Based on research by a team of Nepalese and international experts, this report carries an analysis of the five key elements in the sector - land, basic services, housing finance, building materials and construction technologies, and labour. It gives an assessment
of how these components are governe...d by policy, institutional and legal frameworks, and how they are linked with one another and other urban policies.
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The government of Kazakhstan has committed to ensuring that children with disabilities have access to inclusive education and it has taken the important step of ratifying international human rights treaties enshrining the rights of people with disabilities, including the right of children with disab...ilities to inclusive, quality education. The government has also introduced legal and policy changes toward an inclusive education system for children with disabilities. It has committed to ensuring that 70 percent of mainstream schools are inclusive by 2019.
However, this report finds that progress towards genuine inclusive education is slow. In order for the government to succeed in ensuring that all children can access an inclusive, quality, and free primary and secondary education on an equal basis with others in the communities in which they live, it will need to fundamentally transform its policies and approach to education and address negative attitudes more broadly towards people with disabilities in Kazakhstan.
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This guide focuses on three main areas: how to support a person whose condition warrants home care because of non-severe symptoms and home care is recommended by local jurisdictions; how to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the home; and how to provide emotional support to family members. While this... manual provides information on danger signs of COVID-19, it should not be used as a guide for when and how a person who has COVID-19 (or its symptoms) should seek medical care. All content adapted to different countries should reflect local policy guidelines and recommendations.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a double shock - health and economic. As of March 1, 2021, COVID-19 has cost more than 2.5 million lives and triggered an economic recession surpassing any economic downturn since World War II.
Part I of this paper explores the impact of this current macro-fisc...al outlook on the three primary sources of health spending. Drawing on experiences from previous economic crises, scenario analyses suggest a fall in government per capita spending on health in 2021 and 2022 unless governments make bold choices to increase the share of health in general government spending.
Part II of the paper discusses policy options to meet the spending needs in health. These options encompass strategies to make fiscal adjustments work and channel funds where they are most needed, as well as policies to stabilize the balance sheets of social health insurance (SHI) schemes. The paper explains how the health sector can play an active role in expanding fiscal space, contributing to tax reforms, most importantly pro-health taxes, and mobilizing and absorbing external financing, including debt relief.
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Maternal mortality has fallen significantly in recent years, especially in countries that have emphasized the prevention of its main causes, such as hemorrhagic and infectious complications and hypertension , including in the Region of the Americas. In its final report on the Plan of Action to Accel...erate the Reduction of Maternal Mortality and Severe Maternal Morbidity, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) reported a continuing downward trend in maternal mortality, with an 18.1% reduction in the maternal morbidity ratio during the period 2010-2015 . From a pathophysiological perspective, death events are a common end result of a wide spectrum of complications leading to multi-organ dysfunction. However, there is a group of women in this situation who survive, despite the seriousness of their condition. This high number of patients––who were in serious condition
but did not die––reflects the actual health conditions in an institution or a country. For this reason, there is a need to create indicators to estimate morbidity in women due to diseases and incidents that occur during pregnancy, childbirth, and the puerperium. To this end, we propose conducting epidemiological surveillance of an indicator that includes women who survived after presenting a potentially fatal complication during pregnancy, childbirth, or the puerperium, reflecting quality medical attention and care (5, 6). This indicator
is maternal near-miss (MNM), which refers to extremely severe maternal morbidity––cases of a severity that
brings women very close to the death event. After adjusting the definition to a specific population and time,
MNM is defined as a case in which a woman nearly died, but survived a complication that occurred during
pregnancy, childbirth, or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy
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This document updates the 2009 ECDC guidance on chlamydia control in Europe. It was developed by a technical expert group which conducted a critical review of the scientific evidence on the epidemiology of chlamydia and the effectiveness of screening programmes.
The aim of this guidance is to suppo...rt Member States to develop, implement or improve strategies for chlamydia control. This guidance describes the current evidence base behind the proposed options, highlights key gaps in knowledge, and suggests effective options for national chlamydia control strategies. It is directed primarily at policy advisors but should also be useful for programme managers and experts in sexual health.
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The world is not on track to end the AIDS pandemic. New infections are rising and AIDS deaths are continuing in too many communities. This report reveals why: inequalities are holding us back. In frank terms, the report calls the world’s attention to the painful reality that dangerous inequalities... are undermining the AIDS response and jeopardising the health security of everyone. The report highlights three specific areas of inequality for which concrete action is immediately possible—gender
inequalities and harmful masculinities driving HIV; marginalisation and criminalisation of key populations, which our data show is resulting in starkly little progress for those populations and undermining the overall response; and
inequalities for children whose lives must matter more than their market share. But this is not a counsel of despair, it is a call to action. Through bold action to confront these inequalities, we can end AIDS.
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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 trust between these two actors following ceasefires s...igned in 2011 and 2012, the new National League for Democracy-led government offers an unprecedented opportunity to increase cooperation between these systems and to ensure health services reach Myanmar’s most vulnerable populations.
The report provides an overview of existing health service arrangements in these areas, from both the Ministry of Health and from ethnic and community-based health organizations. It then unpacks the concept of “convergence”, highlighting key opportunities and policy recommendations for both government and non-government actors.
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This technical report presents results from the FEEDcities Project – Eastern Europe and Central Asia, a cross-sectional survey conducted in Almaty, Aktau and Kyzylorda, Kazakhstan, between July and August 2017, to evaluate the local street food environment. It characterized the vending sites, the ...food offered and the nutritional composition of the industrial and homemade foods available in these settings. The policy implications of the findings are outlined.
The study was conducted within a bilateral partnership between WHO and the Institute of Public Health of the University of Porto, in collaboration with the Faculty of Medicine, the Faculty of Nutrition and Food Sciences and the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Porto (WHO registration 2015/591370 and 2017/698514). The study was funded through a biennial collaborative agreement and joint programmes between the Government of Kazakhstan and United Nations agencies in Kazakhstan for Kyzylorda and Mangystau oblasts, a voluntary contribution by the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation and the Resolve to Save Lives project of Bloomberg Philanthropies.
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Female Genital Schistosomiasis (FGS) is a gynaecological disease caused by Schistosoma haematobium, a parasitic worm that is acquired by skin contact with freshwater contaminated by schistosome cerceriae. Communities in which the infection is most endemic have limited access to clean water and healt...hcare services. Up to 150 million adolescent girls and women are estimated to be at risk of FGS and about 16–56 milion womens are living with FGS, with the majority of these in sub-Saharan Africa. The variability of these estimates points to the fact that this neglected tropical disease is not well studied and frequently not prioritized by local, regional, and global health policy makers.
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The discourse on climate change and migration has shifted from labelling migration merely as a consequence of climate impacts, to describing it as a form of human adaptation. This article explores the adaptation framing of the climate change and migration nexus and highlights its shortcomings and ad...vantages. While for some groups, under certain circumstances migration can be an effective form of adaptation, for others it leads to increased vulnerabilities and a poverty spiral, reducing their adaptive apacities. Non-economic losses connected to a change of place further challenge the notion of successful adaptation. Even when migration improves the situation of a household, it may conceal the lack of action on climate change adaptation from national governments or the international community. Given the growing body of evidence on the diverse circumstances and outcomes of migration
in the context of climate change, we distinguish between reactive and proactive migration and argue for a precise differentiation in the academic debate
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Background Unrest in Chile over inequalities has underscored the need to improve public hospitals. Nursing has been overlooked as a solution to quality and access concerns, and nurse staffing is poor by international standards. Using Chile’s new diagnosis-related groups system and surveys of nurse...s and patients, we provide information to policy makers on feasibility, net costs, and estimated improved outcomes associated with increasing nursing resources in public hospitals.
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This brief provides a snapshot of child protection interventions by UNHCR and its partners during the pandemic, covering community engagement, case management, alternative care and capacity building. In addition to working with children and communities, UNHCR also engages with authorities through po...licy advocacy in the context of COVID-19, such as to end immigration detention of children.
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As the global community aims to fulfill its commitments to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and the achievement of universal health coverage, dozens of countries have committed to the expansion of community health workers (CHWs) as the front line of their healthcare systems [1, 2]. Robust resea...rch demonstrates CHWs improve access to care, reduce maternal, newborn, and child mortality, improve clinical outcomes for chronic diseases, and prevent disease outbreaks [3].
To support the operationalization of quality CHW program design and implementation, USAID, UNICEF, the Community Health Impact Coalition, and Initiatives Inc. have updated and adapted the Community Health Worker Assessment and Improvement Matrix (CHW AIM) Program Functionality Matrix [12]. This tool can be used to identify design and implementation gaps in both small- and national-scale CHW programs, and close gaps in policy and practice.
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Ethiopia GATS was implemented by Ethiopia Public Health Institute (EPHI) in collaboration with the Ethiopian Food, Medicine, Health Care Administration and Control Authority (FMHACA), CSA, FMOH and the World Health Organization (WHO)country office. Technical assistance ...for the implementation of the survey was provided by the WHO, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and RTI International. Program support was provided by the CDC Foundation.Financial support for Ethiopia GATS was provided by the CDC Foundation with a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.GATS enhances countries’ capacity to design, implement and evaluate tobacco control programs. It also assistscountries to fulfill their obligations under the WHO FCTC to generate comparable data within and across countries. In addition,it allows countries to implement the WHO MPOWER policy package. WHO MPOWERisa technical packagedevelopedtoassist countries in implementing selected demand reduction measures contained in the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control(FCTC)(5).The six MPOWER evidence-based measures contained in the FCTC;
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Rabies is a global public health problem with important socioeconomic impacts. Human rabies is preventable; almost all cases are transmitted through the bite of a rabid dog. Elimination of human rabies is possible. Technical support and tools are available. This report covers:
- Why investment ...is needed: key rationale.
- Investment purpose: global elimination of rabies.
- Investment in action: four case examples in Philippines, Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa, United Republic of Tanzania, Bangladesh.
- Summary results of case examples: Programme similarities and differences, and Health impact success stories from case examples.
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Each year, about 210 million women become pregnant and about 140 million newborn babies are delivered. The sheer scale of maternal health issues makes maternal well being and survival vital concerns. A decade after The Lancet published a Series on maternal survival, a new Series of six papers brings... our knowledge of maternal health, its epidemiology, successes, and current failings together, and at a crucial time within the sustainable development framework to 2030. The Series concludes with a call to action setting out five key targets which need to be met to ensure the progression of broader sustainable development goals (SDGs).
Open Access
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While epidemiological data for type 1 diabetes (T1D) in low/middle-income countries, and particularly low-income countries (LICs) including Liberia is lacking, prevalence in LICs is thought to be increasing. T1D care in LICs is often impacted by challenges in diagnosis and management. These challeng...es, including misdiagnosis and access to insulin, can affect T1D outcomes and frequency of severe complications. Despite the severe nature of T1D and growing burden in subSaharan Africa, little is currently known about the impact of T1D on patients and caregivers in the region. Methods We conducted a qualitative study consisting of interviews with patients with T1D, caregivers, providers, civil society members and a policy-maker in Liberia to better understand the psychosocial and economic impact of living with T1D, knowledge of T1D and selfmanagement, and barriers and facilitators for accessing T1D care.
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Reports of antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) microorganisms are increasing globally, threatening to render existing treatments ineffective against many infectious diseases. In Africa, AMR has already been documented to be a problem for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the pathogens that cause mala...ria, tuberculosis (TB), typhoid, cholera, meningitis, gonorrhoea and dysentery. Recognizing the urgent need for action, the 2016 United Nations (UN) General Assembly approved a resolution to ensure sustained and effective global action to address AMR.
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This guideline aims to improve the quality of donations and the management thereof and serve as the basis for policies of the State and other organizations in the giving and receiving of donations of medicines, medical devices and IVDs.
Over the last three or four decades, there has been an enorm...ous increase in scientific knowledge about the mode of action, effects and side effects of medicines, medical devices and IVDs. It is important for all
stakeholders to understand that these products have both benefits and risks, that they have to be used carefully and appropriately and that some can do more harm than good.
There are many different scenarios for the donation of medicines, medical devices and IVDs. Donations may take place in acute emergencies or as part of development aid in non-emergency situations. They may involve donations (i.e. direct or through private voluntary organizations), aid by governments or persons authorized to sell medicines, medical devices and/or IVDs.
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