2021) CC

The Covid-19 pandemic has so far infected more than 30 million people in the world, having major impact on global health with collateral damage. In Mozambique, a public state of emergency was declared at the end of March 2020. This has limited peopl ... e's movements and reduced public services, leading to a decrease in the number of people accessing health care facilities. An implementation research project, The Alert Community for a Prepared Hospital, has been promoting access to maternal and child health care, in Natikiri, Nampula, for the last four years. Nampula has the second highest incidence of Covid-19. The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of Covid-19 pandemic Government restrictions on access to maternal and child healthcare services. We compared health centres in Nampula city with healthcare centres in our research catchment area. We wanted to see if our previous research interventions have led to a more resilient response from the community. METHODS: Mixed-methods research, descriptive, cross-sectional, retrospective, using a review of patient visit documentation. We compared maternal and child health care unit statistical indicators from March-May 2019 to the same time-period in 2020. We tested for significant changes in access to maternal and child health services, using KrushKall Wallis, One-way Anova and mean and standard deviation tests. We compared interviews with health professionals, traditional birth attendants and patients in the two areas. We gathered data from a comparable city health centre and the main city referral hospital. The Marrere health centre and Marrere General Hospital were the two Alert Community for a Prepared Hospital intervention sites. RESULTS: Comparing 2019 quantitative maternal health services access indicators with those from 2020, showed decreases in most important indicators: family planning visits and elective C-sections dropped 28%; first antenatal visit occurring in the first trimester dropped 26%; hospital deliveries dropped a statistically significant 4% (p = 0.046), while home deliveries rose 74%; children vaccinated down 20%. CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrated the negative collateral effects of Covid-19 pandemic Government restrictions, on access to maternal and child healthcare services, and highlighted the need to improve the health information system in Mozambique. more

Atlas of African Health Statistics 2022: Health situation analysis of the WHO African Region

World Health Organisation (WHO) (2022) C_WHO

Atlas of African Health Statistics 2022: Health situation analysis of the WHO African Region Since 2019, we have been implementing Phase 2 of the regional Transformation Agenda, which informs and a ... more

WHO Policy Brief on the health aspects of decriminalization of suicide and suicide attempts

World Health Organisation (WHO) (2023) C_WHO

Reducing the global suicide mortality rate by a third by 2030 is a target of both the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the WHO Global Mental Health Action Plan. However, an impediment to meeting this goal is the fact that suicide and suicide att ... more